Heh, I'm posting on my blog.... that should surprise whatever former readers of mine must have surely written me off by now.
Catching up:
That "inspirational talk" went well, I guess. I enjoyed it myself, anyway. I didn't plan a bit of it, except to take my backpack. I just told about my trip, off the top of my head. My audience seemed to like it .... they seemed to be paying attention, laughed when I said something funny, said "Ooh" when I described something that had been difficult, were impressed when I showed how I just swing my backpack up over my shoulders. Afterwards, they gave me a big golf umbrella, since a couple of them had been reading my trail blog and liked the story about getting caught in a rainstorm and then changing my clothes in a shelter full of men.
What else, since I've updated on anything at all in my life?
Well.... Steve and I have moved in with my mother. No longer RV-ing full-time, for now. I don't feel comfortable anymore with her living by herself. Also, staying here, we are handy to help our son Jon with the care of his daughters. It feels strange to be living in a house. We have our own "apartment" -- a bedroom, a small room we've made into a living room, and a full bath. We share the kitchen, usually eat dinner as a family, the three of us.
I lost 20 pounds in my three months of hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I've gained it all back. It was inevitable.... in real life how could I keep off the results of hiking 15 miles over mountains day after day carrying a 30-pound pack? Even training for SavageMan I gained.
I'm a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, and last week I started going to meetings again. Cutting back on my food has been a shock. I've managed to pull it off about 3 days out of the 7. I don't think I'll have any loss to show at tomorrow's weigh-in. Next week I'll try for 4 days. I just don't have what it takes to suddenly start eating 18 "Points" worth of food a day when I've been piling it in. Yeah, 18. Based on my height, age, gender, and overall activity level (this means all day, not just a workout), that's my base. Now, this is the equivalent of maybe 1200 calories and I'll tell you what, that's not enough for me, small though I am. Well, everyone has 35 optional "Flex" points per week that can be eaten or not, wherever and whenever. I've tried using these to up my daily allotment to 20, then 22. Still not able to stick to it day after day. We also get extra points for exercise, and I use those to the max. But I'll tell you what, I'm still hungry. I'm thinking, we're all different, which is worked in by allowing for age, height, gender, activity level, etc., but I may simply need more food than someone else of my same age, height, gender, and activity level. So I'm going to bump it up to 25 points a day, which comes out to roughly 1500 calories, and see what happens.
That's enough for one post. Thanks for reading!
