Health and Fitness July 2014

[Ramblinrose]

I weighed today and am at my lowest weight since starting this journey. I am only 2.4 lbs from a big goal. I checked with dietbet and believe I can join a Chris Powell challenge already in progress. There are 23 days left and I would need to loose 1 1/4 lbs a week to reach my goal to win. If the game will accept me today I will play.

I set a goal I want to reach for my vacation with Sweetie. I need to loose 7.4 lbs in 6 weeks to reach it. I'd like to loose 10. I believe I can do this.

Dietbet has taught me that setting small weekly goals has been key for my success. That's has been a huge mind set chance for me. It has also kept me focused and on plan. I'm not worried abt eating while visiting my son. Competing in those Tough Mudders challenges has taught him to eat clean and although he has slowed down on the amount of challenges he does he still continues his daily exercise, running and staying on his eating plan.

By doing this, my son has learned this healthy focuse has helped him with his anxiety disorder.

Off to eat my breakfast.... Yesterday I ate 5 large crackers with reduced fat peanut butter. Crackers are not on my plan, but I didn't realize I was out of apples and I needed something filling because of my migraine. Did drink 32 ozs of hot orange spice tea during the day. I did drink water but not the amount I usually do. Looks like a trip to the grocery store for apples is on my list for today.

[FelineFriend]

Gained 2.6 Lbs. this week, since last Sunday. I'm not "happy" with myself- AT ALL! I'm more shocked, than anything.

I promptly have been counting calories again, TODAY, since I've not done it every single day for 2 weeks. Brother. Having "goodies" in the house, for Dgs-14, sure did take its toll on my diet.

So, today, I've turned over a new leaf. I have about 5 weeks or 5.5 weeks or 4.5 weeks ( ) to go before my physical. I'll try my best to count daily calories, move more, exercise more, like my Dr. wants me to. My goal is to be a few Lbs. down from my last appt. with him. So I have that as my motivation. I [i][u]KNOW[/u][/i] I [u][i]CAN[/i][/u] DO THIS!

[Twins' Mom]

I need to bring our scale downstairs - our houseguests needed it when determining how much their bags weighed when they left here, so we moved it to foyer and they moved it upstairs. Need to bring it back down.

Decent workout today at Y in spite of dh being on a schedule to get to funeral visitation. Today was lower body/legs.

[Harriet]

Best wishes on your goals, Ramblin' and FFriend.

((LadyM)) You went through a lot recently with feeling unwell. Don't beat yourself up too badly! We all kind of need a running start, and until we get it we don't seem to have consistency/results. It's the time element that just can't line up most often, then the energy element, IMO. "Life happens" and takes those off the table sometimes, causing us to only "put out fires" with our time and energy. I have my running start with exercise now, while any weight loss has taken a back seat or slightly inched up. Eventually they will both move toward progress together!

I'm taking a break right now in the middle of exercise, with my water.

And now finished with Total for 55 minutes of formal exercise this evening. Sunday isn't usually a long exercise day, but I've had 2 days off because of so much company, and I felt well, so... ....

I'm looking at when I want to do record-keeping/measuring for first of month. If I make Tuesday my last exercise day of July, I can take 2 days off to let muscles rest for measuring the morning of Friday August 1st before that day's exercise. Tomorrow can either be strictly off, or include a little floor work only, knowing that I will get plenty of rest later in the week. We'll see.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I forgot to post yesterday. Did two bike rides and ate sensibly. The amount of junk I have each day is decreasing slowly. I'm still having soft drinks when out but at home it is only water, milk, and soda water (plain or with the leftover juice from my fast.) I'm concentrating on getting enough water. The biking helps with that, I easily drink 2 cups of water every time I go out on the bike, more if it is a longer ride.

I have too much food in my fridge right now but it is all healthy. And I froze up 9 meals of chicken so we have lots on hand. I need to get more imaginative on how to cook it or we'll get tired of chicken quickly. The price of beef has risen dramatically, to the point where $7/lb is a good price. I have a couple of steaks left in the freezer and after that we'll have to buy some beef since I do like it. In the meantime, it makes cutting down on red meat much easier, although by accident I paid $7/lb for the chicken breasts today. In Canada, meat is priced by the pound and sold by the kilogram so the price on the sign is different than the price on the sticker (by 2.18x) except at Costco I got mixed up because they price by the kg and I did the conversion completely wrong. Sigh.... They have great meat but 2x my price-point is still too much to spend.

The rest of the food in the fridge is the veggie tray (so now having to cut veggies tomorrow, they are already cut), berries, fresh corn (ok not overly healthy but not processed food) and watermelon.

I was down a pound this morning. Not sure if that is a permanent change or just fluctuation so I'll wait and see before celebrating. Plus, this pound is an extra. I don't see any big signs of me getting slimmer as far as clothes fitting so I'm not sure the exercise is helping with my body shape either. It has eased my pain when walking so I'm not complaining about not losing weight, at least I can move better than I could. Even things like putting on my socks are getting easier.

[LadyMaverick]

It's the time element that just can't line up most often, then the energy element, IMO. "Life happens" and takes those off the table sometimes, causing us to only "put out fires" with our time and energy.

Very wise words. Thank you Harriet for that much needed reminder.

My goal to lose 2 lbs this past week was not a success. I refuse to be sad since I did lose weight (.6 lb) during a very difficult week and the overall trend is heading downward.

This coming week is another busy one so I'm going to set my goal accordingly. By next Monday I want to be at a lower weight than I am now. ANY lower weight will be considered successful.

I am giving up all sugar for awhile. I'm not sure how hard it will be so I hesitate to set a length of time. My wish is to learn to live without sugar until Labor Day (Sept 4th). I'll give it a try and see where my biggest challenges are. Years ago I wouldn't eat anything that had any form of sugar in the first 4 ingredients. It is eye opening how many food that eliminates....including ketchup!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I decided to up my Vitamin C by between .5 grams and 1 gram so bought 1000 mg (1 g) pills at Costco and took one last night.

Predictable results this morning (especially since I had chili for lunch and corn on the cob and fresh berries for dinner!)

I can't imagine giving up sugar. I can imagine switching to more healthy forms (honey and maple sugar) and cutting down in most other ways but couldn't imagine giving it up entirely. That would mean giving up my chocolate which only has 4 ingredients but the second one is sugar. I figure my chocolate is good for me because it has fiber (that's one of the ways I judge the quality of my chocolate, the higher the fiber content, the less processed it must be) not to mention the antioxidants.

Edited to add:

Sigh.... just googled Dr. Weil's updated recommendations for Vitamin C. In the edition of the book I have he says 2000 to 6000 mg per day (which I already knew would be too much, at least at the 6000 mg level, I usually limit myself to 2500 if I'm really sick with a cold and at 6000 you are getting into fighting cancer levels.)

He's adjusted that to 250 - 500 mg per day. In other words, he had over recommended by 10x.

That moves him into quack territory and I'm seriously considering ditching the book now. I certainly won't make an effort to follow it any more.

My current routine, has 800 mg in the morning and then another 400 mg at night if I'm feeling stressed (so last night I subbed out the 400 mg dose for the 1000 mg pill.) I'll just pee out the excess but it was a waste of money to buy the 1000 mg pills (although I note they have a cut line, so I might just do that.)

My current levels of vitamin C do keep me awfully healthy considering the stressful lifestyle I lead which includes shaking hands and hugging a lot of people, and keeping poor hours. On the other hand, I'm still bruising if you give me a hard look and that's what sold me on increasing my intake, since I'm so bruised all the time, mostly from bumping up against parts of my bike.

[Nancy]

Back from my walk. Vit. B seems to be helping me feel better and have more energy. Did not take it this weekend and noticed a diff. Rx. Sat. Shopping. Sun. Up and downstairs doing laundry.

[Ramblinrose]

Way to go Harriet on your exercizing and great advice to LM

LM, cutting out sugar isn't as hard as you think. Jorge Cruise has great recipes to move you in that direction. I think I posted the Skinny Muffin recipe that both Hariiet and I use, plus Harriet throws in a handfull of blueberries.

Kathryn...If you follow Jorge's plan you ARE allowed to eat one large square of dark chocolate each day...so you wouldn't have to give it up.

I'm down again today, but because I went to the movies late this morning haven't had all my water. So I expect that may effect my results for tomorrow. I meant to do my measurements today but got too involved in weeding out my closet.

Now I'm about to go through another stack of clothes to see what I can get rid of. I've worked too hard to keep any of my "fat" clothes around. I never, ever want to see them again regardless of how much I paid for them. I don't care if I have to go dancing in the streets barenaked...you can close your eyes so you don't have to watch

[Ramblinrose]

Jorge’s Skinny Muffin

Traditional energy bars are often packed with sugar, which can cause a spike and a subsequent crash. These muffins are designed to provide sustainable energy that lasts through lunch, thanks to coconut oil, a healthy fat that’s good for your brain, fiber-rich flaxseed and egg protein.

Ingredients

Makes one serving

1/4 cup ground flax

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coconut oil

1 egg

1 packet stevia

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a large coffee mug and microwave for 50 seconds. Allow to cool to a safe temperature and enjoy!

*** I put all all my dry ingrediets in my mug first and mix them around. Then I add my oil and egg.

*** I also place single servings of the dry ingredients in a snake size zip lock bag and keep a week's supply in my pantry. That way all I have to do it pour it in a cup, add my oil and egg and zap it....takes me longer to fix my morning's coffee