SEVEN MONTHS LATER . . .

I stopped using Blogspot for seven months because of all the trouble they were having. I couldn't post pictures to my blogs and that was frustrating. Anyway, as far as the weight loss went, I never lost the 24 lbs. I lost 19 lbs, though, and felt pretty good about it considering all the cheating I had done. I started walking on the track at the park every day covering between 3-5 miles - usually going 5 miles. I hated doing it - it took a lot of my time, and just getting ready to drive over to the track took some time each day.

When we drove to Minnesota in September 2006 to babysit for Lauren and Justine, our 16-month-old twin granddaughters, I wasn't as skinny as I wanted to be, but was fit and felt certain I could get up and down their stairs dozens of times each day carrying 15 lbs-20lbs. of baby. In June 2006 when we were there, my left knee be

came stiff and painful with all the trips up and down the stairs. My back and upper arms also hurt from lifting and carrying the babies all day long. I was in better shape carrying less weight and with all the walking, my legs and arms were stronger, so I didn't have much trouble. We don't eat much when we're at Troy and Connie's, so that helps too.

I kept the 19 lbs pretty much off until our trip back to Minnesota in November 2006. Troy and Connie were going to Hawaii for a vacation for 11 days and we had agreed to babysit for the babies. Trent and Amy were going to join us over Thanksgiving, so we would have some help we thought, for the 3 1/2 days when they were there. Well, as far as the eating goes, it wasn't so good. I did fine before Trent and Amy arrived. But we had ordered a turkey dinner with all the trimmings from Cub Food and it was delicious. Tasted just like we had prepared everything from scratch that morning. Since Thanksgiving dinner is my very most favorite dinner of all time, I overate. Then Amy made a wonderful gourmet dinner the next night of a pork loin in a pastry with lots of side dishes and a cheese cake for dessert. I kept eating.

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When Troy and Connie got home we went to a sub sandwich shop in Brooklyn Park and then ate our way to New Orleans. I had a bad bout with acid reflux in the car about an hour outside of New Orleans. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and then ate two saltine cracker squares and boom - full fledged acid reflux of the worst kind. Phlegm kept coming up into my throat gagging me and I couldn't breath. There was terrible pain in my chest. I've had this hundreds of times over the last 20 years, but never this bad. We had to stop by the side of the road for about 30 minutes while I gagged and threw up. This horrible sensation in my throat and chest continued until we got to our hotel in the French Quarter, the Maison Dupuy, then almost as quickly as this came upon me, it was gone and I was tired, but fine.

We ate at the hotel and I ordered a pasta dish and ate slowly and very little, but the next night we went out to eat at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Carmelo's Ristorante on Decatur near Jackson Square, and I had the most wonderful dinner. Then, of course, we had to go over to Cafe Du Monde for beignets before returning to the hotel. We continued to eat for the next four days in New Orleans, including a huge, delicious and expensive dinner at

Commander's Palace. And although we walked around a lot, I knew I was gaining weight.

On our way home from New Orleans we stopped overnight in Macon, Georgia to check out the antebellum homes. They were beautiful, but we also did a lot of eating. By the time we got home, I had gained 4 lbs, and Christmas was just around the corner.