LadyofLayton

I am failing miserably. :/ I've pretty much just been completely ignoring all of my goals for a week or so. I quit logging my meals in MFP and I've opted for staying in and watching the entire first 2 seasons of 'Girls' instead of going on hikes. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself and I have planned on going on a hike everyday this week. I just don't. My husband hasn't been up for it either so we aren't encouraging each other. I think I've decided that I might have to dial it way down for the next challenge. Go back to basics. I need to find a way to get myself interested again. @alienjenn I am so impressed with your hiking prowess!

Not offended by the way! I find it exciting too. I think I am under the impression that most Europeans have an interest in Native American culture since it doesn't exist over there. I find it exciting too. It's thrilling to think about how the land we stood on or the mountains we looked at during the sunset, were the same exact places that my ancestors from thousands of years ago lived and survived. Though, this goes back to the stuff I was saying on your challenge thread about how here in America/Utah an 'old' building is only about 50-100 years old. There's a constant state of change here, a building gets old and they tear it down to put in a parking lot, or a new mini mall. So I really enjoy looking at the pueblo houses, knowing that my great grandfather raised my grandmother there, and now my cousin is raising her son there. Also! It's an experience trying to explain this to somebody from France. I'm realizing as I type that it must be so much different for europeans.

I had the same problem with strength training once the weather started getting nice! I hated making time for working out indoors. We have one week left yes?!

Agreed! I can't wait to go back with my husband. I'll get much more outdoor exploring done with him.

Does that mean you don't know what a Native American is?

I can not figure out how to post pictures directly to the page, do I have to upload to an image hosting site first so that I have a URL? Could somebody pm me the instructions? I feel like a doofus.

I realized that I can count my hike on memorial day! I'm 3 hikes to 6. Also I played with Ellie for half an hour last night at least!

Let's see if this works Pictures here

I've been slumping on all of my goals too. I think it's great that you're sticking with a positive attitude! Let's pull it together for the last two weeks!

I was thinking of you last night when I was about to post some! I got distracted by trying to edit the photos but I will definitely post some tonight. I remembered you saying that you thought Utah looked exotic. I was also thinking that since you're from another country(!) you might find some of the other photos I took in NM fascinating. We went down to visit my grandmother's family. My grandmother was full pueblo native american from the Ohkay Owingeh tribe. The village has been pretty well preserved over the years and I took some pictures of the adobe huts where people (my family even) still live today.

Hey Gutshot! You're doing great! I was wondering do you actually enjoy running now? I've never been a runner either and I've always assumed it was because I hate running.

I'm back from vacation officially as of Monday. I have mostly bad news. 1. We went on a nice little waterfall hike on our camping trip, not to mention tons of nature walks and little adventures looking for firewood. That's 2 hikes toward 6 I knew I wasn't going to be hiking on the trip to New Mexico. I'll just have to double up in an upcoming week. Which I'll love. I just hope I don't fall too far behind. 2. I mostly executed my meal plans the first week and a half and then went on vacation. The meal plan followed through the camping trip but stopped abruptly through my trip to New Mexico. Which is fine, I expected this to happen, now I just need to get back on it. I'll start right back up today! I'll take an A for execution and follow through for both weeks. I even planned meals with extra leftovers so my husband (who didn't come to NM with me) would have meals while I was gone. 3. So...traditional New Mexican fair is freaking delicious and also, ridiculously carb heavy. I was actually offered for one meal, tortillas and potatoes. It would have been rude to turn it down. I averaged 110 the week before I left and...150 the week I was gone. So B and D. Sigh. 4. I didn't really keep track of playing with Ellie. I think I could round it out to 3.5 hours for the two weeks combined. I probably fell short during the week in NM. So I'll say I'm 5.5 hours to 15. Which seems...impossible now. I'll just need to keep closer track now. Overall the vacation set me back, I'm aslo struggling hard to cut the carbs this week. The addiction must have bit me hard while I was in New Mexico. On the bright side! I didn't gain any weight back! I'm hovering in the 215lb(morning)-217lb(night) range. AND I had a co worker ask me for help losing weight today and commented on how much weight I had lost.

I'm back from my long vacation. It looks like you guys were busy posting some good pics and videos. I'll have to watch the videos this evening when I get home from work. I did go on a very nice hike to a gorgeous waterfall on our camping trip. I don't have any pictures of the hike since the hike down into the waterfall was very steep I opted to leave my camera in the car. I went to New Mexico this week as well. I went with some older, out of shape family members so we didn't do any hiking but, I'll tell you what, As soon as my husband and I have some extra money we are going back to southern Utah for hiking. It's jaw dropping, amazing out there. The landscape is just outrageous. I'll try to post some pics here or on my challenge thread when I get home.

I'm only doing okay :/ I haven't gone hiking yet this week and my awesome hiking trip that was planned for Sunday was cancelled due to heat and beer.

Thanks Fonzico. I'm a little down today, we went on a day trip to hang out with some friends at their campsite Sunday. I snacked A LOT instead of eating actual meals and I weighed in 4lbs heavier yesterday morning. I thought maybe it was just water weight because of all of the salty snacks. I tried to drink as much water as possible to flush things out (not sure if that's the right course of action, can't hurt though) today I weighed exactly the same. I also found out I lost one of my house plants today. It was fine 2 days ago but when I went to water it today it was crispified. What a bummer. On the bright side, I got at least a half an hour of play time with the girl yesterday. We chased each other around the house and that was fun. 2 hours towards 15. I came in under 100g carbs yesterday as well.

@alienjenn That looks awesome. Good job!

So update for last week. Hiking- I made one hike and 2 little nature walks. I don't know if I'm going to count the 'nature walks' or where to cross the line between nature walk and full on hike. Either incline or time. Anyhow for the week I'm going with an A Meal preparedness- I totally made a meal plan and did my grocery shopping based off of it. The grocery shopping was nice and I felt like I spent a lot less than I normally would, however, I forgot some stuff that's going to be necessary for breakfasts and lunches for the rest of my family. :/ I get an A! if I could get an A++ I would totally take it. This went a lot better than I expected. Carbs- carbs blarbs. Averaged at 117. I'm in a funk with logging my food too. I just filled in everything since Friday, this morning. Giving myself a C because I know how hard I actually tried. Play time- I'm pretty sure I got another 40 minutes in this weekend but that leaves me an hour short. If I do the math, 2.5 hours a week will be 15 hours in the end. Since I started late on this one I'll allow myself to work towards that goal. According to that I'm 1.5 hours towards my goal. C here too. Overall not great, I really need to pull in the reigns on my carb intake. We're doing a hardcore vacation week next week. We go up camping Sunday, come home Tuesday morning and then my daughter and I leave for a family vacation Wednesday and don't get back until Sunday. I'm nervous.

I overeat. A serving is 1/4 cup...which is like, half a handful and I want 3 handfuls at least. There's 17g of carbs in a serving :/

Yesterday was a success of sorts. I spoke with a friend about meal planning and she helped talk me off of the cliff. I realized that this weekend is my pay day so we CAN go on a grocery trip using my new meal plan this weekend. THAT'S RIGHT! I made a meal plan. Just the first 7 days but at least I got over my block about it! I spent 30 minutes playing with Ellie so that leaves me 1 hour and 40 minutes before Monday. :/ I also have learned something new. I can not buy kirkland fruit and nut medley, even disguised as a snack for Ellie.

Way to go Gutshot, especially on those dishes!

Okay, so this is my update. I will be considering 6/3/13 my start date. 1. We went up Adams on Tuesday (I love hiking so much) 2. I have not made a meal plan yet. I know what I'm making for dinner tomorrow, does that count? When you plan your meals are you planning breakfasts and lunches too? My favorite thing to do is cook huge amounts of meat so that I can just throw salads together in the morning for my lunch. I used to like to make MASSIVE amounts of breakfast and then portion them in little containers for my whole family as well. OKAY, so sometime today I will write out a calendar of the meals I'll be making in the next couple of days. 3. My carbs aren't doing great. Since memorial weekend I've been struggling with snacking and logging on MFP. I'm getting really tired of logging calories. *sigh* I'll get back there. My average so far this week is 113. 4. I had to revise this goal after my attempt at a half hour last night. I get home from work at about 6pm, and Ellie goes to bed at 9 preferably 8:45. So I can probably fit in 30 minutes on some nights. I don't want to end up having to punish myself for only getting 15 minutes of play time in because it's time to get ready for bed. So I got in 20 minutes of uninterrupted toddler play time last night. 2 hours 10 minutes to go. So overall, not miserable. I'm going to have to really push to hit my goal on 4 since there's no way of looking back to Monday and counting but that's okay. It will be fun.

what do you sleep on? It seems what takes up the most space on our camping trips is bedding (and beer). I've seen some people sleeping in hammocks and that seems to be the best way.

Holy moly, how did you talk your husband into that? Show me your ways. I think my husband said those exact words about being flexible. Fonzico- I really like the sound of this kundalini yoga. It makes me feel like such a novice about yoga.

Man, I'm so thrilled to be a part of this group Veduawoo sounds awesome. I love the origin of the word itself. "Its name is an anglicized version of the Arapaho word "bito'o'wu" meaning "earth-born" That's just awesome. So have all of you been 'backpacking'? (that's essentially where you go camping but everything you take is carried on your back right?) I haven't ever been backpacking but I'm really interested in finding ways to minimize my gear when we go camping.

I like how simple your goals are! For walking around town I know exactly what you mean by not liking urban city areas. I mostly hate walking for how boring it is in my suburban neighborhood. You said you're in Marseille? That is crazy amazing to me. Where I'm from an 'old' area is 50 years old. Did you see anything interesting on your walk? I like to people watch in city areas and make up stories about their lives in my head. Just don't get caught staring!