Health and Fitness October, 2011

[OKay]

Kathryn - you ate healthy food selections! Did you eat the same meal for breakfast and lunch (cereal)?

I am losing too slow to meet my weight loss goal for the month. I have lost 3.2 lbs this month but should be at 4lbs to be on track to finish at goal weight. I am hoping writing down what I eat will help me see where I can improve.

Today =
** 4 cups of coffee
** 80 oz of water
** small DPepsi
** vitamin
** Breakfast = ham steak and fried egg (248 calories, 2.4 carbs)....lesson learned....the 3oz ham steak had 910 sodium!! Eeeks
** Lunch = Italian casserole, green salad w fresh salsa & radish, jalapeno popper. Power pudding w/whipped cream topping (654 calories, 25 carbs) TWENTY FIVE CARBS?!?!! AUT OH!! this is an eye opener. I didn't realize it until I started putting the details together.
** Supper = 2oz of smoked sausage, onions, peppers, pinto beans, jalapeno poppers, SF jello and whipped cream topping
Final counts for today =
Calories 1260.4
Fat 81.8
Sodium 1710.1
Carbs 55.6
Fiber 12.3
Sugars 20.1
Protein 61.9

Weight result = .2 lbs GAINED!
Lesson learned = too much sodium and too many carbs.

[Harriet]

Kathryn,

"Used tos" from me

I used to know exactly what the weight gain regarding time-of-month was going to be. Then for a while I seemed to have 2 times of month at which I would have hormonal weight gain - approximate period time, and the half-point. Now if anything I have less predictability, but at least I don't seem to have really bad days.

I used to be able to eat pizza without ruining anything - not such a bad uptick in the scale, no feeling bad at all. Now after pizza I have swollen fingers, which of course signals a swollen me, and a higher scale number. Very thin crust is best for part of my problem - the gluten in the crust - but the sodium in the pizza's sauce/cheese recipe is still a variable that can skew my weight.

Never have been able to eat Oriental food without an uptick in the next day's weight, even when I was young. Thai food is lighter, usually more lightly-cooked vegetables, which is probably better, but I have had my fingers swell while I could swear it was still in my tummy!!! And the scale is amazed by it and pops up 100 percent of the time. It would seem to me that a good cook could prepare a simple light Thai meal at home and create something without much sodium.

About your choices (bravo on the fresh produce), I would be nitty-nit-picking, but let's see.

Consider the other single-serve frozen lasagnes out there rather than the Stouffers for calories and sodium. Here I can find Amy's Vegetable Lasagna but also the Lean Cuisine/Smart-Ones-types would probably satisfy as well. Amy's meals are among the most helpful for weight loss, I think - better sodium, better calories, seldom bother my tummy. Paneer Tikka of Amy's (an Indian meal) is my favorite go-to meal. (Also some of their soups in cans are nice.)

Grapes have the second-highest fructose content of any fruit, right behind mango (I just learned that yesterday, after I ate the third-highest, a pear). So with my newfound knowledge I'd suggest a different fruit. I'm sad for you deciding to do without salad dressing, but I won't advise differently if you can stand it. There are supposed to be ways to use 0 percent yogurt in recipes for salad dressings, but I can't remember! Seems like you add garlic and lemon... This looks promising.

[Harmony]

In the effort to keep myself accountable:

At the beginning of the month I made myself a chart. 4 categories: food/weight, exercise, time management, and spiritual. Planning on giving myself a check mark in each category for each day I consider a success in any of those areas.

Out of 12 days so far this month, I have 2 checks in the food/weight, 1 in the exercise, none in the time mgmt, and 4 in the spiritual.

I'm accutely aware of my failings so far.

I have goals set for each category. Not gonna meet them this way!

BWTG those of you who are actually losing weight and keeping exercise and healthy habits.

[Harriet]

Harmony, you are packing so much into every day AND taking up the slack of those around you who get sick or need help. So I'm not so sure you can make a case for failings.

You do know exactly where you are on each of your targeted hopes. That's better than I have been able to say, more than once this month!

I'm just popping in to report the Basic T-Tapp workout done and I'm drinking my 3rd pint of water and am plugging my eats into the online thingie as we speak.

I also walked briskly with dd13 this evening and wondered, how is the walking program going, OKay?

[Nancy]

Did "recess" outside with dgd this afternoon,
then we went on a short walk.
Tonight after dinner I did 4 mi. on the ex. bike overdid a bit on dinner.

[lucylee]

I'm so far behind I can't even post ANYTHING re: health &/or fitness. You are ALL doing waaay better than I.
Hang in there.
I'll try to get on board eventually.

[OKay]

"Failure is just an opportunity to start again more intelligently.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Alrighty! Some of us (especially ME) are getting quite intelligent in this effort.
STARTING AGAIN today with some knowledge of what I did wrong yesterday and a big bucket of motivation to do better today.

I find your post very helpful and informational!

Breakfast = strawberry/whey protein smoothie
Lunch = Pizza, power pudding with whipped cream topping
Supper = salmon and green salad.
bedtime = grape juice icee

Final counts for today are =
Calories 996.4
Fat 53.8
Sodium 1688.1
Carbs 75.8
Fiber 15.1
Sugars 35.9
Protein 62.2

Lesson learned = not enough calories, TOO MANY carbs, not enough fiber.

Weight loss/gain results = No change. The scales didn't bulge.

On a happy note - I ate out TWO times today with family members and didn't mess up.. I took DGS14 and LO for hamburgers/fries/shrimp. DBro, DSis and I stopped at a chicken place together. Both times I had a drink and visited with them while they ate.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Just for the record, when I got on the scale yesterday, I was up a pound.

Yes, OKay, I eat the same cereal, no additives (salt, sugar, chemicals) and I love it. It has some iron and lots of protein (considering it is a grain, plus my milk adds more.) When I travel, I miss my at-home breakfast most of all (even more than my bed now that I travel with my own pillow.)

The advantage to having cereal for breakfast and lunch is that it guarantees me my second serving of milk (I often drop that since I'm not fond of milk) and I don't have to think about it so I'm in and out of the kitchen quickly.

Yesterday, my fresh veggie numbers were down because they weren't all cut up. And I checked out the hummus and that stuff is really healthy and low cal! Only 120 calories for what I had and lots of fibre. Given the flavour punch it offers, I might actually buy more since it really helps curb my hunger in the afternoon. Yesterday I had a much harder time and found myself trolling the kitchen for snacks after having my veggies.

Harriet: I hate salad dressing so I'm not suffering by not having it! Plus I love salad so could easily eat 3 - 4 cups a day. Under WW that has no count. When I travel it is a lot harder since a green salad isn't in a lot of cultures. But I'm home now so there are no excuses.

There is a slight chance the increase is due to the increased exercise. Muscles, when damage, retain water to repair themselves, so this might be an explanation. I am on the treadmill more and in addition to our daily walk. If that is the case, then the weight loss might start in a few weeks. One month after starting Curves years ago I had gained weight and inches but shortly after the weight started to fall off. I wish I could restart Curves but with my back it is too great a risk. I tried about 1.5 years after I had recovered and within a week I was back to using a cane so I'm not anxious to try again.

[Nancy]

Had granola bar for breakfast, I'll have a prune in a bit.
I like these so I can save milk servings for cheese and yogurt later in the day.

It's been raining so I'm thinking ex. bike this morning will be a good thing.

Done with my 3 mi. on the ex. bike today.
I'll do a walk also in a bit as I enjoy them so much and need the prayer time.

[Harriet]

For breakfast, a fresh small peach blended into an almond milk/protein powder Smoothie

For lunch, a 3-egg omelet with bell pepper, onion and cheddar

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll need a salad sometime this afternoon.

Have had 5 cups of water. I saw on the Mercola newsletter that drinking/thinking by cups is better than drinking more at a time, so I'm going to stop counting by pints for a while and see how that goes. Maybe this different way of looking at it will also remind me to DO it.

The rest of the day could be stressful, since it is my ddad's urology appt. HRH is going to break away and go with us, and I imagine he will be hungry, plus he will be thinking he'd like to pick something up for my ddad while we're out. So I must be strong!

Avoided the eating-out trap! At home,

For snack, Greek yogurt with my own honey
For supper, Paneer Tikka and a big tossed salad with sprinkled cheddar and drizzled honey-mustard dressing

I may plug this in to the online site and see what I was missing for the day, if anything, but I won't eat more.