Vacation!

Been gone for a bit - family visited us a couple of weeks ago and we had a wonderful time, hanging out, eating, laughing, eating... Well, you get my drift. Then, I set off on a wonderful vacation with my three favorite guys - hubby and two sons. We embarked on a 10 day, 2000 mile road trip starting from NC to Washington DC:

Space Shuttle Discovery
National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center

Washington Monument at Sunset

Lincoln Memorial & Reflecting pool

Then, on to Niagara Falls (both US side and Canadian):

American Falls

Niagara River, looking towards Buffalo, NY

Horseshoe Falls from NY side

Bridal Veil Falls

American Falls & Bridal Veil Falls, from Niagara, ON

View of Niagara Falls from Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow over Niagara

Next, we visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto

Statue just inside the entrance to the HHOF

My very handsome young men with the Stanley Cup

We hiked Letchworth State Park in Geneseo, NY:

This place was absolutely beautiful! If you ever get a chance to go, it's worth the trip!

 

We rested for a day and a half while visiting family in Albany, NY and then spent two days in NYC.  We toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Top o' the Rock, The 9/11 Museum and Memorial, walked through the Eastern side of Central Park (to and from the Met southward.) We went to dinner at Carmine's (delicious!) and basically just enjoyed many of the sights and sounds of The City :)

We finished our trip with a quick stop at Arlington National Cemetery:

We returned home on Wednesday night, had Open House at the boys' high school on Thursday evening and I've been running errands all day today.

Now, I'm home and figured I needed to say "hi."  It's been a crazy whirlwind two and a half weeks and I'm exhausted! But, it was awesome and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

So, how did I do with two and a half weeks of no gym, family visits, vacation? Wish I could say I did great -- but I had the backward slide. Stepped on the scale yesterday morning to find I've gained back 6 of the almost ten pounds I had lost. NOT GOOD. But, stepping on the scale this morning I did find 2.4 of those pounds are gone - so I'm hoping some of the weight gain is just due to bloat from being off my regular routine.

It's amazing, my Fitbit tracked that I walked a total of 155,143 steps in those 10 days! I walked over 26 thousand steps (yes, you read that correctly) on two of those days. There were only 2 days that I didn't make my step goal. 155,143 steps equaled 61 miles of walking and I climbed the equivalent of 288 floors! You would think that with all of this walking -- I would be doing great. Well, guess this is where quality of exercise outweighs quantity. As you can see, I walked and I walked a lot. Did I sweat - well, it was warm in NYC :) Let's just say we didn't exactly get our heart pumping during those walks. I would say the only time my heart rate increased was in Ontario - there was this hill (a.k.a Hill from Hell) that was awful. I'm not exactly sure how long it is, but it steadily climbs at a fairly steep incline. We walked this hill about 5 times over the course of 2 days! Never. Wish. To see. This. Hill. Again. Anyway, I won't whine about the Hill from Hell anymore - it didn't kill me - probably made me stronger :) Ha! So, I did have moments when my heart rate came up -- in Niagara, at Letchworth, walking quickly to get to The Met in NYC (walked from 42nd street to 82nd St.) Anyway, you get it - I walked and walked and walked. But, apparently, those heart rate increasing moments were too few and not enough.

I'll admit, my food intake was pretty poor too. Normally I try to keep my calories between 1200 and 1500 calories per day, sometimes a little lower, sometimes slightly higher - but average is around 1300. At this intake rate, as long as I was getting quality exercise, I was averaging about a pound a week weight loss. I let myself go on vacation, made bad food choices, skipped meals trying to make up for the fact that some of my meals were much higher calorie/richer foods - basically did everything wrong there. SIGH.

So, now what? Well, I haven't been back to the gym yet. Unfortunately, everything is crazy hectic this week. Between back to school shopping, grocery shopping, school functions, doctor's appointments, etc., etc. I haven't been able to get there. But I did get outside and walked a bit more briskly. I made my steps (actually more) and walked my 5 miles. Goal is to get to the gym tomorrow and Sunday for quick workouts and then to get into the "meat" of my daily routine on Monday. See, the boys return to school next week and I will finally have a few hours during the day that are just my own! Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!

I could get discouraged by my weight gain and I won't kid you, I did cuss myself out yesterday when I stepped onto the scale. But, what good does that do? It's not going to make the weight disappear (well, 2.4 pounds obviously got scared enough to run - lol) I need to get to the gym, I need to recommit myself to healthy eating, I need to work!

How to get sidetracked in one slip

7/17/14
Coming up with what to write in a blog post is often times difficult. Finding time to blog can also be a challenge. I kind of use this blog as a type of diary, a way of thinking out loud and hopefully inspiring someone else who may be having the same type of struggles as I have.

So, new struggle... I fell. After spending most of last Saturday at my sons' school doing maintenance type of work, I came home and decided I really needed to water my yard. So, I went outside wearing my "Keds-like" sneakers and grabbed the hose. Now, we have a hill in my backyard. It's not very big, but it is somewhat steep. At the top of the hill I have hydrangeas and crepe myrtles. So, I walked about half way up the hill and started watering my plants. Well, I guess it didn't take very long for the water to roll down the hill and make it somewhat wet. And, my "Keds-like" sneakers don't exactly have the best traction. Can you see where this is going? I was standing sideways to the hill and slipped. Ouch. I fell in such a way that my right shoulder and the right side of my head hit the hill. My shoulder came up, my head went down and the right side of my jaw actually hit my shoulder. Hard to describe the pain I felt, but I literally thought I broke my neck because of the crack I heard when I hit. At the very least, I thought my head exploded.

But, still here -- no broken neck, no broken jaw, no exploded head. After several minutes of lying very still, I managed to get up. My husband took me to urgent care to have me checked out. I have a mild concussion and a very badly bruised jaw. I had a hard time eating for a couple of days, had to stick to soft foods. Wish I could say that helped me lose some weight (LOL) but no such luck. The biggest challenge I have right now is some dizziness which is to be expected. I thought it had gotten better, but came back last night with a vengeance. I went out for a rather longish walk yesterday afternoon because I was feeling better and think, now, maybe it was too soon.

7/21/14
As you can see, started this blog last Thursday and life happened - didn't complete my entry, lost my train of thought, etc., etc.

So, weekend was crazy busy. Boys' theater production - opening night is coming soon so they spent all day Saturday in tech rehearsal. What did my husband and I do? Did we take advantage of a day all to ourselves? Did we do something fun? Well, all depends on your definition of fun. We've been working on a backyard project, creating a fire pit -- at the base of that darn hill mentioned above.

Most of Saturday morning we ran (okay, drove) back and forth to the home supply center and rock supplier. Then, we spent the rest of the day digging, hauling, and leveling the area for our fire pit. We finished it late in the afternoon and it is everything I had hoped it would be.

Here is the finished product. It was so nice to spend the evening around the pit with my three favorite guys, enjoying conversation, lots of laughs, and of course S'mores! Oh, and you can't see it very well in this picture -- but that darn hill is off to the left - actually fell right near where the sprinkler is on the left side of this photo.

So, Saturday's exercise was the manual labor required to create this pit. Sunday, needless to say included not much more than getting up off the couch to go to the restroom. Okay - there was a brief jaunt to the grocery store and then to do some shopping for jeans for one of my teens. It was definitely a lazy day spent recovering.

No gym for me today either - spending the day deep cleaning my kitchen. Wiping down all of the cabinets and then "polishing" all of the woodwork.  Cleaning counter tops, all stainless steel surfaces, and floors. I hate cleaning -- but it must be done and since my guys are at theater all day, everyday this week, I figure I have a lot of time on my hands, with no interruptions, to get some necessary cleaning stuff done. On my agenda this week -- clean the kitchen, declutter while cleaning, tackle the mountain of laundry, iron my husbands slacks and shirts (hate ironing too), clean my laundry room -- dust bunnies took over and they're multiplying!! We have family coming into town next Saturday and I have guest room to prepare, general pickup, vacuuming, dusting - oh yeah and cleaning of bathrooms (ick) and anything else that happens to pop up along the way. So, can I count this as exercise? I think so -- it's not the cardio type that I would normally get at the gym, but I am moving around, using my muscles and this does burn calories and that's good!

After having a week of "recovery" from my fall, I'm feeling a little guilty for not going to the gym. But, I know that I needed to heal before I could get back to my normal routine. I still find that if I push too much, I get a little dizzy so maybe this plan to clean this week is a good idea and not push hard cardio and strength training for at least the first half of this week. I am a little upset because I'm up a pound since my last weigh-in probably because of not moving last week. But, at the same time, I need to remember that it's okay - that pushing myself could hurt me further and even the doctor at Urgent Care told me that I should take it slow and make sure I'm recovered before returning to normal activity.

7/23/14

And, here I am again -- got sidetracked a second time from finishing this entry. UGH :)  Well, off to a crazy day of running errands. Oldest son cracked his ipad screen and need to get that repaired, then need to go to the grocery store to stock up for family visit. Didn't finish my cleaning - I was exhausted yesterday - so it's back to that today. I figure as long as I stay busy -- I'm good. Busy means I'm not sitting in my family room eating and watching HGTV all day long.

Anyway, to anyone who might be reading this blog -- hope your week is going great. Hope you're doing well on your journey, whatever it might be, and, hope you don't get constantly side-tracked like I feel I'm getting this week.

How to stay motivated, when the scale ain't budging?

Wish I could figure out the answer to that question. To say I'm struggling with this right now is an understatement. After having lost a nice amount last week, the scale has not moved in the right direction for me this week. In fact ---- I GAINED a half pound!!!

I went to the gym today, but between soreness and lack of motivation -- I can NOT even come close to saying I got in a good workout. I've walked a little over 9300 steps today -- but I don't' think I really broke a sweat doing any of that. In fact, my Fitbit would tell you that I only had about sixteen active minutes today.

It's really depressing because I've been so motivated lately. I went to the gym 5 out of the last 7 days, made my step goal every day -- in fact I EXCEEDED my step goal every day. Watched my calorie in versus calorie out and had anywhere between a 600 and 1000 calorie deficit each and every day! I should have seen a loss on the scale - but NO. NOT. NOTHING.

So, how can I stay motivated through this plateau? Through this rough spot? Dory (Finding Nemo) would say "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." And, I'm trying to keep that mantra in my head and in my heart, but it's not easy. I have to stay the course because I know to give up now is not an option. I can't stop measuring, counting, exercising. If I do -- then I lose -- or, actually, I gain. And I don't want to gain. I don't want to go back down that road where none of my current clothes fit. I put on a pair of pants the other day and while I would never wear them out in public (yet) -- I was excited that I could actually zip them up again -- couldn't do that a month ago.

I guess I have to celebrate the small NSVs (Non-scale Victories) that are occurring along the way. Like being able to zip up a pair of pants I could barely get pass my very large derriere a few weeks ago. But, it's tough not to see the results on the scale -- those are the results that really scream to me!! When that number goes down, I think "wow, you did great! You really worked hard this week and it shows" The NSVs are much harder to 'see' at least for now because they're not significant. It's not like I've lost enough weight to go down a dress size. It's not like I've slimmed down enough to finally fit all those clothes that are sitting in my closet waiting for me to be able to wear them again. Like I said, a couple of things fit a little better.

Ah well, guess I'm off to walk my dogs, get my ten thousand steps and figure out how to get past this hurdle and not get discouraged. Just keep swimming .... just keep walking....