I had a good weekend despite having to work a lot -- did a 5 mile breast cancer walk, and then took the dogs on a walk downtown later in the day.

I'm still on a grading bender, but I'm thinking there will be some daylight soon.

The scale may have inched down a bit this morning, but it's hard to tell on a dial scale. I will keep on keeping on and try to create a bigger calorie deficit.

Heather...five miles PLUS taking the dogs out for another walk. I'm so impressed with you!

I wasn't going to weigh in this morning since TOM is looming and I ate rather late last night, but I went ahead and indulged my curiosity. And I am happy to report that while on vacation, I dropped six of the 11 lbs. I had gained back over the last month.

So this tells me something...having a lot of daily activity helps me burn calories. Since I am a distance degree student, and I work almost entirely from home, I don't get out and move my body a lot. I may exercise, but that's all the activity I get, besides housework, during the day. So I've decided to shoot for adding hours of activity to my days. I have to think about how I'm going to do that. If you have ideas, feel free to share.

I love coming back from vacation. It's a great time to renew and recommit to goals. I'm looking at my next 10% to lose, and I'm thinking I'd like to concentrate on losing just 1% of my body weight. Just three pounds to lose and keep off for a week after that.

I'll be blogging about all of this later today. No more time on the laptop this morning. Got a body to move!

Walrus --

Georgia -- a five mile walk and a walk with the dogs and the amazing thing is that it wasn't a big deal!!!! My feet were a little sore after the 5 miles, but I have good shoes, so it wasn't bad at all.

I can't even believe it sometimes -- my fitness level is SO much better than just about any time in my life!

Heather - 5 miles - awesome. So how tired were the pups? Glad to hear things are going well for you.

Georgia - WELCOME HOME. How was sleeping in your own bed? BTW - I did go vote for you - good luck!

I walked to my fitness class tonight - so much nicer than doing cardio in the gym. I hope the weather holds - maybe until April. They mentioned the S word tomorrow night - 75 today.

Hugs to all - hope to see you soon!

Carol -- I love walking outside too! And TO the fitness class! Wow!

The pups were quite tuckered out, but they did not come on the long walk. They got to walk around our downtown and get doted on by passersby. They loved it!!

Carol, I'm about to sleep in my lovely, lovely bed again. Thank you for voting for me! Even I forgot to vote for myself yesterday. (Go here to vote for me...)

The boys go back to school tomorrow, so we had a very long day full of activity getting ready for it. Laundry, grocery shopping, and finally done cleaning the garage and setting up the gym. I have my new rowing machine in place and I can't wait to use it tomorrow! I set up my old TV that has a DVD player in it and I moved all my exercise DVDs out there. No excuses!

Life has been super busy the past few days.Food has been good and even getting daily exercise. Just dont seem to have alot to say...wish i could bottle this easy time for the hard days.

I'm hanging in there. Yesterday I ate what I thought was way too much food before dinner. I was ready to throw in the towel and just munch all night (and there was a part of me that was feeling sorry for myself and wanted too).

But my new rule is WRITE IT DOWN. So I wrote down all my food and lo and behold I was only a couple hundred calories over what I wanted. I ended the day with maybe a tiny calorie deficit. But disaster averted!!!

way to go heather ...writing it down makes all the difference in the world for me!

Good job Heather. I'm with dgramie writing it ALL down keeps me on track too.

It's truly Fall here. We've had a couple frosts and today the Annual Lady Bug invasion has begun. There are a bazillion of them on the west side of the buildings. None yesterdaybut starting today they are everywhere. We'll have them about a week and they'll all disappear for the Winter.

Definitely a lady bug invasion here too. Too many of any critter is a little creepy...

Lots of lady bugs here too. Kids are loving it! I have been on track. But not posting as I am in the middle of a cleaning spree. And I am afraid if I stop to long I wont finish! Have a great day and hugs!

We have lots of lady bugs in ky also.I also see them in our upstairs bedrooms from time to time during the winter months.
The trees are beautiful here this fall. We had so much rain that the colors are brillant this year. I took the kids on a long walk yesterday and talked about the trees. They are only 3 and dont really remember the leaves falling last year. Its so much fun to see the world thru the eyes of a 3 yr old.
Food is still great and scales are stuck again..oh well they will move someday!!

I'm leaving on my fall retreat in about an hour. It's at June Lake, in California. Three days of learning more about creating balance in my life and rewiring my brain so that my response to stress doesn't lead me to making poor decisions. Like overeating. Or avoiding healthy activities.

I'll be back Sunday night. It's the first time I'm leaving my boys home alone. They're 17 and 12. My parents live nearby. They'll be okay. I'll just miss them terribly until I'm in the middle of a massage and they call me to break up a fight over what kind of toppings they should get on their pizza.

I'll check in when I can.