Steady As She Goes...

So far, I've done well with my goal of doing something active every day.  The only day in the last two weeks that I haven't logged any running or walking was Sunday, and I cleaned house like a fiend Sunday morning, so I counted that as my workout for the day.


Hey, it's forward motion, right?


My runs have been steadily progressing, which I'm very pleased about.  Very tiny improvements, but I'm ok with that for now.  I've got all the time in the world to improve, the only one I'm competing with is me...and I'm not going anywhere. At this stage of the game, I'm having too much fun! And now, I'm at a point where suddenly, I'm noticing little changes in my body.  They are subtle, but they are undoubtedly there.  And I know that they will become very pronounced after I've been working out for a couple of weeks.


Which leads me to my second goal.  The original plan was to start my workouts on Tuesday, and finish up on Thursday this week, but Sunday, I developed a terrible migraine that had me down most of the day and pretty much all day on Monday, too, so that plan kind of went out the window.  On to plan B, though...today is a run day, so tomorrow, my 'off' day, is when I will do my Day 1 workout this week, and I'll finish it up on Saturday morning (early...I have company coming in, and I don't relish the idea of having to work out in front of folks.  There's really no private place to work out in my little cabin).  Next week, Keith will be gone again, so it won't be so hard to fit them in(yeah....Famous Last Words).


Hey...that's forward motion, too.


My third goal was to blog...and this also is progress toward that goal.  So...so far, I'm 3 for 3.  Sort of.  At least, I will be once I actually do my workouts. :)  Which I will.  Tomorrow.


*sigh*


Yes, I promise.

Trifectas and Doubling Down

I am sososo upset at my inability to post pics the way I want to on this blog, it has actually kept me from blogging this week. Ugh...gotta snap out of it.  It will fix itself...these things always do.  In the meantime, I finally just gave up and posted my Independence Day post sans the awesome pics I wanted to show off.

*insert SERIOUS boo face here*

So...since I have not been posting, have I been slacking off?  One might wonder...but one would be incorrect if they assumed.  I've actually upped the ante significantly.

Last weekend, I started out with a 3 mile run on Sunday morning, which ended in a nice, long walk....another significant bit of mileage.  Then a nice long hike with Keith and the boys that afternoon.  All three in one day....that's awesomeness, right there, folks.

All this week, I've made it my goal to put SOMETHING on the boards every day for a calorie burn, even if it's just a mile walk.  So far this week, I'm 5 for 5...every non-run day, I've been able to log in at least 3 miles, and walked a bit extra on my run days too, just for cool-down purposes.  I feel great, and it's definitely helped in the weight loss arena, too...as of this morning, I'm down another two pounds to 218.2, bringing my total loss to 62.8 pounds.  I'll take that any day!

It feels really, really nice to be back in the teens again.  For so long, it didn't feel like I could ever have any hope of getting there again...but there is always hope.  The key is to be consistent in whatever you do.

It is consistency that got me to 281 pounds.

It is consistency that is getting me to my goal.

And that's the simple, but elegant truth about it.  Whatever you do consistently is what you will wind up with in the long run. That goes the same with anything in our lives....if we consistently whine and moan and wallow in our misery, we will be consistently unhappy.  BUT if we consistently try to stay positive and keep a sunny outlook, despite what's happening around us, we will consistently find ourselves truly happy with our lives.

A lesson I certainly am working hard at taking to heart in every aspect of mine.

In the meantime, my goals for this coming week:

• Continue to log some kind of activity every single day, even (or especially) on non-run days.
• Finally start my resistance training to strengthen my core (along with everything else!!).
• BLOG.

Wish me luck....and make it an awesome weekend!

Independence Day

I'm really hoping that your holiday weekend was as awesome as mine was. My oldest granddaughter, Harmony came to see me  (courtesy of her mom, Krystal), and she brought her adorable little sister, Ariess with her!  There's something just really magical about having your grandkids with you on the holidays that just makes the world seem like a better, purer place.  It's way better than having kids...I highly recommend it. ;-)

They arrived early in the day on Friday, so we headed to the Blue Hole.  Krystal had heard me bragging for years about this place, and the only other time she's been up here, it was in the dead of winter.  Not really conducive to sight-seeing, especially on a limited time schedule.  This time, we had more time to explore, and we just had the best time.

The blue hole is a nice little hike...little being the operative word.  It probably takes about 30 minutes, maybe to go round-trip, but there is a monster set of stairs to navigate down to the lower falls, and it's quite a workout on your quads...especially if you're not used to it.  Didn't do my gripey hip much good, either, but I knew my ice pack and heating pad weren't too far away, and Harmony absolutely loved it.  Krystal did too...but she's not used to so much activity, and she was pretty sore the next day. 

It was very rainy all weekend, and we weren't sure exactly what to do next, so we headed north to Backbone Rock...but it was misting pretty good when we got there, so we just sightsaw and headed back to town.  A little loop through the VA to show off the campus where I work, and we stopped for a yummy lunch at Cootie Brown's...a place that has a little something for everyone.  The kids loved it (and the pizza), and I dived into one of their amazing salads. 

Since they'd gotten on the road so early, everyone was pretty tired by then, so we headed back to drop them off to their hotel, and everyone just chilled the rest of the day.

Saturday was a run day for me, so I headed to the track where I did a repeat of Thursday's interval training (Yes, I ran Thursday. No, I didn't blog about it. Yes, I forgot. But trust me when I tell you I kicked butt.)  Three miles (and a nice little downpour) later, I headed to the hotel, prepared to shower and change for a fun day with the girls.

When I got there, Harmony had a nice surprise in store for her Nana. She had packed both costumes from her dance recital a couple of weeks ago that Poppy and I didn't get to attend, so she was able to model them and demonstrate her dance moves from each of the two dances she did.  The purple costume is from her ballet dance (a number from 'Frozen'), and the green is from her tap dance.  I know she's mine, but gawd, this child is beautiful!  I'd kill to have that complexion.  Seriously.

It was still very dreary outside, but we just made up our minds that no matter what we did, we were going to get wet, or we were going to be cooped up all weekend.  Getting wet won, and we headed to Roan Mountain for some hiking.  Considering that I had already run and walked that morning, I would be lying if I said I wasn't also looking forward to the serious calorie burn I was gonna get for the day after that hike (and it was a whopper).

I know I have said it before, but I can't say it enough...this place speaks to my soul like no other, and it's so fun for me to see it through the eyes of those who have never been there.  I was really looking forward to heading up to Round Bald.  On the way, Harmony skipped along the path beside me, stopping to pick wildflowers to have me put in her hair.  She wound up with a crown of them, and confessed to me that it was because she was the Princess of Flowers...so naturally, she would have a crown.  Some things just make too much sense, I suppose, but the best part was when I felt that little hand slip into mine and heard her declare that it was the Very Best Day of her Life.  That was even before we got near the summit.

We did get caught in a downpour when a dark cloud opened up on us suddenly, but we were able to shelter under a dense patch of fir trees until it passed, surrounded by the heady scent of Christmas.  Once that passed, we continued on our way, and soon a bit of sunshine threaded its way through the murk.  By the time we'd reached the top, the cloud cover had cleared enough to give some view on both sides, which I was extremely glad of.  I have taken a group of eager hikers before, only to be greeted with cloud cover so thick we could hardly see each other, let alone a view.

It's really something to see a child truly experience Wonder at the world. Nothing creates pure joy like watching that...nothing.  I was giddy watching the girls explore the summit, climb on rocks, and enjoying the view. Heady stuff, that.  And very, very humbling.  They almost had me in tears, seeing how much they enjoyed it.

We stayed for quite a while before heading back down, and it was late in the day by the time we got back to town, so we stopped at McDonalds for dinner.  The girls played while Krystal and I caught up over coffee.

We were workout buddies, back in the day.  And we were a great team, helping each other stay on track with our fitness goals.  But when I moved to Tennessee, we both lost our motivation, and our way.  So while the girls shot baskets and played in the play house, we had a nice, long heart-to-heart, and I was able to pay it forward a bit more by sharing some tips from my journey and helping her to get connected with me through the myfitnesspal and runkeeper apps.  I truly believe that it will help us both in the long run...accountability is so important, and the more people who I am accountable to, the better.  I know that Krystal will help keep me honest, and hopefully I will be able to help her stay motivated, too.

When it started getting dark, we headed out to the park to light some sparklers and a few smoke bombs for the girls.  The big fireworks show had been canceled due to rain, so we figured making do would at least give the girls some fun.  They had a blast, and made some new friends by sharing the fun.  We were on the way back to the car, when fireworks suddenly started erupting in little pockets all around the downtown area, so we stood the girls on a bench to give them a better view over the trees, and stood in awe as we were surrounded by a panorama of fireworks all around us.  It was awesome, and something they won't forget for a long time, I'm sure.  I know I won't.

Sunday morning, the girls slept late ( can't imagine why), but after they got packed up, they headed out to see the house and visit before heading back to Atlanta.  It was really hard to see them go, and I missed them before they were even out of sight.

Backtracking a bit, I lost another 3.5 pounds to 221.2 at my weigh-in on Friday, bringing my total loss to 59.8 pounds in exactly 6 months.  I'm gonna call it 60 (myfitnesspal did), and say that 60 pounds lost since January 5th means an average loss of 10 pounds per month.  That ain't too shabby, no matter how you dice it, and I'm happy.

As I was composing this blog post, I couldn't help but think that January 5th could be my personal independence day, even more so than the traditional one.  But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was wrong.

Every day is independence day.  Every single one.


Every day is a new chance to make good choices about what's best for my body and my health, not just for my friends and family, but for me.


Every day brings new opportunities to view my life with pure, child-like wonder, and realize that I'm free from having to live my life with a broken body, and an even more broken mindset.


Every day gives me a new revelation that food is not my enemy, and that I am no longer a slave to it. Rather, it must submit to my needs as fuel for my body instead of an unhealthy trigger.


And that is worth celebrating.