I really don't think I need buns of steel. I'd be happy with buns of cinnamon. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

I have been soooo darn good.

This morning, Tom and I walked 2 miles on the beach. I used week one of Robert Ullrey's Couch-2-5K podcast to just keep pace. We didn't do any running, but got a great workout anyway. I was tired when we got back to our room, but I felt great.

So, in our room for breakfast: iced coffee, a mini-croissant and a few melon chunks with a little no fat vanilla yogurt for dipping. It was perfect!

Later this afternoon, we enjoyed a three hour leisurely bike ride out on the bike trail along the intracoastal waterway and then all through the residential neighborhoods on Island Estates, about 10 miles total.



The weather has been perfect: in the high 70's or low 80's. Whatever fog might be lingering in the morning is quickly burned off by the very early afternoon, so the ride was warm with a slightly cooler off-shore breeze.

We had a light lunch of vegetables and dip and a gin and tonic (okay, so I haven't been sooooo darn good, maybe just darn good. ;)

Tom is now napping, snoring slightly. I'm here blogging. We are resting up for tonight. Our plans? Dinner at our favorite place in Clearwater Beach... Dominic's Capri Italian Restaurant. Later, we will toast the New Year sitting in the sand on Clearwater Beach with the bottle of Moet & Chandon White Star champagne we bought at the Publix market while we were on Island Estates this afternoon.

I can't think of a better way to end 2007.

Can You Be On Vacation and Still Lose Weight??

I am on vacation. We left Arkansas on December 19th, spent 3 nights in Savannah visiting my son and his family, then Saturday morning left Savannah for Clearwater Beach, FL. We will be here until January 4th.

I love this place. We've been coming here nearly every year since 1990. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, I love it all. We are planning to move here sometime after next October.

We brought our bicycles and have been riding a couple of hours every day; sometimes down to the end of the island, through beautiful, upscale neighborhoods with gorgeous landscaping; sometimes down the trail along the causeway from the City of Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, along a portion of the inter-coastal waterway. Maybe tomorrow we will try riding over this bridge that crosses the waterway where it enters the Gulf of Mexico.



This morning before breakfast, we took a brisk two mile walk (no running) up the beach and back. It was so beautiful.



After posting my new blog on Myspace, we rode our bikes to the Publix market on Island Estates, about a two mile ride.

It's sunny, 80's, blue sky... how can we not spend time outside?!! I am hoping that when I get back to Arkansas, I am more fit than when I left.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

It doesn't work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps - American Proverb

I think that is what I have been trying to do with this thing I have about running.

I forget (or refuse to acknowledge) that I am an older woman. See, even now I cannot even write the words "senior" or just plain "old." Denial, denial, denial. I have started, quit, re-started and quit the Couch-2-5K program so many times, I've lost count. And I have beaten myself up about it each time. Enough is enough. I'm tired of failing. I'm tired of torturing myself. I'm tired of feeling crappy about myself.

It's time for a sharp turn to the right. Although the C25K will remain my goal, I am not going to start out with it. I will walk instead, increasing the BPM's on my iPod until I think I might be able to start the C25K again. I don't know when that will be. I don't know when I will be ready.

I started walking last week to music that is about 130 and 136 BPM. I have 3 workout/walk CD's produced by Shape magazine that I've had for several years. I downloaded them to my iTunes and put two of the walk workouts on my iPod. Each workout is about an hour, but at that pace, I cannot do an hour yet. Plus, I have to skip a couple of the songs in the middle of the walk program because they are just too fast for me right now. And I am sore. I am very sore, primarily in my ankles and hips. That's okay. I will get there (where ever "there" is)... eventually.

So, now I am off to walk. I'm old. I'm walking. It's better than sitting.

Wordless Wednesday