149.5

I'm not sure why I got the not-150 reprieve -- it has been 150 the last couple of days, but it's not official yet. Yesterday I went to the gym (with Daniel! Yay, Daniel!) and did 40 minutes on the bike and then 80 VKRs and then a bunch on the chest press and shoulder press. The weight I could handle was definitely down on those machines -- the price of missing exercise for most of a month. But maybe just getting to the gym earned me the half pound break.

Today I told myself I had to get to lunchtime without snacking on junk and then I could have a small treat after lunch. If I didn't get that far I had to exercise 10 minutes for each screw-up. But my only screw-up was that I ate a skittle we found when we were cleaning up -- ONE skittle. Somehow 10 minutes of sweating seems a stiff price. But I believe I'll bypass the treat after lunch.

I need to take this a few hours at a time, like the beginning of a diet. Which, in a way, this is -- though thanks to the blog it's never gotten completely away from me (that is, I've continued to feel guilty even though I've eaten badly for all but three months or so of the almost two years we've been at it). At least exercise hasn't fallen completely by the wayside at any point in that time either, last summer without a gym notwithstanding (but I did still exercise on occasion then -- I didn't have the four-month gaps I've had at other points in my life).

This afternoon I plan to go out on the bike trail with the kids. I took the training wheels off Alexander's bike on Saturday and he really did do better without them. We haven't tried hills yet -- we have to go a third of a mile to get to hills -- but I think he'll manage OK. Teaching him to balance took about a half a second -- I just put him on the bike, got him rolling, and off he went. With Mary it took the better part of an hour! And with Mary it was ages before she could start riding from a dead stop without having to psych herself up for a couple of minutes first. But once she got going she could steer pretty well -- Alexander could circle right but not left for the first two days!