Do I smell Spring???

Well another weekend is in the books and it's back to work for me!!!   

I am still really working to get my food consumption under control.   I have not been eating exactly on target.   It got better after my vow to clean it up after my South Carolina trip....but I still need to clean it up!!!

'Calorie in' looks like this...

Net, including activity (which has also been sorely lacking...other than a nice long hike on Wednesday its been lame at best!). 

Ok with the earned it doesn't look quite as bad!!!  But I know it hasn't been fabulous and I knew where I need to clean it up!!!

Exercise....I need to get back to running....ASAP!   At least I am walking and hiking at least once or twice a week!!!! (Sometimes more!)

It was not a good weekend for hiking...it was cold and windy!   Ok that's an excuse but we are out there for enjoyment and being cold and uncomfortable is NOT enjoyable!  We did manage to walk a little bit on Sunday...outside even as we did the explored the Cedar Creek Battlefield and the Belle Grove Plantation...

And grounds (including the space grave yard)

And of course some signs of spring....

We also saw some old graveyards on back roads were wee driving and explored....

Someone was very proud of  in the confederacy....big in history with placing the metal/iron market years ago....but with the 'more recent placement of the small flags on many graves of soldiers in that area (two different graveyards).   And no...it's part of history....it doesn't offend me at all!  What does offend me is that the flag that we know generally call the Confederate flag is actually not the Confederate States of America flag....I believe it is actually a naval flag of the CSA....hmmmmm

There were quite a few confederate soldiers at this one graveyard....this last stone actually said 'fell at Manassas' 

And of course we stopped at an overlook!

A panorama shot does not do this view justice!!!!!!

It was a good weekend....now we are looking forward to the next one!  And the best news about the upcoming weekend????  I can smell spring weather!!!  Ok maybe not smell it, but I see that next weekend's forecast is looking spectacular! It is forecasted to be in the upper  60's and lower 70's...perfect for hiking!   We have already tentatively made plans to spend the weekend down in Front Royal.   There are tons of local, regional and state parks and trails and of course Front Royal is the northern most entrance to the Skyline drive....which is in the Shenandoah National Park...and that gives us tons more hiking trails!!!  Yay!!!!   Sniff sniff sniff....I can definitely smell spring now!!!!

The effects are starting to make themselves known

My weekly weigh in was fabulous!  It showed me down 3.1 pounds from last week!  Amazing.  I don't know how.  But I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!     That said my food has been somewhat more in line.....kinda.  I am still tracking and while I've been over I've not been fantastically and miserably over my caloric goal!  Except for today....I was WAY over today.  It was the Dairy Queen Blizzard that I was craving.   I wanted it while I was driving up the road from Charleston on Sunday and I didn't get it due to long lines......and I held it off all week.  But tonight I just knew I wanted it.  I knew that it was going to get to the point that I would eat everything else under the sun in attempt to satisfy that craving...so instead of doing that and then STILL end up eating what I really want...I just went and got the pesky blizzard.   LOTS of calories...but I don't regret it at all and I'm ready to move on to healthier options now!

I got a nice hike in yesterday..  Went up the Thurston Griggs trail to the Appalachian trail.  (I did this section about two weeks ago) and then this week we went north on the A.T.

  My legs were SORE when I got back to the car.   This morning I woke up quite stiff.  I walked it out but I could tell I worked it!

So my revelation of the last few days/weeks?    The absence of zumba in my life has made a HUGE difference to my overall level of fitness.    I can tell a difference!   Im NOT happy with this!  The organized class kept me on track.  On my own it's just very difficult to be consistent.  I could say go to the gym and take classes (and that's an option for sure) but it's not the same as 'MY CLASS'.  You see, my zumba peeps and the friendship with the instructor is what drove me to the class week after week....class after class...and even to some nights in the past where I did back to back classes!   Without that pull, I have floundered!

I have made the realization....now I just have to figure out how to fix it!

Wimpy!!

Wow......What a crazy week!!   Where to begin...with the fun?  The serious?   The Good?  The bad???

Ok, lets start with the fun...then we will get to the weight stuff......or maybe I will intersperse it all together kinda chronologically.....Yeah, that's the plan!

Last week I really struggled with my eating.  My weight was up on my weigh in day (mid week) and I just struggled to get my eating lined up!  I started to think about it and vowed that the weekend was my new start!

On Wednesday afternoon/early evening when I got off work (and the technical beginning of my mini vacation, I headed out and went hiking.  The locale?  Gambril State park near Frederick, MD.   I'll go back...parts of the trail was pretty and overlooks are always fun to visit!

I was off some days last week and headed to Charleston, SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run.  I did this last year with my friend Sue.   I ended up walking it last year and I vowed that I would return and conquer it!     My best laid intentions failed me this  I wasn't ready....it had been a weird downward spiral for the last six months with illnesses and injuries.  Excuses really...but I was NOT prepared.  Yet I packed my gear and headed south for my girls weekend.   I decided to wake up super early and drive six hours early so that I could eek out a full day of site seeing.  I pulled out at 3:50 AM and arrived at my first destination at 10AM.  

I had some deep thoughts while I drove.   LOTS of deep thoughts!   I won't go into it...but I had a total epiphany!  I had already thought about the need to lose weight....based on the fact that I want to be 70 years old and still able to hike up a mountain....or site see all day long.....or run a marathon....or ride a bike!  But as I drove, I was thinking about some things happening in my life and I discovered another HUGE motivator.  I'm TOTALLY motivated now!  This weight is coming off, there is no question about it!

Averasboro Battlefield (Tiny little battlefield....the graveyard and slave cabin intrigued me most)

Transportation Museum (evolution of transportation in the area)

Geocaching in Historic town

Museum of Cape Fear (shows the history of people in the area from native Americans to the Antebellum Age)

Poe House  (Built by Edgar Allen Poe...not the poet....beautifully preserved/restored and the artifacts that are directly tied to the house that they have are incredible examples of the Victorian era)

I headed a bit further south to where my hotel was.  I searched and found a little locally owned BBQ place to eat named Tommy's.  

As I was pulling out of the parking lot an older gentleman ran toward my car and motioned for me to wind my window down.  Turns out that it was Tommy...the owner.   He was an ex cop who opened this business in his retirement.  He wanted to make sure that I liked the food and that I was not leaving hungry!.   I assured him and talked to him a few minutes.  I didn't tell him that I saved room to head out to Cook Out for a milkshake for dessert!   Ha ha ha

I relaxed and slept well.  In the morning I headed to Charleston, SC

I hit up the Run Expo....then headed to the Fire Museum of Charleston. (More geared toward kids, but it was still cool)

A quick lunch at McAlister's Deli (Yeah, a chain, but not one I can get at home!)

and then I was off to Charles Towne Landing and zoo (museum about the first settlers of South Carolina)

By that time my friend was arriving so I went to meet her.....lots of talking, laughter all evening.

We started to talk about our weight and some goals.....We worked up a plan!  (more on that later)

Saturday morning....calling for thunderstorms, lightening and rain.    We totally wimped out.  (I didn't fight at all when she said she wasn't running!).  And lets be fair....if I had been trained and ready to run, nothing would have stopped me from going.  I would have told her "great", get your butt to the race course and take some pictures of me as I run by!  But I wasn't ready.    Instead we went site seeing and spent the day talking and catching up!

Drayton Hall (TOTALLY worth it!)  This is an old plantation.....that is being preserved NOT restored!   Quite neat actually!

Why yes, they are real alligators...

The Angel Oak Tree (really old tree)

Charleston Tea Plantation (apparently a tea farm/plantation in North America is rare...especially one that processes their own tea themselves!)

Some more geocaching..... 

Then Sullivan's Beach

And we ended our evening with a late evening Ghost tour in downtown Charleston.   

It was a full day!  

I drove home on Sunday.  I was sad to leave Charleston.   I was sad to say goodbye to my friend.   I was utterly excited and maybe even a bit giddy to get home to see Jason.  I am utterly motivated and ready to lose this weight!

So Sue and I sat down and created some goals for each of us.   We are already planning to go CONQUER the Cooper River Bridge Run next year!   My goals for the next year are as follows!  (she has her own goals)

My Goals

1.  Beat personal record for 10K which is 1:19  (all running...no walk breaks)  
2.  Weight at or  below 180 pounds (51.6 pounds)
3.  Exercise consistently 3x's a week
4.  Track food each day
5.  Stay accountable all year long...checking in on Wednesdays
6.  get totally off diet sodas (again)
7.  take a picture of progress every 10 pounds
8.  large reward will be something fun (extra day, neat site seeing venture, something) at Charleston next year when we smash the 2017 Cooper River Bridge Run

I may not have run the 10K...but I did get a fair amount of walking/steps/miles in on my trip!   

March 30  7.34 miles

March 31  3.26 miles 

April 1   6.08 miles

April 2   8.16 miles

April 3   1.45 miles (not bad because the traffic was horrible and the 9 hours in the car ended up to be 12 hours in the car!)

The verdict on the scales from the weekend?  I'm down about 2 pounds from where I was last mid week weigh in....so MAYBE this week will look nice when I do my official weigh in!  (and that would give me a REALLY nice start to my years goals as I based my numbers on my last official weigh in!!)

Changed fortunes

Wow....I am not even going to talk about my goals from last week.   It was ugly!   

Ok, I will still talk about it!  But let me put off that 'pain' for a while.

Thursday evening I was able to get in a walk with Sherry.  It was great to see her!    Saturday Jason and I headed up to Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania.  

What a pretty park!  :-)    We explored the Appalachian Trail Museum and explored around the park for a bit...and managed to get in a bit of a hike before our time ran out.  

On Sunday the wind was whipping and  it was cold!   We really were not feeling the need to go up on top of a mountain to hike.  Yeah, we have hiked in cooler temps...but the last few weeks of warm has TOTALLY spoiled us.  We spent a bit of time exploring but then went down to Gettysburg and had some fun hitting the touristy shops in Gettysburg.

Zoltar spoke to us.   Seriously...if you've seen the movie BIG how could you NOT want to have your picture taken with Zoltar!!!

Ok ok ok....so we also risked the "BIG" phenomenon (ha ha ha) and got our fortune.  Sadly, the speakers were set REALLY low and we had to get really close to hear!

And of course MY fortune.  (Yes, Jason got his own!)

So I have delayed enough......

My goals for this past week!

1.  Water    I totally  nailed this one!!!  Lots of water down the hatch each day!  The lowest day was probably only 90 ounces or so!  WIN WIN WIN

2.  Run at least 2 times    Fail....Big time fail.  No run at all!

3.  A  Track I totally nailed this.  I tracked EVERY bite!!!!

     B.  Stay within my caloric  budget   I totally failed this one!   BIG TIME FAIL!    

And it was NOT healthy food!

4.  Use the stair stepper at least ONCE!    Yeah...NOT 

So what is on tap for this week????     I will be busy with normal life things and I will also be busy getting ready to go to Charleston, SC.  Yes, the Cooper River Bridge Run is this upcoming Saturday!   I am woefully unprepared.  I am looking forward to seeing Sue....even if the forecast is currently calling for rain EVERY DAY!      I am however dreading not seeing Jason for a few days!!!!!   

Goals for this week? 

1.  TRACK every day

2.  TRY to make better choices in my eating to keep my calorie count lower

3.  Cut back on the Diet Soda that is slowly creeping back into my life.  

4.  Do my best with the 10k...and enjoy my time

Eleven Miles and that's my Final Word

I am happy to announce that I made it through the end of the day on Tuesday and I didn't have any complaints about stinking after the deodorant debacle!!!!!   Whew!  I am also pleased to announce that I have remembered to wear deodorant every day since then!!!  (although I couldn't remember putting it on this morning so I had to employ the subtle lift my arm and sniff technique a few seconds ago to be able to honestly say that I remembered every day since then!)

I dropped 2 pounds this week.....down from last week's weigh in but still up from my sickly low weight!   

Running.....well I didn't run this morning.  I as just sore and a bit achy this morning.   Ok, not really muscle achy, but my feet were achy.  Yes.....much to my shame I need to admit that I COULD have run had I pushed myself.

I'm not sure why I'm achy.  Well, I know why.  I just don't know why I ended up achy this week and not after other hikes.  (Namely the hike from a week and a half ago at Colonel Denning State Park.)

Yesterday was my typical half day of work.  I had a dentist appointment right after work.  Luck was with us and Jason was able to be free shortly after my dentist appointment was over so we headed out for a hike.     We stayed somewhat local and went to the Thurston Griggs Trail....which is a feeder trail for the Appalachian Trail.  The Thurston Griggs Trail is a bit.....well it's all uphill.  This picture doesn't do the 'uphill' justice...but oh well!

We arrived at the top of the Thurston Griggs Trail and found ourselves on the Appalachian Trail.  It dumps us right at the site of one of the primitive campsites...the Pogo Campground.   We wanted to explore this area because we had read that it was the site of an old Hotel built in the 1800's for people to 'get away from the heat and humidity'.  Yes, on the side of the mountain just below the ridge line.   We wanted to see if we could find any signs of the foundations or ruins.  However, when we arrived at the Pogo campsite there was a lone woman hiker (70 years old....easy!)  with her dog heading to the spring we had just passed to grab some water.  She talked for a few minutes and then headed to the spring.   Jason's observation was that she was out hiking for a longer distance and not just a day hiker.   My observation was that she was OBVIOUSLY alone because she threw out a few times that her husband this and her husband that.  We started to explore but stopped when we saw her packs sitting off in a secluded area.  We figured it was best to move on and explore on the way back through.    Sadly enough, on the way back through we could see her walking around on a ledge a ways up the hill...but when we approached, she quietly lowered herself down out of sight for the whole time that we sat on a log to take a breather.  Oh well....it's local to where we live...just takes a nice strenuous hike up the side of a mountain to get there!   I'm sure we will be back. 

I snapped a selfie (of course)

We left the Pogo campsite and headed up further to the ridgeline.....and black rock

It was only a mile or two  further to Annapolis Rock so we headed onward.  (and lets also just note that between Black Rock and Annapolis Rock the trail is mostly flat).  The view from Annapolis Rock is the best of the two overlooks in my humble opinion.

I talked Jason into a picture of us together.   

We turned around at Annapolis Rock and made our way back down off the mountain....arriving back at the car at dusk.   We were tired but happy.

A quick stop for dinner and then home to shower and do a little research on the Black Rock Hotel.  The pictures of the old hotel are really neat.  Let me tell you....I would stay in a hotel in that spot if there was one!  (Heck, I will probably at some point end up camping at that spot some night!)

My step tracker on my phone registered the hike and my walking at WAY high.  Typically my mileage is dead on.....I know how far I run and my mileage on my phone matches my miles run.  I am therefore a little perplexed as to how I managed to end up my day with 11.11 miles for yesterday.  The hike in all the trail guides should have been roughly 6-7 miles.  Hmmm....yes, there were a few steps at work...and going into the dentist and into dinner.   See my why I'm perplexed??   The only thing I can think of?  The trail was rocky...so we weaved back and forth a bit...and we did explore some at a few different locations.  But 4 miles difference?   I have NO clue!

As I was looking at the steps, I switched it over to the year view and it is quite interesting to see.  I can trace where I was by my mileage.

You can see that in June and Julie I was high.....I was training for the half marathon.   October was low as I recovered.  November was higher not from running or hiking but because of vacation where I was consistently knocking out 7-10 miles of walking each and every day!  December I started to pick up with the hiking.....January was COLD...and I've been hiking more and more each week since then.  Just a neat history.....all with one line.  :-)

So I haven't run a step......that may be a fail this week!   But will it really be a fail when I hiked eleven miles (half uphill?)   Hey, my phone says 11...phones don't lie!!!!  Ok ok ok...I'll back it down to 10 since some of that was me walking into a food establishment and into the dentist office!  

Up next????  A walk with Sherry after work tonight!  (Hmmm...I better confirm that here shortly!)

To Stink or Not to Stink...That is the Question!

Running this morning?   That was the plan.   But it just wasn't happening.   My stomach was NOT right.    I contemplated the run.  I really did.  To reach my goals I really should have run this morning.  Due to schedules of course. (Work and prior obligations.)  But my stomach was just not feeling it.   In hindsight, it was the best decision, stomach aches and trips to the bathroom really don't mix well with a run!

I ate Chinese food LATE last night (9:30 or 10PM).  I ate too much Chinese food last night!

 I also barely got my minimum water consumption in.  I did it.   But barely!  What is my minimum for my projected water consumption?   I am aiming for at LEAST 64 ounces....but I've been getting closer to 120 ounces daily)

Scales were friendly to me this morning though.....We shall see....we shall see!

Meanwhile....I am sitting in that weird clothing size abyss between women's sizes and regular (non fat) sizes.   A size 16W is loose and baggy....a size 16 (not women's) is tight.   It's amazing how much of a difference the W makes on a clothing tag.  Just a few pounds more of weight loss and I will be out of the W's  and into regular size clothing ALL the time.   Just a few pounds more and I will be pulling out the bins of clothes that I have in storage.....a whole new wardrobe!  How fun!   

And as a side note....I forgot to put on deodorant this morning.  Really?   How in the world does one forget that????   So should I keep my arms extended at a 90 degree angle from my body to avoid any sweating and heat?   Or should I keep my arms plastered to my side to avoid any heated underarm smell from escaping?  What to do...what to do.  (I do think taking a walk on my lunch break may not be wise with this little issue though!)

No major epiphanies today....just plodding along with trying to turn this ship around after last week's experience of  eating junk and overage in my calories.   

Struggle

I don't want to write this today.  I've delayed doing it.  I've contemplated NOT writing today.  Because we all know....if we don't write it then it didn't happen right? 

Soooo lets back track.  Last Wednesday I wrote  about running and how I persevered through running on Tuesday but then even though I walked 6 miles that day.   I also talked about my food intake that day and how I ate too much food.   GRRR

 I DID get up and run Thursday morning and ran!!!

However, otherwise, it didn't get better.   Food wise I skirted with disaster!   I was over my 1200 calorie goal EVERY  day.  One day I only missed it by 50 calories...so that was a victory.  Two days I was in the 1300 range...so not too bad on those.   Some of those days I ate least ran or hiked.  However......the weather turned and well.......   Ok, so here are the week stats.  The one on the left is the TOTAL calories.  The screenshot on the right is the net calories including what I earned.  

I have been doing GREAT with pounding the water.  My water intake has been spectacular of late!!!  I've been consistently going over 100 ounces daily!

So as for my goals that I set last Monday.  

1.  Water             TOTAL VICTORY!!!!

2.  Run at least 2 times (preferably 3!)    Definitely got two runs in!!   VICTORY!!!

3.  A  Track  I tracked EVERY BITE

     B.  Stay within my caloric  budget (not eating too many of my earned calories!)   FAIL

4.  Hike and walk.   Yes, got this one down....as much as schedule and weather allowed

5.  Use the stair stepper at least ONCE!   FAIL

You know...the goals for next week are going to be the same.   I will be taking hiking off the list.  Not because I don't want to hike/walk or don't plan on hiking/walking...but that one is dependent upon the weather, scheduling and whatnot.  

1.  Water             

2.  Run at least 2 times    

3.  A  Track  

     B.  Stay within my caloric  budget 

4.  Use the stair stepper at least ONCE!  

Better luck this week!!!!