Working at Home

Today I decided to work at home. Not necessarily WORK OUT, but do some much needed stuff at home. I might be able to get in a swim, a bike ride, or a walk on the treadmill later today. Last week was a regular exercise week for me- spinning on Thursday and FF on Friday. I did not do any exercise this weekend. I did go for a small bike ride on Friday to practice on my new bike- since I had a bike wreck just getting off of it in my driveway. I clipped my right side out of my pedal and leaned to my left with my left foot still clipped in. Yeah... pretty smart. So I really don't want to ride alone too far right now in case I do something else stupid. I am so looking forward to my trip and this weekend, after the 4th, I hope to hit some sales to get some new Tshirts to take with me. I hope you all are doing something everyday to keep yourself fit. I see so many inactive people here in east Texas. I keep telling my kids to stay active all their life. Make time for exercise. You only get one body and you better do all you can to take care of it. I cannot look back and regret this or that, I just have to move forward with what I have now. Okay, I better get going and get my work done.

Spark People

Okay, I told you all last week about the new website I found called www.sparkpeople.com It has been great for me. I don't know how long I will be able to do this because it does require some time for me to log in everything that I eat. But I am happy to report my success after one week. I lost 3 lbs.!! Yea!!! That is something for me since I have such a difficult time losing weight. I have had such a feeling of "confidence" by this new discipline in my eating. Now maybe I would not feel so great if there was no weight loss, which I am sure some weeks may not show up. But even without the weight loss, I just have such a good feeling about how I have disciplined myself this week. I had already pretty much conquered that with the exercise part of healthy living, but as I have often said, the nuitritional aspect has been more of a problem for me. I am encouraging all my friends to try this. There is no having to look up how many points, calories, carbs, fats, or proteins. I find that many days I eat the same thing- oatmeal for breakfast with a banana, mixed green salad, salad dressing, etc. I can type these in my favorites and it takes me less time to get them entered. Any of you that have regular access to a computer will truly love this program. You can track your fitness and know how much exercise you have done. You can post a special note for a reminder to yourself. They have recipes. There is a forum you can learn from other likewise people on this journey of fitness, health, and weight loss. Sometimes I tend to be gungho and then fizzle out. I hope that I can stay focused with this like I have my exercise. You check it out, and wish me luck!!

Master Swimmers

Today I showed up for the master swimmers. They meet each weekday at 5:30 a.m. Yes, that is very early. That means I must leave my house a little after 5:00. I was kinda late when I arrived, and I also had trouble with my goggles so I was even later getting started. Master swimmers is a group that is nationwide. I don't know much about it as far as who sets up the curriculum. I don't know if other groups give swim critiquing or if they are like the one I went to today. Calvin, the instructor, had a poster board and it told all the laps you were supposed to do. I needed instruction. I want to know if I am doing all the strokes properly. Ugh.... But I did what Calvin had written down. I did 8 laps of warm up, followed by 8 laps of kicking without using my arms, then I did 4 laps of pulling with my arms. The next 8 laps were supposed to be alternating flys with free-style. I don't know how to do the butterfly stroke, so I substituted the breast stroke whenever I was supposed to do the fly. I was almost out of time, but I did manage to do 2 more laps of breast stroke. There was much more to be done, but like I said, I ran out of time. The pool was closing for lap swimmers at 7:00 to make way for the swim team. I am going to try and do this again when I can fit it in. I want to be a better swimmer, but I need more help. I made it at 7:15 for FF, but I only stayed 30 minutes because I needed to dry my hair before work. So... I had a great workout today.

Another Southwest Adventure

Remember my adventure trip last fall? I took an 8-day trip to NM and CO all by myself staying in KOA campgrounds, hiking at Palo Duro Canyon, riding the narrow gauge railroad from Durango to Silverton, exploring the Enchanted Circle, touring the museums of Santa Fe. I thought that I would not be going back to NM for awhile. Well... I am so excited!!! I have a friend who needs to attend to some family business in CO and I am going with her to CO. This time I hope to see the play called "Texas" at Palo Duro Canyon. We will travel on to CO and make some short stops until we get to her family's place which is near Salida. We hope to whitewater raft ( which I did not get to do last time) and also do some hiking. Coming back we plan to see Carlsbad Caverns. I have never been there before either. I have to get some hiking boots in a hurry and get them broken in before I go. I need to be incline walking on the treadmill so I will not be struggling hiking in the higher altitude. I leave on July 10th, so I better get busy. Instead of sending out my email to everyone like I did before I will probably just post it on my blog. You can leave your comments there. My last adventure trip was a true spiritual experience. I am anxious to see what God has for me on this one!

Keeping Track of What You Eat

You know the only time I have been successful with a large quantity weight loss was with Weight
watchers. I do like how WW has you eat from all the food groups, and you are not allowed to starve yourself. You start out eating more and then when you lose, you eat less. And WW also will give you extra points (meaning extra food) for doing more exercise. But I had a hard time at WW for how they rewarded participants. But then again I guess it was called Weight Watchers and not Fat watchers. What I am trying to say is this... the whole gauge of what WW used was totally based on the scales. Never mind that that person may have lost water and muscle. Hence; this is what I mean about being called weight watchers and not fat watchers. Weighing less on the scales is definitely a goal for me, but not at the expense of losing muscle instead of fat. And unless you are exercising, that is what you will be losing. Having said all of that, I want to tell about a great website where I can keep track of what I eat without going to WW, without having to compute what I have eaten. This site is called www.sparkpeople.com You can type in what you eat along with the quantity and it will compute your calories, carbs, fat, and protein. I gave them my weight, my height, my waist and hip measurements, and they gave me the amount I should lose based on all of this and getting me to a proper BMI. They have exercise goals, personal goals and nuitition notes you can make. They have forums to suit just about any interest you have. Yes, it does take some time to type this in and figure out what all is on this site, but WW takes so much time. This site will add up how many calories you have eaten that day and it will divide it out and show you if you are in your target range for carbs, fats, and proteins. And the best part- IT IS FREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogging

I guess I have a new hobby now- blogging. Now I know I have had this blog for about 5 months, but I have not been "blogging". I consider the activity of blogging where you go on other people's blogs that you don't know and leave messages. I am finding some very motivating blogs about exercise, diet, and aging, and I wanted to share one in particular with you. As I was doing my search for different physical activities, I came across this blog- http://www.maturefitness.blogspot.com/ This man is incredible! He has done about 40 marithons, countless triathlons, and is so good to share some of his experience with the rest of us. Go check him out. I will post other blogs from time to time.

Lunch with Friends

Yesterday I did not make it to FF. Long boring story but I did not make it because I was having lunch with my dear unome friends. This is certainly not all of them, but a small group of us were able to meet for lunch. All three of them are teachers, and I must say they are great teachers. One of the best criterias I use for being a great teacher is loving children. They all have a heart for children, and they want to see them excel in the classroom and in their own thinking about themselves. I truly believe that God called all of them to teach. They have wonderful stories to tell- some are falling on the floor laughing stories and others are tears running down your face stories. These friends are considered the more seasoned teachers ( they are in their 50's), but they still have the passion and the drive to help their students. They discuss teacher issues sometimes when we are at lunch and I am more enlightened by their conversations. But they always are sensitive to the fact that I am not a teacher. (Well except for when I taught my own children for 5 years). But UNOME, I am one that will enter the conversation anyway and give my opinion. We had a great lunch, and we had the daughter of one of my friends join us. We called it a session of "Unome in Training." We have all been friends for along time. One of them went to kindergarten with me. But..... as I said I missed my exercise yesterday, and I thought I would get to it later. NOT. So.... I must do my exercise early in the morning- this is the best time for me.