A Weighty Issue

When I tell people that I am planning to thru hike the Colorado trail, I feel like people make a double take at me, like, “You? Seriously!?” When stopping by the ranger station at the beginning of a hike to get some info, the attendant usually gives us instructions like we have never spent any time in the woods before. I guess I don’t look like a hiker based on my physique. If you haven’t been able to tell from any of my pictures, I am not a size two. Or eight. According to BMI calculators, I am obese.

I’ve always been mildly over weight, except for a short time in 7^th and 8^th grade where I was able to go to a backpacking summer camp which kick started a year ahead full of sports and physical activity. After that, I got lazy and slowly accumulated the pounds. I love food. I have always loved bad-for-you, fattening and made-for-you food.

The thing is, my muscles still work. Under the cushion, I have strong muscles. I’m not lazy, per se. I don’t look like the picture of health, but I promise you, I am strong hiker. I can run longer than some people half my size. I have learned that being an appropriate weight does not equal being in shape. For the most part, I am usually in mild to good shape. With a few weeks of hard work, I get bumped up in to very good shape.

Abram Falls hike Great Smokies, March 2015. Not in that great of shape, but accomplished this "moderately difficult" hike in just under 2 hours. We were booking it, and literally passed every single hiker on the trail. We didn't mean to be rude, or be "those guys" but we were in it for the intense workout and planned it poorly to take place on an apparently very popular hike. I do remember hurting with a headache and calf pain that night and so on from overdoing it, but was proud of the accomplishment anyway

Abram Falls, 210 pounds.

218 and miserably out of shape. July 2014 Steamboat Springs, Colorado

My heaviest weight, which was held for most of 2014, was 218 pounds. That was bad for several reasons. First of all health, but most immediately important to me was the fact that I felt very limited physically to do the things I love, which include getting outside and hiking. Yeah, clothes don’t fit, and that’s inconvenient, but what I care most about is what I can do, not what I look like. Honestly, I feel a lot smaller than I actually am, and don’t realize how big my foot print is until I’m squeezed into an amusement park ride, airplane seat or see pictures of myself from the wrong angle.

Starting Old Rag 3 or 4 weeks ago, 200 and something pounds. 

I have decided to do something about my weight so several things have happened in the last couple of months. For the last two months, my husband and I quit drinking alcohol, I quit drinking caffeinated beverages, we upped our activity to an average 10+ hours a week and I joined weight watchers. Hasta la vista, pounds! 

  

Today, June 7, 2015. 203 pounds. I haven't worn shorts, let alone skin tight shorts, in years! (K, the backpack hides the muffin top. But the legs? I'm happy).