Swimming is great exercise.

Swimming is great exercise

It’s that time of year again, the pool is open & I am enjoying the water. I did some research on Spark People & myfitnesspal, to find out how many calories I was burning.

According to both of them, 30 minutes of swimming the breast stroke, burns approximately 400 calories!! (Happy dance!)  

I had Robert time me this morning & I apparently do a lap in our pool (which we measured & is 31 feet long), in 20 seconds. So I did the math, & 45 laps = approx. 200 calories.

My intention last fall in buying the exercise bike, was primarily to help me (us), from getting really out of shape over the winter. It seems to have helped, as my 1st day out (Saturday), I did 50 laps. I think last summer I started the season at 10 or 20 laps. So it does appear to have helped.

This is a photo from September 2012. I will update with a current photo as soon as possible.

My husband & I have been dealing with an annoying cold/flu bug all month, which morphed into sinusitis for him & bronchitis for me Very annoying, since it has made it very difficult for me to exercise, which of course makes losing weight more difficult. 

I've been downloading a ton of free e-books lately & audio programs, many of which are designed to help with weight loss. So while recuperating, I've been reading & researching, since my current methods have not produced much in the way of long term results. 

I've only ridden the exercise bike twice this week, 7 miles on Monday & 5 miles tonight. I am going to try & ride every morning for at least 5 miles.

And with the Victoria Day weekend coming soon, I am really looking forward to our building's pool opening for the season!! 

These gifs are the main reason I miss MSN messenger. You can't add your own custom smileys on Yahoo or Skype. I obtained these cuties & many others on my favourite free graphics site www.uselessgraphics.com , which appears to be gone. I have been trying to go there for over a month.

I just downloaded Microsoft Movie Maker, to do some editing on a video we made recently. I was quite surprised that it doesn't come with Windows 7. I designed a new video that I am hoping will help motivate me this year.

April 07, 2014.

Weather was beautiful, sunny & over 60F.  It`s been near or over 80F in our apartment this past week, so we will be installing the air conditioning tonight.

We went for a nice walk in Willbank Creek Park, which is not far from where we live. I have been recovering from a couple of weeks with a nasty cold-flu, so I wasn`t working out much.  But I did 7 miles on the exercise bike last night & 5 miles this morning. 

Welcome Spring 2014!

The weather has been fairly hit & miss; sunny one day, snowing the next. It can't seem to make up it's mind what it wants to be or do. 

On February 23rd, we had a wonderful snowy day. On the 25th, sunshine & snow melting away.

I usually create a new pictures folder for March in a new folder called `Spring`, but I am really not sure if it belongs there, or if I should just leave it in Winter 2013 for the time being. For now I'll just wait & see.

05 February, 2014

Happy February, everyone! Hope you New Year is starting out well.

As you can see, I've been having a lot of fun making frames for my photos. I really enjoy it & the coolest thing, they are all free! I'll compile a list, with any additional information you may need.

http://www.loonapix.com/framer/
This one has over 1,000 different frames, in a wide variety of categories. And they also have other effects, as well as the frames.

http://en.pixiz.com/
This site has a large number of frames, as well as effects, collages & e-cards.

http://pho.to/
They have tons of gorgeous frames. However, I did find that this particular site doesn't work very well with Internet Explorer, so I just used Google chrome, which I also have installed as a back-up.

And this one is probably my favourite (at least for now):  http://viptalisman.com/
They do have a disconcerting number with foreign text, but some are so incredibly beautiful that I use them, anyway. However, if this is going to drive you nuts, there is a filter to eliminate those ones, if you wish.

In other New Year's news, I cancelled the bunion surgery at the last minute. I am not sure why exactly, just a bad feeling. I've been researching more natural health ideas & working on nutrition & losing weight. I discovered a really cool idea on Facebook, for reducing swelling. It recommends it specifically for swollen feel, but I have also found it works well on my hands & my sternum. And the only side effect I have found, is that it makes me crave salad, so that can't be a bad thing!

I've been pretty consistent with the exercise bike this winter, which I think (& am hoping) that it will help me stay/keep in better shape overall & improve my health. Who knows, it might even help with the weight loss. Bad news, however. When we had some beautiful sunny weather last week, I decided to see how well I could ride my bike (I had a lot of difficulty last year, which was one reason for the purchase of the exercise bike last August. I went down to the storage locker & discovered that someone stole my bike!! I am feeling a little conflicted:

So now I have to figure out if I am in good enough shape to continue riding, because otherwise there is no point in buying another bike. I tried borrowing a friend's, but he's much taller than I am, so his bike was too big for me to try out. So I am still working on this issue. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I noticed something weird & kind-of scary when I was doing my Christmas cards & envelopes I discovered that I spend so much time typing & printing things using my "sticky notes" program on my computer & printing rather than writing on regular notepads for increased legibility, that I am actually FORGETTING how to write in cursive! Ack!! Something I do not particularly care for, & I think I will need to do something about it, in the New Year.

Today was our 2nd wedding anniversary, so we went out & took some pictures, & went out for lunch.

It's Christmas day & another year is almost finished. I am looking back over the past year, & looking ahead, to what is coming. Anyway, I can't seem to remember all the stuff I wanted to say, so I will have to come back & finish this later. Time to go watch "A Muppet Family Christmas."