New Toy

Hi all,

A quick post from my new toy. We gave each other iPads for our 38th anniversary last week! I'm still learning my way around. This morning I downloaded the WW app and have decided to track my points+ even tho' I'll continue to eat mostly Core (simply filling) foods.

Our granddaughter, Jeannine, is still here with us and we've been having a lot of fun. A fancy tea and some Civil war exploring in nearby Fredericksburg, a hike and picnic with 3 grandkids, Playing in the sprinkler, a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, playing Farkle and Scramble together on FB, playing whole-house hide and seek with Ella and Jack, and biking after dinner. I'll have to edit and add pix from my Mac later.  Here's one from the tea shop.

Oh, and daughter Laura talked us into signing up for Netflix. I've seen the first seasons of tv shows we never watched (Lost and 24). I've enjoyed them, but think I don't need to see much more.

Do you have a favorite app to help you with you weight loss and fitness goals?

Tish

Nipped in the Bud

I think we've had some marauding deer in our yard.  I haven't seen them, but just look at this picture of the hosta.  It had big luscious (delicious?) buds on it the day before I took the picture.  I've tried to think about how completely this years' flowers from this plant are gone and turn it into a positive.  Trying to nip some bad habit in the bud.  Stop it before it has a chance to become a full-blown problem.  I think it's going to be cruising the candy offerings at the checkout line at the grocery.  One bad habit that I need to nip in the bud.

Here are two of my beautiful granddaughters, Ella and Jeannine.  

Harder to get three of them to sit still for a picture, but here's one with the girls and little Jack.  These little cousins are having a ball playing together.

WW tomorrow.  Hope to continue my losing streak.  After my WI, we girls (my daughter Laura and her Jeannine and I) are going out for lunch and then something fun.  We haven't decided yet.  A movie.  Shopping.  The Smithsonian American History Museum.  The gargoyle tour at the National Cathedral.  I'm going to let them have the final say.

Do you have any bad habits that need nipping in the bud?

Ciao for now.

Tish

Friday Fly By

Wow.  Hard to believe it's Friday already.  We have a welcome cool down in temps and it looks like it's going to be perfect biking weather after dinner!

I'm off in a few minutes to get my blood work done (from my April physical). I was supposed to do this a couple of weeks ago, but forgot about fasting until it was too late. Think I'll take along some strawberries to enjoy in the car, on the way home.

A quick tour of the garden this morning yielded one additional gardenia (with a couple of full buds waiting in the wings) and one of my tomatoes is turning light yellow.  I can almost see the squirrels and birds circling the bush, waiting for what they think is their crop to ripen!  Also my little lace cap hydrangea is blooming.  It had a hard winter, so I'm happy to see it growing well.  I'll take pix later.

I heard recently that Americans eat 135 pounds of sugar per year.  I wanted to check that statistic, because it seemed unbelievable.  Don't believe it.  Americans actually eat 156 pounds of sugar per year!  That's in all forms.  Twenty-nine  pounds of that total is eaten in it's crystal form.  33% of it comes from sugar-filled sodas.  Read about it here.  I cut way back on sugar a few years ago.  I don't buy the 5 pound bag of sugar anymore.  The 2 pound bag lasts us for several months.  (Except when I made 9 batches of brownies around the time of my Dad's funeral!)  I do have a "sweet tooth."  I like the taste of sweet, but adding fruit usually satisfies that need.

How about you?  How do you keep your sweet tooth satisfied without consuming 156 pounds of sugar each year?

Hot, Humid, and Happy

I mentioned that I was hoping for a good WI today, well, I had a good WI.  Despite being on prednisone (#1 side effect = weight gain) for five days this week, I managed to lose 1.8 pounds.  Yay me!  It was every bit as hot and humid as predicted, but I ducked out early and walked along my river path before the heat had a chance to do its worst.  Still needed a (cool) shower when I got home, but I got my exercise in and felt good.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is a copy of today's.  I'll have the grandkids and plan to take them to Huntley Meadows, a lovely large county park just a few miles from our house.  It has marsh lands with a raised boardwalk and lots of wooded trails.  Given the weather, though, my plan is to take them to the air-conditioned visitor's center which has lots of interesting, touchable displays.  We'll hit the boardwalk on some other (cooler) day.

I made a great dinner tonight.  Rigatoni with sausage, spinach and goat cheese.  It also calls for a pint of cherry tomatoes (very colorful) and I added a cup of sliced baby bella mushrooms (added just after the sausage).  I also made mine with whole wheat rigatoni.   Quick, beautiful, and nutritious.  This got rave reviews from my fellas.  I saw someone demonstrate making this on the Today Show and you can see the recipe and a video here. (It's the second recipe at that link.)

On the garden front, I got a surprise today.  I was taking my daily tour of my "babies" and noticed something really white in one of the beds.  I went over and found that the gardenia that I planted about four weeks ago had a big, lovely, fragrant white flower.  I'd just about given up.

Hope you've had a great day, too.

"Mingos"

I'm feeling great.  Even though I've really just begun again and I still have a long way to go to reach my fitness and weight goals, I'm beginning to see changes.

Our little grandson, Jack, will be 2 in about a month.  As recently as a couple of months ago he was only saying a handful of words.  He could understand more, but he really was not very verbal.  Just yesterday I was reading him Eric Carle's 10 Little Rubber Ducks.  I turned a page and he got very excited and pointed and said "peek mingo."  Sure enough, there was a drawing of a pink flamingo on the page.  It's amazing how a lot of tiny changes over a relatively short period of time have yielded a little cutie who is now very verbal and comments freely on everything he sees.  A miracle, really.

My own changes are not quite so obvious yet, but they're happening.  I've gone from barely exercising at all to having exercised 7 days in a row (a streak!).  I've regained the ability to say no to off-plan temptations  in the grocery store.  There's a certain pair of capris that fit much better than they did a few weeks ago.  And ff cottage cheese with cold mandarin orange sections has again become a favorite lunch.  I'm so grateful for these changes.  I firmly expect that I'll see more and more changes.  I'm hoping for a happy change at my WI tomorrow, too!

We've had several days of lovely temperate weather with relatively low humidity.  All that's supposed to change tomorrow and we're in for hot, hot, hot and muggy.  I think I may just figure out some indoor exercise to do tomorrow.  :-)

All five--Jeannine's on the right.

My sister came back through on her way home from her college reunion.  We had a good time visiting and I enjoyed her company in my exercising.  We're looking forward to more company next Monday.  We have three west coast grandchildren and we get to have one of them come out each summer, rotating every year.  Aren't we lucky??  This summer we'll have beautiful Jeannine, the oldest.  Our Laura will fly out with her (while D SIL holds down the fort) and we'll have them both for about five days.  Jeannine will stay on for a couple of weeks and we'll take her back home next month.


Are you noticing the changes?  Keep on the look out for them; they add up.

Looking Back

Today, during a nice bike ride with DH, I realized that one of my favorite Christmas gifts that he gave me last year was the bike helmet mirror.  Not the most pricey gift, but one that I use and appreciate every time I see it.   The little mirror allows me to look back and see what's behind me.  It helps keep me safe. We don't ride on high traffic roads much, but even on low traffic roads, it's very nice to be able to check out what's coming up.

I've mentioned before that I keep a daily log/journal of this weight loss journey.  I've kept it off and on for several years and pretty faithfully for over two years.  I don't write a lot, (especially since I've started blogging) but I do record my morning weight every day and usually my blood pressure and what exercise I've done.  I also note my "official" weight from my WW weigh in.  I take my scale along when we travel so that I can keep up.  Looking over the past several months, I've re-gained weight.  I've gotten through some difficult times and have finally gotten myself back in the swing of weight loss.   I noticed, looking over my journal, that I'd become careless in keeping track and had entire weeks that were blank during that period.  My journal is a tool that helps me.  I need to use it and I will.  I think I'll also re-read my blog posts to rev my enthusiasm and to re-learn some of the things that helped me lose last year.

The poison ivy is losing the battle; the swelling is all gone, the itchiness is gone, and even the redness is almost gone.  This megadose of prednisone is doing the trick.  Did you know that weight gain is one of the side effects of prednisone?  And you don't lose it automatically when the medicine stops.  It makes you retain water,  depletes your potassium levels, and causes an increase in appetite.  I read about it and discovered that if I strictly limit my salt, eat a banana a day, and watch my intake I can overcome that tendency toward weight gain.  Today is the last day of the prednisone dosage and I think I've won!

My favorite biking partner

What are your most helpful tools for following your plans to achieve your health and fitness goals?

Have a great weekend

Coming Up Roses

Hi, my friends, things have turned around in the past couple of days so that it seems that everything is coming up roses, as they say.

First, I saw a sympathetic doctor on Tuesday and got the mega super dose of prednisone to zap my poison ivy.  After just two days the swelling is gone, the itchiness is gone, and the redness is fading.  Still not quite ready for my photo shoot, but I'm getting there.

Then, I went to WW on Wednesday and lost!  I joined Biz's (Biggest Diabetic Loser) 101 days of Summer Challenge that started June 1st.  My goal was to lose 1 pound (or more) per week during the summer.  I am proud to report that I lost 1.2 pounds this week.

To help with that goal and to get myself back in good shape, I also joined Alan's (Pounds Off Playoff) June Boom Challenge.  For this challenge, the participants are striving to exercise each and every day in June.  So far, so good.  Yesterday I walked along my running path and this evening DH and I are going to bike our long evening route (13 miles) after dinner. So far, so good!

The weather yesterday was awful.  We had record breaking temperatures--hot, hot, hot and super high humidity to make things worse.  We've had a few days of these awful temps, let me tell you, not the best weather for someone trying to get over the worst part of poison ivy.  I confess that yesterday mornings walk got cut short because the sweat kept getting in my swollen eye and hurt like the dickens.

All that has changed.  Today's temps are in the low 80s, very low humidity and it's a joy to be outside.  I'm watching the grand babies today and we spent the better part of an hour playing outside this morning.  Lots of fun with a small wheel barrow and one red plastic ball.  Our back yard is great for running around and playing on the lawn.  DH got his heart's desire last year and put in a sprinkler system which leaves our yard lush and green--great for playing.

The children are napping now (oh good nappers, how I love 'em!) but I filled the little blue pool with a few inches of water and dragged it into a sunny spot so the water would warm up.  When they wake up we'll get out the bathing suits (or "baby suits" as our little Laura used to call them) and have some pool time.  Nothing fancy, just some measuring cups from the kitchen and a few floaty toys to play with.

My sister, Missy has been here for a few days.  She left this morning to go to her 45th reunion at Bucknell.  She'll be back on Sunday for a couple more days of visit before returning to Atlanta.  Talk about hot weather . . . at least we're usually a few degrees cooler than Georgia.

A big welcome to my new followers!  I'll try to keep it interesting and come by and visit you, too.

Here are some pix for your viewing pleasure.

Our patio tomatoes,  looking quite healthy.

The Stella D'Oro Lillies are just starting their show,
notice the clematis behind them.

These yellow evening primroses were transplants from a friend's yard.  They give a very cheerful look during June.

I love my hellebore.  These bloomed a couple months ago but still look great.

We transplanted this hosta from a huge plant (this is 1/3 of the other plant)
notice the children's wheel barrow for scale.

Solomon's Seal

This catbird has a nest right next to the fig tree, she
was sitting on the nest and flew just 3 feet away when I came
 round the corner.

Some of the figs, the birds wait until the exact second that they
ripen and then start feasting.

The catbird's nest was too high for me to see
into, but I was able to snap one picture
before she got too upset at my being so
close.  I never knew catbird eggs were such
a pretty blue.  They look like blue Easter eggs.

I hope you day is coming up roses, too!