Category: May 2023

Year Two – Week Thirteen & Fourteen

by annemariedemyen, posted in Health and Fitness, May 2023

I’m back! It has been a few days since I have been on here, but fortunately it is not because I fell off of my Health & Fitness journey. I have just been rather busy. 🙄

First off, it has been mostly beautiful weather here so I have been outside cleaning up the yard and getting ready for summer. Secondly, we took a short trip up north to visit son Dan and family – and to help them prepare for granddaughter Gabby’s graduation party I did a lot of baking (while Dan was out shopping for a lot of fresh fruit to serve with said baking.) Third, I have been working really diligently to stay on course with my health and fitness program.

Getting There…

Speaking of health and fitness… Physically things have been going well. I did faceplant on our cement patio (chasing Molly) a few days ago. My skin has mostly grown back but my glasses were a write off – hence the new look.

Mentally and emotionally, I am crushing it. I am reading “Be Your Future Self Now” by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. It is one of those works that is just brilliant. There is so much wisdom to be found in every chapter. One such example “We all have a future ahead of us. In 10 years, 20 years, we will become our future selves. The question is: Who will your future self be?

If I had stayed the course fifteen months ago, my future self would have been pretty pathetic. Right now, I would be pretty pathetic – and miserable to boot. I am so grateful that I began making better choices last February. I am reaping the rewards now and loving it! 💖

I have started a timeline for becoming my future self. I have already reached my first goal – to be calm and confident. There’s always room for improvement (and I intend to keep working on it) but I have to say, I crushed it this weekend. My next goal is to be healthy, strong, and fit by August 11th. I am working hard to get there! Every goal met is encouragement to set more and to improve further on the ones I reach. Exciting stuff!

That’s about where I am at these days. We were not at Dan and Amanda’s for long this weekend, but husband Dan did manage to get a few cute photos of grandson Lucas hanging out with Molly. Molly was amazing this weekend. She even spent a fair amount of time strolling around leashless which was pretty cool to see. She was SO happy loping around free and easy.

That’s it for today. I hope everyone is keeping well. Take care and have a great rest of the day! 🌞💞

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Year Two – Week Twelve

by annemariedemyen, posted in Health and Fitness, May 2023

My new normal seems to be running a few days late with my health and fitness update.  🙄

This week our most entertaining workout was giving Miss Molly a bath down at PetValu.  They have a sweet setup and Molly loved it.    She didn’t even bark at the little dog in the next tub!   * It is only $12 per wash and more than worth it.  Molly was secure the entire time, we could easily reach her at all times,  they provide nice, big, absorbent towels to use,  a variety of shampoos, handheld shower, drier, and treats. 💞 And the entire setup is designed to be easily cleaned – unlike our bathroom and house if we had tried this at home.  😊

Last week, and so far this week, my workouts have been regular and going well. I have been getting my rhythm back with the Zumba workouts. My evening weights and strength training has been going well with the five pound weights.

I attempted Pushups and Burpees last Saturday. I have never in my life been capable of doing either and I am not there yet. But I did find an excellent video on YouTube for Pushups so I am working on them and when I nail that, I will revisit the Burpees.

It never fails to amaze me what you can learn on You Tube.

Anyway – it is supposed to start raining any time so I should hustle outside to see if there is anything I can get done before it starts. We have been spending a lot of time outside this week working on the yard and garden, but we have a long way to go.

Take care and have a great day! 💞🌞⛈️

Year Two – Week Eleven

by annemariedemyen, posted in May 2023

It is May and it’s all good!  Our t-shirt and shorts weather has returned, as well as our furry and feathered friends.  Our back door is wide open, and Molly is loving the freedom of coming and going. 

Nuts for nuts.  I’m having a hard time keeping the peanut feeder full.
Molly enjoying a little alfresco snack.

Moving on to my health and fitness report for the week – it is all good. Better than good! I have been doing my Zumba six days a week. Yesterday, I did one that had an exercise routine where both of my arms were behind my neck. I crushed it without even thinking about it. I was so excited. A week ago I did not have the ROM to do that with my left arm (the one I broke mid-January). Yet here I am – doing it!

I have also been doing my weights six nights a week. This week I am alternating nights for upper and lower body, so each has a day to recover between workouts. I am using five pound weights to do seven sets of seven reps of seven exercises. I thought I would struggle advancing to the five pound weights, but here I am – doing it. 💪

In the afternoons, Dan and I have been out working in the yard. Yesterday, we cleaned the patios, the sidewalk, the patio furniture, and Molly’s pool. Dan did all the heavy lifting and scraped all the edges of the patios of winter debris. I power washed EVERYTHING! I had spaghetti arms when I got done but I still did my evening weights – AND it was an upper body workout. 😁

The only other health/fitness thing we have been doing this week is having a full breakfast every morning and a very light supper every evening. That has actually been going really well. We have also been having fresh fruit every day – raspberries, pineapple, and kiwi and Dan bought some blueberries this morning to add to the mix. I’m not a fruit eater but so far so good.

That is about all for my health and fitness update for this week. I am beyond excited by how far I have come in the past fifteen months (despite the setbacks). I can’t wait to see how far I can go. It just amazes me what our bodies can do if we get on the right track and put a little effort into caring for them.

Take care and have a good day! 💞🌞