Happy Earth Day!

When we moved to Kansas City last August, I instantly realized that I had taken western North Carolina for granted. Since moving back, I've made more of an effort to get out and enjoy this beautiful part of the country I'm so blessed to live in.

The weekend after we put Athena to sleep, we went to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and hiked the trail there. It's an easy two loops totaling 2 miles. From the USDA Forest Service site: This forest is one of the Nation’s most impressive remnants of old-growth forest. The forest contains magnificent examples of more than 100 tree species, many over 400-years-old, and some more than 20 feet in circumference and 100 feet tall.  

There are some other trails that branch off of the main trail, but we decided to go back and do those once the trees leaf out. Oh! I almost forgot! There are all these warnings posted..."This is an old-growth forest. Beware of falling limbs and trees." This is NO JOKE. We watched a tree fall not even 15 minutes into our hike. If our hearts weren't already pumping from the hike, they were then!

Canopy shot - trees just starting to leaf out

My boys

Q: Why did the Fungi leave the party? A: There wasn't mushroom. 

Trillium grandiflorum

What's (Currently) Working For Me

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd check in and discuss what's going on in my fitness and wellness life right now.

I made the decision a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to workout Monday through Friday.  When trying to figure out a way to track my goal, I stumbled upon the Way of Life app.

They call it the 'ultimate habit building app'.  It's basically an app where you add goals and track them each day.  Right now all I have on there is "exercising".  I figured I'd make this easy on myself until I built up momentum so I define exercise as some kind of physical activity.  Brisk walking works.  Squats, pushups, and crunches work.  As long as it's something.  This app keeps me accountable...if I don't exercise, I have to log a big fat red X for that day.  Not fun.  It also made me realize I missed working out on Tuesdays a lot.  Why?  Because Zaxby's (casual fast food restaurant) gives a discount to employees where I work and I tended to choose that over working out.  So I made a conscious decision not to go there anymore.  Go me!  I also changed my schedule so that I eat part of my lunch at noon and then go workout at 1:00pm so I can watch The Chew while exercising.  Hey, don't hate...it's what gets me through.  :)

Thanks to my sister, I started using Lose It again.

This blog post has a pretty good review with lovely images.  I loved their app when they first started and now that they've made their website more 'social', I've rekindled my relationship with Lose It.  I've tracked my food and exercise for several weeks now and it's all thanks to their challenges.  I'm doing two right now:

1. No Miss November where you aim to log the most days between November 1 and November 30.
2. Holiday Move It & Lose It where you aim to log the most days between October 31 and January 1.

Honestly, I don't think I'd be tracking as well as I am had I not joined these challenges.  I signed up for Weight Watchers a couple of months ago and did I log?  Nope.  Not even knowing I was wasting all that money.  Give me a couple of challenges and some badges and the competitor in me comes out!  I'm kind of scared what will happen once the holidays are over and/or I get really busy.  I'm hoping I will have made tracking such a habit that I continue to do it.  Or that I've seen such great results that I continue to do it.  Only time will tell I suppose.

Unfortunately, When I weighed myself this morning I hadn't lost any weight...but nor had I gained!  I've decided to go another week with what I've been doing and if still no change, I'll mix something up in my diet/exercise routine to see if it helps.  Here it is in all its glory:

There's a two year period where I obviously wasn't using Lose It.  My starting weight was weight gain from right after my wedding when I went crazy with the food and no exercise.

Anyway, that's what's working for me.  Come join the party and be my friend on Lose It!

 

Let's Get Physical!

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I received an email from a great friend saying, "Hey, wanna do the 30 Day Shred and Turbo Fire with me for the month of July?"  Uh, YEAH!

I've come to the conclusion that Weight Watchers is just not for me.  I just can't do the tracking thing.  I know it's important, but I just can't bring myself to do it. 

Our schedule is M, W, F 30 Day Shred, T, R, S Turbo Fire with Sundays off.  So far so good.  I missed a couple of days when we were traveling for July 4th, but I've since made them up.

Want to join us?  It's never too late!  

Keep those appointments

Well, I've done some thinking.  I have another blog where I was posting about my workout and weight loss adventures.  Except that it was boring and I didn't keep up with it.  So I've decided to just detail my "adventures" here.

First off, I joined Weight Watchers.  I've heard lots of great things about this program and I saw it first hand the first week when I lost 2 pounds.  Unfortunately, the second and third week I gained some back.  Disheartening and annoying to say the least.

I started Turbo Fire again and the first week was great; felt like I really put my all into it.  I have noticed two things with weeks 2 and 3:

1. Time management - I have a difficult time getting up in the morning to workout and on that same note, I also find it difficult to do it at the end of the day.
2. Energy - I don't have the energy in the morning to really put my all into it.  I can also say the same thing about my evening workouts.

This post was going to be much longer but I cut a bunch out.  Why?  Because I feel like I whine about this all the time.  The solution is simple!  If you want it bad enough, you'll do it.  It's all on me...no one else.  I can't complain about not feeling/looking my best when I don't put the work in.  Life isn't a cake walk...it's going to take some effort on my part.  :)

Here are the solutions I came up with for my two issues:  

1. I am making an appointment with myself at 5am.  Made my appointment this morning.  I wasn't late and I didn't cancel!  *I've officially done 3 morning workouts!*
2. Uhhhhh...the solution to this one is to get your advice.  :)  What do you do to boost your energy before a workout?  I have no energy in the morning but I can't eat a full meal right before a workout.  Banana?  Clif Bar?  Toast?

I love my little town.

I said to my husband this morning, "It's days like yesterday that I really love where we live."  He agreed.

Yesterday was the 15th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival.  From downtownsylva.org: "This annual spring festival, named for the way the “spring green” creeps up the mountainsides, began as a celebration of Earth Day and has now evolved into a celebration of our local economy, sustainability, and traditional heritage crafts."

Sadly, in my 6 years here, this was my first year partaking in the celebration.   We started with the Greening Up the Mountains 5k where we got these awesome shirts:

We then headed over to the festival where we entered a raffle to win a 55 gallon rain barrel...and WON!  I'm so excited.  The trash can rain barrel we made just didn't hack it.  In fact, last weekend it busted up the side so we were in dire need of a new one.  I'll post pictures later when we have it set up.  In the meantime, here are some other pictures from the GUtM festival:

I wasn't quite sure what to think of this rack(?).  And they had several.  I giggled a little bit.

 Lunch was YUMMY!  Indian fry bread topped with lots of yummy stuff.

Doing my part to save the planet.  Are you doing yours?

We couldn't leave without getting some kettle corn.  :)

This used to be the county courthouse until a new building was built several years ago.  They recently did a major renovation and now it's the public library.  It's amazing in there.  Especially compared to where the library used to be housed.

I had to get a picture of this beast.  His name is Jake.  His brother Elwood was at home.  He's the biggest pitbull I've ever seen.  

That night we went out to Soul Infusion aka "The Tea House", hung out with friends, ate good food, listened to some jam bands, and sampled some great brews out of Tuckaseegee Brewing Co-op's kayakerator.



Here's to good times and great friends.

Good news & bad news...

Had a bone scan on Monday.

Nurse to Nicole: Now make sure you continue to drink lots of fluids & empty your bladder often.  The radiation is excreted through your urine & we don't want the radiation sitting in your bladder next to your ovaries.
My thoughts: Greeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaat.

Remember my hip MRI?  They had to take x-rays while they were sticking the needle into my hip joint to inject the dye.
Nurse to Nicole: Now, because of the nature of where this is, we're not going to be able to protect your ovaries. (by placing a lead thing on my belly)
Nurse proceeds to take 5 million xrays while they place the needle in my hip.
My thoughts:  Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaat.

At any rate, I got the results today and I don't have a stress fracture, but it's on its way there.  I'm to only do swimming or cycling type exercises for two weeks.  After two weeks I can test it out slowly and if I feel any pain, stop.  The doc said 1 month at first but then saw my reaction and switched to two weeks.  I have another follow-up with him in a month.  At least now you won't have to listen to me complain about my ankle all the time.  :)

You are beautiful

Isn't it funny how one (me) feels they need to lose weight to wear workout clothes??

We struggle with this type of issue at work more often than expected...someone's working out in questionable attire (jeans, non athletic type shoes, etc.) but do we approach them?  What if they really don't have workout attire?  We definitely don't want to discourage fitness & wellness.