Health and Fitness September, 2011

[Harriet]

Welcome! Please come in and chat with us here about gaining and maintaining good health, strength and stamina. First, because we are worth it! And also because it prepares us every day to meet the challenges of our wonderful calling, homemaking.

Probably ALL our villagers, no matter the hemisphere, are grateful right now for a change of seasons. LisaB and Lynlee will welcome signs of spring and some warmth to get outside more. For many of us who have suffered through a very hot summer, we can peek out and dare to consider the sunshine for a while.

[Harriet]

Sunshine, in our more "enlightened" age:
One thing a change of season reminds us, now that we know more from recent studies, is that it's time to get some sun! Aside from being pleasant, a few short, safe (5 to 25 minute) times in the sun per week in some months can allow your body to make part of it's own Vitamin D, IF you plan it right. It is very hard to find info on the exact times, dates and locations when this can happen. If anyone finds a clear chart for multiple locations, please post a link. But, for instance, for me at approximate 36 degree latitude, I still have the chance for "sun-made" Vitamin D from about 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. through this month. It would have been 10:00 to 4:00 at midsummer. In October the window of hours will close further and sometime near the end of October, my chance to receive any Vitamin D through my skin will be over until April. Above the 35th parallel (about Atlanta, Georgia) in the United States there is what researchers call "vitamin D winter" from approximately November through March - our bodies can produce ZERO of it from sunlight.

So, enjoy September and make D while the sun shines.

[Nancy]

I've done my walk with dgd a neighbor gave us some yummy plums.

[lucylee]

Starting September w/good news and bad news:

First, I fell short of my goal of at least 15 exercise days. Even counting vacuuming as exercise, I still only managed 12 days.
That was down from 14 in July.
And I don't really see me getting any done tonight. But -- hope springs eternal.

But second, my weight is miraculously, and unexplainable-ly, (I know that is not a word!) DOWN from the first of August. 160.5 today.
Down from 165 the first of August! (I actually hit 166 during that first week of August, so today is almost 5 pounds down from my worst day of summer!) I really DON'T know how this happened, except for the better structure of my day, now that I'm back in school, probably less late-night eating, less movie-eating * that's a biggie right there * -- AND I have really been trying to have a fruit or vegetable at every meal. Three servings a day is a pitifully low number, but it IS an improvement to some of my days, and I guess you have to start somewhere!

So -- I will continue to plod along in September, and maybe I can make even more progress by the first of October.

[Harriet]

¤´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·`¤~☆OKay has lost 20 pounds☆

Balloons flying, confetti falling!

Plums are my dd31's favorite fruit, Nancy. So good for you.

lucylee, all I can say from experience is, when faced with a surprising new low, hang on to it with careful eating, etc., AT LEAST the next day to "lock it in" with your body and avoid it being just a pendulum swing. Other thoughts I have had at discouraged times afterward were that I should have written my new low number in giant numerals and posted it above the scale, or that I should have set the scale with some kind of an alarm to go off when I went above the new low, that sort of thing.

lucylee, do you realize you're not far from seeing a five as your middle numeral? No pressure. (that's me biting lip)

Did everyone get to see OKay's link in her recent post? (August, page 4) It is the new program she is starting.

blessed doesn't get to post a whole lot, but I wanted to mention that in her Cardfile Central posts she "shows" cards that have her really keeping up with exercise.

[lucylee]

Thanks, Harriet! I will try to be extra diligent this weekend. Like you said, I am very close to that 150-something again. Boy... that would be amazing -- it's been a lllooonnnggg time since I saw the that number!

One other thing that might be helping is that I started taking the One a Day Women's Active Metabolism vitamins. I'm not sure the vitamins are doing anything to boost my metabolism OR help me lose weight -- BUT... this may be TMI... I think they keep me running to the bathroom a lot... so that in itself has some effect, perhaps. Like using a laxative for weight loss, only when one is taking a vitamin and getting the same effect, one feels more virtuous. One also feels extremely inconvenienced at times, but that is a small price to pay for an almost-five pound weight loss.

BIG, BIG WTG, OKay!!!

[Harriet]

Because I had ordered the Vitamin D sublingual spray for HRH over the internet, I was offered Dr. Mercola's free daily mini-newsletter by email. It's really not bad at all. He sends a daily short video of something wholesome, like animals or beautiful photography. And several links to click on that might be interesting. Today it's his opinions on eggs (he's for them). He does have some ideas that are out of the mainstream, for instance that we should drink raw milk that hasn't been processed. But he's really very cutting-edge and I've learned some things.

My August saw an increase in exercise and that's great, but no weight loss so obviously I need to add some calorie counting again.

DD13 doesn't know it but I am shopping for a really nice hula hoop for her, as she enjoys that so much she is now wondering whether she could read her reading book for school while doing simple hooping. LOL, I doubt it but it might be fun to watch her trying!!! Interestingly, when you graduate to buying from real hoop-making companies, you move up to about $30 prices. I did not know that. But if you store them correctly (under bed - never hang a hula hoop) they are supposed to last a long time. The expensive ones are "taped" in diagonally wrapped patterns to grip you well, so that you don't have to deal with them clattering to the floor as often.

[Nancy]

Back from some shopping & walking today.

[bittersweet]

With limited searching, this was the closest I could find to the info you were looking for on vitamin D synthesis, Harriet.

Estimated Vitamin D Winter months according to latitude:

Latitudes from zero degrees to around 35 degrees north or south allow year-round vitamin D production, though the amount produced will decrease as latitude increases. 3 5
Latitudes above 40 degrees north will experience Vitamin D Winter from around November through early March.
Latitudes below 40 degrees south, around June through August.
Latitudes above 50 degrees north, October through early April. 3
Latitudes below 50 degrees south, mid-April through July. 4

Here in central Alberta, we're running about October to almost April for Vitamin D winter.

I shall have to give some thought to joining OKay in her quest for improved fitness - walking/running are not terribly safe activities here in the winter with all the snow and ice that isn't consistently cleared from sidewalks.

[Nancy]

My weight is the same =( .