Well, a lot has been going on lately.  I was a little frustrated last week with gaining back a 1/2 pound that I had previously lost, but I know that is part of how it all goes.  Mom's back has still been giving her a lot of problems, but she had an MRI earlier this week, and the doctor said she does not need surgery at this point!  Yay!  That is very good news.  He has referred her to the Texas Back Institute, and she has an appointment with them on Monday morning.  She may be going through some physical therapy, some pain management, and maybe some other things.  Hopefully, they will be able to help her out quite a bit.  I hate seeing her in so much pain.

 

My little brother (and Mom's youngest son) is home for a brief stay from Iraq.  He serves in the Army National Guard, and we haven't seen him since May of last year.  It is really good to spend some time with him while we can, because he'll be going back in a week.

 

Mom and I went and worked out together again today...and we both are feeling really good about it!  I think we are finally starting to see some pay-off from all of the workouts.  We both kept up a pretty decent pace on the treadmill the whole time we were on it, and we both walked for longer than we have been!  Not only that, but we felt like we were walking slower than we usually do, even though we were going our normal pace.  That is an excellent sign.  We worked out together yesterday evening, and we've got plans to work out together again tomorrow.  Week nights give us a few more complications than on the weekends, so we aren't getting to do it every day, but we have been working out about as often as our plan.  We're now talking about trying to bump our workouts up some...not only in intensity like today, but in frequency.  We want this to become a habit, not a chore.

 

I've been doing a lot more walking around on campus than I typically have in previous semesters.  I figure that on a typical class day, I'm walking between a half a mile and a mile, just getting around between classes and work.  At this point, I'm trying to make myself take the stairs too, as long as it is only 1 or 2 flights.  I have one class that is on the fourth floor, and I hope to be taking the stairs for that class by the end of the semester.

 

The indoor pool up at my school has just reopened (they were doing some construction), so Mom and I are planning on adding some water work to our workouts on the weekends.  I've just got to find out all of the details, and then we're going to get started with that, likely by next weekend.

 

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks again to everyone for your support, and y'all keep up the good work too!  Tomorrow is another weigh-in day for us, so I'll post the results once I've got them.

 

~Mindy