50. I love it when that first digit changes, it feels like a lot of progress is being made. Also, it means I get to say that I’m 5/9 of the way done the diet.

You’ve probably noticed I’m big on progress markers. Like, when I run I really like to have markers to tell me how much further I need to go. Physical ones can be good, unless you’re doing lots of laps, because then you also have to remember what lap you are on. The Nike+ app on my phone would always give me each mile, plus a “halfway point”. My new watch tells me every km (yeah, there’s no way to switch the watch itself to tell me things in miles… the accompanying app in the phone will, but not the watch). I especially like the feeling of getting to the halfway point, because from then on, you’re closer to the end than you are the start, and that feels very significant to me. I don’t know if everyone thinks like I  do here, but… I’m all about progress markers.

Speaking of running, I did the Monday run today. I saw that storms weren’t supposed to come until late, and so as soon as I finished work I got ready and headed out for an earlier run. It also seems a warm front never came through that was supposed to, because it was still high 60’s rather then mid-70’s. So I had pretty perfect temperature, plus a really misty rain – it made for a good run. Since my watch insists on counting km rather than miles, I just decided I’d start running the extra 0.11 miles and do 5k each time. That said, until tonight, I was struggling with the runs and having to stop roundabout the midway point, and the second half of the run was a mix of walking and running. Not tonight. Tonight I ran the whole way. The weather was one factor, but I think, and hope, that my consciously trying to slow my pace down a little bit also contributed to being able to do it. I think perhaps I was pushing myself too hard at the start and couldn’t keep it up the whole distance, eventually exhausting myself. If that’s the case, even if I have to deal with some more warm weather, maybe I’ll be good.

Also, I still haven’t heard any storms out there, so I think something changed with the weather. Lots of potential rain in the forecast for the rest of the week though. The plan is to resume this week my normal 3 running days, which in addition to today is Thursday and Saturday.

On the reading front, I finished The Way of Kings, and so either later tonight or at some point tomorrow I will be starting on the next in the series Words of Radiance. I’m glad that my plan there has been effective. I still haven’t started it with writing. Perhaps it is time.

Anyway, 50… something interesting about 50. I dunno, let’s go with something about the half-dollar, or 50 cent piece. The first design was minted in 1794 – and featured “flowing hair” – which they apparently were REALLY into in the late 1700’s, because it was on like… every coin.

Anyway, here’s all the designs over the years:

You’ll note the lack of Presidents on the majority of them. In fact no President appeared on any US coinage prior to 1909, when Lincoln was put on the penny.

Interestingly, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were added to the $1 and $2 bills, respectively, in 1869 – No other Presidents appeared on any other US currency until the penny in 1909, at which point they began being added comparatively rapidly.

Also, if you have any hopes of appearing on currency yourself, I’ve got good news and bad news… The good news is, as you’ve seen here, you don’t have to become President to do so! The bad news is, you have to be dead for at least 2 years. I guess they want to be really sure you’re dead before they mint them.

Anyway, I think I got a bit carried away on that one… see you for 51, which will be a much less substantial fact!

Day 49. That’s the end of 7 weeks. I think it’s safe to say at this point that, since no alcohol is a rule of this diet, that this is the longest I’ve gone without drinking alcohol since I started drinking alcohol. It’s definitely not the thing I miss the most, though, every now and then I’m in a situation where I think a beer would be pretty enjoyable.

I realized today that I’m not going to be able to go to the Frederick Oktoberfest this year because I’m doing the diet. That makes me a little sad, but, I’ve really decided that I want to do the full 90 days straight through, no cheating. So, since I have to choose one or the other, I choose the full 90 days.

Let’s see, we’ll go with the negative stuff first. Run didn’t happen over the weekend, I was a chump and let the rain stop me. It looks like Tuesday will be the next one because there’s storms in the forecast tomorrow evening – But, I might try tomorrow if it looks like there’s an ok spot in the weather. All this week looks rainy though, so I’m gonna have to suck it up and run in the rain.

I spent a good chunk of today going through my clothes setting up a wardrobe for a smaller version of me. A lot of the shirts that were big enough to be comfortable when I started the diet were “retired” (that means they’re in a box in my closet now). I tried on a bunch of shirts that haven’t fit in awhile, and they’re fitting pretty good now. The smallest of my shirts are still a ways off (but they’ll fit for sure when I reach my goal). Those ones are in a “coming soon” box. I’m pretty excited about some  of them, because I like them a lot… that said, it’s kind of a bummer that some of the shirts are really just too big to wear at this point, because I like them too. But, oh well.

A few of the smallest things I’ve only worn once or twice, because, I got them basically as “motivation” shirts when I last did a hardcore diet back in 2015. Then, I had the whole gallbladder surgery thing, and that was enough to throw me off track with the diet and not come back into it. I gained a few pounds back pretty quick, then maintained for awhile until I started the job I began in April of 2017. I don’t eat well when I’m under stress, and well, that job was stressful, and so that’s when I really started to gain weight again. Got to the highest I’d been since before my first slow carb… thankfully not up to the same high as when I began that diet though. I was thinking about all that while I was going through the clothes and such.

I’m pretty excited to continue this though, and to sort out what my long term will be. I’m starting to like what I see in the mirror a bit more.

49…. well. A 49er is (or, was) a miner that took part in the 1849 California gold rush. And also a member of the football team. That’s the best I can come up with. These seem to get harder as the get higher.

48 was a fine day. Not a whole lot happened. But it was another day starting with a new low on the scale, and then I had some of my favorite on diet foods throughout the day.

Frederick had it’s “In the Street” annual event today, so I could see all that from my window. So delicious looking food I couldn’t have out there… I especially wanted to get some fajitas or a quesadilla… but I did not do it.

I saw a picture of me taken today and I can definitely tell the difference in myself versus the other pictures of myself taken just before I started the diet, that is also encouraging to me. It’s definitely hard to tell a difference when you see yourself in the mirror every day, and even if you’re losing weight relatively quickly, which I am, it still feels pretty slow.

Anyway, 48 is… the atomic number of cadmium.

See you on 49!

Here’s another one clocking in a bit after midnight… didn’t have a chance before I went to see a movie at 10, so… yeah.

Anyway, it’s 47. Still chugging along. Another Friday with bagels at work that I had to resist, etc. But the day started off with another lowest weigh-in since starting the diet, and well, that’s always a good feeling.

The movie I was was The Nun. It was moderately entertaining. I don’t feel like the plot made any real sense, but… whatever.

Let’s see, 47….  the most interesting thing I can find is that it pops up in Star Trek TNG frequently… I’ll just let you google to find out more.

Another day down, this time it’s 46. Good news! I followed through on my run today. Just call me Jason Forrest Patrick.  It was the best of my more recent runs, though, I still wasn’t in love with it. I did it a bit earlier in the evening, started at about 7 and ate dinner after. It seemed less humid, and when I was outside later in the evening it seemed humid again, so, I think maybe doing it earlier might be better? It’s hard to say for sure. I might have to consider doing the runs as soon as I get home from work rather then waiting till late, the humidity is more of a killer than the few degrees of temperature difference.

Let’s see, so for 46…

There are 46 chromosomes in a human – 23 pairs! The more you know.

45. Let me tell you about the significance of this number. This number is 50% of 90. And that means, I’m half way through this crazy diet.

I didn’t run tonight. Dinner came late again – and it’s hard to convince myself to do it if I can’t do it until 10. So, I’m going to again say tomorrow, and, instead of pushing anything back, I’m just gonna be down a run this week. I’m slipping on the running right now, I admit it.

Anyway, diet-wise, all I have to do is do what I’ve already done one more time… from this point on I’m closer to the finish than the starting line!

44! So tonight is supposed to be a run, but it’s 10 PM and it hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to. I’m gonna bump it to tomorrow. Really, a couple reasons. One was that I was distracted by my computer randomly deciding to have issues. I think it’s either the motherboard or the power supply. I ordered a power supply tester off of Amazon to try to rule out that as an issue. If it’s the motherboard, I’ll probably do a processor upgrade as well, and maybe RAM, depending. No need for new drives, and really my video card should be ok as well. I feel like I’d rather not have to replace all those things, and so I guess the better thing would be for the power supply to be bad… then all I need to do is replace that. Would be pretty lame though… it was probably the most I’ve ever spent on a power supply, and would be the fastest one has ever failed on me (I built this computer ~3 1/2 years ago).

Anyway, the other reason was that I didn’t eat till later than usual and there really wasn’t enough time for digestion before a run. That’s a risk you run by doing the late night runs… you need at least 90-120 minutes of buffer between eating and running, and you have to make sure not to eat too much.

So, it’s important that I make a run happen tomorrow. And then we’re going to have to bump the next couple runs back a day, or else there will have to be some kind of adjustment.

It would seem that 44 is a very unlucky number in Chinese numerology (it’s a good thing I’m not Chinese). Apparently four sounds like “death” in Cantonese, and so 44 means “dying and dead”. In fact, the number 13 is evidently also considered to be unlucky in Chinese numerology, because if you add 1 and 3, you get 4.

In my opinion, 44 is an alright number. But there’s one that I like better, and that’s 45. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.

43. Alright, so yesterday was pretty bad in terms of the blogging. I literally forgot about it until I was going to sleep, so I just banged out a few words and posted it. Sorry.

Anyway, if I were you I’d be wondering if I had thrown in the towel on the whole running thing since I delayed it a day and then didn’t really post anything about it on the day I had moved the run to. So, I will assure you, I did do my run last night. It was a crappy run, but I did it. It was still really hot, and pretty humid, but… I dunno. I feel like the diet is a big contributing factor to my not doing super well with the running. I don’t think the two things are super compatible. Back when I was slow carbing and running, I still had carbs, mainly from beans, and I think that’s really what’s missing for me having the energy to do these runs.

In any case, it can’t be helped now. I’ve committed to 90 days on the diet, and I’ve committed to running, with two different 5ks coming up. One in October, one in November. On the plus side, by then it should be a bit cooler out, so at least the heat factor will no longer be there. I’m just going to do the best I can and hope that by the October 5k I am able to actually run 5k without stopping again.

Tomorrow will be my next run. It will, again, be 80 degrees, and probably humid. It will most likely suck. But, even yesterday when it last sucked, I was glad I did it afterward, so, that will have to motivate me through it again.

At least I’m working from home tomorrow.

This long weekend was pretty awesome. I mostly just read, played some games, and watched TV. I was staying at my parents house to take care of the dog while they were on a trip up to NY to get a puppy. It was nice.

Random 43 fact: It’s Sheldon’s hacky sack record in that one episode of The Big Bang Theory.

42. It’s the answer. If only we knew the question.

I don’t want to cloud up your head with anything else tonight… just ponder on that for awhile.

41! So again, a rather non-eventful day of just sticking to the diet. Normally I’d have run today but I decided for this week to push it to tomorrow (and push the monday run to tuesday. Thursday will stay put).

What could our random fact for today be…. hmmm. 41 is… the country code for Switzerland! So before you call your Swiss friend, be sure to dial in that 41!