Health and Fitness, October 2019

[Harriet]

Goals anyone?

We've got 3 months until 2020 and there's so much we can do with it! Remember, a health goal is more likely to be achieved if it is shared with friends who support and encourage. So let us know if you have Calendar Event Goals for which you are planning, or a new habit you're forming.

Also, tips and ideas on self-preservation welcome as we move into the "treat" phase of the year.

We hope you'll post with us!

[Nancy]

My A1C was up so tracking food meds. Exercise & activities is my goal.
To be healthy a goal.
Chol. Is up I had bacon in the house for my birthday so no surprise there.
I have been gardening for activity / exercise today.
I walked the ddog.
Took a hime in the field w ddog for my exerci se today Wed.

Harmony -
The carb q. Is tricky depending on my activity level 20 g. [Half of a sandwich.]
For a low activity day. 50g. [40 is 2 slices of bread.] If I am doing yard work, hauling wood or somthing like that.
Fruits are different some have less carbs than others.

[Harmony]

If anybody is tracking their carbs, what number do you stay below?

[Harriet]

Starting October with all 24 checkmarks today on Daily Dozen. Feeling very well, full all day but never over-full. When I put my meals into Cronometer, although I exceeded all my targets, it believes I had a calorie deficit, which is fine.

Steel-cut oatmeal with blueberries and cherries
Lentils, sweet potato, onion and mixed rices
Smoothie of 3 greens, tofu and several fruits
Video workout

It seems so simple when I write it out. Will come up with some good matching-but-different plan tomorrow, probably changing to gold potatoes and black beans with a big variety salad. Might have oatmeal again - so good - or veggie scramble and then sub some other grains at lunch.

[Ramblinrose]

Harmony... between 20-25 is what I do, but some do a bit higher.

I just signed up for another round with Jason. Been doing two days a week but now am going to do three. I’m thrilled about it. I’ll have a wacko next few weeks cause I have a trip with Sweetie the end of next week and then a week after I get back I leave for another week with my mom.

Due to the past week or so I haven’t weighed myself. My earrings are waiting for me and my guess is the way my clothes are fitting I’ve made my next goal.

Won’t know cause I only weigh on Tuesdays but given what my life has been for the past 10 days or so, I’m going to wait until next Tuesday.

Haven’t counted steps nor ozs of water... all part of taking care of myself.

Staying on my eating plan while I’m gone will be easy. Protein and veggies... most likely a salad for lunch and the same for dinner..I’ll take my salad dressing with me. However I will have a glass of wine on my anniversary:D

[LadyMaverick]

If anybody is tracking their carbs, what number do you stay below?

The short answer.... I try to stay below 73 grams of carbs a day

The long answer..... I want to eat as many carbs as my body can handle. I would love to eat higher carb meals so I can get more vegetables & legumes but my blood sugar goes wacko with that many carbs. So I am tracking every bite I eat and watching how it affects my blood sugar. I started with 45% carbs....nope BS too high. I tried 35% carbs for a week. I saw a little drop in BS but not enough to get out of the diabetic range. Last week I dropped the percentage down to 27% carbs and finally had success. So I am trying that again this week. The number of carbs depends on amount of calories I am eating. I aim for 1200 calories a day but if I can meet my nutritional goals without that many calories then I'm okay with that. This week I'm averaging 1076 calories a day. The formula I use to know how many carbs to eat is (1076*27%)/4 which equals 73.

I totally understand that absolutely everyone says not to drop below 1200 calories. However, I am an older woman now and can't eat like I used to. I used to weigh 120 lbs and routinely ate 3000 calories a day and didn't gain. Those days are long gone. I am focusing on meeting my nutritional goals first and then monitoring the calories to make sure they stay above 1000 but below 1200 calories a day.

Special days I go over and that is fine. My goal is based on weekly average. If I'm too high on one day then I make sure I'm lower on the other days to bring the averages to meet my goals.

[Harriet]

Ramblin', a pause in monitoring makes sense right now. hugs to you.

Happily, I lost some water weight overnight - that was pleasant to see.

Can't record all the time, but just to remind myself of the "matching-but-different" choices I came up with today:

rolled oatmeal this time, with blueberries, cherries
restaurant black bean burger (lettuce, tom, pickles) slaw
huge variety salad + walnuts, peas, corn, grapes, orange
walking

Got just 20 checkmarks today. Eating a meal out, no matter how carefully I may order, directs some natural hunger into items that don't add much nutrition (like, today, a brioche bun). Also, time still passes when you fill up that way, and by the time you're hungry enough to eat more, the clock may say it's too late. I missed getting 2 checkmarks for "other veggies" today because even though I had potatoes at the ready, I'd have needed to eat them so late. Kinda promised myself not to eat late.

I don't know that I can add much to the counting discussion since I'm always eating plants, with carbs and fiber going very high. For reference, Cronometer says yesterday I was at 170 g carbs and 33 g fiber, and you can see what I ate. It says I've been generally living at about 70/19/11 of carbs/protein/fat. Protein usually above RDI, for what that's worth. Someday I might personalize the targets, but I haven't taken the time. For instance, they don't automatically have a target for sugars as opposed to starches, but offer it to you to personalize, and that might be nice. They do target amino acids, which is cool and science-y.

[LadyMaverick]

After reviewing my stats on carb and Blood sugar I've decided to lower my carbs again next week. Instead of 27% I'm going to try for 20% carbs. That will put it at 60 grams of carbs per day. My reason for doing this is to lower my blood sugar 20 points to get it out of the prediabetic range.

I might have to go lower carbs to accomplish this BS goal but I want to try this level first because I want to keep carbs as high as possible. I absolutely want at least 40 grams of carbs a day to get my vegetables & legumes in.
1/2 cup of pinto beans has 22 grams of carbs.
3/4 cup of turnip greens has 6 grams of carbs.
1/2 cup of Zucchini & Yellow squash spirals has 6 grams of carbs.
1/2 cup of Tomato & green chilies has 6 grams of carbs.

[Nancy]

My tracker looks like this
Breakfast
□ fruit x
□ veg. V-8
□ protien x = peanut butter

[Harriet]

With company today we did the thing suggested to us and went to a Jersey Mike's subway place. We are used to Subway itself but one friend just loves the red wine vinegar JM's has and HRH got interested. Hate to say it, but when you are looking for fresh veg, it just doesn't come close to Subway. No cukes, no spinach, no olives, no red onions, no bell pepper. It will be a tall sandwich, but that's because of large quantities of iceberg.