Grateful for Friends and Family

I recently discovered a hiking trail near my house that I hadn't realized was there. It's a gorgeous area with a lot of history. I'm a goner for local history! My work is doing a Biggest Loser challenge and so a hike is organized for every weekend. This past Saturday we headed to the local trail near me. 

A couple of my co-workers brought their small babies and strollers so, unfortunately, we weren't able to do as long a hike as I wanted to (but I'm planning on doing it next week!). 

The story behind this area is that there were American Indians that lived here. There is a point (further from where we went on Saturday) where there are grooves in the rock where the stagecoaches were lowered by the horses. 

A couple of months ago we went on a guided tour of the area that gave us a lot of information on the area - I hope to go on another one soon!

In this next picture you can see an old truck that has basically melted into the ground. Since it's been there for more than 50 years they are unable to release it under state law (the area is a state park and is also designated as a historical area).

Nonetheless it was a nice 2 miles hike. Afterwards a coworker, my husband, and the kids headed to another local park where there are grapefruit and orange trees. They were having and open house of sorts where we could go and pick fruit for a small free ($5 for a big bag). I was a bad blogger and didn't get pictures (but my friend took a few).

After we were done picking fruit I went to see the Spongebob movie with the kids, their dad and my dad. We stopped for frozen yogurt afterward. 

My Saturday ended with a nice dinner out with Thomas...

On Sunday I did my usual weekend morning shopping trip with my mom and Nikki (my brother joined us this week). We went to Ralphs (Kroger), Wal*Mart, Big Lots, Costco, and Bed, Bath & Beyond and were home by 1:30pm! (This definitely helped me on the step goal, as of my writing of this on Sunday night, I have 15,811 steps for the day!). 

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up my house. It's not a dump, but things gets left in places week after week. My husbands' cousin and his wife (and 2 kids) were coming to dinner on Sunday night so I wanted to make sure to have the house cleaned up (and it was also an excuse to get Thomas to help me get things in order). I should take pictures now that the house is all clean! 

We had a great time with the his family. Thomas grilled steaks, I made broccoli, and they brought some mashed potatoes. After dinner we played a round of Quirkle before they headed out for the night. 

So this Monday I am thankful for my family, Thomas' family and for our friends. I had a great busy weekend and I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Stand Up Sunday - Week 4

1. How many pounds did you gain or lose?

I started the week at 159.8lbs. I ended at 158.4. A total loss of 1.4lbs.

2.      How many inches did you gain or lose?

I still haven’t measured myself… so nothing to add here!

3.      Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it?

Last week I INCREASED the number of steps I took from the week before. This week I walked 11,375 more steps than last week. I walked a total of 66,201 steps. This is mostly because I went for a hike with co-workers on Saturday morning which gave me over 15k steps for the day. We're doing another hike next week, so I'm sure I'll do well next week, too! 

4.      What was your biggest challenge this week?

Can I talk about periods here? We all okay with that? Good. Well, I started mine this week and it brought the mental weakness of “well that means I can snack on yummy treats!” with it. On Tuesday I ended up eating more than I wanted to and dined with cereal (French Toast Crunch to be exact) – however on Wednesday I woke up weighing the same as Tuesday morning… so yay! Also crap is going on at work so it definitely made me want to treat myself with sweets. Also the Cutie’s I bought this week were not very good so I was not too interested in eating them.

5.      What is your favorite healthy snack or meal?

With the clementine’s not being too sweet I didn’t really find an alternative snack. However, I went back to an oldie but goodie… fruit cups! Only 60 calories each! I put same Tajin in it (if you don’t know what it is you should look it up… adds some flavor!) and it is delicious.

6.      Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

I’m not the one to say it since I fell but I guess this advice is as much for myself as it is for anyone reading this. Don’t let hard times in other aspects of your life make you want to ruin your goals. Sure, I enjoyed the extra sweets I had, but will I when I step on the scale and the number went up? I was lucky this time, but maybe next time I won’t be.