Health and Fitness March, 2012

[Nancy]

Yd. work was my exercise this afternoon raking leaves along the fences wonderful weather for it here today 70*.

[Harriet]

Went back to entering my eating on everydayhealth.com. I always seem to be able to lose a few pounds when I do that, so we'll see. I'm aiming for that 2 pounds down. I've been so good today! According to the calculations my protein wasn't high enough, so in the morning I want an omelet.

Yesterday Dr Hyman showed up on Dr Oz show, too. He was talking about health foods no one realizes are reasonably priced. Frankly, I'd never eaten the three I remember, but I did know the vegetable he showed to see if anyone knew what it was. Daikon radish, which looks like a white carrot. The other two I remember are adzuki beans and black rice. Whatever he said about black rice was impressive to HRH, who said we needed to see if we could find it. Oh, I remember a fourth one, canned wild pink salmon, very smart buy. HRH immediately said it was because they pack it so fast, and sure enough that was the reason. Less chance for aging or contamination.

Here's a funny from the everday health site today:

4 generalizations about weight loss that are actually true:
1) Just about any diet plan will work if I stick with it
2) No weight loss plan is easy. It takes a strong commitment to carry it through
3) What separates the winners from the losers are those who keep going while feeling discouraged
4) Losing weight is like breaking rocks

[Lynlee]

Harriet - I bought black rice from an asian grocery store. Do you have those where you live?

I'm back recording my food in a diary , but I'm wondering if using one of those websites like you use would help make sure I am covering all the bases. Often my eating isn't as regular as I would like.
Wondering how they would handle aussie food - much of it not commercial. Do you need to know weights of everything for serving sizes?

[Harriet]

Lynlee, I think most of the online data bases have a huge selection, and certainly everydayhealth does, but I must tell you I can still have some trouble "explaining" what I've eaten, LOL. For whole foods (as opposed to packaged) you do not usually use pounds but put in fractions. For instance, yesterday I put in 1/4 of an avocado. You are sometimes offered a choice to put in other measurements, if they make more sense, such as 1/2 cup of a sliced veggie or 1 tablespoon of mustard. You can see where even a tossed salad with several ingredients will take some time to input, but it's not too bad. You can input a recipe you like, though, and then every time you include that recipe after that, it's just a one-click.

To input just a fraction of an item, you type "0" into the first box and then a second box offers various fractions to click.

Packaged or commercial items can be a problem if they are not in the database, and sometimes there's a lot from one manufacturer but not what you want, that sort of thing. Yesterday I wanted to put in that I had a tablespoon of a salad dressing and of course they didn't have that one but suggested a few that varied wildly. So I had to go down a list and try to find one that came close to the calories and sodium.

It's a good way to check behind yourself and realize if you are lacking in something, like I did last evening with the protein. I also watch my fiber and sodium that way - those are the 3 I'm most concerned about. At the top of the "food and fitness journal" page on mine are arrows that will take me back to previous days. Also you can print a day or days.

Saturday evening 55 minutes of T-Tapp Total. Really felt a breakthrough on full extension of some of the difficult stretches and on stamina/form on the balance work. Had more calories today than yesterday, so this might be a good routine : every other day a greater calorie total and then work out. The next day, which will be an "off" day, can make me feel virtuous with fewer calories.

Dd13 took a long bike ride today while I drove to my ddad's and back to check on that house. That way I could view her whereabouts on the road twice but she still had some freedom to go greater distances at right angles to my path.

[Nancy]

Found a couple free mags at the lib. thought some of you gals might be interested.
http://forecast.diabetes.org/

[Nancy]

I've done my ex. for today 5 mi. on the ex. bike. The rain the fell in the night was frozen when I got up today. I could not see the hill and I think it was snowing in the near by mtns. east of us today to cold for walking w dgd.

[Harmony]

Yesterday's bike ride was against the wind again, much straining on the legs, good for the muscles. DH says it limbers up his bad hip and helps it be less stiff.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I gained nine pounds over the 37 days since I last weighed myself. I'm hoping at least 4 are water/TOM/flying related.

I'm on the treadmill again for the first time in 2 weeks. Once our cruise started to have a port every day, I just walked ashore rather than on a treadmill. So I have been moving most days, except for Tues/Wed/Thur of this week (travel and adjusting to being home.)

I slept in a bit this morning but was up an hour earlier than yesterday. I won't take melatonin tonight and will start my light therapy again today to help with energy level and sleep.

I still feel completely out of time/place. I really hate this feeling.

The doctor's appointment was useless except she couldn't feel a lump. So, having not found a lump she is sending me for a mammogram. Had she found a lump she would have sent me for a mammogram. So why she couldn't just book me a mammogram when I asked 2 weeks ago, instead of insisting on seeing me first is beyond my understanding (especially since I'm due for another this month anyway.) If this does turn into something serious, she just caused an additional delay of weeks.

At least I saved $150+ by not having the ship's doctor feel me up. He wouldn't have found anything either, and couldn't order a mammogram for when I got home so my doctor's office recommendation to see him was useless as well.

Edited to add: first available date for a mammogram was March 30. I yelled, pointing out in my mind, after 6 weeks of breast pain and sister who died of breast cancer, this was not routine. I'll go in on Monday. Geeesh.

[Nancy]

{{{K in C }}}

Got on the scales I've missed the last week or two and it's going the wrong way back up to #163 drat! [I usually weight w/out clothes today had on light cotton shift.] Could be my TOM but still hate that it's up.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I know how frustrating weight gain can be, Nancy. ((((Hugs))))