Hello Summer and Challenge Updates

A lemon daylily in my front garden.

Happy Summer!  And what a heat wave we're having here.  Temps in the 90's every day this past week.  No rain, and too dry to mow the lawn. 

We have been watering our little garden, but the ongoing heat is burning it up in spite of our efforts.  But even though the plants look rough, they are still producing.  We are beginning to get eggplant, larger tomatoes, and we have re-planted our string beans in order to have a late crop.  I have to say (again) how much fun this little garden is, and how much we're learning by doing.  Or not doing.  Or re-doing.

Now for the challenges.  First I will say that this week has been challenging in itself for me.  Some of you know, and some of you do not, that my brother was in an auto accident last September and almost did not make it.  He had two major spinal surgeries, was in the trauma unit of Vanderbilt Hospital for 22 days.  He then was in a rehab facility for two months.  When he returned to his home, he had 24-hour care for about four months, then tapering off to now having someone come in and do laundry, some cooking and cleaning, and miscellaneous basics a couple of days a week.  The same person takes him to local appointments.  I take him to out-of-town appointments.  So this was the week for appointments.  I live an hour or so away from him, so Hubs, two cats, one dog and I left our home on Wednesday morning and returned Friday afternoon.  Bro had an appointment regarding his disability on Thursday, and a very early medical appointment on Friday (we left his home at 6:00 a.m.!)  I am happy to say that at both appointments he received great news.  We are hopeful that he will continue to improve and that he will be able to drive himself to local appointments and grocery and such in a couple of months. 

So the challenge for me was being away from home with Hubs and animals in tow, and navigating big city traffic.  Which brings food challenges, hydration challenges, and exercise challenges.  Not to mention very little sleep and a high level of stress.

So.  For the Five Mile Challenge, I added only 5 miles this week.  This brings my total mileage for June to 29 miles.  (This does not include today's walk, which goes on the coming week's tally.)

And for the Summer Sizzle:

I am still not weighing every day, so as to take the focus off the scale.  I will report that I am maintaining.

This week's challenge was to try a new exercise.   I thought back to the days in high school when we had to do jumping jacks, lunges, leg kicks, situps, and pushups, so I challenged myself to do 10 of each.  It was a different kind of exercise for me, and I will add it to my walk/runs a couple of times a week for variety.

The coming week's challenge is to drink 100 oz of water daily.  In this heat, I don't think it will be a problem for me.

My calorie cycling looks like this:

Sun  1055

Mon   960

Tue  1015

Wed  1400

Thu  855

Fri  1505

Sat  765

...for a daily average of 1079.  Even if I had underestimated by 200 per day, I am still well under 1400 average.

This week I hope to return to my lovely, boring, quiet little life in the country.  So we will see what pops up unexpectedly.

Okay, let's drink our water, count our calories, do our exercise, and have a great week!