a new toy

I celebrated my 70th birthday last week and I received a nifty new toy! I have begun walking more intentionally either at the high school track or around the streets of York.  To help me keep track of my progress I now am the proud owned of a Garmin Forerunner monitor,  It looks like a watch, but it has GPS capability and uses it to track my speed, location, elevation. In addition I am able to keep track of my heart rate as I walk. Last Friday I decided to test it, so I walked from home to church.3.54 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes. I then walked to the hospital for lunch, another .82 miles, then back home which was 2.65 miles, for a total walk of 7 miles. I burned 922 calories during the walk.  When I got home I connected the monitor to my computer and uploaded all the date.  From it I can follow my route and see exactly where along the route my heart was beating the slowest and fastest.

I did have a big tumble along the way and by the time I got home, my right knee was quite sore and stiff.  It has continued to swell during the weekend so I am calling my Ortho doc tomorrow morning. More Later, it's been a very busy day with Church and co-hosting a Foyer Group here tonight where I made Cincinnati Chili.

Finally, an update

 

I really haven't been too good about keeping this blog up to date.  If there are any one out there still following me, I want to fill you in on what has been happening since my last blog.

First I am pleased to report that I have now lost 37 pounds, 13 since returning from Duke. I have joined the York Heart Health Institute where they have a good gym with a Nu-step in it. I have been going 5-6 times a week spending an hour to an hour and a half.  My routine has been to use the tread mill first for 30 minutes. I warm up for a few minutes and then start increasing the elevation 1 degree at a time for one minute.  So far I have gotten up to a 12 degree elevation.  Then I work my way back down to 0 elevation one minute at a time and cool down.  Then I go to the Nu-step machine.  On it I warm up at level 6 and then increase the level one increment at a time for 2 1/2 minutes working my way up to level 10, then back down to 6.  On odd days I then use the weight machines for 20-25 minutes.  I have increased my weight on all of them except the one that involves my arm.  I have stayed at 45 pounds on that one.  I am having a complete right shoulder replacement on May 12th and I want to strengthen the muscles around the joint before I am operated on.

Last Sunday evening I made a 2 hour presentation at church on what I had learned at Duke.  22 folks showed up! Half way through, my good friend Barbra Boschart and I shared 7 recipes from the Duke cookbook.  Every recipe was a hit, even the tofu parfait! I must say, I have enjoy the recipes in the cookbook.  My one complaint is the number of servings for many of the recipes.  I often need to cut the recipe way down two make 2 or 4 servings.

I have been increasing my walking distance over the last month.  Most of the time, I have been at the high school track which has a cork track, very easy on the legs.  Today Barb, Karen and I walked 4 miles from the high school and back along Long Beach and Short Beach here in York.