NSV - 20+ years in the making!

I should start by saying that I've always struggled with my weight. As long as I can remember I've carried around more weight than I liked or than what I should have.

20+ years ago, when my husband and I were dating, he took me on one of his favorite trails up in the Colorado mountains. I don't know that I even made it a quarter of a mile before I completely gave up. I was winded, I was sore, and I simply did not enjoy it. My husband has always been an amazing and accommodating man...and even though he was disappointed, he didn't push the issue, and never made me feel bad about not making it on the trail (bless him!).

Fast forward to 2 years ago, when we started to take up day hikes with the kids on summer weekends. I had lost around 20 pounds at the time, and was feeling pretty good with my accomplishment. That summer we hiked and biked several of the mountain trails. We even went back on "the" trail - my nemesis, and I made it, and had a great time.

2 years since, and another 55 pounds down...our goal is to do a new trail every weekend. Our summer goal is to work up to an overnight backcountry hike in/camp/hike out in late August. We started two weeks ago with a fairly easy 4-5 mile hike that my husband chose. Lots of beautiful water features along the way, and nothing too technical or aggressive. This last weekend was my choice for a trail...I picked a 6 mile trail, a 1000 ft elevation gain that would open to a meadow with old homesteads to tour. While I researched the location, the overall gain, the length, etc - what neither of us did was review the topo map. So, we're hiking the trail, and there are a lot of what I call roller coasters...down a hill to go up a hill; rocky steps, etc. The trail was rated as a med-high moderate difficulty, and my husband felt EVERY step...in fact his quote of the day "This hiking thing would be ok if it weren't for all these rocks and hills!" LOL!

Needless to say, we made it - and we were rewarded with an amazing open meadow at the top and all kinds of interesting artifacts from the turn of the century. That was pretty cool! But the most awesome part of the day? I felt AMAZING the entire hike. I could have done it twice. In fact, I ran part of the trail just to get my heart rate up!

20 years ago - you wouldn't find me on a trail. And you sure as heck wouldn't see me running ANYWHERE! I'm in the best shape of my life, and I feel amazing! I am SO thankful that I made the decision to invest in my health 18 months ago, and even more thankful that I found the MFP tool and the MFP friends that have contributed to my success in this weight loss journey!