Today thousands of bloggers are uniting for "Blog Action Day" to discuss a single issue: poverty.

We are aiming to raise awareness, to encourage people to take action and to shake the Web! I've chosen to share with you a video that really caught my attention and made me think.

What if something most of us consider to be a basic right — clean water — wasn't available for our kids? How scary would that be? How helpless would that make us feel as parents?

I find it hard to even wrap my mind around what it would be like to have to search for water to keep my child alive — while hoping that that water is clean enough that it won't make him terribly sick.

Please take a moment to check out this short video. Visit blogactionday.org to see how other bloggers across the world are raising awareness about the fight against poverty. Then visit Charity: Water and find out how simple it is to help. This terrific organization was recently featured on CNN, and they are really making a difference. $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years. And 100% of your donation will directly fund freshwater wells and basic sanitation projects.

To follow this mom’s weight-loss journey from the beginning, just click on "Weight Loss" on the "Categories" list at right and scroll down.

Well, Wednesday was supposed to be weigh-in day, but a big work deadline kept me from blogging. I DID jump on the scale, however. I thought I’d include my weight loss from the Woman’s Day blog to show how it has gone over time — and to show what happens when I stop blogging and get "cute." The pounds come back!

Starting weight: 142 (May 1)
End of week 1: 139
End of week 2: 137
End of week 3: 136
End of week 4: 135
End of week 5: 134.8 (started using a digital scale)
End of week 6: 133.2
End of week 7: 132
End of week 7: on vacation; no weigh-in
End of week 8: 132
End of week 9: 131
End of week 10: 130.4
End of week 11: 130.6
End of 12-week blog: 127.2 (July 31)

No dieting or blogging for five months or so…

Starting weight (back on the wagon!): 131.4 (OK, I gained 4.2 pounds since July. Probably not so bad, given that it was the holidays recently.)
End of week 1: 130.8

Not exactly a big drop, but it’s going in the right direction! If you’re doing this along with me, please leave your comments and let us know how your weigh-ins are going. Let’s do this together!

I’m going to commit to doing one thing differently this week: Drinking a lot more water. Care to join me? Let’s see how much of a difference it makes.

P.S. I also walked for an hour today with my buddy, Ellen. Need to do more of that, too!