Beached Whale

Hey there-
I know I'm supposed to blog about Chloe next, but she's starting school on Friday and I wanted to wait until I could get some first day of school pics. That's my excuse.
And I have a few other summer events to discuss, but we'll get to that later.
But first, I wanted to show you this picture. 

No, let's make it bigger, get the full effect.

 

I'm so....*sigh*....SO glad I gave the camera to my sister to take this picture of me in Hawaii. Please lather the previous sentence with a heavy heaping of sarcasm. I'm not sure what I was going for in this shot. Maybe this?

Shoulda just stuck some posts in the sand and roped me off so tourists could come take pictures.
Now I have a story to tell. Once upon a time, I went to Hawaii. On that trip, my brother and sister decided to take a 13 mile hike to a secluded beach on Kauai, and my mom and I decided not to go, but instead, the day after they left, we went on the first part of the trail to a waterfall about four miles from the trail head. I made it up there no problem. The waterfall was beautiful (as pictured in this post HERE). The way back was a different story. Halfway back I ran out of water and as we started an uphill climb in the hot Hawaiin sun, I started to die, basically. A slow, agonizingly difficult death. I stopped. A lot. My mother, who is a little less than twice my age, was patient and pretended that she had to pause after a particularly difficult stretch a few times to take pictures of the same view she took pictures of 20 yards down because this point was better. She let me have some of her water. She made friends with the tourists hiking by while I gasped and trudged slowly behind her, not bothering to haste and catch up because surely she would know by now that there were precious moments left of my life, no rush hurrying them. But soon a miracle happened, the trail became shaded again and started a quick descent back to the parking lot and I made it home without my mother having to bury me in the sand and push on alone.
We made it back to the condo, I drank some water, then took a filthy two hour nap on the nice white feather comforter on my bed without showering. I barely had the energy to take off my shoes before I hit the pillow. That evening my brother and sister made it home in one piece and we all went out to dinner to celebrate our triumphant returns, mine the most triumphant of all of, course, because let's face it, I almost died. No, really. Dead. I bravely recounted how I slipped a few times on the steep rocks coming down from the waterfall and how when the sun hit and the water ran out, the temperature increased about ten thousand degrees and I bravely placed one foot in front of the other until we made it home and hey, it was no big deal, in fact, it was easy even though, you know, death was a knocking.
Later, while I was talking to my sister, I admitted, as sisters do with one another, how hard it was for me to finish that hike. I paused and turned to her and said, "I'm 26...", realizing for a moment that I am by no means too old to handle such exertion. Instead of consoling me, she nodded solemnly and replied, "The prime of life!". The prime of life. I was envious of her and Addison's trip down the Kalalau trail, because I would have LOVED to go camping with them out on a remote beach in Hawaii, and the only reason I said no was because I knew I was in no physical shape to go. And I should be.
Fast forward to today. It's taken quite a bit of work and consistency and failed attempts, but I am turning over a new leaf in life. And I am enjoying it thoroughly. I hesitate to post this yet, because I was going to wait until I meet my weight goal completely before I talk about this, but since it's become such a big part of my daily life (because really it's been a life changing decision, somehow I thought it wouldn't work that way, but of course it had to be) and I love hearing others' stories and successes, I decided to share some of my progress.

(Sorry for the weird smile) I tried to wear the same clothes, and this is (obviously) just from my phone, but there's some improvement there. 20 lbs of improvement, actually. 50lbs is my goal, and I'm still rolling, but I feel much better, much stronger, and TONS more energy. At the beginning of the summer I was starting to worry that something was wrong with me because I felt like I had to take a nap every afternoon. I don't feel that way anymore. I can take care of things around the house without feeling like I ran a marathon at the end of the day. And I enjoy dressing myself in the morning, that's a big thing for me. Before I hated just about every piece of clothing I had, but my wardrobe and me are friends again. 

Some things that are helping me: 

• My Fitness Pal app on my phone: I can track my calories every day and add in the exercise I've done as well. 
• Track-o-meter from runningmap.com (another app): I start it when I start my run and it tells me how far I've gone and how long it took me to do it. I can also see a map tracking where it was that I ran in case I forget. :-) 
• My stationary bike from Schwinn. LOVE it. Also tells me how far I biked, how long it took me to do it, at what average speed, and how many calories I burned. 
• My brand new Mizuno running shoes. I was in denial about getting a new pair of shoes, but it makes SUCH a difference, and in the end I decided a new pair of shoes was less money than paying for an injury. 
• My dearest friend Alli Howe for being an inspiration to me and showing me that eating healthy really does make a difference. Check out her blog here, we are making all kinds of changes as a family and this has totally helped spur some ideas for adjusting a piece at a time in getting out of the "crap trap". Don't Panic Mom!

My easy-going schedule is pretty much going to flop on itself next week as I start teaching seminary (YIKES!), Chloe starts school, and we welcome two adorable babies into our home to help out some working mom friends. I have a tentative schedule for workouts and running, and I'm hoping it will work out, but I supposed we shall see how it all goes.
Anyway, I have some hungry kids here waiting patiently for a snack, so I better get going. I'd love to hear tips and stories from anyone who wants to share!