Motivational Monday

Have I used this before? Maybe. But, it's true. I am thinking more and more that I need to focus on things that make me happy and less on what I think I should be doing.

Case in point - I love riding my bike. Two years ago hubby and I would ride almost every Sunday afternoon for miles. We had a blast, saw some pretty sites, participated in some trail rides with the city, and burned lots of calories. Then winter came and it was too cold. No biggie.

The following year I bought a new hybrid bike. It's pretty spiffy and I was excited to ride it since my other bike was 20+ years old and heavy. Then...we didn't ride. The bike sat in the basement all summer. I wanted to ride it, but we never did.

This year we got the bikes out and have started riding again. We had a fantastic ride yesterday going south on the local Rail Trail to areas we'd never been before. They were gorgeous areas with streams and flowers.

Riding this path is so peaceful.

Why did I not ride my bike at all last summer? I love it. I think it's fun. It makes me happy. Sadly, I didn't get the bike out once. This summer the bikes have been out twice and I'm happier. I'm looking forward to my next ride. I want to find ways to sneak in bike rides in between the weekend ones we plan.

I need to take this one example of happiness and bike riding and write it large. I need to continue doing the things that make me happy, not just what I think I need to do. I need to change my mindset that doing the things that make me happy is permissible and desirable. It's not just something you get to do because you earned it, but you get to do because you are you.

Losing weight makes me happy. Which means I need to eat better and workout.

Learning makes me happy. Which means I need to dedicate time to research.

Writing makes me happy. Which means I need to spend time writing and finding an outlet for it.

Photographing makes me happy. Which means I need to take photos, share them, engage others in them, print them.

Traveling makes me happy. Which means we need to go out into the world, even if it's just day trips exploring the areas around us.

Supporting local businesses makes make happy. Which means I need to buy local more and concentrate on local restaurants and stores.

These are just some things that make me happy and are easy to do. They are not things that I need special skills or lots of money to do. I can do these things everyday or at least every week. They make me happy and that is the goal - to find what makes me happy and concentrate on that. 

What do you do that makes you happy? How often do you do it? Are you actively trying to find ways to incorporate into your life?

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Weekend Workout

Over the weekend, hubby and I hit the trails for a couple workouts. We started out at Gifford Pinchot State Park on Saturday for a three mile hike. We had gotten in a few two mile walks around our neighborhood, plus all the walking in TX a few weeks ago, but this was the first intentional three miles in ages.

It was a warm day, but it turned out that under the trees it was really nice. It was shady and a nice breeze blew through helping keep us cool. We had a little trouble at times staying on the right trail, but we were able to get a nice 1.5 miles out before turning around. The walk back was nice and we got a full three miles in.

Pinchot State Park is really pretty

Sunday, we hit the York Rail Trail to get in a bike ride. I had taken our bikes to the bike shop earlier in the week for some maintenance and picked them up Sat. We hadn't ridden the bikes in a couple years, but we thought it might be a good workout to test hubby's legs.

The goal was to go 4-5 miles depending on how he was feeling. It was a warm morning, but biking is always nice since you build your own breeze. We headed south since there were less crossings to worry about. We went through the tunnel and got to two miles and hubby felt good, so we chose to go on.

We made it to 2.5 miles and took a break.

My new bike. Sunday's ride was it's inaugural trip!

Hubby did well! No pain!

The Rail Trail is so pretty.

The obligatory selfie.

After our water break, we rode back super fast! On the way down we took it very easy so hubby could test his legs and I could test my bike. As we headed back to the car, hubby picked up the pace. On the way down we did our 2.5 miles in about 20 minutes. When we got back to the car, we did the second 2.5 miles in 14 minutes. Not too shabby.

We celebrated with this yummy lunch.

BLT, carrots, blueberries, and mixed fruit

Did you get a fun workout in this weekend? What did you do?

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Friday Update

What a week!  A long holiday weekend, lots of exercise, archiving, getting drenched.  It sure was adventuresome!  LOL!

The holiday weekend had hubby and I hitting the Rail Trail here in town twice.  We decided to check it out on Saturday since it's a great place to ride without having to worry about traffic/cars.  Saturday we managed a nice 12 mile ride, starting in town, reaching just beyond the Howard Tunnel, and back.  Not too shabby!

How nice is this? The scenery is awesome and with all the shade, it's so much cooler than being out on the streets or at the park!

 Howard Tunnel - A little scary going through since there's so little light, but a really neat feature of the Rail Trail.

Saturday and Sunday we had holiday BBQs.  Had a lovely BBQ with a friend and boating in the early evening.  Then we anchored the boat and watched fireworks.  How's THAT for fun?

Monday brought us back to the Rail Trail for another ride.  This time we parked at a different station and managed 14 miles (in the same time we did 12 Saturday.  Go us!).  Had a really nice ride again.  A little stickier than Saturday, but I'm telling you, that canopy of trees really helps!  Had an enjoyable ride.

Hanover Junction Museum - Abraham Lincoln changed trains at this stop in November 1863 on his way to Gettysburg to give a speech.  ;-)

I look like such a dork!  Riding the Rail Trail.  I brought my own water bottle along since it was hot and I knew we were aiming for 6-7 miles one way.  Hanover Junction was great as I refilled my water bottle there for the return trip!

In archiving work, I finally finished off the George Washington research I had been doing and got that in the mail.  Phew!  Wednesday, I paged for the research room, which is such fun!  Basically, if you come in to do research, you look up the information you want, write it down on a call slip, then either an archivist or a volunteer goes into the big tower and gets it for you.  I spent a lot of time going up and down the tower getting boxes, maps, and books.

Pennsylvania State Archives

I also got to get back to my 1918 Influenza research.  I know I'm weird, but it's fascinating.  I'm currently looking through patient admission records through the War Department and determining how many were admitted for Influenza.  July and August had maybe 4-5 people a week.  Late September picked up with 20-25 per week.  I'm now up to October 6th and the number of patients being admitted is up to 40 a day.  I really enjoy finding information on the Influenza Epidemic.  

The weather around these parts have been HOT.  But, I have been trying to up exercise by walking more throughout the week.  I've arrived a little earlier in the mornings to the archives so I can add some miles in.  I then head out at lunch for a 15-30 minute walk, depending on how much time I have.  And then in the afternoons I try to do the same, walk a little bit more than just the half mile to my car.  In a normal week, I would walk 3 miles.  This week, with some concentrated effort, I walked just under 7.5 miles.  Not bad.  It would have been more had a deluge of rain with lightening and thunder not opened up on my head Thursday.  As I left the archives, on the advice of the National Weather Service at 3:30 p.m. rather than at 4:00 p.m., it POURED.  It was supposed to start raining until 4:00 p.m. (thanks NWS!).  I got soaked.  I suppose it wouldn't have mattered adding in that extra half a mile, but the thunder and lightening were a bit scary.  But, not bad for trying to add some miles in during the week!

And all of this comes to the lovely surprise of losing 2.8 pounds this week!  Yea!  So, since the beginning of May, I'm down 10.4.  I'm very happy with this.  I have a goal weight in mind before we hit Jamaica and I want to hit it.  I have 27 pounds to go!  23 weeks to lose 27 pounds.  This equals out to 1.16 pounds a week.  That seems manageable.  Let's up so!