I'm baaaaaack...... Here's a long post for ya:)

A week in England is definitely long enough time away from the California sunshine. It was a great trip, we got lots of photos...unfortunately I was too lazy to change any of my camera settings so some of them turned out a bit spazzy. If you'd like to see all of the lovely photos plesae visit my smugmug gallery:
Pictures of the England trip

While there, I was only able to run twice. Hyde Park in London was an amazingly surreal early morning run. I ran alongside The Serpentine...where - I'm told by my hubby - some crazies break the ice in the middle of winter and swim the distance of it! Now, I've done some cold water swimming in my life....but frozen river water? I don't think so! The second run I got in was in my hubby's hometown of St. Helens, the perimeter of Sherdley Park. This is always a nice and easy run. Every other day was just too cold, wet and dark for me to motivate.

Although we ate semi-badly in the UK, I didn't gain any weight....but I was completly bloated the entire time....thanks to the beer. That's all gone now, thank god. I can see my waist again:D They just don't have a salad mentality over there. You're pretty much stuck with boiled meat packed in pastry dough...or chips with everything. His family loves leaving chocolate and chips out to eat and they graze on it all while watching tv. It's very dangerous. It's a good thing we had things to do away from home all week.

We toured London - Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Kensington.

The rest of the trip we went shopping at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, walked around Liverpool to see the birthplace of the Beatles' music, and drove to Wales and stopped at Caernarfon Castle.

Mom and I also spent a day at the Haydock Park horse races while Les finished up his shopping. We won on two out of the three races we bet on!

I have to tell you that we were totally raped by the exchange rate. Every $100 was only worth 54 GBP. That hurt a lot, so we didn't spent a whole lot of money. I wish our president would get his head out of his ass and stop weakening our dollar with this war - and people need to stop using credit cards. We're a country in debt and our currency is worthless.

I got right back on track as soon as I came home. Mom and I went on a bike ride, here she is about to pass me:
I've been to track practice with my tri club (Silicon Valley Triathlon Club)...which was an amazing workout. I'd never push myself that hard on my own, so I've decided to show up every week - to get the most out of the $65 I've paid for the past three years for the dues! I've also been to the gym for strength training and can definitely notice some muscle definition in my arms, quads and bottom. YAY!

I've not touched any of the chocolate that is in this house right now because I took some pictures of myself in a bikini - it's just wrong, I shouldn't have this much fat on my body. So, I look at the pictures when I want to snack....that keeps the bad habits at bay for now. I'm going to take weekly pitures so I can quantify my progress. I've given myself a 12 week goal to get from 165 to 150. Then the next 12 weeks will get me from 150-135. I'll stop around 140 if I think I look too thin. Then I will be happy:)

There you have it, KT all caught up. Go forth and conquer the world my friends, it's the start of the new year and you can do anything!