Dear Dr. Laura,

I am 42. I am 5'1" tall and weigh about 165. I have weighed this all my life, on average. My lowest weight was 125 pounds 21 years ago just before my wedding. I think my highest was about 192 back in 2006, a couple of years after I quit my job to stay at home with my son.

Our 10-year-old family dog died on November 2nd 2011. I had just begun taking walks with her for about 1/2 hour a day at least 3-4 times a week. After her death, I knew I had to get out and walk again, although it was rather difficult to do without her. On my first walk, about a week after her passing, I imagined her trotting by my side. I "took her with me" on my walk instead of trying to get over the pain of her absence.

However, now I am on a mission. I have taken walking more seriously in honor of our dog as well as in an effort to get fit. I have extended my walks to right around an hour, give or take 5 minutes. I now walk close to 3 miles in that hour and I do it almost every single day.  Since I've started this, I have found it's much easier to climb the basement steps with a load of laundry. If I don't get my walk in, I get irritable. It's been a blessing this year as we didn't get any measurable snowfall in December, so I was able to make the most of the good weather. It's such a sin to let a sunny day go by without greeting it with a walk. I take you with me on my mp3 player which also has an FM radio receiver so I get music as well. When I started out, I weighed 171 pounds. By Thanksgiving, I was down to 165. I think I have done pretty well over Christmas... I only ate a little more chocolate. 

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you I am going to make 2012 that kind of year everyone talks about but few rarely follow through on. Thanks for making each day more interesting!

Lisa