Yay for BABY!!! Thanks for letting us know, MM.

And Curves? Don't even tell me how fat I am. If I come to your joint, it's with the understanding that I'm too fat. Let's just get to working on making me less so. If I start to get too thin

sorry, had to stop laughing

then you can start measuring my body fat, to make sure I'm not emaciated.

The only thing that makes me cranky about the body fat calculator thing is that I've been gym-ming it up since April and my numbers. haven't. moved. Any of them. Gah.

::shoving body image issues in a drawer because I just can't do that today::

good walking shoes

I could use some recommendations for good walking shoes. I have a bunch of ankle supporting, walking boots (Merrill's and the like) but they are so heavy. It turns out that the most comfortable walking shoes I have at the moment are some fairly flimsy running shoes...New Balance I think. They feel great while I'm walking the distance, but later I have muscle twinges.

Not yet found the definitive walking shoe.

I'm very fond of New Balance. I have wide feet and they seem to fit well. Different people with different foot issues will like others. Light is really a good thing in a walking shoe.

Wide is my issue too. I joke that I have Alley Oop feet. Nearly as wide as they are long. I wear a 5.5 or 6 in as wide as I can get them.

Light is right? Huh. Glad to know my instincts are working for me. I thought those highly padded, technically engineered shoes were the best, but I've never found any that were comfortable.

Footsmart [link] is very useful for comfortable shoes. I've ordered a number of shoes from them.

Surprising no one, juliana swoops in and pimps Runner's World as a good place for shoe resources/finding: [link]

They also have a good section of articles on walking: [link]

The best things in a walking shoe (after, like all shoes, fit) are flatness and flexibility - you (probably) won't need the pronation correction like most runners do, but you will need flex and cushioning. Again, Runner's World reviews shoes every quarter and provides detailed specs on things like that. Your best bet is to research through them and then go in to your friendly local sports store and try on ones that you think will work.

Brooks and New Balance are both really good at providing options for wide-footed runners/walkers.

Those are both excellent resources.

The footsmart site shows an Easy Spirit clog that would be great for Bartlewalking and the Runner's World diagnostic tool is awesome for narrowing down the bazillion choices out there.

More walking in 2007. My thighs and my dog thank you.

Thank youse guys all so much for the ~ma yesterday.

B gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. 8 lbs, 5 oz and 21" long after a half hour of pushing which B said "was a blast."

Her name is Arden.

And being an LA baby, she came into the world in the same room as Hazel and Phinneus (Julia Robert's babies) and Rocko (Madonna's baby).

Shopping for housing in DC gives me anxiety attacks.

Move to Baltimore and take the train!!!

I've just been using my running shoes (Mizunos) for walking. Which I've been doing a LOT of lately. I do have to start adding running intervals back into my routine because I swear I'm going to do a full marathon before i'm 40 (still a year and a half away but I need to longterm plan).

I've been doing this 12 week bootcamp diet/exercise thing with friends (some here, some in CA) since Jan. 2nd. It's not a rigid diet but you definitely have to pay more attention to making healthy food choices. The main thing is exercising every single day. Even if it's just going for a 30 minute walk. Oh and there's an option to not drink booze at all for the 12 weeks which I'm doing. A period of sobriety was very much needed for me after the holidays (in particular the NYE). Anyway, so far? It fucking rocks. I have so much more energy than usual!