Going Green, WI

Our heat seems to have abated, but I still have to get up fairly early a couple days a week to get my run in before the grandkids arrive at 7:20.  This beautiful sunrise over the Potomac River is just one of the rewards of my early morning run.  I also enjoy the fresh cool scents that are more evident at that hour. Joe Pye Weed and Sweet Autumn Clematis were especially evident on my last run.  There is also a select community of early morning exercisers who nod or wave to one another in acknowledgement of our dedication and commitment.  I look forward to greeting the blond woman who looks about my age and is always coming from the opposite direction as I am finishing my run.  She's always out there, is in fantastic shape, and is an inspiration to me.  I usually run in the morning and bike in the afternoon or evenings.  DH and I have loved riding together after dinner this summer.  We're planning a short "Bike Holiday" weekend next weekend.  Thinking about going back to Maryland's Eastern Shore and doing a few of the great bike routes in Tablot County.  We've done two of them before but are excited about exploring a little more.  I love that this coastal county is pretty flat!  I'm getting better at hills, but they sap a lot of my energy on a long ride.

Going green?  Well, you know I like my charts.  This chart shows my weight loss for 2012.  That nice downward slope shows the trend of my loss well.  As you can see, I've lost an average of just about one pound every week for the first 34 weeks of this year.  There are obviously some pink spikes, where my daily weight went up, the last being when we were up in Canada (s'mores!) but you can see I've managed to get back to losing each time.  

At my WI on Wednesday, I lost 2.4 pounds!  I am in that new decade, now, and just over 15 pounds from my goal weight.  I also weighed less than I have since 2008.  All this means, of course, that I'm spending a lot of time in my closet.  I love trying on cute clothes that have been waiting patiently for me to trim down.  My 12P jeans that I reclaimed last month are getting roomy and the 10P are already on my shelf.  I've culled out a couple bags full that are now definitely too big and that I'm not going to wear again. Ever.  In the past, despite good advice, I've always saved some of my favorite "big clothes," just in case.  Not this time.  They're out of here.  Clothes shopping is fun again, too.  Cute, normal sized clothes from the "regular" section of the store fit.  I'm not buying much, because I'm going to lose more and because I have all those "old-new" clothes that fit again.  But I'm really loving the ability to "reject" anything that I try on, not because it's too tight, but because it's not exactly what I want!  

DH and I are having fun going through Rosetta Stone French lessons.  We're planning a 2 week trip to France in October. We're going to spend a few days in Paris and then rent a car and drive to places we want to go--Bayeux, Normandy, the chateaux country along the Loire, the Perigord region, Lascaux, and Bordeaux.   I used to be reasonably fluent in French, but living in Italy for three years pushed my French abilities out of my brain.  The lessons are bringing it back.  DH has never studied French but is whizzing through the first units and enjoying it.  

Parlez you francais?