I Am The Tortoise

I am not the eggman. I am not the walrus. I am the tortoise. For those of you born after 1990, those first two references were an homage to The Beatles. If you don't know them, do yourself a favor and get to know them! Now, what makes me the tortoise? First of all, it's been a whole month since my last blog post! Now that I have a fairly regular routine it's a little more difficult for me to come up with things to entertain you! Time has seriously flown by and I can't believe that I've been working on the "new" me for 6 months. 

Over the last few weeks I've been looking to add some better scenery to my work outs. Don't get me wrong, I still love going to the gym, and I totally love counting all of the tribal armband tattoos that I see in one hour. A couple of weeks ago my best friend of 20 years (Whaaaat?!), Jamie, asked me to go walking at the Greenway with her. It was quite chilly but we had a blast catching up and 30 minutes into our walk we were able to feel our extremities again.

Obligatory bestie selfie

The following weekend I was headed out to my car to drive to the gym. I took a moment to glance up at the sky and it was absolutely beautiful. I live all of about two minutes from downtown Chattanooga so I skipped the gym and went to Coolidge Park instead. I walked my way up to the Walnut Street Bridge and saw an amazing, yet creepy, sight. I had the entire bridge to myself! 

I walked across the bridge and made my way down to the Market Street bridge. Please tell me that I'm not the only Chattanoogan that finds the Market Street bridge slightly terrifying! It's narrow and it makes some crazy noises as you're driving across it. They do have wide, pedestrian friendly sidewalks so I decided to conquer one of my fears and walk my butt across it. 

The bridge of terror

It was a Saturday morning so car traffic was light but at the time it seemed hectic! I got about halfway across before I began to consider hitch hiking or jumping off just to get off of one of the scariest bridges in my hometown. I eventually made it across and even turned around and walked across again. I made my way back up to the Walnut Street bridge and ventured into Coolidge Park. Again, I found myself alone and a little creeped out. 

It was so nice to get out and remind myself of what a gorgeous city I live in! The very next day my sister, Jenny, and my niece, Brianna, and I made a visit to the Chickamauga Battlefield.

Jenny took me on an adventurous, brisk walk and I even managed to get sunburned in February. 

Brianna did her best to keep up! Who am I kidding? She led the way!

I've still been going to the gym regularly but it was great to work in some sight seeing as well! At the end of this month my coworkers, Jenny, and I will be participating in the Color Me Rad 5K and we are so excited! I'm sure I'll be walking for a good bit of the event but I'm determined to get some running in too. I am the tortoise, remember? 

And now for the numbers...As of this morning I weigh 223 lbs! That puts me down 5 lbs since my last post and down 45 lbs total. I still need to lose 24 lbs by June 18th to reach my goal weight of 199 lbs. This tortoise has been moving slow and steady since day 1 and she will win the race! 

I had every intention of posting updates over the past month and even though I didn't get around to it, I took selfies! Better late than never, right? 

3 weeks ago/2 weeks ago

Today

Thank you all so much for keeping up with me and for all of your love, support, and encouragement! I wouldn't have made it this far without you!