What's On Your Mind

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Do you have a question, a thought or just need to talk about what motivates you or keeps you accountable. Or do you simply need to lets us know how your feeling today. Share what it with us we love to chat :)
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  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,438 Member
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    I have racked up 147 miles of brisk walking indoor walking-on-the-spot so far this year with my Wii Walk It Out game .... I dropped ~2 inches off my waist by the end of January (unchanged since then) and my weight went down just a smidge more than 1 pound over January ....

    I currently weigh a smidge OVER 1 pound MORE than I did January 1. If I added up all the calories burned by that mileage, this doen't make sense to me!

    I am aiming for 40 down (or to be working at stabilizing on maintenance if the fine-tuning turns out to be a smidge higher) in 8 months aka by my birthday in early October.

    In shorter chunks, that would be 5 pounds per month on average.

    Obviously, my problem is more to do with QUALITY of exercise than QUANTITY .... but the one I most enjoy doing and have actually kept up for well over a year is the one that racks up mileage without realy pushing my physical limits. The quality of food intake was great for the first 4-5 weeks, but has been starting to slip recently.

    Any meal advice from someone over 50, whose metabolism is slower now? I want something other than salad with 2 oz meat cut in and sprinkled on top (especially these cold days) but things like soups, stews and one-pot meals are so hard to figure out how to log. And logging is enough of a chore for me that it is intermittent at best anyway.

    I also get hungry by the evening - and may not even be eating enough GOOD / Healthy calories for what I am doing .... but don't know how to go about increasing the good-calorie levels.
  • 1Way2exhale
    1Way2exhale Posts: 93 Member
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    Hi BMcC9

    First I just love your profile image... great balancing act which is what we all are striving for in our quality of life, health and happyness. I am like you in regards to a very slow weight lost, but as in the past when I was following Jenny Craig Diet, exercising 5 days a week, 2 hrs days my weight would not drop an ounce, but I would lose inches. Then every six weeks I would drop anywhere between 3 - 5 lbs.

    I believe our bodies are trying to find a balance with our eating habits and exercise regime, well at least for me. I believe when you track everything you put in your mouth even down to chewing gum as well as your daily activity you will begin to realize the positive/negative impact on our personal goals.

    Strength training (weight lifting) and cardio (spinning, running 5 miles, or shoveling snow) are two types of exercise I like to fit into my daily regime and although its all hard work it gets easier for me day by day. I like knowing I am burning calories by creating a good sweat.

    Keeping a food log is really a must for me because without it I would not have a clue what I THINK I am eating versus what I am ACTUALLY eating and seeing my daily log helps me to stay in control and accountable. After all, eating is the easy part, the hard part is having the discipline in maintaining the daily exercise you set for yourself.

    In regards to meals, I enjoy juicing, its quick, convenient and it curbs my hunger. I like the idea that I am able to get in all my daily fruits and vegetables so I like to start my day with Juicing, and if not in the morning at least once for one of my meals. Plus sucking on a straw is a change from stick fork in your mouth (LOL). Well at least it make a change in the meals you eat :)

    Well, I hope this helps or give you something to think about? Does Anyone have any other suggestions?

    Here's to seeing less of you in 2014
  • shess72
    shess72 Posts: 52 Member
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    I'm trying to figure all this out as well. I want to eat fewer calories and not feel like I'm starving! Here is a couple things that seem to be helping me a bit, at least with the food part, maybe they will help you.

    Egg Whites - egg whites are a miracle, they only have 17 calories each and for me they feel like a meal. When I am at the end of my daily calories and am hungry, I make a 4 egg white omelette with salsa and spinach and it seems to satisfy.

    Water - Drink a glass of water before eating (It seems to help, I have a super hard time doing this tho for some reason)

    Sugarless gum - if I just feel like grabbing something to eat but I don't necassarily feel hungry, I chew some gum...
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
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    It took me a bit to figure out how to create recipes, since I am eating clean, so am cooking all my own meals. I make a lot of soups, salads and casseroles and find it really easy to log the meals once the recipes have been created. I eat a lot of quinoa, beans, lentils and veggies which are very filling for few calories. I found Pinterest to be full of great ideas, I get most of my recipes from there.

    Water is a must to stay full. I drink 2 cups as soon as I wake up. Another 2 cups on the way to work and I've had half my daily intake by 7am. If I'm hungry I reach for water first, if I'm still hungry then I have a snack.

    I find the exercise the easy part, I go to physio 3x a week to work with a kinesiologist, so I just have to show up. I'm on my own in the food department, my boyfriend eats awful stuff (my old ways lol) so I find it really hard to eat well when he's around. I buy food and prepare all my meals and snacks for the week on Sunday... that way when I open my fridge the only food I will find is cooked/prepared/ready-to-eat-portion-controlled healthy stuff.
  • Amanda0984
    Amanda0984 Posts: 62 Member
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    I buy food and prepare all my meals and snacks for the week on Sunday... that way when I open my fridge the only food I will find is cooked/prepared/ready-to-eat-portion-controlled healthy stuff.


    That is such a good idea. I make 95% of my meals and snacks too so i am accountable for everything i put into my body.I just need some discipline in pre planning meals and snacks. I'm not bad with my choices but i spend a lot of time debating what to have. My life would be so much easier opening the fridge and seeing my hard work ready to grab.
  • Simbaby09
    Simbaby09 Posts: 93 Member
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    Having pre-packaged carrots handy and sugarless gum on the ready helps me a lot . This may be bad , but some diet cola also helps time to time .
  • Elp3468
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    Consider trying Emeals.com. Its super easy to create HEALTHY wholesome meals. I rarely track the calories from the meals on their plan but when i do they ALWAYS come out reasonable. How the Emeals plan works is you sign up for a weekly meal plan. they give you a shopping list for the week and a recipe for every night of the week! Its the best! I never have to think about what to make for dinner. I'm down 8lbs in just under 1 month by eating these meals for dinner, exercising every other day and eating a sensible breakfast (banana+ yogurt or similar) and a sensible lunch (keep it below 500 calories)
  • estherknits
    estherknits Posts: 2 Member
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    I got a treadmill desk late last year and I work from home- so I love hopping on there for a couple of hours, getting about 5 miles in and watching my fitbit steps/calorie burning go up! 1200 calories a day would just be painful for me to do without exercise!! ;)
  • LydiaZembower
    LydiaZembower Posts: 136 Member
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    Today has been a good day. Staying in the 1200 calorie limit. Did Turbo Jam 20 min., walked 60 min.
    Hoping to see some results soon. Much easier keeping a record of my food intake on the 10 day diet. Everything is plain and so extremely easy to add each item. No hunger pains and last night was my first night without heartburn!
  • classysassy4ever70
    classysassy4ever70 Posts: 765 Member
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    I have tons of cookbooks and love trying new recipes. I'm a recipe junky... I collect whatever catches my eye. I have binders full of recipes that I have printed off the Internet. Some are super healthy and others I have tweeked them to be healthy. WW taught me how to subsitute the hight calorie items for the low ones.

    Elps, thank you for that website. Going to check it out. :happy:
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
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    Consider trying Emeals.com. Its super easy to create HEALTHY wholesome meals. I rarely track the calories from the meals on their plan but when i do they ALWAYS come out reasonable. How the Emeals plan works is you sign up for a weekly meal plan. they give you a shopping list for the week and a recipe for every night of the week! Its the best! I never have to think about what to make for dinner. I'm down 8lbs in just under 1 month by eating these meals for dinner, exercising every other day and eating a sensible breakfast (banana+ yogurt or similar) and a sensible lunch (keep it below 500 calories)

    That sounds great, if only I weren't such a picky eater. I've seen many meal plans but they always include things I won't eat, so It never works out for me. I suppose I could substitute some ingredients but I'd rather just find a recipe with what I like already in it. LOL
  • shess72
    shess72 Posts: 52 Member
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    Hey, how do you guys get your tracker thing to show up with your posts?
  • Amanda0984
    Amanda0984 Posts: 62 Member
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    Hey, how do you guys get your tracker thing to show up with your posts?


    From what i can remember you need to use a computer as you won't be able to do it through app. Click on your account name at top which takes you onto your profile page and underneath your basic information but higher up than top of your wall there should be a "Your Progress" section where you can personalise your ticker and add it to your page. Hope this works.
  • shess72
    shess72 Posts: 52 Member
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    YAY!! That worked. Thank you. I love my Ticker!
  • classysassy4ever70
    classysassy4ever70 Posts: 765 Member
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    Hi everyone!

    Exercise:
    Weighed in this morning and I was down 1.5 pounds. I am thrilled. Worked out almost every day so far but also taking rest days as well w/o feeling guilty. Took a 7.5 mile bike ride (I've been gradually adding miles every time I ride and was finally able to meet my mini goal of riding to the park and around the 2.5 mile lake and back home). Now I have to try and continue riding every time a a little bit more and do long bike rides on the weekends only.

    Meals:
    I baked fish a few days ago and it was very simple... lots of lemon, zuchinni, yellow squash and fish. Best lunch & dinner I've had in a while.

    Wishing all of you a wonderful day! :flowerforyou:
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,438 Member
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    Do you have a question, a thought or just need to talk about what motivates you or keeps you accountable. Or do you simply need to lets us know how your feeling today. Share what it with us we love to chat :)

    Sorry to sound so self-centred - but I am at a serious log-jam right now. It's not that I don't know what I SHOULD do (or more precisely should NOT do) but figuring out, then following through is a problem.

    Below is an outline of my problem from a different thread. Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation? And by the way, Thank You everyone for both food and exercise strategy suggestions you previously posted.

    Beej - is there any way you can take leftovers for your lunch and just reheat? Every night when hubby and I fix our plates, I prepare the next day's lunch. I get it all packed up before cleaning up the kitchen. That way I don't have to try to decide what I need to pack for lunch and mess with packing it in my already hectic morning...just a thought.

    Robin - I certainly agree with you IN PRINCIPLE about that strategy ....

    At the moment (and for quite some time now) we tend to only cook 2 single servings of the supper protein in question (chicken thighs or pork chops or suchlike) and only rarely have something like a roast or a pre-cooked rotissery chicken that leaves left-overs ... or just enough leftovers for a second two-person meal ... I am doing my best to keep greek yoghurt, frozen berries, and things like ricecakes + stringy mozzarella (convenient pre-portioned food item :wink: ) in the pantry - and am hit and miss at keeping the pre-assembled salad greens on hand AND eating all of it before it goes bad. And as often as I used to always be eating the Cloverleaf single serving (~85 gms / 2 ozs) of lemon-pepper tuna at one time ..... I currently look at the little tin and just think "Not AGAIN?!?!" despite the length of the intervening almost-a-year-now.


    I am currently torn between Einstien's "The definition of insane behaviour is doing exactly the same thing over and over while expecting different results" (combined with the information Warrior provided about "the principle of adaptation.") and the Particip-Action theme of "The best exercise in the world is ... the one you actually DO! Pick something you enjoy, and keep on doing it." If I USED to do ~60 minutes of up up down down on the step-bench as regularly as I now do WIO ... would the intervening years have re-instated its usefulness by now? I hit the same "adaptation problem" with that.

    My walking speed (fast) and "terain" (livingroom floor) never changes - only the time I have available (usually an hour minimum). So the same muscle groups are always being used through the same range of motion at about the same intensity (although I DO now have knees raised higher pretty much all the time, compared to what I used to do .... )
    It's also the only thing I have ever enjoyed enough to consistently do over such a long time, without getting bored with the routine. (As mentioned, there is plenty of "instant gratification" and varying rolling scenery built into the game, to get a body hooked on using it regularly)

    This might be great as a maintenance strategy - but is getting me nowhere for getting TO maintenance. I know the theory. I just never apply it consistently enough long enough. Or when I think about doing so, I either avoid, or give up / peter out within a short time - either because "I can't get it" (like my 93-Day Challenge) or "I got it so well and quickly that I'm bored with the taped routine" I almost need a personal trainer (but can't aford one "to keep calling the changes for me", because I can't come up with the routines myself. I am talking circuit and calesthenic routines here - not my life-time of dance and dancercise aerobics.

    These are the mental roadblocks I trip myself up on over and over again. I recognize them all, both before and while actually doing them ..... coming up with a sustainable strategy for pushing PAST them has not been successful. And now that I am 55+, my metabolism is even more against me than when I was younger.
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
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    I understand your food conundrum... I live alone so am only making meals for myself and it is still hard to get a good variety of foods each week and not get bored. Every Friday I look through my pins on Pinterest and find a salad, soup, and main course, and homemade snack (protein bars or granola or something). Then I make my shopping list. Sunday I buy groceries and make all the meals, prepare individual salads (mine keep for 5 days in Tupperware, I just add dressing right before I eat it), chop veggies for snacking, freeze yogurt and fruit individually for smoothies. So I do end up eating soup every day, the casserole for 4 meals. I usually make something quick like a pizza on pita to change it up a bit. Lunch is the hardest for me as I'm trying to cut out wheat, so only 2 sandwiches per week. I take my soup, salad, casserole for lunch and make something else for dinner. I think as the weeks progress that I will be able to add different meals throughout the week as I get a routine going, but I really don't mind eating the same things as long as they are already prepared.

    As for exercise, I go to physio and work with a kinesiologist so my workouts vary. At home to stay motivated I join a 30 day challenge and do that. I find it easier when I have to log in every day to stay accountable, that makes me keep doing it. I'm in a squat challenge right now, we started with 8, and only 2 of us are still checking in each day. I don't want to be the next one to quit so I'm continuing.

    You can find many circuit routines on the internet. Popsugar.com has a lot of routines, and I find many others on Pinterest. Invest in a few weights and a yoga mat and do something different every day. Change up your body parts each time to get a full body workout each week. I do struggle the most with exercise, but any movement is better than none.
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,438 Member
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    Good ideas - Thank you Tanya! :flowerforyou:

    And thanks again to everyone who posted earlier. Time for something on someone else's mind now ...
  • classysassy4ever70
    classysassy4ever70 Posts: 765 Member
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    How was everyone's weekend?

    Mine was pretty quiet.. BaseBall season has started for our little league teams and today is our 1st game. I helped coaching last season, this time around I am going to sit and enjoy the game. Need to plan on making sure that I get my workouts since I wont be ont he field.

    Some one stole my bike this past weekend and so I am frustrated... I will start going to the gym more and using my DVD's.

    Happy Monday!!! :flowerforyou:
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,438 Member
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    I spend the weekend strolling around the "Geek Market" (a semi-annual event that is like a scaled down version of the vendors-market section of Comic Con ... without all the convention aspects or big-name corporate sellers) A "support your local comics / sci-fi / fantasy / steampunk / horror vendors and aficionados" event. Come in costume if you like .... (steampunkers and elf-eared types mingling with us boring muggle-types. There was even a Dr Who or two)