High On Life....and a Mountain

Today has been fantastic! Not in the way of eating right, mind you, but in the way of me being utterly HAPPY today.

Dwayne, Scarlette and I all headed out on our day trip around 12:00pm. Before he got here, I had a sandwich for breakfast that was about 250 calories. I had also done my absolute best to ensure that I had enough healthy foods for my part of the picnic. Dwayne told me to pick him up an Italian sub from Quizno's. Before I headed out to get it, I looked up their subs, soup bowls, and salads online. Most of the stuff was pretty hideous, nutrition-wise, but I settled on a small grilled chicken Caesar salad w/ no dressing and no flatbread that came with it. It was 210 calories. I packed his sub and my salad along with some Wheat Thins toasted crackers, some low calorie blueberry banana muffins (135 calories and 2g of fat each) some bottled water and 2 of those little 8 oz cans (100 calories) of Coke for Dwayne and I to share. That way I'm only getting about 50 calories at a time instead of the full 140 calories that comes in a 12 oz. can. I'm slowly getting better. :)

We stopped at Kroger in Jasper so I could pick up some watermelon. When I got back out to the car it was nearly 1pm and we both decided we were starving. We had lunch in the car in the Kroger parking lot, lol. I ate about 3/4 of my salad and less than a cup of watermelon. We headed on up to Fort Mountain State Park which is part of the Cohutta Mountains. We drove in to a place where there were some trails and started walking. We saw signs that pointed us to "The Stone Wall" and "The Tower". Intrigued, we started on this path. There were stairs at the very start of the path. Bad sign, lol. There were rock stairs/steps ALL THE WAY UP to the Stone Wall......and even more to get up to the Tower.

I don't know exactly how far we walked, but from the time we headed up til the time we made it back down it took us TWO HOURS!! I was so proud of myself. Of course, I thought I was dying at the time. But it was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to ditch the treadmill today and go hiking somewhere scenic. Of course, I had no idea it was going to be stairs all the way up the mountain. My thigh muscles were on fire, my sides hurt, I gasped for air the entire way up the mountain....and I loved every minute of it. The woods we were walking in were so beautiful. There was lots of shade from all the trees, so that was a blessing. After reaching the top where the Tower was, we took another trail across and down some to a scenic overlook, which was basically a wooden deck they had built onto the side of the mountain. We were literally hanging out off the side of a mountain. The view was magnificent. You could see for miles, even into Tennessee. It was so gorgeous.

After leaving the overlook we had to climb back up for a ways, then we headed down, then it curved back up again, then back down. Like I said, when we reached the bottom, we had been hiking for a total of 2 hours. It was so awesome. Fresh mountain air, fantastic views, an awesome workout....the day couldn't have been better. :)

When we left and headed back towards home, we each had a muffin and we shared a Coke. I was now at about 700 calories for the day. We had to stop by his house on the way home, so by the time we got back to my place it was about 5:30pm. I was STARVING....to the point of a massive headache. I knew I hadn't eaten enough. I rushed to fix dinner for the two of us, which was shrimp and noodles and a salad, and then realized I'd forgotten it was Friday, not Saturday, and Shane was going to be home in a few minutes. I didn't cook enough food for 3 people! Only for Dwayne and I. Another dinner disaster.

Except this time, I didn't stress. I didn't freak. I didn't get upset in the least. What did I do instead? I turned today into Free Day for me and ordered Chinese!!! I'm not even going to pretend to act like I was anguished about my decision. I'm not guilt-ridden in the least. I split the dinner I cooked between the guys, and when my lo mein and egg roll got here, I ate half of the lo mein and I ate the egg roll, and I enjoyed every last sodium-filled bite. LOVED IT. GUILT-FREE.

Yes, I should have left Free Day for tomorrow since it's the 4th of July and we have to go to his mom's at 3pm to eat at a cookout. But I didn't. So now I'm going to eat as few calories as possible before I have to be over there, and just make the best choices I can when I get there. I also had 1 beer with dinner, and half of a 3 Musketeers bar. After my guilt-free meal, I got up and cleaned my kitchen and started some laundry, all with a smile on my face. Today has been fantastic all the way around. No stress, no guilt, lots of good exercise, some yummy food, and quality time with my guy and my puppy dog. I'm going to bed tonight a happy girl. :)

Quote For The Day:

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." -Benjamin Franklin