Losing weight means...

...that I'm cheering on a friend who has been doing it for 6 months.
And lost 41 pounds as of this week.

She wouldn't ask for friendly cheers until she'd passed the 6 month mark, of calorie counting and changing her activity program.

Losing is winning in this case!

I've seen her go through her weighing herself once a week, and steadily losing. She even went on vacation and thought she'd probably not lost that week, but she did!  I followed a much simpler goal during that time, to get my cholesterol number down low enough I wouldn't have to take a statin.  I achieved that in the 6 months.

So a week ago I started on a weight loss program.  I am not quite as ambitious as she is.  I just want to lose a manageable amount before the holidays.

But I found an ap for the iPhone which can measure my calories, without my having to look them up.
And apparently the phone itself will count my steps and deduct them if I walk to increase my activity level.  It's called My Plate, by Livestrong.com.

Sunday lunch...nicely low in calories with the crunch of chips and fresh pineapple

I also decided to join the elders who eat a prepared lunch (from a favorite local restaurant called Moose Cafe') sponsored by the Council on Aging, which is served at the Lakeview Center. The best surprise wasn't that the food is much nicer than it was several years ago when I quit that program, but the people are really much more interesting.  I was really afraid I'd be thrown in with nothing but frail people.  I guess that's my bias about the elderly.  That they wouldn't have a conversation because they couldn't hear or talk or think that clearly.  Not true this time.  And there are several classes that I want to take as well.  I'll let you know how that goes.  My first Spanish class was during lunch and I love it!

So having not done that much yet, I'll not toot my horn about my losses yet.  But just making major changes of one kind led to others of other kinds.

I'm now walking a half mile almost daily.
I'm making new friends.
...and eating the parts of the served lunches that I want to.  So far it's at least half, sometimes 2/3 of what is on the tray.
...and I've switched to decaf coffee where I used to have 2 cups of regular daily.  Now I feel no difference in having 2 cups that are decaf.
...and no more cokes, including I'm not replenishing the cokes in the refrigerator. That's some real withdrawal.
...but I still have my dark chocolate, so don't think I'm deprived completely!

So trying to lose just a few pounds has really turned my life around! Who would have known!

Lake Tomahawk late fall

It was a day of clouds and shadows, as the sun played hide-and-seek with me.

 What a difference when the sun broke through...colors were evident again!

Looking toward the Seven Sisters mountains behind the tennis courts

A Japanese Maple is the most abundant coloration with the Lakeview Senior Center in the background.

The Gazebo is reflected into the water, but the last yellow leaves nearby have mostly fallen.

A mother and her 2 bicycling ducklings say hello to the ducks crossing the path.

More tomorrow of the aerators being installed.

Quote for today:

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Thomas Merton

Into the woods

Yes, I did it.

K, it was the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, and the huge poplars were worth the effort.  I did hug this one, the first that extended above the normal canopy to the sky.

And my biggest gratitude is that my body stretched itself beyond what I thought was possible, and I didn't have severe reactions...I was able to breathe (panting all the way) and walk slowly up the side of a mountain for a half mile.  And I didn't cough at all during the walk. My friend, Tim, patiently followed along, and we talked and took photos whenever we felt like it.

Tim passing one of the removed Hemlocks which had died from Wooly Adelgid blight

 Anyone else would have found it easy, but for my lungs, it was a constant push, and even in the longer hot and humid descent, no cough!

Many felled hemlocks along the way

 I may be able to go back out and walk around the marvelous trails (the easy ones of course) of these Appalachian Mountains.

Hugging a big tree, and not the biggest I'm told, but I didn't go all the way to the top of the trail.

There's not much clear area to look up to the tops of these Poplar giants

Dead Hemlocks still standing

I'll share some other of the lovely sites that we encountered on our walk tomorrow.

Today's Quote:
(yes, I'm in a poetry mode this week, so will be sharing some poems)

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

 Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.