We had a wonderful Easter Weekend. Family came from all directions and converged on a beautiful home we had rented for the weekend, nestled in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, on the edge of a golf course. The goats had come down off the mountains to feed on the new grass, the babies were soo cute, they were right in our yard and right off our back deck. We broke bread and we shared wine. We hugged and we laughed. We played cards and we hiked.

I had been exercising regularly and with the weight loss was feeling pretty sparky about myself and my health and my physical condition. As I speak, I can feel muscles that had not been tested - laughing at me. We hiked the first day, deep down into a valley, we had to shoo deer off our path of descent. Going down was no so bad, the valley was spectacular, with running streams, foot bridges and beautiful paths. The three of us kept up a good pace, - that would be my youngest daughter, her fiancée and myself. Then we had to come out of the valley - which meant up the VERY STEEP and LONG path! My future son-in-law assured me that hills were just in the mind. With plenty of encouragement and several rest stops - I DID make it up that hill. The hike took a little over two hours, I checked my Mio watch and it said I had burned 1149 calories.... No bad! Although, when we got back to the house, my daughter and her fiancée went back DOWN to run the course! The next day, I went down into the same valley with my oldest daughter, watched as she demonstrated running techniques and practiced some yoga poses in the beautiful fresh mountain air. (would have been an amazing picture but the only thing I was carrying was a water bottle!) Again, I was keeping a good walking pace - about 3 miles/per or 5 k per hour. I remember going down the hill into the valley with a little more awareness of the steepness and length of the decent, but I HAD made it up the other day!
I was somewhat surprised when my muscles protested ALOT about coming out of the valley - it was much more challenging than the day before, I had to apologize to my daughter for holding her up. BUT I DID DO IT again! lol. And my mio watch said 567 calories burned and we were gone just over an hour.

So what did I learn? Well, the next day we had a 5 hour drive home. We stopped for a coffee, and I tried to get out of the car. The operative word word would TRIED! lol I learned that as a fifty seven year old you can not do the same things you did when you were twenty-seven. Yesterday - I did not do one speck of exercise....yes, I felt guilty and was plagued by a little voice in my head saying YOU can do just 10 mins!
Today is a new day..... and I have signed on to the challenge of 10 min exercise blocks for 28 days, all in the journey - I am so pleased to be on!

Have a wonderful day..... and SPARK ON!