Heffalumps

Sean and I went on our usual weekend expotition this morning. (For anyone who does not know what an expotition is - you need to read "Winnie the Pooh"). At the weekends I like to take a fairly long walk with Sean. He needs to the exercise (well, so do I...) and gets him out of the house.

We walk around Horseshoe Drive. It's the road we live on and it is, indeed, shaped like a Horseshoe. It is a dirt road which does make it feel much more rural. It also has the advantage of being almost exactly one mile around so I keep a rough idea in my head of how far we walk. It's usually two or three miles.

Now Sean is not an enthusiastic walker, he prefers swimming, I think because when he is swimming he is totally supported and when walking he has to really concentrate on his balance. But we plod our way around and by the end of the walk he is usually much more relaxed.

It also helps me - I am in the middle of quitting smoking - its been 5 weeks since I stopped and I have (touch wood, cross fingers etc) found it pretty smooth sailing. I have smoked my entire adult life and I really enjoyed it but the time had come to wave goodbye to the habit. I got a prescription for Chantix, and if my little recommendation means anything - if you are going to quit, this could be the help you need. It has made it pretty smooth for me (and I have tried in the past).

Part of my plan on the quitting smoking front was also to make sure I didn't gain weight (I mean, you have seen the pictures you know the one thing I don't need is to gain even more weight!) and I started on that back in December, changing my habits, eating smaller portions, exercising a little more, nothing radical at all and nothing that I could not live with. It took some tweaking and juggling but eventually I started to lose weight - up to now I have lost 33 pounds . The last 3 pounds of that since I quit smoking.

So it looks like its working.

Which makes the walks, our expotitions, at the weekend something that helps us both out.

We have seen snakes, the odd fox, rabbits galore and the occasional hawk. But no heffalumps as yet.