The FitBit does have a heart rate monitor (it’s a Charge 2). It looks like my resting heart rate fluctuates from around 74 to 84, and gets about 100-110 when I’m walking. I seem to remember it getting higher when I used to work out on a stationary bike, which I’m building back up to.
Yeah, I know, the calories don’t seem like much for a Tub O’ Goo such as myself. When I decided to go into this head-on and full strength, it’s like I flipped a switch, and now I’m satisfied with a whole lot less than I used to be. So far today I’ve had, by my count, 580 calories. Ate my 400-calorie lunch promptly at 12, done by about 12:30, and I’m still quite full and satisfied at 2:00. The only thing I have to watch is snacking in the evening. Last night I had a couple dill pickles, which I love, but I gotta watch the sodium.
I do miss the morning caffeine; I’m not big on black coffee, and I don’t really know where else to get it. I don’t trust diet drinks enough to make that a habit. I did pick up a couple of calorie-free flavor additives that I occasionally (like once or twice a week) squirt into water. My refrigerator has a spot for a SodaStream CO[sub]2[/sub] canister so you can get filtered sparkling water right from the door (BeeGee is correct, Lubbock water is so full of minerals you could chew it), so I was thinking of buying one and trying it out with my little flavor squirties.
Tonight’s dinner with the family: quesadillas, on low-carb tortillas for me and the wife and regular tortillas for the rest of the crew. Onward!
Forgot to mention: I’m going back to my doc on Friday, so we’ll see what all he thinks.
Depending on how you feel about pills, you can get some No-Doz (or your supermarket generic equivalent, they’re cheaper) and have one in the morning. It’s about the same as a couple cups of coffee and has zero of everything else.
You can also try putting a little coconut oil into black coffee. It doesn’t change the taste much but gives it a really nice mouthfeel.
I’m glad the diet is working for you! You’re doing great.
While the fitness rooms at the gym are being refurbished I’ve been doing TRX. At first I was nervous, being afraid the straps would not support my weight (of course they will, but still) but I got the hang of it.
I had some short sleeps this week, according to my Charge 2, all around six hours a night, so it will be an early bedtime for me and sleeping in!
We have decided we don’t want to develop diabetes. My husband has family history of type II Diabetes, and I have been hypoglycemic since college. We first started cutting sugars, and then went after starches. Instead of meals of meat, starch, and sometimes vegetables, we are eating protein and vegetables and very rarely starches. We do get to the Y a few times a week if we are good (we have generous friends that sponsor us), and both have jobs that have us on our feet and lifting and moving heavy things. In the last year (I didn’t keep track from the beginning) I’ve lost about 30 pounds and have gotten a much better handle on the hypoglycemia.
I already know that I will not stick to a strict diet, so this is the best way for us, and it is working, even if slowly.
Sunday I did my first real running race since before being injured. I’m still on the comeback road so I didn’t expect a lot but I beat my stretch goal by almost ½ min/mile & even negative splitted the end & maxxed out the HR - I left it ALL out there!
I’m finally starting to get running legs under me again. Still a long way to go but seeing real progress.
I have started tracking my intake of calories, broken down into protein, fat, carbs, and fiber. (Yes, I know my fiber count is a subset of my carb count.) Fortunately, I like vegetables a lot. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of buying chocolate bars on my way home from work. For the last few days I’ve been able to resist- hopefully I can keep it up!
A good thought, but there’s something about tea: it actually dries me out. I feel like I have to drink more water to counterbalance drinking tea. I’m sure there’s some better stuff out there than typical “iced tea” we get around here, but not being a tea drinker, I’m not sure what, and I’m not sure what doctoring I would have to do to make it palatable. I’ve stayed away from sodas 100% for about two months now; all I drink is water (I was a big water drinker before I started this anyway) and occasionally some of that sugar-free flavor stuff you can squirt into it.
I’ve broken through the plateau, about 9 pounds down from it now. I’d probably be farther, but I’ve been eating too much popcorn lately, since it’s mostly fiber and doesn’t spike your blood sugar the way other snacks can. Still, that ups my total calories, which slows progress a bit. I have also returned to the gym a few times and will probably go again tonight, since it’s dark and rainy out, which stifles the neighborhood walks.
My Boot Camp class has started up again, and there were still fumes from the refurb of the floor, enough for me to have to duck out during burpee/tuck jump/sprint to get some fresh air.
It was cancelled today, some work emergency with the instructor, so I’ll do Body Pump tonight. Since Boot Camp is a paid class I presume we’ll get a make up class at the end.
I am hesitant to post because my goals are trivial in comparison with many of y’all - w00+ to you guys.
I have a baseline test I do every so often to test upper body strength. I turned 61 in January, did the test, passed the test, started working on another goal (dumbbell BP - 100sX10), and got the flu, bad. Kept me out of the gym for three weeks. I lost a lot of strength.
And relearned the unfortunate lesson - I am not a kid anymore. Used to be I could get back to “normal” in two or three workouts. Not anymore. New rule of thumb: it takes the same amount of time to get back into the groove as the layoff lasted. Anyway, finally, I re-took the baseline test, and started back on trying to improve.
The new program is dumbbell BP every other workout, assistance work (regular BP, or incline press and dips) every other workout, and an unload workout (shoulder press, or close grip BP) every other week. Back work - alternate pulldowns and upright rows with cable rows and pullovers. My lower back is back to baseline, and doesn’t hurt any more than it did before the layoff and my strength levels there are back to normal. Legs - I added a light day to my medium followed by heavy schedule.
And the dog is happy - I can walk at our normal pace, and he doesn’t have to keep coming back to Heel because grampa is slowing down from fatigue.
New goal - dumbbell bench press - 100sX10 by July 4th.
Looking at the nutrition labels on foods, fiber and sugar are listed as subsets of the total carbohydrates count. My understanding was that if it says 30 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber, the 6 grams are fiber are part of the overall count of 30 grams, not an additional 6 grams of mass on top of the 30. It is also my understanding that some people think you should count fiber as consumed calories, and some people think you shouldn’t, because it’s not digestible. Is that wrong? I am just starting out on my journey to understand nutrition, and I haven’t taken a biology course since high school, so I’m resigned to making some mistakes.
Well, yeah, ice tea is crap dietetically speaking; for starters it’s made of sugar, maltodextrine, glucose, dye, partially hydrolized starches, flavorings, fructose and the occasional lonely molecule of caffeine.
I meant the un-iced stuff. The one you make from a baggie or putting leaves in a little mesh ball. Black ones are usually high-caf and if you find them too harsh: first, you’re probably oversteeping it (shouldn’t let it in longer than 4 minutes), and second, “a cloud of milk” does wonders without resorting to sugar.
Re. fiber: it is measured as a carb depending on what analysis is run, but it does not count towards calories any more than eating rocks does. The difference between fiber and starches is precisely that starches are digestible and fiber is not.
Re. fiber: it is measured as a carb depending on what chemical analysis is run, but it does not count towards calories any more than eating rocks does. The difference between fiber and starches is precisely that starches are digestible and fiber is not, it’s how we define fiber, “those long chains of carbohydrates found as part of foods which are non-digestible”. That makes starches food, fiber not-really-food. Fiber is beneficial in that it slows the absorption of the rest of the meal (helps avoid sugar highs) and in that it gives the bowels something to do; I’ve known many old people (where in some cases “old” was “in her 50s”) who didn’t eat any fiber, subsisting on a diet of baby foods, supplements and no-fiber juices, and then complained they “didn’t poo today” and had their daily poo-helper (enemas, magnesia). Eating lettuce has been shown to be healthier than that kind of regime.
Hmm. In Britain here, and presumably throughout the EU, Fibre and Carbohydrates are listed seperately. Under Carbohydrates it lists “of which sugars” for how much fo the carbs is sugar, as it does for “of which saturates” under Fats. Fibre is apart.
Going even further: there are two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble, neither of which is actually processed as calories by the human body. Insoluble fiber, found largely in things like fruit and vegetable skins, does not dissolve in water and passes through the body relatively quickly. It’s sometimes called “nature’s broom.”
Soluble fiber absorbs water, which causes it to turn into a sort of gel-like goo. This moves through your body a lot slower than the other kind, which helps you stay full longer. Soluble fiber also slows down absorption of glucose, so fewer sugar spikes. And, from the Good Eats show on oatmeal: “It inhibits the re-absorption of bile into the system, which means your liver is going to have to get its cholesterol fix from your blood, which means your blood-serum cholesterol’s going to go down.” So several benefits, there.
An update: I’m still with the program, still doing what I need to be doing. I just got back from doing one of my 250-step walks that the FitBit bugs me about every hour. They say these FitBits don’t work for some people, but I like being challenged by a little device. So far, at least.
Last night I felt really gross, because it was my wife’s birthday, so I had some cake. I can’t believe how I used to eat such things without even thinking. A sort of test will be coming up soon, because the family is going on a week-long vacation at the start of June. Keeping up with the steps shouldn’t be hard, but sticking to the diet might. We’ll see.
I’m now down about 16 pounds down from the plateau I hit in April. It seems to be steady at this point, 2-3 pounds a week. Gonna be a while before I hit my next mini-goal, but slow and steady wins the race.