Facing Forward

July started out with such hope and promise... a new food plan, a few pounds lost.... some running, tennis and golf... and then out of the blue, the devastating news that my older and only Sister had passed away suddenly in Calgary.  We scrambled to put together travel plans and flew home to be with family and honor her at a lovely memorial ceremony, and visit and share memories with friends and extended family at a reception afterwards... it is all a bit of a blur as you can imagine.

It took me a good couple of weeks after that to shake the mental fog and realize that my wonderful husband was having a birthday during the last week of the month. I know I am still in denial somewhat, but a birthday was just what I needed to give me a change of focus and a reason to smile again.  We had several fun outings and visited new restaurants every day of the week... and on the last day of July we had a coffee date with a cousin I had recently reconnected with after many many years of not having seen her.  It was really quite qnice and we have made plans to get together again in a few weeks. She lives in Calgary but has a home here on the Island and travels back and forth fairly often.

All in all a very emotional month... am I glad it is over?  You bet, and I am looking forward to August and getting back into a groove.

I have joined a 7 day challenge to clean up my diet... for me that means concentrating on eating whole, real foods... staying away from alcohol and the processed stuff as much as possible.  I do feel so much better when I eat this way and my weight is naturally easier to maintain too. Even at that, a lot of the freggies I eat are conveniently packaged and or frozen unless I make an effort to visit a farmer's market... hmmm... must put that on my August list...

Running seems to have become a Sunday morning activity.  And for now that is all right. I am playing tennis on Tuesdays and sometimes Thursdays, golfing on Wednesdays, and walking and hiking as much as I can throughout the week as well.  I am missing my strength training and so have added yoga to the mix... all the downward facing dog poses at least keep my upper body working and the stretching feels amazing.  I do love to stretch!

So... we are somewhat caught up... it is my natural tendency to retreat when faced with unpleasant situations so this has been a tough post for me to write and I am looking forward to having happier things to talk about!

Tell me, what are you looking forward to in August?  I would love to hear your plans.