Yeah, I feel a lot better than 6 months ago except for a bit of muscle
soreness from trying the stairs machine (the one that's like a
mini-escalator and not a regular stepper machine) on Tuesday.  I can feel
the gains in strength especially in my arms.  I don't have to get my husband
to open most jars for me anymore.

I'll do my walking in the morning or evening when the temperatures are a
little lower.  Walking in 100+ degree heat is stupid if you don't have to.
Even carrying water with you, someone can get heat stroke real easy.  I
still plan to go to the gym on my 3 gym days a week.  I'll be doing more
yard work and our house needs to have the peeling paint scraped off and it
re-painted.  So I have lots of other outdoor activities to do besides
walking.

Tonia

I've always had a problem with the dust.  Actually it's more sand than dust.
When I was in elementary school, we'd huddle in the schools doorway because
the sand stung so bad when it hit the girls' bare legs.  That was before
girls were allowed to wear pants to school.  I wore hard contacts for many
years and also had to wear sunglasses because the contacts made my eyes
over-sensitive to the sun.  The sunglasses shielded out a lot of the sand.
Now I wear my bifocals during most of the day and only wear my soft contacts
when I'm exercising or doing other stuff where the glasses would get in the
way and I don't need to be able to read the print in books or magazines.

I like having an intermediate goal because it gives me something concrete
that I can point to as an achievement.  I'm trying to lose the weight slow
because I don't want to have a lot of slack skin when I reach goal weight.
I really don't think at age 45++ that I could lose it fast!  So far with the
30 lbs I've lost there isn't much loose skin that I notice.  I'm kind of
worried that the skin under my chin is becoming a turkey waddle so I use a
lot of creams with collagen and CQ10, etc. I figure that reducing my risk of
developing diabetes by losing the weight will be more worth while than
looking "perfect".  But if anyone has a miracle cream that shrinks skin too
I'd love to hear about it.

Tonia