Dem bones

I got my 2 good walks in this weekend and they felt great, with knees performing closely to optimally.  Sunday I ended up going with 2 friends - we walked up to a meeting we all attend that starts at 7 a.m.  Since it's about 2.7 miles away, we met on a street corner from our various directions and off we went at a tidy clip.  After the meeting we went and had a healthy breakfast at a local eatery and then hoofed it back home via a different route.  All tolled I believe we logged about 5.5 miles and felt entirely righteous!  Also drenched, as the humidity felt like it was about 99%.  But at least the temp was only in the high 80s...by yesterday afternoon it was low 90s.

I greatly prefer brisk "power" walking in the great outdoors to virtually any cardio I do at the gym.  I'd love to think that I could eventually return to some slow jogging but won't even consider it until I'm 9 months out from the 2nd knee procedure.  Just too risky on my...ahem...old seasoned knees. 

But the gym comes in handy for strength training, which I haven't yet added back in since recovering from the Winter of Knees.  Given my age, it's really important to get the strength training back into the mix to keep my bones strong.  My 2nd bone density (you youngsters haven't needed this yet, but I've already had 2 - 2 years apart) showed the bones in pretty good shape with very minimal osteopenia (bone thinning - a pre-cursor to osteoporosis), and I want to keep it that way and not have to go on any of those evil meds that Sally Field and others rag about on prime time tv.  Nature's way beats the heck out of Western Medicine's way every day, in my book.

I wrote a few weeks back about needing (and being entitled) to sign on with 6 free trainer sessions at my gym, and I still haven't done it, so this week it's at the top of the list.  I have a friend who works at the gym and she was away so I put it off.  I know she'll set me up with someone I can trust and that she knows will not be eye rolling the whole time at working with a 50-something fat lady! 

I'm doing well with my commitment to focus on consistency with water drinking, ala Loretta's Consistency Challenge.  The water weight I saw on my Friday weigh in attributable to 2 restaurant meals out in a row is gone, and I'm hoping to post a significant loss this Friday in Tammy's challenge.

Also want to give a shout out and big congrats to Helen on beating her last half marathon time by over 4 minutes when she ran her race this weekend.  You can read about her great run at the link.  Have a decent Monday everyone!