You are all awesome!! Thank you so much for the encouragement and ideas. I am fast approaching the dreaded menopause too which I suspect has a lot to do with my difficulty losing the weight too. And the BP meds I am on are also a factor (calcium channel blocker - argh). My cardiologist keeps telling me that the BP meds will go away when I lose the weight, but it is hard when there are weeks that nothing seems to be happening - I scowl at my scale most mornings! I love walking and cycling. I used to belong to a gym that had a great water aerobics class and went faithfully, but our budget is just too tight to have another membership there, so I am on my own. I do own a great treadmill (my “dreadmill”) that has a fat-burning setting so I think I will make it a goal to do that on in-between days when we are not cycling. We are slowly building up cycling miles too - especially on weekends. We are training with full panniers (we have to tote our extra water!) - can’t afford a camelback yet! I have noticed my leg muscles getting more defined - especially my calves. So we will also add in some weight training too. Pardes: I know what you mean about lifting a fully loaded, panniered bike - I have to lift both our bikes up onto the bed of our truck on weekends. Thanks for the links and advice - you are all the best!!