Rapid Weight Gain

I had a rough weigh-in last week. I gained 2.8 pounds but the worst part was I was completely shocked about it.

You know how sometimes you gain weight but you expect it. Maybe you cheated a little too much during the week and you know you're going to be up.

But I was thrown off guard by this gain. Two week prior to the weigh in, I was on a week-long vacation where I indulged a little. Not much, but 3 nights I had dessert and 4 days I ate things I normally wouldn't. All-in-all, not horrible. I was expecting to gain a few pounds from this eating behavior.

I didn't weigh in after I got back from vacation because I knew I'd be up a few pounds, so instead I hunkered down and stayed on plan for the next week. The thought was that whatever few pounds I gained while I was on vacation I'd be able to get off over the course of the following week.

Well, it didn't work.

Or maybe it did.

Maybe I gained more than a few pounds on vacation. I didn't weigh myself when I got back, I don't weigh myself at home any more. Only at Weight Watchers. What if I gained several pounds? What if I gained 10 pounds? Over the course of just ONE WEEK?!?!

Say it ain't so!!

Is my metabolism so screwed up from all of the dieting (lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight....) that it no longer knows how to gain just a little bit from indulging?

I read an article in the New York Times that mentioned how Danny Cayhill had gaining 100 pounds back over the five years since he won Biggest Loser. This quote from Danny, in the article, shocked me the most:

“All my friends were drinking beer and not gaining massive amounts of weight,” Mr. Cahill said. “The moment I started drinking beer, there goes another 20 pounds. I said, ‘This is not right. Something is wrong with my body.’”

Do you think this might be what happened to me?

back from vacation and still on course...

Well, I'm finally back from vacation.

:(

I sure do miss WV!! ...and my mom!

We got back late Sunday night, drove 14 hours straight. Hit a bad rain storm about 4 hours from home and it lasted until we got home! Ugh! It got so bad that at several points we had to slow down to 40-45 mph and turn our emergencies on so the cars around us could see us. I hate driving in the rain! I hate driving after dark worse! But I absolutely hate driving in the rain after dark!!!

There was one bad accident where an SUV had flipped over and was laying on it's side, with the top facing traffic, in the middle of the storm. It looked like everyone was okay, though. They were all standing in the median with the cops. I'll bet it was horrible, though!

But we're safe and sound and home sweet home!

So it's back to work, exercise and the daily grind again.

I was supposed to go biking yesterday and this morning but I couldn't find the energy to do it. We walked all over God's green earth while I was up there and my legs were so darn sore when I got back. They're still aching a bit. Tomorrow I'll start walking with the girls again, though. Then again on Thursday and I'll bike again on Friday. Back in the ole routine.

I was surprisingly good while I was on vacation. I actually lost a pound after the first few days and then by the end of the week I was up 3 pounds but by the time I got back home it had all come back off and I'm now down another pound. Just hope I can hold that pound off until Saturday's weigh in.

I thought I'd share with you two last photos from vacation.














This first one shows the massive stairs (and believe me this is only a small portion of them) that we had to walk down (AND BACK UP) to get to the 3rd waterfall.

























This was my viewpoint from standing directly under the waterfall looking up.

I need to visit each of your blogs to get updates on your weight loss. Sorry it's out of date. I'll update it tomorrow.

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Challenge Update! - Week Six (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Down to 178.4 lbs (not sure if that's a loss or gain)
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost 4.4 pounds. Woo Hoo!!! What a loss!!
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost 1.6 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Hasn't weighed-in in 3 weeks :(
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life should really be this simple...

This morning I went for a walk. Well, you might actually call it a hike. I walked off my mom's mountain. We're 3,500 feet high up here on the mountain. And, no, I didn't walk all the way down, but I walked 2 miles down to her mailbox and then back up.

Picture this... Walking down a rocky, dirt road that's so steep I keep slipping on the rocks in the road. I get half way down and ask myself, 'what am I doing?' I didn't bring any energy bars with me so I had to eat some peanut butter before heading out and that only lasted me maybe a half hour. So then I get down to the mailbox and look back and the rocky, dirt road looks like it's at least a 30 degree incline. I really don't think I'm exagerating. I asked my mom what she thought the grade was up her mountain and she agreed it could probaby be between 20-30 degrees steep. I didn't know how I was going to make it back up. But I didn't have a choice. There's no cell service on the mountain. In fact, you have to drive an hour away before you'll get cell service. And everyone was asleet so I didn't have a choice but to keep trekking straight up hill.

And I did. I kept saying "come on, Cara, you can do this" out loud to myself. The worst part was her driveway. I'll bet it's at least a 45 degree grade straight up. She has to have a hummer to get up it in the winter. It's impassable when there's any snow at all. My heart rate got up to 180 for the last 100 feet or so up the driveway.

What an adventure!!

You know what sucks? My heart rate monitor says that I only burned 346 calories. What's up with that??!! That walk kicked my butt! My heartrate wouldn't get above 155 the whole way!

Oh, well. I feel better that I walked. I miss walking. And I miss biking. I can't wait to get back home so I can go biking in the morning. I just found that perfect route that took me 12 miles in one hour to finishe and I burned, I think, something like 800 calories. Now that's a workout.

I don't want to leave here, though. We're having a blast.

Tuesday, we went to Green Bank radio observatory. A place where they have huge telesope dish receivers that listen to noises in space and make beautiful pictures out of the sounds. Most of the beautiful photos that you see of colorful clouds in space come from a radio telescope. (That's me and my mom in the pic with the 100 meter tall dish telescope behind us in the distance.)

Then went to Snowshoe ski resort. And of course there was no snow but we rode the ski lift down and back. I've never ridden a ski lift before. Heck, I've never skied before! It was beautiful!

Yesterday we went to the Greenbrier River Trail. What a beatiful place. This picture doesn't do it justice. We walked for about a half hour then went down to the river and walked right into the middle of it. The water is WAY down. They haven't had alot of rain lately. So we sat down on a couple of large rocks poking out of the water and just sat there. I could have stayed there all day, I kid you not.

Then, today we went to the General Lewis Inn and had lunch. What an amazing place. I cheated a little... I had an open faced crab salad sandwich that had melted mozerella cheese on top. It was yummy. I had a side of fruit and water. Was a bit of a splurge, but that's what flex points are for, right? :)

I've been staying on plan as best as I can. I'm only up one pound since weigh in. That's really not that bad because usually I'm up 3-5 pounds by mid-week after WI. So I figure I'm ahead of the game. I've been drinking A LOT of water, too. I think that really helps! Plus we've been walking EVERYWHERE! We don't go anywhere unless we walk miles to get there.

Then we ended the day at the Greenbrier Hotel. What a truly amazing experience. What history is there! I didn't take this photo because my pictures are still on the memory stick, but I took one that was JUST like this. We toured inside the hotel and took some amazing photos. What an experience!

The best part of the day came after we got back to my mom's house. We went 4-wheel-driving! Oh man! I've never done that before! I screamed with excitement the whole way! My daughter and I took turns driving. One drove while the other was on the back. We rode up to a beautiful spot on top of another mountain and stopped and watched the horses graze. I didn't get any pictures, but it was a heavenly experience! I felt so close to God up there!

Really, this is how simple life truly should be!

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vacation can be a cool thing...

Hello from vacation!

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get online, but I am. Woo hoo!

(You have no idea how long it took me to upload these two pictures :)

We had a great day today. Went to a place called Cranberry Caverns and Beartown something-or-other. The cranberry place was a hike in the woods. We only walked for about an hour, but it was a trek! Walked deep in the woods to this clearing that had a spectacular view of surrounding mountains. I picked up a 6 foot tall walking stick to carry with me. Was so cool!

The beartown place was a boardwalk through huge rocks and caverns where bears hide. A real live deer walked right up to the boardwalk. We spooked him at first but then he came back and I pretended like I had a piece of food I was going to give him in my hand (I know that was mean). So when I extended my arm out, he inched closer and closer. Daughter got some good pictures of the deer. Obviously these deers are used to people and all but it was still cool being that close to such a magnificent creature.

The boardwalk was really cool, but I liked the hike through the woods better. I remember hiking through the woods as a kid and it brought back great memories. Especially because my guide was my mom and behind me was my precious daughter.

But the thing that came to mind most was a post I read by Lyn when she was talking about a walk she made in the woods and about how she'd tried it before but never could make it all the way and what a triumph it was for her to make it so far. I felt the same way today. I didn't get winded at all. My mom, who's not used to walking so much, did get winded. I thought how that was so me last year. I'm sure there would have been no way I could have walked as far as we did today if I had that extra 90 pounds on me.


Oh, did I mention I weighed in today? Yea, because I'm in a strange place, I have to weigh in when they have their meetings and they only meet once a week in these parts--Mondays at 5pm. I know I just weighed in 3 days ago, so I knew my weight would be up. I've been good, but I'm always up at least a couple of pounds by Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Well, surprise, surprise. I lost 1.2 pounds!!

Could not believe that at all!!!

I have really been being good while I'm here but I had no idea I was being that good. And I've been drinking a lot of water over the past few days. That might have helped some, too.

As a treat, we went right from WI to Dairy Queen and I had two West Virginia hot dogs. If you've never heard of them before, let me tell you what a treat. I had no idea there was any way you could ever eat hot dogs until I was a senior in high school and we went on a mission trip to Canada and they talked about eating Canadian hot dogs and some other girls from Indiana talked about how their hot dogs were different as well. A WV hot dog has chili made with finely ground beef and no beans and on top of that is cole slaw where the cabbage has been minced. They call it a "Chili and Slaw Dog". Oh my gosh! What a treat. You can't get them outside of WV. I've tried, but they're never the same. The cole slaw is usually with shredded cabbage with very little mayo or with chili that has big chuncks of ground beef or beans in it. But oh man were these dogs heaven!


(P.S. you have no idea how long it took me to upload that picture of the hot dog :) The fries weren't mine, my daughter shoved them in there right before I clicked the picture.)

A true treat!

More later...


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Challenge Update! - Week Five (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - Gained 3 pounds.
Katschi (tues WI) - Lost 1.2 pounds.
MaryFran (tues WI) - Down to 178.4 lbs (not sure if that's a loss or gain)
Karyn (mon WI) - Lost .6 pound.
Donna (mon WI) - Lost .9 pound.
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - Lost .8 pounds.
Cathy (fri WI) - Hasn't weighed in in 2 weeks :(
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