My hubs & I hiked in the Cascades today up to a waterfall which btw was GORGEOUS! The path was up & down quite a bit. As I was skipping along, it occurred to me that I wasn't out of breath or having a hard time keeping up. Then I realized...no wonder...I buy 25 pound bags of dog food for my dog & I have LOST 2 OF THOSE!!! Wow, what a difference 50 pounds makes. Oh happy day. Now to conquer the NEXT 50

I've been getting quite the workout doing yardwork the past couple of days! Huge yard, been busy lately so it's a mess. Mowing, weeding, hauling, chopping equals burning off calories. So now I'm not looking at it as a nuisance chore but as a total body workout. That's a big change in attitude for me!!!

I went out to eat with my hubby & a friend last night. I know, the Olive Garden is not the ideal spot for a sleeve. I studied the menu...pasta is definitely out! Breadsticks - nope. Appetizers - nope. Lasagna, spaghetti, fetuccini - nope nope nope. What the heck am I doing here? So I told the waitress that for health reasons I'm on a very limited diet. Could I order just 2 meatballs, no pasta???? Sure! I ended up eating a small serving of their delish salad & about 1-1/2 meatballs. ...

Can it be true??????? I actually bought a size 16 in a regular store today....not a plus size store......a store for regular size women. And they fit! I could cry I'm so happy. I can't remember the last time I was a able to stuff myself into this size

Also I've blogged about airplane seatbelts before...here goes again. I flew to Anchorage a couple of days ago. Not only did the belt buckle with ease but I had to tighten it about 5 inches!

So a word to especially ...

Reminder to myself....do NOT turn to food as a way to deal with stress! These things happened in the past few days (this is not an excuse, it's an explanation) -My d-in-law had a baby (woohoo), I missed an entire night of sleep, I had a job interview & we had out of town guests. So, what did I do? I ate chocolate, banana bread & a few other things that were stupid stupid stupid. In other words, I reverted to my old coping mechanisms. So okay. Today is a new day right? So I'm about ...