Topic : Ways to Exercise in the House

Spent 1.5 hours on the hedges this morning. Have only a little bit to go and the one section will be completed.  Tomorrow, I'll tackle the final section and then next week, I'll start on the piece in front of my house.

G1: After scanning Bob Greene's & Rick Reames books, I finally figured out I just need to eat 2,000 calories per day to start off with.  I know it really does sound like a lot of food doesn't it.  I'll start with the larger amount and then see how my weight loss goes.  Right now, I am moving back into the kitchen to practice making "batch meals", cutting up veggies for the week, and working on adapting Dr. Phil's lunch servings.  I figure it will take me a few weeks .. good thing I have 12 weeks to focus on so I can stay up on this.

G2: The mango is still in my fruit basket .. I'm going to check it out today.  I've decided no more chicken thighs and legs. I really don't like all that skin and even after cooking it for 1.5 hours, it's still icky near the bone.  I'm sticking with chicken breast from now on!  Do have a few packages left .. I'll give them away or cook them up real soon. 

G3: I'm not going to monitor my exercise this month.  I'm just going to give myself permission to just continue to do what I'm doing.  If I see my weight loss dipping under too much (more than 1 lb) or gaining, I'll return to monitoring it.  I have to work on my menus / meals right now so we'll see how it goes.

Overall, a rather nice week. 

One of the things you have to start addressing as your "perfection" thinking.  We aren't and we will never be. 

See each experience as an opportunity to do differently.  We didn't learn to walk over night so when life throws us lessons, we can use them to our advantage. 

For example, you're eating at other people's houses ...  start practicing portion control at home.  What type of foods do you enjoy when you're at celebrations?  Make them at home and then figure out what a portion size is and then use something to judge it with.  Like a deck of cards for meat or a tennis ball for something else.  Once you practice it a few times, it does get easier.

If you're going out, then ask for a take-out container when you place your order .. when it arrives, put 1/2 of it away.   Then you have another meal for later.

Exercise is housework, yardwork, playing with the kids.  It's just not walking or going to the gym.  This morning I spent 2 hours cutting and bundling the hedge cuttings (going from 10' to 5')  I know with that amount of exercise, I need to eat 2000 calories and I'm still losing weight.

My goal is -.5 to 1# a week.  I want permanent weight loss. Right now, I'm losing 1.5 a week and if it continues, I'm going to increase my food intake.

My biggest fear is having folds of lose skin.  I want my skin to go back to or close to it's orginal shape.  I can feel muscles now and I also see how funny my body is becoming as I continue to lose weight. 

I'm working towards 150 lbs and then I'll see where I am when I get there. 

Spent 2 hours finishing the 1 side of the hedges .. now to figure out how I'm going to get rid of all the cuttings!!!  I'm seriously thinking of taking the mess and hauling it down to put out on THursday night in front of the vacant houses!  No I'm not kidding!!!  There's enough of them so it wouldn't be hard for me to do it.

Tonite it's the 15 minutes 1 mile walk with my mom.  I'm hoping to get my time down.  Tomorrow, it's walking the dogs again and aquacize (and I'll get a couple of strokes in too!)

I'm down 1.5 #s.  If it happens again on Monday, I'm going to add more food to my diet.  My goal is to lose .5 to 1# a week. I want to take it nice and slow.  My body won't think it's starving and stop losing weight this way.

I am getting ready for some intense exercise...well, not really that intense...I will be going to Cub Scout camp to volunteer there for 10 days.  We have a couple days of training, plus two 4-day sessions of camp.  I will be looking after the Tag Alongs...the siblings of the Cub Scouts...sisters, and the little brothers who are too young to be Scouts yet...we are doing some crafts, games, and generally having fun!!  I won't have to do a lot of hiking...which is good, considering my heart arrhythmia.  Our middle son will be a Boy Scout volunteer up there.  Our youngest son will be a Cub Scout camper for one of the sessions, and junior junior staff as my assistant for the other session...we are looking forward to some fun and hard work...and plenty of exercise...the camp is over a mile from one end to the other, and everywhere is uphill...even the downhill is uphill!! LOL  I'm bringing my hiking stick and plenty of water.

 

The theme is "Tall Tales", and everybody is to select a character...I chose "Spider Woman' from Native American lore...our middle son chose Rip Van Winkle, and our youngest son chose "Coyote", also from Native American lore....I have my costume finished...still working on the kids' costumes...

 

Here are pictures of  my costume:

 

                                                                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           The Dream Catcher is from the internet...a representation of the Native American Spider Woman, whose web was believed to be the link between all living creatures...the Dream Catcher, when hung over their beds, caught the good dreams for the people to keep with them, and let the bad dreams slip through the hole in the middle...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My costume is homemade from materials purchased from Goodwill, and some out of my craft drawers...The spider is made from chenille pipe cleaners and beads,,,and lots to thread to sew it together...there is one hanging from my sleeve, and one in the web on my shawl...the robe is made from a cotton jersey sheet, tie-dyed to have the look of spider webs on it.  The cape, or shawl, is made from black curtain material, with a doily on the back for the web.  The big spider on the front is a "necklace" made from a big rubber spider...it took a lot of work to make this costume...but it was fun to create...

 

The boys' costumes will be homemade too...Rip Van Winkle's hair and beard will be made from stuffing material, and the knickers were made from a pair of worn out pants...we will use a colonial style shirt from our costume box (which contains every costume we've ever put together in the last 27 years)...we are having a lot of fun coming up with the costumes.

 

Each member of the volunteer staff will have "trading cards" to give out to the kids...the cards will have a picture of the character, and a description on the back...those will be fun for the kids to collect...when researching Rip Van Winkle pictures on the internet, we discovered that there is actually a Boy Scout Council in New York State called the Rip Van Winkle Council...we found a picture of the patch on the internet...I collect those patches...that would be a fun one to get...

 

Well, I had better get on to my day...making costumes...and doing the laundry...have a good day...

 

Becky

 

Thank you for the wonderful advice.  I do portion control at home and it seems to work pretty good.  My last blood test showed I could be a borderline diabetic and so I am making changes for health along with looks.  I have lost 12 pounds so far in a little over 2 months so it isn't going to bad.  I am doing this with the doctor to bring down the cholestrol and blood sugar.  My goal right now is to be under 200 (4 more pounds) then I will make one for 190 and so on until I am comfortable with my weight and health.  I am also hoping this will help with the sleep apena, I can tell the difference already with just the 12 pounds gone.  

 

One problem I am not sure about is where I am losing the weight.  I lose it in my breasts first, I am not crazy about this since it makes my stomach look so much bigger when it sticks out farther then my breasts. 

 

I use to use chocolate as a way of dealing with stress, so I was really concerned about giving up that totally.  I find that if I have a cup of milk with two teaspoons of sugar free chocolate quick in the morning, I don't crave the chocolate or sweets near as bad.  I also post on the boards here in Dr Phil's site and a couple others, letting out stress in a positive way.  I should be doing house work instead though..lol.

 

It is nice that there is a place to go to for support.  Thank you

I am glad you're back!  missed ya!!!

I know how much fun you have each year at boy scout camp .. be sure to put into place emergency measures ...  especially with the way our weather has been.

Your costume is awesome!!!!   The kids will love it and don't forget to show us pics of the kid's costumes!!! 

We gain the weight first in our thighs and then it moves up to our faces .. so when we lose weight, we lose it from the top down.  And our breasts is the 1st place it goes away and that's just fine with me. 

I see plateaus as actually a "good" thing .. I mean it.  What I've learned over the last few years is that when I experience it, my body is taking a time out to re-evaluate itself and when I start losing weight again, I'm seeing major changes in my overall body's looks.  Like this time, I really do see my upper belly becoming a roll and that would have really freaked me out before. Now, I'm becoming really proud of it!  It's a sure sign that my nice firm fat belly is losing it's firmness and that means I'm losing belly fat!!  Isn't that wonderful!!!

I'm also borderline diabetic. Have 2 sisters who have it and didn't take care of themselves when they got it.  It's a sneaking disease.  You look well so you just tend to ignore the symptoms.  My goal is permanent weight loss so I'm following Dr. Phil's WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTIONS. 

I look at all life style changes as opportunities to explore different ways of doing / eating / behaving. 

p.s.  By taking my weight-loss nice and slow, I'm giving my body the opportunity to re-adjust itself.  I started at 196.5 back on 11/18/03 and I'm permanently down to 182.5 now.  If I get derailed, that's where I stop gaining weight at.  So I can see the permanent weight loss happening .. even though it's slow.  Last year, it was 186 lbs .. the year before that 188. 

Have you read Dr. Phil's Weight Loss Solutions?  What healthy life style books have you read?

Walked the dogs this morning and I'm going to AQ at noon before the thunderstorms.  I did the 1mile stampede walk. They gave us this cheap pedometer .. which you clip to your shoe and push the red button to reset.  Mom gave me my curves' pedometer which requires you to do a little bit more to program it - I want to get that one up and running next week.  I'll take it to gym with me to have them help me set it up if I can't do it on my own.

I also figured out how I'm going to get rid of all those hedge bundles. There's a couple of vacant homes in my neighborhood so I'm going to use the portable cart in my car to haul them to 4 different homes.  This will help me to get ready for trimming the hedges in front of my home. 

I have $400 in my emergency fund that I'm going to use to put up the stockade fencing.  But I think I'm going to see if I can get used to not having it up this month.  Maybe I'll just get rid of the hedges totally and just leave the metal fence up.  Maybe get decorative bushes instead that flower in the spring time.  That would be cool don't you think?  And it would be low maintenance for me.