Put your new shoes on

My dad gave me some money for my birthday for me to buy myself something nice. Yes, my birthday was two months ago, but the money has just been sitting in my wallet while I debated what to spend it on: new bicycle or facial; bicycle or facial; bicycle or facial?

I've been wanting a bike for a while. There are plenty of places around town to ride a bike, something I love, love, LOVED to do as a kid. I spent hours on my bike as a youngin' because it meant freedom. I know I wouldn't quite get that same feeling of freedom from riding a bike as a 20-something, but I still wanted to see if I loved it as much.

I probably really, really need a facial. I have really bad skin on my face thanks to over a decade of acne and a teensy habit of zit popping. I'm trying to take better care of my skin before it starts making me look twice my age, but it's probably going to need a little extra TLC regardless.

So what to do, bike or facial?

Here's what I decided:

Yes, I'm well aware that the above photo is neither a bike nor a facial.

I've really been getting into this running thing way more than I ever expected to. I'm on Week 5 of the initial training program, and it's going great!

And in going great I mean let me share with you my latest Weight Watchers weigh-in numbers.
-lost 3 pounds this week!
-minus 9 pounds since the start of Weight Watchers 10 weeks ago
-minus about 12.7 pounds since I started keeping track four months ago.

Three pounds! My biggest weekly loss yet! I really have no other way to explain it than the running. I've been kind of lax in keeping track of my WW points every day, although I am trying to stick with all the healthy-eating lessons I've learned.

After getting up to running for 5-minute periods with 3-minute walking periods in between, I figured I needed to be running in shoes that weren't 3-year-old cheap New Balances that never had any support to begin with. And I figured, if I was going to do this running thing right, I was going to get some proper shoes. The Modern Beau needed new shoes for his marathon training, so we hit up the local running store on Saturday where they made us walk barefoot around the store and they inspected our feet before pulling out a couple different pairs for us to try on.

And I love my new shoes. They're light, they're cushy, they fit well (apparently I have a size 9 foot not 8.5). They're also Nike-Plus friendly in case I ever get an iPod Nano w/Nike-Plus to replace my old-school iPod Mini.

And I swear they're making me run faster.