Fitness and being Healthy

Sabindeus wrote:

Nikachelle wrote:Being in an office environment during the month of December is a freaking caloric death trap.

you said it sister

The VP decided to have a two hour "Bake Off" on the floor today. You have to go around to every table (over 16 teams) and sample their baked goods and vote for the best one.

I couldn't even make this shit up if I tried.

You could always refuse to participate due to health concerns.

On my end, the team voted for an Italian place, and I was persuaded to just go with a salad. I have no idea how bad the dressing will be.

You can always just ask for oil & vinegar.

Eh, my boss is placing our orders and then picking up and paying for them. I'd rather make it as simple as possible for him. Easy enough to simply not eat the whole thing.

I ordered The Big Beefstro.

Nikachelle wrote:The VP decided to have a two hour "Bake Off" on the floor today. You have to go around to every table (over 16 teams) and sample their baked goods and vote for the best one.

I couldn't even make this shit up if I tried.

You can be the aesthetics judge!

fuzzygeek wrote:

Nikachelle wrote:The VP decided to have a two hour "Bake Off" on the floor today. You have to go around to every table (over 16 teams) and sample their baked goods and vote for the best one.

I couldn't even make this shit up if I tried.

You can be the aesthetics judge!

Oh my god I ate so much.... The entire floor is in the middle of a sugar crash right now.

I've decided not to track (too closely) what I eat in december, and just continue the weight loss in january.
After all, as they say, its not what I eat from dec 1st to dec 31st that makes me heavy, its what I eat from dec 31st to dec 1st. I'll just keep to what I've learned offhand in regards to how much I can eat - will also be helpful to see how much I need the app tracking to continue doing things "correctly". Will be interesting.
(also I don't approve of torture, and it would be selftorture to try to avoid all the stuff that traditionally goes with december)

Ultrasound and xray results back. I have a cyst in my rotator cuff region (which should get reabsorbed through physio) and fluid around my bicep tendon causing inflammation. Basically tendinitis in my upper bicep but no tear. Not allowed to lift for 4-6 weeks.

Frustrating.

I'm cleared to do leg exercises provided I use the machines instead of racking up barbells. Blahhhhh.

I picked up the new Garmin 220 to "help out" with my running. One of the biggest reasons I picked it up is that I was convinced my Nike+ footpod tracker was inaccurate. Well that was an expensive lesson... turns out my footpod is near on par with the GPS tracker (this is based on onle one run though, so we'll see how the two fare over time).

I do like how it actually tracks my location and my heart rate - will be interesting to see that tracked over time.

The one big downer for it is the social media sharing. Since I've been using Twitter in conjunction with logging kilometers, I really can't post Garmin to Twitter without giving the entire world my home address (unless I change the privacy settings drastically). So for now I'll end up using Nike+ for social media since it's not connected to anything location-wise, and Garmin for my own progression. Feels a bit overkill though.

So I decided to do a less restrictive diet than I did in the summer - instead of no breads/pastas/rices/etc, which had me completely nuts by the end of the month, I modified it to, "if you really must, then have a small bit. If you can go without, so much the better."

My mother put a scale in my bathroom this weekend, mostly because she needed to put it somewhere that wasn't the laundry room due to the new washer being delivered. I got a kick out of it saying my weight was 40 lbs lighter than when I'd last checked, which I knew was untrue. So I rechecked on my mother's digital scale - I'd actually lost 10 lbs. This, I can believe, because all of my jeans have been sliding down to my hips, even with a belt. But I hadn't taken the belt in any, since I was at that annoying size of "too small for current, but still too big for next holes."

As an experiment, after breakfast today, I tried taking the belt in to the next notch. It fits!

You say no breads/pastas/rices/etc. Are you worried about to many carbohydrates?

I'm diabetic, so yes, but only slightly (I've since developed a boatload of apathy towards the whole healthy thing, since I don't see any long term benefits for me). I find bread, pasta, and rice to be more filling than straight up fruits, vegetables, and meats. I don't mind whole wheat or whole grain bread and pasta, but I find brown rice to be as appealing as a lump of uncooked liver, so I won't eat that. Same with quinoa. But if I'm not conscious about it, I'll go through that stuff like mad. So I try to limit it to once or twice a week, if I'm particularly craving it.

I find that, so far, if I really want something, I can usually satisfy the want with just a bit. Last night, I was really wanting a root beer float. So I got one. And after a couple of sips of the root beer (didn't touch the ice cream), I pushed the rest to my roommate with a smile.

SAturday will be 1 year using MyFitnessPal, which means it's been a little more than a year since I decided to start getting healthy. As told in pictures:



That's not a fat roll in the lsat pic. It's just the way this sweater I'm wearing today sits.

I'm amused that the exact same drawing has been sitting on that whiteboard for roughly seven months.

(Also... congrats! \o/ )

Thanks

And that's what happens when someone thinks a marker is dry erase, when it's just a really cheap red sharpie.

Shoju wrote:Thanks

And that's what happens when someone thinks a marker is dry erase, when it's just a really cheap red sharpie.

Oh shit! lolllll

So what's your next goal btw? (If you have any for fitness/weight loss, that is.)

Generously scribble over the permanent marker with a dry erase marker. Then erase the dry erase marker and it will take the permanent marker with it.

You smiled more before you lost the weight.

On a different but tangentially-related topic, I've been losing some myself mainly through diet by eliminating grains. No wheat, rice, or corn. I also avoid sugar and potato because they don't bring much to the nutritional table.

I always thought people who did that were nut-job crazy, but the results are rather remarkable. Within a week I stopped snoring, according to my wife. I also had issues where I would wake up several times each night to use the bathroom, but since eliminating grains I generally sleep the entire night.

Grains are a cheap and easy way to feed yourself, so it takes a little more work to plan meals, but I do feel much healthier.

I've never understood this reality where "sleeping through the entire night means you got a good night's sleep". In general, I wake up a LOT throughout the night, often to go to the bathroom (on average, I'd say probably once or twice a night to use the bathroom, but I'll also wake up a few times and just idly check the clock). But it's pretty rare for me to feel unrested throughout the day.

It depends on where you're at in the sleep cycle when you wake up. If you're still feeling rested in the morning, you're probably just a light sleeper and something (even just the blinking : of the digital readout on an alarm clock) disturbed your sleep during the light sleep stages.

If you aren't sleeping through the night, but are feeling fatigued in the morning/during the day, then you're waking up during deep sleep stages. This is more rare and usually has a treatable cause behind it if episodes occur frequently.

Lots of people have one of the two happen from time to time, and as long as you're not feeling tired throughout the day then it's nothing to worry about. In fact, most people with partners (or even pets) wake up numerous times per night - whether it's a stray elbow, a shaking bed, or the infamous "covers war" - if it happens during the right stage of sleep you'll wake up, correct the issue, then fall back to sleep and never remember it the next day. It's very rare to see someone actually "sleep like a log" past early childhood.

Sleep length also factors in there and is usually a myth.
Sleeping too much is almost as bad as sleeping too little, and the values for "too much" and "too little" vary by person.
My good night's sleep lasts a little over 6 hours. If anyone else home sleeps this much they'll wake up zombies.

Nikachelle wrote:

Shoju wrote:Thanks

And that's what happens when someone thinks a marker is dry erase, when it's just a really cheap red sharpie.

Oh shit! lolllll

So what's your next goal btw? (If you have any for fitness/weight loss, that is.)

MY next goal:

There is a zombie 10k at the end of the summer. Sort of a Cross Country, obstacle, "not tough mudder" but harder than a normal 5K I want to do more than just.... complete it. So, my goal is to be in good enough shape that I can put forth a respectable showing in that.

In the process, I'm hoping to drop the last 5 lbs to my first goal weight of 175. That will be losing the fat, gaining muscle, so it should be as big of a process as what I've gone through. So far, I've been focusing on really shedding more weight than anything else. I've gained more muscle, and I'm in better shape, but I want to go from where I'm at, to in really good shape.

My ultimate goal is to look good naked.

But that's going to take time. I have a lot of excess skin, that's going to have to tighten up. Right now, I sort of look like a woman who just had a baby. My stomach is very.... gross. I knew that was going to be part of the process, because you don't lose 100+ lbs, and not end up with excess skin.

But next goal: Zombie 10k.

About the smiling:
I'm actually a lot happier than I ever have been. I don't smile much in pictures. I'm incredibly self conscious about my smile, so I really only smile when I'm in a picture with someone. I rarely smile in pictures by myself.

I just chopped all of my hair off today, so I will post a smiley picture. I feel like a new man

Snake-Aes wrote:Sleep length also factors in there and is usually a myth.
Sleeping too much is almost as bad as sleeping too little, and the values for "too much" and "too little" vary by person.
My good night's sleep lasts a little over 6 hours. If anyone else home sleeps this much they'll wake up zombies.

Research suggests that it's not the length of sleep overall but the number of sleep cycles you go through. They tend to come closer together with shorter periods in each stage at the beginning of sleep, and get progressively longer as sleep continues. I don't know of any studies done on it, but I would lay good money on the "sweet spot" being where a full sleep cycle starts taking over 45 minutes each or so (roughly about 5-7 hours total). This is why a 20 minute power nap is considered to be pretty good - when you first fall asleep, the entire cycle (from light sleep back to light sleep) takes about 20 minutes.

And holy shit, Shoju - you look like a new man, too. Nice going!

Fivelives wrote:

Snake-Aes wrote:Sleep length[...]

Research suggests that it's not the length of sleep overall but the number of sleep cycles you go through.[...]

Yeah, something like that. I'll look up what I can next time i'm around.
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I take this as a great example that, whatever our limitations are, the ceilings dedication can bring you are far taller than most presume.

I am trying out parkour tonight. I will likely be unable to walk tomorrow.

Also, I've got yet another injury (this is driving me crazy) that I don't know what it is and I can't ask the physiotherapist yet because my benefits don't roll over till April 1st and I'm out of cash for it. It's between my left butt cheek and my thigh - it just feels sore 24/7. It's pretty deep into the lower bum cheek so it makes me think it's some kind of connective tissue inflammation. It feels awkward when I go up stairs (feels weak), but when I run on it I don't feel anything. Sitting doesn't hurt either. It's probably been going on for about two months and while it's been varying degrees of pain, it's never really gone away. Stretching seemed to help it, but it never dissipates completely. Any ideas?