. . . that it's the start of April? That we're already thirteen weeks into this year? I don't want to frighten you or wish time along, but we are a quarter of the way through the year! So, how are you doing? Is your resolve still strong? Have you achieved any goals?
Today is my 47th birthday; I've walked 12.25 miles and had an amazing week!
Let's go back to how my year is going and see if yours is going along the same way before I talk about birthday celebrations!?
I have lost a total of 15 pounds in the thirteen weeks (16 pounds since I started this new journey), and I'm only 1 pound away from losing 10% of my original weight! I have managed to save £91; although the next thirteen weeks are going to be a bit more challenging as the amount that I am supposed to save every week is going up; week 14 = £14, week 15 = £15! I will re-evaluate at around week 20 to see if I am able to carry on! If I can I will have saved £210, if I can get to week 26 (half way through the year) it will be £351!
I've read quite a few things recently on middle-age! I can now say that I am getting there, although I really do not believe in my heart that I am as old as I actually am. I'm old enough but still young enough to be going out for a night on the town with my boys tonight; I'm really looking forward to it, as the last time that we were all out together was my youngest son's 18th birthday last year.
I am not someone who has a bucket list, as such, but I do believe that I don't want to look back on my life and think 'I wish that I had done that'. I therefore think that training for and participating in the Moonwalk are some part of that. I know having done a 350 mile charity cycle ride how great it feels to achieve something that you, at first, thought that you may not be able to.
The same goes for birthday celebrations! This week myself and two friends have done something that we first talked about around eighteen months ago; the Go-Ape Zipline at Grizedale Forest, Lake District.
We initially did the Tree-Top Adventure at Go-Ape in Woburn around eighteen months ago and I will now admit to putting on a brave face for this! It was something that was on one of my friend's bucket list and myself and my best friend agreed to go along for the experience! How difficult could it really be to do an obstacle course through trees?! They are very safety conscious and walk/talk you through everything that you need to know/do before you are free to go off on your own. I realised, once we had climbed the practice tree, that this was maybe not going to be the easiest of things to do but I could not possibly show my fear, especially as my best friend was having moments!! We decided, between the three of us, that I would lead us, I was being 'mum', that my best friend would go in the middle and that the other friend would bring up the rear. The reasoning being that I could show that it was okay, could encourage my best friend to try and do it and that the last person made sure she did!! Let's just say that we ALL completed the course and achieved things that we probably did not think possible within the first 15 minutes of training! There were some particularly hairy moments that I really had to just go 'it's fine just don't look down!'
What we all did agree on was that the zip-line's were the most fun and established that at the Go-Ape course at Grizedale Forest you could just do the zip-line. Whoopee!! So, as I have said, after much talking about it we decided, at the beginning of the year, to book it. Beautifully, Easter was early this year so we were able to do this as part of my birthday experience.
So what did it entail? The Zip Trekking Adventure is a network of seven tandem zip lines that traverse the sky-scraping Douglas Firs at Grizedale Forest, providing you with an exhilarating experience of flying way above the forest floor. It was an unforgettable two and a half hour experience, including; a 20 minute hike (through one of the most beautiful forests out there), a ride off-road where we were whisked along winding mountain roads up to the training zip, and then seven zip wires covering a total distance of 3km to come back down to the bottom!
Again, this is something that you can't actually think about! You just have to do it! Although very cold, as we got caught in several rain showers, the whole experience was fantastic and we all agreed that it was something that we would all do again . . . but make sure that we did it in warmer weather!
We were away for less than 48 hours and managed to eat out every day, more than once, who can resist an afternoon tea with a slice of cake?!; I do enjoy food!
Yesterday was simply put . . . EATING . . . with friends. Tonight is about drinking and tomorrow will entail trying to recover and then more eating with friends from Cambridge!
Well that's how to celebrate your birthday for a week; eat out every day, do something incredibly fun and spend quality time with family and friends.
It has to be said that weigh day this week was not a day that I was looking forward to but I still managed to lose half a pound!
In another thirteen weeks we'll be half way through the year and it will be the start of July when you may be going on your holidays or they will be creeping up on you.
Look what I have achieved in thirteen weeks and know that it's never to late to start. . .
