It's Not All Blisters and Shin-Splints

  Katie's numbers this week are awesome once again! She lost 3.4 pounds this last week making a total of 41.4 pounds she has lost in 5 weeks! Bringing our team weight loss this week to 6.2 pounds and our total weight loss so far to 58 pounds even! 
  Katie and I were talking about my frustration with how I'm not losing the weight as quickly as I would like. She asked me about how much I'm walking and how fast and for how long. I whipped out my phone and showed her my Nike app and all the walks I've been on. She said, "I don't get it, Mom. According to my P.E. teachers, you should be losing a crap-ton of weight. Unless they are all lying to us." Yeah, really? I thought so, too. I admitted to cheating a little this week on the diet, what with my 1 and a 1/2 hamburger buns, 10 tater tots and 4 girl scout cookies this week. She said, "Mom, I cheat ALL the time. Like literally, ALL the time. I don't get it." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. My metabolism betrays me like a double agent. "You can have the cookies. Really, it's cool. They're harmless. And you walked 7 miles today. You're still way under your calorie limit. It's all good." Then he rats me out to the Axis of Evil and I end up going through the slow torture of watching the numbers remain stagnant day after day. Or worse, go up! Two-faced little rat!

Never trust anyone who says it's ok to eat the cookies!

  I really do love the walks Jeff and I take every day. Katie said that she wants to join us. I hope she does, but she might not want to once she gets caught up in the conversations we have. 
  Jeff and I walk for anywhere from an hour to two hours, sometimes stopping for dinner. Rain or shine, every day, shin-splints and blisters and swollen joints, we walk. We catch up on each other's day and talk about all kinds of random things. Jeff bought a pair of blue-tooth headphones, hoping we could both listen to the music on his phone together, but the stupid things don't work like that. They don't split the sound between the two, so only one set works at a time. Stupid technology! Sometimes we talk about our diet and exercise and progress or lack of. Sometimes the topics get really weird. 
  Sunday I was voicing my disappoint in myself and the scale  (Sheesh, woman, let it go already!). We somehow started talking about getting enemas and if there is a home-kit for that and how I love Jeff a lot, but not enough to help him out with a colon-cleansing. I gotta draw the line SOMEWHERE! I think it's important that our relationship retains a little mystery, and this area is a good place to start. *Special Note* Do NOT google "colon cleansing images". Just don't. I won't be able to eat for the rest of the day. Guaranteed.

I will care for his foot blisters all day, but this? Um, NO!

  We also talked about lap-band surgery versus gastric bypass. We have friends who have both. Some with great success, some who dropped a lot of weight in the beginning and then regained it. Some who are just starting out with it. It's not an option that Jeff, Katie or I are looking to try at this stage. But, you never know. 
  Another fun topic that has come up during our walks is some of the discomfort we experience due to the walking. Jeff, as you know, is prone to foot pain and blisters. I don't have those issues. I have my knee and hip aches that Jeff doesn't experience. And we both do our fair share of complaining about our personal maladies. For added fun, Jeff has been experiencing some chaffing on his inner thighs. I hadn't had this problem until Sunday, which seems really strange to me-like shouldn't my thighs be getting thinner and thus farther apart? Of course, then we have the great powder vs. lotion debate that ended with both sides conceding that either could work, I guess. Jeff has something in the medicine cabinet called "Anti-Monkey-Butt". There are powders and creams and all manner of items in this line to reduce the thigh-rubbing, chaffing, itching and redness. I don't need it yet, and hopefully there won't come a day when I have to ask Jeff if he could hand me his Monkey Butt. But I sure hope someone is there to hear it if I do. I'll take "Awkward Dinner Topics" for $600. NOW we got us a party!

I can't even imagine having to borrow this stuff!

  Sometimes our togetherness gets a little nutty. I wouldn't change a thing about it. We talk and laugh and sometimes we just hold hands and don't say anything at all. Well, mostly that's Jeff. And maybe he's just listening to his music, not hearing anything I say. If that's true, he fakes it really well. I'm not going to question it. Our walks are the best part of my day. Even when I'm in the worst mood (and believe me, those moods can get pretty ugly), I'm always much happier by the time we arrive at home.
  And now for a shameless plug: Katie is performing this weekend in Bye-Bye Birdie at the Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center. Friday and Saturday night shows are at 7:00 p.m. Sunday matinee at 2:00 p.m. The cost is $12.00 for adults, $5.00 for children. She's gonna be a big star someday, so if you're in the area, come see her in the play. Get her autograph and a photo so you can say you knew her before she got famous. 
  

Bye-Bye Birdie this weekend-Hairspray next year!!!!!