15 + 5 = 20

Good morning, dearies!

Three days and one new computer monitor later, I'm back in business. My monitor's been acting up for a couple weeks now, but it gave up the game yesterday. When I couldn't get online, I actually started feeling a little worried. Would I be able to keep up the hard work without my dear readers to help me through the rough patches? As soon as I'd finished my workout this morning, eaten my breakfast, and powdered my nose, it was off to the store to pick up a new monitor. Whatever it is about this blog, it's been an absolute necessity to me in this journey and I haven't the time to hem and haw about repairing the old monitor. Now if I can just get used to this extra wide, new screen...

As you can see from the title to this post, I had some wonderful news from the scale to compensate for the computer issues. It was 2 lbs. a few days ago and 3 more this morning, leaving me at a weight of 174. That's 20 lbs. lost since April 9!!! I'm not sure why - you know firsthand how hard those first 11 lbs. were - but the last 9 have come off fairly quickly.

Is it the humidity?
With temps in the 90s and 100s every day, I am sweating an awful lot more when I walk than I was in April or May. (I'm also continuing to drink 64 oz. of water per day to make up for that.)

Has my stomach been shrinking?
It's a strange place indeed to find myself, but I've actually had zero temptation to snack lately. I watched my co-workers gorge themselves on tres leches cake yesterday and it didn't even cross my mind to have a taste. Hit one of the bars last night for happy hour and drank a diet soda (which is rare in and of itself for me). Didn't have the remotest interest in sampling all the appetizers that were being shared around the table. It wigs me out a bit to think of the quantity of food I used to eat. Even just a month ago when I was still eating peanut butter cups for dessert after dinner. There are a few minor changes I've been making lately --- buying skim milk instead of 1%, using two sugars in my morning coffee instead of three. That kind of thing. Maybe these little changes are making a difference.

Am I working out with more intensity?
I'm not sure. I can tell you that I'm beginning to look forward to my walks these days. (Could you have imagined me saying that three months ago?) I've even felt impelled this morning to break into a jog a couple of times. Crazy! One of the limbering and stretching exercises that I do each day is a leg lift in bed first thing in the morning. I do it just five times each morning - and what I noticed a few days ago is that while my back used to really do the work, my abdomen has taken over. I can actually feel some strength in my core which I never in a million years thought I'd feel again. I had open abdominal surgery several times during my late twenties. Cut open from stem to stern. Sliced right through that abdominal wall. I never thought I'd be able to rebuild any kind of strength or power in that area.

Or could it just be that crush?
Yep, you heard it here first. Little Miss Jitterbug has a good old-fashioned, butterflies-in-the-tummy, weak-in-the-knees kind of crush! He's a man who works in the same building as I do, though he's in a different department. Probably a few years younger than me, but he's got a 3,000-watt smile, the kind of curls they write songs about, and - from the few conversations we've had - seems like a super sweet person. *swoon* Nothing will probably come of this, but it's been a looooooooooooooong time since I even had a crush on somebody... so I'll take whatever loss of appetite comes along with it for as long as it lasts!

Now how 'bout that bedroom. I've got some housework to do! I'll check in later this weekend to share my adventures in bathing.