OKRA!!

From June 25 2010

As an indication of how exciting my life is at the moment, I was ecstatic to discover two(!) okra plants with blossoms this morning! The rest of the garden is dying, struggling, going to seed, or dormant, but the okra is happily slogging along through the exceptional heat.

And it has been hot. Lots of 100 (heat index was 108 yesterday) degree days the last few weeks and lots more to come. Summer in Texas.

The geraniums are showing the effects, it will be interesting to see if they survive the coming month. A New Guinea Impatiens died yesterday. I think the corner it is in gets more light than believed, and the light it does get is the worst kind (noon day).

The basil and pepper plants that Carol whacked down a couple weeks ago are starting to recover. Our watermelon is struggling, the three melons it has are not growing. The lantana is doing fine, though it wilts in the afternoon. The real star remains the purslane, it is doing extraordinarily well.

Other than that, it has been quiet this summer. The heat keeps me in or close to the house. I am too broke to do much of any exploring of the area by car.

My exercise program has been going great. I will have completed 6 days of 60 minutes on the elliptical tomorrow. It gets easier every day, and I feel the improvements even if they are not entirely visible. I am curious to see what the scale says come Monday.

It has been a quiet couple of weeks here. The temps have been above 90 all month, except for one day of 89. That's summer in Texas.

I have been working out on the elliptical six days a week (today and tomorrow are rest and change over days, getting on the same schedule as Carol). Given the high temps outside, it was a good choice. I broke the 500 calorie burnt mark yesterday. This coming week I am planning on doing 360 min and 3000 cals burnt.

The exercise and diet are working, I lost 2.8 pounds last week for a total of 6 pounds in the first month. I have reset my weigh day for every two weeks. I want to focus on fitness and healthy lifestyle, not just weight loss.

We have been eating a lot of our own tomatoes and peppers lately. The birds or bugs are competing quit fiercely, but we are holding our own! I love the Mr. Stripey ones (yellow with streaks of red!). I suspect we won't have too many more though, the temperatures are getting to high and the plants have stopped blooming.

Carol is doing great on the elliptical as well, improving daily.

Worst thing about the heat is that I have to water plants every morning. Poor things wilt in the afternoon if I don't.

Just a quick update this morning. Last night I picked our first ripe tomatoes and put one in the salad! It was better than expected, I had forgotten how great real tomatoes taste!

The high for today is going to be 100, guess I won't be spending too much time outside.

Yesterday we found a low cost used elliptical trainer. It is two years old, but seems in decent shape. Brand new it would cost roughly 600 dollars, we picked it up for 200. Not a steal, but a decent price which included delivery as well.

It arrived around 7 last night, and Carol and I had to try it out almost immediately. Both of us did 20 minutes and were sweating and puffing. It was a fun work out. It is going to be 103 this weekend with overnight lows of ~80 making outside exercise difficult. This will allow both of us to continue to seek health without worrying about the heat.

Oh, last week I lost a pound (2 weeks, 2 pounds), or did I mention that already???

So far my diet/exercise plan is going well. In the last two weeks I have lost 2 pounds (1 a week as planned). I have been walking consistently, doing some strength training, and eating healthier. As the heat increases, it becomes harder to exercise outside. Starting today, I am going to begin the hunt for a low cost elliptical trainer that won't break down two minutes after we start using it. Not sure if that will be possible, but the search begins!

Our garden is doing great. We have some baby eggplants

From tomato June 1

And our tomatoes are starting to ripen:

From tomato June 1

More garden photos can be found here:

tomato June 1

It has been a busy morning. I went for my 35 min cardio walk at a local park (~15 min away by car, one way), came home had breakfast, and then mowed my lawn front and back. It has just turned 9:30. High for today is supposed to be 92 and partly cloudy, but it has been a beautiful, clear morning. It does not get more summer morning than this, warm with a soft breeze, birds, lawn mowers all around, sunny, and the smell of fresh mown grass. Yum.

I took some back yard photos yesterday morning. Not all of them have been edited yet, so some are bad. If you want to see  what my back yard looks like this morning, here you go:



I am off to sip water and have a shower.