Boring is beautiful!

Difficult in a car. Imagine
on a motorcycle...

 I am back from my motorcycle adventure in the mountains. Let me say this...I was not prepared.

If you want to know why, take a look at this google map screenshots. See, mountain roads are not just widely varied in elevation, they are also the twistiest, turniest roads I have ever been on. Mind you, I am used to traveling country roads in Wake Forest and beyond. We're talking generally flat, the occasional turn, and no traffic.

So drop this noob into a city within the mountains, and it's a recipe for certain disaster.

Hot tip: when you ask google to map a route and choose "avoid highways", google likes to replace said highways with gravel roads. On a motorcycle, it's the absolute worst.

So on day one, I was forcibly traveling a gravel road and came to the end of it. Stopped. And remember how I was in the mountains, the turn to hit next was a hairpin and I dropped the bike. Right into the only mud puddle I saw in Asheville. Day one shook my confidence.

Day one. Why I didn't recognize this as foreshadowing
is beyond me.

Aside from my terrifying moto-adventures, the trip was so good for me. Seeing my friend Sam who is ridiculous and wonderful, experiencing Air BnB in a Dexter Morgan shade of bizarre (for more on that, click here), were all perfect moments in my ridiculous life.

At least I got a glamour shot for Honda Powersports.

I hyped this trip up to be a time where I would discover a deeper sense of who I am. That being away would make me realize something I had never seen before. It worked, but not in the way I was intending. I figured out that I suppress who I am too often. I pretend to be a person that craves adventure and spontaneity.

Day three. Or the "What the hell am I doing up here" face.

You know what I really love? Comfort. And air conditioning. And Bravo TV. And my Vitamix. And my motorcycle. But maybe just my motorcycle on hills not mountains. I wish I had been okay with all these things when I was younger. I wish I didn't pretend to love roller coasters and camping and fiction and sleeping on the floor and staying up all night because I thought I was supposed to.

This trip taught me that learning my limits is a great thing. And that comfort isn't a sin. You hear me Christians? Comfort is not a sin. I am boring! Boring is beautiful! Oh and one more thing for my Christian friends...it's ok to laugh. A lot. More on that some other day...

-Liz

Ben is doing life again!

A few weeks ago, I posted about a guy named Ben. I have been following his story for years. Just a  regular dude who started to run, lost a bunch of weight, inspired thousands, and then gained the weight back. He fell off the grid for a while, but now he's back. And I am so excited.

I used to follow a blog called "365 days with the 330 pound woman." She stopped blogging. Ben stopped blogging. Another friend of mine stopped blogging because she gained the weight back.

We share when things are going great. But why do we isolate when things aren't going so great? And I don't mean blogs because really, blogs are stupid and faceless. I mean with the people that know you and allow you to be known.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wish I was a drug addict instead of a food addict. At least I could stay away from drugs completely. But I am forced to have a relationship with food. And I always will. Food is a living, breathing, reality of every day life for me. And every day holds some kind of food struggle.

Don't give up when things stop going as great as they used to be. I can't tell you how many times I've said "Screw it, let's go get chips and queso." Too many chips and queso decisions turn into tight pants before you know it.

Next week I am leaving on a solo motorcycle trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am hoping for clarity and adventure. And cheating death, of course! Doing life...one day at a time.