Biking Resumes!

My husband and I biked to work together for the first time this year. 

Not gonna lie - a wee bit sore.  But worth it.

We left early enough that we didn't have to hustle, and I really enjoyed it.  I'm also treating myself - on the days I bike, I can skip my lunch-time walk and read the whole hour if I want to.  So that's a nice relaxing bit of the day to look forward to.

Here's to sun and summer!

Health Update: Good News!

We have a wellness program at work, and so I did an annual physical.  All of my blood work came in as normal--glucose, cholesterol, etc.  A surprise, but a good one.

Did You Know? Great American Smokeout Trivia

Today is designated the "Great American Smokeout" by the American Cancer Society.

Here's some evidence that unscrupulous marketing techniques from cigarette companies go way back.  In the early 20th century, "tobacco company Brown and Williamson claimed that its Kool cigarettes kept people's waists slim, their heads clear, and their bodies protected against colds."
  (From Gene Stone's book The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick, page 23).  The last one really gets me--smokers are sick WAY more than the rest of us!

Health Update

I'm back at work, finally!  The doctor gave me the "all clear" in the morning and I was at my desk by afternoon.

My belly button incision is not pretty.  The too-red center looks like a little pac man with a slightly open mouth that oozes blood and pus as it slowly scars over.  Oh yes.  Lots of fun at our house lately!

But I'm back at work now, and my supervisor has been so supportive and understanding (and her supervisor and HR as well) that I'm really glad I took this job.

I don't feel too bad.  I thought I'd be exhausted, but I'm doing OK.  It might be a long week, though...

#BellyButtonSelfie

Still sick.....

I've been doing lots of navel-staring lately.  The only photo that isn't too gross to post is from today's little surgical procedure:

I haven't posted a photo in awhile, you see....

Thanks for everyone who is praying for me.

Sunday Thoughts: Gratitude

Thank God for antibiotics!

I am now going to proceed to the couch, wherein I intend to spend the rest of the day.

Roller Skating Update

Roller skating is proving a bit hazardous to my heath:

We've discovered that YouTube videos on "How To Stop" are not proving as helpful as we would like.....

Ergo, we wised-up and got knee pads for me.

No Sugar....

I gave up sweets (mostly) for 6 weeks.

To be more precise, I gave up sweets from February 18 to April 5.  I had two lapses required by politeness, when I had a glass of lemonade and a glass of sparkling grape juice.  In the beginning, I polished off some yogurt and didn't buy any more.  (Yes, the flavored Yoplait ones.  Probably similar to eating a candy bar.)

But I did make it a total of 21 days, straight, there at the end.

So what happened?

I started at 113.6 pounds on February 18.  I ended at 109.8 pounds on April 5, although most of the time I was in the 110-112 range.  I worked out occasionally, and tried to at least walk every day for a minimum of 20 minutes.

I found that if I avoided sweets, I craved salty, greasy food.  I noticed that when I was relaxed and happy the scale seemed to dip quite regardless of what else I was or wasn't up to.

Then it was the Easter Octave.  (Octave=eight days.  Easter = Rejoice.  Ergo "Easter Octave" is Catholic for "Let's party for eight days.")  I ate whatever I jolly well felt like, including my favorites: Reese's Pieces and York Peppermint Patties.  My weight hung out in the 112s, until yesterday, the end of the octave, when it hit 113.8.

I found that if I ate lots of sweets, I got incredibly moody.  Really, really moody.  And I have had a tummy ache for most of the past week.

Conclusion: I'm not going to buy sweets or junk food.  If I'm offered it and it is luscious beyond description (i.e. Sr. Carmen's tiramisu), then I will eat it very slowly and enjoy it very much.  But sugar makes me ill and cranky in large quantities.  So other than high feasts (Easter, Christmas) and my birthday, and social obligations ("I made this for you because I know you love French Silk Pie") I'm going to cut back.  Way back.

How about you?  Have you given up sugar or gluten or ______?  What kind of difference did it made?

Ouch!

The  blog has been on autopilot lately because I have been undergoing severe pain from some kind of nerve problem in my back. Eight days of agony have now turned into constant pain but I'm finally able to function thanks to steroids. Physical therapy started today, and have high hopes that I will be able to avoid surgery. All of this comes right in the middle of the end of the semester grading binge. It has not been a very good week!

I'm also not sure what to do about the Mac. If I am keeping it, I should start downloading my photos into iPhoto, but if I'm not then I need to make some plan for that. Generally speaking, I like it, but there are a few things I have to figure out how to do before I am going to commit. My husband is  perfectly happy to take it off my hands if I decide I don't want it!

Anyway, between the constant pain (and the dizziness and nausea from the pain medication) and my Mac indecision, the blog has been a bit orphaned. But I will return – I started work on a fun up cycled scarf with my niece!

An Oatmeal Container Is an Exercise Accessory?

I've solved two problems at once:

1. The same routine over and over again is boring.

2. When I know there’s a hard workout in the rotation that day, it’s so easy to sleep in.

So I did Zumba, P90x and T25 more or less faithfully for a month or so.   

I noted which workouts I could actually do and liked reasonably well.  (Push-ups and pull-up, well, I can’t really do them so I spend the workout jogging in place and watching the people on the screen do 20 reps.  So I skipped those.)   

Those workouts went in the oatmeal container and I draw one every morning.  Surprise!

Somehow it is easier to get out of bed when I just might get “stretching” instead of “intensive cardio”….

This is not a frugal solution.  My husband, bless his dear little heart, has tried multiple exercise DVD series.  Plus he bought me some Zumba because I kept checking it out of the library.  So we already had the DVDs.  But I’m guessing we aren’t the only ones…

Swimming Lessons Photo Essay

Because my niece is so cute and happy in these pictures and I'm proud of her progress.

Plus a reminder--if you arrange for a child to have swimming lesson, you could save a life.

Tips for Using Beachbody’s T25 and P90x

Here's what I'm talking about:  T25 and P90X3.

1.  If the people in the video are wearing shoes, wear shoes.  Otherwise you are more likely to hurt yourself.

2.  T25 is a lot more cardio.  I used it to slim down and I think it's probably more helpful for us ladies.  I switched to P90x when I needed to start building up muscles because my weight was inching toward my high school weight, which didn't seem healthy.  I didn't want to gain inches, so I decided to build muscle instead.

3.  Don't force yourself to do every exercise.  Some of them will probably hurt you, and those won't be the same for everyone.  Adapt.  Many of the exercises will be safer for us older folks if we simply take some of the bounce out.

4.  Don't force yourself to match the pace or endurance of the people on the video immediately.  There isn't any point.  Endurance and strength are built up gradually.  If you can only do 30 seconds of a 60 second exercise, then do your 30 seconds.  Gradually, your endurance will increase.  If you are planning on sticking with program for the full 70 or 90 days, it's kind of silly to push yourself to exhaustion rather than work up to what you want.  So, yes, push yourself.  But not so much that you give up or that you hurt yourself.  You have time.  If you are sweating or stretching, you're making progress.  So relax.

5.  Discard particular workouts.  I'm not going to do something that focuses entirely on abs.  As near as I can tell, I have none.  And a workout with lots of push-ups and pull-ups is pointless for me.  I can't to do them.  The workout ends up being me attempting to keep up, not being able to, and doing lots of standing around waiting for them to get to the next exercise which -- surprise!  -- I can't do either.

Don't get me wrong -- plenty of the workouts that I include are strenuous, difficult, and I'm not all that good at.  But if I can't do 90% of the material, I'm going to pop something else into the DVD player.

6. Deliberately and consciously enjoy the happy endorphins afterward.  I love having a better mood and (usually) more energy for the rest of the morning (or sometimes the rest of the day).  Keeps you coming back for more!

Quitting Sugar

Should I do this:

https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/family-stopped-eating-sugar-happened-202700552.html

I can't decide.

I know from experience, that after a week or so of no sugar, I stop craving it.  No more battles of will power with chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven with the chips still gooey and soft!  (Made for us at work.  I don't make them at home.)  In many ways, that's easier.  And too much sugar makes me feel icky.

But how can I avoid sugar?  It's everywhere!  I can eat something with ketchup and here we go again, craving sugar.  (Yes, there is sugar in ketchup.)

Isn't life too short?   Can I really say "never again" to chocolate ice cream?

Moderation.  I'm going to try that for a while.  At least I'm not going to eat it on autopilot.  I've stopped eating so-so sugar, like candy I don't really love or store-bought cakes (which, frankly, are gross) and I try to just eat it on Sunday. 

Health Llog Update: A Low Point

I’ve got to laugh.  I’ve been doing it mostly all wrong and …..

Today I was at my lowest weight since I started keeping track in January, and I’ve lost an inch off my waist and half an inch from my hips.  I’ve been doing a little more exercise (mostly walking).   I’ve avoided sweets for a whole two days after almost a month of eating whatever I felt like.  (Hey, you've got to celebrate Easter!)   The only health advice I’ve been following consistently the past month or so has been smaller portions. 

Next experiment:  Avoiding sweets + working out + portion control = ?    I’ll see what happens then.  If I can actually manage to get up early enough to work out.  We’ll see…

Sugar-Free Summer

... begins today! 

(Or maybe Monday, if there are chocolate chip cookies at the graduation reception tomorrow.....)

Health Log Experiment Update

Here are the results of my health log experiment.  As I posted here, on January 28 I started keeping track daily of some basic health items such as my minutes of vigorous exercise, my minutes of low impact exercise, the number of times I ate sweets, when I went to bed, and my weight.

Scientifically speaking, this was a lousy experiment.

There wasn't a control group.  And I was trying to measure too many things at the same time.

But I learned some things anyway.

Health Log Update

"I've been good for AGES and my weight went up?  See, it's been.... two days.  Oh."

That nicely summarizes how it going.

The first thing I've learn from my health log experiment is that since I am surrounded by push-a-button-instantly-get-what-I-want technology, this makes dealing with my body seem slow and frustrating.  Also, I tend to grossly exaggerate how "good" I've been in my mind, forgetting the half-a-foot tall chocolate cake tower I ate at the fundraising dinner Saturday but remembering every exhausting workout.

This is slow going.  And after a month of keeping track, I haven't lost weight, I've gained it.  I've slimmed down my waist, but not my hips.  And I'm amazed how hard it is to be consistent.

Later - My husband informs me that when muscles are sore and/or growing, they retain water and so we weigh more.  As I'm getting used to the work outs and less sore, the scale numbers are inching down.  

Health Log

I’m tired of my pants not fitting. 

And I’m tired of conflicting advice about which of my favorite things to eat I shouldn’t or how impossibly long and hard I’m supposed to exercise. 

Plus the scale seems to jump upward when I have gluten. (No!  Say it isn't so! Please, please, please, can I be wrong about this?)

AND I've noticed that monitoring something can actually improve it. (It's one aspect of the Hawthorne effect. More on that later)

So I'm just going track what I'm doing.  I had tried to say "No sweets until my weight drops below X," but before I do that, I want to see if sweets matter more than exercise than getting lots of sleep, etc.  It's me.  I gotta do an experiment!  (Yes, there are flaws in this one.  But I'm trying to keep it simple.)

Here is my health log.  (NOT my diet long!)  This is the second one.  The first one I accidentally left off the sweets category...

FYI: The Hawthorne effect was named after an experiment in a factory in Hawthorne, IL.  The researchers wanted to see if productivity increased depending on lighting (and other changes).  They gradually increased the lighting and productivity did, in fact, increase.  Then they slowly decreased it—and productivity continued to go up!  They concluded that just knowing their work was being monitored increased the workers’ efficiency.  Their conclusion is disputed, but I have found that it has worked in getting my dissertation done and in tracking our budget.

Life Hack #7: Remembering to....

This is a bracelet made by my rock-hound Grandpa (rest in peace, kindly man) around a milk jug.

It's supposed to help me remember to make my medicine in the morning because the medicine comes in a green box.

It's working more than not having it there would work....  I'm still pretty forgetful, though.

In Defense of the 10 (or Eight or Five or Two)-Minute Workout

Websites and magazines that deal with health frequently admonish their readers that they need to exercise a certain amount every day.  Depending on what study came out most recently, they will pronounce any amount of cardio under 30, or 40, or 60 minutes to be "not enough to do any good."

What they really mean is: "not enough to help you lose weight."  And they're probably right.  But that doesn't mean that a short workout isn't worth your time.  There's more to health than weight.

I'm speaking from personal experience here (hey, it's a blog!), but a short workout, even one that is nothing but a warm up and some stretches, is a good habit to get into.  Here are four reasons why: