My New Toy To Better Health

Yesterday my new health toy arrived. I just got finished putting it together. This unit was relatively inexpensive as far as recumbent bicycles go. I got it through Walmart and it is a Marcy ME-709. The "computer" has very large numbers so it is easy to read and it has many different modes. This bike also has 8 settings so that you can make your workout more difficult. I will do my first workout on it, in a few minutes. I will be focusing on my distance more that anything else.
This unit will allow me to give my foot and my hips a break. This unit will also help me to achieve my latest goal of losing 12-14 more pounds.

I just finished doing my first workout with this bike. I did 12.5 miles on the number 5 setting. The highest setting is an 8. Of course I could not do it all at once. I needed to take a few 1 minute breaks every so often. I will build up in order to do it all at once. This bike is quiet and very easy to use and it gave me a totally different workout compared to my walking. I think that I am going to enjoy using my new toy.

I'm A Little Lighter Today

I stopped by my doctors office today, so that I could pick up a prescription that she had waiting for me.
While there I took the opportunity to weigh myself.
Since my last weigh in, approximately a week ago, I have lost an additional 6 pounds.
I don't feel a lot lighter but the numbers don't lie. Actually, I weighed myself 3 times just in case the scales were lying.
So far I have lost a total of 16 pounds. I still would like to drop 10 or more pounds.
I would be really happy at that point in time. My ultimate goal is to weigh about 175-178 pounds.
With my medication, the heat, my exercising and my changes in eating habits, I figure I should be where I want to be in about a month. As hard as I have been working, it could be sooner.

Time To Shake And Bake Me

It has been very hot and humid here over the last week or so.
I have still been going for my walks although it has been tough at times.
I just got back from doing 4 1/2 laps through our neighborhood. I will take a brief break and then go back out and do another 2 1/2 laps before wilting into a puddle of my own sweat.
Later on this afternoon, I will do another lap to end my workout routine.
So how hot is it?.....you ask.
Well right now is is about 9:15AM and it is 83 degrees with the humidity at 73% thus making it feel like 90 degrees already.
We have a heat advisory in store for us today.
It is supposed to reach 95 degrees but with the humidity figured in, it will feel like between 105-110 degrees.
Time to roll me in some shake and bake and throw me onto the street.
Even with all of the walking and sweating, I think that I have hit a plateau on my weight loss. I am going to have to do something to jump start it. I think that my night time eating has a lot to do with it.
If I don't eat anything after 7-8PM, I should start losing again.
I ordered some low carb bread mixes and baking mixes along with brown and wild grain rices. Trying to change my eating habits a bit.
I need to stay away from white rice, potatoes and other high carb foods...there goes my Italian and French baguettes from our local Harris Teeter that I do love so much. I could eat a whole one and call it a meal.
I will just have to find some healthier replacements.
I also order an inexpensive recumbent exercise bicycle. I will be putting it in our garage. That way I can vary my workouts a bit plus if it rains, I can still get a workout in.
I will also be getting some free standing weights..only 10 and 20 pounders. I can get some strengthening in and hopefully build up a little more muscle mass than what I currently have.
I was thinking about joining a gym but even the YMCA cost $69 a month around here.
I figure that it wasn't worth the money when I could buy a few things and have them easily accessible right here.
They will more than pay for themselves in 4-5 months.
Well, time to burn some more rubber off of the soles on my sneakers.
It isn't going to cool off as the day progresses plus I think I hear our community pool calling out my name.

King Of Their Domain

Next to the club house and pool area where we live, there is a boat ramp.
I found this duck making claim to his own small domain next to that boat ramp.
I think that the sign originally said "king of ramp" or maybe it said "duck of ramp"...hmmm...I wonder if that might be anything like "rack of lamb"...inquiring minds want to know.
Everyone needs to be able to claim and rule their own personal domain...no matter how big or small that domain might be.

Latest Dancing Baby Video Making The Rounds

Below is the latest dancing baby video that is making it's moves across the internet. This little tyke has better moves than I ever had on my best day.

Here is a link to the story that was written by Susan Avery and published on ParentDish.com along with AOL.... Dancing Baby Story

Moose Birth Photos

My friend Ken Gauthier, from up in Vermilion Bay ON, Canada, sent me these photos of a moose birth.
The photos were taken by a Mark "LNU" on May 25th from up in Anchorage, AK and he uploaded them onto Flickr.
I want to thank both the photographer and Ken for sharing them with us.
Warning...photos are somewhat graphic but not too bad...just nature at its best. Click here for the MOOSE BIRTH PHOTOS

Making Progress

I went to the doctors office today. I have lost a total of 10 pounds so far. I was a little disappointed with the total lost because of the amount of effort that I have put into losing weight.
I think that I expected more to happen due to the medication that the doctor gave me.
My blood pressure is lower so the doctor decided that with it getting lower and with my current weight loss, I could cut my blood pressure medicine in half.
The doctor told me that she expects my weight to continue to go down as my body adapts to the different medications that I am taking and that hopefully I will be able to get completely off of the medicine that is regulating my blood sugar/insulin and get off of the blood pressure medicine too.
I am working towards losing an additional 14 pounds or so. I would really be happy with that amount of weight loss.
I will start that journey tomorrow but for tonight...I think that I will give my body a little reprieve.

Specks Of Light In The Middle Of The Night

I woke up last night to the sounds of what I thought was rain. I opened our bedroom drapes to take a peak outside, to see if it was raining.
It wasn't raining but what I did see surprised me.
We have what I will call marshland behind our place. And in the marshland, I saw the twinkling flashes on and off of fireflies. I haven't seen fireflies for years.
I remember when I was young, we were living in Champaign, IL. We used to go out at dusk, behind the house we lived in, catch fireflies and put them in jars. Then we would let them go when it was time to go in.
There were loads of fireflies to be caught back then.
Not so many nowadays.
It has been real toasty around here lately. Yesterday it was in the upper 80s to lowers 90s but it felt like it was around 99-100 out. Either way it was a tad bit warm.
I gave myself a break yesterday. I did not go out once...no for a walk....not for anything. Today I am back at it and we have a heat warning out.
I had already walked my 2 sets of 3 laps each but i might push it a bit and try to squeeze another lap or two in before I am done.
Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment and it will be interesting to see how much weight I have dropped. I was at my doctors a couple of weeks ago and I had dropped 7 pounds at that time. Hopefully I have done well this time around.

To Be Young Again

Yesterday I had some errands to run.
As I was slowing down to stop at a traffic light, I noticed a Toyota Sequoia that was stopped directly in front of me. The vehicle had Ohio plates on it. Obviously it was tourists, that were visiting our fine area.
In the front seat were the adults.
In the 2nd and 3rd row passenger seat area were a gaggle of kids.
I sat there watching the kids. You could see the excitement in their facial expressions and in their eyes.
The excitement of visiting new places and seeing new things. The excitement of being away from the usual and familiar.
The excitement of being young, on vacation and not a worry in the world.
I watched as the vehicle turned into the parking lot of the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Based on the looks of those kids faces, I knew that they were going to have a great day.
Oh....to be young again.

I Have Arrived And It Is Great

I have finally arrived into the 21st century. A little slow I realize but at least I finally got here.
I remember the days when the first 8 track players came out and how great I thought they were.
When I was younger, I used to flip through a Radio Shack and marvel at the radio and stereo reciever kits that you could put together...I think one of the brands was Heath, and I would imagine me being able to have enough money to purchase a really nice stereo system...at least what was nice way back when.
Then in my teens I remember working in a department store called Woolco. It was similar to KMart.
When I first started there, I worked in the major Appliance Department.
That is when I first got introduced to "quadrophonic" stereo systems.
Back in those days, we used to be able to turn up the volume really high in our department. So high that you could feel the bass and here the music blasting as you walked through the front doors of the department.
We were long a haired ballsy group of teens back then.
Boy have the decades changed us.....now we walk around with short gray hair...unless we have decided to color it and the only way of blasting music so that we don't offend others, is by turning up the hearing aid.
Ahh yes...times have changed.
But the changes have also made their way into the electronics world and I have been slowly catching up to these amazing changes.
After hearing about these Blu-ray players and visually marvelling at how fantastic they perform at any local Best Buy that I might come across, we finally broke down and bought one a couple of months ago.
Just recently I bought our first Blu-ray dvd to play on our new Sony Blu-ray player.
The dvd is Avatar.
As they write in the texting world......OMG!!!!
The colors and the clarity was unbelievable.
Since first playing that dvd a few weeks ago, I did some exploring of this Sony Blu-Ray player.
As it turns out, if you have a wireless internet connection..which we do...and you have a fast enough internet connection...which we do...then you can access different venues to watch movies from.
I can watch whatever YouTube videos I want, I can access and rent or purchase downloadable movies from Amazons dvd library and just recently, I found out that I can join Netflix and utilize this Sone Blu-ray player to watch whatever dvd's that they carry..
I joined Netflix and for about $10 a month, I can watch as many movies both in HD and in the Blu-ray version as I want to via my blu-ray player. I also can have them send me 1 dvd through the mail...when I am done with it, I mail it back and they send me the next one that is in the queue that I set up online.
My blu-ray player wirelessly hooks up to the internet and the Netflix web site and I can pick a movie and within a minute or so, I can bask in the 21st century electronic world.
I can go online to the Netflix web site and choose whatever movies that I want to watch in the future and put them in my "queue".
When I turn on my tv and the blu-ray player, I have all of the movies that I chose, listed in my queue and waiting for me to pick from.
Some of the movies are in HD and some are in blu-ray format....all streamed to my blu-ray player via our wireless internet connection.
After choosing one to watch, I click a few buttons on my remote and within a minute or so, I am basking in the enjoyment of just a small portion of 21st century electronics.
I realize that many of you reading this are probably chuckling to yourself because I am making a big deal out of technology that has been around for a bit, but for this old dinosaur, this stuff is a big thing.
And to think that I have only scratched the surface of what technology is available out there.
But for now, let me catch my breath for a minute...allow me to grab a T-Rex leg bone to gnaw on as a little movie snack....give me a second to get comfortable in my granite and boulder man chair, that is in the living room of my man cave and enjoy a movie on this electronic marvel that they call a blu-ray player.
Maybe tomorrow I will venture out to see what other fantastic things have been invented.
But for now....UUuuugggg!!!!....this is the life.