8 lbs gone!

Many people thing weight loss is simple.  Many people know that it's HARD!  For me it's one of those hard things to do.


I may be chubby but I also have a medical condition.


As many people know I have Lymphedemea of the legs.  Which is a condition of fluid retention and tissue swelling that is caused by a non working lymphatic system. (It doesn't have a pump like the heart) The Lymphatic system returns the interstitial fluid to the thoracic duct and then to the blood stream, where it is recirculated back to the tissues.  


In short words my lymphatic system doesn't work the way it is supposed to.  In order for mine to circulate I have to open lymph nodes to get my system up and moving.   This I have to do every day.


So losing this 8 lbs is a huge accomplishment.  I'm feeling great about myself and less sluggish. I like the feeling of my muscles twitching while in a cool down.   


I haven't been able to do  much exercise over the years because of carrying the extra lymphatic weight in my legs.  Yes many people find blames for gaining weight but this was in-fact true never mind the two surgeries on my ankle.  Now that my ankle is fixed and pain free I made my mind up that I was going to be able to walk a mile by the end of March.  


Well I've met my goal!  I'm so proud of myself, it wasn't easy at first but I did do it.  


At first I was lucky if I could walk around the building once.  But I continued to push myself to do so.  By now people must be thinking how simple is walking around a building once?  Well remember I was telling you about the weight of the fluid in my legs well that makes walking difficult.  To give you an idea it's almost like adding a total of four water gallon to each leg.  That's two gallons on each leg, filled with water.  Just to give you an idea.  One gallon of water is about 8 lbs.  So 8 + 8 = 16 lbs x 2 for both legs =  32 lbs so just with fluid it's about 32 extra pounds in my legs that I'm carrying around.  So see how hard it is to just walk once around the building?


But yet I pushed myself to do this.  It fully is if you make up your mind you can accomplish anything.  It took me a week to be able to walk 5 times around the building.  5 times around = 1 mile.  At first it took me for what seemed forever to do this.  But if you go back to my staying of I love the way my muscles feel when then twitch key word being muscles I'm able to do the mile in 15 minutes. (GO ME!!!!!!) 


Since walking a mile every day 7 days a week I have lost 8 lbs.  I couldn't believe it.  I had a pair of jeans that were tight lets just say if I would sit down I couldn't breath.  I tried them on the other day and they fit.  I have room in them and I can even sit down and breath.  


Yes I have more weight to lose, and yes I do hope and pray that it's going to happen. Slow at first is always the best way to go, for getting back into shape.  But it will happen, and who knows maybe losing the weight and walking a mile + will help my lymphatic system even more.  The more I can keep my legs moving the more the lymphatic system will start flowing more and more.  


I love having this much energy! It feels great! That I'm even going to try and take another mile walk today. It's such a beautiful day out that I just want to take advantage of it.

Getting in Shape

A new year has come and well I thought we would start walking more.  Or more so getting into shape.  I've become very motivated by an App called my fitness pal.  Just in case you haven't heard/seen it before you can find it for free at


 http://www.amazon.com/Calorie-Counter-Diet-Tracker-MyFitnessPal/dp/B004H6WTJI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332357158&sr=8-1. 


I've been doing great on this.  Already lost 2 inches off my waist, hips, and neck.  And it's only been a week.  I find that it's been very motivating,  it has me wanting to go for walks.  Now just to find a really awesome pedometer.   I've looked some and they have some really cool ones now that you can download to the computer that will show you charts of how you are preforming.  Who knew that they would get to be this cool.  As far as I can tell two companies sell the best pedometers.  Hey are Fitbit and Omron


Fitbit is an pedometer from my fitness pal.  Talk about a cool pedometer Strike that AWESOME! one.  One that I would LOVE to have. It tracks just about everything,  even your sleep patterns.  Shows you your pattern charts on the computer.  How cool is that!!!  (Yeah I know really geeky but really AWESOME!)  Although it does tack on  a hefty price $99.95. But would be exciting to have and use.  Has a charger so you're not wasting or worried about wasting batteries. 


http://www.fitbit.com/product?jadid=22109070457&jk=fitbit&jkId=gc:a8a8ae4cd3632984801363375f1e8569b:t1_e_:k_fitbit:pl_&jp=&js=1&jsid=27905&jt=1&gclid=CKeUyavd-K4CFY1R7AodqAGFyA 


The other cool one is the Omron HJ720ITC Multi-Function Downloadable Pedometer not as awesome as the fitbit (Just by the reading info) It doesn't rack everything but comes pretty close to it.  It runs on batteries, doesn't track sleep patterns, but does the charting on the computer as well.  It cost less, but not by much.  It has a price tag of $59.99.


http://omronwebstore.com/detail/OMR+HJ-720ITC 


While both have a hefty price tag either one would be great to own.  I think that maybe some money saving is in store.  I personally would love to have the fitbit but at almost $100 it's going to take some time as other bills like living expenses has to come first.

Oh! Let's go Fly a Kite

"Oh, oh, oh! Let's go fly a kite. Up to the highest height! Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring. Up through the atmosphere. Up where the air is clear. Let's go fly a kite!"

This past weekend we attended a Kite flying day. It was a Beautiful non cloudy day. I have to say that I don't remember the last time that I've ever flown a kite. It was a fun filled day loved by all kids and well big kids at heart.

It's always fun to act like a kid some times. A picture of Bob putting together his kite.goodwill for only $10.00 talk about a huge find. The kite was awesome a bit difficult to put together but still well worth it.Also note the Pirate hat that Bob has on.

And we have lift off. Can you ask for a more perfect day to go kite flying not a cloud in the sky.

Talk about an awesome shot, I was able to take. I didn't think that it would come out this awesome.

Me flying a kite Although you can't My kite, I really need to find an awesome one Like Bob's

really see it.

And now just so awesome Kites flying in the very blue sky!

Rose Puzzle

Okay I love a Challenge! But OMGsh! this is a hard puzzle. I figured that 500 pieces super easy to do. Really how hard could 500 pieces be? The answer to that question is Very Difficult when your puzzle doesn't have a border and is two different shades of red. I've been working on this puzzle since the 15th of February.

The Box of the puzzle

As of 2/20/12 this is what we have done

As of 3/5/12 this is what we have done.

As you can see this puzzle is wicked hard. I really didn't think that this puzzle would take us this long to do. But with mostly being all of the same color it is. But I will admit it is fun to do