My House Painter

His name is William, and he is my 15 year old son. He is about to turn 16 and he wants to buy a truck that my brother has for sale. He has been looking for a job but has had trouble finding one in this economy and the fact that he is not 16. He has several prospects after he turns 16 but for now, nothing. So, he works for me. Painting the trim on our house. He is doing a great job. The weather is perfect, not to hot and humid.

I did it!

I can't believe it but I ran for a full 5 minutes today. First I walked for 15 minutes, then ran for 3 minutes, walked for 2 minutes, ran for 5 minutes and then repeated the cycle, except for the walking 15 minutes. I did this for a total of 45 minutes and then walked for the last 15 minutes. This took an hour and when I was done I had been on the treadmill for 1 hour and I ran/walked 4.11 miles.

I also hit the 70 pound mark today. Since September 8, 2008 I have lost 70 pounds. 30 pounds to go before the 100 pound mark, hopefully those 30 will come off this summer.

School is out

Yesterday was the last day of school. It was also the last day of the school play and Davis was in the play this year. They did "Meet me in St. Louis". He was in the chorus. He was disappointed that he didn't get a leading part but I tried to explain to him that those rolls are for the older kids, he is only in the 7th grade.

I love for school to be out. We have put off our vacation this year because of my mother's house. We bought a new computer instead and will hopefully take a few days and go to the beach. I want to do some projects around our house so we will be busy with that and Anna is on the swim team at YMCA and that should take up a good bit of time.

I am still running on the treadmill. This week I had to run for 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds and then run for 3 minutes and walk 3 minutes until I reached 20 minutes. That might not sound like much but I can tell you it is a lot. Next week I have to up the running to 5 minutes. I stalled in my weight loss so I am praying this running gets my body going again. I have lost 68 pounds so far.

Well, off to get ready to go and help hang sheet rock at my mother's house.

What a day

Yesterday, here in Montgomery we had flash flooding. We had about 10 inches of rain in just under an hour. We have new water behind the liner of our pool because there was so much rain in our yard.

But the real tragedy of this was my mother's house. It had about a foot of water come in and all of my family had to gather to get her stuff out and get the water out. I was assigned to be with her. She is 75 years old and this was very hard on her. She cried all day. She is a pack rat and that only made cleaning out her house all the worse. My brothers, sister, sister in laws, brother in law, husband, children, nieces and nephews were all there working until after dark. It will be at least 3 months before she can return. She and her two little dogs are at my brother's house. I thought I would have some pictures but Davis only took pictures of the back yard. Maybe today when I go over there I can take some of her empty house.

There was a man in Montgomery whose car was swept away and he drown. Many roads are out and some are still flooded.

What a day.

I ran

again, today, I ran. I can't believe I am running. I ran for 1 minute, walked for 90 seconds and did this over and over again for 20 minutes. Then walked until I had reached 5 miles. Deana is ahead of me on the routine so she ran much more than I did. She ran for one mile without stopping.

I have to tell you - it feels great. Well, today it hurt because I am still sore from Monday but it is a great feeling to be doing this.

But as great as this feels, I can't believe that in a few weeks I will be running for 5 minutes or more at a time. For this girl, that seems like a lot.

I ran and I can't believe it.

Time for a change

When my weight loss journey began I thought I would walk and do Weight Watchers and that would be enough. It would be all I would want to do and no more. But I have found that my body needs to be tricked at times and walking only produces the excitement and desire to take the exercise routine to a new level.

I have hit another plateau so something had to be done. I had a 3 pound gain last week and this week I lost only 1 pound so I knew that my body was settling in and I need to shake things up.

Well, that is what me and my partner have done, we have taken our exercise to a new place. While I was recovering from my surgery Deana began a walk/run routine at the YMCA. So, now I have joined her. I had to or she would have ran and left me!

So, yesterday we moved to the Y and are now on the treadmill. I walked for 1 minute and ran for 1 1/2 minutes and we did this for a half hour. After the first half hour we walked for another half hour. I couldn't believe that I was running. I haven't ran in decades. And it felt great! So great I went out afterwards and bought me better shorts to run in.

I ran! This fat girl, going on former fat girl, ran. So, off we go. To lose the rest of our weight and run/walk into a new lifestyle.