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.

The Sun Has Returned!

We had several cloudy days in a row with an occasional peek of sun late in the afternoon but today was different...clear blue sunshine skies greeted me when I awoke!  Yes!  What a way to start off the day; sunshine always puts me in a great mood!  As much as I love waking to sunshine beams, I think I'll close my venetian blinds the opposite way so the sunlight doesn't peak through and glare in my eyes in the morning; feels a bit like having Gort's weapon beam of light shining in my eyes!  "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

We made it up to 56 degrees today and it should be about 60 degrees for the next few days.  The sunshine is supposed to stick around, too.  Can you believe that this weekend begins Daylight Savings Time?  Is this a recent change?  I thought it usually happened in April.  I welcome it.

Had my drums and guitar lessons today.  I'm working on offbeat rhythms in drums and am starting on Swing rhythms.  I finally have Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" finger picking pattern down in guitar as well as John Denver's "Poems, Prayers, and Promises".  Just need to practice speed now.

I'm still managing to stay within my daily Weight Watcher's points plus totals and have incorporated more movement into each day.  I'll have a fuller update on my progress on Friday.