Happy Friday everyone.

I'm working on keeping the gut from coming back. A few months ago we took a trip to see a long time friend Renata from California who moved to St Paul MN. She shared that she was using something called a FitBit to track her daily activity. It's more than just a pedometer with some pretty cool software that runs on your pc and smart phone. It tracks your activity throughout the day and even shares how deep you sleep at night.

I was using a calorie counter on my phone for the last month. Yes, I was counting calories and realized how bad my eating habits were and the amount or portion sizes of the food I was eating. I changed counters today to Lose It because it auto syncs with the Fitbit and the exercise app Endmondo that tracks my efforts on the bicycle and my walks with the GPS in my phone.  Why all the effort? I'm trying to get back to 185lbs and stay there. Last Summer I was really sick with gall stones and kidney stones at the same time and was down to 183 lbs but my poor eating habits and lack of exercise took over and I was back to 208lbs again. No this isn't going to be a diet blog I just wanted to share my struggles. The counting calories will end someday when I can reprogram my mind to eat what I need and not what I want and to get off the couch a little more and use the gym that hides in our basement. We have a bowflex and a lifecyle elliptical that go unused most of the time like most of the same gear in other homes. Daily use is my first goal.

Usually I have my phone with me next to the water bottle so I can listen to music but I positioned the phone on a bookcase across the room on a timer to capture this self portrait....  Yes my head almost hits the ceiling.  This week I'm trying to "run" on the elliptical for 30 minutes each day on the "hill" program level 9 at 80 rpms. This works out to about 470 calories burned in 30 minutes. Next week I want to raise this to 30 minutes twice daily.  Burning an additional 900 plus calories a day will improve my cardiovascular health and make the weight loss less focused on diet and more balanced with exercise.

OK, enough about that..........

Here is a the first bobbin of spinning for the new year.

I'm spinning this in a semi worsted style and with a new approach. I've pre-drafted and slowed way down giving me a more even single with better consistency. The colorway is "Greener Pastures".  Not sure what it will turn into but the green is really growing on me. It will become a two ply fingering weight, maybe for a hat or ??? Last week I found a group on Ravelry that is promoting that you spin a pound of fiber a month. I'm not sure I will get that ambitious but I'm going to try to spin a braid (4 oz) a week for as long as I can.   The change in spinning direction to accommodation the change to continental style of knitting was quite natural so far. The brake was not working the way I liked it since installing the woollee winder a few months ago. The wooden bobbins were reacting differently than the plastic Majacraft Style bobbins that came with the wheel. the manufacturer of the wheel included some cotton line for those sensitive to the sound that the Dacron line may make. I swapped the brake like and now it works like a dream again.   Tomorrow I may share my thoughts on White Buffalo and my appreciation for warmer "sturdy" fibers. The Canadian's know cold.
 some fun reading. 1

Life is Good