Health Blah-g
Dec. 13th, 2006 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerI haven't done one of these in a while. But I've been reassessing my life style and, as promised, I have made my health a priority since passing on Collegium.
I need to jot this down so I can compare in a month and I need something to help me stay motivated through the holidays.
10 weeks ago (10/9): 183 lb (it was wobbling between 180-184 over the summer)
Today: 170.0 at 1pm.
Blood Sugar count: unchanged since last January (borderline diabetic)
Fitness:
I've gone from "zero is my hero" to "3x a week; minimum of 30 min on elliptical with weights on the nights I'm not delayed in getting in".
10 weeks ago, I struggled to make my heart rate go over 133. Last night, on the elliptical, I was jamming to my tunes and during periodic checks, HR was 150-163. I have to say, having music really helps. Also, I'm not holding onto the handrails for dear life; I'm pumping my arms in tune to the music.
Dietary changes: extreme
Then: My diet then had almost no vegetable in it. I ate fruit. I ate sweets. I ate pastas and carbs. Well, I'm a carb-a-holic, so once I get started, it's very hard to stop even after I am full. Drive through Caffino at least 1x/week - maybe more if the stress was sufficient.
Now:
Specific changes in eating practices (not sure if they are habits yet):
First - these practices evolved. It wasn't overnight and each element was added one at a time.
In general, avoid white carbs: sugar, flour. They are bad for the blood sugar and they lure me into eating more. bad bad bad This evolved - it wasn't cold turkey - and I'm struggling to maintain some sort of balance so I don't feel like I'd denying myself something.
No sweets except in super-moderation. Like last night I had 6 bitter sweet chocolate chips. That was it. I have to own that I love sweets and they trigger my binging. My lapse becomes a collapse if I have something and I have to just face it. After I had the chips I started to crave more, so I had 1oz piece of cheese and a bite of left-over turkey to kill it. And it did.
No drive-thru coffee joints. No frou-frou coffee beverages. No pastries. Period. None. Get over it, it will kill you.
I eat A LOT of vegetable now. Nowhere near being a vegetarian (I love meat), but I have adopted an outlook where casual snacking is done with vegetables and I keep a supply in the fridge at home and in a lunch box in the fridge at work. Grape tomatoes have become my munch-a-bunch. I still hate carrots, but I eat them to kill hunger. I look like I'm sucking on a lemon when I do (I'm told), but I'll eat them. I examine each one for a flaw (and excuse to NOT eat it) and then I carefully crunch it into total destruction. I think I might be channeling some life frustration into the carrots. LOL.
New eating practices, for Example:
Sunday lunch time:
Sunday, at the kid party, they served Papa Murphy's pizza and "bag o'salad". Pizza - well, that's a no brainer. Keeping in mind, I can't stop once I'm started, it makes more sense for me to just not start. sigh. It smelled so fucking good, too. And the bowls of chips w/ onion dip ... My stomach went "RAWR! Feed me some 'o dat stuff!" But I maintained a physcial distance and it helps that I'm not really a chip fan. I did have about 10 pistachios, which is okay. The salad was pretty uninteresting; what do you expect from bag salad? But there was a good selection of dressings and (drum roll) grape tomatoes. hahaha! I got my salad and a few tomatoes. After everyone was served, I sort of sereptitiously shared the rest of the tomatoes with another T-fan. LOL. I left satisfied and I made my Saving Throw agains carbs.
For example, daily eating like today:
Breakfast: Smoothie yogurt drink and hard boiled egg;
morning snack: 1 cup of grape tomatoes, 1 orange
Lunch: 1/2 chicken breast (broiled) and slice of cheese
Afternoon snack: banana
Dinner varies: 1 cup of carrots while I am walking to the car pondering dinner options. The carrots are intended to beat back the ravenous wolf within me. Tonight I will probably hit the Market Square (or whatever it's called) in Emeryville and get some nigiri since I have nothing on hand. Otherwise, I might have a chicken breast or hardboiled egg followed by a piece of fruit.
Motivation Changes: Extreme
I just want it. I want to hit 150 lb. My doc wants me to reach 140-145, but I'm not sure I have that in me. I was 140-145 when I met the spouse, but I was 20 yrs old, doing 3+ hrs of athletics a day, and less than 10% body fat. Where I am in my life, I don't have more than an hour of gym time a day, I'm older and my body has changed. If I can reach 150, I'll do a cart-wheel (or rent a day in Jump-it-Up! and invite all my friends to help me celebrate with a few hours of leaping and jumping... oh yeah! that would be cool!)
So there it is. Hold on tight - the holidays are roaring in with saucey dishes and awesome desserts.
I need to jot this down so I can compare in a month and I need something to help me stay motivated through the holidays.
10 weeks ago (10/9): 183 lb (it was wobbling between 180-184 over the summer)
Today: 170.0 at 1pm.
Blood Sugar count: unchanged since last January (borderline diabetic)
Fitness:
I've gone from "zero is my hero" to "3x a week; minimum of 30 min on elliptical with weights on the nights I'm not delayed in getting in".
10 weeks ago, I struggled to make my heart rate go over 133. Last night, on the elliptical, I was jamming to my tunes and during periodic checks, HR was 150-163. I have to say, having music really helps. Also, I'm not holding onto the handrails for dear life; I'm pumping my arms in tune to the music.
Dietary changes: extreme
Then: My diet then had almost no vegetable in it. I ate fruit. I ate sweets. I ate pastas and carbs. Well, I'm a carb-a-holic, so once I get started, it's very hard to stop even after I am full. Drive through Caffino at least 1x/week - maybe more if the stress was sufficient.
Now:
Specific changes in eating practices (not sure if they are habits yet):
First - these practices evolved. It wasn't overnight and each element was added one at a time.
In general, avoid white carbs: sugar, flour. They are bad for the blood sugar and they lure me into eating more. bad bad bad This evolved - it wasn't cold turkey - and I'm struggling to maintain some sort of balance so I don't feel like I'd denying myself something.
No sweets except in super-moderation. Like last night I had 6 bitter sweet chocolate chips. That was it. I have to own that I love sweets and they trigger my binging. My lapse becomes a collapse if I have something and I have to just face it. After I had the chips I started to crave more, so I had 1oz piece of cheese and a bite of left-over turkey to kill it. And it did.
No drive-thru coffee joints. No frou-frou coffee beverages. No pastries. Period. None. Get over it, it will kill you.
I eat A LOT of vegetable now. Nowhere near being a vegetarian (I love meat), but I have adopted an outlook where casual snacking is done with vegetables and I keep a supply in the fridge at home and in a lunch box in the fridge at work. Grape tomatoes have become my munch-a-bunch. I still hate carrots, but I eat them to kill hunger. I look like I'm sucking on a lemon when I do (I'm told), but I'll eat them. I examine each one for a flaw (and excuse to NOT eat it) and then I carefully crunch it into total destruction. I think I might be channeling some life frustration into the carrots. LOL.
New eating practices, for Example:
Sunday lunch time:
Sunday, at the kid party, they served Papa Murphy's pizza and "bag o'salad". Pizza - well, that's a no brainer. Keeping in mind, I can't stop once I'm started, it makes more sense for me to just not start. sigh. It smelled so fucking good, too. And the bowls of chips w/ onion dip ... My stomach went "RAWR! Feed me some 'o dat stuff!" But I maintained a physcial distance and it helps that I'm not really a chip fan. I did have about 10 pistachios, which is okay. The salad was pretty uninteresting; what do you expect from bag salad? But there was a good selection of dressings and (drum roll) grape tomatoes. hahaha! I got my salad and a few tomatoes. After everyone was served, I sort of sereptitiously shared the rest of the tomatoes with another T-fan. LOL. I left satisfied and I made my Saving Throw agains carbs.
For example, daily eating like today:
Breakfast: Smoothie yogurt drink and hard boiled egg;
morning snack: 1 cup of grape tomatoes, 1 orange
Lunch: 1/2 chicken breast (broiled) and slice of cheese
Afternoon snack: banana
Dinner varies: 1 cup of carrots while I am walking to the car pondering dinner options. The carrots are intended to beat back the ravenous wolf within me. Tonight I will probably hit the Market Square (or whatever it's called) in Emeryville and get some nigiri since I have nothing on hand. Otherwise, I might have a chicken breast or hardboiled egg followed by a piece of fruit.
Motivation Changes: Extreme
I just want it. I want to hit 150 lb. My doc wants me to reach 140-145, but I'm not sure I have that in me. I was 140-145 when I met the spouse, but I was 20 yrs old, doing 3+ hrs of athletics a day, and less than 10% body fat. Where I am in my life, I don't have more than an hour of gym time a day, I'm older and my body has changed. If I can reach 150, I'll do a cart-wheel (or rent a day in Jump-it-Up! and invite all my friends to help me celebrate with a few hours of leaping and jumping... oh yeah! that would be cool!)
So there it is. Hold on tight - the holidays are roaring in with saucey dishes and awesome desserts.
