Trader

It's starting to get cold here in Northern Michigan. We have seen snow several times but nothing sticking; which is a good thing. I am not looking forward to snow gear.. It takes mom 15 mins to get kids into snow gear, for them to play outside for 5 minutes; then another 10 minutes getting gear off, hung up to dry and the hot chocolate made. I really hate winter...

Over the weekend a good family friend competed in the Iceman Race. The Bell's Beer Iceman trail consists of paved roads, dirt roads, two tracks (majority of course, abandoned railroad beds and the world famous Vasa Nordic Ski Trail. It's 30 miles long. Race is done no matter the temperature or winter conditions. Friday night we got a sitter and stayed overnight in Traverse City so that Saturday morning we could attending the opening event and see Greg off. Even though he is crazy it was so cool to see him start and finish. He completed the race in 2:48. It still amazes me. That is just crazy to think of riding a bike in the cold 32' temp through the mud, snow, rough wooded terrain 30 miles.

It got me thinking one that I am pretty out of shape but two how much I enjoy competing in my small 5K races. I am not a runner and not sure I want to be but I really enjoy the feeling you get from finishing. Maybe I will consider running/walking another one this spring.

I have started working out again. I started back up a couple weeks ago. I decided to challenge myself to lose 10 pounds by Thanksgiving. This wasn't going to be that hard until I hit a plateau or what felt like one. I did a two pound gain that I held onto for 3 weeks and really discouraged me.I am 5.6 pounds away still and have less then 3 weeks to drop and unless I have a wonderful week this week not going to happen. I am trying not to get discouraged and have been trying to mix up the workout and increase the time and speed. I switched over to the elliptical a week ago and hoping that will help my Saturday weigh in. I would love to see 2 down this week. I feel like a trader though - I have always believed in walking to lose weight and have had success but.... I need to mix it up.

We are planning to take the girls to Chicago over Valentines Day weekend and I would love to be down in the lower 160's or even see the 150's by then but I am 16 pounds away from 159 so we will see. There is time; 15 weeks but three food holidays to get through. Baby steps.