mission: accomplished

Well, I guess I'll come right out and say it. I walked a mile! The funny thing is, it sort of snuck up on me. I went on a walk/hike this weekend at the coast near my grandparents' house with Josh and our friends Nicole and Timothy and Nicole's brother Eric. We walked a bit on the beach, along a small stream and then up and around part of the Oregon Coast Trail. It was a really leisurely walk and a beautiful one too! I didn't even think about how far it was until Nicole said she was pretty sure we walked at least a mile. So I checked my phone, mapped our course and sure enough, I walked just over a mile!

I have to say, when I realized it, I cried! It has been two years since I started my challenge to walk a mile, and I wasn't really sure how long it would take me, or if I'd even make it. But now that I've reached my goal I am so proud of myself.

On our "mission: accomplished" hike!

To tell you the truth, I think I need to give credit to the elimination diet I recently completed. I blogged about this a lot on my Kelly's Sustainable Life blog, but Josh and I started an elimination diet about six weeks ago with the goal of "getting healthy." I was suffering from pretty severe acid reflux, fatigue and acne, and was fed up with trying medication, so I decided I'd try the diet to see if any particular foods were the culprit. And while the diet was challenging, I was able to identify the foods that were causing my problems and either drastically cut back on eating them or cut them out completely.

Now that I know how great I can feel, I have no doubt that my diet was preventing me from meeting my goal. It makes perfect sense to me. I was "addicted" to eating  a lot of grains, added sugar and dairy, which made me feel sluggish and sick even though they tasted fantastic. But now that I have largely cut those foods out of my diet, my body doesn't have to fight to digest them, and as a result I feel better.

I have an appointment with my nutritionist this week and I am beyond thrilled to share my accomplishment with her. I didn't say this in my original blog post about the diet, but she was pretty convinced that with the right diet, my CMS symptoms could disappear. I was skeptical (and still am for the most part) when she said that, but now that I have been eating better and exercising more, I completely see where she was coming from. Of course my CMS cannot be cured with food, but the healthier I am, the stronger I will be, and as result, I can walk further.

Meeting my goal doesn't mean my one mile challenge is over. It just means I need a new goal!

Ideas?