Trust your gear

Well, what do I say?    January was a trial run?????

I had grand plans for my Love Bites self challenge has not gone as planned.  Not at all.   In fairness, I haven't weighed myself since last Wednesday, but I can honestly say that I have NOT eaten right.  Ohhhhh  some days were not THAT bad.  Some days were positively horrible with french fries, tator tots, and all sorts of other fattening (but sadly tasty) foods.  Oh and there may have been a donut or two involved in the mix.  Yeah, I just fell off the rails!   

I have a week and two days until the Love Bites challenge is over.   My goal at this point is to try to hang onto the weight that I was at the end of the Saving Christmas Challenge.  My weight last week was right in that range...so hopefully it will be a simple maintain.  

What does that mean for me?  

I'm already gearing up for the Foolish Fat Against Fat challenge.    On February 10th, the last weigh in before Valentines day will start this next challenge.  7 weeks until April Fools.  The Triple F challenge.  I blew this last challenge but I'm soooo planning on rocking this one!  7 pounds...14 pounds is what I'm thinking!!!!

I had a busy and fun weekend.  I sadly had to work on Saturday morning, but was treated to a gorgeous sky on the way to work!

Jason and I spent some time in Old Town Winchester (Virginia) this weekend.

We did some hiking at the Third Winchester Battlefield Park.   That was interesting as in some areas we were walking on slick ever shifting slush and at at other points we were walking in 1-2 feet of snow.  It was definitely a workout!!!!  

It is also crazy to be hiking in 1-2 feet of snow and be stripping off clothes because you are hot.....I started the hike with a tee shirt, sweatshirt and a light jacket.  By the first mile or so I had taken off the jacket...and by the end of the hike I was down to the tee shirt.  Nope, definitely wasn't going to let myself get sweaty!   That is miserable in cooler weather!!!!   And yes, I was more successful than a few weeks ago when we had been out hiking  and it was either REALLY cold or just cool.  No worries....as soon as I got back to the car, I popped my sweatshirt back on to avoid getting chilled as my body temperature adjusted back to normal. I will also say that I gave my newest pair of hiking boots an amazing test and they passed with flying colors.  What test was that?  Well, I've had them out a few times as we have been hiking...and they have been through some muddy areas and some water puddles.   But that was more short periods of being dipped into wetness.  We hiked a few miles (my tracker showed about 4 miles) and for 90% of that time, my boots  were totally encased in snow.  My feet were dry and toasty the whole time!  (shows the beauty of good boots and wool socks!).  My pants.....well, I was wearing jeans which are notoriously horrible for hiking and they were a flared leg....and long.  They were wet at the bottom almost immediately and they just wicked the moisture upward the whole hike so that even though I had never been in snow up to my thighs, the jeans were wet above the knees.  We laughed that if we had hiked longer that they would have been wet the whole way to my waist!!!   (Yup, just add the parking lot at the trailhead for the Third Winchester as ANOTHER place that I've changed my clothes in a relatively public place...hahaha)  

We slowly made our way back home and ended up stopping at a few places just killing time and being together for longer!  

It was a good weekend.....and the icing on the cake?  We were active and it felt GOOD to get outside in the sunshine and surprising warmth!