April 1, 2021 – 124.6 (+1.4)
March 1, 2021 – 123.2 (-3.0)
February 1, 2021 - 126.2 (-5.8); Tanita BF scale at 6 am 126.5 and 26%BF
January 1, 2021 – 132 (-3.6)
December 1, 2020 – 135.6 (-5.2)
November 6, 2020 – 140.8 (-7.0)
October 2, 2020 – 147.8 (-5.2)
September 14, 2020 – 153.0

April has arrived and I am sitting here reflecting back on this month. It is the first month since September that I have closed the month with an “up”. That said, an up had to come at some point since at some point one is no longer trying/needing to lose weight, and I had passed my original goal back in January, I believe. The up on its own would be fine, but the habits, or lack thereof, that crept into my March are the concern. So, for the month of April, I will be focusing on returning to preplanning/pre-tracking as much as is possible and to not just thrown in the day it does not go as planned. I know that I know how to re-group and I need to make sure I find the time and energy for that. I want to up my cardio. Yes, I am “group walking” every day which burns calories, but honestly, I could walk at that pace for hours and hours without effort. I need to push myself, here and there, again. I will also be trying to maintain the social aspect of the group walks as well, so juggling all those time commitments will take a little focus. Lastly, I need to return to adding back exercises. I have not planked in a month, and rarely done exercises other than walking, running, or biking. So I need to figure out how to include bodyweight or dumbbell workouts. Here’s to April.

Wishing everyone a great month!

Date: 4/1
Weight: 124.6
Exercised?: Yes, 0:54:43 group walk at 17’10” pace for 3.18 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 1 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2184

*** so not the way to start a new month. Did not respond well to another curve ball thrown at me. Going to pre-track tomorrow. It will be a belated 60th birthday dinner for my husband since his mother will have arrived and be able to join us for the dinner.

Date: 4/2
Weight: 125.6
Exercised?: Yes, 0:21:02 Apple Fitness Spinning; 0:32:29 Indoor cycling to Youtube CV19 news
Calories?: Yes, 1411/1590 + 314 exercise (net 493)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 2 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2340

*** This is the way I like to handle my day! And this included dining out.

Date: 4/3
Weight: 123.2
Exercised?: Yes, 1:22:53 group walk at 16’30” pace for 4.92 miles, 10 min Apple Fitness core
Calories?: Yes, 1855/1590 + 312 exercise (net 47 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 3 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2079

Date: 4/4
Weight: 122.2
Exercised?: Yes, 0:31:10 Apple Fitness Spinning
Calories?: Yes, 1746/1590 + 197 exercise (net 41 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 4 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2052

*** Sitting here as I write this, I have to wonder if posting my thoughts here this morning helped me to frame and get through the day. This morning, I did actually expect today to be a pass day, despite the slight optimism I expressed in my post. Ten minutes later, I decided to track a tentative day – carrot cake, stuffed shells and all. When I got done, I saw that even with every food included I could meet my calorie goals for the day. Portion control was the key. The plan was 90% accurate and the other 10% was adjusted on the fly. When I added something, I took something else away (sorry salad :P ). I enjoyed Easter with no pass today. The success feels good!

Date: 4/5
Weight: 122.4
Exercised?: Yes, 0:39:22 walk with MIL at 22’53” pace for 1.72 miles; 0:20:03 indoor cycle
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: No, 4 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1679

*** Finished yesterday with “success feels good” and had a total crash day after my entertaining was over. Ate badly and slept a ton. Most interesting thing though is looking at the difference in TDEE.

Date: 4/6
Weight: 123.6
Exercised?: Yes, 1:52:51 group walk at 17’22” pace for 6.49 miles; 0:33:31 late night 5K run at 10’22” pace for 3.23 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1732/1590 + 724 exercise ( net 582 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 5 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2657

*** Interesting how 4/5 was sandwiched between two strong days. Glad I “test drove” running a 5K again. Good to see I can do it.

Date: 4/7
Weight: 123.0
Exercised?: Yes, 1:22:26 group walk at 17’01” pace for 4.84 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1738/1590 + 302 exercise ( net 154 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 6 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2019

*** kitchen close and posting is timely.

Date: 4/8
Weight: 123.0
Exercised?: Yes, 1:23:34 group walk at 17’03” pace for 5.06 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1954/1590 + 416 exercise ( net 52 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 7 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2207

*** basic day, nothing special

Date: 4/9
Weight: 122.6
Exercised?: Yes, 0:28:33 solo walk at 14’40” pace for 1.94 miles; 1:11:41 group walk at 15’44” pace for 4.55 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1940/1590 + 409 exercise ( net 59 )
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 8 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: updated the following day – see spoiler

*** Had an interesting moment today that I hope will help me to understand the benefit of what was accomplished these 6 months. Today, I got home from a short grocery shopping including two bottles of wine to bring to friends on Sunday. I hate using the elevator at the building so I take the two flights to our condo. I carried all the groceries at once, from the car, through the parking and up the two flights. Not hard, but I could feel the difference. As an experiment, I walked directly to the scale when I got in our unit to see how high a combined weight I now was. I was still almost 9 lbs less that what I weighed in September, and almost 24 lbs less than my high in 2001. Hopefully experiments like this will help me keep focus, and keep my maintenance going. Yo-yo-ing has been my tendancy.

Date: 4/10
Weight: 124.0
Exercised?: Yes, 0:30:07 run at 98’42” pace for 3.10 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 9 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2054

*** what a difference a day makes. So interesting seeing yesterday’s comment in light of how today went. Day started well by entering another 5K race and did well. Then guests failed to show on time and failed to communicate and threw off the days good intensions. Had been pre-tracked but that all got thrown away as the day evolved and I could not rapidly re-group.

Date: 4/11
Weight: 124.4
Exercised?: Yes, 1:47:12 group walk at 16’28” pace for 6.51 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 10 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2077

*** today, I faced dinner at a friend’s house and since cooking is not her strength, there was no way I could impose on her by asking what she was preparing. So I decided (wrongly) to just forfeit the day. Spent the day working on sealing 500 square feet of tile grout.

Date: 4/12
Weight: 126.4
Exercised?: No
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: No, 10 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1699

*** Woke up to torrential rain. First rain here in months. Of course, this is the day after we spent the day applying grout sealant that could not get wet for 72 hours. So not only is the sealant wet, but apparently rain plus brand new screens creates some sort of black mud which is covering my no longer sealed grout. The day went to heck. No daily walk and, while spending the day re-cleaning tile and grout, made no others efforts that day.

Date: 4/13
Weight: 127.2
Exercised?: yes, 1:21:30 group walk at 16’44” pace for 4.87 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 11 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2163

*** Should have pulled this day together but the spiral was forming

Date: 4/14
Weight: DNW
Exercised?: No
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: No, 11 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1644

*** Did not weigh. This has been very very rare since September and is a red flag of issues coming. Started the day driving to Key West for a “fun” half day sail and ended up motion sick. We then got out second COVID vaccine, and by this time my stomach is just rotting itself. Did an early dinner (poorly selected), drove the hour+ home and headed straight to bed. It was not even 6 PM.

Date: 4/15
Weight: DNW
Exercised?: No
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: No, 11 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1487

*** Yesterday, as another day fell apart, I realized the 15th is the halfway point and I can re-group for my last half month. Nope, day after COVID vaccine struck. Only time out of bed was to walk the cats which I never count as exercise. Ate lots of pretzels, soup and other miscellany. BUT, I felt better than my husband did…… really interesting seeing a true Base TDEE!

Date: 4/16
Weight: DNW
Exercised?: Yes, 0:24:14 Solo walk at 14’38” pace for 1.65 miles; 1:22:34 group walk at 16” 02” pace for 5.15 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 12 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2084

*** No excuse today, just did not happen.

Date: 4/17
Weight: 126.6
Exercised?: Yes, 1:43:21 mixed solo/group walk at 15’18” pace for 6.75 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1553/1590 + 481 exercise (net 518)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 13 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2360

*** A good day! And even posted on the actual day!

Date: 4/18
Weight: 125.0
Exercised?: Yes, 1:27:02 group walk at 16’39” pace for 5.22 miles; 0:19:20 solo walk at 14’36” pace for 1.32 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1886/1590 + 418 exercise (net 122)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 14 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2127

*** Good day #2. Posted on the proper day again, and have pre-tracked much of tomorrow.

Date: 4/19
Weight: 124.4
Exercised?: Yes, 1:43:01 group walk at 15’16” pace for 6.70 miles
Calories?: Yes, 2051/1590 + 481 exercise (net 20)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 15 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2137

*** less good but good enough

Date: 4/20
Weight: 125.6
Exercised?: Yes, 1:18:28 group walk at 16’07” pace for 4.86 miles; 31 min Apple Fitness spin class
Calories?: Yes, 1968/1590 + 567 exercise (net 189)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 16 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2268

*** Interesting to see the temporary impact of pasta on the scale

Date: 4/21
Weight: DNW
Exercised?: Yes, 1:17:55 group walk at 15’50” pace for 4.92 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 17 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2102

*** Trying to work through the kitchen shelves, fridge and freezer before heading back north next week is not helping me make the best choices.

Date: 4/22
Weight: 126.0
Exercised?: Yes, 1:47:12 group walk at 16’28” for 6.51 miles
Calories?: Yes, 2065/1590 + 481 exercise (net 6)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 18 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2020

*** Not proud of middle of the day bad choices, BUT I sat down, tracked it all and saw I could make my numbers – but barely. Consequently the rest of the day went well.

Date: 4/23
Weight: 125.8
Exercised?: Yes, 1:24:39 group walk at 17’24” pace for 4.86 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 19 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2182

Date: 4/24
Weight: 125.6
Exercised?: Yes, 1:26:42 group walk at 17’20” pace for 5.02 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 20 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1874

Date: 4/25
Weight: 127.2
Exercised?: Yes, 1:22:35 group walk at 16’46” for 4.92 miles
Calories?: No
Tracked?: No
Rings Closed?: Yes, 21 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 1962

Date: 4/26
Weight: 126.8
Exercised?: Yes, 1:25:18 group walk at 16’30” for 5:17 miles
Calories?: Yes, 1764/1590 + 309 (net 135)
Tracked?: Yes
Rings Closed?: Yes, 22 of 30
Apple Watch TDEE: 2050

*** For March and April, I have struggled with the planning, tracking and meeting calorie goal aspect of my days. These past days, trying to empty the fridge and freezer before heading back north has further encouraged me to make spontaneous bad choices. Fortunately, the exercise habit that UAC has gifted me continues to hold strong. Few days left to April. Two will be still packing, then next begins our drive north, and my final day is spent visiting my MIL before heading off for the remaining 1400 miles.