Health and Fitness October, 2011

[Harriet]

apple
smoothie of unsweetened almond milk, berries, protein powder
Fage plain 0% yogurt with my own added honey
4-inches of the Subway Veggie Delite on flatbread with lite mayo
tossed salad with shredded cheddar and honey mustard dressing
spaghetti
7-layer salad

This morning the scale was unfazed by having to have extra calories last evening. I am not sure it will be so forgiving tomorrow morning after the spaghetti and the mayo on the second salad.

[Nancy]

Today's exercise included shopping, taking my daily walk, also riding 4 mi. on the ex. bike.

[Harriet]

4 miles, Nancy - that's great.

One-week weigh-in and I've lost 1.5, so that's a great start to a 5-pound month, just about where I want to be, since the first week was probably going to have the best result.

HRH's results are inconclusive because he wrote his weight down himself last week and I also wrote it with my weight. After he weighed this a.m., we realized we had two different weights as starting points and now don't know which was right. Sigh. He's going to start again from today.

Later...

Update on our Saturday household - HRH is baking yeast rolls. "See, Ma, thats one of the reasons!!!" as Rhoda Morganstern would have said! LOL.

Cowinkie, I have not decided on a reward but I'll think of something. I hope you are wearing your bracelet soon, sounds lovely.

Kathryn, the busier I am the more chance of forgetting my water through the day. Lately I will get to suppertime and realize I neglected it some, which bothers me because I never used to at all, it used to be right on the radar. I'm impressed with you being able to remember while traveling.

lucylee, I didn't think of it before, but I guess all the walking to and from parking lots does make your dh's favorite ballgames a source of exercise for you! The few times I've been to really big games or stadium events, I do remember getting a real workout, especially if you are in the "nosebleed section" as I was.

[Nancy]

Have you ever had a pumpkin smoothie?
I took my walk and did some mopping and sweeping for today's exercise.

[lucylee]

Yes, Harriet, it is almost exactly a mile from our (dnephew's right now) condo to the stadium, and it is mostly uphill coming back, so that gives me a two-mile walk every ballgame Saturday. Our seats are fairly low & close to the exit, though, so * thank goodness * I do NOT have to climb up to the upper deck. I DESPISE that, which is often the case when we go to away games.

However, this has been another week where I have been totally inactive, except for Monday's good intentions (20 minutes walk away the pounds) and Wednesday's 45 minute vacuuming session.
* sigh *
I see no relief in sight until dmom is back to normal.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm very frustrated with this.

I lost 1 pound the first day of the month, simple coincidence. Then I gained, I hoped due to salt, then perhaps my period. Whatever the cause, the weight is still there, a week later. I'll admit to not counting WW points but I have been quite careful on my eating and have been good about avoiding the 'bad' things or at least limiting them (I had a 1.5" sliver of pie on Thanksgiving with a 1/4c of ice cream, then just kept munching on the fruit tray fruit, for example.)

I haven't done 4 miles every day but, except for Monday, I managed at least 2 miles of walking each day over the weekends, even if it wasn't at full speed.

Yet my weight is still at the 174. Which is even more frustrating since I know the 165 I have on October 31 is impossible now. At best, assuming my weight doesn't go up due to my period in the last week of October, I'll end up weighing what I did on October 1.

I really don't know what to do about all this.

Increased walking hasn't helped.
Increased water hasn't helped.
Not eating white flour and limiting sugar sources has made things worse.
Eating more veggies hasn't helped.

Doing none of the above, just simply eating carefully, my weight has been pretty steady at 168 since April (up or down 2 lbs.) It was when I saw the 171 in September that I decided to start a concerted effort to lose weight. I wasn't happy at 168 but it was a lot better than the 182 I saw at the beginning of the year. I've now gained back over half the weight that I've lost in 2011 (my low point this year was 165 after the spring cruise.)

This isn't a water retention spike, they don't last a week,

To move so far and for so long in the wrong direction, especially after starting a concentrated effort to do better, is driving me to tears.

[Harriet]

((Kathryn)) You're right, I don't see a reason you wouldn't be losing, either! I remember Indiana having lucylee post exactly what she ate to see if they could see something they were missing - you know we would all do that for you (and probably give you WAY more input than you want or need) because we sincerely want to help you figure it out. One thing I'll volunteer here is that limiting white flour and sugar probably has been smart and I doubt that's a culprit. Hormonal weight gain does start to be less predictable.

How many calories are you getting? Is it possible you have reduced your calories to the point your body is starting to switch to starvation mode retention of body fat? ( I have to be honest with you, although I've read very serious articles that that can happen, I'm not sure it has ever happened to me - HRH thinks it happened to him.)

Assuming this is a plateau, there are a lot of interesting theories about how to jump off it. One would be to start alternating high and low calorie days, keeping the same 2-day total you want, to reassure your body there is plenty of food. Another would be completely different exercise to shake things up. Switch to lighter, high-water content veggies, not heavy veggies, and more veggies than fruit to avoid the sugary-ness, but you probably already do that.

My best bet, I believe, would be to count sodium on the chance water retention is a more clever adversary than you think. (Online daily counters can do that.) I have completely skewed my weight loss with added sodium in foods, and missed seeing it. This very minute I am asking myself how a few of dd's Doritos and a few of HRH's salted cashews last evening could possibly have shot my scale up a pound, but all indications are that they did. Sodium has probably been my most elusive enemy - so many times when I've had a mystery at the scale, "the sodium did it".

I imagine others will have thoughts in completely different directions that might help more.

This IS going to change - I wish it could be quick for you.

[Nancy]

I have done my ex. bike in the last 24 hrs. 3 mi.
bs is up narly #300 not good so I"m having coffee black for breakfast.
I've been up and down the stairs at least three times doing laundry.
One thing I like about this house is the extra steps I get that are available for me in times like this!

Thinking about cooler weather and ex. opportunities in a diff. light it's good to shake up our exercise routines from time to time; we have fall leaves to be raked next month. The other granny goes to water yoga two times a week wish I could afford those kinds of classes.
There is roller skating, and ice skating rinks in our area also, some folks like to ski.

K in C hows your thyroid?

Did any one see Dr. Oz on the view?
He said that we crave carbs. if we do not get enough of three things, water, sleep & s_x.
Saw Paula Dean on his show last night cutting the calories & fat in half of some southern favs. Oz challenged her to do a whole cook book with him of stuff like that. I've wondered the same thing.

I have to ask are you getting enough sleep? Might be a factor that is not normally considered in wt. loss.

[OKay]

I have started losing again (after stalling last month) but feel the need for accountability of portions and types of food. I always learn something when I put the effort into tracking what I am eating.

One of my new habits this month is focusing upon eating fresh vegetables from the garden. I want to see how many days a year that I can eat SOMEthing from our garden. It's a silly challenge but one that intrigues me so I started tracking it.

Please feel free to critique my eating if you see something out of place.

Water = 60 oz
Coffee = 6 cups....yeah, I know....too much
Breakfast = 8 oz Strawberry/protein smoothie
Lunch = 1/2 cheese quesadilla with fresh salsa, spinach with balsamic vinegar, power pudding with whipped cream topping
Snack = DPepsi, 2T of power pudding & whipped topping
Dinner = 1/8 serving of Italian Casserole, spinach & balsamic vinegar, radish fresh from garden,jalapeno poppers (peppers from the garden)
bedtime Snack = 1/4 cup grape juice

After eating this, my weight dropped .2 lbs the next day

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: I'm sorry, I had to LOL at the idea that I'm taking in too few calories! Nope, that isn't the issue, I know that. Nor is this a plateau. While I stayed months at 168, that wasn't a plateau, I was eating what I wanted (thoughtfully, but not 'dieting') and that seemed to be my new set point. It was once I cut calories, had an uptick in sodium and then my period came, that the 4 pounds came on and now won't leave. 'Normally' the period gain (2-4 pounds) will leave by a week after my period.

I was 'down' a pound yesterday, we'll see how things are today after I s2s. I really concentrated on water and got 7 glasses in yesterday (plus 3 of milk so I had enough non-caffeinated liquid.)

I'm also finding that I'm just saying no to going to church meals and insisting on Subway or Swiss Chalet if eating outside the home. I've never done that before, WW allows you to work around things with their flex points but I have no will power to resist sweets and salt (pie at church meals and onion rings in restaurants) and because of the salt, I've eliminated pizza as well (in every other one of my 'diet' periods I've had loss even though I've eaten pizza once a week.)

I'm just going to pass on the potluck on Sunday just like I passed on dinner on Tuesday (and had Subway instead.) There are a half dozen such meals in the next month so I'll skip all but one of them. Dh had pizza when I was out on Tuesday so I'm trying hard not to deny him the food he wants but he can't have it when I'm around. I have no will power at all so he can't be tempting me.

His weight is up in the past 2 years (and it is all belly weight) so he could use a decrease in his intake as well but I don't see that happening. He hasn't really changed his eating except adding Chinese weekly and I'm willing to bet that's the source of the extra 10 pounds. But he gets really cranky if I don't have it in the meal plan weekly. I get cranky about that because we have the inconvenience of going out to get the food and the expense, but I still have to cook something for myself at home and then do the clean up so I get absolutely no benefit from his take-out. Thankfully, I dislike Chinese strongly so there is no temptation for me, just resentment that he gets a treat and break and I don't.

As for what I ate yesterday:

1.5 servings of spoon-size shredded wheat
1/4 cup of blueberries
1 cup of 1% milk
2/3 oz of 72% dark chocolate
4 cups of airpopped popcorn with spray butter flavoured oil and salt
1.5 servings of spoon-size shredded wheat
1/4 cup of blueberries
1 cup of 1% milk
1/4 c of hummus
tons of cut carrots, green pepper and celery (my guess is about 3 cups or more)
handful of grapes
Cup of tea
1 can of diet coke, 2 cans of diet Dr. Pepper
1 Stouffers lasagna (single serving)
4 cups of green salad, no dressing
8 oz of milk.
7 glasses of water

I did 2.5 miles on the treadmill and 2 walking to the store for the mail.

The hummus is the worst thing I see on that list but I was finishing it and the leftover cut veggies off and it won't be back into the house for a while (I had it for the meetings and students.)