Aww, thank you. I have a long way to go, but I feel ready to do this now! On a dry day ... what? In Manchester? Surely not! I walk with my son (and two dogs!!) to school. Its 2 miles to school, which equates to up to 8 miles a day and tho the dogs are starting to hide their leads (they only have little legs) its doing us good. My son and I also swim on a Saturday. I'm pretty clear to him that we need to walk the dogs to exercise them as well as ourselves. Truthfully tho, I just don't want him slobbed out infront of a pc or games console, stuffing his face full of junk and turning into a fat child. Whilst I can control it to a certain extent, I will try. He has suddenly found an interest in horses [there is a paddock belonging to a farm where we walk the dogs] and he wants to ride, which is great. Good form of exercise so now its my goal to get to a manageable, healthy weight so we can both do this together! I know I havent logged my starting weight because I am utterly ashamed to be as heavy as I am. When the weight starts to move I will post up, I just need to get a little self confidence back first! An old dear who lives near me referred to me as the 'big girl' the other day! 'Girl' made me smile, I'm 41 next month!! 'Big' made me cringe! Good luck to all of you, thanks for your advice, encouragement and honesty about your journeys so far! x