2 Weeks of Celebration

After last meeting's slight gain I was determined to stay the course. I didn't want to get down and depressed over a .2 gain, which could be contributed to so many things, but especially the salty dinner I had the night before, and I didn't want to throw my current progress away because of a week long canoe trip, which would have been easy to do (Can you say, "s'mores?"). I'm working hard to build a lifestyle that I can sustain. That's important to me. Extreme food restrictions and radical exercise isn't feasible. 

It was a windy, cold start to our trip, contrary to what this picture shows. Thankfully, this portion of Birch Lake was protected. We used our backpacking gear and went with a backpacking mentality with food also. Next Mile Meals makes wonderful Keto friendly meals that I truly enjoy, so dinner was easy. I prepackaged my shakes and simply added water for my breakfast. Lunches consisted of English muffins and peanut butter and jelly. I never got tired of my choices and actually looked forward to dinner each evening. 

We broke camp every morning, just as we would if we were backpacking, and got to our next campsite around lunchtime. Only the first day did we arrive to camp a little later, but that was also our longest distance day. 

We took a short, but steep hike up to Thunder Point on Knife Lake. We passed a group of US Forest Service Portage/Trail Maintainers on the way up and the group leader took our picture when he got to the top. 

Yes, I threw that little tidbit in just to point out that I'm not in as bad a shape as I look or my weight reflects. 😁

I'm not going to give a day by day account of our trip, but it was a great time. There was lots of time for togetherness, God's word, and soaking in some relaxation. 

Every day I had plenty of exercise and I made good choices ahead of time on my food.

When we got home I continued my streak of making wise choices. I haven't been as active because we came home to sick kiddos, but I'm working hard at smaller portions and only allowing the occasional bad food choice instead of it being an every day/every meal habit. I don't NEED all the options. I don't NEED a bunch of sides or the entire steak/burger/piece of chicken. Just because a meal comes with 3 tacos it doesn't mean I need to eat them all in one sitting. It's hard readjusting my way of thinking while telling my stomach it isn't ACTUALLY hungry. It's bored.

Non-scale victory this week?!?!! I'm currently wearing a pair of shorts I couldn't get past my hips at the beginning of summer. Not only that, but I can sit and the button doesn't pop open! Yay me!

I lost 4.6 pounds since my last weigh in. I'm hoping that's a hard loss and not a result of any dehydration I may have had from the trip. I won't know for sure until the first week in August, because that's my next weigh-in.

Next week we will be home to Illinois. Curt's aunt died this week and we are needed at home. We were supposed to go on a canoe trip with the kiddos, but in the back of our minds we kind of knew it wasn't going to happen. No reason, but now we know. Please be praying for Curt's family. The losses they have suffered the last couple years feel overwhelming sometimes. 

I'll leave you with one of my morning views. I took this picture while doing my morning devotional on Ima Lake.