What Nature Does To You...

From last Thursday night to Sunday morning, I went with my wife's family to Julian. All I can say is... AMAZING! I never could have imagined how beautiful it would be. Any time you go on a vacation, it's very hard to eat well. But I can say that I am pretty proud of myself. The first night wasn't great... but not that bad. Friday was my best day of them all. Luckily my father in law, Dennis, was there to encourage me to always make good choices, as he was trying to do the same.
The next hardest thing to achieve on vacation is a good cardio workout. Again... lucky me, my father in law was there to the rescue! I told him I was thinking about taking a fast walk when I woke up. He said he was going to do the same... but at 6:30am. Now I usually work till 11:30pm at night... so I rarely ever see 6:30 in the morning unless I'm going fishing. So, when I woke up, around 8:30am, he said, "Want to go for a walk?" I said, "I thought you already went?" He then said, "I did, but it'll be nice to go with you." So we went for that walk.
What I was thinking was going to be about 1/2 hr, turned into an hour + walk. And that hour + was amazing +.
This picture was our turn-around point. We huffed it up the hill and took a quick rest and then back to the house. I'm kinda embarrassed to say that he beat me up that hill, but oh well. My endurance will get there.
The rest of the day was right on point food wise. I even went into the town to get some brown rice for dinner because there wasn't a good healthy option for me. That is how committed I am to losing this weight and becoming a healthy person. I had a lot of times to "cheat," but I never did, and it feels great to know that I can overcome the cravings.
Now, the next day was another story. It was my free day though. Even though it was my free day, I didn't go overboard. I still drank a lot of water and ate reasonable meals. Usually my free day is also free of cardio, but my family wanted to take a hike at William Heise County Park in Julian. Let me tell you, this hike got me hooked on hiking! I'm thinking about doing a hike every Saturday morning now. Here are some pictures I took. My brother in law, David, took some pictures with his really nice camera, so I'll post those when I get them. All in all, it was an amazing weekend.

It's amazing what nature does to you. If everybody lived in such a beautiful place, I think more people would exercise... especially if there were deer prancing, turkey's gobbling, cows mooing, bulls... doing whatever they do, and leaves blowing in the wind that actually change color given the season. Julian really solidified that I am in love with the mountains and trees. Maybe some day I won't need to drive that far just to look at them every day. I think I am going to print out the picture I took while walking and talking with my father in law and put it in front of me when I'm on the elliptical... just to remind myself of the peace I felt while I was there, and the rekindled love of the great outdoors.