Weigh In Day-Week 8 + 7 hour hike from Hell.

Current Weight: 154.9

Last Week: 154.6

Goal: 138

Ohhhh, what a week.  I know I haven’t been around at all, but I have been keeping up with the blogs!  It’s been a tough week. Last week I told you all that we had some family issues come up and that I couldn’t post a super long blog. Well, the ‘issues’ escalated and turned into down-right devastating news.  My husband, Ryan’s, grandmother passed away on the 4^th. 

Dorene was a wonderful woman, full of energy and love.  The first time I met her I couldn’t believe she was Ryan’s grandma. She was about 4 foot 10 inches and weighed no more than 100 pounds. She was the cutest, littlest, petite person I’d ever seen.  And Ryan is the exact opposite. Wait, I didn't mean on the 'cute' part, because he's a hotty, otherwise I wouldn't have married him; but on 'little' part. He is 6’4” and about 240 pounds (I may be a little off on those numbers, but you get the idea.)  He is a giant. So for him to stand next to his little grandma was a little shocking. She came up to his ribcage.  It was so adorable. Dorene had two children, Ryan’s mom Pam and Ryan’s uncle Trey.  She also had three grandchildren; Ryan has two younger cousins Alexa and Mikenzie. So it was a very small, close-knit family. This is the exact opposite of my very large, obnoxious, loud, and lives-to-party family.

I am eternally grateful to Dorene for immediately making me a part of the family. She treated me with the same love and respect that she treated all her ‘biological’ grandchildren and I soon began to call her ‘Grandma’.  



Ryan, his mom Pam, and Grandma Dorene at the lake house.



Ok, whew. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

See, not only has this been very difficult to lose Dorene, but her passing and funeral was the first since my father passed away last June.  That’s just a double dose of poopiness.  Deep breaths again.  Ok, that’s enough of that.

Onto better topics.

If you notice on the top, I have gained a measly .3 ounces since last week. Not bad, considering I haven’t exercised all week, we ate out nearly every meal last weekend, and I indulged in every sugary, chocolaty, and delicious crap-food that was ever made. (On a side note, not once did I order a ‘healthy’ meal when we ate out, I went straight to the fried, fatty goodness.) I’m not worried about it in the least. When something devastating happens, sometimes just letting go for a little while helps in the long run. I mean, you have so many important things to worry about, why worry about something as insignificant as a little gained weight.  In the big scheme of things, for me, being a little overweight is not affecting my health or causing any major problems for me physically, it’s just that I’d like to be healthier. Not necessarily skinnier, or thinner, but healthier.

But, because I didn’t do any physical activity, wait, I take that back. I completely forgot about my 7 hour hike through the south-central wilderness of Kansas.  How in the HELL could I forget that?!  In the midst of our bereavement, Ryan’s mother wanted us to keep our original plans of going to the owner of my company’s hunting cabin and land and walking around to look for deer shed antlers.  So we did. I loaded a very excited puppy and husband up and we drove two hours south of our home to the beautiful flint hills. 

First, let me give you a little background: My husband is an avid hunter. He pretty much hunts anything that moves, including deer, turkey, pheasant, quail, coyotes, blah, blah, blah.  He actually buys hunting ‘movies’ and will sit downstairs for HOURS and watch people hunt some animal.  Our downstairs is his ‘man-cave’ and is wonderfully decorated in deer antlers, deer heads, pictures of deer, and turkey feathers.  Ryan and a buddy actually have joint custody of a huge mounted buck head.  Half the year it’s at our house, the other half it’s at his buddy’s.  We’re talking borderline obsessed about this sport, people. Freaking obsessed.  (But it doesn’t bother me, because I am not a city girl, if you haven’t guessed already.  I am a country girl and grew up hunting with my father and grandfather since I was about 7. So am used to guns, wilderness, and the whole she-bang.) So for him to be able to walk around 800 acres of ‘new’ property was like 15 year old girl getting asked to the senior prom.

Back to the 7-hour hike: This property is in the absolutely gorgeous flint hills of Kansas, which means a lot of hills, lots of rock, and lots of woods.  So for 7 hours all I did was hike up a hill, down a hill, up a hill, down a hill, then in the middle of woods, hunched over so the pine tree branches didn’t cut my head off. It was exhilarating. Truly. Until I felt blisters, the size of pancakes, begin to form on every area of both feet (note to self: replace hiking boots). Then it was no longer exhilarating, but extremely freaking painful.  And the whole time we are hiking we are looking for deer sheds.  For those of you that don’t know, a buck (male deer) grows antlers ever year, then around March or April the buck will ‘lose’ or ‘shed’ his antlers like a child loses a baby tooth. Then the next year they grow back, bigger and badder than ever.  This process goes on every year, until, of course, the deer gets shot or dies of natural causes.  So to find these coveted sheds, you have to scour the ground searching for something that looks like any fallen tree branch but only it’s off-white (basically it blends in with just about everything else on the ground).  It’s nearly impossible, in my experience anyway. But it’s like an Easter egg hunt; once you find one you’re hooked and want to find more.  I have found only one in the last three years that I’ve gone out and searched. Ryan has found a lot more than me.  And believe it or not, these antlers are actually worth some money. But would we sell them???? NOOOO. They are prize positions that need to keep residence on our basement walls, or our garage walls, or our fence, or in a box underneath the stairs. We keep them ALL. Big or small, whole or broken. ALL.

I'll post some pictures of our hike later this weekend for all your enjoyment.

And yes, for all you city-folk, we really do walk around in the woods looking for parts of animals.  I am a redneck and sometimes a hillbilly: deal with it. LOL.

But the hike was actually good. I really wish I would have worn my heart rate monitor because I bet you I burned like 3000 calories.  If we lived closer to hills like that, I wouldn’t need a gym membership or work out videos, just boots and a bottle of water.

This week my goal, once again, is to do my P90X every day. I’m also going to try and do better with my food this weekend (we’re going out of town again, so eating out is going to happen). Order salads Laura, order salads. No cheese fries. Sorry, little pep-talk to myself there.

One more note: my husband read my blog last week and I think I need to clarify something. Yes, he did order the biggest Chicken Fried Steak that has ever been created, but he DID NOT eat the whole thing. I didn’t want you all to think that he just gorged down that whole table-sized steak.  Really, he only ate about a ¼ of it, saving the rest for a rainy day (which ended up being later that weekend).

 Have a great weekend everyone and keep up the good healthy living! (Or at least try to keep it up.)