Where in the world did I go???

Back again. Don't know how long. I seem to go through these spells of enjoying writing, then hating it, finding it burdensome. Well, not so much the writing itself as the horrible suspicion that I have absolutely nothing to say that someone else hasn't said previously, and better.

For starters, though, I want to toot my own horn. Back in... I guess it was July, because July 1 is the first day I record in my journal, I woke up bright and early with one conscious thought: IT'S TIME. Didn't have to think twice to know what that was all about.

I started that day walking once around my neighbor's field. Took me a little more than twenty minutes. For several weeks, I walked around that field once every single day, except some rare evenings when we were under severe thunderstorms.

After several weeks, I drove the field and discovered that my route was taking me, from back door and home again, roughly 3/4 mile. I also discovered that the "U" of the field, from the driveway nearest my house, around the back and up to the road on the south end, was just a smidgen under 1/2 mile. So I started going around the "U" of the field and home again, a wee bit more than a mile.

That's where I am stuck for the time being, and I'm quite contented with that for now. A mile a day -- and I'm doing that whole mile in what used to take me to walk the 3/4 mile loop -- is a darn good clip for a big ol' heifer like me.

Since July 1, I've dropped from a size 28 to a 24. I've lost more than fifteen inches (I didn't think to measure until I'd been walking almost a month) I got on the scales of the school health room on Thursday, and from my highest KNOWN weight (I didn't weigh for a couple of years, and I know I gained weight in that interval, because that's when I wound up in the size 28) -- I have lost at least forty pounds. My friend Rachel says it has to be at least 50.

Insert image of big, cheesy grin HERE.

What am I doing besides walking? Well, one thing I am NOT doing is "dieting." Too lazy, too skeptical to follow a diet, count calories, fat grams, etc. Bugger all that mess.

I am eating fewer and fewer refined foods and more and more whole foods -- whole grain breads, brown rice, whole wheat pasta when I eat pasta at all. I've also made the transition from sweetened to unsweetened tea, so my sugar consumption is down by more than one-half. (Still have to have a little sugar in my morning coffee, I'm afraid).

I'm a happy camper! Stay tuned for further updates.

Insert another image of big cheesy grin NOW.