And the winner is....

Cindy...Letters from Midlife!



Cindy, I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. I put all the names in my cute little pink hat and the name was pulled by my sweet hubby. Cindy, if you will e-mail me your address, I'll ship this out to you asap.

All is well here in sunny Virginia. I have been walking on my treadmill at least 3 times a week and hope to work up to every day. It takes about ten minutes for me to get in the groove, but then it becomes a sort of competition. You know, at the next 30 second mark I increase the speed to 3 and jog for 30 seconds and then put it back on 2 and walk it off. Then I decide to take the incline up a notch every 30 seconds. That sort of thing. I can tell when I am getting tired, because my shoes make a high pitched squeak if I'm not lifting my feet up completely. When ever that happens I take it down to a slower pace and recover. I also thinking about getting a recumbent stationary bike. I loved the one in the store and I have a friend who is a bike rider and he uses his to train with inside, so it must be pretty good exercise.

The hubby had the flu and dealt with that for about eight days, but he feels much better today. We had errands to run and while he was in the post office I waited in the car. I didn't hear anything with the windows up, but all of a sudden I saw a huge plume of black smoke in what appeared to be a residential area nearby. The smoke disappeared almost immediately and while I did see an emergency vehicle, things seemed quiet. By the time hubby got back in the car I didn't even mention the smoke. We were listening to talk radio and the local folks came on at the normal time with a report of a small plane crash nearby. After some erroneous reports of possible fatalities, everyone involved seems to be ok. It was the talk of the restaurant and we got rerouted several times on the way home because of a power outage.

That's it for me today. I'm remembering to go easy on myself when necessary. I'm going to lose my weight and get stronger slowly and methodically. I'm loving life and hope you are too.

Have a great day and congrats again to Cindy at Letters from Midlife.

Let's have a give-a-way!

Well, not much to post today, except I finished the book Secrets of a Former Fat Girl. What a great book. It wasn't at all what I expected. I figured it would be the typical do's and don'ts and BMI's and such. Nope, it's more like an autobiography, telling you how she lost weight and how she has kept herself motivated to keep it off for twenty years. It is told from the perspective of a girl that has been fat since childhood (to which I can totally relate), but addresses fully gals that didn't grow up fat and just became that way through out the years. Yes, it's a really great read and quite motivational, too.

With all this in mind, I'm having a little give away. Since I liked it so much, I know you will too. So if you leave a comment telling me that you are interested, I'll enter you in and next week, I'll pull out a name and send you a copy of this super little book.

I'm going to mention it on my art blog also, so don't forget to comment to get in the drawing. Good luck and have a great week!

Wearing of the green

For all of you Irish folks, Happy St. Patrick's Day. Me, I'm celebrating walking on the tread mill again. Prevention Magazine online has a 12 week treadmill program and I'm just getting started on it, but I think I can do it. I'm trying to remember to post my times daily in my sidebar notes.

I picked up a pretty interesting book from Books A Million called Secrets of A Former Fat Girl. If you were a fattie as a younger person, you can really relate to this book. If you've only recently gained your weight, you can still benefit from her wisdom. She's a bit too skinny for my taste, but I'm hoping to use some of her ideas to help me achieve my desired weight and stay there. I know from experience, that exercise is the key for me, because I eat pretty healthy and as much as I hate to exercise, if I can do it, I know you can. Find something you will do on a regular basis and do it. No where to walk in your neighborhood? Go to the zoo and walk around there. Like to play golf? Walk some of the holes instead of riding. Like to dance...put on some music and shake your grove thing. Borrow a kid and go to the park. Any little thing will help if you do it. Don't let that little voice in your head tell you that you can't do it, because I know that you can. I'm gonna lose weight this time. No question about. I want to be healthy. Being old and feeble, is not an option for this happy chick.

All that being said, enjoy your week and get moving!

New Treadmill

The guys set up our new treadmill today and I did log in about 15 minutes at an average of 2.5 mph. I tried out the pre-programmed weight loss routine, but I'm not not ready for that. The top speed on that program is 5 mph and there's no way I can do that yet. It is a goal, though.

I still need to eat dinner, but I've logged in all my particulars for the day on my SparkPeople.com account and I've had plenty of water.

That's it for me today. Hope everyone is healthy and happy.

Take care.

It's in the works...

We went today and purchased a new treadmill. Will be around one week before delivery. We decided we would be more motivated to workout at home than going to the fitness center.

This is the first picture that I have loaded using my laptop. I normally used my desktop computer for my blogging, but I'm really trying to learn new things.

Anyway, the exercise program is in the works. When it is delivered I'm sure I'll have more pictures and lots more motivation.

That's it for now. Thumbs up for new exercise equipment!

How you doin'?

Not much to report today. Just got back from going with hubby to dentist. More work toward getting dental implants. Not fun, but he always does OK. I took my laptop but no one knew the password for clients to use their wi-fi.

Went to Fresh Market last night in hopes of a better quality selection of organic fruit. Not so. Must be the time of year. Kroger has just as much in their organic section and usually less expensive. Why is it so hard to pick out oranges. I got six individual organic oranges and the first I peeled looked like terry cloth inside. Completely dry. Grrr. So far the others have been juicy and sweet. What is your trick to picking out the best orange?

I did pretty good over the weekend, staying away from junk food and watching portion control. We did go to Firehouse to get turkey subs yesterday, but they aren't that bad. Low fat and under 400 calories. I did eat chips and a soda, but I'm OK with that once in a while. Since the hubby wont be able to eat real food for several days, this was our reasoning (read excuse here) for also getting a large candy bar apiece.

No loss, but no gain. Keep plugging away and eventually we'll get healthy. Just wanted to touch base with everyone and let you know that I am sincere when I say we're all in this together. Staying healthy is not that easy even if you are already healthy. Getting healthy and correcting the malnutrition that has caused us all to gain weight...not easy at all. Add the changes that come with age and it's even more difficult. Do your best to get healthy now and believe me you'll be so glad you did. Hang in there and feel free to use my comment section periodically, if you want to tell us what been helping you reach your goals.

If it's snowing where you are, know that it can't last forever. Spring is right around the corner, pull yourself up by those snow bootstraps and keep going. We're going to make it.

It's really not a cop out

I know it must sound like a cop out, an excuse, yet another postponed start date...but it's really not. I honestly feel like it is true. What could I possibly be talking about, you might ask. The reason I have such difficulty ...Getting healthy... Losing weight... Doing the right thing. But here's the deal, I can't be positive about being healthy when there is still snow on the ground and the sky is gray. It drags me down and I just don't want to eat right. I'll bet one of the reasons that I lose followers, is that I have no successes to show you. That's ok. My blog isn't titled Let's Gain Followers This Year, now is it?

I may not have successes in weight loss, but I won't let that stop me or my little weight loss blog. I'm waiting out the storm. I'm looking forward to sunny days and a lawn dry enough to withstand the delivery of some new exercise equipment. I will have successes to report, I know I will.

Until then, I am prayerfully thankful that I have a wonderful life. I have a very sweet sister and a loving husband. That husband, a great guy who wanted hot dogs and chili and chips for lunch. I fixed them and they were yummy. I did use Hebrew National franks, so I can give myself a pat on the back for that. I'll get back on track tomorrow.

I don't give up and I don't beat myself up when I over eat. That's not my style.

Well, that's it for me today. Thanks for listening and thanks for sticking with me.