Diet Boot Camp

I have decided to take myself back to diet boot camp.  All this week I am following in the footsteps I made at the beginning of my journey in an attempt to relose the 10 pounds I gained in the past couple weeks.  Ten freaking pounds!  It took me 2 months to lose those 10 pounds, so you can imagine my frustrations.  Grrr...  But, so far, I have managed to rid myself of 4 of them.  So 6 more to go and then downward from there.

Keeping Tabs on Myself

If  the amount of posts I have made here lately is indicative of how hard I have been working on my weight loss...it would about measure up. Because, I haven't made made that many posts like I did before and it is probably time I did to keep a better accounting of myself.

I truly have not been feeling well lately.  It started about a week or so ago and has not improved.  I do believe some of the emotional things I feel have direct impact on the physical.  And then I do that all too common....feed the emotions!  Oh, that vicious circle of defeat.

I want to be more pro-active though.  Actually, I NEED to be more proactive.

I was making a little photo thingy for my creative blog and while searching through all the old photos I had the distasteful job of facing the occasional picture of myself.  The thought occured to me that these photos are very few and far between because I have always avoided the camera at all costs.  Yes, I would take many pictures of others, but have managed to avoid having them taken of me.  And while I still don't like having photos taken of me, it is rather sad that many, many years of my life have never been documented in that way.  Somewhere down the line, when I am dead and gone, there will probably be a family researcher that will have a heck of a time putting a photo to my name because I haven't allowed it.  Really, in this day and age with all the cameras in every device imagineable, it is ironic that you still can't find a picture of me.  Not unless I make it happen.  I guess it's time to face a lot of things in my life and stop being afraid all the time.  Afraid of being seen, afraid of failure...and quite possibly....afraid of success.

So, note to self:  Knock it off, already!

This Journey...

This journey is going to take much longer than I had ever intended.  I hit a wall a few months ago and have been in denial about it because saying anything is like giving up....and...I refuse to give up.  But, my actions of late would indicate that in some ways I have been very lax.  My intentions are good at the beginning of the day and then as the day wears along I get lazy...and lazy leads to...well, you know the rest of this age old story.

I don't want this.  I don't want to feel the clothes that I worked so hard to get to starting to feel a little snug again.  I don't want to feel that ill feeling that comes along with unhealthy eating and lack of exercise.   I DON'T WANT IT!!

Remember in the Peanuts cartoons when Lucy would pick on Charlie Brown and he would let out a really loud, "AARRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"  yeah, that's me.

So..now to try and re-inspire myself.  I truly wish for some feedback in here.  A few readers that left a comment and would indicate that I am not talking to the walls would be nice.  I am not really sure how to make that happen though.  But knowing I had a sort of monitor going on, would likely add some motivation to my efforts.  The bottom line though is, I have to do this on my own and I realize that.

My Personal Trainer

After 2 days at the fitness center and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the equipment; what I am supposed to do and where to start I got to thinking.  How I am going to figure this all out and be a success at it?  Using the brain that God gave me I put it all together and decided to call Brandon.  Brandon is son #2.  He is 23 years old, a student at Boise State and married to the lovely Elisha.  And, Brandon loves fitness.  He rides his bike everywhere instead of driving, he has biceps of steel and can talk for hours about his workout.  Actually, he can talk for hours about nearly anything because that boy has the gift of gab.  But, first and foremost, he's a good son and loves his mom.

Brandon very happily came over this morning and we went to gym together.  To preface just a bit, my fitness center is not your typical hire-a-trainer place.   It's part of the community clubhouse where I live and is funded by our ever steep community dues...so it's mine to use all I want, but with limitations.  No one on duty, no manager or trainer or anyone checking in.  First come, first serve.  And, it's relatively small.  Which thus far has not been an issue because no one but me and 2 other people seem to frequent it at the time of day I have gone.  So Bran and I ventured down there this morning and he showed me all types of exercises with free weights.  We came up with a weekly plan for me to follow and gave me a few tips about how to do sets and reps and all that lingo.  Apparently having children comes in handy even after you teach them to vacuum and do dishes.  They can be your trainer too.  It was fun working out with him and I feel better equipped to try some things on my own now.

After my workout this morning I came home and ate some lunch and then leashed the dog for another walk.  I am in a weekly walking club online where we log our miles.  I need to still keep up with my 17 a week, so I knew I better do what I can.  But, my body was still humming from all the weight lifting and I have to wonder if this exhaustion is just me not used to it or is that my metabolism is action?  I hope it's the latter because I still have 2 lbs to drop from my vacation weight and I REALLY want to get rid of it so I can venture into a new weight territory.  I am 2 lbs from visiting my "teens" again, and I want to be there like yesterday.

Getting Back in the Groove

Last week was a tough one.  I didn't exercise, I was recovering mentally from my trip and doing the inward battles that used to set me completely off-track.  Well, I won the battle!  I feel pretty good this week so far.  I have decided to go into the fitness center here where I live and start utilizing the equipment there.  I went Monday and Tuesday and today, since it was absolutely gorgeous outside, I decided to take a walk with the dog.  Usually he has to stay on the leash because I live in the city limits, but if we walk the other direction it turns into nice farmland.  I like this path except for the fact it butts up against a row of backyards that all have dogs in them.  Loud, angry dogs that want to tear us from limb to limb if they could break down  their shaky chainlink fences.  But, the scenery is lovely.  Especially now that it's springtime.

Here are a couple ducks we saw taking a dip in the stream that ran off the canal.  The have sent the water down the canals now, so that means the planting season is upon us!

You can barely see them, but down the path are a couple wild geese that were taking a stroll.  My good little Lucky dog wasn't interested in chasing them though.

And while I was taking a picture of the geese, I heard some splashing and found out my dog decided to go wading in the stream.  By the time I took the picture, he was already getting out, but he was out in the middle up to his chest.  It kind of surprised me because we took him camping last summer and he was not very excited about jumping in the river with me.  I guess it must have felt good on his paws today though.

Just a lovely day in general, and nice to get a break from indoors.  The walk was about 5 miles altogether and I think a good substitute for the gym today.

The Amazing Adventures of Hiking Girl

I made it back from my 10 day food fest in Oregon.  I thought I was strong and prepared for anything but I found out I am human and things like #10 cans of cashews laying around and 1 lb packages of black licorice can sway even the strongest of beings.  Or...me anyway.  Without going into too many details...this is how it all started and pretty much ended.
A conversation had while trying to prepare a sensible breakfast on my 1st day at my parents home:

Me to Dad:  What can I use to cook my eggs?  I can't seem to find the cooking spray....
Dad: Cooking spray?  I don't know what that is. 
Me: Just something to keep them from sticking to the pan....?
Dad: Oh, the crisco is under the counter.
Me: Ah....great....

And so it began.  And up a few more pounds than I hoped is how it ended.  But, I shall overcome. 

Along the way, I did have some great adventures trying to get some exercise in.  First of all...for anyone who has read the book or seen the movie "Twilight", this photo is for you.

The Columbia River as seen from Multnomah Falls....where much of the scenery in the movie was filmed. My son and I stopped to take in the falls and decided to make a bigger adventure out of it.  If you are ever in Portland, Oregon...take the time to enjoy this view.  It's close enough and you will be glad that you did!

Looking up at the falls.  They are so tall that I couldn't fit the entire falls within my camera frame.  My son and I decided we would hike up to the bridge at the least:

But, once we got that far, we decided we would hike to the very top of the falls.  The map I picked up at the information center said it was 1 mile up.  After 11 switchbacks and a racing heart from exertion...I succeeded in reaching the top.  It was worth it!  Although, I had a hard time looking down.  The vertigo was overwhelming!

It was an amazing experience.  I couldn't have made it halfway to the top without all the exercise and weightloss I have accomplished so far.  My legs were very sore from the climb though.  We decided that a mile climb up is a killer on the cardiovascular and a mile hike down is a killer on the legs.  Momentum really kicks in too! Here are my son and I at about the 3/4 mile area.  I was getting tired!

And me back at the bottom of the falls.

We had some other hiking adventures as the week wore on.  These are photos taken from the mountain behind my parents home.  When I was a girl, I used to hike up here all the time.  It seems to be a bit more overgrown now than it was back in the day.  The views were quite breathtaking.  We were having a bit of a rainshower while we were on this hike, but that was the ongoing theme for the entire week.  Rain...

We also tried to visit the beach a few times.  The tides were very high and the surf was dangerous for the most part, so we didn't get to play there very much.  I did manage to snap a couple pictures when I could though.

My son trying to avoid being pulled out to sea by a sneaker wave.

So, despite some eating pitfalls and the constant comments from everyone of, "You are on vacation, eat what you want" we did try to get in some activity too.  Oh, and the best part of all was how surprised my dad and mom were with my weight loss.  My dad handed me out a few genuine compliments, and that just doesn't happen very often.