Lots of food, lots of exercise

Did my early morning freezing tennis, and I feel excellent for it!  The friend I play with is a relatively new friend and a cancer survivor and she loves living life to the fullest...and that seems to include playing tennis as early as necessary rather than say "not this week - gotta work."  Or "not this Saturday - temps are right around freezing."  Nope - we played.  We laughed.  We had a blast.  And we burned over 500 calories.  (And I'm slowly improving my backhand to the point where I don't end up going completely over the fence or accidentally throwing my racket as I hit the ball.)    The best part about tennis, other than this great friend?  We have no rules.  We know the rules, but we don't care all that much who is supposed to serve or if the ball bounced once or twice, etc.  Oh, it's fun!!

Other exercise today:  Walked the long stairway at the start of a mountain trail near my town with my guy.  Long dirt path uphill leading to the stairs, then 3 times up and down the stairs, 16 min total: 150 calories.  I doubled up on the stairs b/c doing so made me ache right where I most want to improve my muscle tone - my quads.  I want that definition down the side of my legs just about as much as I want a flat belly.  My fiance suggested I try it 3 steps at a time next time, even if that means I'm doing full form lunges to reach that far, and have to go considerably slower.  I think I'll try that!

I posted these pics last time I climbed these stairs, but here we go again:

This photo is from some other hiker's blog I found when I google searched images of this trail.  Doncha love that dude sticking his head out from under the staircase like a bridge troll?

Your Daily Summary

-78

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1210	2031	- 743	1288

One more quick spurt of exercise: after a trip into the city tonight, I had to walk from the train to a friend's house to borrow her car to get home.  Mild hill, walked very fast since I had to go past a bar that kinda gives me the creeps with some grubby looking unfamiliars outside, and then down some very dark, empty sidewalks to get to the house.  So like a speedwalk.  It was only like 55 calories, but I tallied it up to counteract some of the crap I ate today:  McDonald's Angus burger (hold the mayo and 1 of the 2 slices of cheese, since y'know, I'm eating healthy here folks...Pass me a fry?), and about 3/4 of a LARGE popcorn at the movies (hold the extra butter b/c...yeah, y'know...)

I think I caught a very teeny tiny glimpse of a new mindset today that may or may not eventually develop into my full fledged mindset....that remains to be seen...But it was focused more on my fitness than on my weight loss.  Like a week may come soon when I don't care what the scale says, but I DO care how many times I can climb these stairs, or how many push ups I can do on my toes.  (Still maxing out at 14, and WOW that 14th is a killer!!  And that's not even consistent - sometimes it's 8.)

This past month I've lost 1 inch from my thighs, .25 inch from my calves, .75 inch from my hips, and not a damn thing from my waist.  (Oddly, my goal was to lose mainly from my waist/belly.  If I'm not gonna, I'd rather keep my big round butt and sizeable thighs intact to hopefully make my waist seem small in comparison.  I'd far prefer this:

to this:

Or this:

My local hike and all my extra calories.

My local hike: Lucky, lucky me - I live in this town, with this awesome hiking/rock climbing trail only 10 min away, which - 20 yrs ago - no one but us locals frequented.  Now, the NY Times and Newsweek have let the cat out of the bag, and we're swamped with city dwellers on day trips, sometimes BUS LOADS OF THEM!  ACK!,  clogging up the trails.  Blah.  Today, however - a Thursday morning - my friend and I had the mountain to ourselves!  How wonderful!!

It's nearly vertical right from the start.  Around the 1st peak, you get your 2nd wind in time to tackle the 2nd peak, and the climbs to the 2nd and 3rd peaks are the most scenic and most thrilling/potentially dangerous.  Then it levels out a little to the 4th and final peak - some hills, some descents, a little bit of climbing (hands needed) here and there.  It all coincides so perfectly with what your muscles want and need.  It's push push push, breath, breath, breath for the 1st 45 min, slightly eases up for the next 15-20 min, and then you start just hiking...some dips/hills, but nothing that strenuous.  The descent is steep in parts and you have to lean way back while you step forward, and it works your quads so well!  By the end, it's just a slight decline and easy walking, as you cool off and realize how totally freakin' amazing you feel, with your exhausted muscles and sweaty clothes and hair!  I feel so much sexier then than I do when I'm all dressed up and standing around some social event, trying to look pretty.

I haven't hiked this trail since Autumn, so I was PSYCHED to bring my HRM and figure out the calorie burn.  However, I forgot one crucial piece of it at home, and so I'll have to wait til next time.  MyFitPal estimates 2 hrs of hiking w/ hills and carrying <10 lb weight to be 949 cals.  I burned more than that w/ tennis last weekend, same amount of time.  I'm certain my heart worked harder on this hike.  I'm going to safely estimate 1100, though I believe it's more.

It's not the majestic mountain trails Maren gets to hike, but it's my own local natural wonder.  Used to be that you could see the Twin Towers on the horizon from the top.  (60 miles away.)  And granite blasted from the side of this mtn was used to build the Brooklyn Bridge.   I get a kick out of these reminders about how close to the city we are, yet how it feels such a world away.

Photos taken from a blogger called HarrimanHiker.  (No relation, though we do share the same blogging last name.)

photo: Alan Petrulis
The Hudson River, the train tracks to Manhattan, and the street we drove here on.

Photo: Robert Rodriguez, Jr.

And a post workout motivation pic:

I have sooooo many calories added into my daily budget now.  I keep finding myself thinking of decadent ways of enjoying them.  Silly, silly thoughts....Must squash them.  Gonna go make a salad.