Healthy & Fitness - October 2014

[Lady Maverick]

I'm not sure how to compare current sleep with previous. I wasn't tracking it and my memory isn't good about those details. I do know that for several years I use to try for 5 hours of sleep. I was "good to go" if I could just get those 5 hours each day. I could sleep anywhere - even standing up! I remember feeling like it was a luxury to get a 15 minute nap after lunch. I know my sleep habits are better now than they have every been . HUm....now I have thought back a bit, it makes me realize that a goal to get 7 hours of sleep might be my top amount. I do want to try and push to 8 hours of sleep just to see if I can and if I can tell if it so up as improvement in other areas.

A couple of times recently my sleep has dropped down into the 5 hour total for the day and each time my weight has gone up. I'm curious if this was just a coincidence or what.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I used to calculate my sleep requirements when dh was away. I'd turn off the timed light so nothing would wake me unnaturally in the morning.

I'd go to bed whenever I wanted and wake up whenever I wanted. For the first few days or longer, I'd sleep lots and lots. Then I found 7.5 hours in bed was all I needed.

When he'd get back I'd try for that 7.5 but it is hard with his motion, his going to bed late when he's working for NZ and with his absolute, "We will be woken at 6 so we can listen to the news" attitude.

Since moving here, we didn't have the light timer until this past week (we had left lights and timers at the house to make it look lived in.) Sure enough, I'm going to bed at 11, and falling asleep around 11:15 and being woken at 6. I sometimes have a deep sleep after he leaves bed at 7 but making up the lost hour I need means I'm not out of bed until 8 or 8:30 so I start my day very late. I'm sure, if I was woken at 7, I'd be fine. The only away around that is to get to bed earlier but that is hard for me. Evening is often my only productive time of the day. I'm not a night-owl but I'm not a morning person either.

This morning was the perfect example of his "you must be awake at 6' attitude. I had nothing to do today but he still found me asleep on the couch and woke me up when the light came on at 6. The worst part of that was that at the house, the light timer was set to come on at 7 on Saturdays so we could 'sleep in'. But when he set the light up this time, he forgot that.

[Lady Maverick]

Tracking is showing me where I'm slipping. Tracking forces me to remain aware of how many bottles of water I have drank and how many I have left. It keeps me aware of when I'm sitting too long at a time. I doubt if I keep up this level of detailed tracking (doing it hourly) but it is revealing things. Looking at the data has given me several "REALLY?!!!" moments

Weight is not going in right direction. I can see two problems to be addressed - I am sleeping less and have paused (stopped) tracking on MFP.

Today is Kids marathon with LO. Getting steps in today should not be a problem.

[Twins' Mom]

My weight is almost even with where I started tracking on 9/18. I'll take a small victory - that I have gotten through the HHD w/o overeating. I have a streak of 9 days for which I've recorded my weight and entered it so that's a small habit I've managed to develop.

[Harriet]

That's a good "streak" Twins' Mom, and actually I read that last evening and thought I already posted that... ... ? Hmmm...

I used your word "streak" to complain in PWYC yesterday that I finally fell off my exercise wagon and didn't get my 2.5 hours of formal exercise per week in. But really, how bad can that be, and I need to get over it. All I really lost was bragging rights. LOL. And I don't need to be bragging anyway.

Also I was worried about feeling bloated. This a.m. I weighed and am up a grand total of 2 pounds 2 ounces from my recent low. So how can I be discouraged about that?

I think it was just late at night, the day had been too social with too much responsibility. I had just gotten the friend of dd's home after her stay here and I looked around and thought too hard about upcoming visitors and not feeling ready... yada, yada, yada.

Spent a little time reading the reports and before/afters of the folks who participated in the 2014 T-Tapp challengeand that was encouraging. Lots of folks with health problems and how they are trying to overcome them, their reasons for choosing certain ways of exercising and whether it helped, etc.

Back to the battlefield.

[Twins' Mom]

A decent day yesterday altho I ate all of the key lime cheesecake slice that we brought home from our Friday night dinner out. At one point I had eaten 1/2 of it and put it back in refrigerator to finish today, but then went back and got it. Weight up very slightly today - I made chili for our supper last night and there's sodium both in the tomato soup and chili powder so I would expect some fluid retention.

Also charged up my Fitbit yesterday so didn't wear all day.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I continue to make progress although I lost my streak on MFP because I didn't realize I had top post something each day, if I posted Friday's food on Saturday and nothing else on Friday, the streak was broken. Sigh.

I'm continuing to overeat but the amount is going down Considering that we've eaten out almost every day for the past 10 days or so, I'm doing FANTASTIC! The weight is slowly dissolving and I mostly do not feel deprived.

MyFitnessPal tells me I'll have a 7 in the middle spot within 5 weeks. I look forward to having one there by Halloween.

[FelineFriend]

I had a loss of -2.1 Lbs. this week.
My sleep's better as of last night.
I was active today, but did not exercise because my ankle was swollen, needed to be iced and elevated.
I'm not snacking this evening.
I "plan" on being VERY GOOD for the next 11 days, b/c of a weigh-in at the Dr. office.

Also, I ordered this book, because of my disorder:

"THE HYPOTHYROID IMMEDIATE ACTION PLAN: START LOSING WEIGHT, FEEL ENERGIZED & HEALTHY, THE NATURAL WAY," by Elizabeth Hungerford. I think it'll be invaluable to read.

[Nancy]

Did a longer walk today just me at a quicker pace.
Remembered my meds a bit late only by a half hr.

[Ramblinrose]

Well entered my next diet bet today. The last one ended last week...I won 45.29 which covered my bet plus $15.29 .. I love getting paid to loose weight

I purposely didn't start a new one right away. I wanted to see what would happen if I relaxed my eating a bit and didn't focus on my exercise. Wanted to get an idea of how hard and what I would need to do to maintain my goal weight.

I'm 3.75 lbs. I did eat some carbs/bread...well a couple of tortillas over the nine days, plus I drank a diet soda most days. I also didn't do much on my gazelle, but chose to read more. However I did suffer from migraines during a good portion of that time, which means I had to load up on meds.

I purposely didn't get on my scale every day either....I wanted to see what the natural flow would be. Decided that if I'm going to "cheat" with carbs I need to designate a certain one day to do it...not spred out over the week. Also I need to use my gazelle while watching my morning news...that way I would still have time to read.

I've also have decided to schedule the days I'm gonna sub that way I can set up the rest of the week for other activities. Decided to start out with subbing on Mondays and Wed. for no particular reason except subs are always needed on Mondays and Wed are shorter school days, but I still get paid the same. If I know I'm going to work those particular days, then I can plan for them. I've set it up that the District will call me at 6:00 in the mornings, unless I get a personal request and the teacher contacts me directly.

I have recently made some new friends here in the valley through my diet bet. Some are experienced hikes and others are newbies...Now that the weather has cooled down it will be great to get outside. I am leading a group of women this coming Sat for a small four mile up and back hike near my house. Several of the gals have never hiked before and I want this to be a great introduction for them. I've promised to take others on some similar hikes in the coming weeks.

I see some new opportunities opening up for me and I am excited about it.