Healthy Livin' support group, week of Feb 18-Feb 24, 2008

Hello all! The Healthy Livin' group has been in "Other Conversation" but with the posts here about diet and exercise we thought we would move over here and see if we could get more posting activity. Please join us as we support each other as we try to eat healthier, exercise more, drink our water quota each day, and generally just try to feel better.

So, how was everyone's weekend? We had a busy one. The weather here in Idaho has been nice, so we are trying to get outside a little more. For the newcomers, many of us have been stuck trying to exercise indoors and are looking forward to walking outdoors again soon. What is your favorite exercising?

I have had a couple of glasses of water already this morning, and actually took the time to stop and have a small bowl of oatmeal for breakfast.

Well, I hope to see lots of people! I'll check in later. Have a great day all!

Drink your water and kiss your kids!

MT3

 

'Just wanna thank you for trying to keep us keepin' on!

 

I got quite off track last week. I'll weigh in tonight to assess the damage. But I'm back on it, today.

 

Still gettin' back into it. Just got busy yesterday and today and didn't get to the exercising! I'm really not that concerned, though, I'll be okay, since I'm keeping active doing other things!

Thanks MT3! :love:

 

Oh, this is great for me to see (forgive me if I am jumping in with both feet today...). I bought an elliptical machine last week and have set a pretty hearty (heh) goal for myself to lose 60lbs by my birthday in mid sept. I am not happy with my body right now, but what is worse is the depression that I have had this winter.

So, I did 30 minutes each yesterday and today. Brutal. Evil. Horrible. Retched. I hated every second of it, but felt GREAT afterwards. A nice little side effect of this is that I am conscious of everything I put in my body because of it. Afterall, I am not going to put myself through hell just so that I can eat it away in a few bites!! LOL

 

Yay Skyra! Welcome! I feel that way sometimes too--it's sooo hard to get through the exercise sometimes---yet I feel soooo great afterwards! Why does it have to be so bad when you're trying so hard to do something good?!

 

Hey Prairie Home- how's it going this week? Is the stress level down a little? Have you been on your tramp today?

Hi Amie- good to hear you are back on track today. Remember my advice to Prairie last week- forget what you did/ate last week and concentrate on THIS one. You have been doing well since Thanksgiving, and you can continue! How did weigh-in go?

Hiya Deena! Are you feeling better? It is good to see your smiling face and acknowledging keeping active. Not always is exercise the 30 minutes we spend walking or doing aerobics. (If it was then why do I have such a workout cleaning the boys bathroom? lol) :roll:

Welcome Skyra! That's great that you have started a change in your life. Don't forget to up your intake of water to help flush your system out! Jump right in, and we'll try to support you however we can!

Crystal- is everyone feeling better there yet? Our house still has sick ones in it- it seems to hang on and go around and around. Hope you are getting well!

Lisa- how are you? I think you had some bad weather a little bit ago- still hanging around or has it cleared? Stop in and say hi!

Well, for me, I made some pretty healthy choices for our lunch and dinner today. We spent a little time outside doing things to the front of the house- was so nice to have the sun warm on my face! But alas, rain and snow are supposed to be on the way again. Plus, I think I have gone up and down our steps today 100 times (x15), between trips to the laundry room and taking care of sick family members! I'm counting THAT in my daily steps!

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday! Drink your water and kiss your kids!

MT3

 

I'm going to stop mentioning that I'm going to weigh in. Every time I post it here, DH comes home too late for me to make it to the meeting...lol. We've got a plan laid out for be to be able to go tonight before my show, though. I just have to bust butt getting ready for my show early.

If you all haven't read "Body Clutter" by Marla Cilly (The Fly Lady), I highly recommend it. It's not a diet book. She doesn't tell you how to lose weight. She does walk you through tackling the body clutter between your ears. She helps get to the root of the "why do I eat?" stuff. Most of us are probably emotional eaters and this really helps with overcoming that. I'm not an emotional eater, but I can still say it was worth the read.

Before you put a single bite in your mouth this week, ask yourself two questions:

1. HALT!- Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tired? If you answer is anything but 'hungry', walk away from the food. If you are truly hungry, move on to question 2.

2. Is what I'm about to eat going to bless my body? If the answer is no, eat something else.

I'm printing these two questions up right now and am going to tape them to my cabinet doors (inside) and make tent cards to put in the fridge and freezer.

 

It was a thought along these lines that really kicked me in the butt this time. I don't know about you, but I fall into the whole "I deserve this chocolate bar because I have really kept to my cleaning schedule" "I deserve this ice cream because I worked so hard today" "finish doing this and you can have that slushee" etc...

A woman I know was talking about how she does this. She always justified what she was eating. Then one day it sort of struck her. She DESERVED to be **HEALTHY** and have a body she was comfortable in. She deserved to be able to play tag with her kids. So every time she wanted something that was not NOURISHING her body and found herself thinking "I deserve.." she changed it to "I deserve to be healthy" and would do something healthy for herself. Be it drinking a glass of water, or eating an apple or taking a bath.

This is what I am aspiring to do. It is HARD to change that mentality, but I am plugging through one day at a time.

Water right now is absolutely my nemesis. For a long time I was really doing well, but sort of fell out of the habit. I don't replace the water with anything else, but I don't drink enough. Today, that is my goal. That and forcing my big ol bum onto that elliptical! :twisted:

 

I think many people can't just suddenly stop eating certain things. I think rewarding yourself sometimes is fine, as long as it doesn't become a daily habit! Once a month, if I've done well, I'll have a bowl of my favorite icecream with hot fudge on it. But that's once a month, and ONLY if I've done well.

Funny things is, the more I do this exercising which is often hard work, the more I realize how hard it is to get those calories off, and the less I WANT to eat stuff that isn't good for my body! So if I can get back in the groove of exercising consistently, I will almost automatically eat better!

You can't lose weight well at all if you aren't drinking enough water! It slows down your metabolism, so it's VERY important to drink enough water!

Also, eating a healthy breakfast is important! It starts your metabolism going and keeps your body from going into "starvation mode" and hanging on to that fat!

Now, I need to go practice what I preach!

 

Sometimes, and only sometimes, blessing your body does mean eating that bite of chocolate. Sometimes we need to bless our minds/spirits with that touch of indulgence. But even then we can rethink what the indulgence is. There are low sugar candies (or no sugar, if you are ok with artificial sweeteners).

 

Yep, I agree.

Well, I'm finally back on track! WooHoo! I didn't make it on the treadmill or do a whole lot of exercise yesterday. But today I made sure to get on. I also took my dad's advice and slowed down a little. Oh my goodness---it was so much easier on me! See, every time I get on the treadmill I want to meet or exceed what I did the time before. Well, I was pushing myself toooo hard! This is the first time I slowed down. I didn't burn as many calories or go as far, but my body got a good work-out, my shins aren't killing me, and I feel really good instead of wiped out! COOL!!!

And right now, I absolutely REFUSE to eat candy or icecream! :lol:

Today I ate 1 bowl of oatmeal with only a little Sucanat on it for breakfast. I had a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and celery with a little feta cheese and olive oil on it for lunch. So I haven't eaten all that many calories so far.

My ds wanted to fix supper, and he's making cheese ravioli. So I'll have a reasonable portion, but no garlic bread.

I've done well with my water intake today as well. Today has been the best day in over a week, so I'm happy!

ETA: Duhhhhh, I forgot to add that I went 60 minutes, just at a slower pace....

 

Hi all.

Amie- thank you for the questions to ask- they are good ones to think about. I was talking to my DS about that yesterday. And you are right, sometimes we can indulge a little, but even then, try to be smart.

Deena- YEAH! I'm so glad you have turned things around again and are motivated! You are motivating me!

Hi to everyone else. I have had a fairly good day- I had a little breakfast and have had a couple of glasses of water. This morning I did my crunches and a little exercise- but not my exercise video yet. I'll try to do that later. I'll do my measurements later today too- I think I've lost a little more in my waist.

Well, just checking in to say hi. Take care!

Drink your water and kiss your kids! MT3

:angel:

 

Hi All!! Boy this was our year for the bug. We have had a few go through the house but I am back on track. I have been working out 3 days a week now for 2weeks. eating way better and I have lost about 10 pounds.. I just thought I would say my dh has lost 14 (which he needed to before he weighs in for the Air Force) YEAH!!!!
But I also found out I can sign the kids up for track in the spring and I can run or walk the track while they practice..(so cool!!)
Oh and we finally bought a scale!!

 

Lisa, WOW, all good news! Glad you're all feeling better now!

The 10 and 14 pound weight losses for you and your son are great! WAY TO GO! How are you two going about it?

The track thing for your kids, and you being able to walk while they're in that--that's a wonderful plan! Gets ya outdoors too!

Glad you have a scale! That, and the measuring that MT3 was saying remind me that I need to do the weighing and measuring soon!

I plan on getting on the treadmill today for at least 30 minutes. When it's not so painful, I am looking forward to it more!

Gotta go drink my water and kiss my kids! :love:

 

Congratulations Lisa on losing 10 pounds!! Woohoo! And for DH to lose 14 as well, you guys are doing well! That was such a good thing to hear today! And I think you will enjoy walking while the kids are at the track too. I was doing that one year during football practices, but we aren't at the track very often now.

Deena- that is great that you are getting back on the treadmill. I was a roomie with a gal once and I thought I was in much better shape than she was because I was a little smaller size. I went to an aerobics class with her- and she wiped the floor with me!! So please- don't compare your exercise to someone else's too often or it will get you down!!

Can you guys read or watch tv when on the treadmill? I can't read on my stairstepper- it's just so annoying when the words move!! lol And where it is located I can only see the tv off to the side. Maybe I need to crank up some tunes or something instead.

I haven't measured yet- I forgot about it until I signed on here. I'll do that later!

You guys have a great Thursday and I'll talk with you soon!

MT3

 

Aaargh, My dh's clutch was going out yesterday--a month or so after we had it replaced!! So I needed to take him there, and pick him up so he could leave his car there. The replacement was under warranty so we didn't have to pay anything, thankfully! But I didn't get my exercise in.

That's okay though, I ate well and got my water in and will be getting on the treadmill here in about 30 minutes! I'm going to wake my kids up to the beautiful sound of the treadmill!

My treadmill is near a window, so I can look outside, but I can't see a tv from it. It's too hard for me to read while I'm on a treadmill. I was thinking the same thing about getting some music!

ETA: I DID it! And actually my kids were supportive of me exercising, and knew it was time for them to get up anyway! They got their own breakfasts, fed the animals and did their devotions while I was getting my 60 minutes in! So we all have had a great start to our day!

 

I haven't totally been able to crawl out of my hole yet. 'Feelin' defeated and small in spirit. I'm scared to weigh for fear that I'll be back to where I was at the beginning of the year. But maybe if I post it here that I promise to weigh in the morning, I will. OK. I promise.

Yep, I did. And nope, it wasn't as bad as I had feared. So I'll take some comfort from that and try again. Congratulations, everyone else!

 

Oh Prairie, noone here will judge you! Don't be afraid of it! We all have bad times....just get back to it when and as you can!

Besides, we all love you just as you are, whether you exercise or not!!! :love:

It was a gorgeous day here today! Dh had the day off, so we went on a 50 minute walk as a family! I LOVE that! Fresh air, sunshine...it was great!

 

This is crazy! This is absolutely nuts! But I'm sitting here bawling after reading your post, Deena. I love to laugh. Sometimes I need to weep. And things have been building emotionally--not necessarily negative, but life changes like three new grand-babies comin' up, my dear mother (93) walking on the edge of eternity, and being co-chair of our upcoming class-reunion, etc., etc., etc.--to the point that I really needed a good cry.

Your words touched my soul and released a dam of emotions. I will feel better now! My children don't understand this type of thing. My beloved husband doesn't. But I think other women will. Thanks for saying what you did. I needed that!