Intentional Torture

Well, I weighed in Saturday monring as usual and didn't lose any weight this week. :( Well, that's not exactly true. I checked earlier in the week and had gained a couple of pounds, probably courtesy of our dinner at Fazoli's, so I did lose those pounds. I'd like to think that perhaps I gained a little muscle weight, since my "intentional exercise" this week was more like "intentional torture."

Since it was warmer here all last week (highs in the 20's, and even one day in the low 30's) we've been walking in the afternoons. Here is where I would like to rant about some of the people in my town. It snowed twice last week. Between us and our neighbors, we do a pretty good job of keeping the sidewalks cleared. The same cannot be said for a lot of people on our regular route.

Fortunately I carry Alison in a backpack when we walk. If I pushed her in the stroller, we'd have to turn around before we got to the end of the block. Street crossings are piled knee-high or higher with plowed snow from the street. Many stretches of sidewalk haven't been shoveled at all and are merely paths of packed down snow. Walking along them is reminiscent of walking on loose sand at the beach. Some people will snowblow their driveway and a path to their mailbox but not bother to snowblow their sidewalk. Some people on corners will plow one part of the sidewalk but not the other. There are a couple of places where we end up walking in the street because the sidewalk is unpassable. When we're walking along the busy streets, that's not an option, so I trudge through the snow.

Friday was particularly bad because we had 3 inches of new snow overnight and into the morning. I had hardly gone half a mile before I felt like my legs were going to fall off. But I kept going. It was quite the workout, I must say. By the time we got home, 45 minutes later, I had completely sweat through my t-shirt and sweatshirt and, after drinking a quart of water, I was ready to go to bed and sleep for the next 12 hours (but I didn't). We didn't have a chance to get out and walk over the weekend, so I don't know if the sidewalks are any better or not. I'm going to guess that some will be, but I'm not counting on all of them to be passable. That would be hoping for too much. But, if the weather's nice we'll be back out there tomorrow afternoon partaking in "intentional torture."