Healthy & Fitness - September 2014

[Lady Maverick]

Norma & Nancy - it is good to see that you have good doctors and they are helpful.

the sounds and patterns of the readers voice somehow calms whatever is going on in my head.

When LO was having problems waking up from surgery, the anesthesia doc told us that sound is the first thing he would become aware of. We were to speak quietly and calmly to him while he was "asleep" to reassure him that he was okay. LO only had about 30 seconds of fighting once we were with him then he calmed down. What we hear is important even when we aren't aware of it.

Today's weight and trend continues on a OH-SO-SLOW journey downward. This month the trend shows I have lost weight ever day except for one. Watching that trend number stay in the green is motivating to me even though it is in tiny increments.

I've never heard of the potato diet. Interesting! There was a period in our early married life where we ate nothing but potatoes for days. We didn't do it for weight but just because we were young & poor. For very little money we could buy a big bag of potatoes and have several meals. We still enjoy having potatoes for a meal. Yesterday I cranked up the cast iron skillet, diced up 4oz of smoked sausage, a large onion and 3 potatoes. That was lunch and it was YUMMY and very filling.

[Twins' Mom]

As I recall, potatoes were a huge component of the Irish diet when the Potato famine hit (due to a blight) and caused mass starvation and emigration.

I have my scale up and running but neglected to order my BP meds early enough so am using 1/2 dosage for a couple of days, resulting in water weight....stupid but still easier than getting a short term script.

MT, will you post the link to your spreadsheet again? It looked so complicated but I might want to adapt?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Had a pizza last night but no weight gain this morning unlike I used to get with the pizza at the house. I'm wondering if the cracker-thin crust at Dominos is the difference (this is the second time in a row there's no weight gain.)

At all times when I dieted, weekly pizza was part of that diet (under WW any food is allowed if you plan for eat and eat it mindfully.) But after the pizza place in our backyard (our properties touched each other) shut down, dieting was never successful when pizza was part of it. I thought my metabolism had shifted and the salt was affecting me with weight gain but now I'm thinking there's something in the crust or quantity of toppings. After the gall bladder issues, it would also make me feel sick. Now, with Dominos, I don't have issues. We tried the close pizza place the night of the move and I was really sick after but it was swimming in grease and cheese. Despite its reputation as the best pizza place in the area, I'm avoiding it and am thankful we have a "stingy on the cheese and crust" place within a quick drive or bike ride (and they deliver!)

My sleep quality percentage is also rising. I'm thinking I'm not as sore at night and so that's allowing a better sleep. The cooler nights help too. My hands haven't been sore in at least 2 weeks so inflammation throughout my body seems to be receding. I'll keep taking the extra gram of vitamin C since that is the one change I made that might be helping with that.

[Ramblinrose]

LM... When my son was 2.5 yrs old he was bitten by a black widow spider, not on e but twice. She was hiding in his oneies pjs and I zipped them up together. Long story short ... We ended up in Vanderbilt hospital with a roomful of life saving equipment. When nurses had to insert a cathator, they asked me to hold my son down. He was screaming for many reasons when I laid my body across him as I held his hands high above his head. As a result my head was right next to his ear. Acting on instinct I began singing all the lullabies I had sung to him when he was younger. He immediately stopped screaming and calmed down.

My son had a terrible time teething and with his immunation shots so we spent many hours in the "rock rock" chairs. Often during these times I would sing to him, so my guess is these familiar songs... And certainly NOT my voice.. Were soothing to him.

Here's a funny... Yesterday afternoon I got chilly and decided to put on some jeans. The first pair all but fell off so I put them in my g will pile and reached for another pair... Same thing happened, so I put them in the pile and reached for another pair.... 8 pairs later I finally found a pair that didn't fall off and that's because they are leggings with an elastic panel in the front. Exasperated because nothing fit I made a comment to Sweetie that I had nothing to wear. He just looked at me and laughed and said... I figured you'd be jumpin' for joy.

That stopped me in my tracks. I know I've lost weight, but my brain is having trouble recognizing this. This has happened to me twice before when I lost 40+ lbs.

I have now lost what I gained while on vacation and am .2 lbs under my lowest weight since April. LM as long as the scale is going down it doesn't matter by how much. I celebrate every little bit because in the long run it all adds up. I am about 9 lbs from my goal. I want to weight 120 when I'm finished. This is what I weighed at 51. This will give me my 3 lbs of wiggle room which I used to maintain my weight at the age of 38.

[Nancy]

I remembered the time line of the insulin this is helping me to have a visual of when it is most effective so I took it earlier hoping to hit the meal time slot.

Digestive action (when I poo) makes bs got up too. Learned that in the hosp.

Fillers make it go up too aka rice, noodles, oatmeal, potatos grains, not just sugar and fruit also stress and illness plus hormones sigh. I am thankful for insulin today.

[Ramblinrose]

Wow Nancy...that is so much to learn and remember. I am amazed at how well you are handling all of this.

[Norma]

I just love to hear how well you are doing. Rosie, you are a bit of a bragger! But, I do admire what you have done - are doing. I could ask you to save me those jeans, but I know they would all be too small for me. While you guys are admiring the old cars in K Mart parking lot this winter I am going to be inside trying on jeans.

Music for soothing. Many years ago in Seattle I was going through a really awful time - divorce and loss of my youngest son. I didn't want to go to bed at night because I knew I couldn't sleep. Too many terrifying thoughts going through my mind. I had a little portable tape player, so when I would lay down I would turn it on and play my favorite over and over again. It was The Monks of Weston Abbey with beautiful chants and very soothing music. Between that and saying a decade of the Rosary I was finally able to get sleep. I recommend it for anyone having this problem. (If you are Catholic, that is.)

Went to the store today and bought my first bottle of probiotics recommended by my wonderful Dr. S. He wants to see how this affects me in the next month before I go see him again. Also, Mr. Guy and I are giving up all artificial sweeteners. I have known for a long time that they are not good for you, but this morning I saw a report on HLN I think, by a lady who feels they are of - lets say - the devil. I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, these are part of my problem. Also I am cutting my coffee to one cup per day and trying to drink more water. So, I have some things to work on. Have already given up fructose where I can.

I think I will start working on "white" also. This is when I can lost my most weight. Breads, etc. are just not good for me. I know this. I know this. So, why not do it!

[Nancy]

My friend was here today she is a type 2 but has family memebers on insulin and understands some of it, so I could bounce ideas an and process info and what I am learning. It was good we compare notes of out carb med bs# log.

I had a bit of a low it was at 4:30 p.m. so I know I can adjust the time I take my dose by taking it later in the afternoon to be more in line with my reg. meal time. (I had chili an early dinner h. can have his when he gets home.)


In my target range for my numbers this afternoon yea!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Another good night's sleep.

Remade the bed this morning and took off the lightweight mattress pad and put on the medium weight. I hope that doesn't make us too hot. I didn't see my second lightweight one until the bed was completely made. If we sweat too much tonight, then I'll change it back.

I miss being slightly cool and was downright cold yesterday when I left the apartment (was wearing just a t-shirt and it was too cool in my fleece lined rain coat.) The cooler your body, the more calories you burn. Plus you are less lazy since moving around makes you warmer.

On the other hand, if the apartment is hot, I won't have to drink hot water and drinking ice water burns more calories!

The scale has started its downward direction so the eating and tracking changes seem to be working.

I'm still counting WW eating points but I'm not sure I need to continue. I really love MyFitnessPal because many processed/restaurant foods I eat are already entered so I don't have to spend time researching. On the other hand, there is a direct correlation between MFP and WW so if I'm out, I'll point things (I can do that in my head) and then enter stuff later, knowing my choices weren't sabotaging my overall effort.

Tracking in two places drives home the message when I make poor choices. Sundays are one of my worst days since coffee-hours are involved. I need to come up with a strategy that is going to work for me.

I leave the apartment in a rush and sense of chaos each Sunday morning and I have the stress of a long day ahead of me since I'm teaching Sunday School and preaching or preaching twice.

First service ends in a coffee hour at lunch time. So by then I'm hungry and have less resolve. Healthy things are put out as well as sweets but I have lots of both.

We leave church about 12:45 to 1 p.m. and have to rush to get my lunch before my 2 p.m. service (I have to arrive at 1:45 at the latest and it is a 15 minute drive away, plus 10 minutes to get to a village with food for sale.)

Following that is another coffee hour, but this one doesn't always have cookies (depends on the kitchen at the retirement home.)

By the time we leave there it is 3:30 and I'm ready for a nap but we run errands on the way home to make good use of the having the car out, especially since the drive home is past stores and not all on the highway.

I arrive home between 5 & 6 exhausted and in need of a quick, easy, healthy, dinner. Eating out on the way home is awfully tempting or ordering in pizza. (That's what we've done the past few weeks.)

So, I need to have healthy snacks with me and have to have a dinner in the crock pot started before we leave (since the morning is chaos, I have to prepare that the night before and pull it from the fridge in the morning.) Alternatively, we have to have a big dinner on Friday and have leftovers on Sunday night.

That won't happen this week (I'm still not organized enough to avoid issues) but I can start devising meal and snack plans to help carry me through in the future. Rocco has a number of snack bars recipes so I'll start there. If I keep single servings of those ready to grab on the way out the door, that would be an excellent start. I can also do simple things like cut veggie sticks or pack cheese and crackers on Saturday night so that's ready to grab in the morning. We keep water in the car so that part is covered for another few months (eventually, it will freeze so we'll have to remember to take it with us each time we leave.)

[Harriet]

Norma, I would imagine you will greatly appreciate the probiotic capsules. I really believe mine are what got me over the pneumonia back in 2010. I kept going back to dr and getting another round of antibiotics prescribed, getting well a few days, then back again. Finally hormone dr stepped in and insisted I take the probiotic capsules he takes and everything changed. Does your doctor tell you what time of day, or with what other foods? This is something I have wondered about because I've heard different things - taking on an empty stomach or with food.

Norma, I wonder if that report is what HRH saw and got me to read - a study from Israel that suggests (?) artificial sweeteners might independently cause diabetes. It seems researchers proved they can do so in mice. Then Cambridge University suggested (?) that the pathway in mice might be different in humans, and that more study is needed, because the human study was too small. The point the Israeli researchers were making is that artificial sweeteners affect gut bacteria first, then that causes health concerns such as diabetes - so with that in mind, as you start on probiotics, I suppose it's good to avoid them.

Kathryn, I don't know if this is a thyroid thing or what, but getting cold tends to make me hunch shoulders, cross arms, and tend to sit into upholstered furniture corners too long, etc. It doesn't seem to get me moving at all. I have to be a "self-starter" and shake off the cold to get back to doing things. Interesting about Dominos as a better pizza choice.