Teresa's Ponderings

 I missed a week. Not sure if anyone noticed 😉. Last Thursday we were driving home from the North Shore, so I didn't make it to my meeting.  I am SO proud of myself. I am proud that I resisted Easter candy. I'm proud that I went on vacation and managed to not eat ANYTHING I shouldn't have. I said no to ice cream. I said no to some fantastic looking desserts. I was even able to avoid eating dinner at the "typical" dinner time because we had a late lunch and I just wasn't hungry.  I am SO proud of that last one. I said no to eating a meal. I didn't need it, I wasn't hungry, and somehow I still survived to see breakfast at a regular time!  I just got a Fitbit. I'm excited to see how it changes my attitude towards movement. I've noticed that I'm pretty content to sit around lazily until it's time to go workout. Seems counterproductive, so my new goal is to move as much as possible all day. We'll see how that goes. I'm up to 4 miles

 I knew this was going to be a bad week. I made poor choices and then mentally shrugged my shoulders and said, "Well, you've screwed up this week, why bother?" That was Saturday. I had 4 more days in front of me. I still worked out, but by Tuesday afternoon I was over myself. I made better choices and got back on track.  At weigh in this morning I was nervous. I expected a gain, but hoped it wasn't too bad.  Praise God, I stayed exactly the same. <whew> I will get to continue my streak of 6 weeks of not gaining weight which was a HUGE morale boost. THEN we had monthly awards. 😊 I won $7 and was last month's biggest loser! Woohoo! This is exactly the encouragement I needed for these next couple weeks. We are taking a short trip to the North Shore and it would be easy to slip into vacation mode and eat/drink whatever I want.  Non-scale victories this week: Fitting into my old running bra. And I can even breathe in it!  Fastening my current bras on the smalles

 I have dreams so big they don't feel like they will ever come to fruition. Anyone else? Occasionally the thought of these dreams/goals seem so out of reach they depress me into an eating spiral. Absolutely ridiculous.... This past week these dreams were my fuel. They fueled my drive towards being healthier.  A little backstory: I've always loved hiking. I love just being in the woods and soaking in the trees, dirt, and even the bugs.  I've never been one to shy away from hard things. Need a piano moved? I'll jump right in. Want to dig up your yard? Throw me a shovel. I've always stepped up to a challenge and wouldn't let it beat me.  Enter the fall of 2016 when Curt and I both felt God stirring us. We had been "collecting" hiking/camping/backpacking gear for a couple years and doing quite a bit of hiking whenever we could, but never with any goal in mind.  The fall of 2016 we knew God was creating a desire in us, a sort of longing for the Appalachian