My blood drive.

So I think I've pretty much indicated that this has been the year of change for me.  I decided last year when I got an email in my inbox for blood donors needed that I was going to conquer my fear.  I have made an entire year now with donating on a schedule of every 8 weeks.  My next donation will make a gallon.  This is a huge feat for me and I will now pat myself on my back.  Ahh that felt great.  I am deathly afraid of needles and my veins are not an easy stick.  The employees at our local blood bank are wonderful.  They know me now so they are very gentle and baby me lol.  Yes, I like to be babied when there is needles involved.  Donating takes an hour tops and there are many benefits to it.  Here are 6 reasons to donate blood (www.aarp.org).

1.  The need is Great!!  Cancer patients are among the most common recipients of blood tranfusions  I think we all know someone who has been affected by cancer.

2.  You can donate. 

3. Older people can give blood more comfortably

4.  You may need blood at some time.  25% of us will need blood at least one time in our life.

5.  You get a FREE mini-physical.  You get your vitals taken. 

This is my recent screening card.  It's cool, I collect them on my desk at work.  Gives me that little sense of pride during the day when I see the stack of them sitting there. 

6.  It's an act of kindness and compassion.  One donation can save the lives of up to 3 people.  :)

If I can do this, anyone can.  I think about my children when fear creeps into my head.  If anything were ever to happen to those little faces or to my family and there was a need for a transfusion or any kind of blood, I know I have done my part and continue to do my part.  It's a lunch hour, and they will give you all the juice and snacks you want.  So get out there and do this! 

some more honesty...

So, in this 8 month journey I have been on...I have come to some very good conclusions.  The very first and most important one is rely solely on yourself.  If you want to get healthy, you have to cover the many facets of your life that make you unhappy.  You just don't wake up fat, sad, and miserable.  It happens over time and if you don't deal with stuff it builds and builds up to this point where you look in the mirror and don't like the person you see or you don't like what you see.  Either or, it's not a good spot to be. 

For me personally, I have some skeletons in my closet that have been hiding for a very long time and I decided it was time to drag them out and well.... beat the shit out of them.  :)  I also have student loan debt and financial burdens of kids and then that ugly 'b' word again.  Budget...I hate it but I'm working on it.  Marriage and communication also falls into that entire emotional health bit and it takes a concentrated effort to work on all these areas.  It doesn't come easy and sometimes being an adult and making adult decisions is hard.  I've avoided this realizing I was an adult bit for a long time (at least in my head).  Now that I am growing up (emotionally), I see that the denial process has created a big mess along the way.  WIP  Work In Progress. 

A huge part of my emotional health became my body.  I use to be an athlete, and years of neglect and putting myself and my needs at the bottom of my list have wrecked havoc.  I ran and skiied competitively for years, and enjoyed it.  My saving grace is I continued to exercise my entire life, I just didn't take care of myself and let my body go mainly with the poison and poor food choices I put into it.  The muscles were still trained so once I set my mind to it, it hasn't been too terrible finding my inner athlete.  Not too long ago, I had a friend tell me I wasn't an athlete...it really pissed me off.  Looking in the mirror at the time, I could see where that came from....I still didn't like the comment and I will never be told that again without standing up for myself.  It's called taking control of my life back. 

Rely on yourself.  I have learned this lesson time and time again.  Only you can be accountable for you.  The food choices you make, the drinks you drink and the exercise you do or do not do is up to you!!!  Only you can take care of you when it comes to this part.  People tell me they are inspired by my posts and ask what I do.....I can tell you exactly what I ate and what exercises I do...easy.  You have to make that decision to eat right and exercise and then YOU have to decide what is going to work for your life.  I have people that want to work out with me, I would love the company, BUT.....I will not change my routine for people anymore.  I do what I do that works for me, if you want to join me at the gym at 4:30am...see you there!  If not, don't ask me to change my time up to meet you and then cancel on me...hahaha not falling for that again.  Workout buddies are great and the accountability process it creates is awesome, but you have to make that decision that even if your friend isn't going to make it, it will not be your excuse for not going and plow forward solo.  It is a mind set that you have to be really willing to set and stick to.

What has worked for me.  I love my iphone app.....  LOSEIT
http://www.loseit.com/  (it's FREE) This application is great for accountability and tracking your food intake. (did I mention it's FREE) When you are first trying to change your lifestyle and lose, you have to create a calorie deficit to drop pounds.  It's very simple math, however this app will send you reminders and makes it very easy to do. 

This is a snapshot of the app on my phone.  I mainly use it now to track my exercise, but I will be adding my food back in shortly.  This app is very user friendly and you can use it on your computer as well. 


The hardest part of this journey is being nice to myself.  I have for my entire life not liked the person in the mirror.  No matter how much weight I lose or how I fix my hair and makeup it doesn't change this negative fact.  This can only change by helping myself.  I go to counseling and I am very proud of myself for doing so.  You should never be too afraid to ask for help when you need it.  Life is much easier with help in the areas you need help.  Do you put yourself down in your mind?  I do.  I do a lot.  I tell myself I am ugly and fat and there is a list of other things I use to say daily to myself when things were not going right.  Practice complimenting yourself and when I work out and I'm sweating and have those plugs in my ears....I'm talking nice to myself in my head.  I say I am an athlete, I am beautiful, and my body looks great.  I envision what my goals are and say those things to myself like I believe them to be the truth.  I hope this part helps someone else because I think it's a very important piece of the puzzle.  You cannot go through the motions and not believe in yourself or you are setting yourself up for failure.  Talk nice, be positive and good things will come. 

Injuries suck.

I have been struggling over the past few weeks with a bad injury.  It really reared its ugly head to the point of me limping around. It is so frustrating to get an injury when I have such agressive goals.  So, I went to a specialist about a month ago and was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis (awesome).  A sure fire sign of this injury is when you get out of bed and put your weight on your foot, you almost fall over from the pain.   A big huge BOO to this.  So I've been dealing with this very lightly.  I stopped running (almost) and switched to incline brisk walking and it really didn't help the pain factor.  I took two weeks off from exercising to see if that helped, no it didn't just made me feel like crap.  So I got back on the the kick full force last week and yesterday my foot hurt so bad it was burning when I was sitting at my desk.  It felt like a million knives were stabbing at my heel.  I made an appointment and went in and had the doctor take a look.  She ordered x-rays......

 This lovely picture shows a nice heel spur.  I thought well that explains all my pain.  NOPE I WAS WRONG.  I went to the ortho specialist at this office and it turns out that I have plantar fasciitis.  Yep, heel spur is just a calcium growth and the real problem is what the specialist told me a while back.  The underlying problem with this entire injury is the owner of the foot.  :(  Yes I fail at moderation big time.  I was told that I can continue to run, jump, exercise and will not break anything or hurt it worse...I just won't ever get better.  This really sucks.  So, I will have to come up with some new exercise routines until I can shake this injury.  Today, I biked for an hour and have a sore butt and didn't feel gratified with my workout because I wasn't dying at the end.  It's all in my head obviously so I will work it out.  My advice is to listen to your body people, don't do what I do and ignore the pain.



On to bigger and better things.....this picture featured here was a nice surprise from my husband.  He recycled an entire house of cedar siding.  This was a table he made for me out of that siding.  It was inspired by some of the Pinterest pictures that I send to him and ask him to build for me....isn't it cool???  I am feeling the love with this project of his.  :)

Scott and I put urethane on it this weekend and it gave it the aged rustic look that I was wanting.  I absolutely love it and it goes so well with my vision. 

He also made me a small table.....

This is the one that he built to go behind the couch but for now I like it as a wall table.  So talented.

I don't have anything else to add.  Have a good week. 

Salmon Salmon Salmon

Chitina, view of the silty river

Every summer we gear up fishing season.  We live approximately 6 hours (driving with kids) away from Chitina and the mighty Copper river.  This is the spot to get the world famous and also best salmon in the world.  We attempt to get our limit of reds aka Sockeye every year.  Chitina is one of the many breath taking places in Alaska.  It is known for it's beauty and deadly fishing grounds.  There are several ways you can fish some are easy fun, and the others present a great challenge.  I prefer to drink beer in a wind shelter (because it's windy and very silty sandy) while watching the fish wheel go around and around throwing fish into the basket.  The real danger in using the fish wheel is walking out to the wheel to retrieve the fish (not recommended after beer).This way of fishing is well saught out and you have to be in the know usually to get onto a wheel.  It is very hit and miss for me and never a sure deal.  The second easiest way to catch your fish is with a dipnet in a back eddie tied off in a nice riverboat with a skilled captain.  If the fish are running you are catching.  You can also sweep from the boat with a dipnet.  Sweeping is a little more technical and you risk losing your net on the rocks.  You essentially troll while dragging the net.  The most common way of fishing is dipnetting off a cliff.  Some of the best fishing holes you have to scale a rock wall with a huge dipnet and tie off with a rope.  If you fall into the Copper river, chances are you are not coming back out.  We take four wheelers out the trail and walk down to the river and hopefully catch fish and then pack them back up the mountain.  It's worth every bit of sweat and exursion.

This trail gets pretty hairy but if you can make and have the determination to fish it's FUN.  This is my boys posing for mom.  This is where the DMV closes off the trail for vehicles.

The mighty Copper River from my view as I gave up dipnetting.  :)

This is a picture of my brother in law dipnetting.  He was gracious enough to take me out night netting with him while my husband watched the kiddos at camp.  You can see this is no place for chitlins.  The green rope is tying off the net so he doesn't lose it in the deadly current.  July - 2012




This picture is from August when my husband bombed down and back in one day.  He literally fished for 5 hours and caught his limit of 40.

Okay, this next picture is me cleaning the fish in the backyard.  Call me crazy...haha....but I LOVE to clean salmon.  I am very good at it and I just love salmon.

A close up of operation Sockeye....

This cooler took two of us to lift.  This is 110 pounds of pure awesome.  My mouth just waters looking at this picture

Sushi?  Yes we did.  My hubby grabbed some soy sauce and diced up some fresh salmon for us to snack on as a wonderful treat while I was busting a move on those bad boys.  This is sushi Alaskan Native style.

My husband was pretty proud of this fillet.  I mean come on, wouldn't you be?  It's pretty spectacular!

The big huge challenge.............I had two of these going and I've used these for the last two summers and they overheat and they are a real pain in the @ss!!!   I think my face flushes just looking at this picture.

The solution!  That same brother in law I featured earlier became my hero in about 37 seconds after the first use of this monster.  This food saver I think he said was $750.00.  Worth every darn penny in my opinion.  In fact, I'm pining for one.  :)  Then there is always that well if he has one we can use...why buy one in the back of my mind.  At any rate, if you process a lot of meat this is the way to go.  It saved my life that night.

6 hours after I started filleting my first fish my end result was 110lbs of packaged pure awesomeness.

But no I wasn't done yet. 

These fish were exceptionally large and had a lot of meat on the back bone still so I canned a lot of it for sandwiches and spreads this winter...doesn't this look delightful??? mmm mmm mmmm

Well, operation Sockeye took me 9 hours in total.  I finished up around 12:30 am and I loved almost every minute of it.  I also made some blueberry jam in that time I was waiting on the pressure cooker.  It was a good harvest. 

Nothing beats this on the dinner table...nothing.   My reward. 

Outdoor Family Time





Whirlwind Life!  We have been so busy I’ve neglected my new commitment to blog.  Ooopsy. Last week, I was able to stick to my Pump workouts at lunch and my morning workouts.  I haven’t lost any weight but I don’t expect to right now doing the lifting.  I love this Pump workout because I am seeing tone in my abs and my arms.  It’s AWESOME.  

Last weekend, we had some wonderful family times.  Play It Again Sports was having a sidewalk sale and we picked up a child Kayak for my 8 year old Cody for a whopping $80.00.  We live on the river in town so floating is something we do all summer and I got a taste of kayaking this year and I love it.  Saturday we took the boys floating with just our family unit and it was wonderful.  We finished out the day at a BBQ with some of our best friends. 



Cody in his new kayak, maiden voyage!



Sunday we went out to one of my favorite spots, Angel Rocks.  I have loved hiking out there since I was in high school (over 20 years!!).  I usually try to go out there at least 3 times a year and I’ve slacked there too.  I have to say 50+ pounds heavier last year and the baby at 30lbs I about died hiking to the top.  This year, much lighter and Big D at just over 40 pounds was much easier on me.  Mind you, I was still a hot mess when I got to the top and I did have to stop to calm my heart down on the way up, but I made it and I felt great.  We were pleasantly surprised at the caves to find a plethora of blueberries!  I unloaded the D and we had brought containers with us and we picked berries for about an hour.  I welcomed this break and felt refreshed and my mind rested after just relaxing in nature doing something I love with my family.   We left with a gallon of berries.  Saweet!!  After eating lunch together at the bottom, we loaded up and headed on up the road to Chena Hot Springs.  Google this place, it’s amazing.  We swam with the kids and the adults took turns soaking in the natural outdoor hot springs. I might add the soak was appreciated after hiking 3 miles up and down a mountain with the D on my back! What a fabulous day.  I love it when I get the natural therapy of God’s creation surrounded by my family.  This is the best part of living in Alaska.  It really does surprise me that people live oblivious to their majestic surroundings up here.






The D and I on my ascent up to the caves at Angel Rocks






My family unit on top of the world!




My silly boys outside the caves






Berries



That's a gallon of berries ready to go in the freezer



Scott, Christopher and Dalton swimming after our hike






Now back to the Kayaking….we have two boys very close in age which means I’m gonna talk about Christopher the middle child syndrome kid.  He absolutely wanted a kayak after he saw how his brother navigated the river.  I predicted this and made arrangements with his auntie and uncle to buy him one before the sidewalk sale ended for his birthday.  He didn’t know this and on the way home from the Hot Springs started his whining and crying bit about how he was never going to get a kayak.  His dad told him to think positive and maybe there would be one when we got home.  





Elated!  His Auntie Kim and Uncle Jesse are his heros right now. 



So, Scott took the boys out Tuesday evening on Christopher’s maiden voyage.  This is where I will end this update.  We are river rats…but at least we are making the best of our short summers here in the Banks.  J  Food updates to come soon with pictures. 




Christopher navigating the mighty Chena River on his maiden voyage.



Morning Bliss.

So, I actually woke up at 4am ready to go this morning which is 15 minutes earlier then what I set my alarm for. I busted it pretty good at the gym. I've cut back on my evening workouts because I just don't feel like it at night right now. Summer is so short here. I'm going to show you a picture of me all sweaty after a typical 1100+ calorie burning morning. Do I enjoy these pictures? NO! Why am I posting them to cyberspace you may ask...because I want you to see that I am just an average person with a goal. Yes, I earned every stitch of that T-shirt I'm sporting, and I wear it with pride. So here goes, me in all my morning glory! Have a great day, keep in mind it's all in your head. Anyone can do it if you set your mind to it!

The Workouts (and tips too!)

The Workouts (and tips too!)

Plan a budget....yikes.

Okay, it’s no secret that I enjoy my workouts.  I’m addicted.  They make me feel great!  I have hit this huge plateau that is driving me crazy.  I bust my ass everyday (well almost every day) and burn INSANE amounts of calories.  I’ve got that down.  From crazy cardio, to weight lifting to Shaun T’s Insanity.  I burn them and I burn them properly.  Now, that being said I struggle every single day with food.  The clean eating bit should be simple, right?  For me, I could list off a gazillion reasons why I fail at it.  What it boils down to is improper planning.

 So, I’m an accountant.  There are stereotyped accountants and then there is me.  I have horrible personal planning skills.  In fact, I hate to plan ahead.  It comes from a very messed up past but in my mind I somehow have put it in this category of if I plan ahead, I am setting myself up for disappointment.  Yes, I’m sure I can get some sort of counseling to fix that but that is definitely the number one reason I’m a piss poor planner.  I plan for something that I feel should be very successful or exciting, and when the event comes up; it doesn’t turn out as my control freak self thinks it should, and I get majorly bummed out.  To avoid the bumming, I fly by the seat of my pants on most things.  In trying to be a responsible adult, this mentality doesn’t work too well.  Anyhow, where I’m going with the entire planning bit is BUDGET.  I suck at food calorie budgets, store budgets and personal budgets for my home.  I know I suck at it, and I know how to change it.  The problem is that entire planning ahead thing bites me in the ass every time. 

Clean eating.  To be successful at clean eating, you have to plan ahead and budget your daily calories.  I was able to do it for about 3 months while I got in shape and did Shaun T’s Insanity by Beach Body.  So, knowing I conquered it before just means simply repeating that behavior weekly for the rest of my life.  UGH!  Plan out your meals and be accountable for them.  If you pack your lunch and snacks for the day, you don’t binge eat.  Look at your calories and plan accordingly.  I like protein shakes and I like fresh veggies.  That should make some of this easier on me.  The entire planning a weeks worth of dinners part sucks.  It’s just like preplanning your outfit the night before.  I can pick out something to wear, but when I get up…..me not being the shining star in the morning…..may not feel like wearing what I picked out because I just don’t feel like it.  That is kind of the same thing with my taste buds.  How do I know what I will be in the mood to eat 5 days from now??  Well I have some financial woes to back up this damn preplanning bit.  When you go to store every 2-3 days to buy dinner, you don’t just buy dinner products.  You buy more cereal or milk and fruit and this and that because you are getting low.   In the past, I haven’t had a grocery budget per say because groceries is a must have.  That being said, my grocery bill has gotten out of control, to where it interferes with other monetary areas of our lives.  The only way I can reel this monster back in is to plan out meals and go to the store with a list and stick to the list (and leave the kids at home).  This shouldn’t be rocket science, but it isn’t easy either for me.  I’ve came up with a fun idea for this next week of planning out my menu and incorporating clean eating.  I’m going use my handy dandy Fitness and Self magazines and Pinterest to make my meals at night more entertaining.  I will plan out my menu and make my meals per recipes I find and share them with you all and give you a dollar amount.  This should make it more entertaining for me, the only person that can disappointment me in this genius plan is ME.  J

Okay enough of this serious stuff.  I set a goal of making it to the gym every morning this week and so far so good.  I am a better person for getting my ass out of bed and doing this.  Shaun T has been calling my name but I have been ignoring him.  He’s an exceptionally crazy man, but I love him.  Reading through Pinterest fitness section only leads me back to Insanity.  All the exercises in that program are fat blasting miracle body transforming (which a lot of the exercises are pinned in one way or another just not altogether like Insanity) and I just need to suck it up and get back to the program.  I’ve managed to stick to Les Mills Pump and I absolutely LOVE it.  My arms are toning up nicely.  In fact, I have a picture of me holding a baby and I can see muscle tone where flabby cellulite use to wave hello every moment of the day.  What I love about this weight lifting program is it’s to music, it works different muscle groups and you feel the burn but it’s not so overpowering that you fall to the floor exhausted.  It can be completed at lunch which is a huge bonus for my busy life.  No I don't sell Beach Body products but I endorse the hell out of them because I have tested them and they work! 

The chest/upper body part of Les Mills, anyone can do this from home. No excuses.

A typical lunch workout for me.  Beginning of a squat following Les Mills Pump dvd



 I made this wonderful Halibut Olympia last night.  I actually ate two pieces of it, and wonder why I’m not losing on the scale. J  This halibut had butter, sour cream, mayo, red hot, Monterey jack cheese, and cheddar cheeses.  I made this recipe up all by myself.  Comfort food for the fall in July weather we are experiencing in the Banks.    I could post my recipe, but if you really want it email me because I'm not going to promote eating this way haha.  I did pair it with a wonderful tossed salad but the second piece was not necessary.  Moderation, moderation, moderation…..work in progress or WIP as us accountants say. 

Alaskan Halibut Olympia caught 7/10/12

If only I would have stuck to this nice portion...

Life is going so fast right now.  Our summer in Alaska is flying by; the time of year we want to last forever is slipping away.  Last week was really hard for me to focus on my normal routine.  Amazingly enough, I was able to get a 7 mile run in on Saturday morning with the kiddos.  Big D really handles sitting in the jogger well for long periods of time.  I think he enjoys the scenery.   The two older boys rode their bikes and followed all the traffic rules very well. 

A typical weekend run.  :) Big D is only 2 as of 4/25 and his long legs are almost too big for this jogger. 

Sunday we had a gazillion people over for a joint birthday party for my son Christopher and my niece Taylee.  I tried out another Pinterest inspired recipe.  I made a watermelon cake and it was definitely a huge hit.  I also ate far too much Spongebob cake.  My sister in law has a gift for baking and she outdid herself this time on this cake.  It was probably the best cake I’ve ever had. 



This party favorite is easy to make, just set aside some time to do it...not a quick project.



My S-I-L is uber talented.  This was the best cake and the kiddos loved it!

Today, I was back at it.  I burned over 1,000 calories this morning.  People ask how I burn so many calories.  Well first, I’m 5’9”.  Second, I’m still trying to lose weight…so the heavier you are the more you burn when you are working it.  My favorite calorie burner is hills.  If you crank that treadmill to the highest incline and increase your pace a little each week, you will burn insane amounts of calories.  I want to run again in the mornings, but my heel is giving me grief so I’m finally going to go to the orthopedic specialist and figure it out this week.

It's all in your mind.



My Goals this week are to restart Insanity for the 4^th time and stick to it all week, and not miss one day at the gym.  I have noticed a huge difference in my appearance with the added weight lifting.  Les Mills Pump is the bomb.  My stomach is noticeably flatter and I can see muscle tone in there which I haven’t seen since my hard core athlete days (a long long time ago).    So my persistance and dedication are starting to show and I can appreciate that.  Here's to a healthy, beautiful day.

Pinterest, love it and I'm never disappointed

Okay, so I’m easily sucked in to the crazes I see on Facebook.  I now am a regular on Pinterest.  I absolutely love this site.  I scan the food, health, and do it yourself sites.  LOVE IT.  I finally decided to put my pins to the test last night and man oh man….DELICIOUS.  I made the Monterey Jack Chicken and Sweet Potato Wedges along with a salad.  Sweet Potatoes seem to be the new big deal in health food.  They have been around on holidays packed with brown sugar and marshmallows forever.  I have never been a huge fan of them but after reading in Fitness magazine and various other places their nutritional value to your diet, I decided to give them a whirl and I love them.  We all loved them.

Here’s the 411 on Sweet Potatoes: 

1.  High nutritional Value-1 cup provides 65% of your daily dose of vitamin C, they are also high in calcium, folate, potassium and beta carotene.

 2.  Sweet potatoes have low glycemic index of only 17 (doesn’t spike your blood sugar). 

3.  Good for your skin..many skin products use beta-carotene  which helps with skin aging

4.  Sweet potatoes are high in potassium, so they can help alleviate muscle cramps.  When you are stressed, your body uses more potassium so eating sweet potatoes can help from the negative health effects of tension

5.  You can grow these things EASILY in your garden

Okay enough of the Sweet Potatoes 101…just thought I’d share how great they are for you.  I got the educational bit from the web.  www.naturalnews.com  I’m very resourceful when it comes to researching things out and I will try my best to note my sources as I share things. 

Sweet Potatoes
I cannot find the pin on this one..I will update link later

Okay, the other thing I made was Monterey Jack Chicken.  This recipe was sinfully good.  My kids loved it.  In fact, it’s what I’m eating for lunch today.  J  I will provide the links for the recipes if you are interested. 

Monterey Jack Chicken
http://pinterest.com/pin/5488830766499745/

I had every intention of doing a 6 mile run and the Les Mills abs last night…it was a no go.  I spent some quality time with my husband and no children (this never happens).  Like I said, some sacrifices are worth it to me.  So this morning I did my killer cardio and burned over 1,000 calories.  I will do Les Mills Pump at lunch and then tonight celebrate the 6^th birthday of my son Christopher and probably indulge in some homemade chocolate cake with no run again.  He’s worth the no run, but maybe he will want to join me for a few miles on the feet.  We shall see…out for now and go ahead and try those recipes, you won’t regret it!

A little honesty....

Over this last year, I have learned to turn my negative feelings and bad stuff into exercise.  Before, I sulk or get mad or depressed and eat and drink booze and just bury stuff.  Now, the newer healthier version of me takes my shit to the gym. You would be amazed at how good you feel after a good cardio session.  I can release a lot of negative energy at the gym and absorb a lot of positive.  It's amazing what a little adrenaline can do for you.  I would be a complete liar if I said life is good and truly meant that in my mind all was good and my life is great.  Now the facebook version of me is fantastic.  I have a great life.  My children are great, my husband is awesome and life is grand.  Who the hell wants to post negative garbage to their entire friends list on facebook?  Well I can tell you who, those who are looking for attention.  It drives me crazy!  I have been guilty of posting having a bad day boohoo crap, but you and I both know it's just looking for people to feed off it.  I now make an effort to only post good.  So, life looks peachy as it should for a social networking site.  For the most part, my family and I do more than most families.  We have all boys at home.  I like to keep active and I like to show my children how to enjoy the great outdoors.  We do lead very active, fun lives but it definitely isn’t all roses.  I think it’s important since I’m on a blog to be truthful and honest about what I want to share.  I believe honestly that we are all great actors.  We have to put on our good faces because who wants to be around negative people plagued with financial, relationship, work problems??? NOT ME!  I guess the direction I will go from this point forward is just honest me. 

The last week really wore on me physically.  I had a lot of relationship issues that are quite personal that really put me in a bad spot.  Knowing that I tend to drink and overeat, I reacted quite poorly.  I didn’t exercise or eat for about 4 days.  It was incredibly hard on my body.  I went from devastation in my personal life, to camping and family fun for a good week.  This last week of traveling and enjoying the simple life with little technology and lots of bonding time led to unhealthy eating and total lack of exercise.  BIG BOO to that!  Monday was a recovery day from lack of sleep and just total body drain.  Tuesday I was back at the gym in the morning for my hour cardio in which I did all uphill on 15 incline at a brisk 4.4-4.5 walk.  I burned a lot of calories.  I went home and pumped the weights for 30 minutes and I also rode my bike to and from work.  I went to bed at a decent time, and woke up at 4:15 this morning and hit a brick wall.  My body is soooo incredibly sore and hates me for what I did yesterday after my brief sabbatical.  I didn’t go to the gym.  I hit snooze then I turned it off and decided screw that gym today I will run outside…then I fell asleep and did nothing.  In turn, I got up at 7:15 ready to strangle the first person that looked at me wrong.  I think I’ve said I’m no morning person.  I completely started my day off wrong.  Lunch is a no go for a work out, because apparently I have some issues I need to work on so I can actually be as perfect as I make myself look on Facebook  (wink).  When you have little guys at home, lunch breaks during the day are times for appointments, errands, gym etc.  Today, appointment, tomorrow who knows.  So, I guess what I’m getting at is…even though I’ve made great strides on my health….I’m a huge work in progress.  This is testimony to routine.  Don’t get too far off routine or you screw yourself.  I will now bust my ass the next 4 days to make up for Monday and now Wednesday and maybe lose weight this week.  I’m still off the booze and intend to stay that way so I’m hoping that will help my goals out.  Get into a routine, keep it.  If you can’t keep the routine, at least make healthy choices.  Pack healthy as you would eat at home, then you don’t have the bad food choices even available.  Yes, I read those fitness magazines…maybe I will actually do the picnic table stair step routines next time I’m camping…baby steps people…baby steps…. 

First week in July...great family times are worth more than the gym and health food.

Perfect fillets of salmon if I do say so myself!

Copper River Red Salmon Chitina, AK  pure awesome!



Big D getting ready to go fishing in Valdez, AK



My soon to be 6 yo Son Christopher cooked the perfect marshmellow at Fielding Lake.




 



Chitina, AK Fish Wheels on the mighty Copper River



My Dutch Oven Dinner, one of the reason I didn't lose weight this week.  ooops



Dutch Oven cooking in Chitina, can't beat it. 



Port in Valdez, AK 



Cody and Christopher on Grandpa's Boat in Valdez

 So....long long weekend.  I decided I was going to kick the booze to the curb.  It was interesting going camping with our best friends while they partied like rock stars and we drank our water and watched.  I was still very amused and enjoyed myself...AMAZING right?  My diet for the weekend consisted of Reeces peanut butter cup smores...mmm mmm mmm.  Potato chips, marshmellows, heavy pasta in the rain and breakfast made for truckers heading up the highway for days...yes all of these are staples for camping.  I did eat carrots and sweet peas DUNKED in ranch dressing made with real sour cream.  Needless to say, I didn't really exercise this last week while traveling across Alaska on our great adventure.  I did however come home with a lot of healthy fish to cook up over the next year.  So this week I will start my healthy eating all over again and exercise...tomorrow that is.  We rolled in to the house around 10:30 pm and I had to clean up puke from the two year old several times.  Didn't make my gym date this morning but I didn't beat myself up either for getting that extra needed sleep.  This is the all in moderation part and taking it easy on myself as tomorrow is another day.  I do have to give a quick shout out to the almighty watching over me and my family.  Thank you for bringing us together and allowing us to enjoy each other and blessing me with such wonderful boys.