My new exercise is taking tap class again! :) It was so much fun last night and boy was I sweating!! yay! And now I am a sub teacher for tap to teach kids! :) Two times a week! So I will really get exercise in!

Backpacking was amazing. Except for the bugs. But positives were I was not out of breath at any point during our hiking. Last year I would hike for 5 min then have to rest to acclimate to the hike. This year nothing. :) The pack sure weighed a lot tho! But it was a great time getting out into nature. I havent worked out since monday because I have had a nasty cold that has had me down with a fever all week and I just cant get myself to feel even more hot while working out. I hope I get better soon, or at least drop the fever so I can go ride my bicycle and weight lift again!

One key word. Inspiration. Let me explain,
Last year I met Kari, as a personal trainer and she told me how she lost weight and I joined the weight loss competition and lost nothing. But she inspired me to do a triathlon, and she inspired me to loose weight. For me inspiration comes from the little (BIG) things. Completing a tri was a great challenge and made me feel powerful! Without Kari I would have had no inspiration to loose weight or even think about doing a tri.

Key word. Incentive.
My sister on the other hand had a baby six months ago and has still not dropped the weight and cant figure out how. I gave her the eat clean book, and my "fitness" magazines. I gave her the 90day supreme workout DVD's... Until last week she only used the book as a coaster, and tried the DVD's once. Last week she came to me for help to loose weight. I guess she wasnt inspired by watching me do my tri, or by all the 5ks... Last week she tried the 30 day shed by jilian Michaels. She did it for 3 days straight! And did a 5k with me that weekend. Last night I asked her how working out was going and she said bad. I asked her what her inspiration was, what her motivator was what her incentive was, and she said I have no money to spend, so nothing. So I stepped in. I gave her an incentive that I knew she wanted but didnt have the money for, a digital camera class. Needless to say she got off her butt and worked out. She now has an incentive other then loosing weight.

Its kinda funny how such a little thing to one person can mean so much to another. How loosing weight is not really an incentive, because its hard and you dont often see changes right away. But the second there is a different incentive, or different inspiration the game changes. For my change it was inspiration! For my sister her change will be from incentives. It would be nice to know other peoples words for change.

I lowered my 5k time another min!! AND my leg didnt hurt! These 100$ shoes are amazing!!! :)
I get to go back packing this week and I am attempting to clean up the meals I eat while out there because they are loaded with sodium. I baked cookies with quinoa, and oatmeal in them, and they are gluten free as well as organic, that I will be taking along. I am also going to take pancake mix and attempt those in the morning on a skillet. They have oats and are whole wheat (much better then poptarts) I am struggling with things to take for lunch because of the weight (yes things add up a lot and with all freeze dried food and only one change of clothes my backpack is usually around 40 pounds) So that being said I need to find some way to replace at least some of my cup o noodles that I take in. Still trying to figure out how because there are also bears up there and it will be a full moon!

I am really looking forward to all the hiking we will be doing! Around 15 miles or more!! I am also looking forward to the meteor shower! :) Until next time...

I have been doing the elliptical everyday this week, and wearing my heart rate monitor and I notice the amount on screen is half of what I get wearing the heart rate monitor for calorie burn. I guess because a heart rate monitor doesnt take into account the resistance factor? Well with that on top of the 30min of weight training wew! Last night doing legs I burned 220 calories in 20 min doing legs (according to the HRM) Go me!

Im off to run another 5k tomm! And I convinced my family to come do it again!! Yay for making healthy choices family! :)

With all this elliptical and weights I keep noticing a change in my body, like I dont feel fat when I pinch my skin, it has a different texture if you know what I mean. Like its tighter feeling. Which is a plus!

This weekend I will only ride the bike once due to the 5k. BUT I will make sure to make that once count!

If someone would have told me a year ago that I would have ran 10 5ks this year... I would have laughed in their face. And when they would have told me I would do my first Tri, I would have REALLY laughed. But Alas, I did my Tri, and I am on to 5k number 5 this Sat in Old Town. If you are in Fort Collins, Come Join ME! I am hoping to lower my time even more. As with August, bring it on! I have so many healthy events planned for you! We have 2 5ks, a three day backpacking trip, biking at least 6.5 miles every weekend, if not twice a weekend. And the elliptical at least 4 times a week!