Good morning all. Welcome to Health Group, week #2.
I did really good the beginning of this week. Monday, I went for a 2 mile walk and lifted weights. Tuesday, I skated for 45 minutes on my inline skates and lifted weights. Wednesday, I did another 2 mile walk and weights. (My walking route takes 45 minutes.) Thursday, I did the Hula video and no weights. Yesterday was insane, and I didn’t get any formal exercise in. Today, I hope to at least do upper and lower body on the weights. Hooray for me! It’s at least better than last week was!
Something that I do that really helps is I mark up my calendar that hangs in the kitchen. I have a pack of those foil star stickers, and then a pack of little sparkly flower stickers, and a green sharpie pen. The foil star is for 45 minutes or more of aerobic exercise, and the little flower stickers are for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise. I use the sharpie for tracking weights; a “U” for upper body and an “L” for lower body. There are many days where the only reason I made myself do the exercise was so I wouldn’t have a blank day on my calendar. It is very satisfying putting that silly sticker up there. And what is really rewarding is looking back as the weeks progress in a month, and seeing stickers and green U’s and L’s all over the place. Even if I haven’t lost pounds or inches, I feel I’ve accomplished something when I can see that I’ve really put in effort. I have something to show for it.
Food-wise, I did OK. I didn’t eat bad, but I’m sure I could have done better. As always, I drank a ton of water.
And finally, the scale….. The scale hasn’t been very nice to me the last couple of mornings. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s muscle. Maybe it’s water retention. Who knows? I know that I was up 4.5 pounds Friday morning from Thursday. It’s been really, really hot and humid the past few days. I always feel fatter in weather like that. I feel like I swell up, you know?
So, this morning I weighed 233.5 pounds. Blah. Up from last week. Up from most of this week. I know there are lots of factors though, so I’m not assuming I put on 3 or so pounds of fat. (Interesting side note: when I was at a doctor’s office this week, to follow up on my MRI and X-rays from last Friday, I asked if I could weigh myself on their medical scale, and I weighed 228, clothes and all! This was halfway through the day, too. I had lots of water and breakfast contributing to that! I was pretty stoked!)
That’s it for me, now it’s your turn. Do you think we should have a better name than “Health Group”? I’m open to suggestions. The floor is now yours…. :-).
June 19th, 2004 at 7:27 am
Hi Laura! You’re doing really great with the exercise! That’s a really good idea you have with the stickers and marks on the calendar. Proof positive! Do you walk alone with headphones, or do you have company??You must be doing great if you weigh LESS at the Doctor’s than at home! My suggestion for the group’s name is “Knit and Be Fit”, haha! My daughter made that one up when we were joking about “power knitting”! Wouldn’t it be nice if you could reward yourself with new YARN when you’ve lost pounds! You go girl! (Did you receive my email on the sock erratta?? I realize it could have been deleted when you don’t know my name.)
June 19th, 2004 at 7:42 am
I did get your email, thank you very much. There is little that is more frustrating than getting into a pattern and having it be wrong. Especially when you are learning a completely new tecnique, such as sideways socks. Unfortunately, it happens a lot.
Knit and Be Fit is cute. I’ll put that (or some form of it) in for consideration.
I walk with my dog, Abner. He’s the perfect walking companion. I prefer walking in silence as opposed to listening to music, or talking to someone. I like to rejuvenate mentally, as well as physically when I exercise, and to do that, I need to think.
June 20th, 2004 at 1:31 am
I heard once that excercise was actually more productive (don’t know how they measured that… muscle gained? calories burned?) when people kept somewhat of a focus while they were excercising, as opposed to, say, watching TV. And I like walking in silence, too 🙂
Glad to hear about all the good excercise you’ve done this week. Keep it up – and ignore the scale. You can see how subjective they are just from your experience at the dr.’s office, right?
I do not have any great suggestions for the name, but ‘knit and be fit’ has a ring to it…
June 21st, 2004 at 9:46 am
Well I missed posting on Saturday and for that I apologize. I went walking on Monday fully expecting to do a full 2 miles. Had it mapped out you see. It was a half mile later that my dear hubby came and picked me up in the car and rushed me to the emergency room. I ummm…tripped on uneven pavement. I twisted my ankle and dislocated my knee. I then went home and ate Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Brownie Frozen Yogurt. Now, how’s THAT for a start of getting back in shape?? Thank goodness for cell phones. So, it will be a while before I post anything that may be considered a positive change. hehe On the plus side, it was frozen yogurt. Not Ice Cream. It was fat free and I only ate a single serving. *sigh*
You’re doing terrific by the way!!!
June 21st, 2004 at 12:01 pm
OH MY GOSH!!! I’m so sorry, Angie. I wish you a speedy recovery. How long did they tell you? If you want something fun to do…. When my sister broke her arm snowboarding, she knit herself a purple cast cozy with eyelash trim. It was pretty cute, as well as somewhat grotesque. (Being lumpy and huge, like casts are).
June 22nd, 2004 at 7:12 am
First off, ANGIE, big wishes for a speedy recovery!!! I have done that before and broken things. Not fun! To keep it on a positive note, just think about all the great upper body workouts you can do whilst your leg is healing. BTW – one of the best things about Ben & Jerry’s is that they all come in those great single-serve size pints! (hee hee hee) oh.
Well, I will confess I have not truly exercised yet. My eating has improved GREATLY and I am eating lots of the things I have found that help me to lose weight. I have a new fancy rice cooker that makes “GABA” brown rice so I am very happy with that and coupling that with baking a turkey breast every week (we BBQ’d it last night) seems to make it easy and healthy.
I DID however, find great MOTIVATION yesterday for kicking off my exercise program! Art & I took our boat out! It was 90? and after a bit, I had to get into the lake and cool off. I hadn’t even considered wearing a swimsuit, because we were going fishing and I don’t have a body shape to wear one in public. My suit hasn’t been seen outside of our backyard & hottub in ages.
So, it’s time to work out so I can be seen in more appropriate swimming attire. Although George, my golden who swam with me didn’t seem to mind, he was just so happy to get in ans cool off!
June 22nd, 2004 at 1:03 pm
I reeally appreciate all of the well wishes! Doc says I should be up and about in no time. In the meantime, I still get to eat healthy.
And I hate to break it to anyone who wasn’t aware, but the pint size Ben and Jerry’s is actually 4 servings. Yeah. So I did only eat ? of the pint. I’m being good. Honest. hehe And yes, I am still doing upper body stuff and I can still do crunches if I’m careful. On the plus side, I live in Texas. It’s hot and humid. I don’t think I’m missing anything by not being able to walk. hehe