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?

A winter milestone!

Well, folks, one year ago this weekend Josh and I left for our honeymoon cruise! It's hard to believe it has already been that long since we left for the beautiful Caribbean. Unfortunately, we don't have any tropical vacations planned for 2012. *sigh.*

Anyway, because it has been one year, I thought I'd share a milestone I reached recently.

I walked .7 miles!

In reality, it's only .1 miles further than I could walk this time last year, but I am excited for the following reason:

I could walk .6 miles in warm, tropical weather (ideal weather) but I can now walk .7 miles in cold, wintery weather!
Weather has a big effect on my ability to walk long distances. The colder it is, the harder it is for me to walk. So the way I see it, that .1 mile difference is actually more significant, and for that reason it is really encouraging. Sure, I was utterly exhausted when we got to the restaurant we were walking to, and I was pretty much relying on Josh to hold me up, but it was still me pick up my feet step after step.

When I think about how well I am doing in 35 degree weather, I get really excited about what I can accomplish when the weather warms up this Spring. Who knows, maybe I'll reach my goal in 2012! But I'm not going to press it because I don't want to be disappointed if I don't make my goal in whatever time period I give myself.

So that's why I am going to celebrate each milestone, even if it is just .1 mile per year. And if it's less, that's ok too.



It's all about baby steps, right?

Happy 2012!