Chapter One: Kate

The Relentless Companion I had an unexpected hiking buddy today. Not a fellow walker or a friendly dog—nope, this was something much smaller, buzzier, and infinitely more irritating. The fly found me somewhere in mile one, hovering around my face like a personal trainer from hell. “Keep moving!”  Zipping past my ear just often enough to keep me from zoning out. I swatted. I ducked. I walked faster. I picked up a stick and whipped it around my head trying to get him to take the hit; I'm pretty sure it even hit him once or twice. Nothing worked. My new friend was persistent. Determined. Possibly a little obsessed. I kept up with my stick and he kept up with me the whole way.  By the time I wrapped up my 3 miles, I half expected to see him waving me off with a tiny towel and a congratulatory buzz. To his credit, he didn’t bite me. And if nothing else, he made the walk a little more interesting.

Got lucky—my back seemed to work itself out by Friday evening. I used heat a lot because it’s comfortable and easy with the heating pad, but I think it was getting the ice on it first thing that really helped. I took Friday off for some rest, which was nice. I wanted to do some yoga, but I procrastinated until it was too late. I was frustrated with myself for that, but honestly? My body probably needed the break. Still, I felt the sting of a wasted day. Less than 3,000 steps. Close to 3,000 calories. Cringe. But Saturday, I got up and went right back to it. I hit the track, worked hard, and it felt like a clean slate. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Just a new day.

I’m starting to think I’m being tested. This is one of those moments where it feels like I’m doing everything wrong—and I’m going to fail anyway. So why bother? I know what triggered it. I was scrolling through social media and saw someone living the dream I’ve always wanted. She just started— days ago —and already has a following, a community, the momentum I’ve been chasing. And I’m over here, shooting for just one like on one post. On top of all that, I pull a muscle in my back. Just adjusting my shirt. Not a big move or some extra hard workout, nope just adjusted my shirt, slightly. Say hello to my late thirties.  It’s all so silly, though. I know I have so much to offer. And I know this dream of mine is worth the work—every bit of it. I’m sad. Frustrated. Overwhelmed. But underneath that, there’s a voice that keeps whispering, You’ve got this. It’ll be so much sweeter in the end. This is my moment—to fight or give up. This time… I choose to fight.

Today's Summary:  A day full of doubts. I started strong(ish). The buzzing alarms woke me up, but I hit snooze a few extra times—it was just so cozy. I had to pull out my “discipline” mantra to get my butt in gear. Luckily, work is still slow, so I could shift my schedule slightly. Only 15 minutes later than usual, but that would’ve thrown everything off on a normal day. Then doubt started creeping in. It showed up at the track. I was walking slower than usual because I was trying to talk-to-text some writing for my novel. But the words just weren’t flowing. It felt off—like I was giving up pace for nothing. Back home, I tried to edit yesterday’s blog post and hated every sentence I wrote. Nothing sounded right. Everything felt flat. It might be the scale too. I know better than to weigh early, but I peeked yesterday and this morning. And while the number isn’t bad, it’s not the drop I hoped for. That’s what I get for snooping on my presents before Christmas—I should just wa...

Today's Summary:       Four different alarms buzzed this morning—none of them successful. I stick with the buzzing so I don't wake my husband, but sometimes it isn't even enough to wake me. Thankfully, work is still light right now, so I was able to hit the trails later in the afternoon.      I had a secondary goal today: get some more talk-to-text writing done. So I left both pups at home to play and set out on a solo mission.      Around the halfway point, I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a jogger catching up. As she drew closer, she called out with a smile, “I’m coming in with a high five!”      We completely missed—even with the heads-up—but it was such a fun, unexpected moment that gave me a boost and put a little extra pep in my step :) Stats -  Workout:  Hike - 3.2 miles Calories: 1 ,659 Water: 108oz Steps: 10,502

 Today's Summary:      Another slower day at the track. I'm blaming Aunt Flo for this one. All-in-all it wasn't really bad, but I know I could have hustled more.     Today my journal prompt question was: "What does self-compassion look like to you." It's almost like the universe knew that I was going to be too hard on myself for my relatively slower pace at the track. What I really need to focus on is how awesome I did. It was a Monday and yet I got up with my alarm and got the track. I'm really trying to embody self-discipline!!  Stats -  Workout: I can't wait for track and field season to end. I know that's selfish since that's what the track is there for, but I want the hurdles out of my lane!! I don't know why they always put them in lane 7, and only lane 7     Track - 11 laps in lane 8      Distance - 3.1     Pace 17:38     Average Lap: 4:58 Macros:      Protein -     ...

Today's Summary:      I started the morning off with a hike with the hubby and pups! That doesn't really count as a workout, since we're there to enjoy ourselves, but since it's still the 3.2 miles, and I usually take Wiley (who pulls most of the time) it still counts!      Once we got home it was lunch and then bath time for the puppers. They're not a huge fan, but are such good babies. They get suckered in for treats, and then they just sort of stand there and let it happen, their sad puppy-dog eyes asking "why, mommy?" Then they get dried off with the towels and proceeds to wreak havoc all through the house.      The rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching the race. We're not obsessive, or even huge fans of NASCAR, but we enjoy sitting down on Sundays and watching the race. My husband grew up with NASCAR, and is a big car guy so he's gotten me into racing. Mostly he like drag racing, with muscle cars. He got me watching all of the ...

Today's Summary:       Discipline. That is my new mantra.      Self-d iscipline is something I admire in others and value as a strong characteristic of an individual. When creating characters for my stories/novels I always consider self-discipline to be a strength, an if they don't possess that it would be a weakness.        As the main character in my story, I would say my biggest weakness is self-discipline. I have others, a bunch of them, but the biggest weakness that is stopping me from achieving my goals is self-discipline.       That being said, as this is chapter one and I'm encroaching on chapter 2 of my own life story here, my mantra, my focus, my life will become about discipline.       It's about waking up when I say I'm going to, not hitting snooze and thinking up excuses to stay in bed. It's about setting a plan, and following through. It's about doing the things I need to do...

Today's Summary:      Today was a rest day for me. I'm a little bummed with myself because I certainly could have put more effort into the day, but that's where giving yourself grace comes into play. I have been busting my butt this week, and it's ok to take a day when you're not feeling up to it. Plus I still killed it with calorie intake. I didn't just give up on the day because I wasn't feeling the workout!     I should remember to give myself a rest day on the first day of "shark week" each month, because my body just want to be comfy and sleep, and that's ok. In fact it's good to have those days.      So, all-in-all a good day. I did a lot of writing. I mean it was piggy-backing off of the talk-2-text that I did while hiking yesterday, but I'm going to count both days. I was certainly in writing mode for both days. Thursday I got all my thoughts down, and Friday I tweaked and smoothed them out. It counts! lol     I also caught up c...

Happy Friday! I had meant to do a check-in every Friday, but with one thing and another I hadn't gotten around to it.  If I'm honest the "one thing and another" has to do with my eating habits these first few months of the year. I was craving hard, and caving hard.  I'm feeling good and on track, and going to keep it that way moving forward, so each Friday I'll weight in and upload a picture to my Instagram story: ChaterOneK8!  I'll be sure to check-in here too. We'll go into more detail of how the week went and what I plan to do in the coming week.  So, let's kick it off:  This week has been a great week. It's crazy too because the week started with PMS and ended with the crimson tide, so it should have been filled with worse cravings and emotional eating. I fought it and I won!! This morning, I weighed in at 264.8 It's a little higher than I was hoping for, but I'll blame Aunt Flo for that!  Next week I'm aiming for getting this b...

 Workout:      Hike - 3.2 miles with Maggie! Macros:      Protein -      104     23%     Fat -               56     27%     Carbs -        237     51%     Calories -      1,844 Water: 16+12+40+40 = 6.75 16oz cups Steps: Fitbit says: 12,746 Notes:      I found my original Garmin charger and was able to get it back up and running. I'll put it on before bed tonight so from tomorrow on I'll be back with Garmin consistency.      As suspected the Fitbit registered more steps than the Garmin would have, but at least I have an idea. I'm guessing the Garmin would have said just over 10k, so I'm comfortable counting it as a 10k day! I mean hiking almost always guarantees that I'll get my steps in.      I did another hike full of talk-2-texting and got just over 2,500 wor...

 Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 7     Distance - 3.05          Pace - 16:35          Average Lap: 4:36 Macros:      Protein -      125     25%     Fat -             107     48%     Carbs -        176     35%     Calories -      1,989 Water: 16+40+40 = 6 16oz cups Steps: Unknown, my Garmin died at the track :( Notes:      Another good day!! I'm just wracking them in these day!! That's the goal after all.      Friday I'll do my first "weekly weigh-in". I have been meaning to do those each week I've been tracking, but with my poor eating habits in full flair for most of it I couldn't quite face it. I'm feeling really good this week and am excited. I'm sure I've back tracked a bit from my 263lbs which was my most recen...

 Workout:      Cycle - 40 minutes 9.0 miles Macros:      Protein -        91     17%     Fat -               97     41%     Carbs -        232    44%     Calories -      2,114 Water: 6 16oz cups Steps: 9,940 Notes:      Another fantastic day.      I decided to take the day off completely from my full time job. Right now we're going through a slow period and don't have to work the full 40hrs, so rather than logging in and doing the little work I had I gave myself permission to not touch that computer at all.      I do get my email and teams messages on my phone so if they needed me I could pop on, but I took the whole day off.      On this day I caught up with everything I've been putting off. I spent a long time doing my Question of the Day ...

 Workout:      Hike - 3.2 miles at the usual spot, sans puppers Macros:      Protein -      113     25%     Fat -               70     36%     Carbs -        187    43%     Calories -      1,774 Water: 6 16oz cups Steps: 10,063 Notes:      Just about as perfect as I can get! I did wake up late so I missed my window to go to the track before the school day starts, but since I didn't have a meeting planned in the morning I was able to get out and go for a hike, which was even better!      Not only was I able to hike the 3+ miles, which is a better muscular workout than the track, but I was also able to write by using my talk-to-text feature on my phone. I've found that I really, REALLY, enjoy using this method. I can just lose myself in the story while I walk, and all of my tho...

 Workout:      Cycling - 40min     Distance - 9.0 miles Macros:      Protein -      123     18%     Fat -             146     48%     Carbs -        302     44%     Calories -      2,716 Water: 16+40+40 = 6 cups Steps: 8,933 Notes:      I keep forgetting to get a video when I'm cycling and I have to go back and create one, lol. If you watch carefully on my Instagram story (@chapteronek8) I don't have any shoes on in any of my cycling videos, but I assure you I cycle with shoes on.      Anyway, Sunday was a good day. Actually this whole weekend was good. I had a couple of days like last Thursday where I kept the distractions away and kicked my to-do list's ass. I am officially caught up with my work. Still drastically behind on everything else I'm trying to do personally,...

 Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 7          1 - 4:37     7 - 4:40          2 - 4:39     8 - 4:43          Distance - 3.05 miles          3 - 4:37     9 - 4:45          Pace - 16:54          4 - 4:41     10 - 4:45       Average Lap - 4:41          5 - 4:40     11 - 4:41          6 - 4:40     Total - 51:32 Macros:      Protein -      146     14%     Fat -             207     45%     Carbs -        443     43%     Calories -      4,108 Water: 5 16oz cups Steps: 11,093 Notes:      Ugh...those f*cking calories!! It's Saturda...

 March 13, 2025 Workout:      Cycle - 40 minutes Macros:      Protein -       91     24%        Fat -              75     45%       Carbs -       131     35%     Calories -      1,504 Water: 6 cups (16oz) Steps: 10,648 Notes:     YES!!! Today finally feels like a good day and a great accomplishment!      I turned off the f*cking tv and actually got to work, and it was fantastic. I will admit it was a lot of work, and it certainly felt like it. I was mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the day, BUT I felt proud of myself in a way that I haven't for a very long time.      I actually had to force myself to eat a little more after dinner because my calories were almost too low. I was so busy that I didn't think about eating. I'm not...

 Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 8          1 - 4:37     7 - 4:56          2 - 4:42     8 - 4:57          Distance - 3.1 miles          3 - 4:56     9 - 4:54          Pace - 17:22          4 - 5:00     10 - 5:00      Average Lap - 4:54          5 - 4:54     11 - 4:58          6 - 4:54     Total - 53:53     Bleachers - Short 2x; Tall 2x Macros:      Protein -           Fat -                  Carbs -             Calories -       Water: 16+40+16 = 72 / 16 = 4.5  Steps: 12,446 Notes:      Where to begin. I've been deep...

 Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 7          1 - 4:40     7 - 4:51          2 - 4:43     8 - 4:52               Distance - 3.05 miles          3 - 4:51     9 - 4:54               Pace - 17:25 per mile          4 - 4:49     10 - 4:52           Average Lap - 4:50          5 - 4:49     11 - 4:55          6 - 4:46     Total - 53:07 Macros:      Protein -           Fat -                  Carbs -             Calories -     Womp  Water: Womp Steps: 10,903 Notes:      I am so sick of being cold!! I ...

 Workout:      Hiking - 3.2 miles at Purtis Creek, solo.           Total - 1:02.23          Average - 19:27 Macros:      Protein -           Fat -                  Carbs -             Calories -     Ugh  Water: Ugh Steps: Garmin died :( Notes:      It was wet and rainy, kind of misting, all morning so I didn't take either of the pups with me today. It actually worked out fantastic because I was able to use my Talk-to-Text feature on my phone in my notes section to write almost two thousand words of my novel. It was so fantastic! I'm going to utilize that as much as possible.     There is a lot of editing that needs to happen when I get back and upload it since it's not a perfect system and a lot of the words, names especially, get mixed up a...

 Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 7          1 - 4:24     7 - 4:30          2 - 4:28     8 - 4:29               Distance - 3.05 miles          3 -               9 - 4:30               Pace - 16:17 min/mile          4 - 9:09     10 - 4:31            Average Lap - 4:31          5 -               11 - 4:30             6 - 9:03     Total - 49:38.6 Macros:      Protein -           Fat -                  Carbs -             Calories -    ...

 Workout:      Cycling - 40 minutes Macros:      Protein -           Fat -                  Carbs -             Calories -      See below Water: 4 16oz cups Steps: 10,402 Notes:      So I didn't count calories today. I let today be. I know I shouldn't have, and I'm making all the wrong choices when it comes to that, but I've been unable to help myself up until point. Like I've been saying, that's GOT TO CHANGE. I need to make that change.      I had a thought while I was cycling and watching TV. One of those new NOOM commercials came on, and I thought I wonder if other countries have these weight loss drugs for sale. I'm thinking no. I think other countries care more about their citizens and that's why they have restrictions on the chemicals that they allow in their food. We have sooooooooo many...

Hello! I have to admit that I haven't been very good at nutrition these last few months. I was doing good back in October/early November, but when the Holidays hit I splurged and just haven't gotten back on track, so that's a big thing I need to focus on in November. I'm not looking for perfection, but I am looking for better! So here are my goals:  Weight loss: 1. Walk/hike 40 miles 2. Hike at least once a week 3. Yoga at least once a week 4. 80% within my goal calories for the month. Meaning I hit (or am under) the goal 80% of the time.  Writing:  1. Write 15,500 words of my novel 2. Write 20 prompts 3. Journal Daily (easy to prove since I'll be doing it here) 4. Catch up on my questions for the year We don't know each other that well yet, so some of these goals might be confusing, namely the writing ones. So let me explain.  I've been trying to write a novel for even longer than I've been trying to lose weight. I get a "great" idea, start it...

Workout:      Track - 11 laps in lane 7     1 - 4:36      7 - 4:44     2 - 4:39     8 - 4:46                         Distance - 3.05 miles     3 - 4:43     9 - 4:46                         Pace - 17:05/mile     4 - 4:41     10 - 4.48                       Average lap - 4:44       5 - 4:49     11 - 4:52     6 - 4:39     Total - 52:06.3 Macros:      Protein -      101     17%     Fat -               91     35%     Carbs -         288     49%       Calories -      2,349...

Hello! My name is Kate and I'm 37 years old. I guess I really should round up since I'll be turning 38 in less than a month, but who wants to rush these things.  I know most of these stories start with a funny little anecdote or some "It finally hit me" moment that made the author realize that it was time to change, but I don't have one of those; I have many.  I've known for a long time now that things need to change. I've had "epiphanies" and great big embarrassing moments (pun intended) that have trigged the need to re-evaluate my life, especially my health. I've stood up after sitting on a picnic table bench in my swimsuit and seen just how wide the wet mark of my butt is. I've been caught on camera by my in-laws under the exact wrong circumstances to show all of my chins, rolls and width that I usually try to hide. I've tried to squeeze by people in public not realizing just how big I actually am and rubbing up on them in a very ...