Twelve Pounds to Go Project

My Facebook status this a.m.:

"Twelve Pounds To Go Project: Started last week, managed to drop the 2 lbs I'd gained over the winter & now I'm poised to go for the final weight loss stretch. Goals: weigh 126 lbs, build a little more muscle & create an exercise routine I will actually maintain. Would love to have this accomplished by May 19, which would be one year since I began my fitness quest."

 I've gone back to my faithful food-measuring tools,  keeping a detailed food log, with calorie counting. 1200-1300 calories a day.  This works well for me.
Over the winter, I ate well, maintained my 'no refined sugar' status (well, except when my husband made brownies) and added some high-calorie things that have super nutritional value: peanut butter, avocado, pumpkin & sunflower seeds.  I think the 2 pound gain came from not measuring those so much!

Over the winter, I began working to improve my lung function & reduce asthma.  I am working with my doctor on this, have gotten off two medications, added a minimal amount of inhaled steroid.  In addition I'm also looking to nutrition to reduce inflammation and bronchospasm.  Making sure I get enough magnesium is a goal in that latter endeavor.  Exercise, visualization, stress reduction and learning to play the didgeridoo (!) round out my plan.


At first, when I got off the long-acting bronchodilator, I had to use my rescue inhaler much more often. But eventually that shifted.  I actually went nearly 4 weeks and only used it once!! Got a respiratory infection and had to use it a bit more, but as I've gotten better, I'm doing well again.


I'm sure that my weight loss & fitness project has helped in improving my breathing.


I have a pedometer and try for 6-8,000 steps daily.  10,000 is what is recommended, but I'm working up to that.  Walking a couple of miles in the early morning at the mall makes a huge difference in meeting the step goals!  Yesterday I had a total of 8, 400.
Will post on this weekly!

Fitness Tuesday Update - Stress, Exercise

Today's Facebook status:

Fitness Project Tuesday Update: Discovered I can do my pedal exerciser and: knit, read, play iTouch games, do some computer work,make phone calls. This bodes well for getting in at least that 30 daily minutes. This week's weight loss: .6 lb...grand total at the end of Week 16: 26.4 lbs

Notes from my Fitness Log 09.05.09:
Obviously I haven’t been keeping this log up in detail, logging every single thing I eat, adding up each calorie. But it’s okay. I think it’s good to not do this at this point. Kind of practice for maintaining my weight and healthier lifestyle. I am certain that I have been eating within my calorie budget, though I know I’m probably not eating as well. By that I that I’m still eating lots of whole, unprocessed foods, but I’m not cooking as much or making the many-ingredient salads as I did in the earlier days of my fitness project.

I have been extremely stressed by my other (mostly volunteer) project commitments of late. Extremely. This is something I must get a handle on - how to do these (ultimately) fulfilling and worthwhile things and enjoy the whole process - the planning and organizing, the preparation. I need to take a very mindful approach - and consciously center myself in the work. If this work is my life, it needs to be reveled in and enjoyed throughout. If it can’t be, then it is not work worth doing.

In regard to my Fitness Project, while I have maintained my healthy diet very well, and continue to lose little by little, I am not keeping up regular exercise goals. Even my Tai Chi practice has fallen off this week. I must do something about that for sure. Yesterday I did 30 minutes on the pedal exerciser for the first time in a long while. I felt so good afterwards. That’s what always happens. Why can’t I remember how good it feels after (and, at a certain point, once I’ve started, during) and be motivated to begin?

Seems to me that I should try very hard for 30 minutes of cardio every single day. AND my Tai Chi daily. With strength training 3X week. Or also daily, but doing upper body one day, lower the next. So that would be a total of an hour and a half a day. Which seems like a lot. But if I spread it out into periods of time as breaks from the sedentary work position....a thought.

But I don’t need to pressure myself, to stress about this on top of everything else. I’m just holding the thought and knowing it can manifest in my life.
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It's three days after that entry. As you can see from the Facebook update above, I've decided that one possible solution to my exercise dilemma is multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is something I've tried to stay away from in general in my life. But in this case, if it helps me to get in the exercise I need, I'm trying it!

And stress - ah, that is a worthy topic for several entries and I'm sure I will write more on it. What's interesting is how I know so much about stress, what it can do to one's body and mind...and still often find myself in A State. I guess that perhaps my knowledge helps me to recognize bad stress (there is indeed good stress) early on, before it results in physical illness or panic attacks. Then there's the stress/cortisol/belly fat trio...yup, a future entry here.

Meanwhile, I'm breathing and taking steps to shift my perspective about all that I'm doing, as well as taking a realistic look at that and letting go of some things. And of course, trying to remember the amazing power of exercise in handling stress!

Namaste,
Zann

Fitness Tuesday Update - Plateau Indeed

Facebook status this a.m.:

Tuesday Fitness Project Update: Feeling better, working on stress issues. Definitely need to move more. My Tai Chi kicks (if you can call something that slow a kick!) seem higher, feel stronger. Weight loss has slowed to a crawl, but hey, at least that's still movement. Lost 1 pound this week, for a grand total at the end of Week 13: 23.6 lbs.

Notes from my Fitness Journal this morning:

A.M. Notes: Am ecstatic that the scale this morning showed one pound lost over the last week. I wasn't sure if I'd lose at all, the scale sure wasn't showing progress through the week!

Something definitely shifted for me around Week 12 when I got the stomach virus.
My weight loss has slowed to a crawl (Turtle has long been one of my totems, I’ll need to keep him in the forefront right now!) and my mood and optimism are pretty low. I’m terrifically stressed on several fronts, too. Combine all that with the simple fact that less calories are burned when one weighs 23 lbs less, and I think that may be a good explanation for the shift.

I don’t feel I can reduce calories any further and still have a balanced and healthy diet. Obviously I need to move more. That’s hard for me, except for Tai Chi, but I’m trying!

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The good things from this last week:

I didn't food journal a lot, but I know I ate within my calorie budget. I feel as though I have a very good sense of what and how much I can eat now.

I did walk twice last week, had good Tai Chi practices all week.

So, I start Week 14 with renewed determination: my goals are to move more and to revitalize that optimism that characterized the first weeks of Fitness Project.

When I thought of Turtle, I remembered this image I created for an Illustration Friday back in 2006:

Seems like a good image to hold for this time!

Fitness Tuesday Update - Metabolism

Here's my Facebook status this morning:

Tuesday Fitness Project Update: still feeling great, stamina & strength & flexibility up & Sophia's birthday cake notwithstanding, lost 1.4 lbs this week for a grand total at the end of Week 8 of 16.4 lbs.

I've written a little bit about my food & exercise choices and this week I thought I'd write about another component of the personal fitness/weight loss plan I've created for myself. In addition to cutting calories by eating less & better, and moving to burn calories, it seems wise to support and possibly enhance metabolism - the rate at which we burn calories, a rate which naturally slows as we age.

There are a zillion tips on things to add to the diet which are supposed to boost metabolism. I have added some. I did not have conscious criteria for what of all those things I would add, but in thinking about it, I believe it has to:

be sensible (i.e., not wacky or risky) & easy to add.
be tasty & not add too many calories if any.
have other possible benefits to my health in addition to raising metabolic rate.

So I have added the spice turmeric, red pepper flakes, green tea, and ice to my water.

Other things I'm paying attention to that I believe help my body to run more efficiently:

protein - I'm getting it from a small amount of meat & tofu, beans, lentils, eggs (super protein & I make scrambled eggs with 1 whole, 2 whites a couple of times a week)

good fat (I take an Omega 3 supplement & I use freshly ground flaxseed here & there)

quality & quantity of sleep

hydration

strength training

frequency of meals (I eat every 2-3 hours, hearing the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in my head, " Time for a little something!" Little being a key word!)

This isn't meant to be comprehensive on the subject of metabolism. I'm not sure why what I'm doing is working so well for me, except perhaps that I have chosen to approach my fitness goal holistically - to do a wide variety of things in moderation, to support my mind, body & spirit, and to create a way of eating & moving & being that won't end when I reach my weight loss goal.

Fitness Tuesday Update on Thursday - Exercise

Running late on everything, but better late than...you know!

On Tuesday, my Facebook status report:
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I am loving what I eat, am rarely hungry, have boatloads of energy - need to be better about cardio exercise - Lost 1.2 lbs last week, so at the end of Week 6, the total lost is 12.6 lbs

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So I seem to be settling in to about a pound a week weight loss, which is what I had originally planned. It was a big boost to me to lose 2+ pounds each of the first couple of weeks, but I'm pleased to have a slow & steady pace.

I thought I'd write about my exercise this time. Exercise is always the hardest part of fitness for me. I truly hate to exercise to exercise. It seems to me that's a very modern problem - once upon a time, human life was filled with moving as part of daily work and life.

I remember reading a study that showed that even the simplest things (like having to roll down car windows manually rather than push buttons) burned calories here and there, adding up to hundreds in a week.

So my goal was to figure out what would get me moving and keep me moving. I needed to find ways to make my exercise be (a) part of my daily work & life and (b) tolerable, if not pleasurable.

So to meet the "a" requirement, I park farther away from where I want to go, I take stairs instead of elevators, I go up and down the stairs in my house more often (it's very nice not to feel chagrined that I've left something upstairs or downstairs, but instead see it as an opportunity.)

Theoretically, I could clean house for fitness, and I am doing a little more. A LOT more would help the decluttering, too. Another thing is to stand rather than sit while doing something.

The cornerstone of my moving for fitness & weight loss is Tai chi.
I love Tai chi. I have been doing it for nearly two years and it is astonishing to me that I've kept with it for so long. That's because I love it. It does things for me physically & on another level entirely - an emotional/spiritual level. Here's a poem I wrote during the National Poetry Writing Month challenge: When i do Tai chi sometimes

I do the Tai chi forms created by Dr. Paul Lam, called Tai Chi for Health, in classes at The Maple Center. Pretty soon, I'm going to expand my range a bit in another class and learn 24.

I do my Tai chi practice every day, along with some stretches. I do it outside early in the morning (it's been glorious) and I do it for 30-40 minutes. Many days, I do a sunset practice as well. Calorie burn tables show 30 minutes of Tai chi is very close to 30 minutes of walking.

In addition to Tai chi, I have my choice of walking or exercising with a small pedal exerciser called the Magneciser. I do my walking at the nearby mall because the air & heat just don't agree with me.

When I walk, I generally do 2 miles. I have an iPod and I listen to lively music or interesting podcasts or audiobooks. I try to do 18-min. miles. I stretch afterwards, a special stretching that I created using one of the benches. Sometimes I even do Tai chi there at the mall. It feels good to do it right after the walking.

The pedal exerciser can be used with the arms on a table or with the feet. Sometimes I do both. I try to do at least 20-30 minutes. I have my online friend fiber artist Diana to thank for sharing her experience with the Magneciser and the link to getting one at the best price I've seen. (About $112 with shipping.) I'd put the link here, but the company site seems to be inaccessible.

Finally, I added some strength training - the very simple program in Marian Nelson's book "Strong Women Stay Slim." That's on my schedule for 3 days a week.

So - I feel like I have created a plan for myself that is very tolerable - and truthfully I feel SO good when I exercise that I have become a tad less averse to exercising to exercise.

I'm not doing the walking and pedaling as often as I should, though, and so my current goal is to step up the efforts in those departments.

Finally, I'm thinking of adding "dancing improvisationally and wildly" to my exercise choices.

Movin' on....

My Fitness Project: Tuesday Update

This is Tuesday, which has become my weekly day to measure my progress in the weight loss part of my plan to get fit. Here's what I posted on my Facebook status update:

Lots of energy, knees thanking me, started strength training & I finally learned how to make some delicious marinated baked tofu. 1.4 lbs lost this week, grand total after week 5: 11.4 lbs.

I promised some details, so here goes.
I probably spent about a month thinking, planning, journaling in a serious way. The most important part of this time was building my commitment, coming to the point where I was able to make this project my number one priority. And not feel guilty for doing so.

I also created a vision of myself, limber, energetic...not thin, but...lean & focused, grounded and centered, comfortable in my clothes, in my skin.

As I go on, I'll try to write more about some of the things I've thought about fat, about how I came to be so overweight, about how hard it's been to think of myself, my physical self as a priority.

Food
I chose what is generally considered a minimum for daily calories: 1200.
I eat something every 3 hours or so.
I take a multi-vitamin. (I also take other supplements for health reasons, ones recommended by my doctor.)

I religiously keep a fitness log, writing down everything that goes in my mouth, and adding up the calories for the day. This is a vital part of my plan. Many people would find this tedious, and some days I do. But I know that eventually this will pay off in my having a better sense of healthy eating, of portion size. I won't have to do this forever. I will just know. Finding how many calories in a food is blissfully easy with Google.

The log also helps me to balance my diet - I can see that one day I had too much fruit & not enough veggies, or that I need to get a little more protein. I'm not sure that I can get a perfect balance every day, but feel I can over a 2-day period.

I have made a set of measuring spoons & cups my best friend. I divide suggested serving sizes in half & have discovered that a little bit of the higher-calorie things can go a long way in complementing the lower-calorie foods.

As for what I'm eating, here's yesterday's log entry:

Tea: black, honey, milk (26)
Snack: 1/2 Luna bar (85)
Breakfast: scrambled eggs (1 whole, egg whites ) (115), 1/2c chopped onions, gr. peppers, zucchini (30), tomato slices (15) 3 carrot sticks (10) 1/2 tsp olive oil (20), 1 T 2% grated cheddar (20) (210)
Lunch: 1/2 pita (80) baked tofu (125) 1T hummus (25) spinach & cut veggies (30), 3 carrot sticks (10) (270)
fruit cup (melon, 5 rainier cherries, apple wedge, 1 prune) (100?)
4 oz red tea snapple (20)
Snack: cacao nibs (30) caramel rice cake (50) 1/3 small banana (25) (105)
Tea: black, honey, milk (extra) (31)
Supper: 3 oz. chicken baked bbq marinade (130) 1c broccoli (30) sliced tomatoes, onions (25), 3 carrot sticks (10) (195)
4 oz red tea snapple (20)
1 square dark chocolate 6 gr. (28)
Snack: 1/4c yochee (43), 3/4c mixed fresh fruit (peach, apple, blueberries) (50) 1T Special K cinnamon pecan (8) (101)

(1186)


My biggest food problem has always been sweets. My basic diet preferences are pretty healthy, whole grains, lots of fruit & vegetables, yogurt, small amounts of meat. (I probably ate too much cheese, though. )

But once I'd eaten the healthy meal, it was as though it permitted me to have a big ol' sugary, fatty reward: the red velvet cupcakes w/ cream cheese icing at Bella Rossa, the tiramisu or Boston cream pie at Crossroads, a bag of cookies & brownies to take home. Newman-O's!

This remains somewhat of a mystery to me, but since May 19 when I began this journey, I have not had any of those treats, nor have I actually fought serious cravings for them. In fact, I have almost an aversion to them. There have been two exceptions: when friends got married ten days ago, I chose to enjoy their wedding cake (and it was lovely indeed - a strawberry cake, with a perfect rich icing/luscious cake ratio) and I had a small chocolate cherry nut cookie baked by my friend Marta who has recently opened a bakery. I put that one cookie on a blue plate, put milk in a little 2 oz glass, and took 6 mindful bites.

In any case, I am pleased to report that my sense of sweetness has become much more acute since I stopped bludgeoning my palette with refined sugary treats. I have even switched to 1/2tsp honey instead of a heaping tsp of sugar in my tea- something I thought I'd never be able to do. Another shocker to me was switching to nonfat, plain yogurt from lowfat vanilla yogurt.
I will occasionally add a bit of honey, but most of the time I'm quite content with how it tastes with fresh fruit.

("Yochee" on the last snack above is drained yogurt. It is a bit denser and therefore more calories in a cup than non-drained yogurt, but it has a wonderful rich creamy texture.)

So that's a little something about what I'm eating and what I'm not eating.
Next time I'll write about exercise.

Namaste,
Zann