Health and Fitness July 2014

[Harriet]

Over 2 hours exercise now, so that makes me feel on-track.

Here's an article on having more energy at different times through the day. It's from men's health but seems sensible for anyone. Sorry it's one of those page-after-page ones.

"We think the afternoon dip in alertness occurs because the drive from the circadian clock to stay awake is not yet strong enough to cancel out the sleep drive caused by having been awake for half the day,"

Well... duh. But still, it had to be said. (smile) A couple good ideas to use, though. My cousin is having insomnia and I had given the "look into sunshine in the morning" advice.

[Lady Maverick]

Over 2 hours exercise now

1st thing that went through my head when I read this was BRAVO!!! Harriet is doing so well keeping up with her exercise!
2nd thing that went through my head "Why don't I keep track of the minutes/hours of exercise each week?"

Right now I'm still in extreme baby step mode on exercising everyday. I want to keep it EXTREMELY easy so I don't resist it.
It still amuses and amazes me that I am actually looking forward to getting onto the treadmill every morning and find myself frustrated & disappointed when I'm not able to. THAT is a HUGE change in my mindset toward exercising. I don't want to mislead anyone, because I am still in extreme baby mode. I am walking 15-30 minutes on the treadmill daily at a very slow pace (2.5mph)- nothing to brag about. However, I am consistently doing it, establishing the habit....and even learning to like it.

Weight is about the same. Eating out for 2.5 days (visiting DSon) resulted in a 4 lb gain but that weight has dropped off since we returned home. DSon enjoys taking us to restaurants we have never been so it is an eating adventure to try new food when we visit them.

[Harriet]

LadyM, if you can like your exercise (maybe not love it - that's asking too much!), that makes such a difference. Just before reading what YOU wrote, I had just read Dr. Mercola's newsletter today where he unashamedly tells the world that he personally lowered the number of reps he does in his exercise so he would like it more. "By listening to my body.... ...I can now easily tolerate the workout and go full out. Plus, I no longer dread it." He does high intensity only, and if you've ever seen him do it (he's put himself right on film many times, embarrassed or not) it did seem like the trainer/expert was trying to make him unhappy!

Remember, it's easy for me to count exercise time because I can find out how many minutes each DVD (or part) takes. So don't assume I'm too smart!

The reason I count is that I learned a long time ago that 2 hours of my exercises per week is not quite enough, and any more than 3 doesn't seem to offer anything more than better rest intervals would have. So I try to hit 2.5. That's close to what most do, though some do the 15 min workout every day or bust, with just a few single moves additional, and some spend more than an hour on long workouts twice a week. I'm determined to hit 2.5 average until end of year and see what that does for me.

I'm going to get HRH to watch the video that Mercola's newsletter recommends today, which is Dr. Mosley's BBC television program on exercise. (Dr. Mosley wrote "Fast Diet" following his first BBC program.) I'm not in the market for a different program myself, but it's interesting to learn all the new ideas. As usual with Dr. Mosley, the idea is "fast" - how can you spend the least possible time for the most benefit. So that's interesting.

I went out and found a place the sun was first streaming through at 8 this a.m. and discussed my circadian rhythm with mr. sun for 5 minutes. In theory, that would help me fight off naps and have better energy in the afternoon. That's fine for July here, but whether January would have a plan, I don't know.

[Harriet]

Ohmigoodness.

You have GOT to be kidding me. Now I have to get up early for sure. New study from Northwestern U. Hey, this may explain why I am fluffy in the late winter/spring and have to fight my way back to slim all through the good weather, so I don't get to wear a bathing suit until Christmas.

[Ramblinrose]

LOL Harriet... I thought we were more like bears hibernating in the winter...or at least thats how it was explained to me long ago.

My body has always been connected with the sun. My body wants to rise when the sun does and shuts down the same way. That's what I think happens to my body in the winter...much less sun and though I had to get up early when I worked...4:30, my body would rather sleep. And I seldom leave the house at night in the wintertime. My body just says...no sun, we're staying in.

So here in this time zone the summer morning's come early...5:15 am or so, and it sets around 8:15. However its much different where my mom lives...sun up around 6:00 and it doesn't get really dark until closer to 9. When I was a kid I loved that...have very fond memories of riding my bike in the summer evenings or walking to and from friends' homes who lived on the river.

The sun and its rising and setting is one of the reasons I love going home. Plus we tend to sleep with the windows open and I can hear all the crickets and such singing their summer eve's songs. After I climb into bed, I close my eyes, listen to Mother Nature's music and I become a kid again.

I find it very interesting how the seasons with the wax and waning of the sun effects my body rythems....and I also believe the sun glare on the white snow is one of the reasons I love to walk outside after a snowfall. I think my body has been deprived of the sunlight that you've been talking about and the sun glare acts like a super charger to give my body the energy it needs.

Harriet...don't you think its one of the reasons we look forwards to spring after a long dark winter...it's like our bodies are waking up just like the flowers are beginning to bloom and the trees start to grow their leaves???

[Harriet]

Well I will then try to look a little more fondly on white ground coverings, Ramblin. Often I have thought of them only as a headache-maker! Your way is much more positive.

I finished out the week with 2 hours 25 mins of formal exercise.

Trying to get my family rounded up to watch Dr. Mosley's show is like herding cats. I begin to think dd15 will be interested for sure, after seeing her huffing and puffing on the elliptical today. I'll bet there's a better way for her to plan that.

[FelineFriend]

Unfortunately, Today, I did poorly on my diet/calorie counting. I ate a jumbo Costco muffin and had an ice cream sandwich. I did do housework, LOL, etc... for activity, but I "indulged" and THOSE WHO INDULGE- BULGE. Tomorrow is my week's end daily calorie average, waist measurement and weigh-in. I fear there will be a gain. I see my Dr. in 11 days, so I'm motivated now, to do better by the weigh-in at his office. I know my weight's down about 5 - 7 Lbs. since I last saw him. I know that will show.

I must not give up. I need to get back on the calorie-counting horse. I'll be more active this week, cleaning between Dgs visits, too. I would love to see the scales number be a much better one, by the time I see my Dr. So, tomorrow, I begin anew.

I've enjoyed reading through your posts here, Harriet, LadyMaverick, and RamblinRose.

Where Nancy lives, it's easier for them to hit the triple digits, as compared to our side of the mountain range, here. Over there, they have sage brush, it's much hotter and more arid in the summer months, than over here. Over here, right now, it's in the 90's and it's hot for us.

Twins', Don't get discouraged. 1 step back means we can go 2 - 3 steps forward next.

[Nancy]

82* - 99* todays temps.
I will be revisiting indoor ex. machine routines.

[Harriet]

For me, the takeaway on Dr. Mosley's BBC program is the HIIT, high intensity interval training, which I've heard of a lot but never thought was right for me. For one thing, you usually see it done on exercycles (which is what Mosley did) and we don't have one. But I'm sure it can be done on other machines or just other exercises. He didn't happen to get any extra aerobic benefit like others might have but that wasn't really important, I didn't think. What did matter was his wonderful blood sugar improvement. I was really impressed with that. Of course, they tease about it having been 12 minutes of exercise a month. It's not really that simple, but worth knowing, and very fast to be finished with exercise if that's all you have time to do.

Also the don't-stay-seated-too-long advice and proofs were very interesting.

This certainly isn't a brand new program so ya'll may have seen it before. We didn't find it on stations here the way we did his first program, and I just hadn't seen it on computer availability until recently.

[Nancy]

Had a low after bagging up more apples for the deer. I did not catch it at first bc it is so muggy. We have clouds cooler and 15 drops of rain.