Health and Fitness February 2011

[Nancy]

Interesting discussion here. Our doc. says that adults do not need as much protein as when we were young and once or twice a week is optimum for hubby, stay away from canned processed foods and stick with veggies. Well excuse me but not every one can afford unprocessed foods ie fresh fruits and veg.
Saw the Oprah show or part of it on when the ate vegan for a week. I'd love to go vegan but would be left with only veggies to eat, can't do the grains cause of the carbs.

We have cut back to meat once a day however and do not eat cereal for breakfast or pizza for dinner any longer. Weight gain as we age is part of our culture I guess.

I saw on the news that at the white house for super bowl party not a fruit or veg. was on the menu, just unhealthy stuff like chips dips wings etc. so Mrs. O. left the healthy eating for the non party events I guess. Makes you think ~ I still enjoy a veggie tray at a party it gives an alternative to those that want one.

I did get a walk in yesterday even with the winds we had with wind advisory in effect.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back on the treadmill, this time at night to offset my bad eating today. Weight Watchers really discourages this behaviour but this is the first time since restarting a few weeks ago that I've got myself into this bind.

I have discovered that I much prefer working out in the morning. I think I'm too tired now so am bored and see this more as a chore. And I'm a bit concerned how I'll sleep. Right now, I could easily go to bed for the night but after getting my heart going, it might be a lot harder.

Hmmm.... another thing about working out in the morning is that my tummy is empty. No indigestion.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back on the treadmill less than 12 hours after my workout last night. I'm moving slower on it today than usual!

Dove Here's the pictures of me on the Nordic Trak

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1729

I think I'm getting sick. Slightly sore throat and swollen glands. Sigh....

[Nancy]

I did get a walk in yesterday yea! Saw two deer both bucks at the end of our street one was a two point and the other a four point made my day!

[Dove]

Kathryn, thank you so much for taking the time to take these pictures & write out the tips -- I really appreciate it!

After reading this I had to leave the village & run down to the basement to look at ours again. (My workout today was digging it out -- it had some furniture & boxed storage in front of & all around it! ) Ours is a Nordik Track Excel. The wood is blond on ours, & your skis look a bit shorter than mine, but I might be wrong. I measured them & they are 53 inches (23 of those inches are in front of the toe boot).

I think you nailed my problem when you mentioned the tension settings. The skis used to be very "loose" when I used it & that would cause a balance problem when I pushed a ski too far behind me & fell forward. Maybe I never set the resistance, or didn't set it high enough? Dh & I both used it & I don't remember making any adjustments to it after he would use it. If the tension was higher I probably wouldn't push the skis too far back.

When I saw your picture with the handles in front of the tummy pad I thought, "mine didn't have handles". But when I lifted that long piece up (ours is not put together right now) & held the pad against my tummy I saw the handles! I reached out to hold them & instantly remembered how unnatural it had felt back then to hang onto them -- it always felt as if I was leaning too far forward & down to reach them.

I would like to try using it again using your tricks of shortening the arm handles by wrapping the cord around the wheel an extra time, and playing with the tension settings. After we purchase & set up a treadmill I will ask dh to help me move it to what is becoming our exercise area & set it up to start using it again. I'm glad we didn't get rid of it!

Thanks again for all your help, & I hope you are feeling better today.

[Nancy]

I saw a vet on the news last night saying even dogs put on wt. in the winter and need
their food intake reduced also because of lack of exercise.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back on the treadmill. I'm using some incline this morning to make it more aerobic. Even .5% incline makes a huge difference in my heart rate and takes my back to its limit. I've broken out in a slow jog (still at 3.3 mph) for 20 sec or so and having incline really makes that easier on my knees. Dh noted how it is even noisier when I jog.

I'm intrigued with the Nordic Trak and am thinking of trying it for 10 minutes at a time. I did it for 1 minute the other night and was winded so I'm going to have build up to this but I 'feel the burn' in completely different parts of my legs. It is much closer to the workout I get in snowshoes.

I'm starting to notice changes in myself that I'm confident aren't water gain/loss.

1. downsized jeans slightly. From a size 16 to a size 15. The big accomplishment here is the 15s are real denim, no stretch at all, unlike the 16s.

2. My stomach is definitely getting smaller. I don't have to hold it out of the way when in the shower to see my toes, I can pull it in and take a peek at them.

3. I'm down to 173 pounds during my TOM (when I usually gain 1 - 3 pounds.) I still have 3 pounds to go in 2 weeks but now that I know I won't have TOM gain to fight against in that last 2 weeks, I should make it if I stick to the program.

Checking my weight records, though, that weight won't open up any additional clothing options for the trip. I was in the low 170s at points over the summer and I need to get to at least 164 to get down to another set of clothes.

I also note from my records that I gained 39 pounds from the time I met my former minister. I'm not blaming him directly for the weight gain but I had been traveling for a year at that point so it wasn't travel that triggered the gain. The former minister introduced all kinds of "disturbances in my force" and I'm sure that did have an effect. At the same time I joined the Compact (where I ended up substituting eating therapy for shopping therapy.) Of course, the need to smooth my life over with some sort of 'therapy' is related to him.

I'm planning on using a good portion of this upcoming trip to figure out how to reorganize/refocus my life. I'm hoping that will put me on more solid ground as I move forward with my studies, new lifestyle expectations and new health goals.

[Nancy]

36*- 49* I will be up near 50* for the hi temp. for the next four or five days. That is great for walking. I've slept in today.

The scales is up drat did not weigh the past few weeks that was a mistake!
I hate that I guess I'm going to have to do more than walk and shave of a few calories.
I cut back to one egg for breakfast and no creamer in my coffee.
Fighting cold / flu does not help either!

Dgd went with me for a walk on the loop fell asleep and I brought her back h. kept and eye on her while I finished my walk. H. got a good work out in on the machines in the basement he said. Glad he can do that. I've walked all but one day this week so that is good news.

Sigh Is is spring yet? I get more exercise in the spring and summer.

Dd is doing great with zumba. They have zumba gold for gals my age in the morning and evening. I"m concerned about fuel $ going to that or aquatic center. So I guess I'll just
keep walking and doing yard work.

[Harriet]

Nancy, after you mentioned Zumba here once before, and after I had glanced the infomercial by chance, I tried looking for something on You Tube to learn about it. At first I couldn't find anything that wasn't extremely advanced, or possibly trying to KILL the viewer. Finally, I put in the words, "basic" and "lesson" and this sensible lady's 3 lessons came up. Here is the first. It is still tough, but at least it is progressive and with an at-home "lesson", you can stop whenever you get winded or try to work up to what they are doing. I got to the place they stopped for a bit in the first one, and dd said I had been going at it for 6 minutes or something, and I sat down! Dd is smart - she didn't get up to start, she just watched and considered this thing. Happy for your daughter.

Kathryn, I am so happy for you - Happy Puppy Dance happy. Now, this is marking a noticeable change after how long of daily treadmill, or how long of points-watching? By my calculations, just having a concept of your posts, this is a change in a very short time. Are you sure as you look back in recordkeeping that your changes in sizes might not be different this time, if the treadmill is more a part of the changes? Just wondering if it might slim you more even though weight didn't change as much.

I went for my follow-up and things look pretty good. Dr said my lungs are perfect but I am vulnerable to the upcoming allergy season, cold season now, etc., and he wants me to continue with my same med, less frequently. I took him 3 of my recent readings about our previous discussion (new Atkins book, initial article that interested me, and Reader's Digest Feb). He was fascinated and asked to keep the article, which he and his colleagues had only seen online. He will be buying the other two. He says he would like to have me think in terms of "meat, leaves, berries" eating, not so much following any one diet although he suspects South Beach would be close to what he's talking about. He gave me 2 names (drs?) he wants me to look up on the internet and learn their ideas, so that will be interesting.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet I'm about on track. The treadmill alone will do nothing. Exercise alone does nothing for my weight/inches loss - I have to combine it with an eating plan (and I always use the WW Flexpoints plan.) I can lose weight just using WW and not increasing my usual activity level but it takes longer, is more difficult and harder to stick to because the results aren't there. As an experiment, I faithfully did Curves (plus my regular activity) for a month and gained fat percentage, inches and weight. Added in WW and the weight started coming off quickly.

This time I started the treadmill sometime November and maintained my weight over Christmas. It wasn't until I 'upped my game' on the treadmill, increasing the time from 35 minutes to between 50 and 60 minutes, plus adding WW that I started to get weight/inches loss results. Note, I'm still trying to keep up my regular activity level as well (but in the winter the daily walk to the store for the mail is only 2 - 3 times per week which is why I started up the treadmill back in Nov.)

What is different for me this time is I had a stomach to deal with. My weight gain has always been hips/butt/calves plus a thin bit all over my trunck and arms. As I passed my previous high weight a stomach started to build. It seems to be the first part to leave (just as before I'd gain last on my bust and lose first there.)

The reduction of the stomach is what has given me a smaller pants size this time and, I think, why the pants sizes are dropping more slowly than I expected.

I think the biggest change is I'm in peri-menopause and weight loss will be slower and more difficult now.

Last August I made the discovery about filling my soul with music. After making the discovery that if I heard enough live music my appetite went away, I played around with adding recorded music daily to my life but had no results. But now I'm blasting music into my ears for 50 - 60 minutes a day and I'm wondering if the added music is helping with appetite. Thirty minutes isn't enough, it needs to be long and concentrated. If I can do it with recorded the music, that would be great. I intend to explore this further on the ship where there will be a lot of live music (but usually in the evening after dinner and it isn't soul satisfying music, it is more elevator/lounge music.

Which reminds me, I need to learn how to program my exercise music onto my mp3 player. I don't know how to do playlists and haven't loaded the mp3 software onto my computer, I simply copy files over. Except they then get sorted in a different order so they aren't all in one place in my specific warm-up, workout, coo-down order.