1/25 Intent

Intent to Meet My Walking Goal
1/25 Photograph Resolve

Willpower / Resolution / Intent

Boots by the door, Ready to Go

I woke up this morning with 11 miles to go for the month, before I got out of bed, I had texted my next door neighbor to go for a walk. Runkeeper is an app that keeps me on track in meeting my monthly walking goals. Another key to meeting the goal is to make it achievable while also making it challenging. I figured that I would be doing a lot of walking in Florida while golfing, but ended up on a cart more than expected. This morning I walked another 1.8 miles and I know that I will have more than 60 done by the end of the month. And even though it was only 1.8 miles, there are more calories burned since we walked through the woods today for the entire walk. 

The flicker challenge this week is abstraction which will be a challenge for me. Today, I took a picture of the netting on the clementine box and brought it into photoshop to duplicate and rotate. I guess that would be abstract for me. 

25/365 Abstract Netting

Upset

Upset- Tipped off the sled, and upset when she realized her jacket was full of snow

1/20 Photograph Upset

Unhappy / Troubled / Tipped over

I need to be more careful when reading the photo prompt for the day as I missed the tipped part of the prompt. How can I photo upset when today was a good day, up to a certain point, but more about that later. L is a good egg about the photo prompts and when we were on our very long walk through the woods today, we tried to figure out how to stage upset. Turned out to be easy, but she was very upset to find out that her sleeve flaps were open and now her jacket was full of snow.  This weeks' photos also need to have composition in mind and I think this picture is good, as L is off to the side in a 1/3 of the photo.  Our walk today was intended to be more of a work out, fast walking on the trails and longer to make up for yesterday's food during the football game. We walked 4 miles, well, I walked 4 miles, L did some sledding down the hills.

I came home and made some vegetable soup and salad to have for the next couple of days when L called with an invitation to go Cross Country skiing with another friend. I rounded up all of the equipment and met L and K at the fields. All was good until I fell on my butt coming down a hill, it was a solid fall and I am now sitting on ice for the night. Tomorrow morning is going to be interesting when I get out of bed! I fell early on and muscled through the skiing which was enjoyable except for the twinges I was getting and I made myself ski as much as possible, because I am not so sure another 4 mile walk is doable tomorrow! 

Good new on the photography front, I got my first critique from the instructor for the Photoshop element class and I learned some techniques for highlighting and shadows. (Which I did below, you can't tell, but in the original photo, the woods are very dark). Also, the pose photo from two days ago was chosen as the photo of the day! ( See this post for the details.)

Nobby

 Nobby: Tree trunk in the White Mountain National forest

1/17 Photography Nobby

Gnarled / Lumpy / Rough

A day behind in blogging because yesterday was a busy day for me! Yoga in the morning, then meeting friends for a ride up to Franconia Notch to hike the Flume, take a ride to Lincoln to check out the Ice Castle and then a night out with the ladies up in New London. I barely had time to upload the day's photo for the 365 Challenge.

The prompt today was an easy one for me to get a picture, the difficulty came in picking the best one.

The choices ranged from tree trunks, rocks, moss and water. My final pick was done quickly and after really looking at my pictures from yesterday, might not have been the best "nobby" picture. There were so many natural textures to choose from!

The Flume Gorge is a beautiful park in the northern part of the state with bridges and walkways along a natural gorge at the base of Mt. Liberty. The hike was 2 miles and with ice under the snow, it helped that we had snow shoes and yaktrax on our boots. The weather started out overcast in the Notch and then we got beautiful blue skies.








T and I spent a lot of time clicking away while D and the kids kept hiking and checking out all the cool ice formations, trees growing out of rocks and lichen/moss designs. It was a relaxing hike, about 2.5 miles when it was all done.

Another group of hikers was heading up the trail and we switched off cameras to get a group shot.
After our hike, we had our lunch at the Cannon Tram station where our British guess got to see pictures of the Old Man of the Mountain who no longer reigns over the Notch. The old man only exists now on road signs and coins in NH.

On our way home, we stopped in Lincoln to see the Ice Castle that was built at Loon. We had wanted to get some pictures of the castle at dusk, but we were too cheap to each spend $10 to walk through the man-made castle.



My favorite picture of the day? We had driven up the Kancamagus highway to the first overlook to check out the view to look for some picture opportunities. T had a beautiful photo of this tree and I tried to get the same image, not as good at T's, but with some editing, I love it.

Door

1/10 Today's photo inspiration: Photograph a Doorway
Your front door/ A door you use/ A place you visit


Oops, unintentional photo-bombing. If I was going to try for a picture of myself, I would not be wearing workout clothes, jacket on head and my shirt tucked up. The next picture is better, but I thought this was a fun choice especially since I am doing this as a daily journal. 


The wreath on the door is over 40 years old and belonged to my Grandmother. I love how it contrasts with the green of the door through the snow.


After seeing that I got caught in the reflection, I went ahead and took another shot without me. However, I liked the one of me best, this is a daily journal and it's a good shot of what I look like in the morning. The shot without me is just boring. This project has helped me to develop a critical eye and I am not saving pictures to files that are not good.

Today was a great exercise day as I walked and ran on the treadmill while getting caught up on Parenthood on my ipad. Watching tv makes the time on the treadmill go faster since this is such a boring way to exercise. Then in the afternoon, I went for a hike through the woods with L which I could only do with the Yaktrax since there is now a layer of ice beneath the 2 inches of snow that we got today. As of today, I have 24 miles done with another 51 to go to reach my goal of 75 miles for the month. Unfortunately we have more rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Log for Today - Weight Loss Woes

0310 Loseit Nutrient Log
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

I won't give up, but boy, this weight loss thing is taking me a lot longer than many other people using Loseit. 6.6 pounds in 2 months! There are people on the forums and facebook going on about losing 8 -10 pounds/month. It is so frustrating to hear that when I have been doing the best I can! I am even exercising more, 2 long walks this weekend, over 2.5 miles in under an hour which even included some hills. Been doing the Wii EA active 30 day workouts and back to the treadmill and running this week with the Couch to 5K program. My leg is feeling great and I have a great set of stretches from Physical Therapy. Our hospital is sponsoring a 5K race in May. Rehab had a get ready to run meeting last week and I got great information about running! I put together a team for the race, more about that in another post.....
I have eaten more salad in the past two months than I have in the past year! ( Have even started to enjoy them more) Currently I have Loseit set for 1.5 pounds/week which is about 1468 calories/day. Last week, I was 2000 calories under for the week and have been under for the past three weeks. I am going to modify the program for 2 pounds/week to see if that will make a difference.
Feeling whiny, which might mean that time of the month. But after having an ablation last fall, I get pre-symptoms with my periods that are so light that it's okay that I am in the 15% of women who still get a period after having the procedure. Maybe the 1.8 pounds that I have gained since Friday can be attributed to fluid retention....gotta think positive.
I will keep tracking and I will not lose my confidence that weight loss is possible. Florida in a week, there will be plenty of opportunity to get even more exercise in. The picture is of my nutrient log for the day, and I am sad about the sodium, but happy about the percent of fat/carbs/protein. Can you imagine a low carb diet???? Have you ever tried it? Made me crave bread!

Must be the week for stupid - running injury

I started another Couch to 5 K with an application for my iphone. It was my third time in a week working out on the treadmill and yesterday I pulled/strained a calf muscle big time. How big? Can barely go upstairs without flat flooting it each step and after doing what I needed to do, based on the internet: RICE, rest, ice, compression and elevation, I still woke up with a swollen ankle and foot. With deliberate walking, I can get around, but I am going to give the doctor a call tomorrow to get some physical therapy. I really want to be able to run in a 5-K in May for our hospital's cancer center with our lab team.
What did I do wrong? Maybe it was exercising before breakfast, or even though I did stretch, I didn't do enough, or I really think it was that I changed how my foot hit the treadmill. I changed from flat foot sounding like a herd to trying to be more on the front of my foot. Guess my calves weren't too happy with that change.
I don't want to say that I can't run, but that I want to be able to run. Along with using Loseit on the iphone, my goal this year is to lose 20 pounds. This can be done and I will do it, after I get this calf back to normal.
Stupid injury.......

Wasted Work, But Calories Burned

Boy, do I feel silly and somewhat sore from a dumb activity. Today we got hit with temperatures close to 5o and rain on top of a driveway that wasn't quite cleared from the last storm which created an ice rink this morning. I went out at 1130 am and burned about 300 calories chipping and shoveling ice to make channels for the water to go down to the street. About 2/3 of the driveway got done and I got called into work at 1 pm. When I called home later to ask my son to finish the driveway, he said that it didn't need it. Tonight at 930 pm when I came home, the driveway was down to bare pavement...guess I should have let Mother Nature do the work. I would have stayed dry if I had just hopped on the treadmill as planned. Silly me......

Getting Old and Falling Apart

Back in January while watching a Patriot's game, I had crossed my legs for the entire game while knitting. I know, bad thing to do, but since then, I my leg has just not felt right. Then the extra days that I have had working on my feet all day and just getting a little bit more physical last weekend ( golf and gardening) just put it over the edge for me. Nothing felt good, whether I was sitting, standing or laying down. At this point, I didn't know whether to ice or put heat on it. Yesterday, I went to the doctor and my pressing some areas on the outside of my thigh by my hip and above my knee, the intensity of pain led to the diagnosis of Iliotibial band syndrome.

Based on what I have read, I probably did some wrong stretches on it after the knitting episode to relieve that pain. But I have to admit, the huge amounts of motrin that I am now taking along with icing my thigh has really helped. Yet, the idea of going to Rehab and having one of the young, buff guys help me stretch is certainly appealing (maybe I won't tell my doctor that it's working....).

It's strange that I am prone to pinched nerves and inflammation to muscles. After working on my inlaws computer once, I ended up with a numb arm and knot the size of a plum on the back of my shoulder. Wish I was younger and swimming again, life was less painful back then and my muscles were never an issue. The problem I have lying ahead of me, is the time that I have to give this current injury to heal, I won't be able to do much walking and the lack of exercise will have to be off set by me eating less. Summertime + eating less = No Fun. I guess I can hope for calmer days to go kayaking.

WANTED: Time to Exercise

Exercising harder keeps weight off longer according to an article published yesterday through Reuters. Wow, now I just have to find 75 minutes a day to exercise. Right now my neighbor has the time and she is doing phenomenal on Weight Watchers. However, she is the first one to say that she can do it, because her kids are grown and out of the house. I am just going along slowly in the weight loss program, at .9 lbs per week. Last night was a big -.6, it's time for me to get more exercise. I can find 101 reasons about what I do instead of exercising and I am still looking for the chart on blogging and calories burned.

What does my exercise consist of? Well this week, it's going to be helping out at two track meets and possibly one practice. Luckily for me, it's not cross country because I can't run to save my life. Hey, can't....that's a word I only use for running. Even when I was a kid running to school because I didn't want to be late, I would have to stop because I had cramps. In junior high, I became the team manager of the track team. Now I am afraid to even start running, what if I look stupid?

Someday, I will run which I think will be the key to my weight loss. How do I know this? I have a 45 year old brother in excellent shape who runs about 8 miles every day or so, not because he loves running, but because he loves to eat! Time to get that ipod going and try the couch-to-5k running program, again. I tried it last fall and it was sad, very sad, I cheated on a few of the runs and walked. Maybe some people just aren't meant to run. Any new runners out there? How did you do it?

Just Another Meal, Just a few more Points

After being sick for a week, and missing Weigh-in for a week, I was looking forward to a big loss. Boy, was I ticked! My loss was only .6 lbs and with that piddly loss, I left the meeting. I admit, it was a bratty attitude to have and my leader did say that it could be due to the antibiotics that I was taking. However, I just was not in the mood to sit there and listen to all the New Year joiners go on about their huge losses this month. That is a pretty negative attitude that I have to the whole Weight Watcher meeting thing and I know it's pure jealousy that is driving it. My losses have been so small compared to what I hear in the meetings. But then I have to look at it for the long term and I have loss over 16 lbs. and probably after this Monday, 10% of my weight in four months. To be really honest, I haven't exercised as much as I should be doing and adding that will probably help me lose the rest.
Now here comes the best part of my whole week. I have eaten ice cream just about every night this week and my weight is below 170 on my scale here! I went into the "Pants Museum", you know what I am talking about.....the folded pants that have been languishing in your closet that were just a tad too tight to wear for awhile ( a long while!). There are now three more pants that I can wear! Choices, choices, oh what a feeling!

Snacks that get me through the day
Pears 1pt
Dried Fruits/nuts - 2pts for a 1/4 cup
Bananas 2pts
Vita muffins 1pt
Yogurt - 2 pts ( hate the WW, Love Activia, Stoneyfield)
Kashi Go Lean bars - 3 pts
Peppers - cut up
Celery
Carrot Sticks
Ice cream - worth the 4 points!