Health and Fitness, August 2014

[Nancy]

On the ex. Bike did 10 mi. This a.m. for my ex. Today is done.

[Ramblinrose]

Happy to report that I have lost my 1.8 lbs plus two others. I am 1.5 lbs away from winning my dietbet which ends Sept 6th. I am at my lowest weight since I started and am closing in on my next BIG goal which is 4.4 lbs away. I am really excited about that.

Yesterday I co-taught 7th grade English. I was there for 7 hours and walked the classroom all but 45 minutes. Wish I had worn my pedometer. In the past on days like this my pedometer usually shows I've walked 6 miles. Considering how tired I was last night, I bet I did that and more. Was falling asleep on the couch before 8 pm and finally went to bed around 8:30. With excercise like that I need to sub more....great workout plus I get paid for doing it

I have a birthday party later this afternoon for a happy hour at a restaurant. Will be drinking sparklling water. That way I look like I've join in with the others without really drinking. I don't do that much anyway.

Gotta run, my day is slipping away and I have much to do...glad to see everyone is working so hard on their goals.

[Nancy]

I had another tree branch ex. Opportunity this week. We are fine did not loose power or cable.

[Harriet]

Smiling at Nancy's tree branch opportunities and Ramblin's educational exercise.

Harmony, although that's not the best news flash, I am impressed that you don't let "off-size" clothes take away your closet space or visual space. Yes, hoping you won't need those pants long.

Lynlee, that's interesting to use the monitoring of blood sugar to check for times food intolerance is causing it to fluctuate. Emptynester was saying in PWYC that hers went up after a steroid shot - that can take a while to come back down.

Twins' Mom, I hope you and scale can start to coexist!

Today I did an hour workout - the newest one I'd gotten but "to tempo", meaning straight through without much instruction. I included the warm-up for it, so that took it to an hour.

So that was the last of new-to-me workouts to watch and start on. These are good to add into rotation.

I really got a realistic look at my workout surroundings as I went to the floor part of this and needed to stretch out. I have been blind to some clutter and so forth, pushing its way into my exercising space. I need to work on that.

[Ramblinrose]

Wow Harriet you have been so child about exercising every day...stop looking at things that need to be done and enjoy your moment you go girl

Harmony .... I have several boxes that resemble your suitcase and know the feeling when I had to get them out. I think it bothered me more mentally than anything else. Think of those pants as a just a bump in the road and remember they will fit just fine when you put them back in your suitcase. That should make you smile!!!

Oh Harriet forgot to add I'm doing more educational exercising tomorrow

[Lynlee]

Harriet - the food intolerance / failsafe people would say that that low blood sugar/ hypoglycemia is caused by food intolerance. When I last had my monitor working I found that msg - in the hygerolized ?sp vegetable protein form was a cause. Taking it out stabilised the problem. Then I thought maybe their stance was correct.Though my "no" list is much different from the fail safe list so I can't just go with all their suggestions..

[Lady Maverick]

Slowly getting my emotional feet back under me. My weight shot up when I took my focus off it. Thankfully it is on it's way down again. It is now down to within a 1/2 pound of a month ago.

Gathering my courage and using Healthy skills I've learned here, I'm ready to get back into the groove.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harmony I had a similar experience except I'm wearing all my large clothes now so had to go buy larger. Sigh.... And a lot of the XL clothing I tried on was way too small. That was particularly scary for me.

I'm dressing like a slob these day partly because I'm large and clothes always look better on non-obese people. But there is also an element of improperly fitting clothes and improperly styled clothes. So that was the purpose of my shopping trip - to get some properly fitting clothes. After all, Oprah, for example, is a large woman but she always looks very well put together since she has properly fitting and styled clothes. She also has a great attitude (at least she projects that great attitude) of self acceptance.

I can't do much about style since I must wear exercise shoes with orthotics each day. So I'm limited to jeans or capris. Since 80% of my wardrobe is dresses and skirts, this has been a real limiting factor for me this summer.

I have one pair of sandals that I can walk and stand in for about 6 hours (if I take it really easy.) On Sunday I wore them all day but only took 4400 steps so you can see how sedentary I was that day (and that was the day of the open house when you'd think I'd be moving a lot.)

Luckily, the heat of the summer will be over so I can take my new tops and my old capris and jeans look better (the tops are all long so will cover the unfortunate bulges.) I also have two new, better fitting, bras (although it is a shock how small my bust is compared to my stomach - I'm not used to that.)

My current goal is to be more like Oprah - dressing as well as I possibly can and projecting confidence in my style even if I have to fake it until I make it.

BTW: analyzing my numbers, I see I've gained 20 lbs since giving up diet soft drinks. So I was wrong, they were keeping me slimmer (I thought they had no effect.) Since I don't want to go back to artificial sweeteners, I think I'll take up smoking in order to get my weight down. Just kidding!

I know what I have to do. Just not sure I can do it even though physically I'm feeling the effects of not doing it. My blood pressure is still well within the normal range but is high for me (but nurses can't understand why I say it is high.) It occurred to me last night, it is probably higher because I'm so heavy now. Another marker pointing to my need to lose weight.

I am keeping up with my food journal each day. I don't always like what I'm writing down but at least I'm holding myself accountable. The first week there was an improvement in the food choices but that fell apart this week. Still I'm journalling it all since I promised myself I would not judge my choices, I was doing this just to get back in the habit of keeping a record of my food intake.

[Harriet]

Noticing LadyM getting her "groove" back.

Kathryn, your long story of why you wear certain clothes is about the length of MY long story about why I wear certain clothes. Dd34 has asked me (sometimes not so gently, because of her status in my life) WHY wear certain slacks she has seen too often, or tops that are closer to tunic length rather than what she considers youthful on me, etc. When I actually take time to answer and explain, she shakes her head and stops me! "Okay, mother, I get it - it's complicated."

Quite right that it has to do with things as diverse as footwear, also sleeve length matters, and the use of, say, a perfectly nice top, might be lost because no slacks are right under its length.

Ramblin' thanks, although I try for about every-other-day. Yes, I am pleased with the consistency I've had since mid-June. I'll be able to make a smart "call" on how much 6 months of consistency matters by Christmas. There's no doubt it's valuable health-wise, and it will be a nice bonus to see the value waistline-wise! Quantifying does get us motivated, I think.

Trying to have a little fruit each day. A small nectarine this morning. This has to do with the TMI department and being proactive about that.

[Nancy]

Did my 20 - 30 min. Of a.m. ex. This morning clearing branches and the area where cable guy needed to work. Loaded up small stuff that I could do alone.

I too am rethinking my wardrobe. Some fun print tops are on the shopping list with 3/4 ths lenght sleeves. Some jeans as well.