Upped the Weights

The four pounder has been retired, and the ten pounder has taken it's place.

The reps are now done with the five, eight, and ten pound weights.

Though they are hard, they are not as bad as I thought they would be.

I did feel them the next morning.

I am glad to be back up to them, it has been a couple of years.

I will keep up with them this time, and hopefully can advance to next ones in due time!

A New Banana Bread

One of my family's favorites is banana bread.

 

But after all these years of making it to use up the last couple of bananas that nobody wants to eat, they are getting pretty tired of the same old thing.

 

So I tried a new recipe for those old bananas.

 

I now make Banana Crumb Muffins, and they just love them.

 

The recipe is almost the same, but they have a cinnamon crumb topping on them that really makes them have a great taste.

 

It makes a dozen, and it is easy to pop a couple in the freezer to pull out later.

 

Glad we found this new twist on an old favorite - sometimes change is good!

Apples and More Apples

The apples have arrived.

And my daughter got a very good deal on a bushel of them.

So, we made Apple Jelly - something I haven't done in years since the kids were small.

I forgot how gorgeous the color of this treat is - a pale pink.

And the taste - just like eating a fresh apple, only sweeter.

Apple Crisp is in the oven now and the house is smelling delightful.

It was good spending time with my daughter.

And passing on the knowledge and skills that she will use too.

She did good finding that apple deal!

Yoga Update

I am really liking the Yoga exercises.

I have done it for six days now and can feel a definite difference in many areas.

Of the six tapes that came in the set, there are a couple that I will be using regularly.

The beginner one was fine for the first couple of days, but once I learned the poses, I was ready for a few more that one of the other tapes provides.

I find the exercises smooth and very stress-free.

I don't think I will ever be as flexible as the instructor, and the extra weight doesn't help either.

It's hard to bend deeply into many of the poses, but I am hoping that improves with time.

I have a couple of blocks and a belt that came with the mat I bought many years ago for my morning exercise routine.

It is good to be able to use them.

With my weight and my age, I don't see me doing the inverted poses or the back bends, but many of the seated, standing, and kneeling ones are very doable.

I will post more updates as I continue to learn and hopefully improve with this new exercise.

First Day for Yoga

We will not be swimming for a while since it is going to be cold and rainy for the next 4 - 5 days.

So I figured it would be a good time to check out the yoga videos I purchased over the summer.

It is a set of six videos made by Living Arts.

They are for beginners and a couple of them focus on strength and flexibility as one gets better at it.

I must say, after doing it, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I am not near as flexible as the instructor, but the poses and holds were not hard as she kept saying they were for beginners.

I think it is because many of the exercises I do in the morning really have been working even though the waist line doesn't show it.

My innards must be more in shape than I realized.

There isn't a lot of moving around with this yoga as there is in the exercises, but I sweat just as much as when I am doing them.

It's a kind of exercise that creeps up on you and you get to take a nice relaxing cool down at the end.

I think once I get the routine down, I am going to like it.