I still kind of shake my head when I realize that summer is actually over,  fall is well under way, and winter not that far off!!

I was SO meant to be born in SoCal (that’s ‘Southern California’ for all you folks who aren’t as hip as me… the fact that I still use the term ‘hip’ proves me otherwise) where the weather is permanently niiiice.  Once I get over my initial mourning period for the loss of summer however I do actually enjoy the fall season.  I love all the fresh produce, pulling out warm p.j.’s, long walks enjoying the fall colours.

So, of course this has to lead somewhere…the long walks.  Had one the other day with hubby.  Every 18 months or so I ask him what he does and I honestly make a very concerted effort to pay attention.  (I remember years ago when a girlfriend asked…

Update: Microsoft has now announced the Microsoft Band, a $199 fitness band that does everything described below. It goes on sale Thursday.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced its wearable device, but it seems the company has accidentally published its desktop syncing client to the Mac App Store early. Whoops. The device is called the Microsoft Band (possibly Lumia Band, according to some currently non-functional support URLs) and sports a 310 x 102 resolution display.

The Microsoft privacy policy for the app lists some of the Band’s features: “Microsoft Band sensors help you keep track of things like your heart rate, steps, calories burned, and sleep.” Links in the document claiming to lead to a page with additional data, such as a list of sensors, currently lead to a 404 page.

Other key feature include the ability to get phone notifications on the Band, create reminders using Cortana, and more:

Breakfast. That controversial subject.

As I mentioned before, this blog is going to be filled with hints and tips… but stuff that works for me! I can and will obviously weigh up the pro’s and con’s etc etc, but at the end of the day, I’ve found something that helps me – so I pretty much stick to it (unless I’m hungover – then I tend to stick a bacon sandwich down my throat with copious amounts of sugary tea).

We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks, but I tend to have a cup of coffee when I wake up and not eat until I feel that first little pang of hunger. I have read all of the articles that state that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, that it kick starts your metabolism and  jump starts your day… but sorry guys, it just makes me…

Congratulations to the 50,881 runners that braved chilling 30-mph winds at yesterday’s New York City Marathon! Prior to Sunday, 974,257 people had completed the 26.2-mile course throughout the five buroughs.

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A week after the wet London Ride I went for a gently 3-5 k run, just to see how the legs and body were feeling after two weekends of pretty intense work. The run itself felt fine and nothing out of the ordinary, however it has left me ever since walking in pain with the culprit being the right knee (bit of an injury prone being it must seem from some of my previous posts!).

The pain over a couple of weeks was getting worse, with it being out the outside at first before magically shifting to the front at the base of the knee cap (the main focus of it now has shifted again to the inside/upper knee cap!). I took it carefully banning any sort of leg work so cycling and running was out of the window for a couple of weeks. With a bit of online reading…

Dean Karnazes has always been intense. He races ultramarathons (loosely defined as any race longer than the traditional 26.2-mile marathon, but usually more than 50 miles) in part because regular marathons are just “too short” for him to be competitive.

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I was on Pinterest this evening, looking for some worthy motivational and inspiration messages to both share with you all and to keep in my personal collection. It’s been awhile since I’d been on the site, but I happened to type in “Fitness” as my search term and these were some of the top images that popped up:

Nitpicking…dissecting…and shaming of the female body as a way to inspire fitness? Is that really the way we want to go? Is this truly inspirational, or are we playing on the fears and worries of many women who may already have a number of body issues. Is it not enough that we are bombarded daily with society’s standards of what beauty is? So now we have brought that same comparison and shame to the world of fitness. Now, don’t get me wrong, I recognize that you can tag a photo with…

Tuesdays are the worst day of the week.

I think it’s a fact.

Here are some happier notes for this Wednesday. I hope you survived the dreadful Tuesday.

1. SERIALSERIALSERIAL. The best part about Wednesday is that it is almost Thursday AKA the day SERIAL gets posted.

Do you like a) murder mysteries b) This American Life c) suspense d) accessible and responsible reporting e) compelling storytelling f) conspiracy theories g) using your brain h) being trendy i) podcasts j) drama k) compassionate interviews l-y) [forthcoming] OR z) ALL OF THE ABOVE. I’m at Z myself, but if any of these are appealing for you, I encourage you to listen to this podcast. Or wait til they are all released and then binge because if you start now, you are going to turn into me: frothing at the mouth for the next episode and reading the /r/serialpodcast on Reddit…