Vacation Mode

It is Monday and I am happy to say that I am on vacation all week long!   I have been dreaming about our time off for weeks!  It is a staycation…we aren’t going anywhere.  But we do have a few things planned!  

The Shed

Last year for our vacation we opted to stay home to tear down a lean-to addition on our shed and rebuild it.  It was a a busy week as we tore it down and rebuilt.  We had a fire going in our fire pit going the whole vacation and the old shed was burned one piece at a time that week.  The week ended and the shed was still incomplete.  Slowly it got completed…kinda (very slowly since Jason got injured shortly after vacation…you can read about that here.   Luckily Jason’s dad helped us with getting it done!).     The shed has been in a state of being under roof but the new section was still bare wood and the old section was painted who knows when and it was obviously in need of fresh paint).  So when we decided that a go away vacation was not in the financial cards for us this year we decided to paint that shed!  Here is some pics of before we painted.  

 The pics make it look small.   It’s not huge but bigger than it looks. The leanto (bottom picture) is 20x10.  The main part is 25x12.  With an overhang in the front. The area under the over hang is an additional 25x12   (Jason says it would be prefect for an alpaca…hahahah)

It is Monday and we have now completed two full days of painting.  It looks so good!   We chose green…and it will be trimmed in white. (Stay tuned for completed pictures)

After painting all day today, I’m so tired!

Fun staycation stuff

Our vacation is not all work though!   We are trying and hoping to do a work day and then a relax fun day.  Back and forth.  So we worked on the shed on Saturday and on Sunday we headed to Micheaux State Forest (PA state forest) and did a bit of hiking.   It was actually shorter than normal. Zoey still gets a bit overexcited with new things and we haven’t been hiking much.  So we are keeping our hikes shorter while we ‘break her in.  But it was still awesome to get out!

It wore Zoey our!  She slept so hard when we got home….with her nose by HER sock.   (Our theory is that if we give her old socks that she won’t go after our good ones!)

 

We have some more short outdoor/hiking trips planned this week.  Tomorrow should be Cowans Gap…at least that’s the plan.  (We have a few other things to do also…more errand type stuff).   Apparently they have drained the lake…and we are nosey and want to see it without water!   It should be interesting.  The last time we took Zoey there she was too afraid to walk over the bridge that had a grate  versus a solid bridge deck.  At that time she weighed about 40 pounds and I carried her over the bridge.  She is over 100 pounds now….now sure how carrying her would work!  Hahaha

Anniversary

Tomorrow will be our second year wedding anniversary.   Yes, two years ago we went on vacation and got married.   Fun fun!!  (Your can read about it here. And that includes a link to my outlive video about it!).  We decided to do our annual wedding/anniversary cake again.  But decided to keep it within the confines of our weekend sweet treat  and have our cake on the weekend before our anniversary.   So we have been enjoying our anniversary cake.

Vacation will be over too soon….but I am ready to get myself back on track with getting healthy.  I have to focus on my health….I’m not getting younger!!!

13 year blogiversary

Happy blogiversary!!!   12 Years! How crazy is that????  What a journey this has been!  I have definitely had some highs and I’ve definitely hit some lows!!!

Surprisingly this last year was not the year with the least amount of posts...but that brings me to some simple observations!

The year with the most posts:   2008

The year where I reached my weight watcher goal: 2008

The year with my least posts: 2012 followed closely by 2011 and then 2017

When did I gain weight:  2011 was the first small gain 2017 was the second

Hmmmm is there a correlation???  

Some lessons I’ve learned along the way....and by no means is this a comprehensive list.....there are way too many to post!!  And the list is in no particular order.

1.  Lose weight for yourself!  That is the only way to lose AND maintain the loss.

2.  Learn to love yourself....it doesn’t matter if you are 300 pounds or 100 pounds, love yourself for the awesome individual that you are!

3.  Find a partner in life that loves you in spite of your weight!  Someone that wants you to be healthy for your health but could care less if you have some fat rolls, or if the scales show some higher numbers!

4.  Deprivation of all ‘fun foods’ may be necessary at times in life, but in the long run will only lead to disaster because eventually you will cave and you will be sitting there shoveling junk food in like you’ve been starving for a lifetime.

5.  Your taste buds really do change and the healthier nutritious foods really do taste better....conversely when you start eating junk again they change back and you no longer crave the healthy stuff!

6. No matter how healthy you may be at any given time..the old habits are still buried deep and you will show up if you don’t keep up your gaurd. 

7. Exercise really isn’t the devil reincarnated!!  

8.  Find the activity you like doing and stick with it.  If it’s running...run.  If it’s Zumba...then Zumba.  Do what you enjoy...even if you only enjoy it sometimes because it’s a social hour (yes Zumba was a social hour....or rather pre Zumba and post Zumba times were a social hour for me)

9.  Start now....if you say ‘tomorrow’, tomorrow may never come!

10.  Start now....waiting until a certain time just gives permission to eat like a hog-head for the days leading up to the magical start date...and then you have a bigger hole to dig yourself out of!!!

11.   Don’t force yourself to eat a food you hate just because it’s ‘healthy’

12.  Reward yourself for your progress!  A lot of work goes into creating a healthy version of yourself!

13.  Food actually tastes better after you have ‘worked for it’.   For example after a long hike I enjoy dinner so much more...earn your food!

14.  I am the only one responsible for what goes into my mouth!  No one has ever hog tied me to a chair and forced me to eat a donut!   They may offer me a donut (insert any tempting non nutritious food in for the word donut) but they have never forced me to eat it...I am 100% in control!

15.  Arthritis pain really does ease up with exercise!  Yes it seems odd that it hurts so bad and someone tells you to go out and exercise...how because it’s painful...but it really does work!

16.  My most proud accomplishments are the ones in which I have pushed though and completed what I set out to do.

17.  The blood sweat and tears that go into this journey?  Totally worth it!

And I’m here to say that year 13 is going to be spectacular!!!!

Happy Birthday January 6

Today is my 6 year birthday for this blog!   6 years seems so young, yet for the life of a blog that is significantly long.  I was going through my google reader the other day.  I pulled up ALL subscriptions versus the normal 'new posts' that normally is displayed.  I was saddened by all the blogs that had not posted since 2008 or 2009.  I can hope and pray that those people had success and with that success no longer had need for a blog.  However, I clearly understand that odds are that they have given up the quest for weight loss.  Whatever the reason, I wish them much happiness.

In the last 6 years I have experienced great successes.  Reaching Onederland was huge!  I think that reaching that milestone was probably even bigger than when I finally made my doctor approved and Weight Watcher accepted (with a doctors note) weight.  If my blog was any indication, this is true as there was no major celebratory post about reaching my goal.  Seriously, I see vague references to it in sentences such as "three weeks to go until I'm considered a lifetime member"  but it just passed without luster or fanfare.  But this blog walked me through those days and I DID it!  I've had moments of sadness, such as the loss of my water jug (bucket) that saw me through the bulk of my weight loss.  I've had incredible successes.  I've passed monumental milestones.  I've worked to heal from scars that were left in my life, such as teaching my teaching experience.  Even with all the success I have encountered, I also regained.   This blog has seen me through a lot in the last 6 years.

The future is upon me......and I'm ready to reach onederland again.  I'm ready to reach goal again and this time I plan on doing it with greater fanfare than the last time. I am going to savor my successes.  I'm going to continue to be honest about my failures.  I'm going to continue to live! I"m going to continue to learn to love myself unconditionally.  I am going to win!!!

 Happy Blog Birthday to me!

PS  Down 2.4 for this week!