Good Lord, I Haven't Posted in a Week!

My poor blog has been neglected. Mainly because I've had nothing to blog as of late. Last weekend, the fam and I took my purdy girl (and their bikes too) out for a bike ride. Gorgeous day. We packed a lunch and rode around the bike paths near the Hillsboro Main Library. We stopped to eat on the grass near the pond and were accosted by two big, white duck bullies, who would literally chase away their "competition". It was rather amusing. My daughter named them "Buck" and "Chuck". LOL

My oldest daughters have finished their curriculum for 2nd and 3rd grade. I don't follow the school year in September when I homeschool, because the company we go through has awesome sales in April/May, so that's when we buy their new books and we start shortly thereafter. But my kids do have a break in the spring, which is when we usually take our family vacations. My son and youngest daughter will be finished this coming Monday, because they had a few more "sick" days than my older two. :) But everyone is excited to have some time off. We have family and friends coming to visit us in May, so we're going to have a lot of fun on our "off" time!

I've been sticking to my exercise regimen and have lost a few more pounds. Since April 2nd, I've lost 7 more pounds! The weight loss has definitely slowed down since the beginning, but I'm happy to see it's still going down. I plateaued there for awhile, but I once read an inspirational quote that says, "A plateau is nothing more than a 'dress rehearsal' for maintaining your goal weight." :P I've been drinking tons more water (hello toilet!) in an effort to keep myself hydrated, as I'm an avid Diet Coke drinker. Even though a Diet Coke is "free" according to my dietitian, I've read on a few websites that your liver is what metabolizes fat into energy for your body. If your kidneys are deprived of adequate water, then the liver is forced to "take over" some of their job, thus taking the focus of it's job off of metabolizing fat. So when you drink more water, you're keeping your kidneys hydrated enough to do their own job, allowing the liver to do *its* job. Fortunately, it only takes a week or two before your body to get used to the increased water intake, so the light at the end of the tunnel is that you won't spend the rest of your life on the pot.

I believe it's definitely working for me. Yesterday, I was down two ounces. Today, I was down another six ounces. Of course, it could be due to the fact I exercise every day as well. I'm doing some strength training to get definition (and erase flab) on my arms and legs. Obviously I don't want to be a weight lifter, but I don't want to have chicken arms and chicken legs when I finally do lose the weight. I think a defined arm and leg are sexy. I'm using a resistance band as well as a stability ball to strengthen my muscles and tighten my core. Lord knows I need that!

Let's see, what else? The sun is finally peeking out here in Oregon, but the days are still chilly. What's up with that? It's almost May, people! Wonder if we're going to have a mild summer?

Anyways, I'm sorry for the boring ol' post, but I thought it's better to post something than nothing at all! All this exercising and finally writing a book I owe Champagne Books has been sucking up my free time to blog! Ah well, it's for the greater good. :)

~~Becka