There Ain't No Mountain High Enough to Keep Me From Gettin to You

I am SO tired. I went hiking today with my brothers, up a mountain!! Yes, that's right, a fricking mountain! It's the same mountain that I ski at, so it was fun to hike up it in the summer. The views were so gorgeous :) I think the round-trip total was five miles, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're hiking up trails that are so steep you physically can't put the heels of your feet on the ground and are only using the balls of your feet, it's pretty strenuous stuff. My thighs and ass were shaking at some points, it was so hard! It was about 70 degrees F at the bottom, and when we got to the top, it was only 50 degrees, and windy, so it felt even colder! I was torn between curling up on the ground in a ball trying to stay warm, since I only had on shorts and a long sleeved shirt, or in standing up and walking around, taking pictures of the views. I ended up taking pictures, and I bet I burned more calories from being cold as well :) Speaking of calories, I looked up how much I burned, and four hours of strenuous hiking, which is how long I estimated that we were hiking continuously for, burns 1680 calories. Holy moly! When I found that out, I was not so hard on myself for eating the lunch we had packed. I had a peanut butter sandwich on gluten-free bread, a plum, some baby carrots, and Gatorade and water. Definitely less than 1680 cals, obviously! And for breakfast, I had only had coffee and a banana. For dinner we had chicken chili, which I have no idea of the calorie count because it is completely homemade, but I didn't eat much, so I definitely think I am in a major calorie deficit today! I love hiking :)

So tomorrow my mom and brothers leave for my grandparents' house, and it will be just me and my dad at home. He told me today that we're just going to have salad this week for dinners. SCORE!! I think he just doesn't want to figure out how to make things gluten free, and he knows if he just throws a bunch of vegetables, chickpeas, and lettuce, with or without some chicken, into a bowl, it will most definitely be gluten free. He also knows that I am not going to try to come up with ideas for what to eat, so it's better this way. If I can keep my calorie counts as low as possible during the day and just have a small amount of salad for dinner, I am hoping I can drop a few more pounds before I go back to school in a week.

Anyway, I am really tired, like I said, so I am going to go to bed. Here are a few pictures from our hike before I go!

This one is my favorite picture :)

Here is a picture from the very top of the mountain

Love you, Skinnies!

~Sottile

*Edit* I just remembered that Emily had asked me in my last post how many years of school I have left. I have two more years left of school, and then I will graduate as Dr. Sottile lol :) I want to specialize in orthopedics, though, so in the same way as human doctors, I will have complete an internship and a residency, which together will be another four years. So realistically, it will be at least six more years until I am practicing as a boarded orthopedic surgeon. God, what am I getting myself into?? Haha! I love it, though, so it's worth it :)