Health and Fitness, March, 2014

[OKay]

Yesterday fasting turned out well. I'm glad I pushed past my "wanna eat everything" desire that I woke up with.

B: Chocolate/oat Fiber One bar
L: Sauteed summer squash, grilled asparagus
D: Hard boiled egg, seasoned greens.
Snack : Apple
512 calories for the day.

This morning the scales show the expected big weight drop (2.6 lbs) but know it will bounce back. It's the height of that bounce that interest me..

The next 2 days are feast days which fit right in with eating on the road and at DSon's home.

[Harriet]

OKay, I've noticed (read) that most people's experience is that they eventually stop waking hungry - that's an early-on thing. It is the evening cravings (I know! You and I are both familiar with those!) that become more of a hurdle. Promising yourself that you can eat the thing you crave the next morning if you want - that's helpful. Happy for you that you are having initial success. The bounces are a study, for sure. Eventually you start being able to predict your personal bounces up, but it is harder to predict when the new low will happen.

I was glancing at dd34's photo taken at the shower, and I'm very happy for her that she had done alternate day fasting before this pregnancy (she stopped during the pregnancy although some people continue on with higher down-day numbers). She was definitely slimmer ahead of this pregnancy than the last, and that seems to be serving her well.

Have printed out the "lbs" version of the weight-only chart-and-graph I linked to on the previous page. I think that will generally be good for me to keep up. My printer is not accepting black-and-white commands, so I'll have to get HRH to look at that. It's no particular problem for this graph, which is in navy and black and will last 2 months. But for the other very colorful day-at-a-time link, printing in color is a problem. I wouldn't be able to afford that! I'd like to see it in black-and-white and 2-to-a-page to make it more practical. So that's a honey-do request for HRH.

[Ivy]

[color=#40BFFF][color=#400080]Hi! I walked 1/2-hour, did stretches and some yoga moves.

This is sort of funny: I now weigh 177.7 Lbs. and have lost 7 Lbs. since I weighed on my doctor's scales on Feb. 25. So many SEVENS! [/color][/color]

[Nancy]

I walked tonight I really needed it to reduce stress and clear my head! It helped.

[Nancy]

Down a pound yea! Kiiping my hands busy knitting seems to be working.

[Nancy]

Back from my walk.

[OKay]

The information from the last couple of travel days has been added to my spreadsheet. The #'s aren't pretty. Eating out is a challenge (for me). It seems everything is too large of a serving size and the sodium is way high. However, that is life so I need to deal with it in a healthy way.

Today ends my first week of doing 5:2 (5 days of feasting with 2 days of fasting). Good or bad, I am looking forward to seeing the result when the weekly averages are figured.

[Harmony]

I did lots of wrong things while going through this past 30 days. There was no time for buying, chopping, cooking vegetables. Most days I had nothing to eat after a small bit at breakfast till I came home at night, and lots of those days I stopped at store and picked up whatever I'd thought about all afternoon. Still, I was up only about a pound when all that was over.

Still unmotivated, but thinking about it a lot, comparing the feel of my clothes, etc., so I'm considering what to do. I know I'm not able to go full steam into a dieting program of any kind, but hopefully work my way back into something.

I feel as though I'm regaining - slowly - my physical and mental stability. I'm not feeling as though I must nap every hour. Still, though, when DH gets on the phone and deals with the every-day aspects of his jobs I can actually feel my worry escalating. So I know I'm not there yet. Last night just being out amongst lots of people in store felt ok, well until DH called and wanted me to go to another store to search for better price on something. I've been burned out being around so many people and wanted to hibernate in an empty cave somewhere.

Sheesh. Very disappointed in myself. You'd think I was the one who had the operation.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Some observations:

1. As winter stretches on (and on, and on) I am eating more starchy carbs (bagels, potatoes, corn.) Not all of that is bad if you are counting calories (for instance I tried the skinny bagels but didn't see enough benefit from them so have bought regular whole grain ones and am having 1/2 at a time for fewer calories, higher fibre and more 'chew' since the half I'm having is thicker.) Of course, I'm not actually counting calories or points now, but I'm kinda aware of the pattern.

2. Sitting too much causes the knee to go out (Tuesday and Wednesday were bad after sitting all Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.)

3. Plantar fasciitis continues to be a challenge in keeping my step numbers up. I'm looking forward to biking weather so I can do heart and knee health without hurting my foot as much.

4. Back remains fine despite all the packing. It's been 9 years since I was disabled with that. At the time I wondered if I'd ever completely heal but I think I may have.

5. If I eat high fat (pan or deep fried food, high butterfat content) I feel overfull and uncomfortable. This one scares me, wondering if another stone is moving around or if my pancreas was damaged permanently after last summer but, on the other hand, those foods were not an issue up until this past week.

6. Dh continues to be a challenge. His choices in food are poor and he cooks most of my meals. I'm going to have to start cooking more, both our meals or a meal for myself when dh makes a bad choice. Mostly it is just quantity (serving sizes have grown dramatically in the past few weeks.) I'm thinking he might be having the same starchy carb craving I'm having. The protein portion is set by me (I do the shopping and freezing in single serving sizes), it is the sides that are out of control.

It is Sunday and I'm back on the treadmill and have managed to kick it up a notch today so my heart rate is in fat burn territory for a change.

Twins I didn't get my weekly fitbit summary either. Thought I had deleted it by accident so thanks for letting me know it wasn't just me.

[Harriet]

Kathryn, one thought as I read through your post. When you mention frying you are probably meaning when eating out, when you would have little control. But if you do mean home cooking at all, try frying in organic coconut oil. It does not impart a "coconutty" flavor to foods, although the aroma in the kitchen may seem like the islands. I'm wondering if this link to a page or two in Bruce Fife's book will work. It is clearer than most about why coconut oil, because of it's Medium Chain Triglicerides (MCT) is easier on the internal digestive organs. Neither pancreatic digestive enzymes nor bile are needed to digest MCTs.

Congrats to Nancy and Ivy on some successes, and to Harmony on weathering a tough time and getting to a "re-set" time with optimism.