Weight Loss Wednesday

Well... I am not wanting to do this... so it will be short and sweet... no pounds lost this week.. but did not go up either... and my muscles are killing me. Did a bunch of hiking.. lots of hills.. and ... did some resistance type stuff with my legs... oh wow... ouch. Not hurting as bad today as I was the last two days... which I am sure means I need to do more today and really push it push. I also need to drink more water.. a LOT more water. I did not walk on the treadmill at all this last week :(

This coming week... drink drink drink a LOT of water.. and walk on treadmill!

weight 237

Weight Loss Wednesday

I know it is Thursday...but for some reason my days of the week have been off all week.. which makes for a really long week at first.. then it is over before I am ready.

I started off this year doing Weight Loss Wednesdays (first post here) and I did good for a few weeks.. then the focus started slipping.. and I had a horrible week and well.. sitting down to write about a horrible week was hard.. so I did not do it... and now I know.. that is when I SHOULD have done it more than the good weeks. I got to a place where I was not losing any more weight.. and it was getting easier to have a little extra at a meal.. or an extra snack..and I was hating the treadmill.. since it was not working... and well it snowballed.. and here I am getting back on track.

Summer should be easy time for this.. so many fresh fruits and veggies.. which I LOVE.. and we are outside all the time... even though the weather was better in February than in June this year :( Thankfully I was born and raised here in Washington and I am used to it raining ALL the time.. I am also far from sweet enough to melt... so outside we go. We have found geocaching... which is wonderful in so many ways... really gets us outside doing things... lots of caches are hidden on some really great trails... because of geocaching we have found several great hiking areas right near our home... and this last week we have been exploring them... our plan is to go at least three times a week. These are hilly trails.. hills that go straight up and down... trails from a mile to about 5 miles. The one we did the other day.. we kept up a good pace and had a good workout. We out hiked our teenagers too. Good for us.. bad for them.

We have a vacation planned for this summer that involves a lot of hiking (and geocaching) in hopefully ten different states... and we picked the top ten hilly states.. so we ( ALL ) better get in a lot better shape before then. Not only will it be hilly.. but I am expecting some of these places to be well over 100 degrees :( I will be hating the heat.. and I am sure complaining loudly, I want to be sure my hill climbing muscles are not doing any extra complaining.. as I am sure I will be testing everyone's last nerve as is. I will be bringing the Advil for my shoulder ( it hates all hiking) and that will help with any sore muscles too..sure wish there was a pill for the heat. Hmmm now that could make someone rich.

So here I am.. back on track... back to posting on Wednesdays (from here on out) no matter what!

Goal is to lose 15 lbs by August 27th (ten weeks) That is 1.5 lbs a week... with vacation coming I am sure I can do this.. always seem to lose weight on vacation.. without even trying.

Will be eating a lot of fruits.. veggies.. and drinking a LOT of water. Will be walking on the treadmill... at least 3 times a week.. and good serious hikes in the woods at least 3 times a week. Will also be working on some targeted muscles with some different exercises and want to start using the wii fit more often.

Starting weight 1/5/10 ~ 262 Weight today ~ 237 total weight loss ~ 25 lbs with @50lbs to go

Emmy's Sugar Frog

I love frogs... .. used to have a collection.. but.. there are only so many things one can collect. While we were out geocaching we saw this beautiful frog attached to a travel tag so we just had to take it and check it out. Turns out it it is Emmy's sugar frog and has a sweet tooth.. it wants to hop around from cache to cache... having it's photo taken while having a dessert :) When we read that.. we knew we had found the right travel bug (frog) for us to move along.

Last night I decided to make some cookies and I remembered that Emmy's sugar frog was visiting us and I thought he might enjoy making some cookies... from what I had heard I knew he would enjoy eating some cookies. So I gathered up all the supplies on the counter and set him there to watch. Right away he hoped into action and was making sure everything was mixed well.

Then we had to get it all patted down in the pan and nice and even. (yes we ALL washed before helping)

I did make the mistake of opening the chocolate up so it would be ready when the cookies were done baking.. lol came out to find this.

here the cookies are... out of the oven and ready for chocolate... from the look on Frogs face I am not sure I was moving fast enough.

Wouldn't you know it... he went right for the one with chocolate on it.

Emmy's frog also helped make some brownies

And some blue berry muffins while visiting.

We had a lot of fun with this frog and had thought we found the perfect cache to drop it in.. one that belonged to a little girl named Emmy.. but.. we had no luck getting in touch with the owner.. and then we noticed that the cache seemed to not have any activity so we decided to keep looking... found a well maintained cache close to home on the perfect trail for a frog so last night while out hiking/caching with the kids we left it there to continue on it's journey. We look forward to watching and seeing where this special, fun frog will go next :)

~Michelle

recipe for these cookies (in thumb print version) is on my other blog, Coffee, Tea and Recipes. Only difference would be instead of making into little balls.. just spread in a pan and bake until edges are brown.

recipe for the brownies and the muffins can be found in Chelle's Kitchen too :)

Testing

just a quick little post to see if blogging is possible from my phone. So far it appears as if it will work....maybe not not the best way or easiest...but it does seem to work :)

FTF and Deer

I am sick.. horribly sick... spent all day yesterday in bed.. and today I had the same plan... but... we are so addicted to geocaching right now.. and have it set up so that as soon as a new one is hidden it alerts us... that way we can be FTF (first to find) which all in all is not a HUGE deal.. but... ok it is :)

There is a little something exciting about being on the hunt for something no one else has found yet... there are so many different things about geocaching that I love. I love being outside.. I love that it is something I share with my family.... my parents my kids and even my sister and her family....I love meeting new people who do this... I love searching for the "treasure" and I love the challenge of the harder ones... even though they can be so very frustrating at times. I love all the history about our local area that we have learned since we started geocaching... it has taken us to places we drive by everyday and had no idea that they were there.. and had not even thought about them having a history. Learned that we drive over a 300 acre island that was man made by a few guys back in the early 1800's... every time we leave the island or come home.

Today I was laying in bed being sick.. and hurting from laying in bed... and then two caches were posted just down the road from here at the state park. We spend a fair amount of time at this park and know it well... both of the caches looked to be easy ones... so I threw on some clothes and headed out.... I was able to nab both of them easily. The First one is on a trail that a lot of people walk on... I got some funny looks standing in the woods but... oh well... I am pretty used to that... and then the second one.. there were no people on this trail.. but.. as I came around a corner.. a big deer jumped straight up about 5 feet and into the woods about 10 feet.. she just stood there watching me... so very beautiful... I got the cache and then headed back to the car.

While I was driving home I noticed what I thought was a dog... walking around in the road.. I slowed way down.. and as I got closer I could tell it was not a dog.. it had long skinny legs and was oh so wobbly... it was so sweet... I looked around for a mommy deer... but did not see any... I was watching as the baby was wobbling in the road.. crossing my fingers it would move a bit faster to the woods.. and then it laid down.. right in the road... .. about 3 feet from being safe... so I pull over and turn on my blinkers... with the way the sun and shadows were playing and how small this little guy was.. I knew I could not just leave him here.. .. being on state park property.. I called the state park and they sent a ranger down... he moved the baby (he used towels) into the woods a little bit and will keep checking on him to be sure the mom shows up and takes care of things. It was so hard not to touch the baby deer.. to be that close... oh he was so sweet.... some of him was still wet.. as if he had just been born.... beautiful.