Sunday Weigh-In July 15, 2018

[Barb135]

Good morning... it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood - at least in my neighborhood.

Sooo... In some ways, it's been kind of a rough week in my life, but it's getting better and other ways, it's been pretty smooth sailing.  I guess you can't have everything, can you?  

We haven't done a whole lot for entertainment, nor did I do a whole lot of work.  I did a little bit of work in the yard, moving some plants around, etc and we did our weekly mowing the other day.  Of course, I get the hard part of that because I have to do the trimming - if I want to have plants and lawn ornaments, I'm the one who has to mow around them.  If it were left up to my husband, we'd have nothing but an open field... lol  But of course, even without trees and other plantings, there are still buildings, etc to be mowed around and those aren't all mine but I still have to do the trimming while he rides along on his tractor mowing the larger open parts... there seems to be something wrong with that picture.  :-)  

I've been trying to make an effort not to spend so much time at the computer.  It seems that since I retired, I tend to spend a lot of hours each day sitting in front of the screen. Whether I'm responding to posts on my forums, answering PM's or e-mails, researching, banking, or paying bills, sometimes by the end of a day, I realize I haven't accomplished a whole lot - well, I have because I did those responses or the research, paid the bills, etc but I haven't done much away from the screen.  That means I probably didn't do much in the line of yard work, housework, work on my hobbies, go for a walk, or other things... As I look around my house, I can see that it needs attention... :-(

We, typically, talk about how our diet went during the week, but we don't often talk about what we did for exercise... I used to have a very physically demanding job, which kept me on my feet most of the day.  That was in the days before the Fitbits and other trackers but I did wear a pedometer for years.  It wasn't unusual for me to put on quite a few miles/day.  I also did yoga for about 45 minutes every day, plus walked for pleasure with my neighbor after work.  I think yoga is one of the best forms of exercise one can do because it helps one relax, it helps with balance, strengthens muscles, helps with weight loss/control, etc.  I stopped doing it for a couple of reasons - one of them (not the main one) being that I couldn't lose weight, but that wasn't my fault or yoga's fault; that was the fault of my thyroid and adrenal glands being inadequately diagnosed and treated... I know that now and I keep saying I'm going to start again, but I find that the longer I don't do it, the harder it is to start again...

I do walk when my neighbor is here in the winter - it's really too hot in the summer to get out and go for any distance unless one is willing to get going very early in the morning.  I wouldn't mind that if I had a good, safe place to walk with sidewalks, etc but I don't.  In order to get to sidewalks, I either have to go through a field of grass that's as tall/taller than me or walk in the ditch alongside a very busy road... Neither are totally safe since tall grasses around here are known to harbor every kind of poisonous vermin known to man.

Anyway, that's my story on exercise for today... weight-wise, I'm down by 2 lbs.  That's possibly due to a stressful situation which caused me to not eat as much and/or I've eaten better, but it's also because I've been spending less time at the computer which means more time moving around than sitting in one place, even if I'm not doing anything strenuous.  We do burn more calories when we stand than when we sit.

Enough about me - what about you?  How has your week been?  I know some of you have had some stressful things going on in your lives, too.  I hope you're getting through those and that life is getting back to a dull roar for you.  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~

[Barb135]

Well, you can see I'm meeting my goal of not spending so much time in front of the computer... lol

Would you believe I'm actually down another 1.8 lbs since Sunday?? I know it's all fluid that I've been "storing", but still getting rid of that is something I've been trying to do for quite a while... It's a move in the right direction!!

Annie, your retreat sounds fun, but like Sarah, I know I'd never get my husband to go to anything like that.   Hmmm - ham slices with pineapple garnish...never did care for that, even back in 1959... lol  The veggies and salad bar would be my speed, with a tiny dessert.  

Anyway, it doesn't matter that you don't have a scale to weigh.  It'll be fun to see how this week affects everything with all the walking you have to do to get back and forth, etc.  I think just being in a setting like that and being able to relax is a great thing even if you don't lose much weight... Enjoy the rest of the week.

Sarah... yoga would probably be really good for your back.  There are quite a few videos you can watch on YouTube or you can buy DVDs.  I have a good yoga DVD for beginners that I really like.  It's got several levels to it.  I pretty much stayed with the first one.  When I first started I couldn't begin to perform the poses, but it didn't take long to be able to do them.  It was very relaxing.  You might try some YouTube videos before you buy anything.  

Here's a couple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ8Vj0M6OG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhLECip4b4I

and another site that gives a few:
https://thrivestrive.com/yoga-lower-back-pain/

I know the best poses for the back are the downward dog, child pose, pigeon pose, triangle pose, cat pose, and some others.  These will all help stretch the muscles too and I wouldn't be surprised if you lost weight doing them, as well.

My favorite yoga DVD was "Yoga for Weight Loss"  I did it every day for months and I realize now it's actually what kept me from gaining more weight than I did while my thyroid was dying off.  I didn't know that at the time and I was very sick from lack of proper treatment and believed I was, literally wasting my time with it.  

Now that I'm human again, I really need to do it again; it's just hard to get motivated again...

That's my sob story...  :-)

As to your question about alligators/crocodiles and snakes... This is alligator country and we have a lot of bodies of water around so each of them is subject to have alligators.  It's not unusual to see them around, in some neighborhoods, but the closest body of water to me is about 2 miles so it would be really weird if there would be an alligator in my neighborhood.  I would certainly call Game and Fish to come to get it because it could probably die before it found its way back to water...

We don't have crocodiles here.  They would only be found in the Everglades and in the Keys, which are both way South of us unless they're in captivity.

Snakes are another matter... I think we have just about kind known to man, both poisonous and non-poisonous, ranging from the common black snake (sometimes called a blue racer) to a variety of rattlers and water moccasin (also known as cottonmouth).  I think in the 25 yrs we've lived where we live, I've only seen 4 snakes right here - a couple of black snakes, a rattler, and a cottonmouth, but in my travels around the county when I was working, I saw several different kinds - king snakes, coral, corn snakes and a couple I couldn't identify - honestly, they startled me so badly I didn't stick around long enough to try identify them... lol  

I used to have to walk across fields or through woods, etc to get to water or wastewater treatment facilities... if the owners didn't keep their property mowed or if there were a lot of leaves it was somewhat dangerous because I never knew what I might encounter... it could be snakes, spiders or other creepy crawlies that sting or bite... Logbooks were kept in mailboxes that could be equally dangerous - the rule was to open the mailbox and look inside before putting a hand in because snakes and spiders (particularly black widows) liked to hide there.  I've been retired for 7 years and to this day when I open my mailbox, I look in before I reach in to take out my mail... we do get spiders in the mailbox once in a while.  

We know they're here; we just have to be careful.  People sometimes do things that aren't so smart when it comes to wild animals; that's when they get hurt.  They're just as scared of us a we are of them and we have to have a healthy respect/fear for them.

[dominosarah]

I am down .4 this week.  My job is very physically demanding.  I am on my feet most of the day walking from one end of the store to the other.  We are always moving there so i rack up miles everyday.  When i get home i usually plant myself on the couch!  The muscle that lays over the sciatic nerve hasnt been very  cooperative for a few months.  I cant remember the exact word for it but it starts with a P!  I have been going to the chiropractor and that seems to help.  I would love to get out and walk at night but it affects my leg.  Maybe yoga would be good for me.  Is there a certain one that would be good for a beginner?  Any yoga classes would take place in the morning at the gym so i would have to do this at home.

Annie, that sounds so relaxing, just being out among nature.  I could never get my husband to something like that.

Barb, do you have alligators/crocodiles close to you?  Snakes?  I could handle the 1st 2, the snakes would do me in!

[AnnieBrooke]

It's pretty common in couples for one person to be more religiously or spiritually inclined than the other, and I don't think I've ever heard of a church camp or retreat that barred married people from attending alone. You might look into it. There are retreats put together by churches of all denominations, I'm sure.

[AnnieBrooke]

I'm in a family church camp on the Kitsap Penninsula in Washington this week, we drove up on Saturday and Sunday was the orientation day, so no time to get online for me until now.

We walk a lot at the camp, there are activities, speakers, meetings, games and even dancing, so although they also feed us 3 squares, it probably is not going to make me fat. The food is more like my mother will like (yesterday we had ham slices with pineapple garnish -- have you had that since 1959?) but it's balanced and there is always a fresh (cooked) vegetable and a big salad bar and the desserts are tiny. So I'm not worried about diet. Or exercise either, since to get to wherever when the meeting house bell rings, we walk.

No scale here, though, so I can't tell you what I lost in the week before leaving. Probably did lose, it was VERY STRESSFUL to get everything done to get out of town. I even packed a big box with my computer, stamps, bills, and unread mail. This is bringing home work to vacation, but it's also par for the course if I ever want to leave at all. At least we did get out of town! and we didn't even forget very much. :) Husband and I drove to the nearest town today to buy son a swimming suit.

This year's topic is "Buddhist Practices for Resilience and Renewal." We've been meditating, and in our study groups have discussed such meaty topics as whether we  have anyone in our lives who loves us unconditionally. I'm liking it, and mostly just liking getting away, especially now that the bills are paid and I bought the stuff I forgot at the nearest Safeway.