Lessons Learned From a Four Mile Hike

This morning I woke up at 7:30am (thanks to my cat), and since I couldn't sleep I decided that I would go take a walk.  I had mapped out a couple of routes on Google maps and had one that was almost exactly 4 miles.  I figured it was early enough in the day that I could go that far and be home before it got too hot.

Well I brought along my camel back (best invention ever - a must have when living in St. George) and my iPod and set out.  I was not the only one out that early, I was passed (I didn't do any passing) by several people, two of whom were wearing Iron Man t-shirts and looked like they belonged on a cover of a fitness magazine.  I turned after they passed me and enjoyed the view.  :)

The bad part about walking around where I live is that no matter which way I go the last leg of my walk is going to be uphill (unless I hike the faux volcano again).  The last mile was all uphill and into the sun.  The last block was the steepest of all and I pretty much wanted to kill myself by the time I dragged myself into my driveway.

So, the lessons learned from today's exercise include don't buy a house at the top of a hill if you plan on taking a lot of walks.  Always take your camelback with you if you're walking around in St. George in June (or several other months).  Make sure the route that you take has sidewalks on it, there was about a two block section that didn't have a side walk and it was on a busy road.  And last but not least: make sure you can handle a three mile hike before you tackle a four mile hike!

Oh, and I weighted myself this morning, which I usually don't do (I usually avoid the scale like the plague), but I was curious.  Anyway, the numbers were much easier to look at than they were yesterday, so now I just need to keep it up for the next two weeks.

-M-

Poor Choices on Week 4

So I've known for the past 5 years that I am lactose intolerant, but I can have some dairy as long as it is small quantities.  Well, earlier this year I came across a killer Tres Leche cake recipie and I couldn't resist.  I usually just make it for parties or things like that were I won't end up any more than one piece of it.

I made it for my housewarming party last Saturday, but only half of it got eaten.  So . . . guess what I had a lot of?  Not just is it cake, but it was Tres Leche cake (which translates to 'three milks cake'), so it reeked havoc on my digestive system.  So I gained weight this week.  Bad Mindy!

While I'm thinking of it, I'm not going to weight in next week.  I'm going to be in Lewiston for a family reunion, and won't have my scale and I'm a firm believer of using the same scale to weigh in.  I'm still going to have to be active and eat in moderation.  So any of you family members that will be there, let's stick together and keep each other from eating too much!

-M-

Time to Get Serious!

A friend of mine invited to to join a Weight-Loss Challenge that Rezults Fitness center is sponsoring.  Her brother did the last challenge and lost 30 pounds!  So I went to my first meeting tonight.  They have a fitness class where they talk about different things that affect weight loss and then you can work out for free at the gym.

You have to weigh-in and have your measurements taken and if you end up gaining any pounds between weeks you have to pay them a dollar per pound.  I decided that I want to get back down to my pre-back-injury weight by the end of the summer!  I'm really hoping I can do it!

Today's class talked about metabolism and ways to keep it up during the day.  One thing they suggested was to eat small meals 4-5 times a day, so that you never get hungry.  The trick is that they're small, healthy meals.

After the class I worked out at the gym for about an hour.  I've been trying to stay active without a gym but there's no good substitute for the weight machines.  I'm going to be sore tomorrow!!

So two goals: Never have to pay money because I gained weight and to get back down to 270 pounds!

-M-

Week 3 in Summary

This week was a good week!!  I lost 1.8 pounds - down to 298.2!!!

I even exercised twice, both were aerobic even.  On Monday night my ward played Human Foosball for our FHE.  I didn't really want to play, because I'm usually a hinderance to those type of things, but I got roped into it.  It was really fun!  I got some running in and I even scored 3 goals over some really big guys in my ward!  The really nice part about it was that I didn't feel like I was exercising, it was just fun.  It was a lot of running, and I had to do it, because I was attached to 2 other people, but it was still fun.  Especially when my team won. :)

The second time I exercised this week was on Thursday after my cooking class.  I was feeling really lethargic and tired and just didn't want to do anything, but I knew I needed to walk.  So I put on my walking shoes and grabbed my iPod and headed out.  I ended up taking this really pretty bike trail for a ways that ran by a creek - I never knew that St. George had bullfrogs, but apparently there is like a million in this little creek off of Sunset Boulevard and Dixie Drive.  On the way back home I took a dirt trail next to a canal and then back up the hill to my house.  The next day I plugged my route into Google maps and found out I walked 3 miles!

I really need to get serious with this.  My favorite pair of jeans wore out this week and I had to go shopping for new ones and it was the most depressing thing I have ever done.  I should have more time after this week - I'm having my house warming party tonight so I won't have as much pressure to get things done like I've had in the past.

Two points of news: 1- I'm going to do my weigh-ins on Saturdays now.  I was only doing them on Sunday the last two weeks because I had to work on Saturday.  2 - I'm getting real internet on Tuesday, so I should do a much better job of keeping this up to date!

-M-

Week 2

Okay, so not the best week ever.  I did loose, but not as much as I would have liked.  I lost .8 pounds.  But heck, a loss is a loss!

I have a couple of things to work on for this next week. First of all, I didn't do any walking this week, I only did my back exercises.  Those are great and necessary, but not exactly an exercise that is going to make the fat melt off my bones.  So I want to go walking at least once this week.

Secondly, I don't think I did much as far as portion control goes.  I think I ate pretty much what I wanted to.  So another goal for this week is to watch what I eat and how much I eat.

-M-

Taking Care of the Back

It's been a year since I had my last spinal injection!!  I'd like to keep it that way, so something that's going to be part of my regular workout routine is going to be the exercises my doctor gave me to strengthen my back.  But I was thinking, since back problems are not unique to myself I thought I might share a couple of these exercises with you all.

First of all, we have the Wall Sit.  These are my least favorite of all my back exercises, but also they seem to make me feel like it's an actual work out.  They don't look hard, but they use a lot of muscles.  Basically, you stand about 2 feet away from the way, then lean back into it, and then slide down until your knees are at a 90 degree angle while contracting your abs.  Hold it for about 20-60 seconds and then stand back up.  Repeat 5-20 times, depending on how much you hurt.

I don't know why this helps your back other than it's just a general core strengthening exercise.  The stronger your core is the less likely your back is to move in ways that it shouldn't.  Right?  That's just a guess on my part.

I tell this to everyone that knows about my back problems: DON'T HURT YOUR BACK!!!  It royally sucks.  To this day I do not know what I did to my back, but I lost a year to it and I'd rather that be all.

-M-

A New Beginning!

Okay, it's not the beginning.  It's a New Beginning!

On my post yesterday I said that I wasn't going to weigh-in until two weeks from then, but then I got thinking about why I wanted to wait that long and I decided it was because I was afraid of the scale and I wanted to do a lot of walking and eating right before I did that.  Basically, I wanted to loose weight so that I'd feel better about loosing weight . . . 

Make sense??  Yeah, it didn't make a lot of sense to me either.

So this morning I pulled out the scale . . . and I ran away and hid for a while.

But then I came back and weighed myself and it wasn't as bad as I thought.  I weighed 300.8 pounds, which means I didn't gain all the weight back I had lost.

So, for all you new folks out there (and myself) let’s go over the rules once again.  According to this blog’s first post the rules are:

“Each time I work out (gym, swimming, going for a walk or hike etc) for 20 minutes or more I earn one download on iTunes.  Each pound I lose I earn $1 towards new clothes.  However, if I gain weight, each pound I gain will result in $1 lost in that account and if I don't work out at least twice a week I will loose one of my iTunes downloads.” 

I’ve decided to start the iTunes count over again, but I’m going to keep the $1.80 that I would have earned if I had gained the weight back while actually blogging.  

Hiking

Yeah . . . remember that whole new excuses thing?  Well, I came up with a lot of excuses and low and behold I did not do very well.

I'm all moved into my new house (all except the unpacking and a few other odds and ends), and now I need to get off my but and get back to not leading myself to an early grave.

Last week I actually did pretty well - I went for a walk on Friday night, Sunday morning and Monday night!  My Sunday walk was actually more of a hike than anything.  I left my house without water or my cell phone (bad idea) and with no clear plan.  I live in the shadow of an odd shaped bluff that many mistake for a volcano (not actually a volcano, in the picture below it's the hill underneath the moon).  When I bought my house I decided that I had to make it to the top of this peak.  I had attempted it once before, but it was getting dark and I had to turn back before I got stranded.

Well, last Sunday I woke up ridiculously early for a girl that has 1pm church.  So off I went and before I knew it I was at the beginning of the trail for this hike.  I had lots of time on my hand, so I figured I might as well see how far I can get.

The first part of the hike is not bad.  Rocky and a little steep at times, but nothing hard.  The first part of the hike takes you up between the faux volcano and the Airport Bluff (so named because it has the St. George airport on it.) - when you get to the top of this the trail splits, one going to the volcano and the other to the top of the Airport Bluff.  I chose to keep going - I knew it would be steep, but I'm not sure I really understood.  YIKES!!

I made it to the top without incident.  Towards the very top it wasn't really a hike anymore it was more of a "free form lava rock scramble."  I was scared, but by the time I got to that point I felt I had come too far to go back.

The view from the top was incredible!!  I could see Green Valley, Santa Clara and Ivins to the West, Snow Canyon and Highway 18 to the North, and Downtown St. George to the East.  It was great!  The hike down was scary and I actually fell at one point.  I have a huge bruise that I wish I could show off, but alas, it would be fairly inappropriate to show it to others.

Okay, so I'm going to start blogging again.  I'm planning on weighing-in in two weeks and then starting over on all tracking.   Wish me luck!

-M-