is this good,bad, or normal?

I was always told by my health professor that losing anything from 2 pounds and under is good, anything over and you're losing more than just fat. So if you've been eating healthy and working hard, I'd say it's perfectly fine and not to be worried at all! And awesome photo of you and your pooch!

It's OK. When people first start an exercise/healthy eating regime, the often lose a few lbs right away. A lot of it is water, though (retention was from high sodium, that sort of thing). It's unlikely that you will continue to drop weight at the same pace. But I'm sure that you can steadily lose weight if you stick to your new healthy lifestyle! For the amount of weight that you say you want to lose, you might be able to lose 1.5 to 2 lb per week. Once you have approx. 30 lb or less to lose, you'll probably find it hard to lose more than 1 lb a week.

Also, be aware that your weight will fluctuate by a few lb each day. There are so many factors involved: time of day that you weigh, water retention (due to having a high sodium meal or time of month), recently eating a big meal, dehydration because of a hot day, water retention by muscles when first starting strength training, etc, etc. So please don't be discouraged if your weight jumps around a bit.

My weight goes up and down by about 1.5 lb. I weigh myself almost every day. Doing that has allowed me to learn what the patterns are, and to not freak out by small changes. I like to record my weight this way: If I see a "new low" on the scale, I wait to see if it is consistent for each of the next 2 days. If so, I record it. It's kind of like reaching a milestone. Also, I only bother with 1 lb increments.

2lbs is a good weight per week to lose. But keep in mind that bigger people will have a tendency to lose much more than that regardless of what they do if they total change their life style. So as long as you are exercising and eating right you are good.