Be Fit

It's always good to be creative and turn up your fitness workout every so often. Making it fun and interactive, make your feel more accountable and no so alone when traveling down the fitness journey road. This year, I have a few things going on in the fitness department that will make working out fun. I mean, who wants to go to the gym, just life a bunch of weights, and go home. The people who can do that have more motivation and drive than I do. So here's what I have "signed up for" to keep my fitness level up, keep me motivated, and try to reach new goals. Goals, let's talk about that.....
Goals can be reached with a few small changes in your life. Remember, change won't happen unless you change sometime. For example, small changes in your day may be to drink more water everyday, to go to the gym four times a week, and keep a fitness/food journal. Small changes like these will help you reach an overall goal. Overall goal may be to lost those last few stubborn pounds, to feel healthier, to run a marathon, etc. Could be anything, so be creative in setting goals and making changes today to reach them.
A few small changes that I'm putting into place is to put treadmill running sessions into my workout schedule. For me, when I strength train, I inadvertently put cardio on the back burner, but it's important to add cardio into your weekly workout schedule. Especially when one of my goals is to run a minimum of 8 5k's this year.
So whatever your overall goal is, put small changes into effect today to reach them.

My day, my new schedule.....

Before I get caught up in the Facebook community, there is a few things I want to touch on about my day today. I put together my new schedule and as much as I don't like it, the schedule includes everything I really like to do, I mean, it's not my fault I don't have enough time in my day.....so let's sort it out and see what it looks like.....

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Yoga	Open	Open	CF	Open	Open	CF
SF	W	W	W	W	W	W
Dinner	Poker	BL1	BL1	BL1	Open	Open

I love the schedule cause it has the CrossFit (CF) WOD in twice a week which I really miss doing, so I incorporated that into my schedule once again. And the Wednesday/Saturday CrossFit schedule is pretty fairly balanced. I left some mornings open to be flexible on swimming which I will do in the morning once a week, and I'm going to try to attend a Bikram Yoga class once a week and their Sunday 8am class fits nicely into my morning week schedule. My mid day consists of being social and working, there's nothing I can do about that so moving to my evening schedule, I have dinner with family every Sunday night which has been happening for the past year or so. I'm going to try to get a Kickboxing class (BL1) in Monday thru Thursday nights from 7pm to 8pm with Friday and Saturday being "open". This schedule has the open time I need to study for my PT certificate also so I think it will all work out.

Okay, you all with me still....LOL!

Hello! This is my 81st blog posting.....I'm doing pretty good but fell off the bloggie wagon for a few days there......I'm ok, I'm back, I didn't get hurt :) I gonna post some pictures on here I got off the internet, hope I don't get in trouble.....save bail money for me in case :)

I don't have any original pictures......well, I haven't taken any pictures at all last week or this past weekend.....haven't really been doing much. The "Superbowl of Horse Racing" is done for another year, but I don't talk about that sport on this blog. Let's talk poker! :)

Okay, I've been playing poker online alot lately, and I think as much as I've been playing online, it has hurt my performance in my live poker league. Why?? Hmmmmm, well, the live poker league tonight (I know, I'm home early) was a real eye opener for me. I actually saw real holes in my game I need to work on......let's list them out here:

First off, I have to learn not to be a "follower". I crashed big time tonight at poker because I shouldn't be afraid of, or "forget" to, or dismiss the fact that re-raising can work in my favor. Got to find that creative side inside me to read the hesitation in others and re-raise when I smell fear in the ones that stay in to play the hand out. For example tonight, one person bet 3,000 chips and I called him on it after following his lead thru out the hand. He said "If you would of re-raised me to 5,000 I would of folded and you would of won." With this statement he showed me his hand and it would of been true. *slaps forehead* Okay, add re-raising to list of ammunition to use to win, but use wisely. *check* got it! :)

Second off, I have to learn the language. Ugh. They can't just stay with the solid formal terms of a winning hand. You know, the typical, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, etc........ohhhh, noooooo, they have to confuse me and say things like "I bet you have a Boat in your hand". A what??? What the heck is a "Boat"?? I've never heard of a "Boat" in poker before!!! Yeah, yeah, before you start laughing too, we all start as a bottom feeder. LOL! (Note to self: A "Boat" is another name for a "Full House" in poker) Geez!

Third off, I tried a new playing technique tonight which I was curious if it worked, and it didn't. But maybe it was because I had crappy cards all night (I mean, it can't be totally my fault!). Well, since poker blinds go up so fast (every, say, between 12 and 15 minutes), I tried to play aggressively up front on the smaller blinds to collect what I needed to survive thru the bigger blinds late in the game. I don't think this technique should be used on every poker session, but I think that type of "play" holds more of a 10% luck rate. So, from this I can tell I need to find more patience to hold out on playing aggressively and play more confident on the solid hands I'm dealt. Case Closed! Ugh.

So, moving on. What else have I been doing? Going to the gym, I do between 2 and 3 miles on the treadmill while watching their TV or listening to my PodCasts on my Blackberry. That seems to zip time along nicely as it helps me get thru my gym sessions like it's not a chore. My walking group is coming to and end this week.....I haven't been going since it's been too cold in the morning for my liking, but the walking group is having a little banquet on Nov 15th for lunch, so that should be fun to go to and say bye to everyone until the spring time walking group resumes.... :)

Jake has been doing good. Very playful and feeling great! I'm attending a "Tweetup" in Boston this weekend on his behalf. Yes, he has his own twitter account and his own friends. It's funny how people can get along so easily with each other thru their pets. This "Tweetup" will be awesome as I've only meet two people I yap with on Twitter in my life. So this "Tweetup" should really fill my list of meeting Twitter Peeps! I think there is like 9 or 10 of us going now, and I'm trying to talk someone else (you know who you are lol) into going so we can meet for the first time and say Hi and put a face with a Twitter name. I can be such a social butterfly.....I love it! :)

Tomorrow will be exciting because I will be having a late lunch with a friend. Yes, one of those friends I yap with and check in with everyday via email and text messaging, but we only see each other once a month to pig out at a restaurant. I love that! Take my car, take my phone, but never take my social time with friends away from me :) Okay, seriously, take my car, but leave the Blackberry! :)

Have a good night! :)

Walk and Class

This morning I joined my walking group as we ventured 4 miles from the West Side Arena all the way to the river walk, it doesn't sound far, but it is. My routine is to talk to the seniors that walk with me all the way down one way and then on the way back I know they have their little circle of gossip, so I go up on ahead of them and on the way back I listen to my Pandora Radio app that is in my Blackberry with my headphones. So I get the best of both worlds, talking with seniors and enjoying their company; and then walking by myself getting into my music. I like that.

Tomorrow I'm going to the gym around 9:45am to make sure I get there on a angled treadmill that faces the TV monitor square on that will have Dr. Oz on for the hour. Anddddddddd, I have my walking routine down to a science too. Since there are many commericals that come on between the TV show; when the Dr. Oz show is on, I put the treadmill in a 2.5 miles per hour walk, 10% uphill grade......you know, the pretty easy strolling stuff, BUT when the commercials come on, I hike up the speed to 3 and up the treadmill grade to 50% thru the commercials, so you see, I get a great treadmill work out for an hour; "cooling down" while the show is on; and "cranking up the heartbeat workout" while the commercials are on. I think it's a win/win situation and I get to watch my show and after my show is done I cool down at the end with my Blackberry Pandora App with songs I like. It doesn't get any more Cardio than that! I'm telling ya, it's like Rocket Science. LOL! :)

Tonight's Blogging class was good, I'm always glad I go. It might be hard to leave the sofa to show up, but it's one of those things where when you get there, it's exactly where you want to be! :) We had to write a short story (very short), maybe like 9 or 10 lines total about a Cherished Memory in our past. Of course I wrote about something simple as my dog. I cherish the times with my dog. If you don't know that, then you don't know me :) We also learned in class about RSS feeds and how they can help your blog in the long run and create followers. You always want your RSS feed address to be available.

As for the rest of my day. I didn't do much at all. I had a nap on the sofa........I'm thinking that's got to be a Cherished Moment right there :)

Anyways, I'm gonna go to the gym tomorrow morning and do my TV show/commercial work out routine on the treadmill for an hour and then come home and take Jake out for a while. I don't have errands to do tomorrow, so I think we will find a park to go to and we will wander around until his little legs are tired and I have to help him in the car and place him on the seat where he will crumble onto the seat and curl up and fall asleep right there in front of me. NOW, whether this actually happens this way is a completely different story. See that!! That, right there, was a prime example of wishful thinking LOL! :)

Have a good night and I will bug you tomorrow and hopefully with some more pictures. :)

Jake's Halloween Costume

Well, it was a good day today despite it rained all day. I woke up at 9am (right on time for a lazy rainy "down pour"day). Lazily crawled from my bed, across the living room floor and finagled myself up on a sofa to watch some TV. Ahhhh, life is good!

You see, my sister and her husband wanted to take me out last night (the highlite of my night is usually going home, putting pajammas on, relaxing on the sofa by 9pm - see the pattern, I'm pretty predictable). Those two invited me along with them last night and it was a nice time until I saw midnight and my body was internally breaking down with tiredness. So I left around 12:30ish (happier than heck) that I'll be home by 1am. It was a nice evening (even if I've mentioned that before), but there are still comfort zones that I need to remain in before I go into mental breakdown outside my comfort zone and in my control zone. My sofa, my puppy, my laptop, my shows on TV, these are the things where I can feel my complete peaceful state of mind.

Okay, I can see the Ambien is doing the talking here now, I'm feeling pretty mellow. I can't wait to get a solid night sleep tonight. But I have to tell you a few more things (Yeah, I know, wish me luck). First off, I found a free poker league very local to where I live. Man, it doesn't get any better: poker & local - Woo-hoo!! So this is a 7 week poker league on Monday nights hosted at a bowling alley. I can't wait to see what it's all about. I registered for the 7pm poker tournament and I didn't register for the 9:30pm tournament as, do I have to explain to you again, what time I like I to be home. LOL! So the 7pm tournament will fit my schedule. It's only Monday's night for 7 weeks starting Oct 10. Okay, moving on.......I'll get more details later as I get closer to the date.

Jake paraded around the house with his new costume on......wanna see?

 "Hello! I'm a scarecrow!"

"Okay, I'm bored, get this camera flash out of my eyes!"

"I'm a scarecrow"

So, Jake was not feeling too good today from 2pm to 7pm, just moping around and going downstairs more than a couple visits to do his duties. He came back up stairs and went to bed. I swear in a half hour, he came flying down the bed steps and march right up to me and wanted to play. So we played on the floor with his toys and his favorite toy is one of those cardboard round tubes from what's left after all the toilet paper is gone. He loves playing with that cardboard tube cause it's so light and he can throw it around the floor. One cardboard roll will probably last him about 4 or 5 days until it's totally destroyed beyond recognition. Then he's start right back up with a new one. It's important to keep these in stock. LOL! But right now, Jake is feeling much better and is sleeping in bed....

I have my walking group to join tomorrow morning at 9am locally to walk 4 miles. I like that. And then tomorrow night I have "Blogging Class" to go to. It's free and I go for the social atmosphere. :) I like being around people I have things in common with and you will always find that in a classroom with a topic that you are interested in :) I'm tired, so it's the end of this posting. I hope you have a great night, and I'll be back tomorrow! :)

I'm in my p'jammies now and relaxing watching TV. I have to watch my "Car Fellas" at 10pm. I love that show and then it's off to bed. Hope you have a nice day tomorrow! :)

Today's Walk....

I know, kind of a boring title.......not too good at these titles....gonna have to hire a "blog title creator" LOL! Today was a nice day, I needed a light jacket, but it all didn't stop me from going out and meeting my walking group. Today's walk was held at a short path I didn't know about at all (seven minute drive from my house). There wasn't alot of walkers (besides us) on this path and we did come across a couple bicycle riders. Another 1 hour successful walk :)

This is how the walking path start out, nice and paved....

In an 1/8 of a mile, it turned to this....

But we kept going....

Yeah, alot of this along the way....

The path opens up a bit and then narrows......lots of trees, I thought
my allergies were going to get the best of me....

We just scouting the area along the way...

uh-oh, end of the line for us. I was told a nice wide path use to keep going....
but not anymore....we turned around and headed back...

See the Honda dealership....we weren't far from the city streets......all these
paths inthe city I never knew about....NOT that I will coming out
here all by myself (yikes)

That's alot of beer cans on the side of the path....

People just let their creative side run wild out here....

Walking on the path under the highway....

Geez.....

Along the path.....

I believe this was the most pleasant picture I took today....

We passed by this bridge and kept walking back to our cars....

So, it wasn't a long walk today, but we got to see alot. After this morning's walk, I went out to lunch with Mom at Ruby's Tuesdays (there was a "$10 off the bill" coupon in today's newspaper) :) And tonight I just had my blogging class, which is just something to do (and free). So today was a good day, but typical. I'm just watching TV now.....have a good night.....oh, and I do have my alarm set to make it to the PickleBall game tomorrow (BUT, of course, weather permitting).....

Monday....Beginning Of A New Week...

Well, I couldn't think of a solid title for this blog posting, so instead of taking up time thinking of a title, I'll snap off a simple title and put more time into the blog posting itself......Okay, this walking program that's I've joined is really working out well.....today we walked a dirt path over at Lake Massabesic in Auburn, New Hampshire.....it wasn't too bad....alot more people showed up for this walk......very enjoyable. Alot of the walkers (okay, I admit, 90% of them are retired seniors) are warming up to me (being a newbie to the group) and today they invited me to join a few of them at Burger King where they stop after the walk for a 53 cent coffee......I love retirees, I really do. They really know how to get the more out of life with just a few pennies, I'm learning from the best! :)

Anyways, it's getting colder out and I have to get some of my warmer clothes out......I'm always cold, but below 70 degrees, I'm freezing. So I dug out a few sweatshirts, jackets, extra thick socks. I sent one jacket to an alteration place today because the pocket was ripped, I'm really trying to save this jacket. So I was happy when the lady at the alteration place said she could re-enforce the lining, replace the pocket, and clean the jacket for $20 bucks. Jackpot there! :)

This afternoon I didn't do too much, hung out with Jake and got some errands done. It's been a quiet night......I'm going to try to extent my morning routine into tomorrow and go to the gym, the Pandora app on my Blackberry has been a real help to for me with walking and motivation.

Today I got some pictures of Lake Massabesic.........

I hope you had a nice day too.......I'll be back! :)

Walk, more than you Talk OR Talk, more than you Walk

Hi! Getting a little creative with my Titles, huh? :) Anyways, I joined a walking group yesterday morning. They get together ("they" meaning about 12 to 15 people) and this group walks in different areas of this city on pre-designated dates (they got a schedule set up till November) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9am. I love the schedule and I love the time and locations, but we will see if I love to stick with it after a week LOL! I should, if I stay motivated about it all. And it only takes up an hour of my time three times a week, easy to commit too. Well, the walkers gather together when we first meet up there, but at the strike of 9am, feets are moving.......a couple of people brought their dogs that walked with other social butterflies, these are the "Talk, more than they Walk" batch of walkers, they hang back and consciously talk and unconsciously move their feet, and then up in front of me are the "Walk, more than they Talk", they hit the 4 mph speed and it's a constant cruising speed for them. I like walking between these two groups, this middle group is (what I call) the "Complaining and Gossip" group. This group is just right for me cause the less they complain, the slower they walk; and the more the complain, they faster they walk. I like that group because we've got the switching gears on speed going on and the bicking is right there pushing us along. I love it.... :) Ha!

Some talkers walk, some walkers talk, but we all get the 4 miles done somehow.

Some of the "cruisers" in front of me, I never caught up with them,
they were moving right along.....

Just some pictures I took along the walk.....

 I can't catch up with them.... :)

This bridge goes over one of the streets in the city.....

A better look at the bridge...

It goes over this street called "Second Street"....we are still walking.....

Going over another bridge that goes over the highway
and Merrimack River

Walking over the highway.....follow me :)

Here's the highway.....not much traffic at 9:30am....

Another picture of the highway, I'm trying to take the
picture between the fence links

Now, we are walking over the Merrimack River which runs
along the side of the highway....

There's my big city.....and the Merrimack River...

Need a rest??

Another picture of the Merrimack River....

This is where we turned around and head back to where the walk started...

On the walk back, just snapping some pictures...

I made it home, time to take Jake out, he sleeps late.....

Ready to go now....

"That's what I think about mornings....."

"Okay, I'm ready to go....."

Okay, that was yesterday (or what was suppose to be yesterday's blog posting), but I can clearly see I fell asleep in the middle of the posting because when I booted up my laptop now, two pages were open, editing my blog page and my Facebook page.......no Facebooking, until my blogging is done.....LOL!

Okay, today, Jake and I went to this dog event that was advertised in today's newspaper.......it sounded exciting in the article, but when we got there it was just an outdoor small town dog show......

There's my Jake with the sun in his eyes :)

We watch the dog show from here.....

Oh, a girlie Maltese.....her name (yeah I had to ask twice) is "P2",
maybe it's spelled different, but that's what I heard....P2

So, those were my two days......been eventful but routine.....glad I could share it with ya......got some plans for this week, so check back soon :)