Page Title

Introduction Text Ready for fall 5% challenge. I lost more then my 5% in Spring then dropped another 3 pounds in summer. I don't intend to drop anymore but do intend to stay at 110 which is 8 lbs under my rock bottom goal! I am eating Nutrisystem for breakfast and lunch 5 days a week and out of the garden and from the freezer for dinner. All organic other than the Nutrisystem. Being up here at the lodge I am walking a whole lot more than when I was at the ranch. I am cleaning paddocks on my lunch break most days. When it's hot enough I swim at lunch and after work in our little lake. This is my lifestyle now. I am working from home and had intended to retire in July but took a transfer and promotion. I am seriously considering retiring as soon as I pay off the barn. I just don't need to frustration this learning via internet is adding to my life. I have too much to do in the garden and with the animals to sit at my desk all day! Just joined the 5% challenge. I intend to continue my farm work with added walk around the pasture for at least 60 minutes a day. New goals again! I will not be retiring as planned for another 1 1/2 yrs. I was asked to transfer and take a supervisor position over in Snohomish Co where I will be living. I accepted and will be heading that way in late spring. It's almost the end of another year! Where did it go? 2020 will be a year of huge changes for me. I intend to really retire this next summer. My ranch will be turned into a VRBO or airbnb. I will be moving to the lodge along with horses, dogs, ducks, and all chickens. It's where I used to hike and the dogs love the area. It's bordering DNR land and we have a private lake. It is being opened as a destination airbnb and we are having the kick off party this next weekend. I am excited and really looking forward to the changes. I sold my house on Whidbey Island this past June and with that mortgage gone I was able to pay off all bills. It feels so amazing to actually have money at the end of the month. I have stayed on Nutrisystem and maintained a good weight. I did gain back 8 pounds this fall but most of it is gone. I am on track and have the right mindset to get down to where I want to be. I got to Europe this past summer and will go back next year. Life is good. Between 2004 and and summer of 2007 I gained 40 lbs by taking a job with a 3-4 hour commute. I started hating the job and became more and more depressed by what I was becoming. I quit the job in June 2007 but could not get myself motivated to get back into my active lifestyle. That Dec I took a job close to home and enrolled in a wellness program which started in Jan 2008. By Nov 2008 I lost lost 50 lbs. My pup became my personal trainer. We walked for hours and miles on the beach and on trails and through little towns on the island. I added a gym membership which I worked hard at for a year. I rejoined the gym in Sept 2010 and also started taking fitness classes including Zumba, spinning and body blast. I then lost a much loved brother, the last of my maltese and my mother. I went into a tailspin. Today, Dec 25, 2010, I make a conscious decision to put joy back into my life and start loving myself and my life again. I will loose the last 13 lbs I managed to put back on as well as another 7 by May and my next dive trip. I dive and need to be able to breath. All of the things I love doing call for a healthy in shape body. I July 16th 2008 Today the scales showed that the 40 lbs I had gained was all gone. In addition I am in better shape than I was before gaining the weight and I'm actually down 2 extra pant sizes! I was about 10 lbs over when I started gaining so I am continuing on the program I set for myself. I feel fantastic and I am happier than I have been in a very long time. This site has been such a huge support and I can't imagine how I could have gotten this far without SP as well as the challenges set by the gym I go to and my personal trainer. November 5, 2008 I reached my goal weight today. I feel great and have honestly not had any really bad days since starting SP. I weigh 125 pounds and I am in a size 2 jean and size 4 everything else. I am strong and healthy and I don't even want to reward myself with something I used to like to eat! What I wanted and got was lavendar aroma therapy bath oil and a new bed ensemble! I had been fighting with the last 7 lbs up and down and up and down for 4.5 of them for at least 2 months and today all of the those 4.5 had stayed off and the last 2.5 were gone as well. I intend to just keep doing exactly what I have been doing. I love how I eat and I love the gym and most of all I love SP. October 20, 2012 Wow. It has been a roller coaster couple of years. I am currently up in weight but I am also lifting weights and in the middle of a challenge at the gym so my clothes are loose and baggy. Since I last added to this, I had taken a job in the most hostile environment I could ever envision just to get supervision to get my license. I gained weight and lost heart. I left that and just worked at the local job I had kept part time. I am still here and working full time although I am only guaranteed 12 hours a week. It has been very stressful knowing I may not have the hours and money to pay the bills. Three weeks ago someone resigned and the 2 of us on part time were finally feeling secure. On Thurs we were informed that social work would no longer be staffed in our emergency room and the position was being posted for a nurse case manager. This left three of us wondering who could keep their part time positions and who was going to be laid off. One of us will just retire and walk away. I still need to work even though I will retire from the reserves in January. The other one of us has another part time job. This should be overwhelming to me right now. What I have discovered this week is that since I am going to the gym I am just rolling with all of this. I am not stressing. The first shock sent me straight to the gym Thurs night and since then I am wondering what happened to the worry I should be feeling. It is truly amazing what working out can do to heal the body and soul. In May I took a night job on the mainland. I have resigned effective Feb 3rd. I took my clinicals in Dec and passed and now have 2 job offers from 2 VA hospitals in different places. I am looking forward to a brand new career with veterans and a new lifestyle! January 25, 2015 So many changes. Life certainly does happen! In April I had a new job and a new place to live and a new future outlook. In a 48 hour time span I had 5 major financial things happen to make me take a look at my decision. I felt like I was being told that I was making a wrong decision but I kept trying to make that move anyway right through 3 of those major happenings. 4 and 5 made the decision for me to stay put. Since then I have accepted the full time position I had been filling for on the island and I have started running again and I lost 20 # putting me back down to where I was before I started commuting all over the place! I am now actively involved in Visalus which has given me the nutritional boost I needed to keep from wanting to graze even on stressful days at work. I am hiking 5 to 6 miles a day when I have light outside and no wind. The new goal is to be at my goal weight of 120 by the end of Feb for a dive trip I am scheduled for. Right now I am going through a very difficult time. The golden retriever puppy in my arms and with the papillon in the next picture is in liver failure. I am losing her as I write. The vet and the specialty vet hospital and the pathologist cannot figure out the reason. We all thought cancer but can find none. Her platelets are at 90K, her liver is 3 X a normal size and her pancreas is also huge. This pup, Aspen, has been here with me her entire life as was her mother before her. She helped me through her mom and dad's deaths and has been my running and hiking buddy who helped me to lose first 50 lbs then the 20 lbs I put on again. She is my Angel. She has made the entire Sparkpeople journey with me. March 19, 2018 I have been off SP for awhile. 16 months ago I moved away from Whidbey Island, finally getting a job I love. I bought a 55 acre ranch on the Columbia River thinking I would be more active..Wrong!! I work on the ranch but I seem to wear myself out and don't do what I need to do exercise wise. It's time to get motivated and lose the 143 lbs I gained since moving here! I have Zen and Pixie to keep me going physically and I can see in Zen's eyes how disgusted he is with me when I come in and collapse on the couch after clearing paddocks or working on fences. He wants to hike again! Aspen got him into it and he feels it is his duty to continue the pattern. September 20,2018 I have now been working and living on the reservation for almost 2 years. I have added a second job as a temporary with my office. I am working tribal VASH, my regular job, and the VASH position up in Omak while they look for a case manager. I like what I do. I can retire in January but have no need or real desire to do so anymore. Today I woke up and I am 3.4 lbs below my original goal and only 1.6 lbs away from my new goal of 120. I am 65 yrs old and I work full time and I run a ranch. I clear and haul bush, clean paddocks, haul hay and have a wonderful garden. I built 2 decks out my back doors and I am putting in a rock wall garden off one of them. I am active and healthy and content. Next week I leave on a 2 week vacation to Mexico. My daughter and her two tiny twin babies will join me there a week later. I am looking forward to running and a gym and walking everywhere with babies! I turned 66 in January. I sold my house in June. I am considering retirement. I have been in Belgium for a week and have not made any decisions other then deciding this will be an annual trip. I do realize I need to learn to eat healthy when I am in Europe. I love that I am in shape so I can walk everywhere!

To eat healthy and drop 8 more pounds by July, 12 pounds by Dec 31, 2020. To remain very active and enjoy my new life at the lodge.

I finally figured out how to work hard on my little ranch so that it counts! Now I will be continuing to work my program with LifeVantage--Nutrisystem deleted all of the foods I love so I will be stopping that program after my next shipment. I ate from my garden all season and intend to do the same next year. I will also work hard at the lodge and be hiking every weekend with the dogs. Since I will still be working full time I will not have as much free time as I had planned BUT I will make it all count.

I'm Serena and I live on acreage on the Columbia River in the northwest. I will be moving to the west side of the mountains to another large acreage with a lodge that is being turned into an airbnb. I have no children left at home but have critters galore. I travel and I work full time.

The world was put here for us to enjoy. Live life to the best of your ability and enjoy what God has given us.

Add a Link I am Serena. I now live most of the time at a lodge on the western side of Washington state. I was ready to retire this past July but decided to transfer and stick around for another couple years. I don't think I will last another couple years. The ranch just sold and will close shortly and that will be my opportunity to pay off my new truck and my barn and finally leave the workforce behind! We are opening a destination airbnb and I will be working full time with that and training my new Gypsy
Save Changes