day 67 - so close

This morning I woke up and had a purpose in mind: today would the day I broke 8 miles. Sadly, I came very close but, as we all know, close only counts in horseshoes. I managed to get to 7.90 miles. Not quite there. Not yet anyway! Nicole asked me how long I'm on the bike when I'm trying to hit 8 miles. I'm doing a 30 minute interval right now.

Looking back to where I started, I have come a long way but could probably have come a lot further. When I first began, I would be lucky if I could ride for 5 minutes each work day. Eventually, I worked my way up to a full 20 minute interval program every day I rode. Later I started to alternate the 20 minute program with a 30 minute program (I also do stretching, some strength training, ab work, etc. in addition to the bike). Early in January this year, I decided that I would do 30 minutes every day. In 7 weeks or so, I have worked up from just barely hitting 6.5 miles to now, almost 8. For some folks, that might not be a big huge deal but it is to me. I am feeling so much better for it lately and am really proud of the progress I have made.

This week, food has been remarkably easy. Fortunately, there have not been any treats around the office to tempt me. Even last night, when we went out for our weekly dinner out with the LOG, I was pretty good. The guys wanted to go to one of those country market buffets. I had a huge plate of salad stuff with some lo-cal Italian dressing and then some roasted veggies, roasted chicken and a tiny bit of mac & cheese (it was so yummy). For dessert (yes, I let myself have dessert last night), I had some ice cream (well actually it was soft serve so I think it was ice milk). Again, I was pretty impressed with my restraint and when I got home and officially calculated my calories for the day, I was well within my allowable range.

It's all going really well this week. I sound like a broken record I know but I'm just really happy about things right now and am keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep it up!!