So last week we were down in San Francisco. We went for a concert and to offer some help to my dad who is currently cleaning out my old house so that we can finally rent it. We drove down, in two days, and back up in two days. In the three days we were in San Francisco, we visited two different climbing gyms, and I went for two runs at the unbelievably well equipped San Francisco JCC with Kathy.

I realize I haven't mentioned climbing at all on here, and it's also a good segway into what I wanted to write about. I started climbing almost two years ago now after my boyfriend gave me an intro-course for Christmas (he's been climbing since he was 15). I put off the course for quite a while, terrified that the gym wouldn't have harnesses big enough for my thighs and that I would be too heavy for my belayer. I finally sucked it up and registered for the course. I had to use a fully adjustable harness and my belayer occasionally had to tie into the ground, but I was immediately addicted. Since then we've been regulars at the Vancouver climbing gym. It's a great workout, and one visit to the gym reveals the masses of beautifully sculpted long, toned muscles on those regular climbers.

I admit, I struggled with climbing. Despite climbing at least once a week, and more frequently twice, my weight limited my ability to haul myself up any route greater than a 5.9 (in non-climber speak, not very hard). A few weeks ago, the boy and I went climbing with his two best friends and I got to talking with one of them about whether or not my weight loss had affected my climbing. It has. It definitely has. Things that used to be impossible, are doable, I climbed half a 5.10c before falling off of it the other day... I could never have done that at 214 pounds. What's more, my ability to climb harder routes makes me feel strong, capable and like I want to reach my goals so I can finally climb that 5.11. So that I too can have those long lean muscles, so I can be one of those girls with the great arms.

On a completely different note being home was awesome. I saw all these people I haven't seen in ages and they all told me I looked fantastic. See, its weird because up here I just stared at a new store, and none of the people there ever knew me when I was fat, I can tell them, but I'm not sure they really know what it means, and everyone who has known me for a year has seen the weight come off slowly, and while most of them will tell me that I look fantastic, the reactions I got from people I haven't seen since November was awesome. Their reactions gave me so much validation and so much motivation to get to where I want to be.

Anyway, I'm out for today, its work, then the gym, then climbing tonight. I love days like today, my muscles feel completely exhausted at the end, yet unbelievably strong and capable.