The Next Projects

 

Nine months into my walking, I feel the need to add something more. The walking thing is going well. but each day I have about eight hours between walks to work on another project or two. It feels too easy to just let my walking play out for another year. So I have a couple of things in mind.

The Backyard

The picture posted here I creatively titled "Backyard southeast corner." This photo is a good illustration of typical issues around the yard:

• Some of the elements in place will almost certainly stay. We will keep the hydrangea on the left and the rose bush on the right, and the plan is to reuse the big concrete container, though it is empty now.
• Every part of the yard needs some work. We need to find something to put in the pot, there are weeds to pull, part of the fence is unpainted. We need at least one more plant in the area.
• We need a good way to cover the ground between plants - we had groundcover, but we pulled that out and put down bark, and now we don't really like that either.
• We have already done some work. For example, the big dirt ball in the middle of the picture, the branches next to it, and the tools laying around are there because Lucas and I dug out the dead bush that was in the pot - more work than you might think.

I have seven photos of the yard. The project is not something that I can blog about on a regular basis, because getting an area complete may take a long time, but I will try to post before and after photos if we finish an area, and maybe even a "during" photo on occasion.

Eating Better

This idea comes from my thought that losing 75 pounds is probably a lot like walking across the Untied States - if you look at it over too short of a time frame, it seems like you are not getting anywhere. You just have to stick with it, every day, for a long time.

However, I am not willing to pursue a project with a weight-loss goal, for a couple of reasons. First, weight loss is really complicated, so setting that as a goal incorporates too many factors. Second, I have needed to lose weight for at least 30 years, so there is no great reason to imagine I can succeed at it now. However, I can possibly improve my eating, and that should at least improve my blood sugar, and who knows, maybe I will lose some weight.

This idea is still not completely fleshed out, but I have some idea how it will work. In any case, the first step in any diet is to get rid of foods in the house that do not fit into your diet plans or are too tempting. To that end, I ate the last of the fried chicken this morning, so mission accomplished. I will work on the rest starting tomorrow.