Finally going in the right direction...

 This last week and a half, I feel, has been largely successful! I ate well and within my calorie budget and I exercised regularly. I typically try to weigh in on Mondays because the LoseIt! website bases its weeks from Monday through Sunday. From July 22 to this past Monday, I lost 3.4 pounds. I think that this is fantastic! I have LoseIt! set up for me to lose two pounds a week, so additional loss, to me, is wonderful! That puts my total back up to 16 pounds - five pounds short of my original 21 pound loss from earlier in the year. I expect that I will be back at that point within two weeks. I can't wait until this coming Monday so that I can weigh in again! Isn't that silly? I can't really say I know a lot of people who are excited to weigh themselves. But I am! There are days when I just want to go weigh myself to see how I'm doing, but I stop myself because weighing daily or even every couple days can spell disaster. Only four more days...

Today, being the start of a new month (can you believe that it's already August?!), I took my measurements. I forgot to take measurements in July, so I don't know if I've improved or not since I started for a second time. The last measurements I have are from March. Unfortunately, the numbers haven't improved from March, but that's alright. Nothing can dampen my spirits right now! I never did post my March measurements, so I'll list them now (for comparison):

Upper Arm: 14 inches (left) and 15 inches (right)
Forearm: 11.5 inches (left) and 11.5 inches (right)
Upper Thigh: 28 inches (left) and 29 inches (right)
Calf: 17.5 inches (left) and 17.5 inches (right)
Hips: 50.5 inches
Waist: 43.5 inches
Chest: 41 inches

 Here are my measurements as of tonight:

Upper Arm: 15 inches (left) and 15 inches (right)
Forearm: 11.5 inches (left) and 11.5 inches (right)
Upper Thigh: 29 inches (left) and 30 inches (right)
Calf: 18 inches (left) and 18 inches (right)
Hips: 51 inches
Waist: 44 inches
Chest: 40 inches

On the positive side, at least the differences are within an inch of each other and not like five...

 Exercising has been going great! I'm still walking regularly and I've been trying to add additional workouts to my routine - primarily weights and floor exercises. I've been going slow with the additional workouts because I just don't have the stamina and flexibility just yet - it's a work in progress and it'll only get better and easier as I go along. Right now I'm using an iPhone app (it is available for other SmartPhones as well) called Daily Workout (there are both free and paid versions - check it out here). I upgraded to the paid version which includes more features and exercises. I'm really enjoying it. I find it easier to commit to over a workout DVD because I can customize how long I do certain routines for. I will likely use my DVDs later, when I feel I am more in shape and can handle longer workout routines.

Walking, however, is fantastic! I still walk with my friend Ashlee. She is definitely a great motivator by getting my butt out the door as well as encouraging me to give it my all every time we go. We went for a 3.79 kilometer walk tonight around one of the nearby lakes. She kept cheering me on and as such, I made my best average time (according to RunKeeper) of 11:02 per kilometer. It beat my previous best average time by four seconds. It's a great feeling when you can see that you are improving. When we first started walking, I was closer to the 13 minute mark, so there's been huge improvement! We still plan to walk the West Side Hill at the end of August, so I'm going to need all the prep and improvement I can get before then!