Weekend update

I had a good, fun and busy weekend. The weather was perfection here both days, esp. yesterday when it was a little warmer than Saturday. I had good walks both days - 2.3 miles on Saturday, and 2 walks yesterday for a total of 3.2 miles. In the middle of the night when I got up to go to the BR, both knees were STIFF! Not painful, but stiff. I know that's classic osteoarthritis, and that the best remedy for stiffness is continued moving and exercise. This morning it took about an hour for the stiffness to subside, and now they feel pretty good. Later today I'm going to Google knee arthritis and search for tips for optimizing function. My orthopedic doc told me that the scoping of arthritic knees often sets of more inflammation of existing arthritis. It seems to be true, because I never had a knee issue until the 2 meniscus tears. Even though I had substantial bone on bone arthritis on both sides! Anyhoo - the knees are doing great and I'm increasing my exercise almost daily.

My food wasn't as clean and perfect over the weekend, but it was okay. Today I'm back to 100% on track. Bob Greene, Oprah's trainer, said in the same article I quoted last week to remember the 80-20 rule. If you follow your plan 80% of the time and relax a little the other 20%, you'll still have success. Of course the 20% can't be bingeing or eating those red-light foods that set one to irresistabe cravings. I always seem to be more liberal with my weekend eating, but my goal for the next weekend is to stay within my 1600-1700 range on one of the 2 days, and not exceed 2000 on the other. This is lifestyle change and management, not rigorous restricting of calories, aka dieting. But in order to lose the remaining 7.6 calories this month for the Beach Challenge, I have to keep nose to the grindstone. I want one of the tacky beach souvenirs! With her 8 pound loss during week 1, Tammy may be awarding herself some tacky souvenirs :D

I have a few spring pics to share - more flowering trees and plants that have caught my fancy. I have to remember to have my camera with me more often because I've passed a few amazing gardens that I couldn't capture because the camera was at home. DOH!




I love these bleeding hears - one of my favorites, and if you blink, you can miss their beautiful blooms!


The husband has been gone since Last Thursday to be in Georgia for the Masters tournament and is staying through today to clean up lose ends with our soon to be college senior's FAFSA application for next year. He'll be home tomorrow and I'm ready! It's nice for a few days to have the house to myself, but enough is enough. I'm even looking forward to cooking more official meals again! That'll last for maybe a day, so I better do some extra cooking while the mood is here.