Whew!

1) Tomorrow is my refeed. I am SOOO looking forward to eating a regular meal and having a few drinks. I have to pace myself though. I plan to continue this diet for another 7 weeks or so, with refeeds every 14 days, so I don't have to eat every single thing I want tomorrow.

2) I am experimenting right now. The phase of weightlifting that I'm in is about building muscle, and I am not supposed to do cardio for the duration (8 weeks). That is a mental challenge for me, because I don't like the idea of losing any cardio capacity. I've worked hard for it! But, I talked through it with a friend, and I remember something someone said before 'if you want what you've never had, you have to do what you've never done'. Enough said. I am going to take measurements, pictures, and of course, keep track of my weight. If in 1 month I'm not seeing remarkable results, I'll throw cardio back in.

3) I haven't been this sore in a while. My workouts this week have been challenging. On Sunday, I did 5 sets/5 reps for upperbody. Shoulder press, close-grip bench press, high pull, cable pulley row, lat pulldown, and dumbbell bench press. Fun. Tuesday I did 4 sets/10 reps for lower body. Squats, deadlifts, split squats and step-ups. It was interesting to do split squats with 2 27.5-lb dumbbells. I remember when I did them with 2 10-lb dumbbells and my legs were on fire. What a difference 7 months makes.

In other business... my first Thanksgiving 'alone' was 8 years ago. My roommate was hosting Thanksgiving, so her family was everywhere. Mine was in another state. I didn't realize how much it would hurt until that day, when I called my family in tears. They promised that it would never happen again. After that, Thanksgiving lost its appeal. It became a 'whatever' day for years. Perhaps that was to prepare me for the years ahead when my separation from my family would be under much different, far more painful circumstances. But I have had many happy Thanksgivings since then, and I'm grateful that I've realized that sometimes family is what you make it, not what you're born into. Thankfully, I have good friends who have opened their hearts & homes to me. Thankfully, I have a brother who means the world to me. I certainly don't have everything I want, and sometimes don't even have what I need. But either way, I have much to be thankful for. We all do.

Happy Thanksgiving!