Healthy & Fitness - September 2014

[DeeClutter]

We ate Chinese (out with friends) last night. Predictably I was very thirsty all night. I probably drank 12-16oz throughout the night. What does that say about the salt content? And I was up nearly 2# this morning. Unusual for me. My sugar was also a little high -133. Probably because of some of the sweeter chicken pieces I ate. Chicken =good, but sauces =not so good.

Yesterday I got to wondering what would happen to my weight if, when I seem to be craving putting 'food' in my mouth, I tried drinking instead -BEFORE I even think about 'what can I snack on?" So am going with that for the next few days at least.

Made appointments yesterday for both dh's and my flu shots. His is Sept. 16th and mine Oct 1st. Decided to go to the clinics our respective DR's offices offer.

[Twins' Mom]

I ordered a new scale from Amazon last night - should be here tomorrow, actually, so I can see those smaller fluctuations better.

[Harmony]

Kathryn, that is interesting about agave. I tend to look at all sweeteners except just plain sugars with a slightly puzzled look. People are doing diet this and diet that and putting chemicals in their brains that shouldn't be there. Anybody remember the studies done on the pink stuff years ago? The industry still got that approved...

I don't use those other sweeteners, though I do use a bit of regular sugar. One has to laugh about those who say "but I use the raw, original, healthy sugar" and sugar is sugar is sugar, the raw stuff just being another part of the processing with molasses still in it...and that's what brown sugar is after all... and we all know the real answer to all of this is to eat less of whatever kind of sugar. I purposely don't add it to things that I would do all the time, I don't drink soda or fruit juices and don't add it to coffee or sprinkle on cereal.

If I did anything, I'd do a little stevia, though I've read that truvia is not all natural plant; I can't remember what all I read about that, but I just avoid all those chemicals.

Still, I know I need to do more of something. When I read the vegan diets, I determined I'd starve because my cooking knowledge / skills don't include much of what I was reading. Often though I don't feel like eating meat so I'll eat the veggie part of the meal and leave the meat off. DH loves his meat. He couldn't do vegan.

The vegan: even the book says it will cause one to become hungry sooner and encourage one to be a grazer. I don't do well being hungry all the time (or often) as I'm not going to keep cooking etc., and I tend to get snackey.

I did ok on weight watchers for a while. I think it's a way of making money off people who think counting points is easier than counting calories. It's the same thing to me, whatever one memorizes is easiest. It's mostly about portion control and motivation. It worked for me, I didn't want to keep paying and paying if I wasn't losing, plus our weigh-in ladies were snarkey. Anyway......

I'm stuck right now at the very same weight as when we moved here. Except I think I'm in worse shape muscle-wise. Gotta just try harder..

[Harriet]

Hope you enjoy the new scale, Twins' Mom.

I know I should make the trip (probably to Trader Joe's) to buy the pure stevia without any other ingredient or long manufacturing process. Also there is bound to be a good choice online - I think the Nu Naturals people have one that is supposed to have dealt with the bitterness but still is natural. But the on-the-shelf products are so convenient to grab at the regular grocery. I will ask again at the closer healthy foods grocer. I bet it was more than a year ago that I checked. I know they would never stock the Trader Joe's brand name one, but by now they may have one that is in competition with it.

Today I did a floor workout.

[Twins' Mom]

NY times article today about how moving (I.e. Increasing steps) partially counteracted effect of HFCS. One can read 10 articles per month free w/o subscription if you want to read it.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I did my best today which was much better than it could be but over the 1280 calories a day (plus movement) that MyFitnessPal has decided is for me. I only splurged by 300 calories which seems reasonable to me since Monday and Tuesday I was under my 1280 by about 300 calories total. So, in theory, I'm still on track to lose 1.5 pounds this week.

Had breakfast at 11:30. Was going to skip it and have lunch out but got too hungry. So decided to skip lunch instead.

Treated myself to a sugar-sweetened soda to have during the meeting. Bought cherry and vanilla-cream by accident so was disappointed although I could choke it down because cherry reminded me a bit of Dr. Pepper.

Was starving when I got home at 3:30 so had a large salad and 3 oz of pork tenderloin leftovers. Then headed off to dd's.

This was her first turkey dinner ever, so it was late. She made up crescent rolls so that was my downfall since we had them to keep us from getting too hungry. Then it was turkey, roasted potatoes, steamed carrots and corn, stove-top dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. I had everything in moderation but felt stuffed. That was interesting, not sure what made me feel so overfull. My cousin had reported that his appetite went way down with Rocco's diet but I've implemented only a few of the ideas so can't think that just 2 days of eating less would shrink my stomach. Maybe it was the white bread of the crescent rolls.

I'm off to bed now.

On the 'don't look old' front, I bought myself concealer, neutral lip balm and neutral lip liner. It is 'old lady' to wear dark lipstick so I need to lighten up on that front. And line my lips in order to stop any lipstick I use from bleeding into the fine lines around my mouth. The concealer is for two spots on my face that drive me nuts.

I also bought fresh mascara since I'm wearing that daily to open up my eyes more. Dark eyeliner is also an 'old lady' mistake so I am just using mascara for now until I figure out which lighter eyeliner might work for me.

The book offers three levels of maintenance, high, medium and low. An example of the difference: High is doing major dermabrasion and frequent Botox. Medium is chemical peels and less often botox. Low is to invest in a good skin care regimen.

I don't do any of those and am not likely to. I read "Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me" years ago and am still using the products she recommends. In general, my skin looks fine and I have no really deep wrinkles so I think I'll keep up what I've been doing until I'm convinced of the value of switching to something else.

So far in the book, the only thing I've got right is the hair cut (bangs, shoulder length, layered to provide movement.) Henna for my hair was not even under the low level of maintenance but I'm not coloring my hair any other way. So there!

Oh, and I don't use dark nail polish but prefer clear. So, two things I have going for me!

[Nancy]

Did a walk tonight with my friend. A pit bull ? type dog. Was out in the middle of the street protecting his terf we have a leash law. The owner gal was not happy when my friend raised her walking stick and threatened to turn them in. A less than peaceful walk. But this dog was not in it's yard and not the first time we have had trouble with it. I got tne house number. Three complaints and the will have to get rid of it. I am going to call if there is another problem with this we should be able to om walk in our neighborhood with out worry about a charging dog.

[Lady Maverick]

Staying consistent. Maybe a bit boring, but I LIKE IT and feel like I can do this forever.

Scales trend continue downward for the 11th day in a row. V-e-r-y slowly but consistent. I have lost 1.1 lbs when compared to last Thursday.

Today was the 23rd day in a row on the treadmill (since I've started keeping records). V-e-r-y slow but consistently increasing speed/incline/time each day. Today's baby step increase was taking the warm-up & cool-down speed to 2.5 mph.

I'm fighting myself to reach the 7 hours of sleep goal, but I'm hanging in there in my effort. Currently I'm averaging 7hours 6 minutes this week. I have to force myself to lay down and take a nap most days or I won't reach my goal. I force myself stay in bed until 4:45am each day (don't hate me). My energy level is HIGH and I don't want to stay in bed.

I am SWOKie on MyFitnessPal if anyone wants to become "friends" there.

Twins - what scale did you decide to go with?

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Skipped breakfast (got going late and had planned an early lunch.)

I'm thinking skipping either breakfast or lunch (depending on the day) may be a way to control weight. Dh doesn't eat lunch and controls his weight very well. And I often don't eat breakfast until quite late. If I skip either one and then have a more structured snack in the afternoon (like yesterday's salad with protein) I might do better.

I just read an article saying how the 'eat breakfast to lose weight' hypothesis didn't test out. Of course, that doesn't take into account attention span and other reasons to eat breakfast. But this might be an interesting experiment.

Certainly, this morning I simply wasn't hungry, probably because of all I ate last night, and was only beginning to get hungry around 10:45 (and had to leave to get to lunch at 11 so it wasn't like I was pacing the floor starving.)

[Nancy]

Took my walk on my own tonight. Had to chase as small dog home that had strayed off was barking a lot trying not to let me by.