Health and Fitness January, 2013

[BookSaver]

Since I'm currently fighting a really bad cold, I may not be the best person to open a new thread for Health & Fitness. It's a good thing that the germs are not contageous over cyberspace!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I've got a cold too, Booksaver!

So didn't work out today but did take a walk, about 1.5 miles. That wore me out completely; I should not have gone but he wanted to get some fresh air. The 'fresh' freezing air on my lungs congested them further and my nose was dripping like mad.

I updated my fitness log with the number of steps daily I took for the past week. Unfortunately, the two days I was over 10,000 had dropped out of the memory of my pedometer. In total, 4 days were lost and that means it has been 11 days since I was on the treadmill (I update the log in the morning after my workout - if I'm not on the treadmill, the daily steps get added the next time I'm on.)

My weight is up 10 pounds from the end of Jan last year. I'm 175 lbs, so not an all-time high but 35 pounds from my ideal weight, 30 pounds away from not being overweight according to BMI. I'm currently 'severely overweight' by my calculator.

Dh bought me a pocket scale for Christmas. I'm trying not to take it personally. It is a cute thing, but I'm not sure I'd weigh things when at a restaurant and I have a scale in the kitchen already.

He also bought me two camisoles in a "small" which I took back and exchanged for larges (and they almost don't fit.) I'm hoping the medium exercise top he got me does fit. It has a built-in bra and should be quite good looking on me if it does.

[OKay]

Bookie - Thank you! Hope your cold is better soon.

Kathryn - I wish I only gained 10 lbs last year. I'm embarrassed and frustrated that I gained 21 lbs last year. I WAS AT MY GOAL WEIGHT at the end of 2010.

I'm trying not to look at the negative side of my weight gain and take this as a lesson learned how important it is to keep logging what I eat no matter what my weight is. I quit smoking Dec 27, 1997 but I know that if I have ONE cigarette, I would start smoking again. The addiction is still there. Ditto with food. With very little effort, I start overeating. 100 calories here.....100 calories there....and they seem so innocent. NOT! When I start doing just a little overeating, it is like a switch clicks and I give myself permission to do more. Logging food keeps me aware. I suspect the need to daily log my food will always be with me. I am addicted to food. I have been doing a study on gluttony and I think it is helping.

Keeping on.....
Logging food, drinks, weight, sleep and exercise.

[Nancy]

(_)P I am enjoying reading your posts here!

Checking in not much for progress as I have not gotten on the scales or been on the ex. bike yet.

However I have been up and down the stairs numerous times today putting away Christmas / Easter stuff

And bringing up pictures to hang up did that moved some furniture in the process.

Also several trips out to the coop forgot the water this morning when I first went out.

Got my 4 mi. on the ex. done today before granny duty that I forgot about!

[Cowinkie]

I just had lunch with one of my best friends and thought I would share this. I haven't seen her since the beginning of Oct. In June she went to the doc. because her hot flashes had returned. Her PA was suspicious that more than my friends hormones were out of whack. She ran tests and discovered my friend was pre-diabetic and had an enlarged liver. That got my friend's attention.

So the PA put her on a special diet...no carbs to help detox her liver. When I saw her in Oct. my friend had lost 18 lbs...as of today she has lost a total of 54lbs. And this is a woman who thinks exercise is a very dirty word.

I asked her what 'No Carbs" meant...no sugar, no grains, no fat period. She has to eat veggies that contain no sugar like carrots, corn and peas. No sugar means just that...nothing with sugar in it. The only fruits she can eat are apples, strawberries, oranges and grapefruit...she made a face when she told me grapefruit My friend was the queen of sugar, and she's never met a brownie that she didn't like.

I asked her what the most surprising thing was about eating this way....I ate lunch with her for 10 years so I know how she is with food. She told me once she gave up sugar, bread and rice.....ALL my favorites...that her cravings for them disappeared. She said she feels better than she has in years...not just from the extra weight that she's been carrying, but because her liver is now normal size and working like it should.

I am very carb sensitive, and started eating a no carb diet on Sunday. I have lost 1.5 lbs since then. The two things that my friend can not eat while doing this detox and which I eat all the time are mushrooms and squash...summer and zuccine. Not any more, gonna cross them off my food list and feed them to Sweetie

[Lynlee]

I lost weight and became stabilized when I gave up gluten grains. Sugar is a no for me too. I try for no added sugar or glucose etc - ok - need redo my efforts on that. I bought some dried cranbrries and they have sugar in them - why? May be its as a preservative. And I've bought some nut bars lately. Thin end of the wedge warning for me.
There is no such thing for me as a little off diet. It can quickly escalate to right out of hand. sweet things instead of meals.
When I first went off sugar a tkins book psychodietecs ?sp? suggested the first few months may have lots of mood swings , cravinges etc. the worse before it gets better thing.

re potato - they are mostly hi GI so contribute to a sugar load peak and rapid drop unless taken with protein or acidic food/vinegar. I think the long skinny ones have a lower gi. forget what they are called. Sweet potato is ok - GI wise.

[Cowinkie]

There is no such thing for me as a little off diet. It can quickly escalate to right out of hand. sweet things instead of meals.

Me too lynlee..and I'm even worse with bread

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

On the way to one of our cruises, I gave up bread (not grains, just bread) and found that easy because for the next month someone else was cooking for me. We still had burgers but without the buns. We kept that part for a bit after getting home but added cheese and bacon (as we had had on board ship) and calorie wise, that's way more calories.

I didn't gain on that cruise, but I didn't lose either so that's basically the same as most of my cruises (the Africa one I gained on, just 5 lbs, but my breast pain was freaking me out so that was comfort eating.)

I'm on the treadmill this morning but had to turn down the speed because my chest was too tight. Can't breathe right yet due to the cold. I'll do 30 minutes or 1.5 miles which ever comes first.

It is far too cold outside for me to go out today so I'll be inside all day today as well as yesterday.

I'm working on reducing gluten. At this point, I won't budge on my breakfast of shredded wheat and blueberries. But I'm trying to cut out crackers (I have some gluten-free which I'm having with my soup each day). Bread is an easy cut, except I had to toss 2/3 of a loaf of french bread. Don't know what else gluten is in (obviously anything processed that has flour in it like chicken nuggets, lasagna, granola bars, cookies, cakes but the 'hidden' stuff is where I don't know what I'm looking for in the ingredients list.)

Not sure where I stand on pasta. I only have it once a week so think I'll leave it in since the calories are controlled due to it being a single serving size frozen dinner.

Eliminating wheat cuts most of the sugar from my diet. I put a tsp on my cereal in the morning but don't use sugar in any of my cooking. So it will only come from processed/baked foods and those would have wheat so are out anyway. I am also having one can of soda a day but that may change as the cold subsides and I feel better (at this point it feels good on my throat and gives me an energy boost.

Green tea at night is a no-no. I didn't get to sleep until almost 1.

[OKay]

I find this thread so comforting and helpful to know that I'm not the only one that struggles with making good decisions what goes into my body.

Keeping on......
Logging food, water, sleep & exercise.

Because of high cholesterol being controlled without drugs I try to eat a cup of oatmeal and a cup of beans daily. Both of those foods have high carb counts so going on a low carb diet isn't for me. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I can't cut out unnecessary carbs like bread & sugar products. I'm going to do a 30 day challenge to monitor & eliminate all the sugar possible from my diet.

[Cowinkie]

Katherine....For years Sweetie ate mini shredded wheat along with raisins and a banana for breakfast Then we both started reading about how wheat can really bother your body. Sweetie switched from shredded wheat to rice checks and is feeling much better. I am adding powdered fiber to my breakfast now and definitely seeing a difference. We are really seeing a difference in our dogs energy since we eliminated all grains, including wheat from their diet.

I know what I should be eating, I've just been stubborn about it. 25 years ago I lost 45 lbs and kept it off for almost 20 years. Then I got into the "i deserve it" mode at school. People...all women...would bring in all sorts of goodies and leave them on our work table. It was visible from all parts of our department and it got so that when I past by the table I would grab "just a little something". The proof of that thinking is sitting here in my chair. My friend that I mention last night was our department chair. I wasn't the only one effected by that table.

My scale this morning told me I am down another pound. That means I've hit my first goal which is to get under the 145 mark. Yesterday I stocked my refrigerator with foods that I can eat. I sliced up an apple so its ready to nibble on when I go looking for something to eat.

The worst habit I have is sampling my foods as I cook. When I lost those 45 lbs, one of the first things I did was to put a small plate out while I was cooking. Every time I took a bite either while I was cooking or cleaning up I would put it on the plate instead of in my mouth. It was amazing to see how much extra I was eating. To combat that I began chewing gum before and after eating. Sometimes when I didn't have gum I would place a pencil sideways across my mouth. Spoons dont fit when your mouth is holding a pencil, and the clunk sound would remind me of what I was trying to do. I used carrots to begin with, but when I'm doing low carbs I cant eat them. Sometimes I would use celery. I haven't eaten off a dinner plate in 25 years...instead I use a dessert plate. Its one habit I developed and still use.

When I get serious about weight loss the first thing I make sure I do is weigh and measure everything cause even though I'm pretty good at estimating the amounts of foods I CHEAT.

So Starting this past Sunday I cut out carbs, am planning my meals and going at it one day at a time. We'll see how far I get this time