Getting Back on Track

It's hard to believe that my last post on this blog was almost 4 years ago. A lot has happened since then. A couple of weeks after the last post I hurt my knee. I'm not really sure how it happened, but it hurt too much to run. I rested it for a week and tried to run but it hurt again. I waited two weeks and tried again and it still hurt. I wound up wearing a knee brace for a long time.

In the midst of the knee problems, my Mom decided it was time to move from Arkansas to McDonough Ga. Her house went under contract and I had to help her find a house to buy. I also had to arrange people to replace the flooring on the new house and paint it before she could move in.

Then I had to fly to Arkansas and help her finishing packing (which was a BIG deal). It was difficult for her to move since she had lived in the same house for 35 years. A friend drove the first truck load back to Georgia. I drove the second truck load back to Georgia with my Mom following in her car (with her 4 cats). I got a call on the way that the painting was finished but the flooring guy I lined up bailed on me. He was able to connect me with someone who could finish the job but it was a two day delay. That worked out since technically we had not yet closed on the house! So, we officially closed on a Friday. The floor was finished the next day. And we crammed all of her stuff into the new house.

Needless to say, with all of the chaos and my knee problems my weight loss project was out the window.

My knee eventually healed. A doctor told me that I was probably too old to run on a regular basis (something about being 54 and too much pounding on the knees). Life happened. I got busy and stayed swamped most of the time. The weight loss was something that I was going to get to “sometime”.

Last week my wife and I celebrated our 28^th wedding anniversary with a week long trip to Pigeon Forge, TN just outside of the Smoky Mountains. We rested a lot. We ate a lot. And we had fun. I’m afraid to step on a scale right now because I’m sure I put on more weight. Before the trip I weighed in at 196 pounds.

Now it’s time to start getting back in shape again. Exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge for a lot of people. I’m certainly not “obese”, but I do have a gut that needs to be trimmed down. And my heart will probably benefit from some regular exercise. I will have to get creative about the kind of exercise to save my knees. I’m thinking bicycling, walking, light weight lifting and perhaps some swimming. And of course I will have to watch what I eat. I’ve done it before, I can do it again!

The last day of our trip we drove through the Smoky Mountains. We stopped by the mountain stream at the Chimney’s picnic area. We stopped at Newfound Gap (over 5,000 feet high) and took in the views. The Appalachian Trail crosses through that area and I walked up the trail for a few minutes. I took a picture of the sign which shows the distance to Mt Katahdin, Maine as 1,972.0 miles! It’s hard to believe that I backpacked that whole distance in 1980! On the way down we saw a herd of elk grazing in a field and a large flock of turkeys in another field. It was great to get back out into nature. Stay tuned for more updates as I am able to post!