biking my way to the olympics (well, not really)...

First of all, I have to give a big shout out to my two favorite WW people, ever—my weigh in peeps, Charlotte and Barb.

I gave Barb my blog address last weekend and she passed it on to Charlotte who hasn't been weighing me in since last fall. She "moved on up in the world" to a leader. I miss her, though. She was "my" weigh in person for the first 50 or 60 pounds that I lost. I found myself becoming accountable to Charlotte for my weight loss for many-a-months.

Funny (or maybe weird would be a better word) how that worked. I'm losing the weight for myself, my health and my family, but Charlotte was the one who I would tell me if I lost or gained so she became the one who I was losing weight for.

Now there's Barb (who is my new inspiration—she's SUCH an encouragement) and some other lady who I can't remember her name for the life of me. I think subconsciously I'm not remembering her name because I'm in denial that Charlotte left. Come on, Cara, that was last Fall when she left!! I hope that doesn't offend the new girl, I'm just weird that way, I guess. I used to think it was superstition (which I totally don't believe in) that I could only lose weight if Charlotte weighed me in. But now I'm still losing weight without her. So I guess it was me after all. :)

Anyway...

I didn't go biking this morning. I figured, I biked 4 days last week and walked 2 days I deserved one day off this week. Right? Other than that, I really had no other excuse for not biking. Especially after going 11.3 miles yesterday morning. Oh, did I happen to mention I bike for 11.3 miles yesterday. Oh, I think I did. I'm still psyched that I did that. Was way cool!

Okay, I already regret not biking. :(

Oh, well, I went out and bought a bike lock so I'm going to ride my bike to the lady's house where we all meet to go walking. Tomorrow morning is WWTG day.

Opening ceremonies are only 3 days away. I can't wait. You should check out the official Beijing Olympics website. It's really kind of neat watching the Olympics from a completely different perspective. Watching how the Olympic flame is being passed from location to location, person to person. I was watching a report from the Great Wall the other day and the reporter was asking about how excited the Chinese seem to be about the Olympics and how proud they are of their country. And I thought, what a dump thing to say. Of course the Chinese are proud of the Olympics being in their country. Do you remember how excited WE were when the Olympics were in Atlanta in '96?? Man, we sure had Olympic pride!! So, yea, they deserve to have it now. Go China!

I'm especially looking forward to the opening ceremony because we missed it in '04. Hurricane Charlie hit that night and the power went out about 20 minutes into the ceremonies. Then all heck broke lose! A tree fell on the back of our house and we all ran for the bathroom in the middle of the house. Huddled around a battery powered b&w 5" tv watching the weather man show the progress of the eye as it passed right over us. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that they didn't replay the opening ceremonies after the power came back on. I wasn't worried about the huge oak tree leaning on the back roof, I was mad because I missed the opening ceremonies!!

Not this year. No hurricanes are scheduled for Friday (hopefully). So I'm all set! I'm thinking about making an Olympic rings cake in honor of the special day.

You want to see some really cool pictures, go to the Olympic photo gallery. Some of the architecture over there is just amazing!

Do you follow the Olympians? Who's your favorite?

Mine is Dara Torres. She's the same age as me and has a 2-year-old and she's the favorite to win several golds. If she makes the team this year, it'll be her 5th Olympics, the most ever for an American woman swimmer. Go for it Dara!!

I'll update everyone on the 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge tomorrow! Everyone's doing great so far, though!