Simple AI

I joined the Simple app, and one of the features is artificial intelligence.  She goes by Avo, and I can ask questions, and they are answered quite intelligently!

So far, I'm feeling successful with the intermittent fasting and nutritious eating. I discussed it with my doc and he approved of my choice.  We shall see how it goes!

This made me smile!!! I like this AI thing!

PS:  No matter how well all this is going, there is no better feeling than climbing into a bed made up with clean sheets and being able to be at rest.  ❤ 

The Pug Lady

When you live in a city that welcomes "snow birds", don't try to take yourself out for a meal at 12:30pm on a Sunday after church!  Even at a fast food place, I waited 20 minutes for a meal.  There was a long line at Chipotle, so I didn't hang around (I had groceries in the trunk!)  I opted for a quick Crunchwrap Supreme from Taco Bell.  Not the best meal for me, but .... it was pretty good.  After the long wait!  Sometimes, when we get a sunny day after the week of storms we had, it was easy to forget that there would be others out and about as well.   Not that I had anywhere else I needed to be .... lol

It's been a week of changes for me in my eating habits.  I have been encouraged by reaching my goal of a nutrient score over 80 when I log my foods.  This week, I made 85 three times so far!  I removed carbs from my breakfast and just eat my eggs.  I added an apple and some raw baby carrots to my lunch each day, as well as making sure I drink at least 48 ounces of water during my work day.  That won't be hard to hit now that we're back on track with our normal spring weather -- warm and sunny!

I've also quit focusing on a goal of 12k steps per day, and am actively watching how my FitBit tracks active minutes.  You have to be engaged in your activity for more than 10 minutes for it to count anything toward that number.  Mondays are always more active than any other day, but with changing that focus, Sadie and I head out each evening at 6pm for a long walk.  It's a quick 10 minutes over to the park where I let Sadie run in the grass.  Then it's back into her stroller and off we go for 1.4 miles, circling our neighborhood.  I'm sure if any of the neighbors are like me, they have a nickname for folks if they don't know a real name. 
I'm betting dollars to donuts that I'm "The Pug Lady".  lol 
Many folks wave to me each evening, and that's really nice :)

I'm hoping after all the hard work and better eating, I show improvement on the scale!  While I know it's not good to be measuring success by the scale, it's hard to break a habit so ingrained into us.

Doctor, Doctor....

Gimme the news .....   *sigh*  Old song reference, but ...

A trip to the doc, with 8 months between the last visit resulted in some good and some bad news.   On the good side, my white count was back up again.  And my cholesterol dropped 20 points!  On the bad side, my blood pressure was up.  The doc was concerned that maybe I have "white coat" anxiety, and it goes up when I'm at the doc.   Personally, I think it's related to my caffeine intake.



I've been doing much better on reducing my consumption; Monday thru Weds I only had one Diet Coke, at 2pm each day.   But now that I think back, my Thursday started with over 200 gallons of paint that needed to be processed before I left for the doc's office, so did I slip and have a Diet Coke first off?  Did that set my blood pressure higher???  It will be one of the things I'll be tracking.

I've been investigating "diets".   Keto has too much fat for my body to process with my liver bile issues.  Lowering my carbs has always worked for me in the past, but I need to also reduce sodium and eat more plant based foods.  So I'm going to try the "DASH" diet -- a wider variety of foods, and controlling portions, and greatly reducing my sugar intake.  (Goodbye chocolate, I will miss you!!)

This will easily fit in with the new "Lifestyle Changes" I've been trying to do.  to keep. 
One day at a time ......

For today's numbers:  14,758 steps today, which included a 34 minute walk pushing Sadie in her stroller.  Tomorrow will be more walking, along with some housework!

Hello, Weekend!

Lifestyle Change Day 9

Here I am, 9 days into the changes, and ... it's going well. 

I've not lost any weight, but I'm feeling better than I did before. 
I'm trying to stay positive about the changes, and hope that other things will follow when my body and hormones adjust to the new eating style.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself. For now.

Sunday, with the Superbowl, I exceeded my Diet Coke limit, and treated myself to a small plate of home made nachos.  Which nearly started a fire in my microwave! 

I had this paper plate left over from Christmas, red with a gold trim.  I wasn't thinking the trim had any metal in it, but I should have guessed.  I couldn't figure out what the smell was as I was melting cheese on my nachos!  But back to nachos, it was just 1 serving of tortilla chips, a little melted cheese, then chopped avocado and tomatoes on top.  Which tasted delish!

My step counts were down that day as well, because of the rain.  But they're back up over 10K again this week.  My food counts are recorded and each day it's been over 85 in the nutrient content, and that makes me happy.

I see my doctor tomorrow for an annual checkup.  I know she'll say something about my weight.  And maybe a lecture if my cholesterol is up, or my blood pressure.

Lifestyle Change Day 1

In my quest for a healthier me, it began today. 
Changes to diet and exercise, and increasing my water intake. 



Accountability report:  Water intake 88 oz.  Goal 100 oz.  Not bad for the first day

Food intake:  No candy, despite the chocolates on the desk in the pretty jar.  Eggs for breakfast, turkey wrap for lunch, broccoli, ground beef patty and baked potato for supper. I also added in a Naked Juice Power-C, to boost up my immune system - lots of colds going 'round.

Exercise:  Stretching for Seniors via YouTube, cute Australian accent on a young, handsome man.  Then some weight lifting for arms while watching the sun set.  11K steps recorded on my FitBit.

Caffeine:  One Diet Coke to break the lull at 2pm, one Diet Coke with dinner.  Didn't need the second one at dinner, water would have done it, except for the massive headache that was building all day.


I started on the Plexus Pink Drink today, as well.  I'm still not sure what it will do my digestive system.  I couldn't handle it full on when I tried it during the summer.  I'm hoping that starting slower will help a bit. 

I don't feel like I was deprived today.  Well, not much.  I sure would have enjoyed a nice sweet chocolate pick-me-up when things got stressful at work, but I powered through the craving.

I'm going to resist stepping on the scale in the morning, because this is more about healthy than it is weight loss.  Ok, I'll be honest, it's about weight loss too, but I don't think that should be the only goal.  Because I could lose weight by not eating, but that puts other systems in jeopardy, and this needs to be about being a healthier me!

So here's to having a successful tomorrow.

Wishful Goals ?

Week after week, I keep telling myself "it's time to get back on track", and each week goes by with no progress made.  Then I caught a cold, our temps dropped, and another five pounds seemed to jump onto my hips and ass! 

On Wednesday, I dropped into the gym to make some time on the treadmill.  30 minutes @ 3.0 incline = 1.4 miles.  While that's not my best effort, and I vowed to do better, but I didn't seem to be able to force myself to head to the gym on Thurs or Friday. 

One of the issues is they have a new locker room cleaning schedule; there's a male cleaning staff and the hours are 9-Noon.  Makes it impossible to be comfortable changing into gym clothes, and I can't exercise in jeans! 

This week, I get blood drawn for the usual check up, so my commitment needs to be on increasing my water intake, making sure I get 30 minutes of walking, either at the gym, or pushing Sadie in her stroller, and watching what I eat, including keeping my sodium down. 



Back in 2013, I worked very hard and lost 40 pounds -- and over the course of time, it's all come back.  Mostly because I stopped going to the gym. 

There are folks who start with "counting calories", but for me, I don't think all calories are the same.  If they were, the keto diet wouldn't be so successful.  So with the info I've gathered, I think I have two issues (not including my age):  insulin resistance and a hormonal imbalance.  I've tried the Plexus TriPlex but my system doesn't handle all of it in such large doses.  This is the week where I'm going to try to increase some of.  I have been able to get up to taking two ProBio5 each evening; now it's deciding if I can handle the BioCleanse or the Pink Drink.  We'll have to see how Monday goes!

I'm recording all of this here to use it as my accountability. 
And when I'm successful, maybe it will be an inspiration to someone else!!

October Resolve

Weight loss is not just a matter of "diet" ... which is the worst 4letter word I know!   But I've come to realize that weight loss is a state of mind.  If you're not in the mind game, nothing else will change.  I wasn't able to keep my mind on it, to keep focused, and now I'm left to wondering why I have allowed myself to wander from the line I set for myself.


Now the question is:  How do I get myself back there, get my resolve going again?

I was saying one week at time
then it was one day at a time
but I'm finding that I can't hold my resolve for a whole day.

So the new thing is one hour at a time.
Just one hour.
I can do this.

Having good choices on hand will help too.
I bought HoneyCrisp apples for this week.
and I haven't had a bad week... until today.
cheeseburgers for lunch (ba daa bop ba pa... i'm lovin it)
and then a taco salad for dinner.

Its October.
And my one goal is 10+ fitness minutes a day.
day 2 and I'm on track.

Let's have a great month!

Pleasing ME!

We can talk about diets all day long, debate the paleo vs atkins vs HCG.  We can talk about how good exercise is for us, too.  But until you decide to do something, its all talk! 

I've been working hard on maintaining good eating habits, faithfully logging everything I eat at SparkPeople.com -- even the cheat stuff like chocolate!  I haven't always had successful weeks, but I've had more successes than failures!  I'm faithful about going to the gym -- the other day, one of the gals said "I can't believe how regular you come to the gym, you're always here!!"  And boy, did that feel good -- because what I'm doing is good for me, and its working!!!

I don't know what Weigh in Weds will hold for me.  I'm not worried about it, but I don't want to be disappointed either. Sure, I'd like to see a big drop on the scale, but I'm not sure it will be this week.  The weekend was busy with housework - I had to get everything caught up because I'm working another long stretch of 11 or 12 days in a row.  On top of that, there is a surprise audit some day this week, and a two day pre-inventory audit on May 1.  That means I need to keep on top of my game, and keep everything current.  Which causes stress.  Which creates chocolate cravings!  ugh

So, in order to feel positive about things, I decided to take my measurements again.  And I can definitely see results.  I've lost 3.75 inches off my hips, and 2.25 inches off my waist!!  Granted, that change was from my start with a trainer in March 2012 until today.  Loads of progress and 41 lbs -- woo hoo!!
When you add up all the measurements taken (ie waist, hips, calves, etc) from Feb18, 2013 to Mar 24, 2013, I've lost a total of 4.75 inches. 
(Funny how the quarter inches add up *winks*)

So .... don't think about a diet, don't talk about exercise ...
even if you only do 10 mins of exercise, or skip one donut, that's progress.  

A little every day will add up in a big way!!

If you want to try SparkPeople, (its FREE!) , look me up:  AZGAL50

Day 7 - Sleep On!

And I'm sure you can predict that I will say Yep, I'm tired!!!  Just that much work makes a body tired, but at the same time there were issues at home here that caused Sadie to not sleep, which caused ME to not sleep.....  what a cycle.

The problem with that is two sided -- not only is it hard to be efficient at my job, but when I'm tired, all I want to do is reach for comfort foods - because eating something just might help me feel better (when we all know what's needed is a good night's sleep!)

So I found on WebMD these little blurbs and that totally explains it:

Could lack of sleep be causing you to gain weight?

Think about it: If you’re feeling sleepy at work, you may be tempted to reach for a cup of coffee (or several cups) and a doughnut for a quick shot of energy. Later you may skip the gym and pick up takeout on your way home to your family -- no time to cook. When you finally find yourself back in your bed, you are too wound up to sleep.
 
“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly,” explains Michael Breus, PhD

The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin,” Breus says. “Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.”

Well.  I don't know about you, but I feel better knowing this now!!  Sleep is important for everything to function properly, and if I'm not getting my sleep, my efforts (and money) at the gym are being totally wasted.   And I won't let that happen......

Gotta get my sleep on!!

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone :)

10 teaspoons

I listened to an interesting woman who was talking about heart health and how it relates to what we eat.  Our food choices these days are quite different from how we used to eat 50 years ago.  So much more of our foods are processed and/or prepared by corporations and not in our own kitchens.  And in my own quest and struggles with weight loss, I like information, all kinds of information, so that I can make informed choices. 

Her recommendation?  Limit sugar intake to 10 teaspoons per day. 

If you're like me, you read labels.  You know there is added sugar in every food we eat.  But the problem is that sugar content isn't listed in teaspoons on the label.  Plus, carbs convert to sugar in the body as well.  So how do you calculate those 10 teaspoons?  You can take the number of carbs in grams, subtract the fiber grams, and divide by 5. 

Lets take a slice of 12 grain bread.  19 carbs.  3 grams of fiber.   (19-3)/5 = 16/5 = 3 teaspoons.
and that's just one slice of bread!  And most of us eat two slices of bread for a sandwich, or with breakfast.  Hmm, this might be more difficult that we imagine!!!

With two slices of toast for breakfast here, I've reached more than half my limit for today....  lots of meat and veggies the rest of the day for me!  

I'm going to attempt this to jump start my week and see if I can get some momentum going in my weight loss journey.   If it works well, I'll keep you posted!!

GOAL!!

Its "footy season" ...... in other countries:  "football" , we call it soccer here.  

Either way -- reaching a goal is the important part! 

Today at the gym, on the elliptical machine, 3 miles in under 45 minutes!  (I had ten seconds to spare, hahahaha)  I sooo  didn't even want to go to the gym today.  With all this work stress and the extra weekend I've been doing, I haven't been sleeping very well, and could barely keep my open every time I sat down to lunch or breaks.  But after going to the gym, it seemed to boost me up a bit.  That's a very good thing, and if I can bypass the need for a nap here at home, maybe I'll get some quality and quantity of zzzz's tonight. 

With a healthful dinner, I am soon hoping to reach another goal:  25 pound loss.  I've been stuck for nearly three weeks now.  Mostly I'm happy I'm not gaining, but things are perhaps "readjusting" and then it will feel back on track again.   

 Dieting is not a piece of cake.

 Never eat more than you can lift.  ~Miss Piggy

Just a couple of lines of humor ---- because sometimes we need to laugh at our selves :)

It's not the scale

When a person starts an exercise program, or a diet even, the focus is so often The Scale.  And while that may be the ultimate goal to achieve, there are other things that are just important:  progress. 

When I committed to working out on a regular basis back in March, there were so many things that I couldn't do.  It was a challenge to my trainer finding what I needed to work on first.  At first I could only "plank" for 15 seconds on a good day.  Now, we're working toward a whole minute.  "Bridges" have moved from two feet, to single leg, to balanced on a ball.   The  worst was my balance.  My left side is much stronger than my right.  I could only stand on my right foot alone for 30 seconds if I was lucky.  Now, I balance on each foot for a minute and I don't lose my balance (well, usually I don't. hehehe)  All three of these exercises are done every time we meet, in succession three times, for a superset.  And that consistency has brought improvements, progress!

The point is when you keep working at something,

it's the small victories that we need to hold on to. 

it's not checking the scale for the only measure of success.

Keep focused, and keep on trying! 

Futile Efforts

Last weekend was a really lousy weekend for me, emotionally. I can feel when I'm slipping toward the side of being depressed and know that I need to do something to change that. It's rather hard to fight when you become mired in it; nothing that needs to be done sounds appealing, even the things I enjoy, like my photography, don't hold any interest for me when I get that way. Rather than allow it to get any worse, I determined that I needed to take control and see if I could change it.

On Monday after work, even though I was tired, and had no interest, I cajoled myself into grabbing my things and slipping into the gym. I wasn't going to do much, just my usual routine on the weight resistance machines, which takes about 30 minutes. Afterwards, a 30 minute walk in the local park since our weather is so nice right now. I felt good, refreshed, and just tired out enough that I thought for sure I would sleep well. Tuesday, I skipped the gym (its good to wait a day inbetween weights to give your body a chance to renew itself), and came home to do some yoga on my mat out in the back yard -- got a little sun, some fresh air, always nice to relax that way!

Wednesday, another round of weight resistance at the gym, and a longer walk in the park afterward. Thursday is my "free day", the day I take my son to the library and out for Taco Bell (I have the steak taco salad! yum) Friday, back at the gym, and then another hour long walk in the park.

During the week, my calorie intake was about 1600 a day, except for Thursday, which goes up with the taco salad to about 2000. On Friday, which is "donut day" at work, I allowed myself one (yes, I gave in, but shouldn't have, I'm sure!) bringing my total to 1800. But 20o calories on a day I'm going to work out shouldn't make that much difference if I calculate by the guidelines that 3500 calories = 1 pound. (Either they lie to us, or my body has a different built-in calculator that drops off zeros and that 35 calories = 1 pound!!)

Saturday morning, I grabbed a bottle of water, my camera, and headed to the local park for another walk, covering 2+ miles in about an hour. (I kept stopping to take pictures!) When I got home, I had peanut butter on toast, finished my water, worked in the yard for an hour. Dinner was a scoop of mashed taters and bbq'd chicken.

And here we are at Sunday morning. The results of my work and careful eating? up 2 pounds. And I am depressed, in tears, all over again. Seems like a totally futile effort. Yes, I know what they say: muscles weigh more than fat. Weight can fluctuate a pound or two just from water on a daily basis. I shouldn't be watching the scale that close. I've heard these things all my life. And I'm convinced that not all calories are the same. When I asked my doc about this (I've been fighting the same five pounds for a year now) he said I'm eating too much. When I hired a personal trainer to evaluate my workouts and eating habits, she said I'm not eating enough. I've tried the paleo diet, eliminating processed foods and grains. I've tried low fat diets, no sugar diets, and everything else it seems.

And my final conclusion?

A week without chocolate that puts on two pounds is just not worth it!

Ok, so I'll keep going to the gym this week as well, because it did help my mental state in the short term. And the bottom line is being healthy, not some number on a scale. I'd be healthier at a lesser weight, I'm sure, but not if it involves eating incorrectly.