WEEK 6 - June is gone!

Where did June go,...huh? I want summertime to stay longer! It's fun just to sit outside and visit or look at the plants and blue sky. Last weekend, Diane, Dallon, and Sophie came for a visit. They helped us make some delicious stir fry with fried tofu. It was really good. Sophie was so happy and can go potty very well now.

Grandpa, Bruce, made her a Holly-Hock dollie and she had fun with the chalk and bubbles.

We love having you over! Do it more often, ok?

We're keeping in touch with Sarah by internet and she has arrived in Krasniarsk (sp), Russia for her study abroad. She is staying with a nice family that lives in a really nice home. She can walk to where her classes will be.

These are our Holly-Hocks. They look so pretty in bloom with the different colors showing up.

We planted strawberries in the tiers and should get a better crop by next year to make some strawjeri bam.

We're eating salads from our own lettuce Bruce planted in boxes. Tastes fresh and yummy!

Well, today is the 1st of July and we are both encouraged by our health quest. We decided that slow and steady is the best way to do it, so the pounds are coming off pretty slowly, but that way they should stay off. Since I only have to go into my job about five times this month, I'll have more time to work in our gardens and go to the gym. I don't think I'm jiggling as much as I was. I really do like the weight machines Bruce showed me how to use and I like our walks. Below is the walkway from our front door. I trimmed it up this morning. The daisies have just started blooming! I should be hearing back soon about the lab work I did to check my thyroid. I am scheduled on July 7th for an ultra sound to measure how big it has gotten. I just want everything working like it should.

Well, on Sunday is Independence Day, so I want to wish everyone a HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! We haven't made any big plans, but we are looking forward to our trip to Washington and Florida in less than 2 weeks!

Grandbaby #7 (Lee and Karyn's son) will be born in just about a month and grandbaby #8 (Spencer and Jane's daughter) is due the middle of October. We are very excited for both and wish them all well in the weeks to come.

We love you all, Jeri

WEEK 4 - Father's Day and "Back to the USSR"

Here's a 3-generation shot on Father's Day. We enjoyed the day in our backyard with family over and phone calls from those outside of Utah. Hope all the fathers had a good day.

Raidon is sporting his first haircut and looks like a big boy now.

He and Andy played a mean game of hopscotch and made me laugh. I'm proud of Andy and how he tries so hard to be a good father to Raidon.

Tuesday night Sarah was packed up and ready to fly off for her study abroad in Russia for six weeks. She plans a short trip over to Ukraine to visit friends after her classes are over. She is first stopping in New York for a day with another travelling student since she has never seen it. We will miss her!

A few words about Bruce's and my health quest...., it's going well. We're both feeling better, even though I'm more tired. I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow and get my thyroid checked again. He'll probably just change my prescription. It's keeping me from losing any weight. Other than that, things are great. I spent a couple hours at the gym this morning and Bruce was there last night. We can't always go together, but tonight we can take our walk in the neighborhood. Jeri

WEEK 3

This is our typical Saturday now. Bruce and I eat something for breakfast, like a smoothie-shake, then head over to the gym.

While I take a class, (this one is Zumba) Bruce walks the treadmill and elyptical machines.

Then we head upstairs to go through the weight-lifting machines. After showing me what the personal trainer taught Bruce, I can pretty much do it on my own.

It's pretty fun, but not that easy. That Zumba class is probably too much for this old lady and I may just stick with yoga and step classes. It wiped me out the rest of Saturday!

My muscles aren't too sore anymore, but they need to be a little bit to know it's helping.

I really like what we're doing and so thankful we're finally doing it. Through the week days Bruce and I make sure we either go to the gym or do something else every day, even if it's by ourselves. Our schedules don't always jive together, but we can do it on our own fine too. We are both feeling better but have only scratched the surface.

Our Relief Society had a salad and dessert get together at the Stone Hollow pavillion yesterday and, sorry, but I did have a yummy cupcake! Also had a low-fat creamy and an ice-cream sandwich for our Monday FHE group. It's gonna happen, like I said before, but it will be alright.

WEEK 2

After many of our attempts to change our exercise and eating habits, it has pretty much died out after 2 weeks. But this time we are much more determined and it's still working for us. After all, it is for life. I'm learning more all the time about nutrition and that the things we grew up thinking aren't necessarily the best ways to eat. I don't fault my parents in the ways they fed us because that is how they ate growing up and how the world in general looks upon eating still. What you have to do to learn about anything is to study it out for yourself. It seems that when I'm open to get the help, it comes to me from acquaintances at the right time. Someone directed me to a site on the internet that is well worth looking at. It's called Healthlady.com. It is loaded with good information. I've only skimmed the surface of it and it will take a lot longer to see everything in there. But it's a start to a way that I want to change how I eat. I've learned about some of these things before, but slipped back into some bad habits again. So I am recommitting to good foods. Bruce as well has been studying some things and it is helping us. We're not trying to live forever, we just want to feel good and be healthy while we're alive.

Exercising makes us sore, but it's a good kind of sore. Bruce can feel a difference in how he is feeling in just the two weeks. He showed me his routine of using the weight machines at the gym and I will be do them also. They should be done three times a week, so I'll have to figure out when I do it. I will go tonight for a yoga class. We have been walking most days for at least 45 minutes. We take the dogs sometimes but don't get as much benefit because they keep stopping to explore and to rest in the shade. I've been working in our gardens quite a bit also. We have mostly flower gardens and I can work up a sweat like I did this morning pulling weeds, etc. It's enjoyable exercise. I always said when I get old, I want to just putter around in my gardens. We're growing a few vegetables also: lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, squash, and herbs. I love Utah but don't really love the long winters. If we could have the other three seasons all year, we could grow plants all the time.

So our progress in two weeks is a couple of pounds off each of us. I don't actually know how many off of Bruce but it's probably more like five. I know his face looks thinner and he's starting to fit into his clothes better. We both feel better and sleep better. That's progress I'd say, but only a start. We're hanging in there! Our 38th wedding anniversary was last Sunday, June 6th. The picture above was taken around the time we were married. We loved each other then and we love each other now. Think how far we've come....six children and almost eight grandchildren. Our goal is to be back to our sizes at that time or better. Too bad we will never look that young again though. Oh well!

For My Family

I think that it only fair to first say how out-of-shape I am, and then I can talk about what I have done. I am grateful to my children for the gentle nudge to do something.

At the first of the May I volunteered to cut down six 25-40 foot high trees at the condos. They had died from some sort of disease. I rented a saw, and started cutting. It went quite fast and I had good help to pick-up and load the trucks. The saw weighed about 10 -15 lbs. After about two hours of cutting, I was pooped. There were times that I couldn't get a breath. I was sore, hurting for a couple of weeks afterwards. Well, two weeks later, Jeri and I helped plant the area that the trees were cut from with flowers. As Jeri and I walked back home, I told her that I thought that I had asthma, since I was wheezing.

I was really concerned that I may have had something more seriously wrong with me, yet knowing that the biggest problem that I had was how much I weighed and how little exercise that I get. I have for the past couple of years slept mostly sitting up in order to breathe at night. It helps me not to snore or to stop breathing (apnea).

Also, I take a pill for blood pressure, and niacin and a small dose aspirin for my HDL (it is low). OK, that's about it and probably too much information to put on a blog.

This week has had challenges with exercising and eating, but I can already feel the good affects of doing it. I have been tired, and wanting to stop; hungry and wanting to eating more. Eventually some of these things feeling will diminish, but I know urges won't. Good feelings, and minimizing some of the unhealthy lifestyle problems will be rewarding.

As I get older, I know it will be harder to be active, so I really need to watch everything that I eat and make exercising more enjoyable. The journey of a 100 years begins with the first step.

An interesting bit of information. To maintain my current weight and inactive lifestyle, it would require 2350 calories each day. To maintain a weight 100 pounds lighter with a moderately active to active lifestyle, to would take 2450 calories each day. I guess what that is saying is that I can eat more once I get to my new weight and lifestyle. (Bruce, just keep it up and we will see when that day comes.)

Bruce (sometimes referred to as Dad, Pops, Grandpa, and PaPa)

WEEK 1

I'll call this our before picture. It makes me sad to look at it actually. We've never been so heavy and we'll not get any heavier. On Saturday Jared and Candace invited us to walk with them and all the dogs. It's nice to have the support from our kids to encourage us to exercise. Our smaller dogs got pretty tired since we haven't taken them on enough walks lately. We had to carry Gucci half the way home and Clark kept stopping in all the shady spots. We did join the Athletic Club down the street and want to go do something there every day or so. I've taken a couple of the classes and I'm looking like one of the oldest one there. That's ok. I'm trying to keep up with all the young whipper snappers. I like to feel a little sore so I know it's doing something.... and I do. Bruce would rather use the treadmill and weight room and he is going to meet with the personal trainer (Bruce, have you made an appointment with her yet?). I ride our recumbent bike almost every day while I'm watching a tv show. Pump, pump, pump!

As for food, we're eating the six meals a day thing. They are really just snacks to keep our metabolism burning. We take things to work with us like string cheeses and granola bars for our inbetween meal. I like either a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast or a protein and fruit smoothie. I like a salad for lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. I know there is value in counting calories, but I really don't like to do it. I'm trying to make this as realistic for myself as I can so that I will do it for the rest of my life. I know I will mess up sometimes and eat that goodie that someone offers me. But I'm not going to overindulge. My friend at work brought everyone a big cinnamon roll she made and I nibbled at it all morning until it was gone. But it doesn't mean that I have failed. This is an ongoing way of life. I know how to eat correctly but I am human. For our family meals on Sundays I use to make dessert every week. That has stopped. I even threw away almost a whole lemon meringe pie that was left from the week before we started. We had chef salad last Sunday and it was very good and filling. No one complained. Thanks family.

Well, that was the first week of our quest and it feels good to be doing something right. I know it will take awhile to see a big difference but we will get there. I wish Bruce would write too. Jeri

THE BIGGEST WINNERS!

These are some of my gifts on Mothers' Day. I have the best husband, children and grandchildren in the universe (of course I may be prejadice) and that is why I am one of the "biggest winners". Thank you to my family for the phone calls, the dinner out, the cards, flowers, and the love!

The next reason I titled this post as I did, is because Bruce and I are on a quest to find our true selves again. We have struggled for too many years to be fit and trim and just plain healthy. I think it has been a struggle because we just hadn't made up our minds yet. I'm tired of blaming the sweets and the lazy bones I have for not being the best I can be. Those wonderful children of ours have given us the motivation to just DO IT and it is now time to begin. You would think that by our ages of 58 and 59 we would have taken control, but I guess some never do. This quest will not have an end, it is ongoing for the rest of our lives. We will be strong and support each other and when that runs low, we have six great kids to turn to for help. My goal is to lose 30 pounds and feel great about myself in every aspect, inside and out. I will encourage Bruce to write in the blog also as I think it will be theraputic for each of us and we will be able to look back at our progress. He has a further goal to reach before we can say he is in the best of health. I will let him say what his goals are. But I know that I want him to succeed because this life would be much more lonely if he were not here to share it with me. Thank you to our children for expressing how important he is to have in their lives also. He has been the rock of our family and I depend on him way too much.

Since making this decision at the beginning of this week, Bruce and I have stopped eating whatever and whenever we want. We are making better choices and taking smaller portions. We do things every day that burn calories: walking, exercising, etc. Monday we walked down the street to the Jordan Valley Athletic Club to check it out. We like that we don't have to be in a contract and can just pay by the month. The price is reasonable. We have access to a personal trainer or can go on our own. We will join the club this next weekend. I feel that it is important to have this place closeby. When the weather is bad, we don't get enough exercise. Even in good weather we need to do more that just walk. I'm not so good yet at bike riding, but that will help us in good weather too. I will like taking part in group classes, especially the Yoga, I think.

If you would like to follow our blog in our quest, just remember we are doing this very unprofessionally. The blog is to help us out more than anyone else. I will try to post progress pictures along the way and report the things we are doing that help or hurt us.