Day 23 - the next leg of the journey

Today is Day 23 for me and Day 1 for Karen on the next leg of the journey.

I reread her final post in her first blog and reread her first couple of posts on her new blog. I'm excited to see that the whole familly is joining them on a more healthy lifestyle. I'm looking forward to hearing how they do and I empathize with her first day back at the gym.... yes, I'm afraid "ouch" may be correct.

I'm also excited to implement all that I learned from last year and I'm using this excitement to push me forward. It even propelled me out of bed for an early morning run. I set my timer for 30 minutes and decided to see how many times I could run around the block. I guessed I could make it three times in 30 minutes. About 10 minutes into it, I added a sprint from my driveway to the top of the street. I'm guess this is about 200 meters. By the half way point of lap two, my neighbor let her dog out. I picked up the pace and ran by - no need to tempt the electric fence - and ran to the top of the street. By the time I finished lap three (sans dog) I still had 5 minutes to go, I considered a smaller lap, but then said I would walk to the end, and then run home. It took me 32 minutes to complete 4 laps. My goal tomorrow is to complete the 4 laps within the 30 minutes.

I returned to my office today - surprised that I didn't forget how to get there. I brought my soup with me and drank all of my water. I am also sticking to a more liquid diet today - 2 protein shakes per day, two cups of soup, and some raw fruits and vegetables. I'm enjoying some lentil vegetable soup as I type. This is a big improvement, becaues I'm not typically a fan of lentils. They remind me too much of lima beans. Ick!! But, the soup is warm and tasty. I see that Karen also prepared her vegetable lentil soup. Maybe, if I ask nicely, she will share her recipe again.  PLEASSSEEEEE!

I'm also increasing my water volume to 120 ounces per day. By bedtime I felt like I could float. I knew I should eat more food, but only managed a cup of baby carrots before taking some herbal digestive capsules before bed. I awoke about 45 minutes later with a horrible burning feeling in my gut and immediately regretted not eating more. I knew that the only way to combat this was to drink and eat. I could barely drink the glass of water I had. I knew that I needed to refill it, but the pain prevented me from even getting up. Scanning the room I knew we had no food. I crawled to the faucet and refilled the water and could not swallow it. This was bad and I knew it. I tried to call Mark, but there was no voice. I managed to get back to where he was sleeping. Luckily, he woke up quickly and was able to get me some bread and milk. Five minutes later, the burning pain was gone and I was so grateful. Rest came quickly.