Health and Fitness February, 2012

[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.

How did January treat you? Were you able to continue successes, did you face any new obstacles or think of bright tips? Do tell!

What do you need from February? Starting a new month reminds us that each month brings a new opportunity for fresh starts in any area that may benefit us. That may be something we are DOING (exercise, water), something we are NOT DOING (desserts, sodas, late nights) or something we are RECORDING (calendar, planner, cards, apps!).

Is there a goal you want to report or a problem you want to share for tips or ideas? Have you accomplished one of those proactive medical things that make us all flinch to hear about, but you are SO COOL for doing? We hope you'll post with us!

[Nancy]

Stay on track with my healthy habits getting enough fiber, eating better and getting my exercise are Feb. goals sort of ongoing for me.

My ex. done 5 mi. on exercise bike rain today made this an excellent choice.

Weighed in my wt. is the same but I'm down 12 lbs. from last year yea!

[OKay]

New month = fresh start. I'm excited with a fresh start and am looking forward to this new month.

Physical goals I am tracking this month =
* C25k workouts
* liquids consumed
* weight
* fresh garden vegetables eaten

I will be monitoring my carb intake, but won't be tracking it (unless I my weight goes up).

[Harriet]

Fantastic that you are at 5 miles so consistently, Nancy.

Have fun and success with your walks-to-runs, OKay!

Today I went to my hormone dr and as usual, felt anxious about it all day yesterday, felt like a weight lifted as I left his office! LOL! Oh, how I love being finished with a dr's appt. He is adjusting my thyroid med to a median dose between my previous one and the one I take now. He says no problem to cut a pill in half to accomplish this.

According to his records, I've lost 3.5 pounds in 6 months. So I must have gained a few after that appt., although just clothing and time of day can change things by a few pounds - don't know.

In Nov I lost 2.5 and in Dec I lost 2.5, then in Jan I lost 1, for 6 pounds lost in the past three months.

He has a list of healthy things he advises. Under exercises, one of them is an elliptical, which I was interested to see. Also there's the exercise he does, which is P90X videos, and I mentioned to him that's the one my ds26 does. He (dr) says he has done it faithfully for 4 years, 5 days a week (and he is NOT 26 any more - at least 5 years older than me). I told him I felt it was beyond me, and without actually agreeing with me he said, "It's demanding." Um, yeah, I think that's an understatement. He is a man, though, and theoretically able to do more strenuous or more weight-bearing things. Anyway, if any of our menfolk are interested, that's a definite "man's type" of video exercise with one dr's high recommendation.

What do I need from February? I need to lose a few pounds - I would like to see 2 go. I need to tone up more, so I would like to see consistent exercise - in 29 days of February I would like to accumulate 10 hours of exercise (that is not incidental to housework). I'll be keeping a calendar.

25 minutes tonight: Warm up and Cool down from Biggest Loser DVD, plus Basic TTapp.

I watched the first workout of the Biggest Loser exercise DVD and this is somewhat do-able if I modify it. The problem is all the super-high-impact jumping, which you just wouldn't do in your home. They are at a gym, of course, so the pounding, repetitive jumping-jacks/jump-roping is acceptable. Not for anyone who pays the bills on a frame home, though, or lives with other people! plus I don't really think high-impact is always safe. It's a 6-week program (min of 4 times a week) that is tough even at first (winners of BL are the exercisers, with Bob) and adds 15 more minutes the 3rd and 4th week, then 10 minutes the 5th and 6th week so that you are at 55 minutes, then reduces to 45 for maintenance, 3 times a wk.

[Nancy]

Today's exercise I was able to get a walk in while dgd napped as h. was here. Loved the sunshine we had too for it.

[Harriet]

30 minutes tonight - warm up, 1st workout and cool down of Biggest Loser Workout.
Feb 1 25 mins
Feb 2 30 mins
= 55 minutes so far this month.

I modified the big jumps. If I hadn't, I believe I would have awakened my ddad! So much jumping. The only part I can't do is all the push ups - I have to stay on my knees to do them all. Tried it up on my toes part way in like they did and quit quickly. I wonder if after 2 weeks a person could do all the push ups. But other parts were a lot easier than TTapp, so it evened out. Had weights in my hands for the first time in 11 years (Teresa Tapp believes in isometrics for a safer workout). Only found out a month or so ago we still owned any, lol. I just used 3 pound for this first time. I don't know if I'll try this through the month or switch back and forth with T-Tapp. Variety, either way.

[OKay]

I reset my weight tracking sheet so I don't count the 30 lbs I lost last year. I think by showing that weight loss, I was kinda resting on what I had previously accomplished and letting it lull me into a place of comfort of not needing to do more. Instead of 30 lb loss.....now the worksheet is showing a measly .4 lb loss.

C25K is on track ....Week 1 Day 5

[Nancy]

Thanks for the kudos!
Exercise is done today I rode the exercise bike while watching the first half of the show the view today. 5 mi. = 30 min.

[Harriet]

Great job, OKay and Nancy! Glad both of you are feeling better and getting in exercise.

30 minutes tonight - warm up, 1st workout and cool down of Biggest Loser Bootcamp Workout.
Feb 1 25 mins
Feb 2 30 mins
Feb 3 30 mins
= 1 hour, 25 minutes so far this month.

I looked at the section of this DVD called "trailers" tonight after I finished and realized there are many BL DVDs. This one is all filmed in one gym setting and called bootcamp, with only Bob as the trainer, progressive with 2 additional parts of workouts through 6 weeks. Some of the others have many more workouts to choose from, are filmed in various outdoor/indoor settings, and include Jillian and Kim along with Bob. So I probably have the simplest one here. They suggest you use a medicine ball and body band for the later parts, and I have neither. HRH is skeptical that it's important and points out that they are directing you to their website to purchase.

Have been trying to have a big salad each day. Found some lovely organic avocados that have added to them nicely. Was disappointed that the organic red peppers I'd found before have disappeared from the shelves. I like having really bright veggies in my meals and those were so pretty in omelets.

I should probably make a plan for having some tomatoes growing here this summer. The Burpee catalog came and it is so exciting (not kidding) but I barely have time to do what I'm doing now.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harriet: On her own, my dsisil is a biggest loser. As dd said, "Aunt K, you've lost a whole me! Jillian was one of her inspirations and she got a chance to meet and have pictures taken with Jillian.

I'm not sure how her weight is doing now. She lost it all while on a sabbatical (actually, the first 100lbs came off in 3 months) but now that she is back at work she can't be at the gym 4+ hours a day or spend as much time cooking. I'm still not sure she will be able to stay married because she doesn't spend any time with my sister - everything is about her, all the time. She won't go out to eat, she demands to fed the minute she arrives home from the gym and she gets up around 3 a.m. and goes to bed at 8 p.m. in order to fit in her workouts. My dsis spent New Year's by herself because of this and hasn't had much of a social life as a couple for 18 months now.

She doesn't look well (most people lose weight like that when they are dying) and isn't happy. Her hormones are completely out of whack and the doctor told her that eating more would solve that but she can't make herself eat more. So she listens to herself behave crazy and feels out of control but can't solve the issue. All in all, I miss the smiling, happy, K; nothing seems to be worth a smile, even when she talks about her successes at the gym.

My sister, by cutting out alcohol, chips and eating dinner with her wife (so low carb/high protein), has lost over 50 pounds and looks great now. She was walking with a cane and barely able to climb stairs (bad since her home is a split level) and now she can move easily and looks very healthy. Lots of smiles from her when she talks about the good things in her life (but obviously she is worried about her relationship plus her dog is very old and decisions will have to be made in about a year.)

The worst thing my dsisIL did was a 30 day shred about 4 months into the process. That was what messed with her hormones.