Week 36 & 37: Thanksgiving!

I haven’t posted in two weeks. I was really anxious for the Thanksgiving holiday and I am really grateful it is behind me. It is difficult to imagine anything worse for a weight loss journey than an entire day devoted to eating. After last week’s weigh in I decided to wait until Thanksgiving was over to post. I spent countless hours planning my Thanksgiving week. My best friend from college was scheduled for a C-section on the day before Thanksgiving, and I wanted to see her and her baby girl. I know that eating right on road trips is not easy – so that, combined with Thanksgiving, no gym access, and limited time, meant I would post either a low number….or no number at all. My goal for the week was to not GAIN anything.

Success….kind of. I still wanted to lose 2-3lbs. I ALWAYS want to lose 2-3lbs, so this was kind of a blow for me. However, I am in the middle of the holiday season and this was not an easy week, eating or exercising. I did fairly well with what I ate – but part of the problem is that I traveled on my low carb days, and not eating carbs while traveling takes more willpower and sacrifice than I was willing to give. I did not eat any pumpkin pie (yeah!) but I may have had a little too much chocolate..

I drove home on Friday, made a detour to pick up a ½ off basketball at Sports Authority, and made it home in time to pick up my bike from the shop, learn a little zumba, and shoot hoops with my roommate. I woke up the next morning knowing I needed to go on a hike, but not super excited for the lonely trek. I decided to hike South Mountain because I am familiar with it, but I took a different trail. I have wanted to do an 8 mile hike for WEEKS but I just couldn’t seem to get there. 7.2 miles, 7.5 miles, 7.6 miles, but I couldn’t hit the 8. Just before heading down from my 7 mile hike I realized I could take a little detour, see a great view of Phoenix, and extend my hike to 9 miles. Great idea right?

I missed a turn off. I walked, and walked, and walked, and finally decided I had gone the wrong direction. I checked the tracker on my phone to see how far I had gone only to discover that it thought I was on the other side of the world. I reset my tracker, turned around, and started the trek back. 2.6 miles later I was back to the top of my descent. I was exhausted, running out of water, and so excited to be done. I decided that if my total (I added up the mileage when I found the map at the bottom of the trail) was above 11 miles I was going straight to Wendy’s. My planned hike, combined with my detour, and my mile walk back to my car, gave me a total of 13.2 miles. 13.2 miles!! AH! The best part was that I didn’t roll my ankle until the VERY end. Good gracious.

My Wendy’s bacon cheeseburger was good, not as great as it would have tasted with fries and a frosty, but still good. However, it wasn’t nearly as good as the cookies my roommate made. UGGHHH. Cookies are my arch nemesis! More than fries, or cake, or PIE, or ice cream, it’s COOKIES. I think I may have eaten my weight in them. They were delish.

Goal time. I want to be at a 75lbs loss by 12/8. I am 5.8lbs away and have less than 2 weeks to get there. It’s time to begin.