Bookphilosopher diary
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In an odd way, it has helped me to take pics of my food.
Read a book once called 'the spectrum' - had to look up the author just now, dean ornish, and I see he also has some online vids - i have not watched those.
An idea from the book was profoundly helpful for me. Imagine a line, left to right, full of choices (aka the spectrum of choices.)
All sorts of choices present through the day, ranging not ok, to ok, good, better, even better, best… for this 1 choice, meal, free hour, consider your choices, choose what suits you, all things considered, including emotionally...
This can apply to all sorts of choices, as an approach, and disconnects it to this particular choice, because a different choice can be made next time, such as next meal.
It is empowering, because, as adults we are free to choose. Paint my house red or purple. I may ask your opinion, but... i get to choose.
Also allows me to release guilt feelings and remorse because I looked at the choices and actively made a choice, all things considered.
Then it is history, don't need to revisit except to think about maybe what I might do next time... when I get there.
--Regarding his actual diet plan, I have not done it. He specializes in eating well for heart disease, diabetes, etc, from a vegetarian approach, with maybe leaning mediteranean choices.
What i took from it is the pro-active assessment and right to choose, release the guilt. Tremendously helpful in a profound, positive, practical way to approach exploring what is helpful for me and my likes.
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@megd44 I got a pixel watch 2. The store said that it was on sale because the pixel 4 is coming out soon. My husband wanted me to get one for the location sharing feature. I don't really care either way about that feature but I did not want to pass up the chance to have my steps counted! I am loving the watch so far!
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I always but either "last season" or a less fancy tool too. I have a Garmin, one of their entry ones. I will say the locator feature is nice on mine, hubby has a Garmin too. If I fell on a wooded hike it could be tough to find me unless someone knew exactly what path I took.
Are you still loving the watch?
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@megd44 Buying the "last season" of stuff is usually great because it's generally cheaper but still works well in my opinion! I love the watch! My husband is very into actual watches (like not smartwatches) and has some watch that he bought last year and wears every day to work so he thinks its funny we both wear watches now.
@yakkystuff Have you ever used the app "foodview" it's a great app for storing and taking pictures of your food! I really liked it and used it for six months last year. I loved this line that you wrote "What i took from it is the pro-active assessment and right to choose, release the guilt."
When I feel guilty about something in the past that I ate or did, I tell myself that everything I've eaten and done up until this point has built the person I am today and the body that I have today. And then I try to think of how the choices I'm making today (whether that's eating something or not eating something or something else) will build the person I am and the body I have in the future.
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Thx for the rec! Will look at that.
There are a few threads on MFP people post what they're eating - was surprised the pic taking was helpful, but also totally enjoy what others post. Hard to even say why - underlying it, i think, is having peeps talking about it - a bookclub, but for food? Had no idea it would ring my bells, lol
So, how's repairs progressing, and how's motel life going? After the novelty evaporated, couldn't wait any longer and some regular food/exercise kicked back in. We were in one a year... and still feel so grateful to be back in a home with all the conveniences.
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Hope you are still loving the watch. I was also a traditional watch wearer until I got my Garmin. Part of the reason I like mine is because it looks like a traditional watch until I tap it or move my wrist a certain way.
Hope your repairs are coming along and you can get back in your house soon.
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@yakkystuff @megd44 We moved back into the house yesterday. Last week we had five roofing company come and give us quotes, we deep cleaned, painted the inside, put up new locks, cameras, curtains, and did some of the plaster work. Good to be home. Still need to fix some stuff unfortunately.
I still love the watch!
I weighed myself and gained 7 pounds in the past month. I am not super surprised since I can tell my pants have been tighter. Some of it could be water weight but I definitely felt heavier the last two weeks so wasn't super surprised.
I think the amount I've been exercising is making me too hungry. Since being at the hotels I started exercising about an hour to an hour and a half a day. I am thinking maybe that was a bit too much to go from almost no exercise to that much. I was mainly exercising a lot due to boredom at the hotel and having something to do when not working on the house. I have been starving for the last two weeks even though I've eating well above my goal every day. I really think it's the exercise.
Any thought on this exercise condumdrum appreciated. I do enjoy exercising but maybe need to scale back to like a half hour a day with a day off once a week?
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I like that idea, 1/2 hour a day, 6 days a week. When I scaled back, I went to 3x week 1/2 hour work outs. I hit all the main muscle groups and kept my heart rate at goal. (It’s the curves workout so it was a no brainer for me, meaning I didn’t have to think about it, just show up and do it.
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Glad you are back in the house. You could definitely have some water weight if you went from nothing to over an hour daily. I agree scaling back could help. I aim to get a daily step count, but focus on hard workouts (strength, more intense cardio) 3 days a week for 45 to 60 minutes.
Again, this may be something you'll need to try for 4 to 6 weeks, assess your data and adjust as needed.
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So tickled you are back home!
Re exercise & things I've read casually -
A lot of Intensity in a prolonged workout can increase appetite - whereas moderate steady state exercise doesn't seem to. However, intensity is helpful for challenging and improving cardiovascular state, so maybe look at breaking up the duration with HIIT intervals and circuit type stations.
Also, there can be a need for more calories for athletic levels of effort - I have never explored fueling issues - pre-load/post session carb fueling and protein for muscle strengthening.
The exercise forum has a lot of people talking about these kinds of issues.
So, upshot, imagine your extra workouts did trigger appetite.
For me, when we have had extra desserts/carbs over the holidays, especially the last week of the year with all the extra leftovers, my appetite skyrockets and roars. Usually takes a good 4 or 5 days for appetite to settle down and reset after I get back to normal eating - followed by a nice little water woosh off from getting back to normal salt/carb levels too...
So fun to unpack and get settled! Whoohoo :)
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Thank you for the support @pamelaory @yakkystuff @megd44
I really liked the idea that both Pam and Meg mentioned of focusing on workouts that target the muscles or intensity three days a week. That sounds so much better than doing seven days a week like I was.
And I really resonated with Yakky saying "For me, when we have had extra desserts/carbs over the holidays, especially the last week of the year with all the extra leftovers, my appetite skyrockets and roars."
That totally feels like what's happening to me.
I think it's definitely the exercise that's triggering my appetite. I also think I may need to try to quit added sugars for a period of time. The more sugar I eat, the more hunger I seem to be. It's kinda been a disappointing few days because the last three days I keep saying I will do better and get back on track and then by evening I've eaten a bunch of pastries. I'm just disappointed in myself but I do think all the exercise is fueling my appetite which is diminishing the part of my brain that tries to make good choices.
This is a screenshot of my exercise from the last week at the hotel (hopefully it uploads). I think going from basically walking 3k steps a day to this many really has thrown me off. I didn't realize how many steps it added up to until the watch emailed me lol
You all are such a source of wisdom and support! I really appreciate you all and this group.
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Wow, that is a LOT of steps. If you went from about 3000 to this, it could most definitely be triggering your appetite and your craving for sugar. And you could be holding a lot of water weight with this too. Since seven pounds would be 24,500 over what your body needs to maintain, I would bet there is a decent amount of water retention based on the screen shot.
The key is to really listen to your body. Build up slowly and add a day of exercise/another 1000 steps after you have adjusted. That will help keep you moving in the right direction without triggering appetite jumps or cravings.
Your watch will help you a lot too with figuring out steps, daily calorie needs, etc. You are doing great!
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Interesting report there :) I can see how it is helpful.
Good comments from Meg
Let us know how it goes :)
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So, how's it going? Unpacked yet or still adding finishing touches?
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@yakkystuff We already unpacked but since we had some issues with our contractors, we still have to get the roof fixed sadly. The original contractor said he did it but give other companies said it wasn't done which we kinda figured. So we spent last week looking for someone for that. But since we also have filed a complaint with the state about our contractor taking the insurance money but not completing the job, we can't fix the roof until the inspector from the complaint comes out. So I'm not sure what the timeline on that is to be honest. Hopefully everything will be done by the end of summer! I really don't want to go into the semester dealing with this lol
Other than that, we finished the painting inside, did some plastering and some other small stuff. My uncle is a contractor who is going to visit next month and help us finish up some things in the kitchen that the contractor left undone. Kitchen is usable and the house is livable though. My parents and husband did a ton of work to make it happen.
We also adopted a kitten (unrelated to house situation).
@megd44 I definitely have been pulling back on steps this week and feeling better because of that. My hunger today wasn't as crazy as the last three weeks.
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Okay scales mean nothing lol
Last night I ate pad Thai and I "gained" 4lbs overnight. I'm just going to get back on track today through the month of July and weigh myself in a few weeks. I think it's still water weight from the restaurants when I was at the hotels, over exercising, and now pad Thai lol
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🤣🤣 Great idea to just reset and weigh in a couple of weeks. I do like the whole puzzle of "yep, ate that which had extra sodium = extra weight today" game sometimes. But it can get frustrating.
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This past weeks watch report. As you can see, I decreased my exercise to focus on resting.
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Strong numbers. How are you feeling? And how's the house coming?
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@megd44 Thanks for asking and congrats again on your 2 million steps for the year. That's quite the accomplishment and quite inspiring. The crazy part is there is still a bunch of months left in the year. I can't wait to see your step count by the end of the year. I wouldn't be shocked if you had another million at least in there!
I am feeling good, I got back on track. On June 29th and June 30th, I tracked what I ate but went above my calorie goal zone. But that's okay, my main goal was to get back on track tracking everything I ate. Then yesterday July 1st is the first day that I've tracked and stayed in my calorie goal zone since about March! Wild how time has flown with the whole house situation.
Last year I solidly lost weight every month. This year lost weight in Jan/Feb but then March through now I've been slowly gaining a small amount of weight when looking at the trend on libra. Since I have all of July and Aug before school starts again, I would like to focus this month and next month on losing the weight I've gained back (shouldn't be too bad fingers crossed) and then when school starts I will likely switch to maintaining again.
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Sounds realistic - and good to hear things are going well :)
-i have found stepping away from the scale has removed the emotional yank from fluctuations - and it has been fine for me this spring when paired with staying focused with food and movement priorities. When those are happening, we can trust the process I think.
Also, just another lady thing - hormonal cycle. The real # I watched was about 3rd day into the cycle - after the woosh happened - it seemed to be a goid measure against the prior month # — if I had stayed stable with food and movement.
Appetite always skyrocketed 4th week and I would bump up to maintenance level cals for a few days during the worst of it - adding extra salads, cukes & zukes/cut vegs dipped in salsa, and broth soups, fruits like berries & melon, things like that.
- Noticed if I carbed out on treats, appetite roared worse then which is why I fell into munching extra freggies/volume eating-low density foods for that week. It helped alleviate the bloat as well.
Ps- prior to this spring experiment through docs office, I usually weighed daily or weekly (at real world TOPS meeting or when i went to water aerobics at the pool locker room. The upticks could be frustrating, but I like to think of the fluctuations as the body decluttering & rearranging furniture inside the body - lol... when food & exercise are happening. (If not, scale reveals that too ;)
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That sounds like an excellent plan. And @yakkystuff has great advice as usual. I love the idea of a calorie range versus number. And so great job getting back to it. You definitely had a crazy few months, so give yourself some grace with that.
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The holiday threw me off track. Ugh. I really want to get back on track and stay on track until the end of the month because there's only 8 weeks until classes start.
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Nods, time flies! Time to make hay! ;)
— no holidays ahead, right? Vacation? Hope you enjoy the rest of summer - I was just tempted to put marshmallows in my cart - mind lept to s'mores... Decided nope, not right now. Picked up corn & cherries... Love summer freggies.
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Yes - def time to get back on track. Plus 8 weeks is a decent amount of time til school starts. Still two months
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Today I am trying my hardest to get back on track.
It's been difficult staying focused with so much going on with the house. My uncle is here working on the house from another state. On Monday he fixed the pantry, on Tuesday he fixed the access point to the attic, yesterday he took off, today he is working on the back splash tile in the kitchen. He will do more of the kitchen tile tomorrow and then finish it next week. There's still some little stuff we have to do also. We picked a roof company and are waiting for them to contact us with the date for finishing the roof.
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I did not get back on track yesterday. But today I am legit forcing myself to get back on track.
My uncle is doing the tile in the kitchen today so my husband who is working from home, the cats, and I are all locked in the study. We also had to go out to get tile supplies multiple times. Things still feel chaotic. Roof is getting fixed on Tuesday so I will have to go to my parents house Monday night into Tuesday. I am hoping the chaos of the rest of this week and next week will not impend my progress with getting back on track.
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Yeah I didn't get back on track today. I was on track and then we had an issue with the house and I ended up eating out again. I'm having a really hard time getting back on my routine/schedule.
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Take it one moment, meal at a time. There will probably be lots of ups and downs until the kitchen is done. And be patient with yourself. This is just a small blip in the big scale. And still plenty of time before classes start. What are you studying?
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