Checking in...

It's been a little while since I last made a post. It has been pretty busy around here lately. But rest assured, even though I've been busy, my eating and exercise have not suffered! As a matter of fact, last week I walked a total of 47 kilometres! That's pretty awesome considering I only walked 50 kilometres the whole month of August. I set a goal in my RunKeeper to walk 125 kilometres by October 31, which I thought would be a struggle - considering I barely made it to 50 kilometres for August - but it hasn't been. I'm already 57 percent of the way to my goal. I guess it's not a difficult goal to accomplish considering I've been walking a minimum of five kilometres almost every day. My daughter started preschool at the start of the month, where she attends two days a week. The school isn't far from our house, so we walk, which gives me 10 kilometres a week just from walking there twice a week.

In the last two weeks I've lost another six pounds, which is a total of 27.8 pounds lost. I was absolutely ecstatic to see that I was under 240 pounds!  There is nothing more motivating than seeing the numbers on the scale continue to decrease. I have started to notice physical changes, which is also a great motivator. Shirts that were too snug before are starting to look nice on me. I'm getting close to dropping another pant size. My husband said he's noticed that my butt and thighs are shrinking. It's really giving me a confidence boost. I definitely won't have the "fat girl syndrome" when I've lost all the weight. Every time I can wear - and rock! - something in a smaller size, I do! All these little victories are making me feel great!

Yesterday was mine and my husband's first wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we went to The Keg for dinner. It was a lovely evening!  I enjoyed the childless company of my husband, a delicious appetizer and meal and the most to-die-for dessert (seriously, if you go to The Keg, get the Billie Miner Pie, it's like you've died and gone to heaven)!  I did go over my calories for the day. I gave myself permission ahead of time to enjoy the evening and not restrict myself. I figured that one day isn't going to hurt me. It's rare for me to go over my calorie budget for the day (before factoring in exercise calories) and I almost never eat more than my budget plus calories burned. Even with being over budget (my current daily budget is 1,650 calories), I was still under 2,431 calories for the week. So I'm still on track!

In about two weeks I'm going to walk the West Side Hill both ways. Is it odd that I'm excited about it? I'm actually looking forward to doing it, even though it might kill me. It'll be the longest walk that I've accomplished yet at over 10 kilometres. I do plan to rest for a bit half-way, maybe for 30 minutes or so. I'm going to be truly impressed with myself if/when I complete that walk!

I've also come to the conclusion that I'd like to start running. That seems like the next logical step. I really enjoy walking, but I can't just keep tacking on more distance every time a need to increase the challenge, otherwise I'll be walking for three hours a day. Sure, I can continue to increase my walking speed, but you can only increase it by so much before you're running anyway. I'll need to invest in a good sports bra and find my knee brace before I can attempt any running. I should also probably buy something to strap my iPhone to my person to keep it in place (currently I just stuff my phone in my bra, classy I know). I figure that I could start a Couch to 5 Kilometre (C25K) regimen within the next month or so. This will also likely lead to me breaking down and getting a gym membership. While treadmills are the bane of my existence, I'm not overly confident in my abilities to run in snow. We shall see what will happen!