Day Forty-One - Let the Walking Begin!

There is construction going on in the unit next door today.  I am not sure what they are doing but I can tell you that they started doing it pretty early this morning.  Although, you wouldn't know that by the time I finally started working on my blog.  I will put my Gladys Cravits skills to work later on and see if I can figure out what they are doing.  This would be much easier if they were working on a unit across from me rather than right next to me.

One of them just got a drop clothe out of the truck and he is carrying a bucket.  But yesterday I saw a guy with blueprints measuring the sidewalk going up to the front door.  My foundation was worked on several years ago.  At that time, they didn't do anything to the unit next door.  I am noticing things around my house that might indicate that more work is going to be required on my foundation.  I just hope whatever they do, levels mine out too.  I really don't want to have them working on mine while I am at home during the day.

It is really nice to be home from vacation.  I had thought I was going to hit the ground running this week and get tons of stuff done.  So far, not so good.  I did finally make it to the grocery store yesterday afternoon so that I could start eating right.  Then I came home prepared to make the worlds greatest salmon salad last night and I didn't cook at all.  I wound up eating chips with cheese melted on top.  I am not calling them nachos because it was just chips and cheese.  I believe that you have to put more on the chips to make them nachos.  I mean at least a hot element is required.  If I'm too lazy to put together some beans or meat or peppers to go on it, then it doesn't deserve to be called nachos.

I was supposed to have started a diet yesterday.  I did really good right up until the chips and cheese.  I had yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch and then chips and cheese for dinner followed by a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich.  I don't know about anybody else, but I could live on anything Skinny Cow makes.  I love that stuff.

I think the biggest thing on this diet is going to be for me to get my fat butt out of the house and start walking.  The weather is perfect and there is no excuse not to do it.  I so prefer getting exercise outside rather than in a gym, so this is a perfect time of year to get started.  But I keep coming up with excuses.  Yesterday my excuse was that I needed to take a shower before I could be seen in public.  Really????  I need to shower in order to go sweat?  Even I didn't believe the excuse, but I went with it anyway.  Then once I took the shower, I didn't want to start sweating!!!!!!  So, I went to the grocery store instead.  Then I was going to come home and cook, so there was no time to walk.  Then I started cleaning and I couldn't just leave everything out to go walk.  Then it started getting dark and it really isn't safe to walk on the walking trails after dark.  I mean everyone heard what happened on the Katy Trail this week, right?!!??!!!  I mean, my walking trail is nowhere near the Katy Trail. But that bad guy might have a car and be looking for a new trail to work since there were so many cops on the Katy Trail last night during the 6:00 news.

So, now I start this cycle again.  I have showered recently enough that I don't feel it necessary to do so again before going to work out.  I have no tasks that must be done before I leave the house.  They are making ton-o-noise in the unit next door which is pushing me to leave my condo.  The temperature outside is a whopping 74 degrees and it is semi-sunny.  It won't get dark for like nine hours.  The cats are fed.  The fish are fed.  The floors are swept, vacuumed and mopped.  The only think I have left to do is to finish writing this.  Oh!  I just came up with a brilliant idea!  I will go walk and then come back and finish writing this so that I am accountable to YOU dear readers!  I have to go put some shoes on.  Please excuse me for a few minutes.  Go surf the internet..... I'll be right back.... really.....

Ok, I have my walking shoes on, the cats are both in the house and all of the doors are closed.  I have a full charge on my cell phone, I've eaten a banana and just finished my third cup of coffee.....  I think I can do this now.  Here I go.....  go surf the internet a little more.  I'll be back in 30 minutes or so assuming I don't pass out or the Katy Trail guy hasn't made his way north.

I'm back!!!!  And I have proof that I really walked, I mean besides the fact that I am slightly out of breath, my calves hurt and I'm a little sweaty.  I took pictures!  I know this is shocking considering that I never take pictures of anything, Ha!

These are my feet doing the walking!

This is my face not believing that my feet are doing the walking!

This morning I walked 20 minutes.  Hey, quit laughing it is a start!  Tomorrow, I will add 5 minutes to my time and before you know it I'll practically be able to walk 30 minutes without whining!

So, here's some exciting news.  It isn't semi-sunny at all.  It is totally sunny!!!!!  Who knew that when you walk outside and you don't look at everything through a window with a tree in front of it that you could actually see the sky!!??!?!  There was a lady on the trail riding her bike.  I really need to get my bike out.  I miss riding it.  But I think I should concentrate on walking right now.  After all, if it gets right down to it, I can coast at times while I am on the bike and we all know how I will look for any opportunity to not actually do any form of exercise.  So, no bike riding for me until I have lost the first 5 lbs.  Then maybe I'll go on a bike ride as a reward.

New Topic
Last night I watched the season premier of The Bachelorette.  Can I just say that if they can find that many WEIRD good looking men with jobs to be on that show, why can't I find one?  Seriously!  One of them brought an ostrich egg with him to demonstrate how carefully he would take care of Emily and her daughter.  Another one had six kids, who knows how many ex-wives, was 15 years older than Emily and actually cried when he was eliminated.  He had known her for one evening!!!!  Really, dude?  Talk about baggage!  On top of everything else Emily is annoying.  Ok, I know that she is blond, petite and beautiful and that men aren't really into her for anything other than that.  But how can they listen to that annoying accent all the time and listen to her saying "thank yoooooouuuuuu" after every comment?  Nevermind, I also get that men don't actually listen to women regardless of what they look like, so I guess it's actually pretty easy for them to deal with her.  But she really needs a better hairdresser.  Her hair is not actually blond.  It is YELLOW!!!  That is not a natural color for hair.

The last thing I have to say today about this is that from the previews for the rest of the season, it looks like she takes the singer / "song writer" from NY pretty far into the process.  This proves to me that she is dumber than a bag of hair.  When they were introducing all of the guys they showed him singing a song for Emily as he was talking about how song writing just comes so easily to him.  The song he was singing consisted of two words:  "Emily" and "Whoa".  That's impressive dude!  Emmmmmmmilllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....  Whoaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!  It is a very moving song....  Eye roll!

I will check back in tomorrow hopefully with more pictures of my feet walking and perhaps even a reality show comment or two.