Vacation Fun

 

Vacation is in full swing now.    I made a vow that we were NOT going to do all house stuff on our vacation like we did the last two years.    Last year we painted our shed! (You can check that here.)   Last year we at least did a few hikes during the week of work.   The year before, we tore down the lean to on the shed and rebuilt it.   We worked from sun up to sun down each day of that vacation from work! It was so intensive that I didn’t write a post or even take pictures!  So this year when we decided to do a stay-cation, I vowed that we were not going to spend the whole time doing work around the house, we were going to spend the bulk of the days doing fun things!   Ohhh, how best laid plans fail!

The Waterfall

I had off those two days that I spent with my nephew (you can read about that here)  before Jason’s vacation started.   On Saturday the first official day of OUR vacation (when Jason was also off) we did have some things to do around the house.  We had just come off about 2 weeks of constant rain and drizzle.  The grass was up to my neck. (That could be a slight exaggeration but only slightly.)  We knew this going into the vacation and it was planned.  (Just like another day of yardwork and mowing will probably happen at the end of the vacation week).   All was going smashingly well.  I had been doing a few things in the kitchen while Jason started outside.  I finished cleaning the kitchen and decided to run down to the basement to flip some laundry before joining the work party outside.   I walked down the steps and I knew something was wrong.  I could hear water dripping.   I looked over and one of our drain lines/sewer lines was dripping.   Luckily, it was dripping into the unfinished (but plumbed) shower that we have in the basement, so the water was going down the drain!    I called Jason and he reached up to inspect the leak and when he touched the pipe, his finger went through the pipe.   WE now had not just a leak but a gaping hole in our sewer line.  The other lucky thing?  It was the kitchen sink and NOT a toilet!   We now had a repair to contend with, on vacation.    We placed the sink out of commission (a bag over the faucet kept us from using it) and we ignored the issue the rest of the day and all day Sunday.  Well, we didn’t quite ignore it.  We researched how to repair a cast iron sewer line.  Yes, most of our house plumbing was upgraded.  But of course not that pipe!     On  Monday we started the morning at Lowes, to buy the stuff to patch the pipe for a quick fix.    WE came home and did the patch.  But it didn’t work!   We took the afternoon off from sewer pipes as we had a vet appointment for Zoey. But, that evening we headed back to Lowes to buy supplies to replace the bad part!   We got home, and realized we forgot the blade that we needed that would cut through cast iron!   So Tuesday morning it was back to Lowes for a blade!   Luckily by Tuesday afternoon I had a working sink!   Best laid plains…..I vowed limited chores around the house and life conspired against us and forced us to spend the time.

The Harper Cemetery

On Sunday we wanted to do something fun to kick off our vacation.   We threw a few ideas around and finally settled on a familiar place to visit.  We decided to go to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.   We drove the hour there and drove around looking for a parking spot.   It was literally wall to wall people!  People were everywhere!  Finally, we gave up and said “not for us, not today”.   We instead went up into the town above the tourist area, and parked at the Harpers Cemetery.  Now you can walk down into Harpers Ferry from the cemetery and we toyed with doing so.  However, parking is limited to 30 minutes at the cemetery.  Should we risk it and assume that they won’t notice our car parked there for an extended time?   We decided to not risk it.  I know from first-hand experience that the park police DO patrol and WILL give tickets and the whole nine yards.  So we decided to explore the graveyard.   We saw the Grave of the Founder of Harpers Ferry.   WE saw some neat gravestones.   I had fun with my camera and Jason had fun with his drone.    We took the scenic route home and stopped at a few neat little places and had an enjoyable day!

The pictures?   The old US Armory Paymasters mansion is adjacent to the graveyard.   I was having fun taking pictures.   When I got home, I had two out of my multiple shots that had orbs in them.   I don’t normally see that many orbs and honestly, I usually attribute them to sun, dust and whatever.  But this was crazy!  

Cowan's Gap State Park

After two days of sewer pipes and vet appointments and other non-fun things, we wanted to do something fun on Wednesday.   We went over the options and quickly decided to go hiking.  Where was the question.   We went back to our old standby, Cowan's Gap.  It is relatively close and it is very pretty!  A lot of the time we go to Cowan's Gap and do the lakeside trail, which is about a mile and a half.  We sometimes do it multiple times to ante up the miles.  But today, I wanted something different.   SO, I planned a hike around the park boundaries.   The first trail was 2.5 miles and labelled ‘more difficult’….the middle of difficulty levels.  I felt confident that I could handle that trail.   At the end of the 2.5 miles though we had a choice.  We could take the horseshoe trail which was a hair less than a mile but was listed as ‘most difficult’ and the description read ‘very steep and very rugged.  Or we could turn ourselves around and make our hike and out and back.  I was undecided when we arrived at the park.  I decided to stop by the park office and ask.   The lady there was like ‘Ohhhh they just put switchbacks on the horseshoe trail it’s so much easier now.’   With that recommendation, we decided to go for it!

 

The first trail was actually a portion of the Standing Stone Trail, which is an 80 mile trail within Pennsylvania.  The first mile and a half were uphill but it was graded and fantastic.  This was good because the first ¼ to ½ mile was TERRIBLE for me.  My heart rate was under 100 but my breathing was chopping and erratic.  I kept stopping to try to get it regulated.  I started to count my breaths in and then count the breaths out.  I was gearing up for a horrible hike!  Luckily, my body remembered this thing called breathing and it got MUCH better. (When I first started running, this was a problem and it took me a LONG time to get my breathing down, I even had issue with it during a 5K run which you can read about here.)    We got to the top and checked out the overlook and we hiked on.   Standing Stone Trail turns into a really rocky path, but it was gorgeous and while I was going a bit slower, I still wasn’t concerned about the hike.   We finally reached the Horseshoe trail turn off. Our first words were “wow, it’s steep” .    But the park visitor lady had said it wasn’t bad so down we went.  We went SLOW.  The leaves on the ground made it slick and hid the loose rocks on the trail.  It was not fun, but I was doing it.    We were seeing no signs of switchbacks but I was fine, slow but fine.   And then we hit the first switchback.  The switchback was not any easier!   But we made it through and got back onto the main trail and all I could see was the trail sweeping down dramatically in front of me.   And I had an immediate panic attack!  I was stuck on the side of a mountain in a panic!    I didn’t really have a choice, I had to get myself off the mountain.  I kept going down.  Slowly, inch by inch, foot by foot, tear by tear.   I made it to the bottom.  I was sore and tired but I made it!   We finished up our hike with a stroll around the lake.    It was difficult.  I am sore.   But it was worth it! 

 

 We have had two fun adventures thus far.  Who knows what the rest of the week will bring!     

 

 

 

 

The Elephant in the Room

 

Another month has passed in this seemingly never-ending weight loss journey.  I am telling you, it has gone on forever.  And that is disheartening.  However, in the same breath, I know that this journey of weight loss and fitness is one that NEEDS to go on a lifetime.  I just wish I was at the maintaining journey and that I hadn’t spend so many years struggling.   And if truth be told.  I am still struggling. In fact, there is an elephant in the room that I have been blatantly ignoring and not talking about.  But I am sufficiently frightened at this point.  So it is time to talk and reveal the weight loss and fitness elephant in the room.

Elephant in the Room

Over the last almost 19 years of being on this journey and publicly writing about it on this forum, I have frequently written about how I was so lucky that I never lost mobility.  I may have gained weight but I was going to Zumba three times a week.  I was still running.  I was riding my bike.  I was active.  I was the fittest fast person!  I KNEW I was writing this post today and last night I was reading some old posts as I was looking for something in particular and I accidentally stumbled upon just such a statement. (You can read that post here.)   I know that the movement and that the fact that I never stopped moving was instrumental in my relative good health!  I then read in a different post about how I had clawed and worked so hard to get to a point where I could consistently run multiple miles.  I talked about my hard work and the effort it took to get there.  I actually wrote about how I would NEVER let myself slip back to the point where I was starting from scratch again.  Yet I have allowed myself to slip backwards big time.  No that’s not the elephant in the room!  The elephant in the room is that I didn’t just slip back to the beginning point, I have regressed and have LOST mobility.  Life is a struggle right now for me.

Exercise

Jason and I were quite active for so many years.  But then something happened after we got married.  I don’t know that I rightly want to blame buying our house as the culprit.  I don’t think I can lay appropriate blame on his accident with the axe.   I can’t blame it on mom and her stroke, or the addition of a dog, or my bout with Gerd.  I mean, seriously since we got married it’s been a roller coaster.  I even titled one post ‘A Year for the Record Books” (you can read that post here).    No, the blame lies with me.  Sure those things contributed, but when it’s all said and done I am the one that failed.  I had grand plans on so many instance.  In fact at the beginning of 2023 I actually exercised religiously for about 5 months.  At one point since we lived here I started to run again.  I have sporadically vowed to start and I stay strong for a day, maybe a few days or even a few weeks but then I fall apart and stop.  There have been more failures than successes.  My failures are due to not due to lack of desire, but they are still failures.  Meanwhile, Jason’s run in with the axe, the hours spent visiting mom each week, and everything else combined to break the habit of our activity levels.  Hiking?  Yeah, that stopped happening.  Bike riding?  I haven’t been on my bike since we moved into our house 2.5 years ago!   It was a one two punch.  I wasn’t exercising and we stopped being active.   I don’t know why I didn’t think things would get ugly, but they did.

How bad is this mobility Issue

So the question is how bad has this mobility issue progressed?    Too far, is my answer.     Any mobility issue is too far though!  I started noticing issues about 6 months ago.  Yes, I have been sitting on this for about 6 months.  The first thing I noticed?  If I had to get down to the ground it had become quite laborious and decidedly awkward.  Deep knee bends and crouching as they say on my haunches?   Yeah, that couldn’t happen.  Kneeling on one knee and then standing back up.  Nope.   I devised work around because face it, sometimes you have to get down on a knee.  I was scared at the loss of mobility.  And I vowed to work on it.  Apparently, I didn’t work on it hard enough and /or consistently enough.

Fast forward to more recently when I was going about my normal daily life and walked a bit more than I normally do and my legs were so sore!  Inclines about felled me!  It was so embarrassing and demoralizing!    How much did I have to walk to feel that pain each night?    I’m so embarrassed to say it was a whopping 7,000 to 8,000 steps!  What?  I am struggling with only 7,000 steps!  My legs are so sore and achy after 7,000 steps spread out over one day?   This is NOT normal and highlights how my mobility is diminishing each and every day.  

The silver lining in facing my decreasing mobility

There is a silver lining in my discoveries about my decreasing mobility.  There are actually two things that I am grateful for.

1.       I am grateful that even while I made the horrendous discovery that 7,000 steps were enough to cause me to ache and hurt I am able to recover rather quickly.   I walk like I’m on two peg legs by the evening, but by morning I am completely recovered.   That is a good thing!

2.      The other thing that I am grateful for is that I have had my eyes opened.  The squatting thing where I can’t squat or get up off the floor easily was bad, but the walking thing was jarringly in my face.  I wear a garmin watch. Apparently I haven’t been looking at my step count.  My struggle with those measly 7K step count days made me look back at recent weeks. I have been averaging less than two thousand steps!  That is pitiful.  That is embarrassing.  That is shameful.  But, my eyes are opened.

The bonus silver lining is that it’s not too late.  I can turn this ship around.  It is going to require a change in my thought processes.

The biggest change in my thought process is the mentality toward exercise.   The best time for me to exercise is first thing in the morning at 5AM while Jason is in the shower.  I hate to exercise that early and I have been for the last SOOO many months saying that I will exercise after work.  But after work never happens.  So the mentality has to change.  5AM is when it has to happen and as of now planned exercise is non-negotiable.  If it’s a scheduled day, it’s non-negotiable.  I need to start thinking in that term.  To put it into the proper perspective.  My alarm goes off at 5AM.  I don’t want to get out of bed!   But I do.  It is non-negotiable.  I get out of bed because Jason and I have to work.  It is non-negotiable.  When you weigh the consequences, it is obvious to us that even though we don’t WANT to, we have to.  And thus when that alarm goes off we get out of bed.      Likewise.  Do you think I like walking the dog outside at 5AM in the morning, in the middle of winter when it’s zero degrees?   Of course I don’t want to.  But I do it.   Because it is non-negotiable.   The consequences of not doing it are abhorrent.  I don’t want to have to clean up a mess OR potentially allow my dog to develop bad habits.   So I do it, even when I don’t want to!  Exercise has to be that way now for me.  I don’t want to do it at 5AM (the only time that doesn’t get sucked up with other activities and responsibilities) but I have to.  It’s non-negotiable because I have to beat down this elephant in the room. 

 

Now that I have faced and admitted my decreased mobility, I have to do something about it.  I have to stop the downward spiral of my mobility.  Furthermore, I have to INCREASE my mobility.  It’s not too late for me.  (It’s never too late)  But the quicker I fix this problem, the easier it will be to minimalize the losses and recover what I have lost!