Posts by kyashiis

Checking in:  I have not done well the last week or two weeks.  I guess I am off the wagon.  I have not been logging or running at all. 

I think I might be a stress eater though I have never thought I get stressed out much.  This last week tested that way of thinking.  My  father-in-law who is 89 had his sister go in the hospital and it was not expected that she would live.  So, I and my husband drove 5 hours each way on the expressway to visit the hospital all in one day.  I did most of the driving.  (Driving through big cities like Osaka is certainly stressful.)  Ten hours of defensive driving really wore me out not to mention the hospital visit with face masks and all (flu prevention).  Luckily, my aunt is doing better though she is senile.

The other thing that completely stressed me out was learning that my sister who is only a year younger than me had a heart attack.  I still can't believe that could happen to her.  She was in the hospital and had stent surgery, and it was successful.  It is so hard being so far from where she lives in Kansas.  Even getting through by phone is tricky.  Thank heaven for the internet and email.  So, all that threw me for a loop. 

I go hiking tomorrow, so it is a chance to get squared away with my health goals again. 

Sorry to cry on your shoulders.

Fortunately my relative has gotten better.  I did most of the driving, so I was pretty exhausted.  I did do some stretching at the rest stops.  Unfortunately, I didn't eat well though I don't think I went over my maintenance level in calories.  A lack of vegetables in my eating also tends to make me cranky.

I ate some terribel potstickers at a rest stop as they tend to be safe bets and there are usually a lot of Chinese cabbage and green onions in them.  Not so for the ones I got.  I left half of them on my plate.  My 88-yr-old father-in-law raved about the food.  I think his tastebuds must be dead, or he gets out of the house so seldom, just eating out is a treat -even something as aweful as reststop food.  LOL

Today, I lolled around the house and rested.

I feel I might be in a slump.  It seems like I am having trouble finding time.  As I make a little progress on one thing, another slides.

Everybody here is making great efforts.  Keep it up! 

Check in:  I have not done well the last 10 days.  I guess I have fallen off the wagon to some extent.  I haven't been logging at all and I haven't gotten any runs in in the last two weeks.  A week ago, I got sick with a flu bug and just didn't feel well enough to take care of logging and jogging... I didn't overeat I am sure, and I did get some exercise in through hiking.  Luckily the days I was guiding, I was in better shape.  I have run 10 kilometers and walked a total of about 30 kilometers over the last ten days.  Some of the hiking was over very rugged terrain, so even though I have fallen off the wagon all is not lost I guess.

This week's topic is a tough topic for me....

I would like to tell you what white_sakura (meaning white cherry in Japanese)  has to say about her tendencies.  She has trouble when she has more free time.  And, once she falls off the wagon, things tend to spiral out of control.  She often sets the lapse off by eating some foods like chocolate or nuts.   It can take weeks for her to recover from such an episode.  Then, at some point she gets all the temptation out of the house and avoids buying tempting foods.  In addition, she tries to keep herself super busy.

I myself have noticed that I sometimes prepare for a fall off the wagon by stocking up on inappropriate foods as I cruise down the supermarket aisles.  I wonder what tips the scales to not caring  and passing by the tempting foods, or the opposite of actually going out of my way to stock up.

I have noticed that eating the 5 veg/fruits helps to keep me fuller and more satisfied throughout the day.  Since doing the slimming minis for the last few months, I have gotten so I start thinking in the middle of the day whether I am going to do okay on getting those in for the day.  It's hard to overeat some of the more fattening stuff  if take care the veg/fruits have been consumed in the day.  Of course, I still eat chocolates and things like that, but I'm too full and satisfied to eat too much.

Winter is coming.  I live in a temperate area, so I should be able to get my walking and running in through out the winter months. 

I have done terrible to date this month on this challenge.  I caught a cold that knocked me down for a couple of days.  I will go for mountain hiking tomorrow.  I am the guide and expect to walk about seven hours over a fairly steep mountain.  Going down the mountain is the worst for me, and as I am guiding, I'll have to keep a good face on it...  I'm always ravenous after hikes like that, so I will make an effort to not overeat afterward.

Welcome aboard theprize and jamescl.  I hope you can meet your personal goals and we can collectively get healthier. 

theprize - Yeah for baggy clothes.  I have some too.  LOL my top was gapping due to excess cloth yesterday... 

The exercise DVD idea sounds great.  I can't go to the library, but they might have rentals at the DVD shop.  I have four new exercise DVDs I bought recently and haven't actually watched/worked through any of them yet.  I would be glad to do mine too.  That would be good for a point for trying some new exercise routine via DVD, and another point for reviewing one.  Of course, you would get a point for using the DVD anyway if the time exceeded 15 minutes or each 15 minutes logged.

jamescl - Great going on the loss last month.  I don't know anything about TOPS, but I know from my own experience here that there is strength in numbers.  It IS possible to get into good health and a healthy weight range.

PS.  I'm in the turtle club too, but I'm working hard to get out of it.

At long last after more than a year of slogging through the trenches and clinging to the wagon sides for fear falling off, I am on target with my Wagon Jumper goals.

I think I aimed just high enough to have a challenge and low enough that the challenge is achievable. 

I am on target for logging my foods and running 3Ks despite being down with a cold the last few days.  (I really felt terrible for a couple days and couldn't participate in the 5K I was committed to and really looking forward to running.  ... oh well. Next time.)

Congradulations to those others who are doing well.  And, if you are not doing well... don't give up.  Do what you can each day towards your goals - even if it is a tiny thing.  Success will come.

One of the things I hardly ever miss is logging my food by midnight.  Even if I have to guess, at least I have a "ballpark" number for my calorie intake. 

Another month starts today.  It is the start of the eating season with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and lots of parties to celebrate such occasions. 

I didn't do as well I as I expected in October.  I fell 250 points short of my goal of 900 points.  I know when I reach 900 points, I usually lose a couple of lbs.  Last month 204 of my points came from exercise.  I want to up that to half of my points (whatever they may be) to be coming from exercise. 

Weight start 71 kilos.

Goal of 900 points with half being from exercise.

I can hardly keep up with work, caring for my aging inlaws, diet, exercise, etc., etc.  I am not posting so often.  Sorry everyone.   

I do read things, but my main goal is to log my food before midnight - which I often end up doing just before midnight. 

I love apples.  I eat them most days.  There is a lot of bang for the buck in terms of quality and quantity of food, taste and ease of preparation.

Another difficult to address assignment here, Sara...

First check-in:  Boy am I on a role.  I am 100% on target and maybe even a little ahead for this go-round.  YAYYY...  I'm getting my 3 kilometer runs and more in regularly.  And, I have been logging all my food at least 6 days of the week.  It is nice to turn that around so I can see how much I am actually eating.  On the running, I guess it helps to aim low and be able to over achieve the goal.

I think my biggest problem in life in general is procrastinating.  Here are my top three in order of annoying frequency:

A double-punch (as they say in Japan) is "I don't have time" coupled with "I'll do it later."  Of course, we know how far off "later" can end up being.  If it is taking care of myself, I can put it on the back burner indefinitely.  If it is work related, I can put it off until it can't be put off any longer.

This is so ingrained, it's hard to think of some way to turn this into a positive thing.

Thinking, thinking ...  (reading back through other ideas...)

Positive:  I have the same amount of time as anybody else - only 24 hours a day wherever you are, so I will use my time wisely like a precious commodity.  I can set aside a little block of time to whittle down the backlog of things to do.  I will not take on anything new until I am confident I can use time more wisely.

"Why bother, it's hopeless."  The "poor me" syndrome.  It seems like no matter how hard I try, I haven't been able to lose the weight to below the "obese" level of fat. I know I am really making efforts, too. 

Positive:  I learning all kinds of things about my body and how it works.  I know a lot about what keeps me on track, what makes me feel physically better, what foods to eat, how to exercise.  I may still be obese, but I am actually much healthier and a lot slimmer than when I started a year and three months ago.

"My husband will get mad if I (supply the reason)."  When I started jogging, I hid the fact that I bought shoes and was sneaking out to jog because he would say things like, "You don't have time for that."  "You can't do that." "You need to do (...) first."  I would not eat some meals because I knew he would want to go out later after work finished and would expect to eat and have a drink.  I would think, "DH will get mad if I refuse to go," because it's more fun if we go together.  There are quite a few things that make him irritated about my efforts to get healthier if it impinges on his lifestyle choices.

Positive:  Despite the challenges I face in learning to integrate a new, healthy lifestyle into my home life, I will never give up even after I reach my goal.  I will approach each challenge with the attitude of "how can I enjoy this AND meet my health goals."

Having said that, DH has a job until the end of next March, and is out of the house for the first time in nine years.  I feel it is a gift of time from the Gods to boost my efforts to get into good health.  I am taking advantage of having a more flexible schedule.

I ran the Human Race 10K race today, and I knocked 6 minutes off my time for the same race last year.  Whhoo hooo.

My knees were hurting a little yesterday, so I took a day off of running.  I want to be able to run "strong" on Sunday.  I have been doing an isometric type exercise of sucking in my gut whenever I remember to do it throughout the day.  Even with only a couple of days of the exercise DVDs, I can feel my muscles tightening up.  Maybe I can get the fat to melt off my back.  Ha ha.  Wouldn't that be great. 

I also am hoping to become able to do one full chin up before the year is out(as one of my New Year's resolutions of this year).  A lot of the exercises on the DVDs strengthen the arms, so it seems quite possible.

I tried another exercise DVD, and I went for a 3K run.  According to CC+, I am running now and not jogging.  My time isn't very good though. I'll have to work a lot harder in order to get a good time at the Nov. 1st 5K race.

My new DVDs came, and I did one today called Turbo Jam by Beachbody.  I did the 10 minute intro to how to do the moves and 30 minutes of Burn.  I can definitely feel my muscles all over my mid section in the front and back.  I worked up a sweat quickly, too.  It was pretty fun even as lame as my efforts to move were.  I liked it, too.  I bought 4 DVDs and had my daughter send them to me.  I spent half my day off figuring out how to get our old computer to do DVDs. 

We all miss Helene, but I suspect we will hear from her when she gets a chance to check in.  No doubt, she is still busy settling in and renewing her sense of self in her old stomping grounds.