Thoughts

I awoke this morning by a text from our daughter, Holly saying an 8.9 earthquake had hit Japan and they (California) was under a tsunami warning!  Thank goodness it didn't affect the West Coast very much!  I'm very glad that Holly took the kids and went to higher ground "just in case".

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and anyone else who was affected by the earthquake and tsunami!  The devastation is absolutely incredible and so tragic!  I hope the Japanese are able to get control of all their nuclear power plants soon or there will be an even bigger tragedy!

When natural disasters like this happen I just count my blessings.  I'm so thankful that Holly and the kids were safe.  (Erich was more inland at work so he wasn't in any danger.)   I really hope California doesn't have the big one soon.  According to scientists there is a 70% chance of a major earthquake hitting California within the next 30 years.  I pray it doesn't happen.

Time now for my weekly update on how I'm doing with my lifestyle change:  I lost 2 pounds the first week I started back to counting Weight Watcher points and only 1/2 pound this past week.  I totally stayed on the Points Plus plan and worked out 6 days.  I averaged 40 minutes of cardio exercise on the elliptical and did about 20 minutes of free weights on 3 days; did crunches and a specific lower back and balance exercise daily.  I wore my pedometer every day to cross check my progress and I averaged about 7500 steps a day, a little short of my steps goal but I met the exercise goal so I consider that a successful week!

I think it's going to be a tremendously slow process to get these unwanted pounds off!  I just need to have patience and keep telling myself this is the way it must be if I want to be healthy. More on my progress next week.