Productive weekend…

Finished the workout room, did some landscaping, hung curtains, took a long walk, attended yoga, and made mini-egg quiches…that list should make me feel tired, but instead it makes me feel invigorated!

I finally had it with trying to do home workouts in my “storage center” of a fitness room. We’ve been putting boxes in there that really had no other home since we arrived.  We had bought some professional-level gym mats for the floor where the treadmill goes and where the weights are located, but that’s about as far as we’d gotten.  My frustration hit max level 100+ on Thursday so Friday afternoon, once thins had died down at the office, I went to work.

I started by putting my current favorite quote on the wall.

I find so much truth in that statement.  “If it doesn’t challenge you, It won’t change you.”  I have found that to be more like a personal mantra.  This year of changes has been hard, very hard at some points, but the changes overcoming the challenges has brought and the person I am today because of those challenges, I rather like.

Saturday I woke early (as usual) and when Frank got up we enjoyed a 3+ mile walk around the neighborhood.  He’s quicker than me, but I’m much quicker than I once was.  So, I think it evens out.  🙂  I don’t know if he’d agree.

Upon our return, and after a shower, we ran some errands.  Frank says in the future he’s going to ask me if this is a one, two or three dollar sign errand!  What a funny guy.  We went to Lowe’s and picked up a few items for the outside mostly.

I bought these gorgeous black planters for the front of the house a few weeks ago and needed flowers to fill them.  I wanted a bird feeder for the back and an outdoor carpet for the furniture on the patio.  I didn’t think it was too awful.

We came home and I put the flowers in the planters and then Frank found a set of solar lights we had bought several years ago but never put in on Kittery.  Time to get those out, and now we have the perfect pathway for them.  We have a sidewalk/path directly from our front door to the sidewalk near the street.  Eight of them framed it perfectly.  And at night, we were pleasantly surprised by a magical pattern they made…no indication this would happen on the box whatsoever!

Pretty cool.

Saturday evening, we (Frank, Kenzie and I) played a game of Clue on the patio.  Kenzie won and was so happy.  She did a great job deducting as she went.  So much fun to spend time together as a family, on the patio, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Sunday we played hookey from church and Frank helped me hang up our curtains in the kitchen dining area.  That was an endeavor.  We have 10-foot ceilings and it’s a lot of work to get the supports for the curtain rod, not to mention the size of the curtain rod, just right.  But, thanks to Frank and a number of measuring and leveling tools, we got everything put up just right.

I’m quite pleased with how these turned out.  Can’t wait to get them up in the family room as well.  They are sheer, but have really great texture to them.  And the gray works just great with the paint colors.

Then Sunday afternoon I joined my neighbor, Amina, at her health club for some yoga.  It was flow yoga and I loved it.  The teacher was fun, and soothing, and just awesome.  I would definitely take his class again.  I am always surprised by what this new body of mine can do.  I was able to stretch more than I thought possible.  I had a real sense of peace and accomplishment when I finished.

Then last night I decided I’ve been becoming a little too comfortable with the carbs, so I’m curbing that this week.  I started my show of commitment by making mini-crustless quiches last night.  Three with ham and cheese, three with a mild salsa and cheese.  All yummy.  They made just the right helping along with a salad this morning.

AND…I ate chicken for lunch today over a bed of lettuce as well.  That, for those of you who have followed me, is just amazing.  I have had a revulsion to chicken since about three months post-surgery.  My doc said it might reverse itself around month nine, and here we are, smack into month eight and it’s getting better.  Which is great, some additional protein variety.  Help me to keep from being bored.

I also started working out with “The Transform App” from Chris and Heidi Powell.  They were the ones who hosted Extreme Weight Loss on ABC (I think).  Their show got cancelled (which makes me sad), but they have this app where you decided how hard you want to push and where you’re going to work out (home, gym, etc.) and then you get workouts and a menu of foods that follow their weight loss program every day.  So far I like it.  I started on Thursday and so far – so good.  It’s time for me to switch over to more strength training vs. cardio.  I could run all day long at this point, but building muscle is what is going to sustain me long-term.

So, it was a busy, but wonderful weekend.  I look forward to more in the near future.