We finally made it to the line dancing class at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. Whew! What a workout!! We met another couple who were there for their first time, so the four of us hung in the back of the room and did the best we could. I never realized I could sweat that much and still live to tell about it. It was a LOT of fun and a huge aerobic workout, at least for me. All of the music was lots of fun to dance to, but some of the steps were easier to remember than others. It reminded me of the days when I used to go to the John Jacobson Choral Workshops sponsored by the Hal Leonard Corporation. He would have us up dancing all day long. Of course, no one cared if you sat down and watched in those workshops! Anyway, we liked it well enough to come back, but our schedule is so crazy that we don't have another open Tuesday until May 31. I hope I remember anything we did by then!
We also spent about three hours at the pool. It was only the second time I have been in the pool since the radiation. I feel muscles down the left side and into my back that I never feel any other time except doing swimming strokes. I did it a little more and a little better this time than last time, so obviously just by keeping at it I can strengthen those muscles.
According to the Younger Next Year program, we should do weight training two days a week for 30 minutes and aerobic training four days a week for 30 to 60 minutes, then take one day off per week. Mark likes to do weights three days a week, so that means we do weights and aerobic together at least one day. That day will be today. We try to do weights Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when the schedule allows. Wednesday is now going to be mini-golf day, too, and I found it to be pretty aerobic for me last week because this course included lots of stairs to go up or down from hole to hole. So far we are only up to about 22 minutes of weights and that is doing 9 exercises. I really don't know if I can stretch that out much more. In June they are bringing in some new exercise programs with some new "toys" that will count as strength training. We plan to go try them when they start. For aerobics, when I just walk, I usually poop out about 30 to 35 minutes, but I can golf or line dance for an hour. These are ultimate goals and not something we need to worry about that we don't meet those minutes right now. I'm still feeling very good about what we do here. Obviously for successful weight loss, the aerobic exercise is the most important part, but the calories are also very important. I really need to keep trying to get those calories counts down to the 1200 range most days of the week, or 31 points on Weight Watchers. Like I said earlier, I had 35 points yesterday because of the slushy.
My calories yesterday were very good, but I went over my WW points by 4. I guess that wasn't too bad. Essentially, it was the bourbon slushy I got at the bar by the pool. I estimated it at 7 points! Oooo, but it was soooo good!! Today will be a good breakfast and lunch, but we have no idea what is going to be served at the dinner we are attending tonight. The Solivita Democratic Club has a dinner and a lecturer tonight at the Palms. We paid $32 for the two of us to attend, but as far as we know they are having burgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, and baked beans. Unless one of those burgers is a veggie, it looks like dinner will be cole slaw because we expect the beans to have meat in them. I'll let you know tomorrow, I guess.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Younger Next Year
First things first: I lost 3 pounds this week! I am happy with that. I went from 249 last week to 246 this morning. Considering the meals I had Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night, I am very pleased. I did have a few excellent days, including yesterday, and lots of walking. I guess that did it. I have been alternately enjoying and getting frustrated with the Weight Watchers program. It's often hard to find the exact type of food that I ate to put in the points. I do like the part where you can plug in the nutritional facts for a recipe and it will calculate the points. Mark made a super hot and spicy Hungry Girl chicken recipe last night, and I was able to put in the protein, fat, and carbs and find out that one serving was six points. That's pretty cool. I was also very excited to program in this morning's weight and see the little chart draw a downward line. I know today's calories will be good.
Last Tuesday I said we were going line dancing at 12:30, but Mark didn't get back from shopping in time for us to go. We walked in the indoor track instead. Today, Mark has just left for shopping, so we're going to try again to get to the line dancing. We are both hoping it will be lots of fun. He is also going to his Solivita Diabetic Support Group for the first time this afternoon. I hope he enjoys it as much as I enjoy the cancer support group.
Today I mainly want to tell you about the Younger Next Year Community initiative that Solivita has started. The community has partnered with the authors of the book, Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy until 80 and Beyond. Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge wrote a series of books about health for seniors. Our community decided to take up this charge. It is a four-prong approach: diet, exercise, socialization, and finances. New exercise programs and classes will be instituted beginning June 1; new menus have already appeared in the restaurants. Chris Crowley came to give a lecture here when Frank visited, so we took him to hear it. In addition, the woman who is designing and instituting the new exercise classes spoke about what she is planning, and the third speaker talked about social security funding. Of course, all the clubs and activities keep the seniors in this community active and out socializing all the time. Mark and I are pretty excited about the program and are jumping in with both feet!
Chris Crowley, who is in his seventies, gave an analogy that we are all going to fall off the water fall at the end of life. The average American begins a slow, steady decline down that waterfall beginning even as early as the mid-40s. His philosophy is to keep your life at a steady level from that point all the way to the edge of the water fall; then fall off. I'm visualizing Niagara Falls. I want to be in the Niagara River, staying up high at the top of the falls on an even keel, right up to the edge. I don't want to be in some lazy river that slowly descends until the last little piece of water fall happens so slowly that you don't realize you fell over. Of course, I can sum up what Crowley said in his big book in just four words: eat less, exercise more. It's logical, but so hard to do sometimes. Anyway, that's one more of the topics I teased you with that is now explained! I do plan to buy the book on my Kindle as soon as I buy my new Kindle. My old one died, so Mark said he would buy me a new one for my Mother's Day gift. Nice. I'm going to do that today and the first new book I will get is Younger Next Year.
Last Tuesday I said we were going line dancing at 12:30, but Mark didn't get back from shopping in time for us to go. We walked in the indoor track instead. Today, Mark has just left for shopping, so we're going to try again to get to the line dancing. We are both hoping it will be lots of fun. He is also going to his Solivita Diabetic Support Group for the first time this afternoon. I hope he enjoys it as much as I enjoy the cancer support group.
Today I mainly want to tell you about the Younger Next Year Community initiative that Solivita has started. The community has partnered with the authors of the book, Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy until 80 and Beyond. Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge wrote a series of books about health for seniors. Our community decided to take up this charge. It is a four-prong approach: diet, exercise, socialization, and finances. New exercise programs and classes will be instituted beginning June 1; new menus have already appeared in the restaurants. Chris Crowley came to give a lecture here when Frank visited, so we took him to hear it. In addition, the woman who is designing and instituting the new exercise classes spoke about what she is planning, and the third speaker talked about social security funding. Of course, all the clubs and activities keep the seniors in this community active and out socializing all the time. Mark and I are pretty excited about the program and are jumping in with both feet!
Chris Crowley, who is in his seventies, gave an analogy that we are all going to fall off the water fall at the end of life. The average American begins a slow, steady decline down that waterfall beginning even as early as the mid-40s. His philosophy is to keep your life at a steady level from that point all the way to the edge of the water fall; then fall off. I'm visualizing Niagara Falls. I want to be in the Niagara River, staying up high at the top of the falls on an even keel, right up to the edge. I don't want to be in some lazy river that slowly descends until the last little piece of water fall happens so slowly that you don't realize you fell over. Of course, I can sum up what Crowley said in his big book in just four words: eat less, exercise more. It's logical, but so hard to do sometimes. Anyway, that's one more of the topics I teased you with that is now explained! I do plan to buy the book on my Kindle as soon as I buy my new Kindle. My old one died, so Mark said he would buy me a new one for my Mother's Day gift. Nice. I'm going to do that today and the first new book I will get is Younger Next Year.
Monday, May 9, 2011
We are back from a great trip!
I hope you all had a great time without reading my blog for the last three days! Ha ha!!
We had an uneventful flight up and back to Maryland. While we there, it was AWESOME. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt before picking up our friend Frank. Friday afternoon was relaxing, and then we had an excellent Shabbat dinner with our friends Dave, Evey, Saul, Phyllis, Jeff, Sara, Josh, and Frank. Saturday morning was the Keter Shem Tov in honor of good friend Dick R. It was spectacular! I especially enjoyed the opportunity to stand in front of the choir and direct two of our very special songs: "Sim Shalom," and "Amen." I literally had not lifted my arms to direct anything in nearly two years, since I left the stage in June 2009 following that year's spring concert. The excitement between me and the choir was palpable. I never heard them sound so good! I have to thank Arlene and Rachel for making this happen. It was a highlight of the weekend for me. On Saturday night, Lowell and his girlfriend Emily came over. We gave them some gifts we had gotten for them on the cruise and at Epcot. Lowell gave me a Mother's Day card and gift. Just spending some hours with him and Emily would have been enough of a present. We had a spectacular dinner at Timpano's in Rockville. OY! My calories this weekend were NOT good, but the flavors and company were amazing.
When we got back Sunday, we immediately went to see Davy Jones, formerly of the Monkees, perform at Epcot. He did a great job! We sure did enjoy hearing a lot of the old favorite songs. When it was over, Ed and Marian from our new synagogue came up to us. They had been just a few rows back, so we walked all the way back to the trams with them. It was good to have some time to chat with them and start to get to know them a little better. They were originally from Peabody, MA, a place we stayed in for two weeks when Evey had knee surgery in 2007. We even attended Ed and Marian's synagogue, but they were already down here at that time.
Today has been another wonderful day. This morning, Mark and I attended a Hurricane Preparedness lecture. It was great, with lots of handouts and shopping lists. It was good to get all this information. We also took advantage of the special 15 month discounted membership to the local BJs. We have never shopped at a BJs, but we are going to give it a try. We also bought two tickets to the Solivita Democrats Club dinner and lecture for this Wednesday evening. And it was only 11 a.m.!! After the lecture, I took care of a few odds and ends in the house, ate lunch, and then played Mah Jongg with my neighbors for the second time. I only won twice today, but that was enough. Two women came today who had not come last Monday, so I got to talk to more neighbors. This is such a wonderful opportunity to get to know the ladies on my street. I just LOVE IT!! I never lived on a street before where the neighbors got together to do anything.
Mark and I went up to the gym and worked out after Mahj. That was a good thing. Then we did some more chores in the house, balanced the checkbook, made dinner, and counted up my points/calories for the day. I'm having the first excellent day in quite awhile. I hope that I will show a small loss tomorrow morning, but that remains to be seen.
I haven't forgotten that I have three more topics to discuss: YNY, survivorship, and lymphedema/compression sleeve. I'll try to do one tomorrow. I already wrote enough today!
Enjoy the pictures of Lowell and Emily and Davy Jones.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Off line until Monday
Good evening! I am putting up a second blog today, which is very unusual for me. I wanted to let you know that I've decided not to take the computer on this weekend to Maryland. I can check my email and Facebook on my iPhone, but it's not so easy to write or read the blog on it. There will be no other blog now until sometime on Monday.
Today was GREAT! I started off with my cancer support group. We spent some time talking about lymphedema. Many of the women there have had breast cancer. They were told not to lift more than FOUR pounds. My doctor said TEN. They were all stunned. I think they felt that I may have brought on this lymphedema myself in the last few months by doing the upper body weight machines at 10 pounds. I hope not. I will be going to the clinic for an evaluation soon, so then I'll find out more. I did not wear the sleeve at all today, but I will wear it all day tomorrow.
After the support group, we went right to Mexico. The cheese empanadas were delicious and came with multi-colored tortilla chips. I also had a wildberry margarita. It was so yummy. The mariachi band played for about 25 minutes. They were really excellent. Mark had a very expensive tequila shot, and then we rode the Mexican boat ride, Gran Fiesta. It's always a favorite. We walked to and from the car, which took about 20 minutes each way, so we felt we got a good walk in today.
Then came the best part of the day: the POOL!! Today was the day I am allowed to be in the pool again, so I took full advantage of it. We played in the pool for nearly an hour. I did discover that despite all the walking and all the exercise machines, my muscles felt weak in the water. Swimming must use some different muscles that have been unused for months. The sidestroke gave me a cramp in my side, so I had to give that up. The back stroke was the best, but it felt funny. The breast stroke or front crawl were OK, but I couldn't do them for very long. Mostly I just took a few strokes, felt weird, and then floated around or stood around. I also sat in the hot tub for five minutes. It felt like bliss.
Dinner was at the Lakeside restaurant with free wine, but I asked for a green salad, steamed broccoli, and grilled grouper. That kept my points and calories fairly reasonable since I used up so many at lunch. Then we went home and tried to pack for the trip. Why does such a short trip seem so hard to pack for? Weird.
Have a great weekend and I'll blog again on Monday!
Today was GREAT! I started off with my cancer support group. We spent some time talking about lymphedema. Many of the women there have had breast cancer. They were told not to lift more than FOUR pounds. My doctor said TEN. They were all stunned. I think they felt that I may have brought on this lymphedema myself in the last few months by doing the upper body weight machines at 10 pounds. I hope not. I will be going to the clinic for an evaluation soon, so then I'll find out more. I did not wear the sleeve at all today, but I will wear it all day tomorrow.
After the support group, we went right to Mexico. The cheese empanadas were delicious and came with multi-colored tortilla chips. I also had a wildberry margarita. It was so yummy. The mariachi band played for about 25 minutes. They were really excellent. Mark had a very expensive tequila shot, and then we rode the Mexican boat ride, Gran Fiesta. It's always a favorite. We walked to and from the car, which took about 20 minutes each way, so we felt we got a good walk in today.
Then came the best part of the day: the POOL!! Today was the day I am allowed to be in the pool again, so I took full advantage of it. We played in the pool for nearly an hour. I did discover that despite all the walking and all the exercise machines, my muscles felt weak in the water. Swimming must use some different muscles that have been unused for months. The sidestroke gave me a cramp in my side, so I had to give that up. The back stroke was the best, but it felt funny. The breast stroke or front crawl were OK, but I couldn't do them for very long. Mostly I just took a few strokes, felt weird, and then floated around or stood around. I also sat in the hot tub for five minutes. It felt like bliss.
Dinner was at the Lakeside restaurant with free wine, but I asked for a green salad, steamed broccoli, and grilled grouper. That kept my points and calories fairly reasonable since I used up so many at lunch. Then we went home and tried to pack for the trip. Why does such a short trip seem so hard to pack for? Weird.
Have a great weekend and I'll blog again on Monday!
Happy Cinco de Mayo
Today we are going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by going to the Mexican Pavilion at Epcot. We are going to have cheese empanados for lunch (couldn't find them in the points calculator on WW app) and drink some tequila. We will also ride the boat ride inside, and we are hoping the mariachi band is out and playing while we are there. It shouldn't be a long time over there, but it should be lots of fun.
I was up every hour last night to go to the bathroom, but I was rewarded with another few pounds gone. I was only 244.5 this morning. Wow! That's about four pounds since Tuesday. I think it's the walking every day, but maybe WW online is helping me stay focused. That was the goal. I don't think the cheese empanadas and tequila are going to help much today, but I will walk a lot to get out there and back to the car. Dinner will be at the Lakeside restaurant with free wine, too, so this will be a high calorie day. Sigh.
Tomorrow we fly to Baltimore for a whirlwind weekend full of fun, friends, family, and food. OY! So much food!! Another sigh.
Yesterday I got my compression sleeve and gauntlet. I described the mild pain and odd feelings in my arm to the girl fitting me with the sleeve. Although she is not a doctor, she does see lymphedema a lot in fitting and measuring these sleeves. She seemed to think that my fear that I'm starting to develop it might be true. Next, I went to the doctor's office and got the process started to go be evaluated at the local lymphedema clinic. They are sending over records and whatever else they need, then I should get a call soon to set up an appointment. Meanwhile I wore the sleeve all day yesterday, and it actually felt good. The amount of pain/discomfort I have been feeling in the left arm these last two weeks was definitely lessened. I am not going to wear it today because I have to wear it all day tomorrow with the flight. It seemed very hard to get on. The girl in the office basically put it on me, so I'm a little nervous about trying to get it on myself tomorrow morning in a hurry to head out to the airport at 6:15 a.m. I also got a prescription to go back to the same place as the sleeve to be fitted for mastectomy bras and a small prosthetic to even me out. CIGNA will pay for this, just like the sleeve, so I didn't see any reason not to pursue it. I have to call to set up that appointment. I probably won't have time to do it until we get back from MD next week.
I know I teased you with all those topics yesterday, but I won't have time to pursue the others today. I need to go to my cancer support group meeting soon, so this blog will have to come to an end today. I did include a few pictures of our mini-golf outing yesterday. Mark and I like playing miniature golf, and we realized that around here there are literally dozens of courses. It took us about an hour. With the many steps up and down and the walking around in the heat, I was sweating pretty heavily. I counted it as my aerobic activity for the day! Now if only I had not followed it up with the Twistee Treat cone! Final sigh.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Many New Things
I have four new topics that I'd like to pursue, but I don't want to write about four things on the same day. It would be too much for me to write or you to read. I will mention the four topics, so I don't leave you wondering all day what they were, but I'm not going to go into any details now. OK, here are my four burning topics:
1. picking up my compression sleeve with some fear of developing lymphedema,
2. being a cancer survivor,
3. becoming Younger Next Year, and
4. joining Weight Watchers online.
I will start at the bottom. As you know, my weight has been fluctuating around the 250 mark for months and months, ever since I have been back in Florida. I guess it means I've learned to maintain my weight, which I never was able to do before, but this is NOT the weight I would like to maintain! So, yesterday I saw another of the many ads for Weight Watchers Online. I looked into it, decided it wasn't that expensive, and signed up. I thought that it might be just the jolt I needed to get me back on track. I also liked the idea that there is a WW App for my phone to help me stay on track in restaurants, a real pitfall for me. Once I did it, I spent hours trying to learn to use the program.
I was very successful going to Weight Watchers two times in the past, once in 1984 ( going from 281 down to 200) and again in 1989 (going down from 275 to 199) . Both times, I regained the large amount weight I lost, plus more, when I stopped going. The first time I stopped going because I was pregnant with Evey. The second time I stopped going after the freak accident in the mall when the wall collapsed on me. I also joined it about seven other times when I just "pretended" to be doing it and finally quit when I realized I was spending money to show how much I gained each week! If I find that I like this program but miss the meetings, there is a weekly meeting right here in Solivita one morning a week.
Of course, the program has changed a lot over the years. I never used the point system. It's weird not to think about calories and carbs. I can't get Mark interested in any of their recipes because they never give any nutritional breakdowns for calories, carbs, fiber, etc. They only tell the points. I might write them asking for the nutritional information. I do like the computer app that allows me to put in all the nutritional information and it will tell me the points. This means I can keep using the Hungry Girl recipes and translate them into points.
I'm also SHOCKED that FRUITS are FREE!! Yes, fruits have ZERO points. How can that be? I could eat hundreds of calories every day in fruit. Couldn't you? How can they not count? Well, I'll see if that really works. I ate a banana and an orange yesterday for no points. I am committed to three months, and then I can cancel. I should know if I like it or not by then.
So the program asks for your info like height, weight, age, etc. then it tells you how many points you can eat each day plus an extra weekly amount of points that can be used anytime in the week. My daily points are 31 and my weekly extras are 49. Yesterday, I ate 40 points, so my weekly allotment now has 40 left in it. I also counted up my calories, including the fruit, and it came to 1675, which I would normally consider to be a reasonable day.
This is going to be a challenging week to stay on points because of our trip to Maryland. I used the restaurant app to try to figure out how much my fish tacos, brown rice, and black bean dinner at the Grille cost me. It's still hard to do restaurants. At least we said, NO BREAD!! I also did not order my own dessert, but I ate one-third of Mark's sugar free chocolate mousse cake. We have had that dessert many times because it is the BEST cake anywhere with or without sugar. If you come to visit, you MUST try it!! You will not know it is sugar free by taste, only because I told you!
Anyway, I am down another pound this morning, 247.1. I walked 34 minutes yesterday again at the indoor track. I shaved two minutes off my time for the mile and a half over yesterday, then I walked four more times around the track. That was good exercise! Today we will do our weights and walk again. I'm also picking up that compression sleeve.
Tomorrow I'll talk about getting the sleeve and why I'm worrying about lymphedema now. It's also Cinco de Mayo tomorrow. We're spending it in Mexico! Ha ha! The Mexican pavilion at Epcot, but I bet you knew that's what I meant! Sooner or later I'll write about being a survivor and some news I've heard recently as well as the Younger Next Year program here at Solivita.
Have a great day!!
1. picking up my compression sleeve with some fear of developing lymphedema,
2. being a cancer survivor,
3. becoming Younger Next Year, and
4. joining Weight Watchers online.
I will start at the bottom. As you know, my weight has been fluctuating around the 250 mark for months and months, ever since I have been back in Florida. I guess it means I've learned to maintain my weight, which I never was able to do before, but this is NOT the weight I would like to maintain! So, yesterday I saw another of the many ads for Weight Watchers Online. I looked into it, decided it wasn't that expensive, and signed up. I thought that it might be just the jolt I needed to get me back on track. I also liked the idea that there is a WW App for my phone to help me stay on track in restaurants, a real pitfall for me. Once I did it, I spent hours trying to learn to use the program.
I was very successful going to Weight Watchers two times in the past, once in 1984 ( going from 281 down to 200) and again in 1989 (going down from 275 to 199) . Both times, I regained the large amount weight I lost, plus more, when I stopped going. The first time I stopped going because I was pregnant with Evey. The second time I stopped going after the freak accident in the mall when the wall collapsed on me. I also joined it about seven other times when I just "pretended" to be doing it and finally quit when I realized I was spending money to show how much I gained each week! If I find that I like this program but miss the meetings, there is a weekly meeting right here in Solivita one morning a week.
Of course, the program has changed a lot over the years. I never used the point system. It's weird not to think about calories and carbs. I can't get Mark interested in any of their recipes because they never give any nutritional breakdowns for calories, carbs, fiber, etc. They only tell the points. I might write them asking for the nutritional information. I do like the computer app that allows me to put in all the nutritional information and it will tell me the points. This means I can keep using the Hungry Girl recipes and translate them into points.
I'm also SHOCKED that FRUITS are FREE!! Yes, fruits have ZERO points. How can that be? I could eat hundreds of calories every day in fruit. Couldn't you? How can they not count? Well, I'll see if that really works. I ate a banana and an orange yesterday for no points. I am committed to three months, and then I can cancel. I should know if I like it or not by then.
So the program asks for your info like height, weight, age, etc. then it tells you how many points you can eat each day plus an extra weekly amount of points that can be used anytime in the week. My daily points are 31 and my weekly extras are 49. Yesterday, I ate 40 points, so my weekly allotment now has 40 left in it. I also counted up my calories, including the fruit, and it came to 1675, which I would normally consider to be a reasonable day.
This is going to be a challenging week to stay on points because of our trip to Maryland. I used the restaurant app to try to figure out how much my fish tacos, brown rice, and black bean dinner at the Grille cost me. It's still hard to do restaurants. At least we said, NO BREAD!! I also did not order my own dessert, but I ate one-third of Mark's sugar free chocolate mousse cake. We have had that dessert many times because it is the BEST cake anywhere with or without sugar. If you come to visit, you MUST try it!! You will not know it is sugar free by taste, only because I told you!
Anyway, I am down another pound this morning, 247.1. I walked 34 minutes yesterday again at the indoor track. I shaved two minutes off my time for the mile and a half over yesterday, then I walked four more times around the track. That was good exercise! Today we will do our weights and walk again. I'm also picking up that compression sleeve.
Tomorrow I'll talk about getting the sleeve and why I'm worrying about lymphedema now. It's also Cinco de Mayo tomorrow. We're spending it in Mexico! Ha ha! The Mexican pavilion at Epcot, but I bet you knew that's what I meant! Sooner or later I'll write about being a survivor and some news I've heard recently as well as the Younger Next Year program here at Solivita.
Have a great day!!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Where should I start?
I have not blogged for a few days, which I know upsets certain of my readers. I apologize. I have been so busy!!
Let me start with the Tuesday weigh-in. I exercised a LOT this week, and I ate well most of the time. I am 248.4 this morning, which is a loss of four pounds. I'm pleased but not too excited. I basically had gained that in water weight from Passover, so I'm back where I was a few weeks ago. Now the trick is to get more off, but it will be challenging. This week includes a quick weekend trip by air to MD. It will include a big dinner Friday night at the home of our hosts, Jeff and Sara, a big luncheon Saturday afternoon at the synagogue, and a big dinner out Saturday night at Timpanos in Rockville with Lowell and Emily. I know that it's possible to eat appropriately during these events, but I'm not always able to control myself. I'll let you know next Tuesday when I weigh in again about how successful I have been.
We had a great time on Sunday. We drove out to St. Petersburg again to Tropicana Field to see the Tampa Bay Rays lose to the Los Angeles Angels. It was a good game, lots of action. It's a nice stadium and an easy drive out there.
Then on Monday we did a lot of errands and exercise. We did our 9 weight machines and walked 30 minutes in the indoor track. I went a mile and a half in that time and Mark went two miles in about 34 minutes. I also went to play Mah Jongg for the first time with my neighbors! Every Monday from 1-4 p.m., Maureen, the lady two doors to my right, hosts Mahj. My immediate neighbor to my left, Luanne, my neighbor to the right, Jeanne, and I were there as well as another neighbor from our street and a lady from a nearby street, Lou and Evelyn. The six of us played on two tables of three. I actually won four times, which is pretty unusual for me. It was also unusual in that it was my first time with the new 2011 card, and I won three of those games on the exact same hand: consecutive run, 1-5, in cracks. That just NEVER happens!!
All in all, it was a great day. Mark started to assemble one of the last two pieces of furniture. He has two dressers for the bedroom to replace the big armoire that got crushed in the moving van. It's a lot of steps, and he is about three-quarters of the way done. It's going to look great! I know he'll be so happy to have storage for his clothes instead of big piles on the floor.
Today is another day for chores, but we are also going to go to a class called Beginner Line Dancing for some aerobic exercise this afternoon. I hope we can keep up and do it without looking too foolish!! Tonight we are planning to have dinner at the Stonegate Grille in Solivita. Their May specials include Fish Tacos on Tuesday nights.
Let me start with the Tuesday weigh-in. I exercised a LOT this week, and I ate well most of the time. I am 248.4 this morning, which is a loss of four pounds. I'm pleased but not too excited. I basically had gained that in water weight from Passover, so I'm back where I was a few weeks ago. Now the trick is to get more off, but it will be challenging. This week includes a quick weekend trip by air to MD. It will include a big dinner Friday night at the home of our hosts, Jeff and Sara, a big luncheon Saturday afternoon at the synagogue, and a big dinner out Saturday night at Timpanos in Rockville with Lowell and Emily. I know that it's possible to eat appropriately during these events, but I'm not always able to control myself. I'll let you know next Tuesday when I weigh in again about how successful I have been.
We had a great time on Sunday. We drove out to St. Petersburg again to Tropicana Field to see the Tampa Bay Rays lose to the Los Angeles Angels. It was a good game, lots of action. It's a nice stadium and an easy drive out there.
Then on Monday we did a lot of errands and exercise. We did our 9 weight machines and walked 30 minutes in the indoor track. I went a mile and a half in that time and Mark went two miles in about 34 minutes. I also went to play Mah Jongg for the first time with my neighbors! Every Monday from 1-4 p.m., Maureen, the lady two doors to my right, hosts Mahj. My immediate neighbor to my left, Luanne, my neighbor to the right, Jeanne, and I were there as well as another neighbor from our street and a lady from a nearby street, Lou and Evelyn. The six of us played on two tables of three. I actually won four times, which is pretty unusual for me. It was also unusual in that it was my first time with the new 2011 card, and I won three of those games on the exact same hand: consecutive run, 1-5, in cracks. That just NEVER happens!!
All in all, it was a great day. Mark started to assemble one of the last two pieces of furniture. He has two dressers for the bedroom to replace the big armoire that got crushed in the moving van. It's a lot of steps, and he is about three-quarters of the way done. It's going to look great! I know he'll be so happy to have storage for his clothes instead of big piles on the floor.
Today is another day for chores, but we are also going to go to a class called Beginner Line Dancing for some aerobic exercise this afternoon. I hope we can keep up and do it without looking too foolish!! Tonight we are planning to have dinner at the Stonegate Grille in Solivita. Their May specials include Fish Tacos on Tuesday nights.
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