- Relay For Life

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Hi , a friend from Madonna University invited me to go to a Relay for Life but it's in Troy so I don't know if I want to drive that far with gas prices being so high. I will probably just give her some money as my donation and also to get a luminara. My mother is a breast cancer survivor but my uncle Darby, great uncle Herman and two of my great aunts Ivy and Nellie passed away from cancer. My great aunt Nellie just passed away earlier this week. I HATE Cancer! After I've healed from my surgery I want to do more charity walks especially benefiting cancer research. Just want to let you know, Jen nancydewolf <nancydewolf@...> wrote: I'm

baaaaaaaaaaack! ... and I'm not sure if I should be pleased to have been noticed as absent or "insulted" by the possible implication that I gab a lot and, therefore, do my part to keep the traffic on this list hopping! :-) Just havin' fun with you Carolyn!!! :-) Computer is FINALLY home AND working! It came home once but was deader than a door knob (great job Gateway, it wasn't *that* bad when I sent it off the first time) so I had to send it back again (good thing they were paying shipping) and it arrived cleaner than it left and fixed too. However, I went through so many ridiculous roadblocks, set up by Gateway, to getting this thing fixed that I will NEVER buy another Gateway. It was ridiculously expensive to fix too because the problems were with the motherboard. OUCH. If I

have more troubles, this was actually the 2nd time it was repaired, first time was under warranty, it will become an expensive door stop, I've had enough. Anyway, after nearly a month of nonsense, I'm finally, happily back online. During my laptop's absence I had use of our ancient desktop that is set on a shelf too high for me to look at for more than a few minutes comfortably, with the screen that often and unexpectedly wiggles like crazy and it is in the cold, incredibly cluttered basement so I just could not bring myself to use it more than once or twice a week for a few minutes at a time. Definitely not enough time to read most postings and make my own. Now I'm back to spending way too much time online! I must say that you all keep me motivated. Being away from the group meant my workouts suffered. That was part of it anyway. The other

part was being sick for a week (and not wanting to push myself and make it worse so I took the week off) and being obscenely busy. I didn't expect that to happen. I thought I was into it enough to keep myself going but without the excitement of sharing workouts, hearing about others I didn't push myself like I normally do. I still exercised more than I did before I found this group though so that is good. Anyway, it just makes me that much more glad to be back! Next week should, in theory anyway, be quieter for me and I might be able to get at least 4 workouts in. This week I'm going to be doing really well if I end up with that much because we've had so much going on (schools, scouts, work, etc.). Two weeks ago (didn't work out last week) I did 's 3 Mile Fast Walk from Walk Slim for the first time. I did it again later in the week because I liked it so much (and

that's all I did that week). All of the Walk Slim workouts have become my favorite workouts, this one was especially fun. The music was excellent, she didn't have Jim "agitating" with her (I find that stuff too canned and annoying) and some of my favorite exercisers (her veterans) were in it too, along with her daughter and neice. It was super upbeat and I found it challenging enough on its own that I didn't do a lot of modifications to make myself work harder. The pace is very fast but there's no jogging. I think I liked this better than the jogging intervals in the 2 and 4 mile workouts though I really like those a lot too, I just have to be in the mood for intervals to do them whereas this is just head-on fast the whole time. I don't remember right now what I did the week before that but only worked out twice that week too. This week is a yoga week. My 10 class

pass expires June 22 but my kids are out of school June 8 (June 7 for the kindergartner though) which means it will be much harder for me to get to classes. I had 5 classes left as of yesterday so I'm trying to get the other 5 in before the 8th! I did my regular hatha class yesterday and loved it and today did another hatha class with a different instructor. It was amazingly different but also super enjoyable. We did sun and moon salutations so I finally got to experience those and we also did partner yoga since she does a special class on that the 4th Friday of the month (in the evening) and wanted to give us a taste of it. My partner was my pastor!!!! It seemed a bit strange at first but I feel really comfortable with him so it went fine. He's also 70 and inspires me! He challenged me to try something the teacher was modeling and told me I could lean on him and wouldn't fall over and that he though I could do it even though I didn't. I actually did try and did

better at it then I thought I would (foot was against opposite thigh then taking hold of foot and lifting it into the air, I didn't get very high but I got it up there and straight too, he kept both feet on the ground, our arms were also interlaced slightly, like tree branches). Very fun class, lots of new to me poses and very different approach too. I love my regular instructor but it was very good to try someone else too. I'm thinking I'm going to try a "taking care of backs" class next week because it emphasizes core work. They do pilates classes there too but my regular teacher thought I'd like TCB better than pilates for my first core class since I have never taken a pilates class or anything like it (and they don't have "beginner" pilates classes). Tomorrow I'm working all morning then going to a minor league baseball game in the evening plus doing some work at church in the afternoon so I doubt I'll get a workout in. Hopefully can do something Sunday and Monday

though and I will definitely post when I do. I did a short walking "workout" last Friday too. In our community the 3rd week of every May is a HUGE American Cancer Society Fundraiser called Relay for Life. It is a 24 hour relay where one person from each team is supposed to be on the track at all times because cancer doesn't sleep. Some of my Weight Watchers co-workers are survivors and a woman I just met, who is going through treatment and was diagnosed a year ago at 34 (so younger than me when I was diagnosed, when I found about her 2 weeks ago I made contact so she'd know she wasn't the only young survivor around like I felt I was) wanted me to go too. I wasn't going to because we had 2 birthday parties for my son that weekend but ended up going anyway. My husband and kids were setting up luminarias (made for survivors and those who have died from any kind of

cancer, they're lit at night and burn all night) with the Cub Scouts so I went to the Survivor's dinner with all of my coworkers and new friend then walked the Survivor's lap that opens the relay arm in arm with those 4 other awesome breast cancer survivors. Immediately after that, my husband and kids joined me on the track for the caregivers lap. We did a few more laps and later did a few with the luminarias lit then went home to finish getting ready for the parties. I think I ended up doing close to 2 very slow miles. It was an amazing experience though and the mileage didn't matter. One of my coworkers (my manager) announced she had just had her 5 year checkup and was still doing great. Her doctor told her the most important thing she was doing was exercising too! Another is an 8 year survivor. I'm 3 years. The King and Queen of Relay were both 25 year cancer survivors... so inspiring. It was also the same day that a wonderful friend from our church

lost his battle with cancer. I walked with in my heart because he could no longer do it himself (his wife was always on Relay teams). Not much of a real "workout" but it was movement and was incredible. Next year we might schedule the parties on a different weekend so that we can take part in more of the activities and be part of a team. This was all very spur of the moment for us and not planned in the least. Last update for now... I was at a Weight Watchers staff meeting last week where they announced they were opening a new center within a reasonable driving distance of me and wanted to know who was interested in staffing it. I told my manager I was and that if there were leader openings I'd still be interested in that opportunity too (though I love being a receptionist and don't want to stop doing that, my Thursday night meetings are so fun and one of our

wonderful members always comes to my scale because after I told my story to the group to introduce myself she was very inspired, it is SO neat being able to help people like this). Anyway, my manager was glad to hear it and wanted to know if I could attend leader training for 2 days (about 45 minutes from my house) next month. DH said he was willing to take off work because he has lots of vacation time to use and thought it sounded great so... maybe next month I'll be a WW leader! I'll let you know! With all the birthday cake around for a week I feel like I've gained a ton but had to miss my regular meeting this week to find out because of all things, I was baking (for the funeral luncheon for my friend) and, of course, sampling the dough! Will find out next Tuesday about that. Without my computer I haven't been tracking well either (I usually keep track of my food online) and actually lost 1.4 lbs two weeks ago and got a lecture from the leader that I was going too low (I

was down to 106.8, my lowest ever, my WW minimum for my height is 102). I felt fine and my DH thought I looked fine but I purposely ate more the following week and gained 0.4 then definitely enjoyed cake (and frosting!) this past week while also watching other items so hopefully I didn't do too much damage. I have room to gain but don't really want to gain much. Not exercising as much as usual though has definitely affected my body image too though. I noticed that even at 106.8 I felt "fat" and thought I'd actually gained several pounds instead of losing that week. It isn't comfortable at all. I need to get back to regular exercise, I rarely have felt fat the last few months that I've been really working hard and consistently and I liked that feeling of actually being comfortable in my own body and need to get that back quickly. Okay, this is way long enough. If you've read it all,

thank you!!!! :-) If I didn't add a lot to the traffic at least I added a lot in terms of volume with this novel!!! :-) Re: quiet? fitgrl222aol wrote:> *The list hasn't been all too busy. Where is everyone?*i know that nancy's computer broke down so she hasnt been posting lately.:*carolyn.