Stable?

I think I'm stablizing, which is great because it means that my body is getting used to what I'm giving it and not having any crazy reactions to anything.

We had to negotiate a bit on this, my body and myself, but I think we've found some understanding between us. I've moved my cheese intake down from "Obsessive" to "Reasonable". My muscles have stopped being sore after enduring any sort of workout, and therefore have stopped hording water (that shows up on the scale as extra poundage). And most importantly I've started accepting myself how I look right now, and come to terms with the fact that this is how I'm going to look for about one more month... and it's a heck of a lot better than I looked about one month ago!

My eating has been pretty much the same for the past few days. Chicken salads, veggie scrambles, and more chicken dishes at night. I've been dabbling in greek yogurt + strawberries and I'm really loving that combo.

The sad news is that the strawberry cream pie is gone. The happy news is that everyone who tasted it enjoyed it greatly! I'm so excited about cooking... I'm making almond bread tonight. I cannot even wait. I have so many lists of things I want to try and make, but I'm being patient and not making them all at once since then I'd want to eat them all at once. And that's not really part of the agreement me and my body are in right now. I've agreed to pace myself... so yeah. Almond bread only tonight.

Oh, and sugar free mayo! I am making that tonight, too. From scratch! For egg salad. That's going to be exciting for me, let me tell you.

So, I made more of this the other day:

To review - it's tomatoes, motzerella, spinach, and balsalmic. That's slightly different from the batch my friend Ashley made for the picnic about a week ago... but I think it'll be good this way, too. The motzerella I got was marinated in italian spices, which I think will be tasty. I have yet to try this, I'm thinking tonight with some chicken. I don't want the tomatoes to think I've forgotten about the relationship we're building.

I've finally found a balance with working out, too. Which is nice. My body's not freaking out everytime I move. I've now got a good routine worked out at home between the treadmil and the weights we have in our garage, so I've been doing that nearly every other day. No hot yoga for me tonight :( I went on a pretty extensive hike with two friends yesterday (in the mountains, to a waterfall!) and slipped on  some rocks and managed to pull a muscle in my ankle. Boo. No lunging or balancing for me. Perhaps Wednesday I'll be all healed up and ready to yoga in the sauna again.

The hike yesterday was amazing, btw.

I'm told that the hike is 2.4 miles each way to the waterfall. The drive there was pretty enough, but hiking through the mountains was pretty dang impressive as well. This is why I love southern California - we have so much within driving distance of us, even mountainous waterfall landscapes. I didn't even know all of what I saw yesterday was there.

A view into the valley from our hike down the mountain

(taken with the Hipstamatic 1969 camera app on my phone)

This is the waterfall we hiked to

The hike was all down hill on the way to the waterfall, and all up on the way back. Needless to say, the way there was a breeze. Once we got down the mountain we had to hike quite a ways into the rocks and such to reach the actual fall, which also involved forging a small river, haha. That was fun. The boys I went with probably could have lept over the thing on a few of the more closely placed rocks... but me, not so much. We ended up having to cross on some rocks that were nestled under a tree in the middle of the river that was covered in fire ants.

Yay adventure!

Both boys I went with love things like climbing, so we managed to get ourselves to the top of the waterfall, too. I'm pretty sure it's the most intense climbing I've ever done. I felt really great about having done it afterwards, though. And I know that I probably wouldn't have been able to do it without being completely misarable 30lbs heavier. Being out there, walking and climbing and not feeling insecure all of the time was incredible. It's really something I only thought I could imagine, not achieve. I'm so excited to think that by summer I'll be down 30 more!

Anyway, it was a great day. The hike back up wasn't so bad. Once we got past an initial steep incline it felt just like a bit of a challenging walk. I really need to get hiking shoes, though. Up until now I've been using some old Vans and their traction is not going to cut it. I've got a throbbing ankle today to remind me of that fact. Hiking was just never something I thought I'd get into. But really, what's not to love? Being outdoors is pretty great.

And, amidst a pretty reliable, stable life (thankfull for that, of course), a little adventure every weekend or so is greatly appreciated.