11,500!

11,506, to be exact. That's how many steps I recorded on my pedometer yesterday.

The model I'm now using [I bought a new one over the weekend] seems to be more sensitive than the one I found in the junk drawer last week, although it still doesn't count accurately when I clip it on my waistband. It's quieter, though, so when it's clipped to my shoe it doesn't clank around like the other one did.

I only deliberately walked 3.6 miles outside, so the rest of that activity was just normal, daily moving. I don't want to get obsessed with this, but I will admit that wearing it encourages me to be more active. Instead of waiting to take several things upstairs, for instance, I take things up as I think of them.

To "J" in San Fran: No apologies necessary! I'm glad you shared your opinion of TBL! You should read some of the opinions from others who watch the show. Heh. I appreciate all comments [hint, hint!], especially the ones that make me think. I feel like I should get some kind of prize for not going off the deep end this fall. I've gained eight pounds in three months; it could be so much worse! But if I were on the show, I'd have been booted off long ago.

I have to say that spending hours in the gym certainly makes the difference in rapid weight loss, and I can say that from personal experience, as well as seeing the results with the TBL contestants. When I lost weight 10 years ago I spent at least two hours in the gym every day. I wouldn't leave until I'd burned 1000 calories, according to the monitors on the various machines [Stairmaster, cross-trainer, rowing machine, treadmill]. I did a 30- to 45-minute free weight routine three times weekly and I ran the mile or so from my apartment to the gym and home again.

On weekends, when I wasn't working, I did all that and also did a long run – about six miles – outside as well.

But that was insane. All I thought about was working out and counting fat grams. I breathed, ate, slept and discussed losing weight incessantly. I couldn't have been much fun to be around, although my friends were kind enough not to point it out. I can only imagine what they said about me when I wasn't around!

While I feel like losing weight is always on my mind, I hope that I'm getting the talking about it out of my system here, on the blog, and am more rational and balanced when I'm around other people. Admittedly, I'm not around other people very much. The inmates at Alderson on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Mr. Shrinking Knitter, pretty much make up my social circle.

Last night was the last session of this six-week drawing class, and I'm taking the next four Mondays off. My students were so grateful and as they left, each one of them said they'd learned a lot. The first week, with no training or discussion of technique at all, they draw their hands, and then the fifth week they draw them again. The comparison is amazing. I love being able to help them feel proud of their talent and ability; they get so little of that from the prison staff.

We all need to be encouraged by others. No [wo]man is an island, and all that. I hope you have a kick-ass day today!