Oh my! I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. It has taken a few days to not feel completely physically and emotionally drained. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I will try to give you a good idea of what Ive been up to and try to catch you up.

Sunday morning came early and we left for the airport around 4:15am. I had an almost 3-hour layover in Dallas so I made the most of it. Rented a cart, pulled out my sneakers and walked for about an hour through the terminal. Got into Tucson around 12:30 (3:30 VA time) and was met by my folks, brother Dale and neice Izzy. We had a lovely afternoon just being together and catching up.
Later in the evening, I went back to my place and got settled in. I am staying in the trailer of friends of my parents who are in Colorado for the summer. Its perfect! When I can get some pics uploaded, I will add them so you can have a visual of where I am. Did some shopping so I would be prepared in the morning and crashed into bed.

The next morning, my brother came over and the work began. To kick-off our adventure, we both weighed in. I am going to totally put myself out there and let it be known that my starting weight was 301.8. As I continue, I dont think I will put the number of pounds that I lost each week, just that it was a loss. At the one month mark, the gym will do a fitness evaluation and I will be able to tell you how many inches I have lost at that point. If you are someone who wants to know the weight numbers each week, you can email me directly (caryfam5@hotmail.com) and I will let you know.

We went to a nearby middle school track and did a run/walk for two miles. After we took a few minutes out of the sun and had some lunch, we went to Costco so I could stock up on fruits and veggies. I later went to the gym, LA Fitness, officially joined, and set up an appointment with a trainer for the next day. I had planned to take two swim aerobics classes with my sister in law, Darlene (Dea), but when the M/W class was cancelled, she convinced me to take a kickboxing class with her at the local community college. So, we headed off to the first class. When the instructor came in and said she would be excited to see someone vomit, cry or bleed, I knew I was completely out of my league. I did leave feeling like I could cry or vomit or both. I hated all the core workouts, but loved the boxing part. (I even woke up with a bruise on my knuckle the next day!-my first war wound). It was all I could do to prepare dinner and make myself eat and fall into bed.
The next morning Dale came over and we went to a nearby park. A cool thing about Tucson is that there are tons of paved walking paths. All the parks seem to have them and along the washes (a dry riverbed that fills with water during the late summer Monsoon season) there are paved pathways for walkers, runners, bikers, skaters and horseback riders. So at the park we walked for a while. I came home and had a break and then walked up to a store called Sunflower. Its a grocery store that has lots of produce, organic meats, bulk grains and nuts, lots of health foods and a whole vitamin/supplement section. Ate lunch and headed back to the gym. The workout was legs and abs. After the kickboxing the night before, it kicked my butt! But I did planks! two sets of them! 20 seconds each! I was supposed to go from there to swim aerobics, but the class got canceled since someone left a surprise in the pool earlier in the day! I came home to rest for about an hour and then couldn't get up. I just layed low that night.
Yesterday I felt better and was able to do more throughout the day, including walking about three miles in the morning, working out at the gym, more walking, kickboxing and some pool workout stuff after dinner. Today, more of the same, just replace kickboxing with swim aerobics. Pray for me, my left thigh is giving me trouble and slowing me down. Although my walk this morning was at a pretty slow pace, but I burned the same number of calories as the walk/run the first day! More later!