A Morning of Service and An Afternoon of Bicycling Bliss

Saturday morning our church participated in a day of service. As families we were assigned to different locations to help someone by doing some service. At 8:00 a.m. everyone showed up for donuts (I passed) (yay for me) and then we all went to work! It is crazy how much work can be done by about 80 dedicated men, women and children! Even the little kids pitched in and helped! We cleaned up yards, an awesome plumber helped make repairs in the bathroom of an elderly neighbor, a couple of carpenters built a wheelchair ramp for another neighbor. It was truly an amazing sight and a blessing to those who did service today!

In the afternoon, we went for a bike ride in the canyon. (see photo) The weather conditions could not have been more perfect. The autumn colors were beautiful. The ride is unique in that the first 40 minutes you are riding all uphill. It is a gradual climb, just enough to get your aerobic work-out. Then the last 22 minutes is when we turned around and went back, so yes, it is all downhill. I switched my gears up as high as possible so I could still pedal for more exercise. I love speed!

And by the way, eating salad greens seriously curbs my appetite. Like nobody's business. I ate two salads today. After the second one, I then tried to eat two small tacos and felt like I had finished a Thanksgiving dinner! So stuffed!  I think when our bodies get the nutrients we need, our brain screams at our stomachs "YOU ARE DONE! BACK. AWAY. FROM. THE. TABLE." haha!

Compare that to the days when I pretty much ate whatever I wanted and it was never the green leafy salads. I always seemed to be hungry. It doesn't really make sense that now I eat less and do more and am hungry less!  Go figure!   (I also now take a multivitamin every night religiously to round out the nutrients. It dissolves in a glass of water so I know the vitamins and minerals are being absorbed into my system.)

Thank you for reading! ;D *waves goodbye* Luvs until next time . . .

COME ON MY WALK WITH ME

This morning I went for a walk for an hour.
Later, in the afternoon, I rode my bicycle for 45 minutes.
I'm feeling pretty good about this amount of exercise.

I took a 360 degree video so you could come with me on my walk. I didn't take a video of the bicycle ride. It is in the same area as this video, though.

When you play this video, please imagine really cool music playing, ok? Or turn some music on before you start the video - haha!  ;D

Here are the tunes I was listening to while on my walk today: On The Floor (Jennifer Lopez), Live Like You Were Dying (Tim McGraw), Good Morning and Stronger(Mandisa), Move, The Generous Mr. Lovewell (MercyMe), Fallin for You (Colbie Caillat),Cliffs of Dover (Eric Johnson), Moves Like Jagger (Maroon 5).  You Zumba-heads might recognize the last one! And you Guitar Hero players might recognize the Cliffs of Dover! And I listened to Pandora's Moves Like Jagger Radio Station. Booyah, Baby!

All this exercise makes me realize how out of shape I am. While I was doing fairly sedentary things and working out comfortably on "my" elliptical at the gym, I felt fine. But once I started Zumba, long walks and bicycling a lot, I realized clearly that I am carrying around a lot of extra weight which makes every activity more difficult than it should be. Too freaking bad that it takes so long to get it off!  It seems like recognizing the problem should somehow magically make it go away faster! ;D  You know what I'm talking about?

One final song for this blog: Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole!  This morning, as I came close to the end of my walk, I thought "This walk is for you, Iz!"    If you don't know, Mr. Kamakawiwo'ole battled obesity until he passed away at the age of 38 in 1997.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo%CA%BBole