171 miles or 288 miles?

Which one would you rather travel to meet someone?

I'd rather drive 171 miles.

However, I drove 288 miles....

all the way to Ingersoll, ON Canada to meet Loridear from SS.

We laughed all weekend about "Indiana" and "Ohio" having to go to Canada to meet! Now that we have met, we hope to see each other either in Indiana or Ohio soon. Lori and I did talk about maybe making a run to Sonic in Fort Wayne and having emmylou drive down from Michigan to join us.

Here we are....

Diet/Exercise -- 6 Month Progress Report

I had a meeting with my trainer today and I later realized that I first met with her 6 months ago on Jan 23. I actually started working out at the gym 1 1/2 weeks before that. On Jan 3 I had a doctor visit and I was weighed at my all-time high of 145 pounds. On Jan 23 I weighed in at 140.6.

So Jan 23 is when I started changing my eating habits. I had of course been eating all the wrong things and not enough. She stressed that I needed to eat more, not less because I was starving my body and that's why I was gaining weight. My 2nd weigh-in with her I gained 2 pounds but since then I've always lost.

Now, today I was a little worried about my weight because of the weekend at SWON and not doing any cardio exercise. I actually hadn't done heavy-duty cardio since last Tuesday, just walked the dogs on Wed/Thurs/Sun. I knew what I had weighed on the gym scales last Tuesday. I was amazed today that I had only gone up 1 pound!

She also took measurements today and we calculated how many inches total I have lost. She is extremely pleased with my progress and is going to design a program to now focus on the firming up of the upper arms, abs and thigh areas. I'm to keep up with the cardio I have been doing but we'll add some more strenuous strength exercises.

Of my original goals I gave her, I have already met one goal -- the loss of 15 pounds. I have also gone down 1 size in clothes. So now my goals are to go down 5-6 more pounds and 1 more size. I'm extremely close to the size goal but my pooch of a belly is the stumbling block. Hence, the need to firm that area. I will never have "6-pack abs" -- never have, but the pooch could be smaller!

We also talked about the health concerns I had when I started with her. I told her I'd be getting my cholesterol tested in Oct again and hopefully it will be as low as it was in March after working out for just 2 months.

So as of today, from Jan 3 I have lost almost 20 pounds. I have also lost 13.5 inches! 8.75 of those inches have been in the waist, hips and thighs.

The lifestyle changes I have made are so worth the end results!

SWON!!!!

I made it in one piece.....

Took an hour to get across the border but otherwise the trip was uneventful.

I've met a lot of very nice women and spent quite a few hours scrapping. I have even used my CraftRobo to do some titles..... I've taken a few pictures but with 34 other women with cameras, I haven't worried too much about 'em. I hope they will share :)

We took our group picture today and I borrowed this for the blog.

Here we are..... SWON 2007!















That's me in the middle of the front row....

SWON...... here I come!

Here we go again!

Another SS retreat. This time I'm driving about 5 hours to Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. The retreat is at ElmHurst Inn. Looks pretty neat from what I've seen on the website.

Last time I had only met Diane before the retreat. This time I'll only know Christy.... I met her in Michigan. There are going to be 35 of us from Canada and the USA. I'm the only one from Ohio. I know of 1 going from Indianapolis, 1 from New Jersey and 1 from New York for sure. There might be 1 or 2 from Michigan. And, a whole lot of Canadians :)

I think I need to get back to packing..... especially this laptop!

See ya tomorrow girls!!!!

Someone Actually Noticed!!!

I went to the gym and did a little over 30 minutes of elliptical and treadmill and I was all by myself -- no one else there at all. I saw a car pull in as I was getting off the treadmill so knew someone else was coming in.

It was a girl who is there quite often with her boyfriend. They are probably in their late 30's/early 40's and she is in pretty good shape. You know the type, she can wear the workout tops with the real thin straps and her belly showing.... But she is a very nice girl and we always at least say hi.

She pointedly said to me "You've lost a lot of weight" and I said that it was close to 20 pounds. She then told me that she had mentioned it to her bf last week. She asked how I felt and I said good but there was still work to do. I told her about my cholesterol going down and she mentioned how her bf's triglycerides have really gone down since they have been going to the gym.

She then told me that I look great and to keep up the good work!

Dang if I wasn't walking on air going out the door

Summertiiiiiiiiiiiime

This week's SS Blog Challenge:

Summertiiiiiiiiiiiime, and the living is EEEeeezzzzzzy.

Tell us how you feel about summer. This summer, a childhood summer, summer traditions, random summer memories, summer sights and smells and sounds. Whatever. Wax poetic about summertime!

Can I just say that I LOVE SUMMER!!!!!

I love warm (or even hot) weather... I love being able to be outside... I love to people watch...

I inherited my love for summer I'm sure. My dad always loved being outside, he still does. That's probably why he and mom spent 4 months every winter in Florida... And, I always loved visiting them down there. And, I'm sure that had a lot to do with his decision to move to NC. He still goes to FL during the winter but spends the other 9 months where he can be outside. He'd be miserable in OH.... I know I am during the winter!

As a child I loved to go to the community pool. It is walking distance from my house. On Sunday mornings, they had "Family Day". Families could get in at 11:00. The actual hours were 2:00 to 7:00. We would go quite often. I loved to watch my Dad swim. He could dive into the shallow end and swim under water the length of the pool and back. And, it isn't a short pool. It is a regulation size pool and is used for swim meets. He would play with me in the pool and we always had fun.

And, during my college years, 20's and early 30's I will admit that I was a sun worshiper. I laid out to get a tan every chance I could. I tan easily... so does Dad and even Mom. But we always used lotion (even back in the days before SPF) although it was usually oil since we tanned easily. I love the smell of suntanned skin, can I say that is a very sexy smell to me?!?!?!

As I grew older I did stop the laying out, thank goodness for bottled tans :) I can still look good without the risk. One problem for summer though is my allergies. I've always had hay fever and as I've grown older, I've become allergic to more stuff. Very mild allergies, but allergies all the same.

But, my love for summer outweighs the allergies.

Just got back from taking the dogs for a walk and it was great even with the 86 degree temps. The sun is out and I'm a very happy person.