kyashiis's Journal

Yr 2 Wk 19 Day 2 - Defining veggies and fruits

Nov 03 2009 00:29

I spent the day very leisurely except for making the inlaw's dinner. I heard that I am not making enough dishes or enough portions from DH. I'm glad his mom said something. I would like them to be satisfied. On the other hand, cooking three different meals four nights of the week wears me down.

DH's mom and dad like differet things from us, and I eat differently from DH due to weight losing issues. We like spicy. They don't. I like vegetables a lot and want to eat them a lot. DH likes variety. Inlaws want meat. It's tricky....

I ate very little today as I have a cold and don't feel much like eating (a small miracle in itself). I am getting better. Lolling around in bed reading on and off through the day was a good plan. Coupled with the hot tea with minced ginger and wild honey, I feel like I am on the mend. At least the chills are gone.

What did I eat today? banana bread, tea, beef broth, microwaved apple, pork/onion/carrot saute (80 gr), more of the apple, hot chocolate, few sugarless candies bought in the States last September. I got my five veggies/fruits in: ginger, apple, onion, carrots, lettuce (does honey count?)... piece of chocolate? doesn't chocolate come from a nut? Is a nut a fruit or a vegetable? After it's processed does it count? "Not very weighty" things to think about.

Yr 2 Wk18 Day 3 - Frustrations vs Procrastination

Oct 27 2009 00:29

I procrastinated on various things I should have been doing all day long. I had planned to go for a short 3K run, but never got off the ground with it. I was very busy during the day from 11 am to 9 pm. Then, suddenly, DH wanted to go out for a drink and to talk to the bar ladies from Taiwan. One of the gals is very learned and can talk about Chinese poetry. DH likes to talk about that with them.

We went out and the gal that understands such things wasn't there. So, we made small talk with the bar owner and a girl we hadn't met for a long time. She has been back in Taiwan caring for her sick mother, I guess. She invited us to come and visit sometimes. She's very friendly. DH was still trying to find someone from Taiwan to talk to about the poetry, so we went to another place. There were no Taiwanese hostesses there. DH drank another beer there. There was nothing I liked to drink at either place, and there was nothing to eat, so I didn't have anything to eat or drink.

That was the only good thing about getting out of the house.

Yr 2 Wk 17 Day 7 - Juggling schedules

Oct 24 2009 07:20

I felt that my knees and legs were not in good condition the last two days. I didn't exercise yesterday, but I worked hard cleaning for a couple of hours. I actually worked up a sweat.

I have been staying in my calorie range easily the last few days for some reason or other without making any effort. It's nice to have DH going off to work. It gives me freedom to arrange my schedule for the day more efficiently. Having said that, it is still hard to schedule everything I need to do.

Today is the 24th in Japan, and as I write, it is 4:30 on Friday in the States. I am supposed to run my 10K on the 24th in USA time. That means, I can run it from around 4 pm today in Japan. I have a full schedule today. It gets dark around 5:30 pm, so I want to finish before then. If I start at 3:30 pm, I should be able to get it done and finish on the 24th American time.

Yr 2 Wk 17 Day 3 - Rewards before weight loss?

Oct 20 2009 14:39

I have been struggling with the problem of exercise for as long as I have been on CC+. I am exercising fairly regularly, but it is not enough, or I would be at my goal weight by now - a year and four months into this journey.

I read an interesting post by a woman who has donated the same weight in healthy food goods to those less fortunate. To date, she has 40 lbs of food ready to donate. It thought that was a wonderful idea. I have struggled with how to reward myself. I've lost about 20 lbs so far, and I rewarded myself with new makeup, etc. I planned a big purchase of a wide-screen TV with exercise DVDs to go with it for my goal of losing about 15 lbs away from my current weight.

Then, I got to thinking, those rewards are tools to help me lose weight, so I could use them to help me on my journey to reaching the goal. But, it seemed like cheating (myself?) to buy such expensive items without doing the work to reach the goal. I've been down that path before...

Finally, after being in a holding pattern for months, I thought, "Why don't I try to cobble something together for the DVD system (with things I already had) and go ahead and purchase some exercise DVDs to jumpstart the weight loss?" Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of my precious day off getting an old computer with a built-in DVD player to work. Two weeks ago, I ordered four DVDs to use for exercise. So, now I have a way to exercise every day if I want to. I can find at least 20 minutes every day to do something that gets me moving.

Today, I happened across something called the Hacker's Diet that uses spread sheets to track weight loss. It's not elegant, but I can see how it would be motivating to be able to find out how much deficit you need to attain in order to lose a specific amount of weight. I need to have a 900 calorie deficit to lose 10 kilos (22 lbs) over a period of three months. It sounds hard, but I want to give it a shot. Obviously, 20 minutes a day is not going to get that accomplished.

This may be one time when the reward before the weight loss influences the outcome of meeting the goal. I sure hope so.

Yr 2 Wk 17 Day 2 - Turbo Jamming for the 1st time

Oct 19 2009 23:13

I stayed well within my calorie range today. Now, I'm feeling a little hungry... (it's 11 pm)

I struggled to get an old computer that we don't use for work anymore into another room and set up to use the DVD function. I had trouble with the sound not coming out. Grhh. But, a friend came over and figured out what the problem was. We resolved it quickly.

I tried the Turbo Jam exercise DVD by Beachbody. It's pretty good, and I thought the instructor was motivational without being obnoxious. I did the intro to the movements and the first Burn session. It was a solid workout of 45 minutes. I have three other exercise DVDs to try, too. I will try them all and work out some kind of program so that I am exercising three to five days a week including jogging. I'm thinking something like

Mon. exercise / Tue. 3 - 5K jog / Wed. 4 - 7K jog / Thu. exercise / Fri. exercise or jog / Sat. exercise / Sun. hike or exercise or take the day off according to how I feel...

This seems like a lot, but when I am too busy or tired, I will only do 20 minutes of whatever.

Yr 2 Wk 16 Day 6 - Wogging again...

Oct 16 2009 12:49

I finally got my goal accomplished for running. I did 30 minutes of yoga followed by 60 minutes of wogging (walk/jog). My time wasn't so good, but I got quite a few interval training sections done. If I can continue doing this three times a week, I think I will be able to run well in the two races I have committed to.

I burned nearly 600 cals with the exercise. So, I'm good today.

This is the season for festivals that were once mostly to give thanks for the harvests. I want to watch the lion dance somewhere around my neighborhood. This is one of the best seasons in Japan. I feel happy when this time of the year comes around.

Yr 2 Wk 16 Day 4 - Notes from 2004

Oct 14 2009 23:53

I finally found my favorite yoga book sitting on the bookshelf where it should have been. I just wasn't "seeing it." This morning I decided to do the first day's exercise. When I opened the cover, I found a post-it stuck in there with information on my weight and measurements from July 2004.

I am definitely in better shape than I was back then. My weight is down 22 lbs, and my measurements are about 18 inches less overall. It's no wonder I feel like my tops are too big. The last time I was in the States, I just shopped in my usual size without trying most things on except the jeans. Now, I realize, that's not my size. The two pairs of jeans I bought are loose already.

Yay for losing inches.

I ate too much today. I just managed to stay under my maintenance calories. That makes three times in the last week that I have eaten up to maintenance level or close to it. Some of the times have been as a result of having drinks. Not that I drank that much, but with a 1,460 calorie ceiling, alcohol is a pour (oops poor) way to allot my calories.

The yoga exercises felt good today. I am pretty limber with the variety of exercise I have been doing. I saw another little sticky in the book with the date of 4/26/06 start which is the last time I did yoga exercises regularly. I would like to incorporate it into my daily life from now on. It is not a big calorie burner, but it does oomph up my energy levels. I guess one of the reasons I stayed at a healthy weight all through my 20s and 30s is because of doing yoga most days. It was probably just enough of a calorie burner to keep my calorie intake at a maintenance level.

Yr 2 Wk 15 Day 5 - raising my protein intake

Oct 08 2009 18:15

I looked up some information on the Zone diet and recalled some of the points of following it. I want to up my protein intake daily. It's too low I think. I had a "shake" made with cocoa, instant coffee, milk, and whey protein. It helped up my protein considerably.

I walked for exercise in the park for an hour. I should have jogged 8 kilometers, but my body was telling me to take it a little easy. I've learned the hard way to listen to my body.

I found a nice recipe for crepes stuffed with crab in a low-cal, low-fat recipe book. I'm going to try it on Saturday. If it is good, I'll post it.

Yr 2 Week 15 Day 4 - Will power

Oct 07 2009 13:41

I am working on my will power. I had a nice lunch of steamed salmon, spinach with sesame dressing and a tossed salad with non-fat dressing.

Why the will power? A typhoon is coming, so exercising outside is not really possible. I need to do some calisthenics in the house in the next 45 minutes before lessons start. Okay... 25 each push ups, sit ups, toe touches, yoga stretches.

Yr 2 Wk 15 Day 3 - Reflecting on things...

Oct 06 2009 14:31

I was very busy today, but I made a firm decision to go to the park and walk. I made a mistake with my planning for the 10K race by running 5K two days in a row. I could feel my muscles this morning, so I decided I would walk 5K instead of running. I ended up walking for 45 minutes. I couldn't give more time to it, so I stopped at 45 minutes. Still, I got about 4. 3 kilometers walked.

I have a challenger to the Slimming minis Challenge. That person seems pretty motivated, and I want to keep up with her, so hopefully, this will be a good month for me for getting into shape.

I have shrunk in terms of inches. I need to reactivate the losing aspect of this journey. I am still in the obese range. I will balance the running with stretching and yoga on non-run days.

I have only had a deficit of 100 - 300 calories most days over the last few months. I think this might be what maintenance is like, but that's not what I want to be doing now. I should be losing down to my goal weight even if it is a slow process.

Now that DH is working out of the house, I have more control of how I spend my time. He seems really happy with his work, and I am really happy with my new-found time. On reflection, I think this might be the little window of time to get myself into really great shape from now until the end of next March.