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!

Weekend of Shopping and walking

This past weekend I went shopping with my dear friend Luann- to the grand berg of Wausau!  Really, I was shopping for Madrigal dress fabric, but we ended up hitting several places of business!  We were fortunate enough to discover a lovely new place to eat on Rib Mountain Drive called "Camille's". 

Look at how cute Luann looks!  And how adorable is the decor in Camille's!!!?   It was so cute and had great food.  Here is a shot of my terrific salad- A joy to behold!  

I had mad good luck at the fabric store- found great dress making textiles right away.... but that will be a subject of another post!

Sunday found me doing a great long walk- another side trip on my journey to great health.  I went on the 5.75 mile loop- from county E to Maple Ridge to Wagner Road and then back on E to our road.  It was a gorgeous warm day and lent it self well to photography!  I even took a little side trip up a hill to get a good look in the window of the stone house that I like so well.  I will make the stone  house a separate post, soon, too!

Favorite tree!

A little bit of color left

Fall berries

The forest and the trees

Seed pods

Another abandoned home

No one's home anymore

Beautiful fields

Oak leaves

Later in the day, I went back in the woods to check out the little cabin in the woods and see what the Mad-Accountant was up to....  he was doing a little cabin touch up and winterizing.  I went back along the trails to the west and took a few pix back there.

Little cabin in the fall

A little oil being applied to the logs

Gorgeous in it's starkness

Fallen

Finally, here is the evening sky over Park Falls- it was a wonderful weekend, full of joys.

Evening sky

Until next time, be a joy-giver!

A year in the life of my favorite tree

This is my favorite tree~  Many of you know I love this tree, it is along Hwy. E on one of my favorite walking routes.  I have watched this tree for many years and have only recently begun to photograph it. I wish I had started 28 years ago when I first moved out there, but that is the way it goes!!  So here is a selection of pix in different seasons, I am only missing one with LOTS of snow.  I'm sure I will be able to fix that fact in a couple months.

Until next time, be a joy giver!!!