April Recap

So, I've been a very bad girl this month. My diet has essentially stalled. I haven't really been exercising since mid March. I've been good about not eating too many snacks (baring birthday cake) so my weight has been steady at 129, though today it was down a little. I did get a little exercise this weekend though I'm not at the level I was in March. I think I was overdoing it then because I was hurting all over a lot. So I plan to take it slow.

As for horses, I've been riding a lot but the last show I went to was horrible. I'm going back to basics getting lunge lessons and working mostly on half halts. The major comment I got at the show which correlates to how my workouts have been is that Jollie is forward but the tempo is too fast. I need to slow her down without loosing the impulsion.

As for crafts, I'm working on a bolero in hpl. I have one more strip to make and join to the rest I've already joined and then crochet the ends together to make the sleeves. Soon, real soon now.

I'm talking 2 online courses on horse nutrition. I didn't work on it much in April but I finally caught up yesterday. I wrote a little web page/javascript to calculate IR in horses based on their Glucose and insulin tests. People seem to really appreciate it. That's nice.

I don't think I've done much of anything else on my list of things to accomplish this year. I've been awfully busy though, just not on things on the list.

So, lets set some goals for May.
1. More exercise, work up to 1 hour a day of walking or DDR.
2. Ride Chester
3. Finish bolero and start something else, not sure what yet.
4. Start converting videos.
5. Start on web page for equine diet balancing.

That is probably enough. I think blogging more might help keep me on track so I guess that is number 6.

February recap

Well it has been a while since I posted last. Not much has been going on. I've thought about posting though.

It is the last day of the month and my weight is 129. So I guess I've lost about 5 pounds since Jan 1. I've had to really up the exercise though. I'm using www.sparkpeople.com to keep track of calories burned and www.nutritiondata.com to keep track of calories eaten. I could use sparkpeople to do both but I like nutritiondata's pantry better than sparkpeople's. It is a little easier to use. So this week I've managed to keep my calories eaten under 1500 each day and with riding, walking and dancing I'm burning an extra 600 calories or so. That should leave me with a calorie deficit of around 1000. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat so I should be losing about 2 pounds a week. So far I haven't been losing at that rate but I've only been tracking calories for about a week now and I think that sparkpeople may be over estimating how many calories I burn riding. I'll probably blow the diet today though as I am eating out for lunch and dinner.

As for walking, I've started walking outside when the weather had cooperated. This has made it easier to walk for an hour. If I do it on the treadmill I get bored and tired and quit. I walked 65 minutes yesterday. Today I've too much to do so I won't get to walk but we are going dancing tonight so that will burn some calories.

I'm still working on an afghan in HPL. It is going slow. It takes a lot of strips to make an afghan. I made some grocery bags from t-shirts the other day. I need to find some more t-shirts (mostly I need to acknowledge that I probably won't wear a lot of the t-shirts I currently have in my closet, and I have a lot) so that I can make enough bags to make it worthwhile to take them to the store with me.

Most of my seeds didn't sprout. I need to replant some. If I wait too much longer, they won't be ready to plant when it is time.

Our anniversary was Wednesday. That is why we are going dancing tonight. 21 years.

Icy Saturday

Well ice is falling from the sky this morning. It isn't really that cold but it is supposed to do this all day. We'll see if anything sticks. Ky went to work and Larry is about to go to Robotics. Hopefully they will be able to get home ok and that we will be able to get Larry back to school ok.

The scale showed 129 this morning. I wonder if the temps have anything to do with it though it should always be the same temp in my bathroom. Did 30 minutes on the treadmill yesterday. With the snow, I should be able to do more today with the weather so bad, I'll just spread it out over the day.

I got my hairpin crochet loom yesterday. I've already started using it. I've already made one mistake with it. Seems that when joining the strips you have to make sure you have the same side up as you had when joining previous strips. I'm making another neckwarmer with some old yarn I had. It will be green and blue.

I hate my scales

Ok, I got on the scales yesterday morning. 132. Today it was more like 133. I hate these scales. They do this all the time. Since I guess my goal is to loose a pound a month, I'm still on tract but it is still depressing.

I didn't get to walk yesterday because I didn't have time. We did practice some dancing last night so, besides riding, I did get some exercise. Jolie went very well. She was so light in the bridle yesterday and the canter work was great. It took a little while for my sitting trot to get comfortable, I think I was pinching too much with my thighs. I'm not sure I will have time to walk today but will certainly try. I have to take Larry back to school.

I started working on a rag rug made of plastic bags. I think it will work ok though Lawrence thinks that they will disintegrate quickly especially if left in the sun. They are supposedly biodegradable.

I'm so hungry

OK, I'm not hungry right now because I just had lunch but I was really hungry last night and went to bed hungry. I guess I'm at that point in my diet where it is real easy to succumb to the hunger and eat. If I can get over this hump, I'll be good for a short while. What I've found in the past is that my body gets used to eating at certain times and I'll get hungry or want to eat at that time even if I had a big meal earlier. Though eating a big meal does tend to dampen the hunger somewhat. When I get out of the habit then I don't get hungry at those times. I've also found that for me anyway, I cannot eat between meal snacks at all. I gain weight. I know that some diets will have you eat say 6 small meals a day to stave off the hunger but I can't keep myself to small meals and when I get hungry at non meal times I want junk food not meal food. And then once I start on the junk food, I can't stop. Or I'll have just a little to take the edge off but I'm starving again within 30 minutes or so, so I have to eat again. Anyway, I did 55 minutes on the treadmill today and 50 yesterday. Almost at an hour.

I won't get to ride today and didn't ride yesterday. I have to pick my son up from school this afternoon so he can help his high school robotics team with their robot this weekend. The weekend looks good for riding though.

I made a hot rice therapy bag yesterday. I didn't fill it because it will be a Christmas gift and I will wait until then so that the scents that I add won't fade before Christmas. I also need to decide what to fill it with. I might use corn instead of rice and lavender buds instead of essential oils. I have enough scrap fabric to make several sets of them and the one I made yesterday looks quite nice. One of these days I'll get pictures.

Lost 2 more pounds

Well I got a surprise when I got on the scale this morning. 130 I got on the scale twice to make sure. It will probably be higher tomorrow but hopefully not. Now I just have to keep it up. I was really hungry last night a couple of hours after dinner but I didn't succumb and by bed time I wasn't hungry anymore. I did 45 minutes again on the treadmill yesterday and rode Jolie for about 40 minutes. She was very good. It is important though that I don't get too excited about it and start thinking we might do well at the shows this spring. Invariably that happens and I start trying to force it to go well and then it doesn't. You can't force things with her, she just tenses up and tunes you out.

I finished the cap I was crocheting. Ky doesn't like it. I was planning to give it to her but she thinks it looks weird. She had the same reaction to the neck warmer I made. So I guess I will either keep it for myself or give it to someone else that will be more appreciative for Christmas. I like them because they are a little different than they usual knitted scarf and hat. A friend's mother knits plain ole scarfs and gave one to Ky at Christmas time and she likes that. I personally thought it was -- well not ugly, just plain. I like the neck warmer idea because I find it hard to keep a scarf wrapped around my neck especially when working outside with the horses. I'll probably give away the one I just made because it is pink and green. I have already bought some blue/black/white yarn to make me one.

I pretty much finished up organizing my records yesterday. I guess I need to do Lawrence's though they are pretty much the same. I then need to figure out where to get our wills and powers of attorney notarized.