Healthy & Fitness - October 2014

[Ramblinrose]

Interesting note...

When I went to my seminar the other night, I learned two new to me ideas.

One: To maximize weight loss and keep your metabolism up, you should eat a protein and a carb together with each meal. Now I understand why many eating plans suggest veggies in your eggs for breakfast.

Second: It takes at least four days for your body to recognize you are watering your body. And your body bloats if you don't continue the water because it thinks the watering is gonna stop, so it stores it in the fat cells that cover your stomach. The bloat disappears as you continue the "watering" of your body.

It was pointed out that our bodies are at least 70% water and need additional daily water to maintain efficient bodily functions. Made me think of why flowers and plants need water to grow....never realized that the body will go into a storage stage if it didn't get enough daily water.

Made sense to me...so I'm keeping my "watering can" out and gonna remember to keep on watering my "beautiful flower"

[Ramblinrose]

Oh, and I forgot to add:

Water increases your metabolism as well. It flushes out the extra salt in your body and is needed to make your organs work to their maxium capacity.

And in order to get and KEEP your body running to its highest potential, every body requires at least half your body weight in ozs of water. It really likes more if you can do it. Water plump organs equal skinner bodies. Who knew

[Harriet]

I'm sure everyone thought "a mention of water - Harriet will be on her high horse now".

I sure do like those back-to-basics water guidelines, Ramblin'. I think the "by weight" method is very wise, with a 150 pound person then looking at about 9 cups of water per day. I get so irritated with people/headlines/psuedo-experts who want to pooh-pooh water guidelines and pretend we get enough water in our "diets". I read one recently that was talking about the "danger" of someone eating watermelon and not realizing it would count toward water consumption. Talk about reaching to make your point. Of course we don't want to over-drink water, but the traditional guidelines have served well, with the extra suggestions that activity level or heat index might be reason to recalculate.

For years we went through the time of non-experts laughing at, for instance, the "8 cups of water per day average" guideline. One of the criticisms would often be that it was thought up without basis. Wrong. It was based on survey data of usual consumption. That's not dumb, that's actually quite sensible. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine released their guidelines for water consumption (in cups of liquids to drink - they had determined drinking provides 80 percent of liquid intake and foods provide only 20 percent). It was for 9 cups of water for a woman, more for a man! So much for 8 cups being dumb - the IOM actually increased the suggested amount.

In July of 2011, the Mayo Clinic released a statement saying that only if you are drinking enough to produce 6.3 cups of clear or slightly yellow urine a day is your fluid intake sufficient. So considering that sweating, tears, respiration, and the need for water in bowel function also contribute to water leaving the body daily, the guidelines were considered very close.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I take too many vitamins to get the totally clear or even pale urine. I have that at some points in the day but in the morning it isn't. I don't mind excreting the excess vitamins, I can afford to flush them down the toilet and every once in a while I won't get the colour I'm expecting and figure my body needed the excess vitamins that day.

I did weigh myself after my chocolate and tea and it shows no weight gain despite several poor eating days in a row. Maintaining through this stressful time suits me fine.

In looking over my sugar intake yesterday, I realize I would have not gone over had I not had the can of Blue Sky cola. My milk adds 18 g of sugar a day, my chocolate 6, my berries in the morning 7 so those items add up to almost 3/4 of the sugar MFP expects me to have in a day. Yet, I refuse to cut any of them because of the anti-oxidents the latter 2 offer and the calcium and protein the milk offers.

[LadyMaverick]

This may sound weird, but I'm having problems getting the recommended amount of sleep. With great focus and effort, I can get over 6 hours consistently. Seven hours is a challenge and requires a forced nap. I am hoping my body will get used to sleeping more and it will get easier.

For a short time, I am tracking SPH (Steps per hour). I am using this data to become aware of how much I sit and at what times of the day. I want to learn how to move more and sit less. 500 steps per hour is fairly easy to maintain if I don't sit too long at a time.

[Ramblinrose]

I did not water my "flower" enough yesterday....got the water can out and am working on it today

[Harriet]

LadyM, everyone is different. It may be that you need less than average. Do you know what awakens you and whether it is just hard to get back to sleep? Do you think you are feeling "on call" all the time listening for LO? Did you sleep more at another time in your life?

Kathryn, then you do produce enough daily, you just happen to color it. Me too. It is the Vitamin B2. And that's healthy for us, also water soluable so it's all good.

[Nancy]

K in C is the chocolate you mention hot cocoa or candy?
CI : I am okay today, I've been knitting so more activity is needed cold out here today. 59* @ 1:00 p.m.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Nancy, it is 1/3 oz of dark (72% cocoa or higher) chocolate. I buy large bars of it (mine is made in Belgium and is my grocery chain's house brand but when I can't get it I buy it from Walmart), divide it into single servings and then chop that into tiny bits just before I have it. It is very hard so I melt each sliver on my tongue between sips of tea.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back home from swimming. It took 1:45 from the moment I left the house until I hung up my washed bathing suit to drip dry in the tub. I was in the water for 30 minutes and it is a 20 minute round trip. So 55 minutes of that time I was in the locker room. This is why the locker room was so important to me - if I'm stuck there forever, I want it to at least not be turning my tummy.

On the plus side, I'm s2s for the day (a 25 minute process usually.) So only 30 minutes was 'wasted' time.

I wore my suit there which cut the time it took to get me into the water. The water was warmer than on Wednesday, apparently 85 vs 82, but some guy spent the first 15 minutes whining to the lifeguard. Standing in the water, complaining. His wife eventually started to swim and within a lap admitted the water was nice. Of course it is cold if you are just standing there, the point is to move and you'll warm up. I'm still very warm from my workout and I've been out of the water over an hour now.

Not sure if this is worth the money but the moment I got into the water I had a blissful feeling so it is worth it from that standpoint. And I'm getting more flexible. Today I was able to get out using the ladder in the deep end instead of the stairs in the shallow end.