I’m back from vacation and back to spark!…I lack the recollection to track my food/exercise from my vacation (I tried doing it via phone, but there’s literally no coverage in most of the places I was out in MT…stymied!) So I’m starting up as of today and I’m back on track.

Vacation was awesome, by the way…we drove from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls on the 3rd of July, then from there to Devil’s tower on the 4th. The fireworks at Devil’s tower were quite fun, and the next day we made it all the way in to Butte. We went tent camping in the Gravely Mountains with my parents—it rained a TON, but we biked around on the Forest Service roads a good bit—got maybe 50 miles in at 9,700 feet above sea level (let me just say, you WORK for your oxygen at that altitude!) When we got back from the Gravelies, we played tourist and went to the Mining Museum in Butte (which now has a tour of one of the shallow underground copper mines—that was amusing!), hit up the local shops for a pair of ice skates (for John—they’re ridiculously expensive in MN, and dirt cheap in MT) and a new pocket knife (also for John—his current one developed a nasty habit of closing while in use…thumbs ahoy!) and some caramels (for me). And the last couple days we were in town, the 71st annual national folk festival was going on, so we wandered around between the 6 different stages (for free!) and saw lots of interesting music (though if I don’t hear bluegrass again for a long time, I won’t complain). My dad’s side of the family had a bit of a reunion coinciding with the festival, so we got to see a lot of family, too! We made the drive back in 2 days…we stayed in Dickinson, ND overnight and pitched our tent in a county park about 20 yards from the railroad tracks (when we called to make reservations, they laughed and said “we never fill up, don’t bother with reservations”…well now I know why…during the night I lost count after around 30 trains! And then at 3am, the mother of all thunderstorms rolled in and had us on the lookout for lightening (being in a tent in ND means that unless a really tall person stands next to your tent, you are the tallest structure for miles around—yipes!) The torrential rain let up around 5am so we hit the road and made it all the way home by late afternoon. Soooo glad to be sleeping in my own bed!

I did pretty well exercise-wise with all that biking and walking, and OK food-wise…my family’s diet is a bit more meat-intensive than I’d prefer, but I’ll live (though I’m glad to be eating fruit again!!!) I figure I can handle one week of eggs & bacon breakfasts and not do too badly. I haven’t officially weighed myself since getting back (I figure I’ll give myself a few days to get re-hydrated and get all the salt from road-trip food out of my system before I tackle the scale).

In other news, I do have a new event/target date (if you will) for weight loss motivation, though! I found out just before I left on vacation that I’m going to be traveling to the Phillipines in January/February for work, so I’d like to lose about 40 pounds before I go over there. That’s roughly 1-1/2 to 2 pounds a week for the rest of the year (which is more than I’ve been shooting for lately), but I’ve been holding steady at my current weight for a looooooong time (assuming I didn’t gain a bunch on vacation) so I need to do some shaking up anyhow. It’s doable, but it’ll be work. Either way it’s exciting! I was in quite a good workout groove before I left, so I think if I can pick that right back up, I’ll be off to a good start!

Well, that’s about all the news that’s fit to print…The plan for today is to get everything from our trip unpacked and put away, and if I’m feeling spunky I might even hit up the Y for a quickie cardio workout if I can find my workout clothes before they close…if not, I’m planning to get right back into running tomorrow morning!

I do want to set up some July goals (even though it is the middle of the month already!) to get me back on track:

1. Create a deficit of 13,000 calories for the remainder of July (roughly 750 cal. daily) – __/13,000
2. Exercise 6 days each week consisting of at least:
--3 runs each week (25+ mins) – __/9 runs
--3 other cardio sessions each week (30+ mins) – __/6 sessions
--1 yoga class each week – __/3 classes
Bonus: Strength train (whole body) 2 days each week – __/6 sessions

Rewards:
For goals 1 & 2: a day hike or bike trip w/ John on Aug. 2nd
For Bonus goal: an afternoon of laziness at the park and a guilt-free ice cream cone from Sea Salt