Saturday, May 15, 2010

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.

4 comments:

Katie Lewis said...

Congrats Mom! You're in the 130's! Have fun hiking Dog Mountain!

emmalou said...

Wow... I was just talking about Dog Mountain with my running partner this morning. Eric and I hiked it almost 7 years ago and we have been talking about doing it again. Way to go on the running! You are making progress! Do you have any specific goals for running?

Kathy Haynie said...

Specific goals for running...um...to run and not hurt? Maybe you or Alex can suggest some beginner-type goals in one of your blog posts.

And be sure to click over to my other blog to see the photos from Dog Mountain today. It was gorgeous! I added a link at the top of this post.

Unknown said...

Hi! I just stumbled across your blog! I too am undertaking a weightloss programme. I was finding it hard to keep tabs on my calorie intake, but a friend reccommended www.FreeCalorieReport.com which is helping me manage my intake.

For example, I was out on Friday and I ate a McDonald's hamburger. According to www.FreeCalorieReport.com there are 250 calories in one hamburger sandwich.

http://www.freecaloriereport.com/r/45/32805-32861/hamburger.html

Good luck with everything! I will be sure to come back and see more of your progress!

We'd love to hear from you!

Want to write a guest post for The Skinny? E-mail Katie at kathleenann08 (at) gmail (dot) com.