Sking and Snowshoeing

Yes, I got a bunch of exercise last week.  After walking the dog and snowshoing on Sunday while I was at my parent's I decided to give running a try on Tuesday.  I finished the run, but my knee was still a bit sore.  Since I had other plans for the end of the week I decided to rest until Friday.

I spent Friday morning shovelling snow off my brother's deck, which got me warmed up in time to go sking.  We were sking for about 4 hours, actually I skied and my brother was snowboarding.  We had a good time and chatted quite a bit on the chair lift.  Little brother was pretty impressed with how much better I am.  He actually has to make an effort to catch me on the hill and I handled the black diamonds (which I wouldn't have done a year ago).  I definitely credit all my weight training for the improvement as I didn't ski at all last year.  My legs are so much stronger and my balance is a lot better, which means I'm a lot more confident.  We followed this up with a big lunch out, and once we were back at his place headed out on the snowshoes for about 40 minutes to help lunch digest.

I thought I was doing pretty well, and not feeling sore or too tired.  However, I moved during the night and the pain in all my back muscles and the cramps in my calf muscles decided to wake me up.  Luckily Saturday was a pretty easy day - just a bit of trudging through snow to cut down trees (brother even showed me how to use the chainsaw).  We did go out snowshoing again, this time with his girlfriend and her dogs.  I think we were out for almost an hour.  Of course, we enjoyed some spiked hot chocolate and huge dinner that night which definitely wiped out any calories burned during the day.  We were all ready to pass out by 10:00.  Yup, party animals we are not!

Given that the cookie monster has lived in my stomach for the past two weeks, I wasn't expecting great results when I did my "check in weigh in" this morning.  Two weeks ago was the last time I weight myself and my weight was 176.7 lbs.  I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped on the scale this morning and saw 175.8 on the display.  Not close to my goal of 171 for next week, but a lot better than I was expecting.  Besides all the cookies, my portions have been out of control too, so I've been feeling full a lot more than I've been feeling hungry.

Next week will be my full weigh in/measurements, and I hope to be closer to 171.  Realistically I know that I'm not on track right now to reach that goal, but I should be able to get close (down 1.5 to 2 more pounds if I stick to my plan).  I've been focused on my fruits and veggies, as well as non-meat based sources of protein.  Fingers crossed!