You've been racing through my mind, you're picking up in speed

Asbestos isn’t as bad as people think. Or at least I hope not, and I will know in 20 years if it is killing.

I was told by the HVAC guy to have the asbestos that covered part of my duct work removed prior to the installation of my heat pump. If I didn’t remove it, the installers wouldn’t do the installation.

The salesman from the installer told me he knows a guy who could remove the asbestos for about $800. I’m already paying over $5000 for the heat pump, where does he think I am getting another $800? I was sure I could do it myself with all the proper equipment, i.e. mask, rubber gloves, water filled squirt bottle, non metallic scrub brush, flat metal scraper-thing. It took a while, and it is quite annoying to squeeze in behind my current furnace, but I did it. I think I got it all out at least.

Now let’s hope that I didn’t breathe in anything that could get stuck in my lungs and kill me.

I will say that losing that weight has paid off just by being able to squeeze behind the furnace. I do not think I’d have been able to do that with an extra 40+ pounds on me. And I did all of this with no dinner in me and after I ran for 30 minutes, so I was sweating profusely.

You’d think that the smell would be enough to keep my cats, Jeb & Bert, away, but no. As usual, my cats were there to supervise the entire operation. That is what my two cats do, supervise everything. Doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, updating my blog, they are there to supervise. Most times, they actually don’t even want petted when I’m doing something, don't meow for anything or try to rub up against my leg. They actually get annoyed when I close a door to keep them out of a place. They cry and scratch the door until I open it. They used to supervise me running on the treadmill, but now I just shoo them out the door, close it and I don’t hear them over the racket of the running and whatever DVD I’m watching.

Speaking of my running, I was certain I’d have problems running yesterday. I hadn’t run since Saturday afternoon, and I hadn’t had a lot of calories before I started last night. Usually, I have about 900 calories during the workday, then get home and run. By the time I’d gotten home last night, I’d had less than 800 calories. I’ve had some energy issues in the past when I’ve tried to run on less calories, but not yesterday. Ran the longest distance yet, 3.12 miles in 30 minutes. Personal best, dude!

I think I’d clearly eaten too much on Sunday. I wasn’t really that hungry until late last night, and ended up having just less than 1400 calories total for the day. And I’m not overtly hungry today (though I did forget my soup for lunch, but I’ve got enough food, was just in the mood for soup.) I know I’ve talked in the past of cutting down calories to 1400/day, but overall, I think I will stick with what I got, just about 10 g less fat/day.

I just won't pig out on Sundays again. At least not until I am in London (or whatever city we go to for our first weekend in Europe in November.)