Day 22 of Phase 4 Challenge: Laughing Like Mad, Motivated Like Crazy, Happy as a Total Loon, Reducing BP Meds, Excellent Labwork from early Dec, and a new week on P4, with New Exercises-- & The Stair Exercises...Yikes..My Knees are Looking At Me With Despair! Hah!

Scale: Holding at 228.8

Yesterday:
Calories: 954
Exercise: Walking, some stair-climbing, some salsa dancing
Mood: Unbelievable! Like I got dosed with happy juice!!
Hunger: practically non-existent


(I thought I had had a bit more at dinner out, but when I calculated it on SparkPeople, it was well below. I was being supercautious at dinner not to overdo, and I guess that worked.)

Since we had such fun walking on the Broadwalk Saturday, I said, "Let'g so again." Hubby suggested the Gulfstream Race Park (has a casino and "village" of shops and restaurants.) I balked just a bit, then said, "Okay, let's do it."

It was GREAT. I've never gambled in a casino or slot machine. I still haven't. We pretty much just enjoyed the uncrowded village streets, wide and comfy staircases that my knees tolerated, the breezy race track area, and we did our walking. Then we danced. To a live band. Under the stars with a great breeze swept in from the East (smelled like the ocean), and Orion peeping down when the scattered clouds parted. Ooooh, yeah!

It's been a long time since we just danced to live music. OH MAN, was that fun!

The band played salsa and Reggaeton, and we danced to two looooooooooooooooooong salsa tunes till I thought my breath would kill me, then I semi-danced to a Reggaeton by myself (between salsa tunes, to catch my breath a bit). F.U.N. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN. And romantic. And I laughed and laughed all over that race track.

I turned to hubby and said, "Do you feel it? This is like when we were dating. This is great."

He agreed. He siled non-stop (well,  except to chew food). I think he was happy to have his wife back in upbeat, energetic, "youthful" form.

I've been waking up cheerful and going to bed after having laughed a lot. I am noticing a lot more cheer and laughter in general in my days. It's a delight to face the day now, not a chore. My body doesn't feel lke lead. It feels lighter and sprightlier, even while still severely obese.

I think the regular walking is doing me a world of good.

No tiredness. Just some exercise, sweat, and a ridiculous amount of chuckling, guffawing, giggling, smiling, and all-out belly laughter.

No hurting feet, though my bad ankle did feel it a bit this AM. And my hips are always painful when I start up moving, then they ease up.

We had dinner there, in an outdoor patio setting with twinkly lights on the palms.

I told hubby I wanna go back next Sunday night if the weather is clement and do it again!

Today was the appointment with doc to check on the blood pressure meds issue. In the office, I came to 105/68 in one arm; 106/63 in the other. She cut my low dose in half, and I'll check to see if that keeps me in range or still too low, and then I proceed accordingly. She thinks that as I continue to lose, I may not need it in a month or two. I got mega-kudos for the loss since last visit. Hurrah.

Got my labs: For the first time since I stopped taking statins due to them damaging my muscles/liver, my cholesterol is under 200, triglycerides are really low, HDL is high. The LDL is a smidge-smidgen over range, but I suspect that's the good LDL (the fluffy kind) from lower-carbing back in November (I had the labs done in early December). My numbers should be even better NOW.  Will find out in a few months.

So, all in all, things are great as we enter the fourth week of the fourth phase of the DDDY Challenge.

Plan for today: drink my water, begin new strength-training exercises (whoa, stair stuff!!!), and stay at or under 1200 calories eating soundly.

Let's do it. Let's make this a week that gives us vigor and kills some fat.

Happy Monday!!!!! (First month of the year is waning....how are the resolutions?)