TOPS Week 20

 I'm back from vacation!

We had a fantastic time. We were incredibly busy and did several new things.

Whitewater rafting being the first on the list.


The kids and I took a hike up an incredibly steep, 2 mile hill and were rewarded with zero views.


We went to the Lumber Jack Feud where we all ziplined, did a free fall, attempted a high ropes course, walked on rolling logs, and climbed a pole. It was quite the workout.

 

The kids saved their money for a couple months and played at an arcade after riding go carts. 


We hiked up Max Patch


<sigh> I just love the AT


We completed our hike into Hot Springs. We hiked just over 20 miles in about 28 hours. Our reward was a hot lunch at Smoky Mountain Diner.


We spent 2 days at Gatlinburg after our hike. Not sure I care to go back here in particular, but it was a kid's paradise. I'll stay at the towns just north (Pigeon Forge, Sevierville) any day though. 

The weeks I was away from my meetings, I hiked/walked/ran a total of 111 miles. We were super active. How did that translate into weight loss?

It didn't really. I lost .2 pounds. I truly believe this shows how important what we eat is. I allowed myself to eat fried everything. I drank sugar drinks. I even had ice cream 3 times (kid or baby sized) while on vacation. I managed to stay away from all other desserts, but to be as active as I was and only lose .2 pounds shows that you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet. You just can't do it. 

Since being home I've made changes to my diet, but I'm still not getting the number of veggies into me that I was before vacation. That's ok; I'm motivated to get back to it. 

I've begun training for my half marathon. Monday I ran a 4 mile race and was content with knowing I finished and did it in a time under what I thought I'd do it in. 

Thank you for the support you all show. We'll see how this next week goes. 😊

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 7, 2022 at 11:22 AM

    I’m with you regarding Gatlinburg (the tourist area anyway) but it’s really nice in those other towns for sure! I’m so proud of your race!! Way to go!! And finally, I’m exhausted just reading about your vacation activities!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ebert97July 7, 2022 at 12:47 PM

      We need another vacation to rest up from the vacation 😉

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Changes

Image
It's been a tough couple weeks. My main reason for writing this blog is so that I have a record of the events that occurred before memories start to fade more than they already have. Days blur together so quickly.  Sunday, November 13th we received a phone call from Curt's mom, Sherry, that she had fallen and had been at the emergency room since morning. She was being admitted into a room because she had spiral broken her femur and surgery would be the next day. It would be pretty extensive because she had a knee and hip replacement the doctor would have to work around.  Curt and I decided to stay in Ely and go down to Illinois when her rehabilitation was occuring because we could be more help then, rather than the time she would be in the hospital. The surgery was a success and everyone moved their thoughts towards what rehab would look like and possible house alterations for a wheelchair or whatever else might be needed.  But her healing wasn't going according to plan. ...
Read more

TOPS Week 14

Image
  A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law had an Instagram story that said something along the lines of, "We have normalized eating junk food to the point that eating healthy is considered dieting." This was a sobering moment for me. I pondered this thought throughout the entire day and every day since then.  At what point did normal eating: good, nutritious food, become dieting? Normalizing junk food has been a major downfall in my life. Not taking time to slice and dice my food has led to ready-made, quick fix monstrosities. These foods aren't good for my body, they only lead to heartache from weight gain, and I feel terrible continually all day, to the point that I don't want to do anything, but sit in my chair and pop a pizza in the oven and call that dinner.  It's a vicious cycle that can only be stopped by doing the things I don't want to do.  I was thinking about that this morning as I rode my bike (something I did NOT want to do) to my TOPS meeting. How ma...
Read more

TOPS Week 9

Image
  This was a pretty good week. I've had a couple of, "Ah HA!" moments along the way and thought I'd share those. Ah HA! #1 I'm so tired of having to adjust camera and chin angles because of my double chin. So. Very. Tired of it. If I don't spend time adjusting then I just don't even get in the picture. I had to force myself to take the above picture without thinking about what it might look like.  Ah HA! #2 I caught myself depriving my body of calories. In typical fashion, I can go from one extreme to another and as I came home from the gym one day, I found myself a little shaky and hungry. I could tell my body needed some calories, but I didn't want to eat for fear of weight gain. I had to shake that feeling off and force myself to be sensible. I grabbed an apple and peanut butter (sugar free) and had a snack. Big win.  Ah HA! #3 I prayed my way through some temptations and I realized I haven't been giving God the credit He deserves for His role i...
Read more