22373

this week was tough.  for sure.  it was amazing how hard i was able to work.  i was really afraid i'd be knocked down again like the only other time in my life i exercised consistently.

even though i had some adjustments to make to the higher altitude, i was able to do everything that was asked of me each day- and i pushed myself harder than ever.

and i was able to burn twenty-two thousand three hundred seventy-three active calories in less than 6 days.
not including any of the thousand calories i burned while sleeping, or hundreds of calories as i just was sitting.

my time here is done, and i know if i was here one more week i would have been able to do even better.  now i'm acclimated to the altitude and am not as fatigued/sore as i spent much of this week.  rolling over in bed was a challenge, but also just sitting.  and moving.

when i got here, i would routinely get bouts of nausea, but nothing that stayed like in 2012.  i will say, though, that i gave caffeine up a week before i got here, and i had a perpetual headache all last week until mid week this week.  i don't think that was strictly caffeine related (my withdrawals are usually just 2 or 3 days' worth) but in any case, i've been feeling better about that these last few days.

thursday-saturday were considerably easier than mon-wed.  in fact, yesterday (saturday) we barely exerted ourselves at all.  we hiked the bottom of a canyon (about 4.5 mi) and had an hour of yoga.  besides that, we had an hour of resting in a gorgeous spa.  then we went on a grocery tour.

i had my going home assessment today, and i was pretty sad that the 22373 calories didn't show themselves much in weight loss.  but 7 total inches lost sounded pretty bonus to me!
it is quite disheartening to know that i won't (obv) be able to keep up with 4000+ cals a day of loss.  but theory is that when i'm back to my elevation i will use my water more efficiently and not retain it.  Leah seems to think i'm not done yet.

now if only i can continue to totally change my life.......
i NEED to keep this up.

lucky girl

greetings from Salt Lake City, Utah!
i keep reminding myself to enjoy every minute of it because not many people have a Mr. like mine. 
he is going to find out even more of what i go thru while he travels extensively for his job.  because he will have little girl for much longer (almost double on a normal week) than i do;  and he is also going to be working his job for the most part of it.

i have tremendous friends that are helping out one day b/c he has a meeting to get to.

i am currently looking out of my hotel window with a view of a mountain.  not too shabby.
and when i go to the other side of the hotel where the elevator is, i see gorgeous snow-covered mountains over there, too!

i happen to be here on the weekend of the large conference the Mormons hold.  my friend Christina liked my term i used for my adventures into the city last night.  "swarmon"  as in swarming mormons.  so while i was trying to find a place to eat before my retreat officially starts with orientation tonight, so were all the many people of LDS faith.  also passed a few other people who wanted to antagonize the LDS belief system.

i have today to putz around.  reading in bed & watching a movie in a theater is in my agenda!!  wow!  and tomorrow, at 6am (bright eyed and bushy-tailed optional), i will begin my time here where i can only imagine how exhausted i will feel at the end of each day.

i'm so fortunate that The Mr. has allowed me to take a vacation from life! 
i'm very hopeful for the outcome.