My Journey to a healthy body
Failure is not an excuse to quit
Why Isn't this working?
One thousand dollars later (that was my deductible and copay), I had good and bad news: no apnea, but a deviated septum, but the cost to repair would would be expensive, not covered by insurance and it wouldn't help all that much. Back to the drawing board for me.
Finally, I was referred to a psychiatrist, and we determined my meds were out of wack. So began a moderately slow climb back to health. With the change of my medication, I finally felt like doing more than sit in a chair.
Goal
In order to achieve my goals I know that I will need to change my diet, exercise regularly and make sure I get a good night's sleep.
Baseline:
6/15: Waist 32.5 hips: 38.5 thigh: 23 muffin top: 38.0 thigh: 23
Waist to Hip Ratio: 84
Check In Dates:
6/28 waist: 31 hip: 37.5 muffin top: 36.5 thigh: 23
7/25 waist: 31 hip: 37 muffin top: 36.5 thigh: 22
8/9 waist: 31 hip: 36 muffin top: 35.5 thigh: 22.5
8/22 waist: 30.5 hip: 36 muffin top: 34.5 thigh: 22.5
8/31 waist: hip: muffin top: thigh:
The Plan
I will cut most of the "whites", rice, sugar, flour, pasta, potatoes. I will try to get my carbs from protein, fruits and vegetables and whole grains (brown rice, whole grain crackers and bread). I'm keeping my liquids to mainly water, the occasional tonic water with lime juice, and limited juices. Based on my two week analysis, I know basically what I can eat and can't. If I have questions, I can go back to MyFitnessPal and look up the food in question.
Exercise:
I will do cardio 3 times a week and weight lift 2 days. For cardio I am doing the elliptical, tread mill, biking and the occasional run. The weight lifting consists of mostly arms with some leg work as part of a super set.
Diet
Eating Right
After using the My Fitness Pal, it made me really think about what I was eating and if I really needed to eat it. I was very conscientious about what I put in my mouth, making sure that I was getting enough nutrients. I started looking for new ways to incorporate the nutrients I was missing. I feel like my diet is under control.
7/2015 Now, I don't keep it as rigorously unless I feel myself slipping, then it's an easy way to get back on track.
8/2015 With the start of school, I'm becoming proactive in packing lunches. I prep my carrots, celery, peppers, grapes, hard boiled eggs, pasta (veggie and whole grain), etc. on Sunday so all I have to do each morning is put it in my lunch box.
Workouts!
Working Out
So I decided to find some things that I can do. I have relearned how to enjoy bike riding, weight lifting and as a treat, I added some dancing. These are things I can do.
7/2015 While on vacation, I couldn't ride my bike, so I used the treadmill at the hotel. I found that if I could get past the 20 minutes of hating the run/walk, I could really enjoy it. This was a very weird revelation for me. I'm not sure, but I may actually be enjoying working out?
8/2015 - 9/2015 with the advent of school, I'm not hitting the gym for workouts like I did over the summer. However, I do make sure I get as many runs/ellipiticals/walks/bike rides in as possible - at least 30 minutes 3-4 times a week. I did discover that I can't do push ups even though I've been doing arm weights. So my new addition is to add push ups. It isn't pretty, I can only do modified push-ups and not very many. Fortunately, I have really good insulation in my apartment so no one hears my cursing or sobbing.
Arm Work
I like this chart for arm workout. However, I noticed that her tricep kickbacks don't have a reach back that is far enough. Do these kneeling on a bench.
Hint: you need to work slowly with control. If you can make it all the way through a set, it's not enough weight - you should be struggling by rep 8 in a 10 rep set or 12 in a 15 rep set.
Do three sets of 15 reps; 5 sets of 10 reps.
Hint #2: Don't forget your Core - without a strong core, you're body will not reach maximum health. Your Core holds you up. This is why free weights are so good - you have to control your core while you lift the weight.
Articles
23 Things That Inevitably Happen When You Start Getting In Shape
This article is really just a list of things that happens when you get in shape. As a lover of lists, this article appealed to me. My favorite item was, "None of your clothes fit anymore, " number four. Number five is a good one too, "You actually crave healthy food." Number 23 states that you actually enjoy working out. That's definitely true for me for the first time in my life. I haven't become a morning person (number 19) and I haven't seen any veins popping (number 10), but the increased laundry thing is for real (number 13). I'll keep this article around to see if any of the other numbers turn out to be true for me; although I highly doubt I'll ever be a morning person.
I would love it if I could do number two, climbing stairs effortlessly. This one may take a while, but I'll work on it - fortunately (?) Schlagle has stairs. The other number I want to work on is number 14; I want to improve my mental clarity.
Wang, Peggy. "23 Things That Inevitably Happen When You Start Getting In Shape." BuzzFeed.com. BuzzFeed.com, 2 June 14. Web. 23 June 15. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/things-that-inevitably-happen-when-you-start-getting-in-s#.ngWejkoBB>.
10 Tips to Get Off the Diet Plateau
Tip about the High Intensity Training was very helpful. I was following the old run in the fat burn zone. Now I work out at 85%. I try to keep my heart rate up throughout the workout, even the weight training. I have even added supersets to the regime.
I also appreciated the reminder to mix it up. I have a tendency to stick to my elliptical for cardio and it's been pretty weak. Lately, I've been run/walking and it's much harder, but I know it's good for me.
Experiment: Can I change my taste buds
As part of my journey, I want to determine if I can decrease my cravings for sweet foods, by altering my diet to strictly limit food with refined sugars(candy bars, Oreos, cookies, other candy, etc.)
My baseline:
Currently, I can eat sweets without control. I love a candy bar, cookie, cake, etc. When it comes to Oreos...watch out.
Changes:
- I have upped the amount of fruit in my diet (sweet in a healthy way)
- I have replaced sugar as a sweetener with honey (harvested locally so that it helps with allergies)
- When I crave a candy bar, I have Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds instead. The dark chocolate has antioxidants and is actually good for you, the almonds provide good fat (which satisfies) and protein. Combined, these satisfy my craving for sweet and help me curb the craving by countering the glucose from the chocolate with health fats and protein that keep you satisfied longer (they take longer to break down in the digestive system thus giving you a sense of fullness). I keep my serving size to the portion listed on the package.