Week 35: Angel Basin

I went to bed late last Sunday (so…10ish days ag) and decided to skip my Monday morning workout to sleep. Usually if I decide to skip a morning workout it is because I am too sore, too tired, or just flat out do not want to work out (so, an excuse...), not this one. I know that sleep is important, especially if you are trying to lose weight, which is why I make sure I am in bed 8 hours before I have to wake up. I didn’t get to control my bed time on Sunday, so instead I slept on Monday. Instead of hitting the gym on Tuesday night I met Mandy at a local community college and ran/walked about a mile on the track, did the bleachers once, and suicides twice. We were going to spend more time on the bleachers but the security guards closed the track. We’ll go to a high school next time where fancy security guards with fancy bikes and fancy locks on their fancy gates don’t exist. Instead of calling it a night we grabbed Mandy’s basketball ball and shot some hoops/pretended to do drills (at least I pretended…) at the LDS Institute. I skipped the gym on Wednesday night to hang out with a friend, and did some p90x kenpo on Thursday.

So..

Monday: Physical Therapy/Personal Training

Tuesday: Track/Bleachers/Basketball

Wednesday: Morning Cardio

Thursday: Kenpo

Friday: Morning Cardio & Physical Therapy/Personal Training

I still skipped workouts, but at least I was active every day! My nutrition was…not perfect, but not awful. One of my coworkers happened to bring in bagels on my high carb day. On a low carb day those are an ABSOLUTE NO, but on a high carb day…I can justify my way into eating one….or two. I KNOW they are not good for me, but they taste good! And then you crave more. I think my total was closer to 1.5. I know I did something else I should not have done, but I don’t remember what it was. Either way, I weighed in Thursday morning at 227.2 – HIGHER than the Saturday previous. I was upset, but there was nothing I could do about it. I knew that at most I could lose 1.5 lbs.

I was excited for Saturday morning because I was going on a new hike – but approached the weigh in with some trepidation.   

So I am SURE you can imagine my absolute joy and amazement when I saw 224 on the scale!!!! What a way to start my morning!! I was not expecting a 3 lb loss, so I was quite excited. Oh gosh. So excited. I was excited and SO ready for my hike.

Angel Basin. We left for the hike at 6:30am and BOY was it cold. We drove 30 minutes to the mouth of the “canyon” and another HOUR to drive the final 12 MILES. You have to have a high clearance vehicle to traverse the climb. It was bumpy, there were sharp turns, and I felt like I was on an Indiana Jones ride the whole time.

By the time we got there the temperature had dropped (higher elevation) to 37 degrees.

My cold weather friends may not find this cold – I was frozen. I had a light jacket and was wearing capris. THANKFULLY my bishop brought extra jackets and David had an extra beanie and gloves.

After a quick prayer we started on our hike and within minutes my pants were soaking wet. The rain from the night before mixed with the morning dew on the trail vegetation created an excess of moisture for the plants – moisture that found dry capris appealing. Cold air aside, this trail is BEAUTIFUL. And the day we went was just perfect. We crossed a little river 10 times (though by the time we returned it was more of a stream), the trees were covered with orange leaves and the ground was littered with them. 

The smell of autumn was in the air and I was in heaven. This trail is PERFECT for trail running, so I did just that, for 45 seconds at a time J Hey. I’ll get there.

At the end of our 4 mile trail we climbed into some Indian ruins. Their doors were very small. I don’t know if the residents were just as small or if their doors were made that way because it was easier to build. Either way, we had fun. And the view was breathtaking.

This was such a good group and such a beautiful hike. Most of the hike was covered with trees and other vegetation - this happened to be the only open spot (and a great spot for camping!) on the whole trail. 

It is now a new week and while I am excited for Saturday's weigh in, I know I have not done as much as I could have to get a good number. I had Monday off for Veteran's Day observance and it threw me off a bit. I skipped my Monday workout and instead of hitting the gym tonight I am going to take my bike to the shop. We'll see. I am hoping for at least 2 lbs, but 3 would be nice :)

What do you do to lead an active life outside of a gym?