Operation mountain goat

I've had my eye on this particular hiking trail for about six months now.  I keep saying I'm gonna go do the hike, and I've asked people multiple times to come with me, but it just hasn't happened yet.

Also, I'm super out of shape so I'm a little bit afraid of this hike, since I don't know what it holds.  Is it crazy terrain?  Is it super steep?  Does it lead to the den of a hungry mountain lion waiting to devour whatever out of shape fool wanders near?  I have no clue. 

I think what I want more than anything is to just be able to go climb up that mountain like it's not a big deal.  I don't want hills and hiking to get in the way of my life.  I want to be able to hike down into the hills of Embo in South Africa and take pictures of the people in their homes and in their poverty and not worry about spraining my ankles or breaking any bones or not being able to climb back out.

So the other day I was coming home from going on a walk with my friend Tracy, and I didn't feel like I had gotten enough of a workout.  I was passing the hiking trail and I decided that I was just gonna go for it.  I was already dressed for it, which is half the battle, and I was right there.  It was time.

I started out on the trail and was relieved to find out that it's broad and pretty level.  Not tons of loose rocks, although there was plenty of loose horse poo and pretty little bursts of flowers/weeds, none of which I wanted to step on.



 

The trail is easy enough, and not too steep, but being so out of shape, it was still difficult for me.

I decided to hike uphill for a mile, and then simultaneously regretted my decision (mostly because I had to go to the bathroom) and determined to see it through (and prayed that God would put a hold on my need for a toilet.)

This was about halfway into my uphill mile.

 I may look uncertain, but I was happy to be there, and the views were totally worth it.

 Here I am at exactly one mile up, with the sun and the hardest work behind me.

It's embarrassing that this easy of a hike is difficult for me.  When Tim and I have kids, I want to be able to go on hikes like this as a family.  I want to lead by example and not just "shoulds."  I want to establish habits of a healthy lifestyle from the get go, and that needs to start now.  Time to get serious about this climb.

The Color Run strikes again

Three times I have signed up for the Color Run.  Three times upon signing up for the Color Run, I have sworn that I would be able to run the whole thing.  Three times I have failed.  But I'm not giving up.

Last weekend, Rocio and I braved the early early early early morning and headed to Dodger Stadium, where we fogged (fake jogged... it's totally a real thing) our way through a 3.1 mile course dotted with five stations of colored cornstarch that transformed our white shirts into a mash-up of different hues.

And this time there were hills.

The first two color runs we did were completely flat courses, but not Dodger Stadium.  Straight out of the gate, we were headed uphill, and my already unimpressive endurance was cut down dramatically by the onslaught of a mountain tall enough to intimidate even the hikiest of hikers.  Okay, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration.  Or maybe even entirely false.  Okay, so really it's just a normal hill, not even as steep as my driveway (which is crazy steep, for the record.), but when I get winded walking up hills, you can bet that running sure isn't gonna happen.

And then, once we had gone downhill for a little bit, there were all these switchbacks, making us go back up.  So I just stuck to the fogging on the downhill segments and trudged my way up on the torture uphill portions.  It was a pretty good system.  It got me to the end at least.

Since there had to be hills, I was extra grateful for the clouds that made the sun less brutal.  Our first color run was miserably hot.  I would do hills with cloud cover over a straight course in mid-afternoon under an unrelenting sun any day!

Oh, and I've lost 5 pounds since my last blog post. HALLELUJAH!

I WILL fully run a 5K soon.

The relaunch of Fitness K8

Nothing says TIME TO LOSE WEIGHT like ordering your wedding dress a size smaller than you currently wear.  That's exactly what I did, and I have 184 days to make it fit.  I also ordered a bridesmaid dress a size smaller than I currently wear, and I have a little less than two months to fit into that one!  Time to get back to the gym!

It turns out that I cope poorly with grief, and while dealing with the loss of my closest uncle last year, I gained 30 pounds.  Previous to that, I had put 20 pounds back on when my life got ultra busy and I was working at a place that bombarded me with food and lured my inner glutton out of hiding every single weekend.

You can imagine how defeated I feel, losing almost half of the progress I made before.  But if I sit around lamenting the current state of my body and wallowing in self-pity, nothing will ever improve.  Instead of talking about how much better I used to feel and look, I'm gonna get up and take myself back to that place.  If I lose a mere two pounds each week for the next 26 weeks until my wedding, I will be back at my lowest weight in the losing process.  Then I'll have to have that dress altered to be quite a bit smaller.

Here are some things I realize that are different about me from the last time I weighed what I do now:

1) I actually really like myself.
2) I even like and appreciate my body, regardless of the fact that it's not in the shape I want it to be.
3) There is no pressure to change myself so that any guy will be attracted to me.  I scored the best man while I was much fatter than I would like to be, and he's attracted to me even now.
4) I've lost weight before and I know what my body is capable of.
5) I know that I like to exercise and eat healthfully.

This time I believe that I deserve to look great.  I know that I'm worth it.  I don't feel bad putting myself first anymore.  I am worthy of the love I have from Tim, and I am worth the effort it takes to get healthy again.

With those things in mind, there's nothing stopping me from conquering this new challenge.

And here are the pictures I'm using for my "before" pictures. Stay tuned for the journey!