nerdgranny

5/15 Much gnashing of teeth and expletives in getting a new dryer belt installed. Once installed, still couldn’t do laundry as water is still off (and brown when flowing because of the broken pipe). I took laundry to the laundromat, did it there, and tried to hide out as long as I could. (screaming kids again.) I did get to JoAnn’s and got some material to make two baby quilts and started that. So relaxing! 5/16 Walked with Mae and Rosie in stroller for 49 min. Better time for finishing 1.1 miles around the lake. Getting better with drinking water but finding it hard to remember how many bottles I actually consume in a day. Called landlord to see when plumber was going to arrive. Landlord was pissed, stated he was supposed to come last saturday and landlord has already paid him over $800 to fix the problem. 5/20 Plumber showed up and fixed the problem. I did about 8 loads of laundry; a kind of spring cleaning impulse, I guess. I did finally get over it. No walking the last few days. No excuses, just didn’t. Been drinking water and trying to stay calm with music while working on quilt projects. 5/21 Our 6 month anniversary. I tried to make a half cake but results were not good. We didn’t do any celebrating due to hubs not feeling well. No exercise today. Looking to get back on track next week. Still believing in No excuses, just results!

Any progress is progress, I say. Maybe you can tweak your goals a bit to get some activity going that won't break anything. Using baby for weights, perhaps?

Progress for the first week of this challenge: Not entirely on track yet, but, hey. working on it. Sunday, I walked around parking lot 35 min. and got 2 bottles of water down before a soda. Monday, I attempted to donate plasma. Couldn’t because pulse too high. Also, worked on crafts and listened to stress-free music about an hour. Tuesday my wonderful new sister in law, her granddaughter and great-granddaughter (in a stroller) took a walk around Cedar Lake. We walked for 55 min., with a few stops to tend to little Rosie. Tough kid, she didn't even break a sweat. Also had water first thing, and another while walking. Wednesday I don't know what the hell I did. Total Brain blank. Thursday, Walked with sister in law and company again. Had to cut it short and only did 15 min because I had an appt to donate plasma. Made it thru their hurdles and was able to donate. Yay. 4x so far. Friday, not much in the way of goals. Mega Stress, tho, in the form of screaming kids that just won’t listen. (not mine…) I tried to stay in my safe place (sewing room) with the door shut, but still didn’t manage stress well enough, in spite of listening to relaxing music. We found there was a broken pipe under the kitchen sink. No flood from that but for 2 days, I heard running water somewhere. It was going under the house and into the ground. We had city workers take a look, then landlord sent a plumber. They were going to jackhammer a hole in the kitchen (read, dust, dust and more concrete dust over everything in the kitchen and eventually the whole house). Then had another idea where they can go thru some walls instead. Meanwhile, we have to turn the water on briefly to flush, get dish water, etc. Not drinking it, ewwww. Saturday, getting B's kids to get their crap out of our garage is not going as fast as we had hoped. We even loaded up both cars and made two trips to their house. And in the meantime, when they were here, trying to keep the kids interested in anything and stop screaming was really TRYING!!!! So all in all, made a little progress. Hope next week is better.

Hey guys, I am ready to start my first challenge. As the title says, I want to be able to keep up with my kids, black_daquiri, Tourennatrix and my grandson, who will all-to-soon be a toddler and I will soon be chasing him! I need to be able to exercise and breathe better to be able to keep up with them. Eventually, I would like to be able to climb a flight of stairs without getting out of breath, and to do that, I am focusing on activities to help ease breathing. Walking in the neighborhood for a mile or 30 minutes, 4 days a week. And, if the weather doesn’t cooperate, I will walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Listening to relaxing music while crafting to reduce stress and improve breathing. Practicing Tai Chi or stretching exercises before walking 4 days a week. Bonus: Reducing number of sodas by starting the day with 1 bottle of water before having soda. Work towards replacing all sodas with water. Since I know I need a way to track this (otherwise, how will I know how well I’m doing??), I plan on marking activities and water intake on my calendar. And look forward to progress reports each weekend!

My arm is looking very colorful! And I went to donate again today and they said I couldn't because my hemocrit(sp) was 37 and it needed to be at least 38.Grrrrrrrr. Dreamspin, I will take your heebie jeebies if you will take my outlaws that are moving in with us "just" till they can get in their new place in a week. Two adults, 2 hyper kids,a dog and maybe 2 cats, in addition to me, hubs, 1 dog and 2 cats. Enter anxiety attack.One bathroom. Screammmmm! I am running away for several of those days to be with my daughter (black daquiri) and her new baby boy. But not til sunday and these guys are are moving in tonite. Agggghh! *runs around frantically and pulls hair out.

You are special, my sweet person. I am sorry your inner demons are growling and snarling. The suck, not you. I am hugging you right now.

Well...it's going.....Hubby and I have decided to work on better health together. His cardioligist told him to lose weight or else!! So we are trying to make some healthier food choices and get some exercises going. As for me, I have done some walking this week, but see that its very easy to let life get in the way so more determination is needed. I had been trying to also donate plasma twice a week and that's not going so well. Last time,I couldn't because I had low iron. When I tried today, iron, BP and everything was good, but my veins weren't cooperating. Left arm got stabbed twice with no results so they went to the right and poked around a while. Note, theres already a sizeable bruise on that arm....but they got it going and about 10 min later, I noticed dayam, that is really hurting and looked at my arm. Had a big ol knot ballooning up. So they stopped the machine, slapped an ice pack on that arm and made me sit for a half hour to see if I was gonna die. I didn't but they wrapped my arm so tight, I can hardly move it and I am afraid to take off the tape to see what it looks like now. Been icing it off and on but I am skeered to look at it! They said I could come back and donate again, but I am a bit leery of that too. I think I am doing better about drinking water and not so much pop. Have to constantly remind myself of that one too. But, this too shall pass and I will keep on keepin' on!

Thanks, Dreamspin! Great idea! I don't think I can even say that without an extra breath! lol

A 10 minute mile! Nice. Your old mother does a 30 min walk for a mile. Although it might be faster if I didn't have to stop at every bush or stick so the dog could either sniff or pee on it Still... a walk is a walk .

Awww, cute puppy! I held off on the pepsi today. Drank 2 bottles of water first! I am also donating plasma, but they nixed me today. My iron was low. So I got some one a day vits with iron and will try again on Tuesday. I have a bit of soreness in my legs from the walks but I'm gonna do it again today!

Hi all, My daughter showed me this website and I think it's really great. I think I will start a 4 week challenge, but since theres only one week left in the current one, I will just start my own. I am still finding my way thru all this. I know somewhere you can set goals, but I have to go find that again. Somewhere on here, I read you can have excuses or you can have results. That comment lit up a lightbulb in my head. And I am tired of waiting for anyone else to get motivated enough to join me or to motivate me. So it's all on me this time. If I don't make my goals, I can't blame anyone else. A little about me: I am a 64 yo female and I have been fighting the weight battle and mostly losing (the battle) for many years. I think I am still in pretty good health, but do get out of breath easily. Sometimes, I cannot finish a sentence without running out of breath! And I haven't been diagnosed with any respiratory issues. So it must be the weight holding me back. So here it is: my goal is to be able to breath easier by the end of May. Hard to quantify that one. Two things I am going to do to help reach this goal is to 1. Walk 1 mile 5 days a week. and 2. Reduce my Pepsi intake by one can a day. I read somewhere to pick 4 steps to your goal, but I will have to go re-read that. So far I have walked a mile yesterday and today. No progress on the Pepsi yet. I am quite a caffeine addict but trying to be more aware of how much I am drinking. I will substitute one bottle of water for my first Pepsi of the day and go from there. I look forward to hearing positive feedback from y'all. I also welcome any ideas, insights or tips you might have learned along the way. Thanks, nerdgranny

Hi daughter. Do you think nerdgranny is a nerd name?

Hi all. I just joined today. Thanks, daughter for sending me the site. Today I walked 1 mile with the dog. We both made it back and I didn't have to carry him. I am a 64 year old granny of 5 grandkids and am looking forward to having your support in getting in shape. Never too late, they say!