Exploring abandoned Properties

A few weekends back we had a weekend of great weather.  I am talking sweatshirt and even long tee shirt weather.  60° in mid December!  It was fabulous! We couldn’t let that weather pass us by!  So what did we do???   We went back to an abandoned house that we explored a year earlier!  And we found a second abandoned house to explore!  Be sure to check out the videos at the end if abandoned properties interest and fascinate you!

The first house is the Winderborne Mansion.  It was built in the 1870’s as a summer home for a prominent lawyer in Washington DC.   The family had three kids, one of which died when all three contracted typhoid.  One of those children grew up to become a doctor and her child also died at Winderborne when she fell off the stairway bannister.  The house was sold to another family in 1929 and remains in the possession of that family.  The last resident died in 2004 and there have been attempts to sell the property...with the price dropping substantially over the years.  The house is in a very bad state of disrepair but is absolutely amazing! If only walls could talk...this house would have some amazing stories!    Enjoy the pictures!  

The second house we visited was what I believe to be the White Oak Springs Farm.  This house was built in 1850 and while the brick walls are in good shape, the roof has caved in and the inside of the house is just rotting away.   The outbuildings appear to be in good shape and are well secured against intruders.

We had a fabulous time exploring these abandoned locations and hope to find more abandoned properties to explore.  It is fun to see how people lived in years gone by!  It is fun to try to piece together the history and lives.   It is a look at a piece of history that unfortunately may not be with us for too long.

Shhhhh. I’m not talking about it!

Yes!  It should be a weigh in post!  I am not even going to pretend that it isn’t time for my weigh in!  The time to weigh in has come and gone and here I sit.....quiet.

Nope!  I’m not weigh in in this week!  Suffice it to say that I have however weighed myself each day!  I just am choosing to NOT share.  I am refusing to vocalize it!  (Uhhhhh....I meant to say type it out!).  

Yes, I kinda sorta really lost control.  I have eaten delicious foods galore over the last week!  It’s been pure insanity and I won’t lie....absolutely delicious!  

I am trying to reign myself in NOW and not wait until the new year!   There is no time like now to restart!   That means that I am tracking my food today!  

I am looking forward to the new year.  I have a challenge that I’ll be sharing later this week that I am super excited about.  It should help me immensely in my efforts too!  I am excited to break into my new planner which is laid out and ready for weight loss/healthy living success. (I’ll be sharing that soon also!).   I am ready to rock and roll the year 2021!

So yes, my refusal to talk about and even have an official weigh in is indicative of what the scales are saying.....let’s just say about 2-3 pounds were gained!!!! 

Merry Christmas

 

Goodbye Garmin Hello ........

 It's watch update time!   Yes, it is time for a new watch!!!!  But what did I get?  Why am I saying goodbye to my Garmin Instinct????   So many questions!!

A few years ago, Christmas of 2016 to be exact, I caved and actually joined the Step counting watch bandwagon.  UP until then I had been using the old style clip on pedometers.  They worked....sporadically so I was quit interested in the Fitbit.  But I didn't cave until I found out that I could receive text notifications through my watch.  Yeah....I wanted that but I sat on the fence and didn't buy it for months.  And finally for Christmas I was gifted the Alta Fitbit! (amazon Affiliate link).  I loved it!  I quickly came to love the text notification and knew that I would never want to be without that again (and in fact when I did go to purchase the next watch, that was one of the must have features!).   I had absolutely no problems with that watch.  It worked like a charm.  It did everything it was supposed to do.  It was a great watch.  I had absolutely no issues with the watch at all. Sure, I had to replace some watch bands here and there, but that is to be expected with most any watch.  This watch saw me through the years 2017, 2018 and part way through 2019!  The watch still works to this day (if I should charge it).  A few months ago I wanted to calculate the accuracy of my current watch so I charged up the Alta and wore both watches for a few days.  It worked great!

Mid way through 2019 I began to think about a new watch.  Why?  Because I could! I was wanting to start to run again and my thoughts turned to Garmin because they had always been the 'premier' watch for sports enthusiast. (at least in my mind).  Ok, ok ok....back when I was running religiously I had really wanted a Garmin but did not have the money to purchase one.  So getting the Garmin was I guess somewhat like completing the full circle and closing the chapter!  Whatever the reason, in mid 2019 I found myself the proud owner of the Garmin Instinct. (Amazon Affiliate Link).    I had more problems with this watch.  Within a month I had to get a replacement watch because of battery issues.  But once I got that straightened out, it seemed to work great.  The watch carried me through the year of 2019 and tracked quite a few bike rides.  It carried me most of the way through 2020 but did get some scratches when I went over the handlebars in my spectacular bike accident!

I have absolutely no problem with the Garmin Instinct watch.  But I couldn't help start looking at other watches.  I wanted something more dainty and more streamlined to compliment my new engagement ring after all!  My employer gives/reimburses their employees for up to $300 each year for fitness related purchases.  I found myself sitting at midway through the month of December and I had not yet spent my $300!  What to buy....what to buy!  Why a new watch of course!

Now don't fear...my Garmin Instinct will still be used.  I originally planned to wear it when I ride my bike on the mountain bike trails.  However, Jason has claimed the watch as his own!  I am tickled to see it being used and enjoyed!

I pondered a few different watches but kept going back to my appreciation of my first Fitbit.  So I decided to go Fitbit.  I also debated between the Versa 3 and the Sense. (Amazon Affiliate Link) But I finally decided to purchase the Sense. I have only had it on my arm for a few days but I am really liking it thus far!  I am liking the ease of navigating the screen to see the information.  I have checked the step count against other watches and thus far it is spot on.  It is comfortable to wear and I think this will be a great addition to my fitness plans.  This will be coming in handy big time for my upcoming 2021 challenge.....stay tuned!

Weigh in for the week

Oh dear...I am so running behind on today’s  post! And it is a weigh in day!!!    It is so hard to weigh in on Monday morning and then get a post up that day!   Hahahah. Ahh the stress!

So I am going to try weighing in on Sunday’s.  I like having the weekend mostly before my weigh in.  I honestly do think that it helps keep me from indulging too freely!   But it’s hard for me with my posts and YouTube videos.   The accountability from these two places is something that I rely on heavily!  I know from past experience, that when I am not posting on here...I tend to be going off the rails and gaining weight!  Yup,  not good!

So my official weigh in will be Sunday morning giving me all day Sunday to get my Monday weigh in post written but it still keeps me on track for most of the weekend!!!

So on to the weigh in!!!!

I lost!!!  Hip hip hurray!   I lost one pound.  Ok, I am only recouping my birthday gain!  But still...I am back where I was before my birthday gain!  That counts for something...right???

Now on to the week of Christmas!   I want to lose, but if I can maintain through aDecember I’ll be happy!!!!  That’s not too much to ask is it????

How to stop the Self Sabotage in a Weight Loss Journey

 I have been thinking about self sabotage a lot lately.  It is such a real problem for me.  I have some incredible weeks and I am FINALLY moving in the right direction on the scales and it feels as if I am in control and on top of the world.  Everything is going in the right direction and then all of a sudden...BOOM....I find myself in the kitchen eating food with no control.  I even recognize my actions while I'm gorging on the food.  But I say "I don't care."   Why?  Why do I stop caring??

Years ago I made a hefty realization.  I realized that I was totally afraid to lose the weight. I was afraid to shed my fat because I wear the fat as a suit of armor to protect me from the world.  It is my insulation.   The fat is my excuse for everything. "Ohhh, I didn't get that job....must have been discrimination because I was fat".   Makes total sense doesn't it?    Ok to a food addict fat suit of armor wearing girl it does!   Any thing that went wrong....blame it on the fat!  Because you see, it's easier to blame things on the FAT.  It's easier to blame the fat versus say "well maybe I didn't get the job because I bombed the interview" or "maybe I didn't get the job because I am not qualified".  Those are failures and shortcomings of myself and they are harder to admit to!  It's easy to admit to the weight....everyone see it...it's already well known!  So I use it as an excuse!

So to stop the self sabotage in a weight loss journey we need to sit back and we need to think about what is causing us to be fearful.  What are we afraid of?  What is making us be afraid to shed the excess pounds.  Are you afraid of actually discovering who you really are without the fat suit?  Are you afraid that someone won't love you?  Or that someone will love you?  Are you afraid of the unknown?  What is the fear....because sabotage begins in fear!   

Each of us have different fears....but sabotage is rooted in fear.  We have to face those fears.  We have to figure out what we are afraid of and then say,  "What is the worst thing that will happen should I come face to face with my fear"? And once you actually go that far....you have to weigh the risk and benefits and I am 100% positive that the benefits outweigh (pun intended) the risks!  (and let me say...from experience...if you are afraid of losing someone in your life if you lose the weight.....then they are not worthy of being in your life in the first place!!!!)

Self Sabotage.......it's just fear wrapped up in a pretty package/word!   Face the fears and conquer them!!!!

An important announcement

 I have a HUGE announcement to make!  It is an announcement that I have been wanting to make for quite some time.  However, I wasn't at liberty to make the announcement because it was only a want, it was not a reality!  

But good things come to those that wait....even if I waited with little patience!

ON my birthday I received the best gift of all time!!!!  Jason officially asked me to marry him!!!!!!!!

So yes...I am officially announcing my engagement!!!!!!!!

A great week!!!

 I had a great week......well a great week in terms of my life!  It may not have been so great in terms of my weight loss but we will get to that!

This past week I celebrated my 48th birthday.  I had off my birthday and the day after my birthday.  Jason had to work on the one day so I went to my mom's house and enjoyed time with her.  We had lunch with my brother and his family and it was a great day!

Oh yeah, mom also made me my favorite cookie!  And yes, I sorta kinda lost control of myself when eating them!  I only ate two at a time...and luckily the batch is not a huge batch so I only came home with 12 cookies!  But still.....

We had really nice weather over the weekend...so we got out and explored and just had some fun!  That was nice to be active and moving and seeing new things!

Ok, so maybe the healthy lifestyle fell by the wayside this weekend.....The weekend is over and I'm right back to it!!!!!!

Four Letter Bad Word

 I have a four letter bad word that I hate to say in conjunction with my weight loss journey.  When I say or hear this word it makes me cringe!   What is the word you may be asking?   The word is.......diet!  I can not stand the word diet!  It is a horrible word, right?

Ok, honestly when I hear someone use the word as a noun I don't mind it.  For example, "Sally is following a vegetarian diet."  Yup, that's not bad is it.  It's pretty benign that way isn't it? It doesn't hurt to say that.  There really isn't anything negative or bad about it.  Yet I still hate it!   But why do I hate the word diet so badly?

I hate the word diet so badly because this word is most commonly used as a verb.  "Sally is on a diet."   And I do not like the word used that way.  Dare I say it is even akin to a bad word when used as a verb?  But let me dive into the word and talk about why I hate it.

- Diet has such negative emotions connected with it.  So many people go on a diet......and fail.  Yes, there are quite a few people that have had success.  But seriously, how many times do we stumble and fall?  HOw many people just give up and never pick themselves back up after they stumble?  Quite a few!!!  Thus the word diet gets linked with negativity so much.  I do not want my weight loss to be negative.  It's hard enough to overcome the excess weight without added negativity!   Nope.  No DIET for me!

- The word diet many times is linked with crazy fads and ideas. " Eat just this and you will lose 20 pounds in one month!"  Fad DIETS and crazy diet ideas are usually not based on solid nutritional intake of food.  They are based on some crazy idea or plan to drop weight and unfortunately those fad diets many times will actually do your body more harm due to lack of nutrients or overload of one or two specific nutrients.   No thank you, I want to lose weight but I also want to be healthy!  No fad DIETS for me!

-The word diet implies that you are going to restrict or do something short term to lose the weight.  Someone going on a diet is doing it to fit into a dress for a special occasion.  They are doing it short term. It is a temporary change in their life just to reach a goal.  And honestly, that may be ok for a person that never has a weight problem and just gained 5 pounds due to a single event. But for me, a temporary restriction is NOT the answer to my weight problems.  I need a lifestyle change and a temporary change is not going to do the trick.

Diet.......yes, I can look at the word and see it's uses...but I will probably always continue to cringe when I see and hear the word!   A DIET is not for me.  I am here to change my life.  I am here to change the way I think  I am here to build a healthier and more fit lifestyle that will carry me through the rest of my life.   No diet for me!

A new Family Member

We have a new family member...but let me introduce you to my full family!

Obviously there is Jadon and I!

We have Mertz the cat.

We have BoBo the Betta fish.

We have three Hermit Crabs (and are contemplating getting one or two more from a hermit crab rescue since we have the room in our terrarium and it would be no extra work!)

And over this past weekend we added a new member to our family.

As yet the new member is unnamed.

Yes, we got a high Red green Cheek Conure.   Mertz is very curious about the bird...but doesn’t seem ready to attack.  But we are watching and working to get her trained and able to live harmoniously with a bird.   The bird...makes it difficult because we are pretty sure that he is trying to antagonize her!  (He just wants to be friends!)

Welcome to the family Mr. Birdy!

Weigh in time

It is time for my weekly weigh in and I was quite nervous about the results!  How in the world was I going to do!   I gained a bit of weight over thanksgiving and at the beginning of this weigh in week I was still struggling with that weight gain!

I watched my weight all week long and I was worried! Really worried because it was hovering at the higher number for the first part of the week. I didn’t waver in my commitment.  I didn’t let the scales derail me!  I just stayed consistent and steady in my efforts.   

The scales didn’t budge....until the day before my official weigh in!  Could it be???  Could I actually show a loss for the week?   

I stepped on the scales this morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes!   I was down by two full pounds!   I have officially lost the thanksgiving weight gain and even a bit more!     My weekly average shows me up by 0.15 pounds....but that’s ok!   

I am worried about this week!   I only work three days...then I am off on Thursday for my birthday.  I will spend that day with my mom (As long as everyone is healthy my uncle who lives next door to her has Covid...she wasn’t in contact with him for the two weeks prior...but..... ). Then on Friday Jason is off work so we will do something fun I am sure.    Follow that with the normal weekend.     And as I have written on here so many times...weekends are my difficult times!!!  So a four day weekend for me!  But I can do it!  I will make the best choices that I can and go into the long weekend planning to be healthy!!!

I’ve got this!!!!

Do Not Try

Do not TRY in your weight loss journey!  It's not the way to go!  No, I have not gone insane. I do not want you to use the word try!  I want you to actually eradicate that word from your weight loss vocabulary...and maybe even your life as a whole! Try is not a word that you want to use.

First of all lets look at the word try and think about it.  If someone asks you to go to dinner with them and your answer is 'I will try."  That is not a very committed answer.  You are saying something along the lines of 'I kind of want to but I kind of don't want to.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't."   Basically, you are giving yourself an out to not do it!   What? You are hedging the bets so that you can exert your own will and do what you want right?

Weight loss is similar.  If you say "I'm going to try to lose weight,"  What are you really saying?  You are saying, I may or may not put in the effort, it kind of depends on my mood at that critical moment.  I will try to make a good healthy decision, but there is definitely no guarantees!   You see, the word try is not making any sort of commitment!   It is a half hearted attempt to possibly, maybe, kind of sorta do something.  And let me tell you I don't want someone working for me that is only half heartedly working on something!   I want full commitment!  

Try is in no way a form of commitment and this weight loss journey needs commitment.  A weight loss journey needs us to say I WILL make healthy decisions and choices.  I WILL work out.  I WILL do what I need to do in order to live a healthy life.   We need commitment.....and for that reason I will no longer be trying.  I will be doing!

Monthly Goal Check in

 So here we are at the beginning of December!  Where did that month go???   I had my goals in place and I worked on them.  But how did I REALLY do???

Tr  Goal #1 Track every bite of food.   I did absolutely awesome on this goal!  I nailed it and tracked each and everything that I ate!!!  No slip ups on this one!!!  

     Goal #2 Save money.  I was able to put extra money into the car payment AND increase the savings by a bit!  So I call this a total win!!!

3.     Goal #3  Weigh Less I don’t care what I weigh at the end of the month as long as it is less then I weigh at the beginning of the month.  A hair less works!  And that is kind of what I did.  I lost 1.8 pounds for the month.  I would have loved it to be more, but I'll take it!  A loss is a loss!!!

 G  Goal #4    Be active at least 4 times a week. This was pretty easy to get.  We walk every day after work so that satisfies the goal.  I also completed yoga quite a bit due to my Yog-vember Challenge.  Every day for the first two weeks of the month....and then the third week I completed 5 days and the last week of the month I completed 2 or 3 days (I honestly can't remember if it was 2 or three!)  So I nailed this one also!!!!  

      Goal # 5  Keep my eating in line at least 6 days a week.  I did great with this for the first three weeks of the month.  I even managed to do well over Thanksgiving.  And then I fell apart for the last couple days of the month!   GRRRRRR  

      Goal #6  Step count.  I know that they recommend 10,000 steps a day.  I would love to get that.  I do the average of all of my steps for the month and I SQUEEKED this month out!  It was TIGHT!  BUt I made it!!!

      So there you have my month in review.  It wasn't all bad.  I had some successes in there!  I also had some failures learning opportunities!  My goals remain the same for the next month and I plan on kicking butt this month!  I want to close out the year strong!!!