Health and Fitness, April 2014

[Ivy]

I waked 45 minutes, which was good because it was a high pain day for me, with sitting in the car, in an appt., the car again, & nap at home, with sitting, but moving, too. It could've been so easy for me to "cop-out" on fitness today- pain-wise- today, but I didn't let it win. (I have osteo in the hips/back/sacrum & FM & scoliosis). Anyway, been moving doing lol's & stretches, etc... Good for me! Pain is trying to paralyze me, but I won't let it. With less weight, I'll have less FM & osteo pain, too, so going down the line to a good more pain-free future. They say even a 10% weight loss helps a lot. That's so good to know.

I'm on track with my food, counting calories in & out, too.

I'm so lucky to have this thread here & ALL OF YOU, TOO! Thanks!

[Harmony]

My plan isn't complicated. I just have cards with what foods I'm allowed on them. I figured out pretty much similar to an exchange diet how many carbs, fruits, fats, veggies, milk, meats I'm allowed and I have one card for each. I have 2 milk cards, etc. and I have dividers with the cards behind. When I eat one I take the card out and place it behind the done divider. When I'm out of cards, I'm out of food for the day.

Of course, right now I have a couple very bad habits I'm trying to work myself out of. My cards add up to 1200 calories. On the cards is a basic list of what's allowed for that card, 1/2 cup milk or 1 slice cheese on the milk card. I lost my last weight this way.

But since then I've gone back to a couple bad habits and I need to get that under control. I've tried starting this again but haven't been successful yet.

[OKay]

I'm watching and learning from your experiences with rolling & stretching.

One of the stretches that really feels good to me is to lie on my side on the edge of the bed facing the center, and then dropping the top leg behind me off the edge of the bed to stretch it longways...

This is one of the stretches I do every morning before I get out of bed. I had no idea which muscle it was stretching. All I know is it feels good when I do it.

Nancy - BWTG!

Dee - I am most impressed with achieving that many steps! You did exactly what my doc told me to do - walk 30 minutes a day.

Harriet - Interesting about the doc recommendation (challenge?) to put a age restriction with weight loss. I also hope they come up with other options to make the mammogram a thing of the past.

Ivy - Me too!

Harmony - I like your system of tracking healthy eating portions. YGG!

Scales are headed in right direction again. Although they show a 2.6 lb loss today, that included the amount I gained recently and lost again. The weekly tally is 1.6 lb less than last Wednesday. The month of April loss is 6lb so far.

Thinking of vegetables......

I went looking for a visual to burn into my brain to help me make good decisions when filling my plate. This is the visual that I have selected. In order to achieve the heathy habit of eating more vegetables, I will put vegetables on my plate first and visually confirm those vegetables take up 1/2 of the plate before adding other food groups.

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[Kathryn-in-Canada]

On the treadmill again today. Managed 14K steps yesterday. 5K from the treadmill, 4.5K from the general store walk and the remainder was just walking around the house, tidying. The house was obviously very messy!

Today is another 2.5 hours in the car driving and lunch out with the senior I'm transporting. I've picked a bakery with homemade soups and sandwiches. At least I'll be away from fried food. Thank heavens for Trip Advisor since I didn't know any places to eat in this town and tourism makes up over 50% of the economy and places haven't opened yet for the season.

I have a meeting tonight as well, so won't have time for the walk to the store or to do a lot of walking around the house so I figure today may just be a 6K day.

At this point, my average over the week is just 8K steps. Last week was only 7.4K but that was impressive to me since there were so many days with under 5K.

I have an ITB stretch for my knee but it is a standing one. ITB isn't my issue but the PT wanted it to be strengthened along with the others.

[Nancy]

Last night I did 30 min. on the gazelle my walk was short and windy.

[Harriet]

Looked at videos to learn right and wrong way to use the foam roller. So now I think I understand that for I.T. band it's very important for me to use it in what I would call a "vertical" manner. In other words, directly up and down the side of my hip-to-leg if I were standing (although I won't be standing but lying). In theory, it would lengthen and relax in that direction, but if allowed to move diagonally from glute direction down the side of leg could be counterproductive, shortening and tightening instead. So that's good to know.

Twins' Mom, thank you for post. I also understand what you are saying about how a cheaper product might have helped, too. But this is what I want because IF there is no relief I am to report back in one month. So on that chance I want to be able to report that I did exactly what he expected me to do. He held up his hands to show a diameter of the cylinder he was talking about, plus he said he wanted me to go to a sporting goods store to purchase, so I think this is best.

So interested in the cards, Harmony. Instantly thought that would be a good post for Cardfile Central too - ways we use cards that others might not think of.

Cool about writing down every potential veggie, OKay. I had tomato inside an omelet today which is an unusual choice for me. Good to think "how can I get another veggie on this plate?"

[Twins' Mom]

No problem, Harriet, I understand wanting to do it "by the book" so you can report that you followed instructions exactly. You might try the tennis ball on your own a little as you can lean against a wall to roll if you're talented.

[Cowinkie]

I tied three tennis balls in a pair of panty hose and then tie the contraption around my waist, or sometimes under my arms by my arm pits..this keeps me from sleeping on my back. When Sweetie was having back issues he rolled around on tennis balls many times.

Okay... I use a small dessert plate as my dinner plate....have for years. You could go to GW and buy pretty dessert plates, come home and draw a "Y" on the plate with a permanent marker so you would have a visual. I also eat with a dessert fork. When my son was here for Xms, I ended up using a real dinner plate for some reason and he said it was really weird to see me eat off of it. I started using a dessert plate when he was about 6. I lost 40lbs that year and continued the habit.

Also kept a small bowl near me while I was cooking. Every time I took a sample bite to taste my cooking food I spit it into the bowl...gross sounding but you'd be amaze how much you eat while preparing food. Did the same thing while clearing the table after dinner. Now that was a real eye opener.

Learned to hold a cleaned raw carrot across my teeth while I was cooking to make myself more aware of what was going in my mouth. That really helped too.

As for fruit, one of the things Jorge Cruise points out is we eat way too much fruit most of the time. He goes on to say that in the olden times people only ate the fruits that were available to them within their area....meaning now we get all sorts of fruit from all over the world so there really isn't a season for say strawberries any more. Made lots of sense to me.

He also pointed out that most fruits are genetically engineered to be much bigger in size that when they grew naturally on trees and such.. He uses the example of oranges and apples. He has devoted an entire chapter on how sugar was introduced through the centuries and why obesity wasn't a problem until the mid-1800's when cane sugar became available to the general population. Up till then only the wealthy could afford it. But what really impressed me was the information concerning the introduction of sugar/corn surup in the mid 70's and the correlation of the rise in obesity. Boy if I wasn't a believer in sugar addiction and such I am now.

Now I read all my labels and am amazed at the sugar content. I think i mentioned here that fat free milk has 18 grams of sugar while half and half have none. Sugar really kills your organs by making them work harder and being less efficient. I'm staying away from it as much as I can. I've even cut out most of my artificial sugar... I use a plant sugar...so now when i drink a "diet" soda its made with that instead. However, if I'm eating out I sometimes give and drink the other diet stuff, but at least I'm not downing 2-3 cans of soda, good or bad a day.... Not noticing that much in my weight loss, but I blame that on not getting in my 10k steps. I'm eating clean, clean clean so regardless my body must be happier.

[Ivy]

I stuck to a healthy diet, counted calories & worked 1 1/2 hours on the housework for my activity today. Between yesterday & this morning, I'd lost 1 Lb., so hoping a few ounces more, tomorrow a.m., would be nice.

[OKay]

Posting to maintain focus and accountablity

This morning scales showed another big drop. Another 2 lbs loss. just like the huge spikes, I consider this just a low spike. Keeping my eyes on the overall trend not the daily weight.

I have a bad head cold and am struggling to just keep putting one foot in front of the other while taking care of "must do's". Tracking food/nutrition daily is considered a "must do" by me. Exercise is not. I find myself wishing the healthy habits were already established so I don't have to think.....I don't have much brain power due to the headache and stuffiness.

This too will pass.....just trying to get through it with minimum damage to healthy habits.

Focusing on vegetables..... questions I will be thinking upon today

Which vegetables do I want to keep in refrigerator at all times?
Which vegetables do I want to keep in freezer at all times?
Which vegetables do I want to keep in pantry at all time (canned, pickled or dried)
How & where will they be stored?
Which vegetable are seasonal?