Staying the Course -- 08--22--2016

[Superbob]

Monday nearly got away from me -- manic Monday. At least the heat and humidity are supposed to abate the rest of the week.

I am adjusting to having basically perfect long vision, while not being able to read anything close-up. This was the choice the surgeon gave me; I am not complaining. I am blessed to have a greater gift of sight at my advanced age. Good for dawg walks. Drugstore reading glasses are working okay but guess I will get prescription ones at some point. Probably keep them on a chain around my neck 'cause you never know when you need to read something.

Despite the surgery, I won my Garmin Vivofit challenge last week with 52,000 steps. Not bad considering some of those steps were into an OR. (Patting self on back now).

Hope you all are well. Look forward to hear how you are staying your respective courses.

Cheers,

Superbob

 

[epstns]

I'm still here, SB. I've missed a number of exercise sessions due to some other medical issues and some repairs going on in the house. I guess I've made up for it by losing a bit of my appetite, too, as my weight has remained stable.

Weather here has cooled down, and is actually comfortable for a few days. That's a good thing for us, as they had to remove much of our air conditioning ductwork to get at some plumbing pipes that need to be repaired. We were afraid that we would have to move out of the house if it stayed over 90 degrees and our air conditioning was disconnected. We're OK, so far. Moral of this story - don't own an "older" house unless you are ready for unexpected disruptions. The house is 60+ years old, and although we have done a lot of repairs, updating and remodeling over the 35 years we've owned it, now the steel water pipes inside the walls need to be replaced. Not a job for the faint-of-heart -- even if somebody else is doing the work. Lots of mess, 3 different contractors, more mess. . . and will probably be completed over several weeks' duration.

Welcome to the "far-sighted club" SB. I've been that way all of my life. I didn't find out that I needed reading glasses until I was in college. I was in engineering school, and had to take a mechanical drawing class (yeah - this was way before computers with CAD drawing programs even existed). The instructor told us to ". . . draw two straight lines, 1/64 of an inch apart." I just laughed. He asked why. I said that I would end up with just one fat line. He looked at me, then went to his desk and pulled out a "Sherlock Holmes" magnifying glass. He proceeded to carefully draw two lines. I said I saw just a fat line. He gave me the magnifier to look again. Voila! There really WERE two lines. And the paper actually had grain to its surface. I went for glasses that week, and have used prescription readers ever since. Of course, now I have the progressive multi-focal lenses, but still they are primarily correction for reading and astigmatism.

I'll be around. As I noted, I'm also dealing with another medical issue and hoping to keep that one to being just a speed bump, not a total detour of my road of life. The lessons I've learned here in dealing with cardiac issues should help in managing yet another medical saga.

 

[honeybunny]

Good for you guys! As for me, after eating many salads for almost two weeks I have gained two pounds Yes, I have eaten other things also that should not be in my diet and am still not exercising like I should, but I've kept my "big" meals to salads. This is a pattern that has shadowed me for over a decade. I make a concerted effort to lose weight but don't see results that give me a drive to continue. I become discouraged and give in to my unhealthy cravings.

Sorry for whining. I just get tired sometimes of falling so short so often.

 

[Paleowoman]

Good for you guys! As for me, after eating many salads for almost two weeks I have gained two pounds Yes, I have eaten other things also that should not be in my diet and am still not exercising like I should, but I've kept my "big" meals to salads. This is a pattern that has shadowed me for over a decade. I make a concerted effort to lose weight but don't see results that give me a drive to continue. I become discouraged and give in to my unhealthy cravings..

I know I’'m not trying to lose weight, but I know of several people on a diabetes forum I’'m on who are trying and one thing that stands out clearly is that you need to eat something that satisfies your hunger or you end of ‘breaking’ your diet. Salad isn’'t exactly satisfying for hunger, I mean real hunger, even if it fills you up. Have you looked at low carb high fat ? I have a fantastic cookery book which I mentioned here before which is about the ‘Banting diet’ which is low carb/high fat - I have the book because one of the guys that wrote it is a doctor who is an athlete, Professor Tim Noakes, and the recipes are fantastic and delicious ! Here’'s a link: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Meal-Rev...eal+revolution Here too some free recipes from the website: http://realmealrevolution.com/recipes#cat_16,p1 Those recipes are all low carb believe it or not (the burger buns are not bread, they are made from ground almonds !). Anyway, being high fat the food is very sustaining, not to mention delicious, so you might find it works for you.

 

[Superbob]

I am no expert on diets but Paleogirl's take on this jibes with my experience over many years. I like a good salad but salad as my go-to food doesn't fill me up. I think high-fat foods were disparaged years ago, but there is a growing recognition now of the value of including a certain amount of fat in your menu. (Isn't that a part of the Atkins Diet?) Moderation in all things and a variety of healthy foods would be my non-expert advice, HB.

 

[dornole]

I'm staying the course again - this time I've been making and portioning ALL my meals and snacks (pre-counted daily calories) ahead of time for 5 days so that laziness works in my favor (I'll eat it if there's no decisions to make!) and this is working pretty well. Finishing my second round and will have to assemble meals again tomorrow. I'm sure it will get harder as time goes on.

Signed up for accountability fitness and nutrition group that starts Sept 5 as I know I tend to peter out within a couple weeks without someone checking on me actively. I hope the group will be assertive enough to keep me going. Not gonna weigh again till right before that.

Congrats on winning your challenge SuperBob, pretty impressive!

Don't lose heart honeybunny. Hugs to you and wishing you renewed energy and commitment to finding what does work for you. Maybe something new?

 

[honeybunny]

Thanks Anne. I will take a look at the recipes and scope out the book on Amazon.

 

[honeybunny]

Thanks all for the encouragement~

 

[epstns]

I've managed to lose a couple of pounds in the past month or two, but I don't advise anyone else to do it my way. I've been so anxious and stressed about quite a number of other things in my life that I just lose my appetite. I eat less, but remain active, thus weight loss follows. I only wanted to lose weight to a target but I have passed that and am not sure if I will continue to lose. All of these issues will, hopefully, resolve, and then I am sure I will be back to my original efforts to hit a target.

 

[Superbob]

Sorry about all the extra stress right now, Steve. Hope everything gets resolved soon.

Dornole, you sound way more organized than me on fitness and nutrition. Good for you. I love reading about your meal and snack planning.

Honeybunny, don't get discouraged. Sometimes the scales don't show it but we really are making progress.

 

[honeybunny]

Thanks SB. I've been thinking a lot lately how I was given a new lease on life almost a year ago and I'm blowing it by not working harder to improve my health.

 

[Superbob]

Thanks SB. I've been thinking a lot lately how I was given a new lease on life almost a year ago and I'm blowing it by not working harder to improve my health.

Seems to me you are staying the course, HB -- don't be too hard on yourself. Working for goals is fine, but we need to relax too.