"Strong enough to walk on through the night
There's a new day on the other side
'Cause I got hope, in my soul
And I'll keep on walkin' baby"

- Relight My Fire

Ahhh, striding around my local park, old skool disco beats pounding away, my feet matching the rhythm and cheesy but inspirational lyrics in my head.

Oh, how I love thee, iPod!

I think it's this that let me enjoy a .4kg (.9lb) loss this week, despite Saturday's effort. Those beats are BRUTAL, let me tell you. Go on, go for a walk listening to The Weather Girls singing 'It's Raining Men' and tell me if you can keep up with the beat! I know I can't.

One of the comments I received after I mentioned the depression mentioned using music to help lift your mood. They were absolutely right. I throw on disk one of the 1995 Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Party Themes CD and with the Jackson Five exhorting 'Can You Feel It' and Sister Sledge joyfully celebrating 'We Are Family' and Cheryl Lynne telling me it's 'Got To Be Real', not only am I setting a blinding pace, I'm almost dancing as I do it.

I can barely keep from bopping along and scaring the little old ladies walking their dogs. Heaven forbid if I'm singing along!

So yeah, feeling pretty good right now. Some days are better than others, this one's a good one.

We were talking about cholesterol in my last WW meeting and my wonderful leader, Katherine (for whom I'm tempted to begin a major religion because she is a complete goddess) mentioned that her cholesterol had gone up after she'd lost a heap of weight too. Family history of it, blah, blah, blah.

I immediately wanted to know what she had done to lower it. Apparently hard core cardio vascular exercise had dropped her levels enough to not require medication.

She's a runner, which I'll never be with my weak ankles and bad lower back, but cycling or swimming could do the trick. I'm going to wait until I've lost some more weight, then I'll try adding some real cardio to the mix and see if it makes a difference.

And because the delicious Nurse Beckie asked, here are some photos of me on race day, complete with fake tan!