HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE !!!

Here's an IRISH BLESSING for ya ...

May the road rise up to greet you ...
May the wind be always at your back ...
May the rain fall softly upon your fields ...
And, May the sunshine warm upon your face ...
Until we meet again, my friends ...



:irish: :luck2you: :cupgold: :irish: :luck2you: :cupgold: :irish:

:goldpot: Have a great day :goldpot: :patrick: ROSEBUD :patrick:

And the same thought is sent right back at you, ROSEBUD . . . :hug:

And a very Happy Green Day to everybody else, too . . . :wave:

OMG . . . The block that SPRING is just around the next corner of, seems to be getting longer and longer in Atlantic Canada . . . :mad: . . . Guess I shouldn't complain too loudly -- we just have -25 and very, very windy in Nova Scotia. You may have heard about the Newfoundland section of Newfoundland/Labrador -- it's closed -- the plows have been taken off the roads; there's almost 40 cm of snow on the ground (from this storm -- added to the metres and metres worth they already had) and another 40 cm expected before it stops.

Hope you are having better weather where you are . . . :yes:

MEOW ~ Gee, I feel sorry for you guys out there; but we got some snow tonight too, just not as much. Our temps are amazingly high: we had +7C or 44F today, so the snow was melting and that was WITHOUT any sunshine. Sooo, about 3-4 inches fell tonight so far; supposed to last til tomorrow and maybe have sunshine by Friday (we hope) ...

Did lots of letters and edited photos today; plus house chores and meals and such, but nothing major today. Just taking it easy, as my legs have been bothering me a bit; rest is the best thing for them.

Have a good night all :hug:ROSEBUD:hug:

Good Morning . . . :wave:

Yes, this is our :sunny: and :brr: day -- on Thursday we will be getting the storm and slightly warmer temps that are residing in Ontario today. When will it ever end. At some point we will get more than one day in a row without a storm. I hope. Anyway, jsut waiting around for the bathroom to warm up enough to have a shower and then I'll be going out to play for a little while.

Hope you all have a fun kind of day moving and shaking down the great downward road to better health and fitness . . . :carrot:

Not so great here, weather-wise. It's above freezing, but that's all the good one can say about it. On Sunday, I noticed that melting snow and ice was pooling up towards our back door, so I had to go and shovel a path through four + feet of snow so it could drain away. It took me an hour and a half to clear out a path (now I am really noticing the benefits of all my exercising - I was pooped, but the next day the muscles I expected to be sore as heck were fine - one sore spot, but that wasn't too bad). Today we have a heavy rainfall warning and it's about to open up and pour down, turning that four + feet of snow into three + feet of ice. If it melts before next winter, it'll be a miracle!!! :censored: :bomb:

I'm not looking forward to going out in the rain, but we have no choice. We have to go to the CLSC (community health clinic) today for a follow up for DH's blood pressure. It's come down so much they'll be shocked! It's almost normal now. :woohoo:

The only other thing I have to do today is pack up the cat food I have for the shelter. I buy a few cans of cat food every grocery day and save it up for the spring and donate it to the local no-kill shelter. Kitten season is about to begin and they always need tons of food. So - I have to haul out some boxes and tape and get cracking!

BP

That's a great idea about the cat food BOPEEP. Around here we save our Sobey's cash register tapes for the SPCA . . . they can use them for free stuff that they need.

You both have some good ideas there; we don't have a shelter or an SPCA here: folks are pretty much on their own (and we only have a traveling Vet who comes to town once a week). We had more snow falling today; at least it wasn't all day; I hope we do get that sunshine by Friday ...

BOPEEP ~ do you mind me asking how your DH got his blood pressure back down to normal? Mine is a wee bit high: so I'm looking for some tips!

Take good care ... :hug:ROSEBUD:hug:

Montreal is a big city, so there are several shelters here. We also have big feral cat problems. :( The SPCA and the city pound aren't no-kill, so I prefer to support the ones that are. I wish something like saving the register tapes was available here, but I've never seen a program. I do find it easy to pick up some extra cat food every week though - it's easily affordable for me to donate a bit at a time that way. I wonder if the shelter has ever approached the grocery store to set up a food box for them. I must ask them about it - it would let them spend some of their cash on other needed things.

Rosebud - DH has gotten his blood pressure down mostly with exercising every day on our elliptical for at least 30 minutes. On the weekends, he likes to pop in a movie and go at a slower pace for an hour or so. We always ate a fairly healthy diet (I just ate too much of it :o ), so we didn't really need to make any big dietary changes. He did like to snack on pretzels once in a while, so he's had to cut that out for the salt. When he was diagnosed in January, it was between 140 and 155 over 80 to 90. He's really not fat (his BMI was about 25), so that wasn't a contributing factor, but he was very sedentary. It took about two weeks of exercising before he saw his pressure start to drop, and it's been dropping bit by bit ever since. The highest reading he's had in the past week was 129/80 - that's still higher than it ought to be for a 40 year old guy with no obesity or other underlying problems, but it's acceptable, and he's had several readings that are in the ideal range. And it ought to come down even further over the next few months. We bought a monitor so he can check it twice a day at home - that's been a big help in figuring out what does and what does not raise his BP rate.

What have you tried to get yours down? I know not everything works for everyone and some people have other issues that raise their BP, so it's not always as simple as it was for my DH.

BP

Good Morning . . .

Well, if anything says SPRING and EASTER better than a dose of freezing rain, I guess we aren't going to have it around here . . . supposed to be absolutely yucky all weekend . . . might see a bit of sun by Monday. That silly little bunny had better be wearing his raincoat and his Yaktrax. :lol:

For me, getting my BP down to good normal readings is a combination of three things -- (a) losing wieght (b) cutting salt wherever possible (c) drugs.

Hope everybody has a better weather day than we do. Try to keep things moving and shaking gang . . . see you later . . . :carrot:

We were very fortunate to have sunshine all day but it was windy and cold. We went shopping today; and man was it busy in town, eps a the one grocery store (we needed a traffic cop there).

BP ~ I have just been trying things like 1) cutting out as much salt as possible 2) losing weight 3) exercise 4) relaxation and music therapy. My top number was very high, hence the need for #4. I am feeling better and it did come down quite a bit, but I still need to get it down more.

Hope you all have a nice Easter weekend nevertheless ...


:hug:ROSEBUD:hug:


:easter2: :easter2: :easter2:

Hi there . . . :wave:

A little warmer this morning and there is no freezing rain in the forecast -- just a little snow (:lol:) and the revised forecast says maybe a bit of sun by Sunday -- that would be nice. :yes:

Hi all! Long time no post. I've been recovering from the passing of a kidney stone which seems to be taking a while to heal :( I've been to the gym once in 2.5 weeks and feeling really bummed about it all (insert sad violin music here). On a happy note, the sun has been shining, the hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils are all blooming and spring is most certainly here on the west coast. Also I have managed to keep losing weight even though I haven't been exercising at all.
Not sure what plans you all follow but I just picked up a great magazine at the grocery store called Clean Eating. It has a 30 day meal plan that includes all the recipes with full nutrional information and shopping lists for each week. As the title suggests all the foods are "whole foods" and seasonal too which makes it easier for shopping. They also have an article called "5 dinners for 60$" that includes all recipes and shopping list. Anyway, if you are constantly challenged to find healthy low fat recipes like myself this may be a good thing to check out for under $10.
Cheers to all and a wonderful happy Easter!

Although I could learn to hate you because of your weather . . . I will restrain myself . . . :lol: . . . Glad to see you back and really hope you are soon recovered from the kidney stone. Oh my the pain must have been awful. :hug:

I just picked up a copy of Clean Eating, too. . . this is only the second issue apparently. Sorry I missed the first. Although I loved the content, I'm not sure I like the format -- all the little different sized boxes on each page seem a little distracting to me. :shrug:

I have Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet (found it a great book) and I think I just might buy her Eat Clean Recipes which is fairly new.

Veggies are our friends . . . :carrot: :broc: :carrot:

Oh man - wave some of that weather eastwards!!! Normal highs for this time of year are supposed to be +4, but we're well below freezing for the next week, and we're dipping down to almost -20 a couple of nights.

Rosebud - it looks like you're on the right track to getting your pressure under control. You're doing all the things that really help and you're seeing results, so those are the solutions for you. It's hard to watch it come down slowly - DH thought his would be fine after a month, but I told him that it probably took awhile to creep up and it had probably been high for awhile, so it'll take a while for his body to readjust. I know it's also waaaaaaaaaaay harder to get your pressure under control if you've got a lot of stress. We don't have any kids, so that's not a contributer, but DH's job is hair pulling, to say the least! :lol:

:carrot::broc: Veggies are the best - I am a hardcore fruit and veggie addict! Even the cashier I go to at the grocery store has commented on the amount of produce I buy - and that's only about half of it - I shop at specialized fruit and veggie stores too. And in the summer, there's the Jean Talon market - a farmer's market to beat all farmer's markets (actually, it's open in the winter too, but I'm too much of a wuss to go there in the cold :lol:) :carrot: :broc:

So what do you all eat for supper? Got any tasty healthy things to share? Tonight we're having yellow zukes stuffed with portabella mushrooms, brown rice and salmon.

BP