Well folks, I have to confess I have been bad. I had a fitness goal in mind to reach this winter. Well last week I was able to do the weight and repetitions I wanted to without too much strain. I then proceeded to take 6 days off, since now that I have reached my goal, I can drop from 3 sessions a week to 2. I intended to take a 3 day "vacation" from exercise. My how easy it is to get lazy. I took six days off. Today I got back with it and punished myself by adding another new exercise to the session and have decided to add yet more if I ever get lazy again. If I am sick, traveling, etc, OK to skip but just because I don't feel like it is not acceptable. The lesson for all who read this is to not give up any progress you are making. Even a small thing like wiggling a finger, toe, etc. you must keep doing if you want to see more progress or keep what you have gained.

I am doing this because Lesley and I have a trip into the Canadian wilderness planned for next July, and I must be able to help Lesley carry all the gear and canoe. I also have at least one other trip planned with a guy friend, and I don't want to be a burden to him.

Anyway, not much snow here yet, cold though, which is good. We actually had rain here last week, not a good thing in January as we now have ice under the new snow we are getting, making it quite easy to slip and fall. The leanto I built this past summer to house the ATV continues to do the job very well. I am most pleased we built it. We are still considering when and how to build a garage for the motorhome.

Lesley is off to New Zealand again in April. She has switched her yearly trip to the spring because fall is a busy time around here, and spring is a very good time to be out of here. She is also seriously dieting and exercising a lot. She is on a site called myfitnesspal.com and if you want to lose weight, we both highly recommend it. She is steadily dropping 1-2 lbs a week and is more fit than she has been in many years. I am also losing a few lbs as well as a support to her mostly. I am lower now than I have been since I finished basic training with the Air Force as a 19 year old. I have decided to edit this blog. I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned here. Most of my life like most of us I have had 10-15 lbs or so I would like to lose, but just never seemed to get it done.Now that I have lost it, I have discovered there is still maybe 10 lbs to go. We all like to deceive ourselves and put the best possible face on anything that might reflect poorly on us. We can deceive each other, our spouses, even ourselves. The only entity we cannot deceive is our body. It knows how many calories we actually eat. It knows how much we actually exercise. We might tell the PT we are doing exactly what they tell us to do. Our body knows if we are really telling the truth or not. We can and do, fool everyone even ourselves, but we cannot fool our body. The reason Lesley is doing so well on this diet is that she is doing actual portion control, weighing, measuring, etc, and yes, exercise. No more "it's my thyroid, it is in my genes, etc, etc" excuses. We stroke survivors can learn from this lesson. School is out for the day!

So we are both reasonably fit, happy, and nearing the weight we should be at. I told Lesley that life has seasons just like each year does. Some are good and some are not so good. I told her we are in a good season at the moment and that we need to enjoy it. Like all seasons, it will end someday, and we want to enjoy it while we can.

Well, enough rambling on for now, just keep on keeping on!