New Route, new pix!

If you have been following my blog at ALL you know that I enjoy walking for exercise.  I find it relaxing and calming, plus it has helped me get rid of a lot of weight.  I am still holding at -48 pounds which drives me absolutely crazy that I can't get to 50- and believe it or not, all for a ridiculous, on-line, virtual 50 lb badge on Lose it.  (The weight loss website and app that I use).  I work well for shiny, sparkly things apparently!  And though I tend to not be real symmetrical, logical or organized, I want that BADGE and it's nice round number!!  My 2nd goal (of three) will be achieved right after that, when I get to 51.6 pounds and my kind of arbitrary chosen weight.  But that somehow to me is not as enticing as the 50.  I don't know about me sometimes.  

I have been lifting weights and walking and am experiencing some great results from each.  I am seeing muscles that have been hidden for years, and I will gladly flex for you if you want to see them too!  LOL!!  I LOVE the lifting, I leave all of my troubles on the gym floor when I am really into it.  It does the same sort of thing that walking has always done.  And it has made my walking improve as far as distance and pace.

Walking the loops

I use the app, "Runkeeper" to keep track of my distance cardio activities, mostly walking.  I have been running intervals once or twice a week- as often as my knee will allow me.  I want to run, but am not sure if my body will let me right now.  My fitness level is now to the point that I have to find ways to raise my heart rate to a training zone.  If I can't run intervals I need to do fast walking and hills, so I am always looking for routes to walk for a change and additional challenges.  The most recent one is an extra loop off a well worn route I use- I add in a turn on Trout Road, off of County B, which adds a bunch of hills and about a mile and a  half to my west loop.  With new roads to walk there comes new photos to take!!  It is a win/win!!!

 I recently increased my allotment of calories, as I was sliding down really close to having barely enough food to eat!  It seems counter intuitive to eat more to continue losing weight, but it sort of makes sense when people explain it.  Especially if you are working out HARD, you want to refeed yourself so you can recover and get out there for that next walk, or weight-lifting session.  I am going to give it a month and see if the numbers go down.  Let's hope!  In the meantime, I am adding in an aerobic dance class on Mondays along with my ballet class on Thursdays to balance out the rest of my activities.  I hope that some variety will keep the scale moving as well.

ON TO THE PICTURES!!!  These pix are from this weekend, the less than sunny ones are from the new route.  It was cloudy and windy and nasty this morning, but with proper attire, it was a good morning for a walk.  And a wonderful way to spend some of that glorious extra hour today.

Birch grove

Almost gone

Grown over

Inside decay

New route pix:

Mr. Personality

Butternut Creek

Land of Milk and Honey

Butternut Creek, v.2

Butternut creek. v. 3

Butternut creek v. 4

Signs to no where

Land of Milk and honey, v.2

Land of Milk and Honey,  v.3

Until next time, be a joy giver!!

Plateaus and milestones and pictures!

I have been stuck in my weight loss a little bit lately.  I have awesome friends who tell me that I am building muscle, and that my body is needing to readjust, and that I need to be patient.....  Well, that is probably all true, but it does not help when I obsessively get on the scale every morning for the last 8 days and the scale says virtually the same thing.  Ugh.  So I have reevaluated my day and have decided I probably am getting less than vigilant about my portion size, and I NEVER log in my coffee creamer in my food list on Loseit.  Baaaaaaaaad madartteacher.  Lol.

 So, I will be watching out for that kind of thing and I looked to conquer a new challenge for myself- a 1000 calorie exercise session.  Some of my heros- my loseit friends who are absolute exercise machines- do that with astonishing regularity.  Most of them manage that by biking or using the elliptical or arc trainer- but I wanted to do it with my walking.  I, after all, have gotten most of this weight loss by walking and walking and walking.....  So I figured out a long loop that is 8.3 miles, according to the map on runkeeper, but the GPS figured it out as closer to 8.6!!! (you can see the map by following the link)  And indeed, I got a 1007 calorie burn from that little trek.  And I sort of wish I hadn't walked for an hour the night before, as this one definitely kicked my rear!  Wow, I would have gotten into a car with ANyONE if they would have stopped during my last mile!!!  :)  But I did it and I am so pleased.  Now that did not translate into a weight loss this morning, but I am going to continue to be patient and give it time.

Oh!  And I got some great pictures, plus there are some other ones from my SLR camera that I had forgotten I took!  BONUS!!

Hidden

Tamarack tree in the sun

Fallen

Dead but gorgeous

Fall beauty in miniature

Abstract stream

Perfect fall day

Poisonous beauty

Did a little experimenting with the photo editing- not sure about these two

Sepia version

Black and white version

And here are our bonus pictures!!!

Sunset

Leaves of gold and green

Sunshine and spiderweb

Sunshine through the leaves

Portrait of Lola with pink sunset

Pink sunset

Fall sunset

So until next time, be persistent, have a goal and look around you for your joy!

Midweek pretty!

I have taken some pretty nice pix again lately, so want to put a few up this morning.  It has been so busy at school, I haven't had too much of a chance to get to blogging.  So here is a nice dose of color!

The rare oak tree leaf- at least near my house it's rare

Lovely maple stand on Wagner road

Old truck -waiting

Autumn splendor

Perennial grass in the sun

Top of the hill on Wagner Road

 I love this view! Taken from the end of my Runkeeper map on this particular walk.  It actually shows the size of the hills- sort of!  

Peaceful sunset

On the Tuscobia trail

Another peaceful sunset

Looking forward to continue finding some joy through the camera viewfinder.  Hope it offers you some too!

What a weigh to end September

I am occasionally throwing in a post here about my journey to health and fitness.  It isn't as fun as my photos and all, but I feel the need to update.  I have just recently lost enough weight to be traveling into territory not seen by my scale since college!  This is an amazing thing to me- I can't believe that I have lost 43.6 pounds so far.

I have done most of it by adjusting the amount and to a smaller degree the type of food that I eat and my activity level has gone way way up.  I exercise a minimum of 1 hour on most days.  I have a record of lots of it on my Runkeeper account- which is an app on my iPhone that measures the distance and route that I take for my walks, and also the cardio machines at the gym.  I have recently added weight lifting to my routine, to prepare for the inevitable winter slowdown.

You may or may not know that I am using a website and app called loseit- located at loseit.com as well as on android and iPhone platforms.  It is an awesome site, I recommend it highly.  And make sure you get friends there, because they are the best!!!  I could NEVER have done this without my friends.

Here I am in a plain old "L" cool pink Packer jersey and a size 12 jeans!!!!!  SCORE!!!!!

I've come a long way, baby!

I will say that I have not completely given up on foods that used to be a problem for me- cake and cookies are my weakness- and yesterday I had not only cake, but an apple pie bar, too.  It was delicious.  And I felt sort of guilty about it for a few minutes- but I have learned that guilt does you no good whatsoever.  I really wanted that cake and for that matter the apple thing, so I ate it, enjoyed it and went for a walk to help counteract the effects of it.  I was under my calorie limit for the day, so it's all good.  Guilt is my biggest enemy, as it leads to comfort eating.  And we all know that is a slippery slope!

So, get joy out of little things- eat your cake and then burn it off with a great walk, or bike ride, or whatever you enjoy doing.  It will all be worth it in the end.

More fall photos

It was a beautiful, dramatic night for picture taking last night!!!  The clouds and sun and all were perfect for nice colorful shots.  It really messed up my calorie burn, but I have today to continue that!

I had someone ask about where I go to get all of these great pictures, and I have to confess that I am almost never more than a few miles away from my house. I take the occasional photo taking journey, but usually this occurs on my daily walks.  I do feel the urge for an adventure, soon, though.

Don't forget, you can click on any pix to enlarge it.

Glowing birch

Jewels in the yard

Grandma Weinberger's barn

Blaze

Favorite tree- backlighting

Cloud bank

Favorite tree- on the way back

Peek into the distance

Birch stand

Dramatic clouds and lighting

Clouds over the gravel pit

Finding hidden color

Sunset begins

Hills and trees

Sunset continues

I can't wait to get out there again today!!
Until next time, be a joy giver!