Health and Fitness, February, 2014

[Harriet]

It's Heart Month!

Gotta love those hearts. So much of the healthy habits we concentrate on are great helps for our hearts.

The American Heart Association started in 2010 to identify health factors and lifestyle behaviors for a healthy heart. In addition to the original 7, they have also discussed making efforts to reduce stress.

1. Don't smoke, or quit if you do.

2. Maintain healthy body size - check your BMI and measure waistline to monitor.

3. Physical activity, even if you are thin.

4. Blood pressure below 120/80. Sugar and man-made starches, lack of exercise are culprits.

5. Fasting blood glucose less than 100 milligrams/deciliter. See number 4!

6. Optimize HDL cholesterol - divide your HDL by cholesterol. Should be above 24 percent.

7. Eat a healthy diet with plenty of whole, fresh foods and healthy fats.

[Nancy]

I have done ten mi. On ex. bike did 100 mi. Last week.
Did 30 min. on the gazille.

[Nancy]

Ex. 10 mi. Done.

[Harmony]

Ivy, I liked your poem last month. Very cute!

I have copied my weight / measurement chart, old one all filled up.

When the holidays came last year I focused on just getting through that without a weight gain. Did ok, but there were a lot of treats around and I had some each day. Still ok. Then I went through all my clothes and took too large ones out and added ones I could now wear. So all my clothes fit nicely and are comfortable. I got used to this weight and got complacent. I could add a treat now and then and it didn't show.

Got so comfortable with it all, I lost my mojo!

Trying to get that back. Time to lose some more. New goal set. New chart set up to log in, I'd even quit logging, though I was still weighing every day.

Anyone else ever get comfortable at the wrong spot on the scale?

[Harriet]

Harmony, I think spots on the scale reach out and grab us and hold on. But really, you can get to a "set-point" I think, and have a hard time leaving it. Maybe these are weights at which we've spent a lot of time in the past - don't know, but I do know they don't have any right to hold us! Good job setting a new goal.

Nancy, I don't have either of those machines to compare, but it sounds like to me you have built up great stamina.

My January report would be all about regular exercise, but no better weight or anything like that. Makes me happy I stuck to the daily exercise, though. In theory, I should lose some in February just because of reading these books, lol.

David Perlmutter says at beginning of the chapter I'm about to start:

If I were you, I'd put down that biscuit or biscotti you're having with your coffee and BUCKLE UP. After reading this chapter, you'll never look at a sugary treat in quite the same way.

Somehow, in the shuffle of new television in the LR, and the menfolk moving media around, my lost exercise DVD turned up, so I enjoyed doing it for the first time in a long while. Strangely, another one disappeared, though! Good grief. Can I not just keep everything organized?

Dd15 "read" with me the DVD of very slow explanation/instruction of the primary stretch for all t tapp workouts. ("read" meaning watched it to learn) She has noticed her posture - or perhaps noticed some back fat - when she's looked at photos of herself lately, and wants to work her lats, her upper back. She's done workouts with me several times lately. So many photos are snapped these days, especially by young people. For instance, their phone cameras are snapping like crazy in the classrooms when projects are happening. It is nothing to dd to take a short video of a project team as they work, sometimes making faces at the camera, sometimes walking around ignoring it. Nothing like that ever happened for me. I had to have my aunt tell me, "stand up straight."

[Nancy]

I am on the ex. Bike now.
Looking forward to walking on the hill when spring comes!
Gazelle later.

[blessedw2]

thanks d harriet for the thread.

as you know I am an up and down physical exercise person... I haven't figured out the change for the rest of my life which means I go all out or not at all and the not at all time seems to last longer and longer. I have a choice now to go to the hospital and go on a liquid diet which my dkids want me to do bc they are worried and I am too. But I want to give it one more shot to eat healthy. I don't even like to eat my own cooking which I love to do for others but snack out at night.

I will keep fighting! I weigh now more than I did before: 255 shocker I know. but I am no longer doing the things I love because I can't. so there it is all out in the open. it is what it is. so say a prayer that I have the courage to keep up with a program. Facing the fear of exercise again and eating healthy. I just don't want anyone to notice outside of my immediate family. oh well a new day!!!

[Harriet]

I'm glad we're sorta family ((blessed)). We're really the best of the best choice for chatting, because we can tell each other just about anything and get true input from friends, but then, in a way, we didn't tell anybody. Aw, shoot, I know lots of ladies who weigh about 250. You're not unusual. I think you may have really hit something there - "snack out at night". Lots of us have talked about that here - who was it most recently, OKay?

A buddy of HRH's changed his whole body shape by just not eating after 7. He became determined to have a substantial, healthy meal between 6 and 7 and he just closed down the kitchen and brushed his teeth. He said, "I am close-mouthed about it." LOL Worked for him.

I know myself well enough to know I would do poorly in a gym atmosphere. I can be social, but not when it's "about" body image, exercise, etc. So I am happy with my private video workouts that I build up to, if needed, and no one even knows I do them except my family.

[Twins' Mom]

((bw2)) We're all pulling for you here. Most of us struggle with weight and healthy eating and we all are together in this.

[Harmony]

{blessed}. It's a head problem. The fat gets on our bodies but the problem is in our head. The way we think about our ability to diet and exercise and keep on a good path with all that. I go into panic mode if I feel deprived or hungry. Sometimes. Recently not so much, been trying to accept and get used to feeling hungry. Good luck on your journey. You can do it!

Logging again. Haven't made a plan of action in my head yet. The ice cream calls to me right from the freezer. So do the chips. Still, some changes from my recent loss time have stuck and that's good, I don't seem to need as much food to feel comfortable.

Gotta work on caffeine consumption again. It's edged up AGAIN! It's not good for my acid reflux. I have a friend in my church committee that has it also and now she feels like she has something "stuck" in her throat from it and is getting tests. Yikes!