Back Home....

I'm back and I survived the camping trip. No bear encounters (though a few were sighted by neighboring campers and I heard one walking through the site while huddled in the "safety" of my tent). I also managed to make it straight through with no stopping for fast food! I brought a tuna sandwich and grandbaby & I ate our lunch when we arrived at the campground.

The only thing that was a challenge was trying to set up a 21 year old canvas tent with poles with a 3 year year old "helping". He & I were the first to arrive (his mommy had to work and wouldn't be arriving till after midnight so he rode shotgun with me.)

Late hubby & I bought the aforementioned tent when we were newlyweds. (Dome tents hadn't been "invented" yet....) Over the years we progressed to a pop-up camper, a motor home and then a cottage. So this past weekend's trip was reverting full-circle. I hadn't set that tent up in years and it was hard to remember which pole went where and what to do first. And of course my helpful little grandson was re-arranging everything as fast as I could lay things out and when I said "hold this for gramma and don't let go!" - of course he let go. The people camping in the site across the street sat in their lawn chairs and watched me flounder for over an hour. I'm glad they were amused.

After it was finally set up, my daughter & her hubby from Massachusetts rolled in. She has been a camper since birth and was delighted to be finally camping again. Her hubby on the other hand had never camped a day in his life and looked at the tent with hesitation. My other daughter and her hubby arrived later and set up their tent next to ours and we all managed to survive the weekend. In spite of the hard ground. In spite of the rain. I spite of the fact no one remembered matches to light the stove the next morning for our coffee. (I did not resort to borrowing any from the lawn chair people who had watched the show the previous day. I walked a few sites down where no one knew how inept I was at setting up tents!)

My sister-in-law's place was a few miles down the road and we spent most of the time there with all of the family that had come in for the reunion. We had representatives from Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and various part of new York State. All from one set of siblings and their offspring. It was fun and the weekend flew by too fast as always. And of course...this being late hubby's family - there were memories and tears as stories were told, photos were passed around and old cassette tapes played of he and his brothers singing...

Moving on ~ week 2 has begun in my 12 week challenge and this week as I continue to boycott fast food - I am drinking 64 oz. of water daily. And as I promised....some interesting water facts!

There are many forms of metabolism going on in your body right now, but the one everyone is talking about it the metabolism of fat. This is actually something that the liver does when it converts stored fat to energy. The liver has other functions, but this is one of its main jobs.
Unfortunately, another of the liver's duties is to pick up the slack for the kidneys, which need plenty of water to work properly. If the kidneys are water-deprived, the liver has to do their work along with its own, lowering its total productivity. It then can't metabolize fat as quickly or efficiently as it could when the kidneys were pulling their own weight. If you allow this to happen, not only are you being unfair to your liver, but you're also setting yourself up to store fat!

When you give your body all the water it needs, it will get rid of what it doesn't need. It gets rid of the water it was holding onto in your ankles and your hips and thighs, maybe even around your belly. You are excreting much more than you realize. Your body figures it doesn't need to save these stores anymore; it's trusting that the water will keep coming, and if it does, eventually, the flushing (of both the body and the potty) will cease, allowing the human to return to a normal life. It's true. This is called the "breakthrough point." (Why Drinking Water Really

is the Key to Weight Loss by Maia Appleby)

I have a Brita Water bottle that I used to fill up twice daily when I was working and sip through out the day. But I've gotten lax and neglected it sorely these past few months. So this week's challenge for myself is to make sure I fill that thing up 2 times every day and drink it though out the 24 hour period. That'll equal 64 ounces and is what's required to keep the body running efficiently. (I've actually read that you should drink an extra 8 ounces for each 25 pounds you're overweight..... but for now I'm sticking to my 64 ounces.)

So now I have two things I'm working on. The fast food ban and the water. Ten more to go till a healthier me!

Hope you all had a great weekend and meet your own challenges this week!