Get Going....for real this time.

Central NY
June 19-23 2017

I have been saying this for a while now....(like 30 years!!!) I've got to loose some weight and get back to my active routine...BUT everything is about FOOD!!!

The weekends are always difficult. The cabinets call out..."open me, come on, you know there is something yummy and totally unhealthy in here", "How about a little snack while you watch tv?"calls the fridge......add that lunch or dinner on a weekend is a norm for us...at least during the work week, I'll have some built in safety measures....although someone always has a birthday, or a new baby, retirement, or some luncheon. Being on the road most of the day also opens the opportunity to pick up fast food in a pinch, and by the time the days ends..Dinner is always easier when its made over the phone....GEEZE!!!

This week I had vowed (again) to get back to healthy...Sunday was to be my very last (LOL) cheat day....Father's day "Dunch" ( termed by the Beale men dinner and lunch). Mark's choice,.... so we had DUNCH at The Cracker Barrel....

Not a new place, but a place I have not gone to often and usually for breakfast when I have,
Being my "Last Meal." I ordered (no not a burger this time) but the Sunday special of boneless fried chicken and all those yummy sides.

(not one single thing on my plate was near healthy.)
IT WAS ALL SOOOOO YUMMY!!! Although I did try I was unable to lick my plate clean...and we left completely satisfied.

Later...I devised my back to healthy plan. A. gym in the morning, B. healthy food choices, C. walking daily (I've got to get my back strength up to hike.) D. Incorporate swimming/biking or some activity into my afternoons and E. Evening Dog walks.

Monday.....I had a scheduled of to do's with all of the above fit nicely into my day...(I had read somewhere, if you write it down your more likely to do it. HA!)
Mark and I had a good routine of 4am gym which was pretty consistent for awhile. (this was several months ago). I haven't gone since before my trip to Florida with the girls. (WOW...there is membership money flushed down the toilet.)

Ready to GET BACK to routine...I OVERSLEPT!!!! Day 1 First Fail!!!
That is OKAY...I still have multiple activities to do on my schedule and I will absolutely stick to my food journal. (Of course I could ALWAYS go to the gym later.)

That was of course until I got a text from my co-workers reminding me that we were meeting for breakfast at Stella Diner for Monday morning meeting.,....WHAT!!!! Do I even have enough willpower to say NO to diner foods???
I could have risked my impulse to really stuff it in and opt out of a meal at the diner and have a grapefruit before I left for the day. (Which was my original intent.) or I could face the reality that there is ALWAYS going to be FOOD in my face. Instead I choose to eat sensibly at the diner.
My next "plan" for the day was to walk during my lunch break. As my job allows I am often out in the community near a local park during break time. I had decided that I would find a park/trail or simply walk in the areas I would be around at lunch time.
I had an appointment in Liverpool at 1pm..so I figured I would walk Onondaga Lake Park for my lunch break and head to my 1pm appointment. Well my 1pm canceled...then he called and wanted to talk for 45 minutes....I never left my desk....So there goes that idea.
Okay,,,I can still take a dip in the pool or ride my bike (which has been used in the total of three maybe even four years of ownership been used 5xs.) when I get home this afternoon.  I got home after work and it was RAINING!!!
I GIVE UP!!! I had homemade mac and cheese for dinner...

The next day gave me another reason to fail. Overslept...missed the gym, rain....had to get groceries...there always seems to be something...I sat in the parking lot of one of Syracuse's inner city park prepared to walk but was a little spooked when I saw a group of teens hanging around (am I really afraid of a bunch of teens?...well no, but anything could happen.) ,,,,I did not however come home and ruin things with a totally unhealthy fatty dinner. Better then the day before I guess...

By Wednesday I was determined....Opps! Oversleep,,,,missed the gym...appointment canceled...only a little rain,...I decided that I needed to STOP making excuses and JUST DO IT!!! I WILL TAKE MY LUNCH WALK!!!
My afternoon appointment had confirmed, I ate a healthy lunch at my desk while fielding phone calls and doing notes...and saved my lunch break for a walk before my afternoon appointment.
I drove myself to Onondaga Lake Creek walk and started DAY 1 of my walking back to fitness.  I began with one section of the trail.

 The length of the entire trail is about 21/2 miles. I wasn't sure how much time or how much walking I could do, or just how far in each direction the trail went from my starting point, So I simply started walking. I gave myself a turn around about 15 minutes into my walk to give me time to get back to my car and head to my appointment.

 The trail leads to the mouth of Onondaga Lake. The day was great for a brisk walk and for the most part I had the trail to myself.

 I walked at a gentle pace, enjoying the weather and the sounds of the creek flowing next to me. I would hear the tell tail signs that this trail is directly in the city. Trains, cars and even a loud speaker barked someone to come to the loading dock. A very small distraction to the enjoyment this walk was providing however.

 The trail is nicely paved and even at least to the point where this end of the trail lead me.

 At the end of the trail....Onondaga Lake.

 A plaque provided a little information about Onondaga Lake.

 At this ending point there was a few benches for sitting and admiring one of NY's once most polluted lakes. They are working hard to clean it up. Its still pretty. I did not stay long...had to get back to work and thought maybe I would take the trail a little father on the other side if time allowed.

 Walking back was just as peaceful.

Once back at my car I found I had a bit more time then I expected. I Considered walking a bit more on the trail but instead headed towards my appointment and stopped at another area park. I sat in my car and returned a few phone calls, did a noted and noticed this fella come up to my car.

 Well Hi!!! He came to the car as if he was saying hello...whats up? I informed him that I was dieting and I had NO snacks...sorry. By the look on his face you can tell he is just a little disappointed.

Somehow the rest of the day seemed better....I made it to my appointment, finished up my work and headed home for my husbands birthday!
Dinner made (still sticking to a healthier approach.) Bike up from the basement and primed for riding, pool actually looking like someone would swim in it..I took both dogs for a walk to complete the successful day.

I found an app on my phone to track my walking, completed my food journal in My fitness pal and gave myself a small piece of Birthday cake.

I realize that all of my first few day mishaps were....quite HONESTLY....EXCUSES!!!  I could have found time to go to the gym even if it wasn't at our 4am decided time. I have an umbrella and I have never melted in the rain. Perhaps I couldn't swim or bike while it was raining...BUT it wasn't ALWAYS raining. I could have walked while I was talking to my client who had canceled...I could have faced my fear of teens...(This had to be the biggest excuse.) and walk like I had planned.

I think I simply put to many expectations on my plate...having a plan is great..but having a plan to gym, walk...bike/swim...then walk the dogs all on my very first day back to getting fit is setting myself up to fail.
Moving forward...I am sticking to making time to walk...be it a lunch stroll, walking the dogs or on the treadmill...If it is all three and more...then its a bonus.

Thursday was suppose to be an easy day at work. I had one appointment in the morning...planned my walk then two in the afternoon. I also planned to address the endless amount of paperwork I had to do. I thought this would NOT be a problem. \As it so happened I somehow got behind, never did all the work I planned to do, BUT I did get my walk in (even though it was rushed and I started my new app 1/2 into my walk...I still did it and according to the mapMywalk app I burned 139 calories, if I started the map at about 1/2 in that would be about 270 calories. I'm liking this tracking thing and I went to a new place....

 I went to the Erie Canal Park in Camillus NY!

I had been here at some point in my life. I cannot recall when, maybe when I was a kid. I do remember once going to an Erie Canal park where we actually went on a boat and the boat was pulled by mules. I did not see anything like this here, but maybe it was.

Not only was there a trail to walk right along the canal, but there was a general store and several artifacts to look at. I only had my 1/2 lunch break, so I didn't explore much. Below is what the inside of the lock station would have looked like when the canal was actually in use.

I thought this was a beautiful scene.

What  a boat house may have looked like back in the day,.

Although I am not sure just how many miles this area of the canal goes, I started my brisk walk right along the graveled canal path.

It was certainly pretty, This seemed to be a popular place to walk, there is also a bike trail, I saw many people walking their dogs, power walking and even people fishing. There was even a pre-k class taking a lunch outing.
But...for the most part I was walking alone...except for these little fishies...

Not sure how far down I would go and aggressively keeping taps on my time, I decided to take the next bend and head back .I could see a trail winding next to me along the canal trail and hoped that this would somewhere intersect. As nice as the canal trail was...it did begin to get boring. I like wooded areas much more. YEAH!!! It did intersect,. My now quick paced walk would return along a shaded woods trail.

It was super pretty,

I was getting closer to my 12:30 time crunch...so I found myself walking faster. I was even working up a sweat. I stopped for only a moment to take a phone shot as I walked along.

The trail offered many signs describing the plant life next to it. I just wasn't sure what the sign was referencing too. Many were also flowers and there were no blooms insight. Perhaps I would have been more successful had I taken this walk in the spring.

As I was ending the trail I came upon the pre-k group and watched as they passed by with their young wondering eyes. Just for a moment....a VERY brief moment I wished my kids were little.....Whew...glad that thought passed quickly...

I was so close to 12:30...but made a pit stop at the General store. Angered that there were inside restrooms after I had just used the outhouse....EWWWE! I took the quick 2cent tour found that this park is a National Park and quickly stamped on a piece of paper for my pass book. WOOT WOOT!

To bad I didn't realize that it had the wrong date until after I left. Opps! 

I can't wait to see where my next stop will take me. 

I intend to keep going....Friday was a flop with regards to my lunchtime trail walk. Time constraints got in my way and I never even got a break. 

Weekend looks busy with Graduations and Birthdays...I will try to stay on my good eating plan....but until then TTFN!

Ithaca again....Conference

 Personality Disorders Conference
Ithaca, NY
May 11-12th

Ironically and totally by coincidence I was back in Ithaca this week for a conference. Had I known...I may have stayed at the campground a few more days. Next time I guess. BUT here I was again. Heading back to Ithaca!

The conference started at 9. We left a 7:20...We, being Renee, Annemarie and myself arrived at the conference and signed in by 9:05. We were late, I was told I needed to write down my arrival time for my CASAC hours. I'll admit I was a little annoyed. They hadn't even started yet. Are they planning on giving me 15.55 hours instead of the full 16. Really? We made it anyways and it was NOT a smooth ride. GPS took us some back way through Cornell college which was congested and a big mess. It slowed us down at least 15 minutes.
Parking was also a little tricky and expensive. $3- per hour. WOW!

There were 6 of us in total from my office at the conference; Me, Renee, Becky, Annemarie, Erin & Jill.
The conference was on Personality Disorders. The morning was spent learning about CBT, DBT and schema therapy.
Then we were off for lunch. We decided to walk towards the commons. I stopped some poor women on the street for a recommendation. She recommended Waffle Frolic.





Everything you can imagine and a waffle....WOW!!!!

Erin had Eggs/beacon waffle.                    Becky had vegetarian chili and cheese waffle.






 Jill had some omelet waffle and I had a Raspberry cheesecake waffle.



Renee had strawberry and whipped cream waffle and Annemarie, the only one who broke the waffle theme had toasted cheese and tomato soup.

IT WAS YUMMY!!!! Great choice. Thank you stranger on the street! Now to hit the shops before our lunch break ends. So much for my diet....
After lunch we wandered the Ithaca Commons area. I really have/had little awareness of the city other then the waterfalls and that there is one of the well known college campus's there (Cornell), but had no idea about this lovey area downtown. Everything in Ithaca is reflective of my definition of a modern hippie. Art, flowers, music, free range meats or vegetarian, Birkenstocks, and tye dye, Love and peace.  

It is truly a quaint city with a vibe of friendliness everywhere, I grabbed a few art shots with my cell phone along the commons and before we headed into a shop offering FREE buttons.

I also spied this sign,,,,FREE HUGS!!! This pretty much sums up Ithaca,

Annemarie and I were the only two in our group of 6 who took advantage of making our free buttons.

I even scored myself a dancing bears sticker to adhere to my car...very similar to the one I had nearly  30 years ago on the window of my first ride.

Lunch break ended way to soon.....Then it was back to what we had come her for....a learning experience.
The conference was held in the Tompkins County Public library and this library was simply amazing. I loved all the activities and area things to do that lined the public bulletin board. This is certainly a city where you would not get board.
The afternoon education included defining the DSM identifying characteristics of Personality disorders. I felt I learned a tons. I also purchased a book on Personality Disorders.
It is course work like this that makes me miss my work in the clinical setting. After day 1 I was pumped to flood myself with everything I could learn on the subject.
I had secretly hoped we would get out of class early so I could convince my carpool buddies to find a state park or gorge to hike before we headed home. We actually worked all the way up to the 5pm end time and we were all to pooped to do anything but GET HOME. In hind sight we wished we had made arrangements to stay in the area overnight as the drive although in miles is not to bad, in actual travel time took us nearly two hours with traffic and driving through small towns with stops and go's.
We stopped at this A&W for one last meal and planned to leave 1/2 early the next day as to prevent being late.

The next day, Renee, Annemarie and I left as discussed 1/2 hour earlier then the day before. We still made it just at the 9am start time....WOW!!! Having realized yesterday that we needed to avoid taking fake Suri's suggested route. (I do not have an iphone so my female navigator has been named Fake Suri), I thought for sure we would arrive much earlier,
However we found leaving earlier only seemed to increase the traffic and we drove smack dab into an accident on Route 13, which is the main route into Ithaca. We sat in traffic for nearly 20 minutes which negated our 1/2 early leave time....WOW!!! Once we passed the accident, the it was a mad dash to navigate the city streets at morning rush hour. In addition to all the one way roads we were delayed by a fire truck forcing us to pull over....I thought we would never get there.
We arrived just at 9 in the parking garage I accidentally left the parking validation slip upside down on my dash...I got a ticket later...MAN.

Day 2 morning was dedicated to Borderline Personality disorder. Which, as I learned the criteria, have officially diagnosed myself as having (at least at one point in my life,).
Then it  was lunch break......I asked some of the others at the conference for a suggestion today and it was suggested that we go to The Ithaca Ale house.

 Another yummy choice. Their specialty is burgers and I can say...YUM YUM YUM.
This meal took a little longer then yesterday, so we had no time to enjoy the store or outdoor art...I did catch a few sights as we rushed back to the conference.

 Pictured below is the commons area.

The afternoon felt slow...especially after that big meal. As interesting as I thought the subject matter was...I found myself watching the clock and sending evil death stares at those in my class who kept asking questions....I truly wanted to sneak off to a park or stroll the college campus.....We finally ended at 4:35 just five minutes after the promised early ending of 4:30.
No stops on the way home except for Annemarie to pick up Dougs Fish fry for her parents....and then we were home,
WOW!!!! I am so glad that my employer offers us these educational days...but I often feel more exhausted then if I worked my normal shift. With that being said however...I can't wait for the next one. Nothing currently scheduled but that's ok. Apparently there is a Personality conference cruise through Alaska coming up. I wonder if we can get approval for that educational training?  I am guessing not...but hey..talk about a great time, TTFN