Health and Fitness, August 2019

[Ramblinrose]

Dee...

A little out a time, but consistency is the key. Not sure I’ll meet my step goal today due to my headache, but I’m still gonna try to do the best I can.

[RunKitty]

WTG, RR and Dee.

We keep taking steps toward eating plant-based. We have now eliminated cheese and cow's milk. Almond milk is really good in our breakfast shakes. The last item to go will/might be the whey protein in the shakes. Being able to eat more while losing weight has been great. I'm under my goal weight again.

[LadyMaverick]

I am inspired just coming here and reading the plans and implementation success. BWTG!

I appreciate that we each have different ways to eat and exercise but are supportive of each other efforts.

When i get out of my routine everything seems to fall apart and then I struggle to get back into the groove.

I started keeping a record on the refrigerator of my eating window. I watch my DMom, DMIL and DH do it without them even being aware they are doing a WOE called Intermittent Fasting. They do it because that is how their body feels the best. They eat one or two meals each day then stop eating until the next day. They average around a 4 hour window of eating. I consider myself a beginner at this because I can't seem to do it consistently.

The interesting thing to me is....I've been studying & trying to implement Intermittent fasting. When I do IF then I feel great, but it isn't a natural feeling for me to do it. I can eat and eat and rarely get a full feeling so I would eat 20 hours a day if I could get away with it. But when I eat for hours then I feel yucky. Listening to my body tells me that it likes the way IF makes me feel. It's my head that has a problem with it. My head is all about feeding my emotions. Especially at night time when I am exhausted after a long day.

DH came home from his quarterly diabetic check-up with a HUGE smile on his face. His A1C is 5.1 which is the lowest I've ever seen it. DH started using Ozempic about 6 months ago and his body is responding well to it. Since DH blood sugar is under control the doc told DH to cut his daily metformin dosage in half. I am so pleased for DH and the progress he is making.

[Harriet]

We just set up the start of physical therapy appointments for HRH! Yay! He starts tomorrow! Orthopedist says the new prescription is activity, so that is music to HRH's ears. He's happy. After dr left to go get paperwork, he said "isn't that JUST what I've been saying?!? " Ortho dr agrees with gen prac that diuretics prescribed to reduce swelling caused by steroids then caused the extreme pain and immobility as the edema/water left too fast. sigh. Ortho said to HRH he could have shots in knee for easing pain, too, but HRH said "let's have a little more pain and a little less needles".

Ya'll have so many success stories. Ramblin', congrats on meeting a diet bet challenge (ouch ouch for spasms - hope they are gone for good). RunKitty, that's a wonderful report on moving toward goals. Yay, Dee, for determination, Harmony for trying again, Nancy for increasing walks, Twins' Mom for meeting weekly goals even if scale hasn't found out yet. (It is often the last to get the memo.)

Oh, there is LadyM, too - I agree that using the front of the fridge for record-keeping is wise. If I were to consciously cut out a meal, I believe it would be supper. Do you think winter months are easier as there is not so long a span of daylight convincing us we are "still going".

[LadyMaverick]

Do you think winter months are easier as there is not so long a span of daylight convincing us we are "still going".

For me, it seems to be linked to getting the kids into bed and settled for the night so I can go "off duty". It's that point of the day (9pm) that I seem to crave a reward. Since my eating window is closed that means food can't happen. I like the feeling of having a fan blow directly onto my face so I'm trying to use that as a reward.

[Harmony]

LadyM, I have the exact same problem. No kids, but when DH goes off to bed finally, I just sigh...and relax.... and then I want to eat. Sometimes it has nothing to do with being hungry. Most times.

I haven't come up with anything I'd rather do as a prize for getting through the day. See, just about everything I like to do I can do WHILE I'm eating something. Yeah, like that's helpful.

And tonight I feel really stressed. Gah!

[Ramblinrose]

Day 4...

Well no surprise abt yesterday’s results. I battled a migraine which snuck up on me in the early morning and first presented its self as a sinus one.

After massive amounts of meds and a day under my ice hat in bed my results are:

Down .2 lbs
Steps. 1194

[Nancy]

Walked the dog.

[Ramblinrose]

Hey Harriet, LadyM andHarmony...

I find drinking either a hot herbal or decaf tea at night really helps soothes my wanting to eat everything in the house. And when all else fails, a bit of protein like left over chicken or a hard boiled egg does the trick. I never eat cheese cause there’s too much fat in it and it binds me up as well.

Jason and I had a really interesting conversation abt keto vs carb cycling diets. He is very educated in both.

I’m doing keto which is low carbs and high good fats. He didn’t discourage me from eating that way because he knows and has seen how carbs set me off on a binge.

He’s giving a workshop on nutrition next weekend and wants me to attend.. which I agreed to. He want to reintroduce “good carbs” to me after I reach my goal.

As a reminder to y’all Jason was the trainer for the ABC tv show Extreme weight loss, which took contestance who were very obese and worked with them for a year teaching nutrition, correct proportions and exercise as a way to loose weight.

Several of the people he trained moved to the Valley to be near him and Chris and Heidi Powell, who produced the show and I’m friends with several of them.

Unfortunately not my friends but others gain most of their weight back. Jason has talked to me and was very upfront, but not telling me who, said many of the people had traumatic backgrounds...sexual abuse, physical abuse and rape that chose not to deal with these issues and therefore used food to self medicate even after they reached their goal weight.

All of this reminds me of a quote that I learned long ago when addressing my own weight issues... It’s not what you eat, but what’s eating you. With the exception of this weight gain, I can attribute it to the unhappy times in my life.

However the frustration of dealing with my hernia certainly contribute to my weight this time.

[Harriet]

The frustration of dealing with a completely different health problem, Ramblin', is definitely more of a factor than people realize until they've lived it. Absolutely heroic effort sometimes, just to stay close to level during recovery time and beyond, but not much appreciation, of course!

The paperwork for PT today, for instance, again just presupposed there was an injury/accident that must have happened to HRH's knee. Again he had to go through the long explanation of treatment and side-effects to the therapist before she could understand, and she's a pro.

But I think she did understand after learning, and is very professional. She measured range of motion and gauged the atrophy of the left leg muscles. That part was really discouraging for today, but will improve. He has a plan of moderate exercise, some of which I'm supposed to help him do, so I'm studying that!