Here's To Our Health in 2022, Part III

On to thread 3! Thank you all for taking part and even more importantly, being proactive in your health journey! Let's continue to uplift and encourage each other!

My left hip has announced that it is not doing anything today, so today is going to be a "project" day at my house, at least this morning. I am hoping to get in 10,000 steps today and call it good. We will see.

>2 alcottacre: I'm sure the hip has earned a rest.

I've got a new set of shoulder stretches/exercises to fit in, with the instructions on paper and online not quite fitting my memory of what the PT said. As in my written instructions seem less frequent and fewer reps. I hesitate to ask, but if I don't I might not make progress. Another wee stumbling block that my ADHD tendencies magnify into a wall if not a mountain.

>3 quondame: I am sure you can conquer that mountain, Susan. I hope you do not hesitate to ask - it is all to the good for you.

Well, I managed to get more steps in today than I thought I would - 13,158 (5.31 miles) despite the hip. I will probably pay for it tomorrow, lol.

>2 alcottacre: I hope your hip is appreciative of its rest day. ETA: >5 alcottacre: Wait, what?

>3 quondame: The main problem with not asking is that you feel even sillier when you find out you should have asked. At yoga this week we did a stretch but when we did it on the other side, we turned to the right again. When I looked at the other lady in the class, she was doing the same thing as I was so I assumed I'd got the first side the wrong way around - I've done that before because I have a (inherited!) left/ right issue. But then she spoke up and it turned out that the instructor had got it confused.

So: swimming today. I managed to do my breaststroke and backstroke 10 laps without (fully) stopping to rest, so I suppose my stamina is improving. I do a set of 10 laps of each stroke and then another set of 10 each and then a set of 5 each, which is - more or less (because I can't count to 10 so I might add on a couple of laps here or there) - 100. And I think my butterfly is improving because Jasper doesn't run around the pool in a panic, barking his head off anymore (won't jump in to rescue me, though). Though I think that's just because he's getting blasé about the whole thing. Our water dog is ... not fond of getting into the water.

>6 humouress: Yeah, I am paying for it today. I suspect that I will be getting a lot of reading in today, rather than a lot of walking.

Yay for the increased stamina! I really want to get a pool for us since it would certainly help with my joint pain. Poor Jasper! Maybe one day he will be a true water dog?

>7 alcottacre: Well, he's discovered rain (though he's not fond of the pressure that comes with thunderstorms) so there may be hope.

>4 alcottacre: >6 humouress: I did send in a request for clarification.

And yay! I got a call today from the optometrist to reschedule the dilation session I had to cancel due to Covid.

Now give myself a week and on to the next issue....

>9 quondame: A week is good ;0)

But don't lose the momentum.

Well, this week went well, and yesterday was a truly great day. The municipality together with two of the orienteering clubs in town have an orienteering competition every year that is open to all. There are six maps with (I think) fifteen control points per map. Two of the maps were released on Thursday and one of them is of one of the mountains near us so since the weather was perfect I dragged my mother with me. We got five of the controls (we'll get the others another day, the competition is open until September) and I hiked up to the TV mast on the very top of the mountain, making this my first conquered mountain of the year. At 217 meters, it means I've also reached my first goal, as I've hiked higher than Denmark's highest peak Møllehøj, which is 170 meters high (Denmark is *very* flat). The next goal on the list of peaks is Finland's highest peak - Hálditšohkka, but at 1324 meters it'll take a little while to get there.

The mountain hiking meant I walked a lot yesterday too - the most I've walked since I started keeping track. 19 490 steps! That took my total for the week up to over 107 000 steps, with a total distance of 53 km covered - that makes for a cumulative 826 km on my walk to Venice. If I keep averaging at least 13 000 steps a day (as I've been doing lately, I'll definitely reach my destination before the end of the year.)

A view from the top of the mountain:

>11 PawsforThought: That sounds like fun! Actually, it sounds like hard work. Kudos to your mum, too. It's nice that you mix it up.

Those cloud formations in the middle distance are intriguing.

We'll be going to London next week. I'm joining my husband, who's going on work, but afterwards we've planned a trip to Cornwall. I went and bought waterproof hiking shoes last week and I've been wearing them on my walks with Jasper to break them in. Not that we're going to do much more than walk from the carpark to a tourist site (planning to visit Stonehenge for the first time, too) but the shoes I have are either not suitable for walking long distances or for the climate. We're also planning a visit to St Michael's Mount which has a causeway you can walk across when the tide is out. We're laughing at my husband today because he bought his hiking boots on the weekend so he wore them to work today to break them in. And he's also bought a couple of walking poles, much to the bemusement of our older son. We're hoping to stop by Glastonbury Tor on the way, so maybe they'll come in useful.

>11 PawsforThought: Congratulations, Paws, on the hiking and the number of steps in! That is wonderful!

>12 humouress: I hope that the walking poles and shoes come in handy while you are in London, Nina!

I, on the other hand, have not gotten even 10,000 steps in over the past several days. Between my balky left hip and my CFS, which has me taking 2-3 naps every day, I am having no luck at all.

>13 alcottacre: I’m sure they will, Stasia ;0)

I've started a physical therapist devised/guided program of exercises designed to help with my backaches, knee issues, and shoulder issues. I'm only three days in, but so far so good. Maybe approaching from this angle will work better than approaching fitness cardio-first; and in any case, when it's hot, cardio is counter-indicated.

So far, every time *I* design an exercise program to approach core fitness, or attempt a bog-standard one, I injure something. Hence the professional program design. I'm keeping an eye on the reaction of my knees in particular, but so far so good.

>15 ArlieS: Let us know how it's going. I'm focusing on much the same thing, I think. Knees, hips, lower back - I don't know where I got my hamstrings from but I was definitely shortchanged. So most of my work is stretching, and strengthening my quads and core. It seems I'm really out of shape.

>11 PawsforThought: That’s great Paws! Møllehøj sounds like the kind of Mountain we have here in the Netherlands. It’s the Vaalserberg in Dutch Limburg, near the drielandenpunt, that’s where the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium meet. It’s 322 meters. So a nice intermediary goal.
(Bye the way, what does møllehøj mean? It sounds like some kind of moles heap?)
I’d love to walk the kind of mountain you did, stone, not earth, it’s a mountain in my eyes.

>15 ArlieS: That’s the problem I have been struggling with, the need to pace myself, to prevent injury. A good program seems like a good idea!

Whether there is a connection or not will probably never be clear, but I finally registered my previous CPAP machine as one that was covered by a recall. I used it at least for 8 years and the problem for which it was recalled included lung damage - and well I've had breathing issues on exertion for about 6-7 years now. I'll give the recall information to my PCP when I see her in a couple of weeks.

>18 quondame: Yowch!

>17 EllaTim: Thanks Ella! Møllehøj means something like “Mill hill”. Mølle is Danish for mill (there apparently used to be one at the top) and høj means “height” or “hill” (the Swedish equivalent is “höjd”).
The name of the mountain I hiked up is Åsberget, which means “Ridge Mountain”, a bit of a tautology.
I might walk up to the lake near the top of the closest mountain tomorrow (technically today). It has a road straight up the side so is simple to get up, and I’ve walked up there probably a hundred times. It’s a bit taxing though, because it’s steep and pretty high. I’ll make sure to take pics if I get up there.

Whoops! I've been dreaming of summer vacation time and forgot to update last weeks steps.

I did walk up to the lake on Sunday, which meant I could add another 125 meters to my combined "mountain climbing". I'd like to walk up the mountains that the lake is on the side of, but it's been raining every day (not much but enough to keep the ground wet) for a week and I don't want to walk on bare rock when it's wet so we'll have to wait and see what the weather has to offer.
Below is a view from halfway around the lake (which is called Svarttjärn ("Black Lake")). The "V-shape" is where the road up/down the mountain is located. The distance from the lake to the top of the mountain on the left in the photo is about 80 meters.


I walked a total of just over 116 000 steps last week, which is about 58 km. That takes my total up to 884 km and I have virtually walked to just north of Karlskrona in the very southern parts of Sweden.

I had a look at my spreadsheet of how much I've walked and I've increased my steps every month from January. Hopefully that's a trend that will continue throughout the year.

There was no mountain climbing last week, but I did walk quite a lot - including hitting my highest-so-far daily step count. On Wednesday, I had a massage booked in and walked to and from the appointment, leading to over 22 000 steps that day. Altogether I walked a bit over 118 000 steps, which equals just over 59 km. That takes my combined total up to 943 km, and I have officially left the Swedish shores.

>18 quondame: Ouch, that’s awful.

>21 PawsforThought: Thanks for the beautiful picture, Paws. Very restful, just to look at. And congratulations on your steps, you are doing really well!

I have not been doing so well at all, stressed out by too many obligations, and it’s been raining here, not helpful.

>23 EllaTim: Thanks Ella! I've become slightly addicted to walking now - I feel a real need to go out and walk.
I'm sorry things aren't great for you right now, I know what it's like to have too much hanging over you. Hope things improve soon.

>24 PawsforThought: Thanks Paws! It looks like it will stay like this for some time, so I need to deal with it better than I have done. I need some discipline, like in doing my exercises every day. When it’s busy I tend to skip them. I could get addicted to mountain walking as well! Can I come your way? All my obligations have to do with trying to keep my place livable, and not too noisy.

>25 EllaTim: You'd be most welcome, Ella!
Well, if your obligation are about your living arrangements then hopefully that means it will lead to improvements.

I finally fulfilled one of my 'consequences' obligations today. Having given in and eaten early, I went out for a brisk walk and logged over 9000 steps to balance out the slip. It was flat walking so my knee wasn't an issue and my hamstring (or whatever) didn't bother me. Friday I see my physiatrist to discuss the images she ordered and the current symptoms. Still haven't gotten to classes at the gym, but now I have a placement audition on Thursday for a chamber music workshop in July, so practicing takes precedence over other schedules. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

>27 ffortsa: Good luck with your audition! A chamber music workshop sounds great.

>28 EllaTim: Thanks for the good luck. The audition went pretty well, I think, and right after that a woman I've played music with before came for HER audition, so it was a pleasant coincidence.

In other news, I finally got the results from my x-rays and MRI. NO arthritis in my knee (take that, PT man), but a somewhat herniated disc in my lumbar spine which is somewhat compressing the neighboring nerve, and which, according to the physiatrist, explains my symptoms to a T. So back to exercises to strengthen my core, with other treatments possible if it gets worse. Considering my age, it's pretty minimal.

I've been walking a lot this week, and walking is a big help. On the other hand, sitting on a hard park bench reading is NOT helpful, as I learned yesterday. If I count from last Saturday, I get 65,000 steps in the last 7 days. AND I got down below my last low weight for the last year this morning.

Last week I walked a little over 112 000 steps, equating to a little over 56 km. That means I've now walked 999 km on my walk to Venice, and I have reached the shores of the island of Bornholm. I wish I could get hold of some æbleskiver, but I don't think it's possible here in town. Oh, well.

If I keep up this pace I will have reached the half-way point by this time next week.

>29 ffortsa: I hope that the back exercises help, Judy!

>30 PawsforThought: Congratulations, Paws~

I am doing terribly. Between CFS and being out of town for 2 weeks, I am completely out of whack.

>31 alcottacre: Hope you get back on track soon, Stasia. You've been doing so well, but sometimes a break is necessary.

In other news, I walked 5 1/2 miles yesterday in spite of the heat (14,554 steps according to my phone counter). If it gets really hot, I may have to revert to the treadmill.

I'm still trying to keep on trucking, but results have been variable.

The physio program has been great, as far as providing me with exercises that do help, and don't cause injury. I can feel definite improvements. My knee is happy, except for mild complaints right after the exercises, which seem like "someone made me work; how could they?!" rather than a report of damage. My back grumbles on waking, and after exercise, but no more incidents of it hurting so much I couldn't get back to sleep. I've new strength in one of the many muscles contributing to the shoulder problem.

OTOH, it's been hot here. Walking has been skipped or shortened more times than I can count. I've tried setting the alarm for 7 AM, to get moving before the heat - but the one day I made it out before 9 AM, it was already unpleasantly hot for me to be walking. (However, I made it to the farmers' market and back, with apricots and veggies.)

This morning I somehow figured out how to turn off the alarm (not just hit snooze) without waking up. I did wake up around 8, when the sun coming through the window reached my pillow, and had the willpower to get up rather than just moving my head out of the sun - but didn't make it out the door until after 11, already too hot for the long walk my body was craving. (I got about a third of a normal walk.) And last night I skipped the physio exercises because I spaced them at the normal time (I'd started an engrossing project, and just kept on with it), and then didn't think of them again until midnight.

Healthy eating has been suffering the most. I'm happily eating any veggies suitable for eating raw, if I have them on hand. Fruit too. But if it needs cooking, I'm instead nuking something highly processed, or eating bread with cheese or peanut butter.

Today is relatively cool - at least not heat wave territory - so no excuse for not doing my physio exercises, and the kitchen is unlikely to be too miserable to cook in. But do I have sufficient willpower?

Right now, post walk, I just want to sit and drink coffee in my home office, which has one of the two window air conditioners in the house. (We don't have central air conditioning.) My nice cool office has plenty of books to read, which would go well with the coffee. And then I could eat another apricot or two, and pretend there's no such thing as a stove here.

>32 ffortsa: Congratulations on the 15+ K steps, Judy! That is wonderful.

I am trying to get back in train a little at a time. Hopefully I can get back to 16,000 steps soon.

>33 ArlieS: I understand the "healthy eating has been suffering the most," Arlie. I have found the same here, especially with the CFS flare ups as I just do not have any energy. I hope we can both get back on track!

>35 alcottacre: Lack of energy is the worst. For me, there's sometimes a virtuous circle - if I walk, I have more energy. That helps, and also helps as motivation. But I don't have CFS, which I imagine to be even worse and more frustrating than anything I've dealt with.

>36 ArlieS: CFS is a daily battle, especially when I am having a flare up, and I have not yet found a way to deal with it effectively. I keep hoping I will though!

So to get myself back on track, I fasted the first 3 days of this week, while steadily trying to increase the number of steps each day. I got in 7627 steps Monday, 11,480 steps Tuesday, 12,819 steps Wednesday, and 16,219 steps today, which is right where I need to be.

My food today was good and on point: 16 ounces of broccoli and 12 ounces of cauliflower for breakfast, what I call a "Teriyaki Salad" for lunch (2 romaine lettuce heads, 2 ounces baby spinach, 2 small baked sweet potatoes, mushrooms cooked in Teriyaki balsamic vinegar, sliced scallions, sliced yellow bell pepper, about a Tbsp of sesame seeds, all dressed with more Teriyaki balsamic vinegar), and for dinner I had sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, cauliflower and vegetarian chili.

>37 alcottacre: Hi Stasia. Yum to yesterday's salad. I need to remember to put sesame seeds on the grilled chicken salads Bill brings me once a week. I use raw unhulled sesame seeds and keep them in an old spaghetti sauce jar on the turntable on the kitchen island. I buy them in bulk from Amazon. Crunchy and good for regularity, to be perfectly frank.

>38 karenmarie: I lightly toast mine for additional flavor, Karen, so you might try that as well. I would much rather have the seeds than the oil, so I use them regularly. Thanks for the suggestion of buying them in bulk from Amazon. I am going to have to do that.

>37 alcottacre: You are eating lots of vegetables! I think I should try it as well, as I seem to be unable to lose weight. And I love vegetables.

>40 EllaTim: I am vegan, Ella, so I eat a ton of veggies!

I am heading to bed early tonight - after weeks of going through a CFS flare up, I slept less than 4 hours last night - so here is my report for today:

Steps today - 17,610 (7.1 miles)

Food today - My VFB (vegetables for breakfast) was a large "Fruity" Salad (Salad greens, diced apple, diced pear, blueberries, chopped walnuts dressed with Pomegranate balsamic vinegar). For lunch, I had baked potatoes smothered in a sauce of cooked onions, mushrooms, and marinara sauce along with a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts. For dinner, I had my version of a Taco Salad (Salad greens, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green pepper, banana peppers, black olives, black beans, and dressed with salsa).

Steps today - 11,214 (4.52 miles) - Anything over 10K on a Saturday I consider a win!

Food today - My VFB was my favorite combination, broccoli and cauliflower. I did not have time for lunch, which I normally never miss, but oh well. Dinner was a huge tossed salad (greens, pickled cauliflower, grape tomatoes, scallions, sliced yellow bell pepper, sliced cucumber, broccoli slaw, all tossed with white balsamic vinegar). Since I had no lunch, I made up for it by snacking after dinner on watermelon and tangerines.

>41 alcottacre: Ah, you’re vegan, that does explain it. But still your menus look wonderful and very tasty!

>43 EllaTim: Thank you, Ella! Just because I do not eat meat does not mean that food cannot be fun and interesting, I have found.

>42 alcottacre: I'm curious. Where do you get your protein from? My nutritionist was concerned that I wasn't eating enough protein (even though I am an omnivore) so she suggested I try a protein powder in addition, and it happens to be pea-based. It tastes ok (I get the vanilla) and if I'd had some today I probably wouldn't have grazed so much. I did get 5 miles in, however, escaping the kitchen.

Last week was the last full working week before I go on summer vacation. This week is a short week because Friday is Midsummer (day off) and I'm hoping to be able to take Thursday afternoon off.

I walked a little over 112 steps, which equals just over 56 km. That means I've walked a total of 1055 km and I'm now officially halfway to Venice!

>45 ffortsa: Judy, most Americans get an overabundance of protein, so you rarely hear of protein deficiencies here. For vegans, protein comes from soybeans (tofu, tempeh, edamame), beans, and vegetables, which have far more protein than most people think they do. I am quoting here: "Vegetables with the most protein include broccoli, spinach, asparagus, artichokes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, which typically contain 4–5 grams of protein per cooked cup." Nuts and seeds also provide protein - I like using them in my salads, but not too much due to their fat content. Quinoa and oats contain protein too. If you are interested, there is a nice breakdown of vegan protein sources here: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/protein-for-vegans-vegetarians

A well-balanced vegan diet gets the person plenty of protein in their diet, so I am in no danger of being protein deficient.

ETA: I forgot to add lentils to my list, which did not dawn on me until I was making my Super Salad for lunch today :)

>46 PawsforThought: Yay! Soon Venice will be in your rear view mirror, Paws!

>47 alcottacre: When I was reading about this in the late 70s and early 80s, I got the impression things were a little more complicated.

Proteins are made out of amino acids. As I understood it from books like Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé, human bodies can synthesize most but not all amino acids. We need enough of the specific ones we can't synthesize. So knowing the total amount of protein in a food doesn't tell us how much of it is merely convenient protein (yay, amino acids we don't need to synthesize) and how much is vital protein (amino acids we can't make), let alone whether our diet conveys all the vital amino acids in appropriate amounts.

IIRC, grains and legumes together provide all the amino acids we can't synthesize, but neither is adequate alone, except that quinoa is notable for having vital amino acids not found in most grains.

Has new research invalidated what I read at the time? Or am I perhaps misremembering? (It has been a few years since I read those books.)

>49 ArlieS: Arlie, I am by no means an expert, but according to the article that I linked for Judy: "Poorly-planned or highly-processed vegan diets may also increase your risk of nutrient deficiencies, especially in vitamin B12, iodine, iron, calcium, zinc, and long-chain omega-3s. . .Many people refer to plant foods as “incomplete” sources of protein. However, as long as you eat a variety of plant-based proteins, this shouldn’t pose a problem. You can still get sufficient amounts of all the essential amino acids your body needs." The key is in the planning - I plan every single one of my meals to avoid the deficiencies. I also take B12 daily because there is no plant-based food available for this one nutrient.

My (almost) daily report:

Steps today - 17,663 (7.21 miles)

Food today - My VFB today was a Banana Mylkshake (baby spinach, banana, pear, vanilla extract, almond milk). Lunch today was a Super Salad (Lentils, Red Bell Pepper, Kale, Red Cabbage, Cherry Tomatoes, and Red Quinoa) with Golden Turmeric dressing (Turmeric, Raw Cashews, Garlic, Dijon Mustard, Nutritional Yeast, White Miso, Lemon Juice, Water). For dinner, I had a large tossed salad and EZ Rice and Beans (Black Beans, Braggs Aminos, Chile Powder, Corn, Diced Tomatoes, Diced Red Bell Pepper, and Brown Rice).

Re protein: I eat too much animal protein. I went through a very serious vegetarian phase in about 1975-1977, inspired by Diet for a Small Planet, which I still have on my shelves. I was fascinated with protein combining. My favorite meal from that period, Risi E Bisi, from Recipes for a Small Planet, also still on my shelves, would work for me now, but not for my husband because he hates peas. Sigh. However, that won't stop me from working on a low-sodium version for myself. The cup of Parmesan Cheese is the most expensive sodium part, so we'll see.

I may try to start working more complete vegetable proteins back into my diet and cut back on animal proteins. I won't switch overnight, but perhaps I could try to create one vegetarian/vegan protein-loaded meal per week. I've just added split peas and frozen green peas onto my shopping list; I have everything else. Baby steps...

>52 karenmarie: I'm also planning to switch to more plant proteins, but right now I'm living with other people and so my diet can't be too different from theirs. I prefer more plant based food anyways, so I'm looking forward to eating less red meat (that's what'll get cut first because I've never been a big fan of red meat whereas I genuinely like fish and poultry). No split peas for me, though - there's childhood trauma involved that I'll never get past.

>52 karenmarie: I meant to ask, Karen - are you a mustard person? I can recommend a good stoneground one with no added salt if you are.

Baby steps are the way to go!

>53 PawsforThought: Good luck in switching, Paws. I hope it works out well for you - and soon.

>52 karenmarie: I remember Risi E Bisi. I haven't made it in ages; parmesan cheese is no longer something I tend to have in my fridge. Maybe I should get some, and have a nostalgic meal.

Although I described myself as an omnivore, I eat a lot less red meat than I did when I was growing up. Chicken. fish and low-fat or no-fat dairy are my go-to animal foods, but our HelloFresh boxes of pre-measured dinners have been heavy on the pork lately, and we are cutting that back. Iron and B12 are already on the supplement menu, which seems to be a sign of age and an increased intolerance to wheat. Boo. I'm trying to to cut back on yellow cheese, as my sister has had remarkable success with her dietary changes vis-a-vis her cholesterol numbers and she credits giving that up.

Stasia, I don't think the impressive detailed planning you do is something that would work for me (unless you were doing the cooking and I could skip all the nuts), but easing into a more plant-based balance is a goal I can work with.

>56 ffortsa: All we have to do is move Texas closer to New York, Judy, and then I could be your personal chef, right? I plan my meals to help me stay on track (you can always tell when CFS is dogging me because I eat terribly then!), but if that will not work for you, it will not work for you. Start something that you can continue!

Steps today: 16,025 (6.46 miles)

Food today: VFB was a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts and an Orange Julius green smoothie (baby spinach, almond milk, oranges, 1/2 banana). Lunch was a huge Mediterranean salad (salad greens, cucumber, diced red pepper, air fried eggplant, chickpeas, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and grape tomatoes dressed with lemon juice). Dinner was 2 small baked sweet potatoes and California style veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots).

Risi e bisi is a staple dish in our house. As is the parmesan. I really should do more to get my steps up - I am constantly put in the shade by Mr SandDune who chalks up around 20,000 a day without trying too hard (at least so it seems to me)!

>52 karenmarie: Same for me, a serous vegetarian period. Helped along because there were a lot of good vegetarian restaurants in Amsterdam. Later I fell off the wagon.

Risi e bisi sounds good.

I visited my mother and took a walk with her, she needs a wheelchair, so I pushed. 6000 steps is a lot for me. But after we got home I borrowed her old bike, and took a ride. Not too long, but I could still do it.

>46 PawsforThought: Halfway to Venice! That’s some distance, Paws. Well done.

Steps today: I did not quite make my goal of 16K - only 15,186 steps today (6.16 miles)

Food today: VFB were broccoli and cauliflower. For lunch, I had a Beautiful Blueberry Salad (Salad greens, quinoa, blueberries, diced apple dressed with blueberry dressing ((shallots, balsamic vinegar, blueberries, maple syrup and freshly ground pink and black pepper)). For dinner, Kerry and I went out to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary tomorrow.

>58 alcottacre: Well, that salad sounds delicious.

Is scdoster your wishlist handle?

>62 ffortsa: No, Judy, scdoster is my handle for the books that are actually part of my library. I have 3 LT accounts - alcottacre, which is where the BlackHole is stored as well as books in my library that I have yet to read; alcottacre777 is for my borrowed books, and scdoster is the books that I have read from my personal library.

The salad was delicious!

>63 alcottacre: I have three LT accounts, too - karenmarie for the books on my shelves and where I spend my time talking with my friends, kairfa for my wish list since January 2021, and kenner1953 for all books read since joining LT so I can take advantage of charts and graphs. I haven't made the time to actually populate it beyond 33 books yet.

>64 karenmarie: Cool beans!

I have developed a blister on one of the toes of my right foot and it is extremely irritating when I walk. I may be giving it the weekend off to heal. I have walked 15 miles over the course of Thursday and Friday, which is when the blister showed up. Grumble, grumble - not a happy camper here.

sorry about the blister, Stasia.

Good idea to keep the read and unread titles separate, also the wishlist and recommendation items. I might try that.

Back from holiday in London/ Cornwall. I thought I'd have gained weight and I did, but just 1.2kg. I did a lot of walking around London while my husband was working and since breakfast was included in the hotel room, I tended to have a late, largish breakfast and didn't need lunch. My hubby is a foodie so the Cornwall part of our trip was risky (in terms of trying to keep my weight down). We ended up getting a small electric car for our trip as that was all that the car rental company could come up with which unfortunately meant that our speed was limited and we spent a lot of time sitting around supermarket carparks waiting for the battery to recharge, which cut into our sightseeing time a bit. However, we still got to walk around places like Stonehenge, St Michael's Mount, Kynance Cove (on the Lizard peninsula), Tintagel, Port Isaac (known as 'Port Wenn' in the 'Doc Martin' series and where we bumped into Ian McNeice who plays Bert Large in the series) and the Roman baths in Bath - so I managed to work off some of the calories from dinner. You can't do much with leftovers when you're staying in hotels; and we only stayed in one Cornish hotel for more than one night. My husband, having seen on YouTube videos we watched about visiting Cornwall that finding a place to have dinner can be hard in peak holiday season, booked dinner slots with our rooms so we ... erm ... ate well. Except for the first couple of nights when we were still getting used to the car and finding places to recharge, which threw out our timings so we ended up missing dinner.

Meanwhile, poor old Jasper was a bit shortchanged on his walks because the kids should have been looking after him but when my youngest went to see a doctor about a cough which he couldn't get rid of he stumbled into the door on the way out so they wanted him in for observation for a while. His older brother stayed with him, too, since we couldn't. Thankfully, it was nothing serious (or we'd have come home like a shot, of course) but it meant they couldn't walk Jasper (or so they claimed - they did spend some time at home). I've been a bit lazy after coming back and have only been out for walks with Jasper a couple of times. I felt a bit disorientated for the first couple of days; I think spending three weeks in England, where I grew up, after two and a half years of no travel did that. No excuses, I'll have to make an effort and get back into routine. Maybe on Monday ...

>65 alcottacre: Back in the long ago, when hiking was not only something I did but something I enjoyed and structured my vacation time to do, I'd wear my boots just until I felt the first tenderness then I'd plaster the tender areas with moleskin which I'd leave on for 3 days or as long as it would stay. Sometimes I was even able to put the moleskin on a full blister and continue without further problems.
I needed to do this even if my boots weren't new if it had been more than a couple of months since I'd worn them, but always if they were new.

>68 quondame: I do not know what moleskin is (I really hope it is not the skin of moles), but the couple days off over the weekend helped the blister.

Steps today: 17, 362 (7.13 miles)

Food today: VFB were broccoli and cauliflower. For lunch, I had my version of a Healthy Taco Salad (Baby spinach, 2 romaine hearts, black beans, cucumber, grape tomatoes, scallions, red pepper, salsa, and guacamole). Dinner was leftover EZ Black Beans and Rice, corn, and air fried mini peppers.

>69 alcottacre: It's a Dr. Scholl's product. Very useful for long hikes or people who like new shoes a lot.

I'm glad your feet are feeling recovered.

A late update of last week since I'm on vacation and haven't had my laptop with me (I can't input my data on my ipad for some reason).
I walked a little over 114 000 steps, which equals just over 57 km. That takes my total up to 1112 km and means I've reached Rügen in Germany! I might celebrate by eating one of the bretzeln I have in the freezer. (Goodness, I miss Germany!)

It's insanely warm here and have been since Friday - we have temperatures of around 30 C, which used to be very unusal when I was a kid but has become norm for late summer in the past 10-15 years. I've never experienced it in June before, though. The heat means it's a little difficult to gather enough energy to be active but I'm doing my best. And on Sunday I climbed another mountain (but I might not have if I'd known they'd cut down a ton of trees and there was hardly any shade the whole way up).
Gumåsen (which we normally just call "Berget" (the mountain) is 175 m above the sea and the view from the top is pretty great. The pic of the mountain is taken from our summerhouse. I'm not quite certain of the etymology of Gumåsen - "åsen" means "the ridge" but what "Gum" refers to I'm not quite certain, but probably an old word for "young man" (same root as "groom" in English). So "The young man's ridge", perhaps.



I also went for a quick swim in the nearby lake on Saturday because I desperately needed to cool off. It was a bit too chilly in the water for it to be genuinely comfortable (it was around 18 C) but I did manage to swim 100 strokes. Hopefully, the water will heat up a bit after there scorching days so we can swim more.

>71 PawsforThought: Congratulations on reaching Rügen, Paws!

My steps today - 16,929 (6.85 miles)

Food today - For breakfast, I had Sorghum Berry Breakfast (Cooked sorghum, almond milk, raspberries, cinnamon, cardomom, vanilla, chia seeds). Lunch was Supreme Pizza Soup (Onion, red bell pepper, marinara sauce, vegetable broth, broccoli florets, baby spinach, oregano, nutritional yeast) along with a baked potato and sliced cucumber on the side. For dinner, I made Tri-Bean Barbecue (Kidney beans, black beans, vegetarian baked beans, ketcup, onion, Sucanat, apple cider vinegar, garlic) with a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts and mixed vegetables on the side.

>71 PawsforThought: That looks pretty. Celebrating by eating something from the place you’ve got to sounds like a great idea. It’ll keep things interesting. Good luck with the swimming; 18°C is too cold for me.

>72 alcottacre: Pizza soup? I see you got the yeast in, but not the dough 😊 And I always assumed baked beans would be vegetarian. Maybe it depends on the brand?

>73 humouress: Nina, you have to be careful with baked beans because food companies will add pork and/or bacon to the beans.

As far as the pizza soup goes, nutritional yeast is a completely different kind of yeast than is used in the crust, which I am sure you already knew, lol.

I have been remiss in posting here while out of town and need to get back in the habit. Here is my info for yesterday:

Steps In: 16,733 steps (6.75 miles)

Food: VFB breakfast yesterday was a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts. For second breakfast, I had Cinnamon Pear Oatmeal (Oats, diced pear, almond milk, cinnamon) and lunch was a large Healthy Taco Salad (pinto beans, greens, salsa, scallions, grape tomatoes, and diced cucumber). For dinner, I had a baked sweet potato and Blueberry Spinach Salad (Blueberries, spinach, diced apple with a dressing of Dijon mustard, maple syrup, water, garlic powder).

My weight is going the wrong direction and I have been creeping up towards 180 pounds. The year has not done me any favors what with COVID and several CFS flare ups, but to me, those are just excuses. I have set a goal to lose 20 pounds by my husband's birthday on Labor Day (September 5th). It is going to be hard, but I believe I can do it. When I weighed myself yesterday, I was at 177.9 pounds. This morning, I was at 176.1 so it is moving the right way! I still have my book buying ban in place - I cannot buy any books until I get down until I reach 160 pounds and every 10 pounds thereafter.

>74 alcottacre: Yes, absolutely. I knew that. All of that. Absolutely. Um ...

>75 alcottacre: Well, there's motivation for you. Go Stasia! Lose those pounds! We need more books.

>75 alcottacre: Very impressive this goal setting Stasia. I know you can do it!

>76 humouress: Thanks, Nina. I appreciate your cheerleading!

>77 mdoris: Thanks for the positivity, Mary. I KNOW I can do it too!

So, yesterday's data -

Steps: 17, 050 steps (6.87 miles)

Food for the day: VFB was 1 pound of steamed cauliflower dressed with Curry Balsamic Vinegar. Second breakfast was Savoury Oatmeal (Oats, sundried tomatoes, vegetable broth, pinto beans, peas, and corn). Lunch yesterday was 12 ounces steamed broccoli sprinkled with Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Dinner was Mexican Lentil Casserole (Lentils, rice, tomato paste, homemade salt free taco seasoning, green peppers, onions, and celery) with green beans on the side. I even made dessert yesterday - Chocolate "Nice" Cream (cocoa, bananas, almond milk, cashews, and dates), sprinkled with fresh raspberries.

Weight this morning: 173.7 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps: 16, 280 steps (6.53 miles)

Food for the day: VFB was a Butternut Squash Salad (Butternut squash, mixed greens, toasted pumpkin seeds, dressed with a dressing of shallots, water, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and black pepper). Second breakfast was Raspberry Oatmeal (Oats, almond milk, water, and raspberries, topped with more raspberries and diced apricots). Dinner was air-fried baked potatoes and green beans. Dessert (it was world chocolate day, after all) was a Vegan Chocolate Mousse (Tofu, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and maple syrup).

Weight this morning: 172.4 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps: 16,598 (6.73 miles) - I finished the Virtual St. Francis Way walking challenge, so I need to pick out another one!

Food for the day: VFB was a combination purple and green cabbage with sliced onion, all panfried, and seasoned with Eden Shake. Second breakfast was a baked sweet potato with unsweetened applesauce, sprinkled with cinnamon. Lunch was Broccoli Apple Blueberry Salad (12 ounces broccoli, 2 apples, 1 cup blueberries, dressed with a mixture of almond milk, chia seeds, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and garlic). Dinner was Brown Rice Salad (Brown rice, mixed greens, grape tomatoes, and cucumber, dressed with California Balsamic 7-Herb Italian vinegar).

Weight this morning: 171.4 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 12,503 steps (5.04 miles) For a Saturday, I will take it!

Food: VFB was a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts. For second breakfast, I had Savoury Oatmeal. Lunch was Cauliflower Salad (Cauliflower, diced red pepper, grated carrot, chives, dressed with California Balsamic 7-Herb Italian Vinegar). For dinner, I had a chopped salad (Baby spinach, romaine lettuce, pepperoncini, sliced green bell pepper, cucumber, grape tomatoes, and guacamole for dressing).

Weight this morning: 171.5 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 14,030 steps (5.65 miles)

Food: VFB was Mediterranean Veggie Bowl (Eggplant, cauliflower rice, roasted red peppers, 7-Herb Italian California Balsamic Vinegar). For second breakfast, I had a baked Japanese yam. I did not have lunch as I was not hungry. For dinner, an Ethiopian Cabbage Dish (Cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes) and broccoli.

Weight this morning: 171.6
Weight differential since last Tuesday: -6.3 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 17,108 (6.91 miles)

Food: VFB was broccoli and cauliflower. For second breakfast, I had leftover Ethiopian Cabbage Dish along with some Sauteed Mushrooms. Lunch was Kale Caesar Salad (Baby kale, lemon juice, chickpeas, and pepitas with a Cashew Garlic Aioli (cashews, garlic, stoneground mustard, and lemon juice). For dinner, we had Sweet and Tangy Butter Beans (details given elsewhere) and mixed vegetables.

Weight this morning: 171.3 pounds

Yesterday's data (which is going to be terrible since I took a "day off") -

Steps in: 5,893 (2.38 miles)

Food: VFB was sliced apples and baby carrots. For second breakfast, I had Blueberry Banana Breakfast Cobbler (Blueberries, banana, oats, vanilla extract, sliced almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes). I did not eat lunch as I was not hungry. For dinner, I had a black bean burrito and power veggie bowl from Taco Bell.

Weight this morning: 172.2 pounds

Hi Stasia.

Impressive - healthy foods and walking and weight loss.

I've totally gotten out of the habit of posting here. So here's a state-of-the-Arlie summary.

- I'm eating better than I ever did while I was still working. A couple of days ago I even made minestrone from scratch.
- But not as well as would be ideal. Yesterday's meals included both a bowl of that minestrone, and a slice of pizza. And potato chips remain my go-to source to replenish salt in hot weather.
- The heat is interfering with exercise, particularly cardio (walking). By the time I'm awake enough to want a walk (which takes a couple of hours, and a couple of caffeinated beverages) it's often too hot, or too hot for a long walk.
- I usually at least manage to walk the dog in the late evening, but that's nothing like a brisk walk.
- I'm doing better with strength/flexibility exercises, mostly doing them indoors well after 10 PM.
- The above has added up to a chronic, low intensity backache. I am so done with that, but it's not done with me.
- On the good side, my bad knee is behaving, and my bad shoulder is improving, though slowly.
- I have still somehow managed to avoid catching covid. Or if I've had it, it was so mild I didn't even bother to test.
- I got my second covid booster last week, and slept for much of the following day.

>85 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen!

>86 ArlieS: I love the state-of-the-Arlie summary. I am glad to know that your bad knee and shoulder are improving. I am doing all of my walking indoors these days as the heat here is ridiculous too, so I completely understand.

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 16,700 steps (6.74 miles)

Food: VFB was 1 pound steamed Brussels sprouts. Second breakfast was Black Bean Quinoa Soup (Onions, green pepper, garlic, tomato, cumin, chili powder, black beans, quinoa, lime juice, and kale). Lunch was Teriyaki Mushroom Moo Shoo (California Balsamic Teriyaki vinegar, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and angel hair cabbage). For dinner, I had leftover Mexican Lentil Casserole and cauliflower.

Weight this morning: 172.8 pounds

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 17,455 (7.05 miles)

Food: VFB was a pound of steamed cauliflower. Second breakfast was Vegan Quinoa Breakfast Porridge with Strawberries (Quinoa, almond milk, strawberries, cinnamon, topped with hemp hearts). I did not eat lunch yesterday as I was not hungry. For dinner, Kerry and I went to a local Mexican restaurant where I had chips and salsa, vegetable fajitas, Mexican rice and beans.

Weight this morning: 172.9 pounds

To my astonishment yesterday, I topped 16000 steps. And I did get below 130 three times in the last week; even if the first time was because of a ferocious allergy attack, it was nice to see.

>90 ffortsa: Good going, Judy! Congratulations.

Yesterday's data -

Steps in: 18,391 (7.45 miles)

Food: VFB was a pound of steamed broccoli. Second breakfast was a baked Japanese sweet potato. For lunch, I had Creamy Vegan Dill Pickle Salad (Mixed greens, chickpeas, grape tomatoes, cucumber, and dill pickles, with a dressing of cashews, water, nutritional yeast, dill pickles, dill, onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper). Dinner last night was (sigh), Pizza.

Weight this morning: 173.9 pounds
My weight has gone up by 2.3 pounds over the past week, but I am not too worried about it. The program that I use, Diet Power, calculates my metabolic rate for me and adjusts the calorie allowance for every day - and it did not like the fact that I lost too much weight the first week. However, I admit that the pizza certainly did not help!

My weekly Fitbit report:

92,420 total steps (37.37 total miles)
406 total active zone minutes

What are active zone minutes?

>94 ffortsa: It is, as near as I can tell, the time I am actually active - not sitting in a chair or reading or something like that. According to the Fitbit website, they are the minutes spent in any heart-pumping activity. The Fitbit has a default goal of 150 minutes per week of moderate activity.

I've been absent for a while - I was in the summerhouse and I don't bring my laptop there so couldn't do my step calculations.
So a bit of catching up:
The week of 27 June - 3 July I walked just over 108 000 steps, equaling 54 km. That takes the total up to 1166 km and means I've made it to the German mainland.

The week of 4 July - 10 July I walked over 111 600 steps, which equals 55 km. On the Thursday, my mother and I joining our summerhouse neighbours on a hike along part of the High Coast Trail. It was great fun and I got eh chance to get to know people a bit when I previously mostly waved when walking by or talked about the weather and such. Our closest neighbour was the one who organized it (she's guided hikes before). I hope we can do something similar again!

Last week (11 July - 17 July) I walked a little over 100 000 steps, equalling just over 50 km. That takes my total up to 1271 km and means that during this week I'll be passing Berlin! I love Berlin so might have another bretzeln or two to celebrate.

I've also hiked a couple of mountains in the past few weeks - I'll write about that in another post.

As mentioned above, I've done some mountain-hiking.
First off, I decided, on a whim, to walk up to Rödåsen (Red Ridge) - one of the mountains that flanks one of my favourite walking routes at the summerhouse (there are SO MANY mountains there). The mountain has two peaks, Rödåsen which is the one I walked up, and Velberget (which I'm trying to figure out the etymology of). On the picture below, Rödåsen is the one on the right. It looks smaller than the other peak in the photo, but is actually more than 30 meters higher. The other photo is the only decent photo of the view I could get. The top is the mountain in covered with trees so I couldn't get any photos from the very top, but this is part of the view on the way down (maybe 20 meters below the peak). You can just about make out part of a small peninsula in the mist (behind the two islands) - behind the spruces on the right is open sea.



And then there was the hike up to Valkallen (according to a tourist guide the name is a reference to fire beacons (think the beacon of Minas Tirith in LOTR)) with my mother and our neighbours. We were seven women who trekked up the mountain, down the other side, across some woodland and then across many, many stones on the shingle beaches. My ankles were a little bit unhappy with that last bit but it was all good. We had the best possible weather (sunshine but not too hot) and it was one of the best excursions I've been on. I didn't get a photo of the mountain from "the ground" but below is a pic from the top. In the first one, you can see the High Coast Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe (and until the Öresund Bridge was built, the tallest man-made structure in Sweden). Yes, it is modelled after the Golden Gate. The water is the Ångerman River, one of the biggest rivers in the country (more than 100 km longer than the Thames) and the root of the name of the region: Ångermanland - "the land of the people of the deep fjord". The other photo is of the start of the shingle beach section of the hike.

Gorgeous country.

>96 PawsforThought: >97 PawsforThought: Congratulations on all the walking and hiking, Paws, and in such beautiful surroundings too!

>97 PawsforThought: It all looks great Paws. Your walking and the surroundings you have been walking in.

Well, last week was pretty much of a bust for me what with my father's hospitalization and all, plus I had a terrible weekend eating foodwise. I am very much of a moody eater (just like I am a moody reader), so the goal of getting down to 158 by Labor Day is likely not to happen. I am picking myself back up and getting back on track. I did get all my steps in yesterday (17,653, which is 7.21 miles) and did fairly well with my food too, so here we go again!

Weight this morning: 173.9

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 16,263 steps (6.62 miles)

Food - VFB was California Blend Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots). Second breakfast was Butternut Blueberry Breakfast (Butternut squash, blueberries, water, cinnamon). Dinner was Easy Banana Oat Blender Pancakes (Oats, bananas, baking powder, cinnamon, maple syrup, flax seed).

Weight this morning: 172.8 pounds

Your breakfasts are so healthy, Stasia. I'm not a morning person so rolling out of bed and pouring myself the same bowl of cereal I've had since before I got married is about my strength. I do make an effort to make it somewhat healthy so it's Sultana Bran mixed with (currently) Vanilla Almond Special K, though it used to be Nut Clusters when those existed. It's my fibre for the day, at least. It's a bit of a pain finding the right cereal to mix since I can't eat instant oats/ muesli/ granola for some reason. ('Scuse brand names; it's easier than trying to explain it.)

After my London trip last month, my weight finally dipped below 60kg (yet) again. I haven't started walking again, partly because the boys have been at home in the mornings. However, from tomorrow we're expecting a stream of visitors who'll be staying with us and by the time the last of them leave, my birthday will be around the corner so holding the weight down could be a problem. My husband's stated motto is 'no-one will go hungry in our house' which he interprets by supplying all kinds of treats.

>86 ArlieS: I was reading an article in the local national paper about a company that turns 'ugly' vegetables (the non-uniform ones not picked by supermarkets for their vegetable shelves) into crisps, which are healthier than potato crisps. Might be worth looking for something like that?

>90 ffortsa: Woo woo!

>97 PawsforThought: She walked up a mountain on a whim *casts eyes up in amazement/ despair*. I still haven't got enough momentum up to walk out of the front door. Beautiful countryside.

>101 alcottacre: Sorry to hear that Stasia.

>103 humouress: My vegetables for breakfast are mostly dead easy, Nina. I just pop packages of frozen veggies into the microwave, lol.

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 17,270 (7.04 miles)

Food - VFB was 1 pound each of broccoli and cauliflower. Second breakfast was leftover Butternut Blueberry Breakfast (Butternut squash, blueberries, water, cinnamon). Lunch was Strawberry Arugula Salad. Dinner was *sigh* pizza. I cannot seem to get that monkey off my back.

Weight this morning: 173.1 pounds

I woke up this morning with my left hip screaming. Not sure how much walking is going to get done today.

>104 alcottacre: You have my sympathy on the hip. It's so annoying when our bodies interfere with our attempts to help them. I hope this time it's something that gets better with walking; some of my backaches are like that.

>105 ArlieS: Yeah, it is not letting me get a lot done today. It is not getting better with the walking today, unfortunately. If I get to 10,000 steps today, I will be happy. I am sorry to hear that your backaches are giving you trouble, Arlie.

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 12,338 (4.97 miles)

Food - VFB was a pound of cauliflower and Slow-Simmered Collard Greens (Collard greens, onions, garlic, salsa, water, vegetable broth, black pepper). Second breakfast was No Cook Strawberry To Go (Oats, chia seeds, strawberries, almond milk). Lunch was a Mediterranean Greek Salad (Salad greens, sliced red pepper, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives). Dinner was Smoky Hoppin' John (Black-eyed peas, onions, red pepper, celery, garlic, rice, vegetable broth, water, smoked paprika, and freshly ground black pepper).

Weight this morning: 171.9 pounds

I woke up with the left hip barking at me again today. I am really cutting back the walking today and concentrating on getting some reading done!

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 8,530 steps (3.44 miles)

Food - VFB was 2 pounds of California Blend Veggies. Second breakfast was California Creamed Kale and Chickpeas (Cashews, hemp seeds, almond milk, baby kale, carrots, garlic, onion, and chickpeas). Lunch was Smoked Hickory Balsamic Grilled Portobello Mushrooms and a baked potato. For dinner, I had another baked potato and 12 ounces of green beans.

Weight this morning: 171.5 pounds

I knew the steps for yesterday were going to be horrible. I do not expect any different over the weekend. I need to let that hip to rest a few days.

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 16,561 (6.7 miles)

Food - VFB was a Spinach & Green Apple Salad (Baby spinach and diced green apple with a dressing of cider vinegar and dijon mustard). Second breakfast was Carrot & Pineapple Oatmeal (Shredded carrots, frozen pineapple, almond milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla extract, oats). For lunch, I did something I almost never do and had a sandwich. My only excuse is that I was not feeling well yesterday at all. I did not eat any dinner.

Weight this morning: 168.7 pounds
Weight gained/lost since last Tuesday: -5.2 pounds

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 16,288 (6.59 miles)

Food - VFB was a Strawberry Arugula Salad. Second breakfast was Protein-Packed Breakfast Quinoa Bowl (Almond milk, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, quinoa, maple syrup, sunflower seeds, blueberries, chia seeds). I did not eat lunch yesterday as I was up late and ate it for my dinner instead - my Healthy Taco Salad.

Weight this morning: 166.4 pounds

Well, back from the airport after seeing my BIL and nieces off for a side trip. As predicted, my weight has been climbing again although I did manage to start walking again (rather, I took Jasper out once this week).

I did go for a yoga class and took both nieces; they've been allergic to the idea before because their mum teaches yoga as a hobby but I suppose, since she wasn't there, the pressure was off. Hopefully, it's an introduction and they can do it together without her being the teacher. Nothing much else to report except I need to find egg free (and possibly also gluten free) recipes for when they're back in town.

>111 humouress: I can make a couple of suggestions for egg-free recipes, Nina: instead of eggs for baked goods, you can either make flax eggs (https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/flaxseed-meal-egg-replacer/) or you can use a product called Ener-G Egg Replacer. I have no idea how difficult either flax seed or Egg Replacer might be to find in Singapore though. Are you looking for breakfast, lunch, or dinner recipes with no eggs?

Glad to see you back walking again and kudos on the yoga for both you and your nieces!

>112 alcottacre: Thanks! (on all counts)

>113 humouress: I am happy to help! We are all in this together.

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 14,837 (5.97 miles)

Food - VFB was a pound of broccoli. Second breakfast was Creamy Purple Cauliflower Porridge. I had an Asian Greens Salad (Greens, broccoli florets, shredded carrots with a dressing of tahini, tamari, rice vinegar, maple syrup and fresh ginger). I was so tired by dinner that I had Kerry get me an Impossible Whopper.

Weight this morning: 167.0 pounds

I am having issues this week, so I am giving myself a day off from the walking. Hopefully things will be better for me today.

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 12,134 (4.87 miles)

Food - VFB was a pound of broccoli. Second breakfast was Japanese sweet potatoes. I did not eat lunch as i was not hungry, but by the time dinner rolled around I was starving and opted for, you guessed it, my Achille's heel: pizza. *sigh*

Weight this morning: 168.9 pounds

>115 alcottacre: I hope things are looking up.

I did a boxing session today; my younger son is keen on boxing and wants to get in the ring. I'm going along partly as taxi service and partly for the exercise though I'm not so sure about getting in the ring myself. Having said which, the folks we train with have just moved into new digs with a (mini) ring so I had my first instructions on techniques in the ring today. But I have a (stupid) eczema-related skin issue and right now my hands are a bit sensitive so I elected to work out without boxing gloves on and I didn't come away drenched in sweat as usual so I probably didn't get as full a workout as I could have. Though I stepped on the scales after we got home and they were down rather than up.

Ah, vacations with foodies are not friendly to my waistline. In spite of several long walks, I'm up about 3 lbs. since last Wedensday. Oh well. I was reasonably cautious, but ice cream and other desserts do add up.

>117 humouress: The boxing session sounds cool!

>118 ffortsa: Yeah, they do, but the good thing is that they can come back off again.

>118 ffortsa: And it's important to enjoy your holiday, don't forget :0)

Yesterday's data:

Steps in - 16,931 (6.84 miles)

Food - VFB was a pound of steamed Brussels sprouts. Second breakfast was baked potatoes, vegan mushroom gravy, and green beans. For lunch, I had a Luna bar (this is not a recommended lunch, lol) and for dinner I had baked sweet potatoes and applesauce.

Weight this morning: 170.6 pounds
Weight gained/lost since last Tuesday: +1.9 pounds

Once again today I am having issues with my legs, specifically with my right knee. We will see how much walking I get done today.

Hi again. Been a while, but I'm back to work now so posting will probably be more regular from now on.

The week of 18-24 July I walked just over 109 000 steps, almost 55 km.
The week of 25-31 July I walked a little over 102 000 steps, which is just over 51 km.
Last week, 1-7 August, I walked a bit over 101 000 steps, just under 51 km.

This takes my total to 1428 km and have come as far as Tettau, Brandenburg. I passed my beloved Berlin a couple of weeks ago and next week I should have passed Dresden.

Less walking that the earlier part of the summer, but still over my daily target every day. This is the time of year when I normally spend a lot of time out in the woods, but the plan is normally to be squatting down among berries and/or mushrooms rather than walking. Hopefully there will be enough of both this year.

And on Sunday I decided to kill two birds with one stone so wen I was out picking blueberries I decided to hike up one of the mountains nearby. Mycklingsberget ("Great Meadow Mountain") is 205 meters high. My hands were stained purple so I didn't want to pull my phone out to take a picture but it's the mountain on the left hand side in the photo of the lake in >21 PawsforThought:. I stepped into a hole in the ground while picking blueberries so managed to twist my ankle. Luckily I was wearing (tightly laced) sturdy boots so my foot was well-supported. It hurt for a bit but was almost completely find by the time I went to bed.
And I managed to scrounge up 5-6 litres of blueberries so that's good (but it very apparent that this year is far from as good a blueberry year as 2020 and 2021 were). I tried drying half of it, which took forever but I think went well enough. The rest is going in the freezer.

>122 PawsforThought: Glad to see you again, Paws! I have been blueberry picking before and ended up scratched, hot, and purple by the time I was done, but I love fresh blueberries so it was worth it in the end.

Sounds like the walking is going great. Congratulations!

>123 alcottacre: Thank you!
I come from a family of foragers, and every year from July through November (yes, even if there’s snow) there is a huge focus on picking berries and mushrooms. We have so much that I often joke that should the apocalypse come tomorrow we could survive for weeks just off the dried mushrooms my parents have in the basement.

I think our blueberries are different from yours - ours are smaller, have a strong purple/blue colour all the way through (which really sticks, my nails are still partly purple even though it’s been three days since I handled them) and have a stronger flavour. American blueberries are sold in shops here, but people mostly use them for decorative purposes.

>124 PawsforThought: Hi Paws! Yours are not the same as the American Blueberries. Good for you to be able to pick so much from nature. Your blueberries (billberries according to the article here: https://www.swedishfood.com/blueberries
Can be found in Holland as well. But not in my part of the country, for us it’s blackberry time. I’ll be picking those in my allotment garden tomorrow I hope.

You are doing wonderful, all those walking distances. I’m still struggling whith back pain and fatigue. Found a good book about how to deal with this a bit more systematically. For pain she advises to measure the distance you can walk without pain three times, take the mean, and then subtract 20%, in order to have a safe starting point. Today I walked just 2500 steps without pain. Yuck. But it sounds like a good method and I am going to try it.

>125 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Yes, European blueberries are also called bilberries. We have a right to free roam here so are allowed to walk almost wherever we please (not private gardens, industrial sites, etc.) and pick flowers, berries and mushrooms to our heart's delight as long as they're not endangered. I love it.
We get the occasional blackberry plant up here, but they're quite rare and I don't think they taste very much - don't know if that's because of the latitude or if all blackberries are like that. I hope you find lots of them in your allotment, though!

I'm sorry you're having such problems with pain. Being hindered because your body is protesting is awful. The method you've found sounds reasonable - always good to start at a level you can handle and then take it slow.

>126 PawsforThought: Roam around freely, that’s great. A large country, with lots of nature, and less people. Holland’s the opposite. But in blackberry season people do roam through the sand dunes behind the coast, because that’s the place where most blackberries grow. People with small buckets, there would be no keeping them off. No taste would be probably the latitude, though there are different kinds of blackberry and some taste a lot better than others.

>124 PawsforThought: I never knew there was a difference between American and European blueberries. You learn something new every day! When I buy blueberries here, I buy the wild ones if I can get hold of them. I prefer their flavor.

getting back on the horse, so to speak, after my foodie friends vacation. Today so far I've walked12,200 steps on a gorgeous day here in NYC, and will probably add a few more as the day goes on. Salmon dinner tonight.

>129 ffortsa: Good going, Judy!

Currently, I am off the horse and it is trampling all over me. . .

Hi all,

I meant to update on Monday but it's been a busy week at work.
Last week was my first back at work, but because the trains and busses were still on summer schedule I worked from home. That meant I really had to put an effort in to reach my daily step count goal. It was close a few times, but I did manage it.
In total, I walked a bit over 97 000 steps, equaling almost 40 km. This takes my total up to 1477 km and means I've now walked as far Wilsdorf - just south of Dresden. I'd love to visit Dresden in real life - it's on my list of cities to travel to "some day". Dresden also makes me think of Kurt Vonnegut, who I ought to read more works by.

>131 PawsforThought: Congratulations on making your step goal, Paws!

I found a very good book about dealing with fatigue and pain (in Dutch, unfortunately) It explains the connections and how these things work in the body. When they become a chronic condition, and it’s very helpful to understand more about them. The writer also gives a method to deal with it all.
I’m enthusiastic but doing and keeping up with doing those steps will be the hard part. Step one is to take time during the day for resting. Twenty minutes, lying down, not doing anything but resting. Now is that hard or isn’t it?

>133 EllaTim: It can be very hard.

12,000 steps so far today, helped by my usual group walk in the park. But it's hot out there, and again I'm unusually tired. Probably need to hydrate more. OTOH, I'm down below 130 lb again. Yay!

>134 ArlieS: For me too!

>133 EllaTim: >134 ArlieS: I find it easy to stay in bed resting comfortably - until I get up. If I can break away from my MAC and get in the comfy chair it helps a lot. I just motor myself to almost reclining and it's like being held up in just the right position to read.

Quite an active week for me last week as I don't have a ride to/from the train station now and thus have to walk to the bus-get the bus into town-walk from the bus stop to the train station. Adds a few steps per day. To balance this, on Saturday I very nearly didn't reach my target because it was pouring down rain almost all day (and the time it was not raining I was in the garden trying to harvest before more rain fell). Took a short walk in the rain and came home with very wet feet.
Altogether I walked over 117 000 steps, which is just under 59 km. That takes my total up to 1536 km and to the town of Bečov in the western part of the Czech Republic.

I am so happy to see that people are continuing to pursue their goals. One of these days I will be back to it!

>139 alcottacre: You will get back to it when you can!

I've lost 52 pounds and except for a sprained ankle that put me out of commission for one full week and last Friday when it acted up again, have been working out 30 minutes on a treadmill 3 times a week. I'm down 2 pants sizes and one blouse/shirt size. Mind you, I was popping out of those sizes, so it's really more like down 3 and 2.

Congrats to everybody who puts in so many steps - I'm absolutely in awe.

>141 karenmarie: Wow! Well done, Karen!

I thought I might lose a little bit of weight but so far I've stayed the same - might change now that I'm walking a few more thousand steps a day that previously. Mind you, I don't really need to lose weight and it might be that I'm losing body fat and gaining some muscles. We'll see if there is a difference in size when I start wearing my more winter-y clothes again.

>142 PawsforThought: I find if I don't walk at least 10,000 steps I go nowhere with my weight, no matter what I eat or when. Discouraging, as I don't always have the time to get those steps in. Today I'm at 8867 steps, but a difficult day, with an MD appointment in the morning, a violin lesson out in Brooklyn in the afternoon, followed by an emergency visit to my dentist. No bad news, thank goodness, but still not perfectly comfy. Tomorrow I get to see the dental hygienist out of cycle to try to clear things up, and Friday an orthodontist to see if that kind of work can close some of the increasing gaps in my otherwise not-so-bad teeth. It's good the teeth are solid, but I do have to hold on to them.

And my back has been sounding the you-are-not-doing-your-exercises alarms, so I've been doing some of that. Nothing like doing sit-stand reps while waiting in the ophthalmologist's office to make efficient use of my time.

Well, I am trying to get back on the horse again starting today. With all the stress lately, my weight has just skyrocketed. I am not going to try and get 16000 steps a day while I am just getting back at it, but I am going to shoot for 10000 at least for the first week or so.

Last week was fairly good even though I only just managed to reach my daily goal on Saturday (family visiting so more sitting around and eating rather than walking). Altogether I walked just over 118 000 steps, which equals 59 km. That takes my total to 1536 km and means I am still wandering around the western parts of the Czech Republic. By next week I should be in the vicinity of Plzeň.

I have had some knee pain lately, which I suspect is because I've been wearing a pair of shoes that are a little bit elevated at the back and there have been days when I've had to hurry to/from the bus/train. And I haven't done any knee strength training for months and months. I should do the exercises I've been given.

Well, I've been rather lazy. If I break my exercise routine, I have to overcome a lot of inertia to get back into it. It's not so much doing the exercise as getting going. I have gone back to boxing once a week, now that my younger son (whose new passion it is) is back to going again. So my weight is still hovering around the same spot with a very slight downward tendency.

I did make a rather nice tomato, bread and chicken salad which I've been eating for dinner - I got a bit overenthusiastic and made double but then only my older son and I have been eating it and I don't want to let it go to waste. I also made a cold tomato soup for dinner last week. The thinking is to eat light at night. I've always wanted to but dinner is the only meal we're all at home for (on most days) and especially since the kids (now just my younger son) don't eat a proper meal at school, it's usually something reasonably substantial, like pasta. Now the kids have decided to eat 'more healthily' - apart from their cheat meals, that is - so I might make some progress.

I'd really like to lose another 5kg. I suspect, though, that the first thing to happen when I do start exercising is that fat converts to muscle (I can dream) which is denser so I might get fitter but not lose much weight. Since that's my marker, it's not very motivating. Ah well; my parents are due in tomorrow night. Maybe I can persuade my dad to walk with me.

Last week was okay - I'm having a harder time getting out for a walk during lunch because there's a group of us who solve crosswords during lunch and I have a hard time leaving that.
I managed 109 000 steps, which is a little over 54 km. That takes the total up to 1590 and I'm still in the western parts of the Czech Republic.

This week is fairly standard but next week I'll be away for work so we'll see how things go step-wise. Hopefully won't be too bad - I should be able to sneak in a walk here and there.

Yesterday I did NO walking at all. Luckily I maintained my weight loss, but that might be because I'm having some digestive issues and I doubt anything is hanging around for long! (TMI?). It's raining today (and boy do we need it), but I hope to get out or get to the gym to keep moving.

Hi everyone,

Last week was fine and I managed a bit over 112 000 steps, which is just over 56 km. That takes my total up to 1646 km. I'm still wandering around the western parts of the Czech Republic but now I've passed Plzen and am nearing the border.

My mum and I walked up to the lake (in >21 PawsforThought:) on Friday because she wanted to show me a mushroom place she'd found. Yummy, yummy horn of plenty (or black chanterelle or whatever you wish to call them). It was a decent workout - first walking up there (and the walk up is brutal) and then wandering around mossy woods.
This week I'm going on a work trip and will be sitting still an awful lot so it might be a challenge to get the steps in. We'll see.

I had to go up early to one of my dentists today, so I took the opportunity in the cool morning to walk home, and clocked over 8000 steps. Coupled with normal walking around, I'll probably hit 10,000 today. Maybe I can get off the 129.5 lb rung that I'm stuck on.

A friend of mine sent me an article, from CNN, on the results of a recent study of walking, promoting 'breathless' speeds and the famous 10,000 steps. So I asked her when she was ready to go (she really needs it and she knows it). We have our first excursion on Thursday. I'd love it if she paid more attention to exercise. That way she may be around for a good while.

Last week worked out fairly well, despite my work trip. In fact, I managed to log one of my best days of the year during my trip (a couple of unexpected hours off used to walk around the Botanical Gardens and some shopping took me over 23 000 steps on Thursday). I did manage to catch a cold so was fairly exhaused on the weekend and only just managed the daily 13 000 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Oh, well - I made it. And no more work trips until November!
In total I walked a bit over 110 000 steps which is just over 55 km. That takes my accumulated walking distance to 1701 km and I've now crossed the border from the Czech Republic back into Germany.

Checking in again. My weight is still bunny hopping and I was going to report a downward tendency. My older son has decided that soup for dinner is the way and my parents prefer to eat light so it was looking good for a while. I've been trying out recipes and making double so I can freeze half; so far I've tried mushroom soup, cold tomato and basil soup and pumpkin and peanut butter soup and I've made a cold carrot and orange soup but we haven't had a chance to try it yet.

However, having my parents around means more treats at tea-time or adventurous trying out new foods plus a few dinners out especially as my birthday is around the corner but only my younger son looks likely to be around for it. As you can imagine, I'm a bit put out, so everyone is trying to pacify me :0) So I'm currently going back uphill again. (Also, no luck so far on getting my dad to walk with me.)

I did well last week, despite having the mother of all colds (not covid - I tested) with next to no energy and joint pain in the knees for several days. I still managed a bit over 111 000 steps, which is a bit over 55 km. That takes my total up to 1756 km and I'm wandering around Bayern, Germany.

If I keep up this pace I'll have reached my goal in about six weeks.

Last week I managed to walk a little over 104 000 steps, which is just over 52 km. That takes my total up to 1808 and I'm now in the northwestern corner of Austria and will have passed Salzburg by this time next week. Maybe I should listen to some Mozart to celebrate?

I've been very inactive on here the past few weeks (and it seems I'm not the only one). I've still been walking, but I've been so busy at work that I've forgotten to update my stats.
So here are the stats for the past three weeks.

The week starting 3 October I walked a bit over 100 000 steps, equaling just over 50 km. That took my total up to 1858 km.

The week starting 10 October I walked just over 112 000 steps, which is just over 56 km. That took my total up to 1914 km.

And last week (starting 17 October) I walked a bit over 105 000 steps, which is just under 53 km. That takes my total up to 1967 km, which means I'm now standing on the birder between Austria and Italy. Only 137 km left to walk!

My nutritionist/weight loss counsellor made a plan to get me through the latest plateau, but of course I immediately blew it yesterday, starting out well but not getting my afternoon walk in as I was scheduled to do. Oh well. Now I think I have a sinus infection, which seems to be the dominant ailment these days. Phooey.

A bit late but better than the last update.
I got hit with a pretty bad case of the common cold last week so only just managed to hit my goal every day.
In total, I walked just over 101 000 steps, which is a bit over 50 km. That takes my total up to 2017 km and I only have 87 km left until Venice!

Ah, the common cold. Not so common for me, but I got hit too last week.

This week it's all dental issues. Had a tooth crowned, but still hurting. Probably will see my dentist again this week. It's a bit of a puzzle, because it feels like I need a root canal procedure but nothing shows on x-rays. But he's a good dentist and will pursue or refer as needed.

I've been concentrating more on walking each day. Keeping above the 6000 step mark this week on all four previous days, and will be walking again just after noon. I see it in my weight loss (slow, but in the right direction) - although some of that can be attributed to the dental issues, of course.

Nothing to report here. I did make a resolution after my birthday for a more structured approach to exercising but I'm still waiting for it to take effect.

Last week was another so-so-week of reaching my goal each day but not much else. I've been feeling much better, but having the nephew, and later also brother and SIL visiting (it was autumn break for schools last week) meant I wanted to spend more time at home.
Still I managed just over 100 000 steps, which is just over 50 km. That takes my total up to 2067 km and means I'm only 37 km away from my final goal. I will reach that before the end of this week! I will of course keep walking even after this, but not really with a specific goal in mind. I checked on a map and it's 105 km from Venice to Verona, and 185 from Verona to Florence. I think I'll see how far I get on those trips before the end of the year - it should be doable if I keep the same daily goals as I have now.

I did it!

Last week I walked just over 106 000 steps, which equals just over 53 km. That takes my total up to 2120 km and that means I've walked 16 km past my goal of walking to Venice. From now on until the end of the year, I just want to see how far I'll come. It'd be great if I can make it to Florence via Verona, but if not it's fine.

And then I'm going to prepare for next year's walking goal - walking along the track of the Orient Express (Istanbul to Paris) - I haven't quite decided on which measurement to use for the distance (as the crow flies, vs actual rail distance), but I have time to decide.

so the somewhat belated news is that I broke my thumb! I fell a week ago Friday (stupid, walking while texting), broke my phone, skinned my shin right through my jeans. My thumb hurt, but I figured it was bruised and would heal. Last Thursday I saw a hand specialist who kindly explained to me that I'd broken it! Clear evidence on the x-ray. What to do? Well, nothing much, no splint required, no displacement of any account. Just don't hit it before it heals.

It's amazing to find out how much a right-handed person uses her left thumb.

>162 ffortsa: Ow! That sounds very unpleasant.

>162 ffortsa: Ouch Judy. This sounds very painful. I hope healing progresses quickly.

Thanks for the sympathy. I can still play the violin in my chamber group, because we are working on a piece that doesn't require any high positions on the fingerboard (that's the only time a violinist legitimately uses the left thumb). Yesterday's workshop went ok, but today the thumb is complaining. Oh well. Breaking the right thumb would have been worse.

Last week was pretty busy. I was in Stockholm for work so lots of walking around both in airports and in the city. I walked just over 111 000 steps, which is about 55 km. That takes my total up to 2175 km.

This week is going t be tougher, partly because I caught a cold from my trip last week and partly because my department is going away for two days so I'll be sitting down a lot tomorrow and Thursday. I'll do my best to walk around any chance I get but it'll be difficult to even hit my target and I fear I might get knee pain from all the sitting. And Friday is an all-day meeting (which I'm secretary for) so more sitting. Can't wait for this week to be over.

>161 PawsforThought: Well done!

>162 ffortsa: I'm sorry to hear that. Take care, don't hit your thumb and I hope it heals soon.

For myself, nothing much to report. I'm still hovering around the same weight, but just a touch lower although it's still (slightly) up and down on a daily basis. But for the next couple of weeks even the little exercise I do will be reduced as I took the second booster (with the global pandemic, it's a bit sad that I'm assuming everyone knows what I mean). I did look into starting swimming sessions again, but I will need to buy a swimsuit first and make sure I look presentable in it. After my two weeks.

This statement may seem ridiculous, but I HATE being sick. We had a difficult family visit in Florida to attend a funeral, among other things, and came back in time for Thanksgiving, at which I stuffed myself with even more than my usual zeal, and now I have gastritis (I think), which is doing wonders for my weight loss but makes me miserable. Add to that a sort of physical and emotional exhaustion. The last few days I spent almost entirely in bed, sleeping. This had better end soon.

Hi Judy, I understand the joy of losing weight, and the dismay of gaining. I'm sorry to hear that you took a spill and are hurting.

Your statement isn't ridiculous. Being in pain is simply miserable. I hope you are better soon.

>168 ffortsa: Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Being sick is, frankly, the pits. Hoping you recover soon.

Last week was, as I had feared, not great as I had a two-day conference with accompanying bus rides. Lots of sitting down and very few breaks. I just about managed to get my daily goal each day. At least there was a spa at the conference hotel so I got to sit in a hot tub for a bit and swam a little bit before hitting the sauna. I really want to get a membership to the public pool when I move.
I at least managed just over 101 000 steps, which is just under 51 km. That takes my total up to 2226 km. That means I've now passed Verona and am now on the way to Florence, with 168 km left to go (and 34 days to do it).

>171 PawsforThought: Good for you for taking so many steps! Your inspiration to join a public pool when you move reminds me to do the same. The warm sauna and hot tub are very relaxing.

>172 Whisper1: Swimming is such a good form of exercise (even though I'm not a good swimmer) that I really want to get going with that.

Saunas are very common here, and we actually have one at home but it's currently being used for storage and that can't change at the moment. I hope that wherever I move to will have a communal sauna - it's not uncommon for buildings built pre-2000s. I would very much appreciate being able to use the sauna on a regular basis even when not at the pool.

>168 ffortsa: No, it's definitely no fun.

>171 PawsforThought: Sounds good. Doesn't a public pool mean that you don't have to become a member?

I was chatting to the swimming coach at the club where she taught my kids to swim and where my eldest son now coaches on and off since doing so for his IB community service. I promised to go back to swimming though I took the booster last week and have to have 2 weeks of taking it easy (such a hardship for me). But I did go out and buy a swimsuit today - my old ones don't quite fit anymore.

>174 humouress: You don't have to be a member to visit the pool (or rather, small water park, because it's an indoor place with slides, hot tubs and other things. The Swedish term is "badhus", literally "bath house"). But you have to pay an entrance fee, and it's much cheaper to get a multiple visit discount card or a subscription plan. That's what I was referring to.

I should get a new swimsuit too - I have one which is in good condition, but it'd be nice to have two if I'm going to be swimming regularly. No hurry, though.

This November has been the pits. My gastritis is easing off, but I seem to have injured my left eye - corneal abrasion - badly enough that I couldn't open my eyes in the light yesterday. My eye specialist diagnosed it, said it would heal, and gave me some preventative antibiotics in the meantime. But really. I've been ignoring my best health routines for a few weeks now, and this added on is - well, like a thumb in the eye. Time to reform.

Last week was another instance of only just reaching my target every day, and the first time in quite a while that I didn't reach 100 00 steps - only just over 94 000. That equals 47 km. This takes my total up to 2273 km and I'm getting closer to Florence.

Kept my promise and went back to swimming last night, though it's been quite a while - maybe 5 years? - since I last went for swim training. But I know what happens if I try to overdo it so I didn't push too hard; I swam about half the number of laps that everyone else did or they'd have been waiting forever for me. But I learned a new technique for front crawl although implementing it was like trying to pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time, since each arm has to do something different. And I didn't feel too bad about taking it easy especially since the guy in the next lane said he did a marathon on Saturday and went wind surfing after that. So I agreed to go again next Monday but then we're off on holiday after that, though the pool will be closed for renovations anyway.

And, despite staying up to watch the World Cup matches (they show at 11pm and 3am for us) I woke up early (for me) so I took Jasper for a walk on Monday morning. Looking at the graph that my scales produce, it looks like my steepest weight loss was when I was walking him on most mornings a week.

In the meantime, my eczema related skin condition really aggravated me last month. It spread over most of the front of my hands, covering half of each palm and the top halves of most of my fingers. And then when it abated, the skin dried and flaked and of course I couldn't resist rubbing at it to try and get it off, which didn't help matters. But my GP suggested going easy on the steroid cream that eases the itch somewhat because I went to see him to ask why my wrists have developed a hump on their backs. He ruled out water retention and then suggested that the steroids might be causing fat deposits. So I've tried to stop using the cream but no definite change on the wrists yet.

>178 humouress: Urgh, excema is the pits. I have atopic eczema which primarily hits the backs of my hands. I've ruled out using steroid creams because they do as much harm as they do good. For me, the best thing is frequent application of a hand cream (though I often use a foot cream because the fat content is higher) with a high percentage of carbamide (mine is 10%).

I shall have to look up the effects of carbamide.

I'm using a hand cream (made by Garnier) I discovered when we lived in Australia; my hands really dry out in winter to the extent that my skin cracks. I had some left over but I had to order more via Amazon because it's not available here in the tropics. And I've added in some of the Body Shop's shea butter range - because I accidentally ordered the aloe vera rather than the shea butter hand cream and it doesn't seem as intense. I'm just throwing everything at it.

>178 humouress: I feel for your hand eczema issues. I and other family members have had what we called psoriasis on the hands and other body parts. I'm mostly OK these days, with a patch on my wrist that must not be scratched. I've years, decades really, of being used to not scratching it, but it was hard getting there and even thinking about it make me want to. My brother is still sorely afflicted.

>181 quondame: Thank you for the empathy. It's the awareness of it that makes it start clamouring for attention.

I think it's partly my fault for only being strong part of the time. When I'm not doing much - at the keyboard with periods of thinking, for instance - it's an automatic reaction to scratch. I resorted to wearing long sleeves, which helped a bit (but not easy in this tropical climate) and now I've bought fingerless gloves to try.

Well, I think I have to get myself a new pedometer. I bought a new one at the start of the year but accidentally broke the clip-on mechanism a couple of weeks ago, so I borrowed an older one from my mum and have been using that since. It has a better clip-on but it doesn't seem to register all my steps. It didn't register any steps I took this morning while walking to and from the bathroom, for instance. I think this might be connected to my low step count the past few weeks. Prices seem to be significantly higher than previously and the range more sparse so we'll see what I end up with.

In other news, I bought myself a pair of ice skates the other week. Mum and I popped by our favourite thrift shop and they just so happened to have a pair of barely used skates in the right size for a good price. I've been on the lookout (on-and-off, admittedly, I haven't been too active) for a new pair of skates for a couple of years, because my old ones are a size too small (I didn't realise this when I bought them!). Now I can actually have both insoles and woolly socks in them.
Now I've started looking for skis and skiing paraphernalia (cross country) because while I HATED skiing as a child, I've become more drawn to it the past few years.

>183 PawsforThought: How adventurous! I was never able to learn to ice skate, probably because I never took lessons and somehow blamed myself for falling down. Same with downhill skiing - I took one lesson and had an accident with the chairlift and that was that. But I did cross-country ski for a while - much more my preference. Not for years, though, and I'm sure I would have to work for a year to get up the stamina it requires. But of course it's what I should do anyway.

As for myself in the real world, I went to the dentist to get a permanent crown affixed, and in the process discussed how my bite feels off. He agreed and did some investigating and modified a couple of teeth. My teeth are moving forward, which happens with age, but they are getting out of alignment and I worry about a recurrence of my TMJ days. I may go back to the orthodontist who was a big discouraging about my big wants, but encouraging enough about my smaller ones. TMJ was really awful.

>184 ffortsa: I don’t know if I’d call it adventurous - ice skating and skiing are very common wintertime activities here, and it is properly winter now (it was -14° C today). And they’re great ways to be physically active in winter (skiing in particular).
I learnt to ice skate (and cross country ski, and swim) in school as it’s part of the curriculum here. If I remember correctly we had three weeks (six lessons) each of skiing and ice skating every year from first through ninth grade. I’ve found that now that I’m not forced to do things, I find them more appealing - skiing, swimming, orienteering, etc.

I’ve never heard about teeth moving with age. Sorry to hear it’s causing some issues.

>185 PawsforThought: Oh, I forgot you were in Sweden. Of course these activities are more common there! I had at least one lesson in how to properly ride a bicycle (not the mechanics, but the rules of the road, etc.) in primary school ages and ages ago. No swimming in school, although I wish there had been - I'd be better at it. Physical Education in the U.S., at least when I was in school, was pretty pitiful, being mainly about gym games and wherein the teachers were more interested in the girls who didn't need help than the ones who did.

>186 ffortsa: We had a bicycle “licence” lesson in middle school, where we had to prove that we could bike in a slalom course, immediately stop on demand and stay still on the bike without tipping over (and more that I can’t remember).
While I hated PE at school, I can’t really find much fault in it looking back. We got to do tons of things and try stuff we wouldn’t have otherwise.

>183 PawsforThought: >184 ffortsa: It's been years since I've skated, but I imagine it's one of those physical skills you never fit - though you may lose the needed muscular fitness.

I grew up in an area where every park had a skating rink in winter, and just about every child had skates - sometimes handed down from a succession of siblings and cousins. I don't remember learning to skate, let alone being taught - nor for that matter do I remember learning to swim. OTOH, trying to learn to roller blade in middle age was exciting - they are very similar to ice skates, except when they are not, and the NOT part involves things like stopping. I never did get to the point where I felt safe on them.

I completely forgot to add my numbers from last week. It wasn't a great week and my numbers were impacted by the fact that my replacement pedometer isn't as sensitive as the one that broke so it hasn't record all my steps. I've now bought a new one and have started using it so hopefully the numbers will improve.
Last week I (officially) walked a bit over 95 000 steps, adding 48 km to my total which has now reached 2321 km in total. That means I've just pasted Bologna on my way to Florence (via Venice and Verona).

Sigh. We spent some time in Saratoga Springs this week, meeting friends and getting away from our chores. Too much alcohol, too much food, not enough walking in rather miserable weather. So of course I've gained weight, which I hope to shed quickly now that we are home. My rather early New Year's resolution is to do my exercises, walk more, eat less, add more salad, be good to myself, pay attention.

Late again, this time updating for the previous two weeks.
The week of 12-18 December I walked just over 98 000 steps, equalling 49 km, taking my total up to 2370 km.

The week of 19-25 December I walked a bit over 94 000 steps, equalling 47 km which takes my total up to 2417 km. This means I've reached Florence (via Venice and Verona) and thus reached my (secondary) goal for the year. That also concludes my last full week of 2022. I will update the last week in due time.

I managed to catch something last week. Not sure it it's flu or a bad cold but I've been pretty down. Tested negative for covid so probably not that, at least. But it has developed into a sinus infection so I've been spending most of the past week either asleep or in a zombie-esque state. That combined with Christmas prep means my numbers are unimpressive. At least I reached my targets. And I'm feeling a bit better.

Anyone up for a similar thread for 2023? I know I'd love some company as I continue walking around Europe (this time along the route of the Orient Express!) and hopefully trying other things to improve my health and well-being.

Stasia and I have exchanged messages about that. I think it would be great to continue, but am looking for a thread shepard for it. If we do continue, I’ll post it on the group wiki and promote it in the new group.

Well, I finally got back on the walking horse about 2 weeks ago. I was targeting 10-12K steps a day and doing fairly well, giving myself the weekends off. And then I tripped 2 nights ago and have broken at least 1, possibly 2 of my toes. They are painful right now and it is hard to walk - I have not even tried to get my sneakers on. Hopefully they will heal quickly so that I can pick up the walking again.

As Jim indicated above, we will be having a similar thread in 2023. I will be curating it again and hopefully (there's that word again!) be able to get back into eating the right way. My daughter Beth and I are having a competition as to who can lose the most weight before our New Mexico trip in March :)

Ouch, sorry about your broken toe/s, Stasia! I hope it heals quickly.

Good to hear you’re going to be shepherding the 2023 thread. I look forward to seeing what everyone is planning for the new year (and what everyone actually ends up doing) - you have quite the competition with Beth!

>195 PawsforThought: Thanks, Paws. The entire upper half of my foot hurts but it is not quite as painful as it was yesterday, so I am hoping to get back to walking tomorrow.

I am looking forward to the competition with Beth. I think we will both be better for it!

>194 alcottacre: Yowch! I've never had a broken toe, but it sounds kind of miserable. I hope recovery is as fast and comfortable as it can be.

>194 alcottacre: So glad you're taking on the 2023 thread. And so sorry about the broken toes! Oy. Have a happy New Year's holiday in spite of them, and a great 2023.

>197 ArlieS: I have broken almost all of my toes at one point or another in my life, Arlie, and you are right - it is kind of miserable. The medical pros do not really do anything with broken toes, but let me tell you, pushing off to walk is a painful experience - and I still cannot get my shoes on yet.

>198 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy! I hope you have a great 2023 too!

Alright, the last numbers of 2022 and a roundup of the year in total.

The last week (well, six days) of the year went okay step-wise, especially considering that I wasn't feeling well. I hit my target every day except for New Years Eve, which was the first time since April that I didn't reach my target. But I did have a fever on New Years, so I'm not bothered. And I'd already reached both my goals for the year so it's really not of any consequence.
Last week I walked a little over 73 000 steps, equaling a bit over 36 km.
Over the course of this past year, I've added my stats to a spreadsheet to keep a more exact account of my walking. My total steps for 2022 is 5 041 226 (five million steps!). That equals 2520 km in total.
I'm quite pleased with my results for the year and am looking forward to the challenge in 2023.