Some fave things
These favorite things are probably not quite what you are expecting 
On this journey, I’ve found a few things that have helped me to keep going. Without them, I know my progress would have been much slower. Some cost me some $’s, some are free… here they are in no particular order:
- My MP3 player. I have the Sansa E250. Chuck got it for me for Christmas from J&R.com. I thought the price was great when we got it, and like all things electronic, it’s even cheaper now. Pretty soon it’ll probably be obsolete.This one has 2G, which holds multiple audiobooks and lots of music, has a voice recorder, video and image viewer (I don’t use those 2), and FM tuner. I got a silicon sleeve, and tried 3 or 4 sets of headphones before I settled on a pair that fit my ears the way I like them. Somewhere along the line I also picked up the microSD chip for it, but a) I found I didn’t really need the extra space, b) it makes it take longer to start up the player each time because it has to refresh the database if it’s in and c) one time I started to take it out, it had a spring assist and it flew out, so it’s AWOL at this time. :(We did a lot of research because it was important to me that I be able to “read” audiobooks with the player and because of the DRM on the audiobooks, not all players work.
- My Omron pedometer. Pat, a guest at the store, introduced me to this particular model and I got it for $20 from Amazon. It tracks steps/day, aerobic steps/day (and aerobic minutes on the current day), Kcal’s burned/day and miles walked/day. And it holds that information for the last 7 days as well. It seems to be very accurate, or at least very consistent, which is more important to me than precise. I use it to challenge myself to walk a certain number of steps/day, generally trying to meet or beat my average number of steps. Since I got it, I found out that Marlene wears the same one all the time and quite a few other folks have seen us wearing them, heard us swear by them and have bought them for themselves. (I should have stock )
My NYPL card together with their online catalog of audiobooks. (click on the image to apply for a card, free to anyone who lives. works, attends school or owns property in NYS) I’ve downloads SOOOO many audiobooks from there so far and have only scratched the surface of their collection. Apparently my county now has a collection available online too, but at the time I signed up, my option was NYPL for free and a catalog of over 3000 titles, of which I can have a total of 12 out at the same time or pay for a card for Monroe County’s system where the collection is smaller, I’m sure, and the limit is (or at least was) something like 3 at a time.
This requires using
for audiobooks (what I use) or Adobe Reader for Adobe eBooks or Mobipocket Reader for Mobipocket eBooks.- My free Sparkpeople membership. This diet and healthy lifestyle community is great. It provides tools for helping you to track your nutrition and fitness goals and progress as well as tons of other stuff. You get motivation e-mail from them pretty frequently (daily?) and there’s a concept of earning “points” that appeals to the competitive nature in me.
- Support groups for Dr. D’s patients. We have a support group the 3rd Wednesday of the month that meets at RGH as well as having formed an online group in Sparkpeople.