If you are obsessed with the scale, you may want to add a tape measurement to your weight control tool box.  While many of us weigh in weekly, some daily and others (like myself) way too much, using a tape measure every month or so will help you have a better idea of what’s going on in individual parts of your body.  You can measure your waist, (the NARROWEST part of the torso) around your belly button,(abdomen) across the widest part of your hips, around the widest parts of your thighs and though difficult to do to yourself, you can also measure around your relaxed (and/or) flexed bicep area. Personally, I keep a soft tape measure in my bathroom cabinet and pull it out every so often and do a quick check of the waist, abdomen and hips. I did that this morning and noticed that my hip measurement was down a little–must be the swimming, though I wouldn’t have thought that.  This is why it’s a handy tool!  Of course, a good pair of our favorite jeans are probably the best tool 🙂

If I had to measure my weekend on a scale of 1-10, it was a 10.  From wine tasting on Friday night, to boating on Saturday (thank you so much Robin, Gary, Shelli and Al!) and swimming, sunning and enjoying a peaceful Sunday with Mitch, the weekend was just as perfect as a weekend can be!

But as the song says “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”  So with that fabulous weekend behind me, it is time to focus on the day and week ahead.  Good luck to all my local teacher friends and students who return to work today to get their classrooms set up for another school year.  I will surely miss seeing your faces in daytime classes!  Good luck as you begin another year’s journey.  I have the greatest respect for school teachers, especially those that positively impact our youth. To learn and to teach.  This is what life is really all about.

In looking at the title of today’s entry, I leave you with this quote (author unknown) for up an inch, down an inch, teachers, students, young and old, in peace and fitness, this line resonates in all our hearts:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”