Update so far...

So I got back into town this morning from a tragic weekend at my girlfriends place. Everything was fine with her and me but the tragedy that unfolded in Tucson hit close to home. The Safeway shopping enter is about 3-4 miles from her apartment. A Safeway I have been in at least a dozen times and a shopping center we were planning on going to around 11:00 for lunch at a great sandwich shop. We left her apartment at 10:00am to go to the mall right next door and as we turn onto Ina road, we pull over as four sheriff deputies zoom by us. We thought, wow must be a bad accident up ahead. We go to the mall and left about 10:45 when we called my girlfriend's friend to see if she wanted to join us for lunch. She declined and we hung up. Two minutes later she called back and said we can't go up there as it is all blocked because of a shooting. No more details given. I then checked the Internet via my phone and saw it was Gabrielle Giffords who was shot. We were shocked as we were fans of her during the recent campaign and my girlfriend voted for her. If this took place an hour later we would have most certainly been in the middle of it as I'm sure we would have stopped by to see the congresswoman. The city is shocked and devastated to say the least. Pray for the congresswoman as she battles for her life. Mourn those who perished and praise those who saved lives.

To say the least the weight loss challenge was not much on my mind but I still did pretty good. I did eat out once on Saturday and once on Sunday but kept all portions small. This brings my year total up to 4 times eating out which is below my 10 times at this point last year. My weight is currently at 206.8. I did make my 2011 debut at the gym on Friday and proceeded to burn 474 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical. I've set a goal of 50k calories burned on elliptical this year. Easily doable if I stay committed. I'll return tomorrow to the gym. So far so good but a long way to go.