My Fitness Pal

Tomorrow night will bring about a lot of New Year's resolutions, one of the most popular is to lose weight and get healthier.  I purposely decided not to make a resolution and instead started on a fitness plan about a month ago.  I decided to count calories and to choose high fiber foods.  I also hired a personal trainer to help me be "accountable".  I work out with him twice a week.  These workouts focus on weights and strengthening exercises.  I also do cardio exercise six days a week and take just one day off.


To help track my calories, exercise and amount of water I drink, I've been using a free food tracking application called "My Fitness Pal".  My daughter, Holly told me about it; her mother-in-law is using it and she's had quite a bit of success in losing weight.  It's available as an Android application on my cell phone and online.  (I'm not sure if it's available on the IPhone but I would imagine it is.)  It's a simple way to track what you eat and helps you stay within your calorie range in order to lose weight.  It seems to have quite a large database of foods and if it doesn't have a particular food, you can add it to the database.


I am the world's leading expert on diets and exercise plans as I've tried just about all of them.  I was most successful over the years on Weight Watchers and I am using a lot of the food knowledge that I obtained while on WWs at various times throughout the past 30 years.  But now, I'm focusing more on whole grains and high fiber foods, protein and limiting sweets and cheeses (and wine, too).  I know exercise can't be an every now and then proposition.  No, even my doctor told me I needed to exercise six days a week!


So, I realized that I had no excuse.  I could not continue to complain about my weight and not do what needs to be a part of my daily life.  There is no way around it...exercise must become a part of my daily activity.  It's not easy but it's a must!  I look at it like it's my job.  There were days that I didn't feel like going to work, but I did.  Just as I was a responsible employee, I know I'm responsible for my own health.  There are no quick fixes, no magic pills or supplements.  Once I made up my mind that it takes consistent, hard work to succeed, my whole attitude changed and I've made a permanent lifestyle change--not a January resolution!  


At the bottom of this blog, you can follow my progress with the My Fitness Pal bar graph.  And, if any of you decide to use the My Fitness Pal application yourself, add me as your "friend" and we can help each other as we move on in our health and fitness journey for life!

A Nice Christmas

This past Christmas morning I believe was the first time ever that we've not had someone else in the house!  It felt rather strange (and I must admit, a little sad).  But, that's what happens when you get older and your children have families of their own.  I guess in a way it's another type of "letting go".  But, we were very blessed to have Sara, Zach and Sophia spend the afternoon with us.  We all opened presents and had a nice dinner, too!


As usual, I had my camera out during their visit and got several cute shots of Sophia.  The dress she is wearing in the photos on the right was worn by Sara when she was a baby!  It is still in perfect condition and fits her just right!


So, in just a few days, we'll move into a new year! I'm sure there are more Johnson Family adventures that await us in 2012! 

Christmas is Upon Us

I'm amazed how quickly these past three weeks have flown by!  Can it really be that Christmas is in three days?  Those three weeks have been a whirlwind of music concerts (both participating in and watching), music lessons, hosting a Fort Collins Newcomers Club Wine Tasting event, getting Christmas presents, and, to add to my activities, working with a personal trainer!


I can almost breathe a little easier as our annual Christmas letter is done, just waiting on the printing company to send us the copies.  We hope to get them in the mail within the next couple of days.


We are looking forward to having Sara, Zach and Sophia visit with us on Christmas day and share in our Christmas dinner!  (Wish Holly, Erich, Zoe, and Ezra could be here, too!)  


We have a winter wonderland outside which is just perfect for Christmas!  We still had some snow left on the ground from a snowfall almost a month ago but we added about another 5 inches last night.  Very pretty!


I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!  Happy Hanukkah to my family and friends who are Jewish and Merry Christmas to our Christian family and friends!

It's About Time

Ah yes, it's been a busy month since I last wrote.  The back yard project was completed and I'll share a few "before" and "after" shots.  Then, Holly, Erich, Zoe and Ezra came to visit for Thanksgiving!  It had been 6 months since we saw Holly and the grandkids last and almost 10 months since we last saw Erich!  Erich finally got to meet his niece, Sophia!


We had a very nice Thanksgiving with 14 people:  Holly, Erich, Zoe, and Ezra, Sara, Zach, and Sophia, Ellen and Howard Goldberg (Zach's parents), Doris Goldberg (Zach's Grandma), Matt (Zach's brother) and Chloe (Matt's girlfriend), Mark and me!  (I did miss my East Coast family on that special day as they used to come to our home in Virginia each year for Thanksgiving.)


It was a great visit with our California bunch although several of us managed to get sick for a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  We still were able to do a lot of things with them:  a couple of visits to the Goldbergs in Thornton, the Denver Children's Museum, sledding a few times, ice skating, saw the puppies in the pet store, went to the Parade of Lights Parade preview with the Colorado State University (CSU) marching band, and attended the CSU Holiday Gala, among other things.  Lots of fun all around!


Erich had to leave the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and Holly and the kids left this past Sunday.  Hated seeing them go!  We're hoping to get out to see them and my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Mona in April!


We continue to stay busy with our music endeavors--we had two New Horizon Band concerts in November and a couple more coming up this month.  Mark and I developed a new band Web site, too and went "active" with the site.  Check it out:  http://nhbnc.zxq.net/  We are finalizing a "Know Your Band Buddies" book for the Band and are getting ready for the band's annual Christmas party.


We are also hosting the Fort Collins Newcomers Club monthly wine tasting group event at our house this Thursday. Busy, busy, to say the least!


Hope all of our friends and family had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!  After I make it through this week, it's time to focus on Christmas and get Christmas presents purchased and our annual letter written!  More on Christmas later...

About to Begin a Big Backyard Project

Tomorrow begins a landscaping project in the backyard which we hope will afford us a little more privacy.  Since our house is located off the 11th tee of the golf course, we have no landscape break.  As a result, all the golfers waiting to tee off have an excellent view right into our kitchen!  Our kitchen table is in full view and we've often had a wave or two from golfers as we are eating our meals.  I sure don't mind their friendliness but it does bother me that we have no privacy.


So, Ryan Liebel of Loveland, Colorado and his landscape company are able to start the project tomorrow morning since the snow has melted in the backyard.  I will post pictures as the work progresses.

Yay! Finally Finished a Web Site for Our Band!

Mark and I have been busy for a few months designing and building a Web site for our band, the New Horizons Band of Northern Colorado.  I'm happy to announce that we FINALLY finished it today!


I researched how I wanted the site to look and developed the content for it.  Mark actually constructed the site and then researched and fixed a few "bugs" associated with going "live".  So, here it is:  http://nhbnc.zxq.net/

Our next challenge is to finish the Web site for my business, Best Life Photography.  It's about 50 percent complete.  I still need to develop some more content and figure out my pricing, too.  I hope to have this site done within the next two months, but it may not happen until after the first of the year due to the holidays.  We'll see!

Happy Halloween!

We saw a few goblins tonight, fewer than last year though.  It's probably because our neighborhood doesn't have many children living in it.  But despite the lack of trick-or-treaters, we still like to get in the Halloween spirit by putting up decorations and we always carve pumpkins every year.  We are still using the carving templates we used years ago when our girls used to go trick-or-treating!  One of my favorite parts is cleaning the pumpkin seeds and cooking them!


When I was a young girl in Hingham, Massachusetts, I remember on Halloween that my brother, Tommy and I would walk through the cemetery to get "spooked".  I also remember carrying UNICEF boxes with us as we went door-to-door trick-or-treating.  Mark and I were trying to remember if we got them through school or church; we think it was through school.


Glad we got to Web cam briefly tonight with Zoe and Ezra to see them in their costumes!  Too bad Ezra is sick though.  (Zoe just got over it.)  They probably won't be out too long.  


Looks like our weather is about to change again.  We still have a little bit of snow left on the ground and it looks like tomorrow night we'll see more of the white stuff...another 40 degree drop in temperature is expected!  And, we may have more snow this coming weekend!