Back to the Gym

I finally connected with a dear friend yesterday for lunch and found out that she had started an exercise routine at our local gym. And this morning at 7:00 am. we were both there treading the treadmills and pushing those levers and lifting those weights. Only 30 minutes for me but I feel good, mentally and physically.

I have had injections in both of my knees for arthritis and wow what a difference. I am having trouble adjusting to the reduction in the pain levels. Sounds crazy but I am getting back a memory of free movement without crippling pain. The hip is still crunching away but even the pain levels there are reduced since the shot in the knee on that side. So I owe an apology to my doctor who said that would happen and I doubted him and stated so.

I have pledged to my TOPS chapter members that I will lose a pound a week for the next 10 weeks... and I will do it.

I hope everyone gets to feel the energy levels that I have at this moment.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Wow has summer ever hit with a vengence. Nasty rumors that Hurricane Bill will visit us on Sunday, bringing destruction and mayhem. Hopefully he puffs and puffs and blows himself out to sea.

I had a great weigh in on Wednesday, I lost 3.25 pounds. I am so back on schedule and actually enjoying the discipline. No eating after 7:30 p.m. and drinking water and my own personal brand of iced coffee. Cold coffee, with ice cubes (of course) creamer and splenda. Tastes great. I hadn't tried iced coffee until this summer when the local Tim Horton's Donut shops were offering it. Of course theirs have sugar and are loaded with calories but my version is great and I am enjoying it.

I have conquered some of the clutter in my office/work area and I am feeling more in control. My day job will be expanding to take up three and a half or four days a week from the summer hours of three days. Not looking forward to the extra hours but need them to manage the workload. Fall brings routines and structure which is good for me.

Hoping to get a few strings of bowling in tomorrow afternoon and maybe a swim in the lake. Depends on energy levels, aches and of course time.

Make a plan

I have been writing newsletters and updating data bases...translation sitting in front of a computer and burning a minimum number of calories. So much of my life is spent thinking and planning and keyboarding and I wonder why I don't lose weight as easily as the skinny people who are outside enjoying the sun and gardening, walking, swimming and playing tennis. To be perfectly honest, gardening and playing tennis are things that I daydream about being good at but in actual fact neither interest me much. I like the results of gardening, beautiful flowers and tasty veggies but the actually digging and weeding and sweating and swoting bugs just doesn't do it for me.

I am still in the summer slump of not moving and not getting enough exercise. Have to build more movement into my daily routine. Starting today. There is a car show in Bridgewater today and tomorrow so we could attend and walking around to see the cars would be fun.

I am also still working on the declutter aspect of my life. I spent an hour at work going through and discarding excess paper. Still more to do there and there are definitely piles of paper and crap here at home that need my attention. By the end of today I will have spent at least one hour exercising and another hour decluttering.

Bowling and Other Stuff

Well the rainy Monday turned sunny in the afternoon. We had made plans to do a couple of errands. We stopped at Wiles Market to pick up the KOPS Honour Society pins that Debra had left there for me. They are really nice and I am sure the South Shore KOPS members will love them. Then we tried to find me a rain jacket...seems that is not a popular/fashionable item this year as there wasn't much to chose from. And of course I did want to get one on sale...cheap as I plan to be much smaller next summer.

Then on the to bowling alley AND I actually won one string. Quite an achievement. All three strings were over 80 for an average of 83. This is candlepin bowling (skinny pins with small balls). Frank was also pleased as he got his average. Fun and worked off a few calories. It felt good to get that little bit of exercise. And of course the alley was air conditioned which helped. How many times have I mentioned that I do not like hot and humid?

Tuesday morning and back at work. More sun today and more predicted for the rest of the week. Maybe we will have a summer this year after all.

Couldn't find a jacket yesterday but I did find a skirt for $7.00 which I bought. I don't wear a lot of skirts but this one is comfortable and a change. Sometimes change is a good thing:-)

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday was hot and sunny and a beautiful day for a trip to the beach. We are fortunate because we live within a 45 minute drive to several beautiful beaches on the Atlantic Ocean. At this time of year the air temperature is usually several degrees warmer than the water temperature. The beach we chose was Summerville Beach, which is a provincial park with changing rooms. The beach was crowded...if you call 100 or so people a crowd. The beach is at least 1/2 mile long so 100 people are dots on the sand. Nothing like beaches in some of the other provinces.

It has been a while since I waded in salt water and felt the breath being sucked from my body as the cold water splashed over me. Wow! It was fun. I had forgotten just how much fun.

Our constant companion, our dog, wasn't sure if cold salt water was something he enjoyed but he did manage to get wet and covered in sand and seemed to be having fun.

As an added bonus, on the way home, we stopped at a beach on an inland lake and washed off the salt and sand. I went swimming there as well. This beach is within 10 minutes of where we live and I am quite certain that I will be returning there many times before the summer is over.

Although we live in lake country, the beach closest to us is full of eel grass and I am always hesitant to swim anywhere that has eel grass...you know what lives in places like that. This little beach we found is clear with a sandy bottom. You can see the bottom of the lake as you wade out from shore. The water was refreshing without being frigid. Heaven. And the best part is that I got exercise while keeping cool on a 33 degree day.

I Ache

For the last several days I have been helping my husband split and move our woodpile. Our winter heating fuel. We have been approaching this in a rational manner...I think. We only work at it for a couple of hours a day and on the days that I go to my day job, we work for less than that when I come home. While I am gone hubby, stacks the wood that we split and moved the day before. He is doing the bulk of the work, but I am standing on my feet for longer than usual and I am certainly tired at the end of the day. I am sleeping very soundly. My muscles ache but the joints are not any worse than ever. Which is a good thing since we have a lot of work still ahead of us.