Kathy Week 20: Dog Mountain

Update: We survived Dog Mountain! I've posted more photos on my blog.

Week 20 Stats:

Today's Weight: 139

Last Week's Weight: 140

Starting Weight: 151

Total Weight Loss: 12 pounds

Dog Mountain

This morning's post will be fairly short, because Mark and I are getting underway to go hike Dog Mountain today! This is a challenging hike on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, about an hour's drive from our home. 

The hike is famous for lots of things...beautiful views of the Gorge and surrounding mountains, gorgeous wildflowers in the spring, and a thigh-busting steep trail. Oh, my... I haven't hiked it in years, but Mark and I decided we are fit enough to go for it. 

I pulled these two photos from the internet, but I'll come back to The Skinny this evening and post some photos from our hike, with an update on how we do. The photos give you a sense of how amazingly beautiful (and amazingly steep) this place is.

Here's a quick recap of the goals I set for myself last week. I did better on some than on others.

1. Keep a food diary

2. Visualize my stomach the size of a fist

3. Learn how to run

Keep a food diary

I wanted this to be super simple, so I used an empty check book "stub book." It's skinny and fits easily into my purse, it's free, and it already has lines and columns in it. I tracked food for four days, and then I kind of...um...stopped. So I definitely need to get going on this goal again, because I really do think it helped. 

The funny thing is that I didn't always even bother to go to an online calorie website to look up how many calories in something. Just the fact of writing the foods down helped. There were some evenings that I was tempted to have a little snack, but I'd think, "Is it worth the bother of writing it down?" ... Lazy me, the answer was usually no, so I'd end up not snacking after all. 

Even on the days I didn't do so well with writing in the food diary, just knowing that it was sitting there in my purse made me eat less. So for those of you who have been holding off on keeping a food diary because it's too complicated, I'm here to tell you that even a simple one can help.

Visualize my stomach the size of a fist

This was the goal I did best with. Choosing portion sizes with a fist-sized stomach in mind really helped me keep the portion sizes reasonable, and I was less likely to go back for seconds, or to mindlessly snack. Prior to learning about the true size of my stomach, I'd always imagined it to be a something like the size of a cantaloup. Getting this new visual image in my head has made it easier for me to make good eating choices.

Learn how to run

I didn't do as well on this goal as I wanted, but I did make some progress. Mark and I didn't get back to the track, but I talked with one of the track coaches at the high school where I teach, and she gave me some pointers. (Alternate walking and running - a good cardiovascular workout, and good for building bone density. There's no shame in running for a while and then walking for a while.) On Thursday afternoon I walked for a mile up a gentle grade, and I alternated walking and running for a mile uphill! Wow, I felt so good---my body actually wanted to run! So this is another goal that I want to keep trying to get better at. I think the little bit of running I've done this week has helped to rev up my metabolism.