Julie's Journey to a Healthier Life

It's here! Unbelievably, the time passed pretty quickly and it's already time to head off to FR, well in the morning anyway. Now, I don't know if I'm totally ready? I have the tummy turning thing going on...I have always been quite the independent one and have yearly taken trips on my own to go visit my Dad in Arkansas or one of my girlfriends back east or down south but this is my first really LONG trip away from my husband and boys to go somewhere where there is not someone I know and love on the other end waiting for me...This is completely void of anyone I know and that is a little intimidating. I am a little nervous about sharing a room with a stranger, but I only hope for the best! I hope to meet a new lifelong friend and have tons in common and have a great experience with her..

I do have the luxury of having my husband only 45 minutes from me if there's an emergency or if I forget something of great importance... I know a lot of the people coming to FR come from all over the country and Canada and are not so lucky. I also didn't have to fly to get Utah and that's a nice convenience as well. Don't get me wrong my nervousness and fear is only a symptom of my excitement of the unknown.. I am truly excited to go on this trip and I know I am blessed that I have such a great husband who pushes me to do these great things for myself and that I was allotted the time and money to make such a trip all for myself. I want to publicly say I love my husband and my family, I do have such a fantastic support team here at home!!

I am now packing and hope I have not forgot anything...I know I have probably over packed...I tend to do that even when I just go away for just a weekend. What can I say? I like options! And even if I am wearing work-out clothes, who says they can't be cute, right? BUT all in all I think I've done good. I've checked out quite a few of the other Ridgers packing lists and taylor fitted them to myself and I really think I've done well..Now to fit it all into as few bags as possible, that might be the real challenge here.

I am so ready for the yummy gourmet food at FR. I have been accustomed to a lower calorie diet most of the year so that is not my fear.. My fear is Monday and 6-8 hrs of working out...I really am afraid I won't be able to do it...I wimp out after about an hour at the gym, and have never built up the stamina to longer workouts like I had promised myself I would back at the beginning of the year... pray for me!! HAHA!

I have not been as strict on my diet this year as I had hoped either and I have yo-yo'd so much since January...when I weighed in this morning I was only at a 10 lb loss since I started Jan 4th...That is so discouraging to me, UGH!! The one thing I've read on a few other blogs that keeps coming to me is...that if I didn't have a problem with losing weight and with food I wouldn't need FR!! So this is my mantra, this is why I'm going! TO FIX ME!!! OH GOSH, I really hope they can fix me... ; ) In the beginning phase of planning for this trip I was all about putting away money for massages but that has really changed into counseling sessions/life coach work...I need to really get to the core of my issues...and if I have extra for massages than so be it!

Well, it's getting late now and I still have a lot to do....so I'm off for the night and I will check in with you all to let you know about FR!! Wish me luck! Good night!

Let the hiking, working out hard, clean eating, healthy habits, life changing begin....