I so want this.....

It's a diffuser from Saje Wellness, but at $60 it's quite expensive.  We have a store in the local mall and I just love all their products.

This one covers 200 - 300 square feet and it lasts for 3 hours, which is perfect for what we would want.  With the Fall season starting dh will be getting sick with his chest again and they have a diffuser blend oil called Immune:

The blurb says: Relieve symptoms of flu such as colds and cough by diffusing the therapeutic benefits of comforting eucalyptus, warming cinnamon and soothing myrrh.

It also comes in a part of a kit, which could be helpful:

So I think it would be good for dh's chest to have this next too him when he's watching tv on a night.  He has sleep apnea and wears a mask to sleep with, so it won't benefit him to have it running overnight, I don't think?  Does anyone else use a diffuser in their bedroom and uses a CPAP machine?

I find essential oils interesting and it's something I would like to learn more about.  Do you use essential oils and do you use them regularly and for what?

Loving my new tea cup....

I picked up this new cup the other week:

Got it from David's Tea and I love it.  It's such an efficient design and works a treat.  You can buy it here.

I love all sorts of tea, but one of my favourite teas is the Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait Tea.  

Doesn't it look yummy?  Tastes good as well.  I drink it as is.

They have just released the Harvest Collection for the Fall.  I am torn between the Pear Blossom or the Honeycrisp Apple, to try?  One looks as good as the other.

There is a deal on for a few days where you can buy a travel mug and 80g of tea for $35.  

This Beetroot travel mug seems to be calling my name!!!

Do you drink tea?  Loose leaf or bagged tea?  My everyday bagged tea is Tetley Orange Pekoe tea.  Dh's everyday tea is Earl Grey, which is the one tea I do not like at all.

This is not an affiliated post, I just happen to love David's Teas.

Easy Peasy Headband

All done and very happy with it.

There is really no pattern I just made it up.  I wanted a light weight headband for the Fall.  This is perfect for what I wanted.  

Needles US 5/3.75 mm
Leftover yarn, mine was a baby type, so nice and soft.  Any will do though, as gauge doesn't matter.

Cast on 28 stitches, and knit garter stitch (all knit........see told you it couldn't be simpler!!) until it measures around 18 inches; or goes around your head. Cast off.

Sew ends together.

Cast on 10 stitches and knit garter stitch until the piece measure the same as the height of the band.  Sew the ends together making sure the headband is in between it, see picture above.  I attached a couple of stitches to the actual headband so the "knot" stayed in the one place and I also made sure the "knot" covered where I had joined the ends of the headband together.

Not sure if any of that makes any sense at all?  If not correct me or ask me for more details....LOL

It's getting nippy cold in a morning........

well it is here in Southern Ontario.  Had to put a fleece jacket on yesterday morning, as the day before I couldn't feel my arms when I went for my morning walk.  Saw my breath in the air and all that good stuff.

I'm not complaining though this is my type of weather.  If it were like this year round I would be a happy camper.  Fall is my favourite time of year.

Ears were a bit cold though, so going to knit myself a headband to cover my ears until it is woolly hat weather.

Don't you hate those type of people who say, I'm just going to whip up this and that?"  I know I do😋

It would have been my Nana's 103rd birthday today, if she were still alive, she died August 25th 1986, much too soon.

Enjoy your Sunday.....

Death comes in three's.......

or so they say.

I was talking to a neighbour and she has had three deaths in the past week.  Luckily they are not human or animal deaths, they are car deaths.  Her car, her husband's car and their son's car.  

So a brand new Ford Escape and a brand new VW Jetta is sitting in their driveway, and their son is waiting delivery on an Audi of some sort.  Thankfully they have enough money to cover all these "death's."  Their son though is buying his own car.........

Expensive time for them.............

One of those weeks,

Just not feeling it with the walking, same with the eating.  So put on a couple of pounds and now only 18 pounds lost.

Anyhow, joined an exercise class in our community centre for old folks!!  Remember I live in an "Active Adult Community."  So everyone is over a "certain" age.  This class is held on a Tuesday and Thursday morning and it is FREE!!!  It is sponsored by the government I think, I will look into that and see what I can find as it may be in other communities as well.  It's to get older folk up and moving.

It is both seated and standing exercises and you do it at your own pace...............or so I thought!!!  Lets just say despite the fact I am the youngest participant; other than the trainer, I am not the fittest one in the group..........I AM SO NOT THE FITTEST IN THE GROUP.  Also the seated part of the exercises........well that's also a myth; we do, do a couple of seated exercises but they are mainly stood up.  I was pooped after yesterday's and I felt pain in places I didn't know existed.

She wanted us to do jumping jacks at one point.  I just looked at her and thought are you crazy.......but the woman opposite me who was probably in her 70's was doing them.  Fast marches that woman was bloody jogging???  The woman next to me was as bad, I swear they are on steroids some of these little old ladies.....LOL

There were a couple of times I just wanted to sit down, but the steroid ladies were going as fast as ever, so I didn't dare.  Now to be fair there are a number of participants who do sit down and do not do as much as the steroid ladies and do it at their own pace.  It was a good workout and a very worth while programme.  I will be going again, as it makes a change from walking and she concentrates on different parts of the body.  Plus I need to see if I can get as fit as the steroid ladies!!!

Busy Bee......

It seems to be all go at the moment, with one thing or another.  I did do this to the chalk board in the kitchen:

I can guess we all feel like doing this sometimes?

I purchased some walking/hiking poles from Mountain Warehouse.  These ones.  I had a go with them on Saturday and there is an art to using them I have discovered.  I got quite a workout.  I will have to keep practicing to get competent in using them.

Had a pretty good week with my walking.  My week is Sunday to Saturday and last week I did the following:

Miles Walked: 40.97
Steps Walked: 96,689
Minutes Exercised: 616
Floors Climbed: 173
Weight Lost: 0

I am not impressed with the weight loss, BUT I WILL NOT GIVE UP.  Onwards and upwards as they say!

Is Walking an expensive hobby?

It can be. However it doesn't have to cost you a penny, if you have a decent pair of walking shoes and comfortable clothes to wear.  After all, all you are doing is walking around your neighbourhood/trails/parks, which costs nothing.

As with everything in this day and age, even walking is getting technical and you can buy things to make your daily walking trips even better and more state of the art.

I have "sort of" fallen into that trap with my new Fitbit.  The last one I had was perfectly fine, but I wanted one with more bells and whistles.  So that cost me $226.00.  Money well spent as far as I am concerned, but pricey all the same.

I then spent $110 on a pair of decent walking shoes.  I could have put up with my other walking shoes, but as I need my feet to be in tip top condition while walking, it was money well spent.

Clothes to walk in.  I will say I have not fallen into that trap of buying fancy lycra leggings and tops to strut around in.  One, because I have perfectly good clothes to walk in and two, me and lycra are not the best friends.  You should be pretty thin to wear lycra.  When you have extra rolls of body fat you don't need to squeeze it into lycra so you look like a stuffed sausage!

I will say though I may invest in some fluorescent clothing soon, as the amount of times people have nearly ran me over.  I would love to say I am so skinny so they can't see me, but that is not the case, and as the mornings and nights are drawing in, it may be a wise investment.  Wal-Mart has a $6 yellow fluorescent man's t-shirt that I can pop over my current clothing!!  And yes I walk towards to traffic, so no excuse of me not seeing them either.

A popular item around here are Nordic Urban Poles

If you click on the link above it tells you more about them. It does say this in the information:

"These premium-quality Urban Poles are built for fitness and engineered for performance, safety and comfort. Burn up to 46% more calories than walking without poles, and easily strengthen your core with the help of our unique strapless ergonomic handle that engages your core muscles as you walk."

I haven't got them but will say they do look a handy thing to have when the weather gets icy and I know I have a weak posture.

A lot of people walk around with ear buds in listening to one thing or another to pass the time.  I have an ipod nano mini, that I have had for years, that I use occasionally:

Can you even get them now?  Mine is a red one.  I do like to let my mind wander when walking, so don't need music to keep me entertained.

Do you have things you need to have when walking?  Or things that are on your wish list?

Walking stats for Wednesday:

Miles Walked: 5.64

Steps Walked: 13,300

Minutes exercised: 86

Floors climbed: 22

How I have benefited from walking.

Yesterday I seemed to focus on the negative aspects of walking, today I will focus on the positive things that have happened since I have taken up walking.

1. My overall health has improved.
2. I have lost weight.
3. I am sleeping better.
4. I am meeting people; generally the same ones every day.  We always say a quick hello or a few words as we pass one another.
5. I am seeing more wildlife which is always a plus.  We have so many rabbits around here.
6. My leg muscles seem so much stronger with walking up and down the hills.
7. Although I still puff and pant I don't feel as though I am going to die after doing a three mile walk😎
8. With losing the weight and walking I have stopped taking one of my prescription pill's.  I am hoping to cut another one out in the next few months.

However with saying all that on Tuesday morning, my legs felt like a hundred pounds each.  I was having an off day, but did still manage to walk.  

My stats for Tuesday:

• Steps walked: 10,800
• Floors climbed: 19
• Minutes exercised: 57
• Miles walked: 4.58

We are half way through the month of August and I am "hoping" to lose another 6 lbs before the end of the month.  I seem to have reached a "plateau" at the moment and can't move over a certain weight; so I need every bit of encouragement I can get.

Is Walking Good For You?

In my humble opinion it is, but it's not without it's pitfalls.  My feet and legs took a beating when I first started walking.  

My first "injury" was a nasty blister on the bottom of my small toe on my left foot.  A couple of days after that popped up I had a medical pedicure and the lady decided to pop the blister and pour acid (it felt like acid 😬) antiseptic fluid on it to keep it clean and I about jumped out of the chair.

My second "injury" was the arch on my right foot.  Thought I was starting with plantar fasciitis, but it seems to have calmed down.

After that I have had various muscle strains in my legs, which come and go.

My biggest downfall is thinking I can walk more than I can, when in fact all I end up doing is hurting myself.  I also did not use the correct walking shoes to start with.  I ended up buying a pair of these walking shoes:

They are fine but I am still wearing them in, so not 100% perfect at the moment.  

Then due to the weather I have got sun burnt.  I have also had more mosquito bites this year than in past years, as my main walk is first thing in the morning to try and beat the heat and if it's damp out that's when all the biting insects are around.

I go for one long walk in the morning just after 6am of around 3 miles which takes around an hour.  Then I do one or two shorter walks during the day depending on how much time I have and also what the weather is like.  My "goal" is to have logged between 4 - 5 miles on my FitBit every day.  Some days I do a lot less other days I do more.  I vary my walks every day, so I don't get bored.

This is one of the hills I walk up most days:

As per my FitBit it's equivalent to climbing 6 floors in a building?

Yesterday was a good walking day as I had three good walks and logged the following:

• Miles walked: 7.53
• Steps: 17,770
• Minutes exercised: 131
• Floors climbed: 34

Today, I may not do any, who knows!!  I do what I feel like doing.

Here is a link to an interesting article that asks, Walking For Exercise: Is it enough by itself?

Tomorrow I'll tell you what benefits I have noticed due to my walking.

(I am struggling with the editing on this post, tomorrow's should be back to normal, I hope!)

I'm back and you'll never guess what I am doing?

Just looked it was the end of March when I last posted???  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  So I'm hoping to be back to posting daily because I am doing something that the long term readers will say, "No way is she doing that!!"

I am exercising.........I know what the heck, for someone who is allergic to exercise (honestly I am!) even I can't believe I am doing it.

First a bit of a back story.  You may or may not remember back at the end of September/beginning of October of 2016, I ended up in hospital with blood clots on both lungs and I was lucky I didn't die.  Now no one in the medical field blamed it on my weight or lack of exercise, but other people said that.  I was a sick bunny until the beginning of this year and have felt better and better with time.  I did the occasional walk, but nothing exciting.

As I live in Canada, we spend half the year bundled up in layers but eventually by May/June those layers come off and up pops our Summer body.  I saw my neighbour back at the end of June for the first time without those winter bundles on, and what a change, she had lost 27 lbs doing the Weight Watchers programme and looked great.  So that is what inspired me to get off my backside and start exercising.

My method of torture exercise: walking.  I put on my dh's Fitbit Flex and off I went.  I then decided to watch what I eat, as the word DIET for me has the following meanings:

• starving
• failure
• not a happy bunny

I was going to join Weight Watchers, but I was not into the whole "lets talk as a group and see who is doing well or not."  Plus I couldn't be bothered trying to work out all those points etc.  I have no issue with people doing that, but it just isn't for me.  So I am doing my own thing and as I said I am not dieting (bad word), I am watching what I eat.

Back to the FitBit, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  Did I mention I LOVE it?  Who knew walking so you could reach those 10,000 steps could be so addictive.  Add friends/family to your FitBit account and then you add a whole new level of competitiveness to the mix.

As I said I borrowed dh's FitBit flex to start with, then our son gave me a FitBit Alta, which I loved, but as I walk a lot of hills (I know hills!) and I wasn't getting credit or badges (YES you get badges 😄) I decided to upgrade to a FitBit Charge 2.

I should be paid by FitBit for all this praise shouldn't I 😏

So how well is all this working for me you ask?  Well here are some figures for you; since June 24th, 2016, I have:

1. walked around 250 miles total
2. averaged over 10,000 steps per day
3. averaged 70 minutes of exercise per day
4. lost 18 1/2 lbs

I have a long way to go and what I am doing works for me and may not be the way for other people to do it.  I am into my eighth week of doing this.  Over the next few weeks I will share with you what works for me and what doesn't.

Personally, as someone who hates exercising I am amazed at how much I love doing all this walking.