The Walking Adventure!

On a beautiful, clear sunny afternoon, I met with a group of around 28 people for a walk with a meetup group called "Walking for Health and History in and Around San Francisco." Now, I had participated in another walk with this group last June -- "March to the Sea."

We literally walked from one end of San Francisco to another -- it was rigorious, challenging and FABULOUS all at the same time! I knew that the guy who coordinates and sets up these walks, Howard...doesn't mess around. When he says we're walking, we REALLY walk!

This particular walk was supposed to take place a week earlier, but it was rescheduled due to bad weather (as in loads of rain). But this day could not be more perfect walking weather! I didn't know about the Christmas Display thing - just wanted to walk around Alameda. The "day" part of the walk lasted around 3 hours walking at a leisurely pace...when all was said and done at the end of the night, we had walked about seven miles according to my pedometer. It was all flat, so the walk wasn't bad at all. We took a break between the day walk and the night walk (about 45 minutes)...some people actually left after the day walk, and they really missed out on the coolest light display I've seen in years, if ever...we walked all the way through the neighborhood that was lit up like a beautiful wonderland...even the trees had lights on them and one house had music coordinated with their lights -- from Nightmare Before Christmas! sooo cool. BEST seven mile walk I took...met really cool people...after the walk I met with my older daughter Melissa and she was amazed that I'd walked seven miles with a whole group of people I didn't know before! I'd say it was magical...I'm ready for the next walk...most are in San Francisco, some in Oakland.

I walked almost 20,000 steps (according to the pedometer)...and it felt great!

Aqua Aerobics at 24-Hour Fitness!

It was a MIRACLE! I made it this morning to 24-Hour Fitness in Mountain View for a whole hour of Aqua Aerobics! Starting off the day in an 82-degree pool? I'd say that's pretty cool. And let me tell you, aqua aerobics is NO wimpy workout AT ALL! talk about exercising every part of your body! the mad dash to work was kinda crazy afterwards...and I showed up with wet hair signing in right at 9:58am on the dot...but nobody seemed to care! I can hardly wait to do it again -- on Monday!

The 24-Hour Fitness Adventure!

Okay I made the PLUNGE! Joining 24-Hour Fitness that's 2 blocks from my work! Why? well, the obvious of course...to get fit! but they have Aqua Aerobics in the mornings! Getting up and out the door early is not an easy feat for me, but for aqua aerobics in the mornings before work...I'll MAKE THE PLUNGE!!!! here we go! hehe!

Okay, I'm at 24 hr fitness! This is a scary place. Lots of people running fast or climbing or whatever And more people lifting scary weights! Peeked in and saw a bunch of fit people doing some strenuous moves in a gym area! I don't belong here! I'm scared! Where r my chicks from curves in Sunnyvale? It was safe there. The pool looked great though! Maybe aqua aerobics in the morn is where it's at and gimme some good rock n roll and not this weird music and ill out dance these serious looking people!!! Trust me on that.

Pedal faster!! The elliptical machine blinked rudely. What the heck? My heart rate is climbing to heart attack level and say what? Ok do I was about to run and escape fitness madness but something inside me said stay. Do something. You're here. And so I did. Burned 280 calories in like 40 min. Note to self. Bring my ear buds to listen to my music. Good idea Frank Pool! Tomorrow morn it's aqua aerobics for one hour!! Yay! Stay tuned for the new adventures of 24 hr fitness!

Here I will chronicle my weight loss journey which actually began a couple of years ago...I've already lost a bunch of weight, gained a few pounds, but I've never gone back to where I was for so many years after I had Megan.

this was me at my work with Julie (heidi's daughter) at around 240 pounds...

this was me at the office Christmas party with Melissa & Alex in 2008 (at 240 lbs)

I never want to go there again

I got down to around 175 pounds -- the first time I'd been under 200 pounds since I can remember. Then I went through some life changes and got back up a little bit... the journey REALLY began when I was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance back in the summer of 2008...with what they called a "thunderclap" headache... the doctors didn't find anything life threatening (although at first they were worried about my life)...but it turned out I had high blood pressure, high blood sugar, too much fat around my liver, high triglycerides... and somehow this exacerbated the headache issue. It was a few months after hitting the emergency room with horrible, mind numbing headaches that I decided to go for it -- to change my life...