Aggressive April

Cove Hardwood Nature Trail - GSMNP

April 2, 2011

I was inspired by Dawne's Hard Core 10 challenge and although I knew I had too many obstacles to participate with her, a idea of my own was born.  A few things in our life have changed dramatically and it's time to tell you about them.  Those changes have gotten me excited about the upcoming months and motivated to go "hard-core" as Dawne suggested.  I wasn't going to give my personal challenge a name until I came around a trail turn during my solo wildflower ramble yesterday and was faced with the above picture.   My "challenge" became clear.  I'm calling it the "Hard Left Turn!"  Don't get me wrong.  I've truly enjoyed the past several months of calm and contentment and believe that is a foretaste of what maintenance will be like for me.  I've lost slowly, but steadily (6 pounds during 1st quarter) and not been at all stressed about it.  

But here's the deal!!  You might remember that Mr. B and I were offered a chance to spend six weeks in Europe this summer.  He would be teaching a course for three weeks in May and then we could travel at our own expense for as long as we wished with his return trip still paid for.  For several personal reasons, we decided in January that I would not go and he would only stay for the three weeks he taught.  Unfortunately, he learned a week or so ago that the program which included the class he was to teach, had been cancelled.   Needless to say, I am thrilled and I honestly believe he is relieved.   Once we determined that it was best for me not to go, I think much of his enthusiasm waned as well.  

That gave us the green light to resume our Summer Trip 2011 plans.  A bit of background is in order since this blog is less than a year old and because of Mr. B's dad's illness and death, 2010 was not at all a normal year for us.  We began making plans at age 30 to retire no later than age 50 in order to divide our time between volunteer mission work and personal travel.  At age 45, Mr. B changed careers and found the "calling" he should have followed from the beginning.  I retired from a very stressful corporate career at age 48, but he is only getting started and truly LOVES his work.  We have the best of both worlds because we are still able to travel extensively during May/June/August and some of December/January when he is out of school.  Last summer, there were only a few short trips because we knew his dad was facing death and we of course, did not want to be away from his mom.  So, with the Prague assignment out of the way and all parents reasonably healthy, we are so excited about Summer Trip 2011!!

It is just about planned, but here's a teaser.   We'll be spending five weeks in Colorado plus around 10 days on the front and back end exploring new places between Tennessee and Colorado.  You'll be hearing much more about the trip as it unfolds.

Our Summer Trips involve non-stop activity as we fully embrace the places we visit.   We hike, bike, learn the history and make every attempt to become a "local" during the time we are in a specific community.  I know that I want to feel and look my best.   Thus the reason for April's HARD LEFT TURN CHALLENGE!  I am excited, I am motivated and with a very specific goal in mind, I am ready to move forward.  The goal does not involves numbers - it simply involves one month of hard work so that I can be energized during our trip.  I have some clothes that will fit better with the loss of a few pounds and that gives me even greater incentive.  With two days of this already behind me, I can safely say it's the kick in the pants I needed.  We will leave around May 9, the hard left turn has already been made, the path I am following looks like this:

 

Sugarland Valley Nature Trail - GSMNP

April 2, 2010

AND I CAN"T WAIT!!

I am so excited about everything!  Those liars I wrote about have been banished for now!   I'm ready to rid myself of these pounds because I KNOW I can do maintenance and I've never been this confident of that before. Thanks Dawne, for your inspiration and a blog that has inspired me from the day I first found it.  And believe me, I'll more than welcome anyone else who'd like to join me in my HARD CORE LEFT TURN!  Yours can even be a right turn if you'd like!   LOL!!

 

COLORADO, HERE I COME!

 

Rocky Mountain National Park - May, 2009

Anybody else interested in making a hard core turn in April?