Checking in again

Hello to anyone who may be reading this! Thanks for dropping by!

Sorry for the lack of posts here lately. Things have literally been CRAZY! I want to go into details, and I promise I will, but here are some highlights.
- Summer came and went. I got a lot of Stand Up Paddleboarding in, which was great! I love being out on the lake and exploring new places on the water.
- I went on a vacation for the first time in years - first time going anywhere with my new body! I went to Washington DC, which is one of my favorite places to travel to. I can't say that I didn't spend all of my vacation recreating photos, but, uh, I spent some time taking photos so I could compare. I mean, I know I've changed, but it wasn't until I saw a side by side photo that I realized that I'd really changed. It was amazing. My my vacation was filled with lots of activity that I'm not sure I'd have been able to do before my weight loss. On our last day there, I walked almost a half marathon around that city AND rode a bike.
- My house caught on fire. I'm currently living in a hotel. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be here, but our home won't be livable for at least another six months. Everyone was safe, including our little dog, and that's all that matters. But with that, I'm still trying to eat healthily (or as healthily as possible with limited kitchen space, kitchen utensils, and more) and get my workouts in. Our hotel does have a lovely fitness center and our rooms are VERY solid. I've done several Jillian Michaels workouts the last two weeks and I've had no complaints from neighbors. Family members (my parents) are in the room above me, and they let me use their room to work out in if necessary. It just usually depends on where my weights are. This has been a major challenge to me and I've been so nervous that this may be my downfall to weight loss. I'm not exercising nearly as often as I was, and diet and nutrition is tough. But that said, I'm hard on myself with all that. Sometimes I wonder if I was overtraining and restricting calories too much. My clothes fit the same (or well, still in the same size; I've had to buy new clothes) but I just feel like there is so much more I could be doing. I'll elaborate more on this in another post. I hope that I'll be able to talk about my issues more and actually use this blog more!
- I have learned that I REALLY LOVE to run outdoors. I used to be a mostly-treadmill only girl. A run outside was a rarity. We did a LOT of walking in Washington DC, and every time we were out walking, it didn't matter the time or weather. There was always someone out running. It inspired me to give it a try. It didn't matter if it was rainy or really hot or what, they were out running. They were going somewhere instead of running on a treadmill. I wanted to give it a shot! While we were there, we'd watch their local news stations, and I heard about a woman who running and when was randomly stabbed. She passed away and I was really sad to hear it. It got me thinking again about running outdoors. This woman I never knew, never met, never heard of until she passed away and possibly wouldn't have heard of inspired me. Her story inspired me. So I decided to try something new in honor of someone whose story touched me. I got to explore places around my home that I never knew about and I've lived in the area for almost 30 years. I climbed up hills that at first felt like mountains that now I am able to run up no problem. (Well, we'll see what happens. In the hotel we're at, it's elevator only. I can't believe how much I miss stairs!)

So that's been a condensed (although it doesn't seem like it!) version of life lately. I hope to elaborate more on all of these in the near future and keep blogging about living in a hotel and still managing my workouts and healthy eating. This may be the biggest test of my fitness journey so far. Current workout: Killer Body. I was doing Body Rev again but I've done Killer Body so many times that I can remember it by heart.

Love to everyone, especially if you're reading this. <3