New Day

They say it's hard to change at my age.

I aim to try.

After all, Joy in NE, lost like 80 pounds. I need to lost about 60 pounds I think. I don't have scales so I have no idea how much I weigh.

I eat hot cereal every morning, but now I'm going to start measuring it. You can over eat good things too.

My downfall is probably my mocha coffee every morning and a vastly slowed down metabolism. I make my own cup every morning here. After my hysterectomy, I turned into a slug.

I'd apply for biggest loser but I'd have to gain weight to do so. I'm not that big, darn it. (just kidding)

I'm on the go usually dawn to dark. I probably walk five miles a day in my endless cleaning and chores here. But I need heart beating exertion. Albany is flat as a pancake. Try to find a hill in Albany. There's one outside of town, but it scares me. It's a rural road hill, where people speed and you have to walk right on the edge of the road. Some people do walk out there.

Other than that, try to find an incline in Albany.

I did step ups on a cinder block in my garage for awhile. It's very very boring stuff, and I quit after awhile. Lots of excuses, I had for stopping the cinder block step up and down.

If I have to drive to Corvallis four days a week, to hike up Bald Hill, that's what I'll have to do.

I checked into gym memberships. The cheapest is at the YMCA but it's still $50 per month. That is a lot of mula.

I'm not sure I'd go even if I had that kind of money. I'm not much for that kind of inside exercise or the locker room stuff with other people. It's not that I'm shy. Ok, maybe it is that I am shy. If I had an exercise partner to go with, whom I knew, maybe I'd go then, be able to overcome my whole public exercise shyness thing.

I have tried joining exercise classes, peeked in from the edge, then taken off at the mere sight of so many strangers. I've been isolated so long.

I do like to dance at concerts, like at the 4th of July thing. I think that's the only concert I went to last year. They had some bands on the stage. Some you could dance to and some you could not dance to.

I like to swim but swimming does not seem like work to me at all and I can't even imagine you burn calories swimming. I used to swim for miles back and forth, across arms at Foster Reservoir, or from the swimming area at one park at Foster, clear back down to the bridges and around those arms and back.

But lately, the boat and jet ski traffic there has increased to levels that scare me as a lone swimmer. I've gone back a couple of times, if it's raining and mid week, when there are fewer boats and jet skis to contend with. Last summer, I did not go there at all. I believe Foster Reservoir would win a competition for most drunk boaters on a lake award hands down. I have no comparison though. Maybe drinking and boats go together everywhere now.

Swimming and hiking and dancing are my favorite exercises. I should stick with those if I want to make my exercise plan work in a combination. My eating habits are not that bad. I eat lots of vegetables, oatmeal or this multi grain hot cereal for breakfast, and I don't drink soda.

When I used to be trapping more, that's when I would mess up, get caught out somewhere half the night, tired out, eat junk food. If I don't get enough sleep, my eating habits go downhill and I just can't lose weight.

Joy ate grapes and cottage cheese only for months to achieve her weight loss. I can't eat cottage cheese because I'm lactose intolerant, but I think limiting my diet to a few things might be helpful. I wouldn't have to look up or guess calories content. Since it's summer, maybe hot cereal, fruits and vegees.

I would so hate to not partake of this valley's berry bounty. I can't stand the wait for blueberries ripening right now, for instance.

I have strawberries I planted in my yard last year in a container. There are lots of berries forming but none have ripened. I hope they do ripen, but we here in Oregon have had weather that has only breached 70 degrees a handful of times so far this spring. It's been unseasonably wet and cold.

Do I love Oregon strawberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries and blackberries?

Do I ever!