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Introduction Text Dear Friends: I started my weight loss journey in July 2007. After losing 8 pounds, I put it on hold for a few months because of a stressful job situation, and resumed as soon as I started a new job in May 2008. My plan was to lose a pound a week, by walking, doing other exercises, and managing my diet. It has been about 4 years since then. In that time, I've done a lot of walking, some running, and now biking. I had to take a break from running because of foot pain, and I would probably start doing it again, except that I am enjoying biking so much. I've lost 30 pounds, and unfortunately, I've regained them as well, mostly during the time my husband was deployed to Iraq earlier this year. I discovered a few months ago that there was a practical way to commute to work by bicycle, so I started doing that, and I have worked my way up to doing it almost full-time. It's a 20 mile roundtrip from the place where I park my car each morning. I believe I am back on the right track now, but I am just beginning to lose weight, but I know that my muscle mass is increasing and my body fat percentage is decreasing. I can feel the difference in my legs, and I've shaved a couple of minutes off of my time. Look for my regular bicycle commuting blogs right here on this page. Now that I am back into a regular aerobic habit, I am working on getting back into regular strength training, and trying to restart doing yoga regularly to control a huge amount of personal and job stress. Thanks for stopping by. I'll keep you posted! Here are some thoughts that inspire me: The first footprint that you make when leaving your comfort zone, is the most important step you will ever take. It is the beginning of your awakening to a new perception of yourself. It is a Footprint that can never be erased. It is a symbol of your commitment to walk, fly, think, or run into the unknown, to find that part of yourself that you have never challenged to the extreme. Each footprint you make towards that goal will change your life, and will remain embedded in the experience of those who wondered �why, � as you passed them by, long after you have reached that center within. Patrick Johns I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. Wisdom has two parts: 1)-Having a lot to say. 2)-Not saying it. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Unless we can hear each other singing and crying, unless we can comfort each other's failures and cheer each other's victories, we are missing out on the best that life has to offer. The only real action takes place on the bridge between people. A rock pile ceases being a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be. Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley, writer In the depths of winter, I finally found there was in me an invincible summer. Albert Camus, author

Complete a Virtual Walk Across America. Become a better runner, and participate regularly in races. Ride my bicycle every weekend. Bike the entire C&O Canal Tow Path sometime in the next three years. And of course, lose weight.

I try to walk at least 12,000 steps everyday. Three days a week I run following a training program for beginning women runners. I also bike most weekends (11 - 26 miles, so far), and I also use weight machines, although not as consistently as I would like. (Work more and more often gets in the way.)

I live in Maryland.

I'm a big fan of Jane Austen, and have read all of her novels multiple times. I enjoy photography, and take hundreds of pictures of my two children and their teams during the fall and spring soccer seasons. I also enjoy making things with my hands (like needlework and card making), learning new computer skills, and riding my bicycle.

Add a Link Excellence is the result of caring more than others think wise, risking more than others think safe, dreaming more than others think practical, and expecting more than others think possible.
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