Exercise

SO I got discharged from physical therapy yesterday because I've been doing great with the exercises they gave me, and I've been back tot he gym 10 out of 12 days. Both go hand in hand in helping me with my hip pain and my ability to be mobile again.
So all this exercise SHOULD start to show soon, wouldn't you think??
My clothes feels the same. I can't really tell if they LOOK the same, but they don't feel tight and that'sa very good thing.
After work this morning I'm off to the gym again to do my regular routine: treadmill for 30 and then all the strength machines.
I am planning on trying the stairmaster for the first time in a great long while.
The last time I wa son it my hips were clicking so badly with each rotation that the lady next to me thought the machine was broken!
No, Honey. That's the sound my hips make when they are forced to do something they would rather not do.
So wish me luck with that.
I'll let you know if I still make noise!!

Enough about the gym!

The title says it all.

There's a great article in this month's REAL SIMPLE magazine called "Numbers to Live by."

It details all the blood values and ranges that are important for you to feel and be healthy.

For instance, a normal healthy blood sugar (glucose ) fasting would be 99 mg/dl. The range used to be anywhere between 80 and 120, but now a standard 99 is perfect. Your total cholesterol should be below 200.

A healthy Body Mass index should be between 18.5 and 24.9, Anything higher is considered obese.

Ugh!

To view all the values, reference the current Real Simple Magazine.

As a woman who is almost 50 the standard recommendations are to get your blood values checked yearly. Comparing the values between years will help target any problem areas that can be dealt with quickly and completely. A yearly mammogram is recommended as well.

Now I go for my yearly values on May 4. Last year I was told I was obese ( based on BMI) at my Wellness check. This year I better not be told that or I will literally bust a gut!!

I'll let you know.

More about the GYM

So I'm going again today after work.
This week I went monday, tuesday, wednesday, took thursday off, then last night and again today.
Now the questions I ask myself are : is this helping? Do I feel leaner? Do I look smaller? Do I feel like I have more energy?
1. Do I feel leaner: no
2. DO I look smaller: I don't think so
3. DO I feel likeI have more energy? NO, I'm EXHAUSTED!!
SO, is this going to the gym helping me in any way??
Probably, I just can't see/feel it yet.
So I will keep going and let you know what happens.
Pray for me and my joints!!

The GYM

Most of you know I hate going to a gym. I do it, but I hate it.
Not because I hate to exercise, which my better half believes.
But the GYM itself is what I find upsettling.
Many sweating men.
Many sweating, smelly men.
Many overweight smelly, sweaty men who think they are Brad Pitt!
This just plain repulses me to see.
Then there are the diva girls. The ones who wear skin tight second skins to exercise in, their toned butts non-jiggling away on the treadmills and stairsteppers, who are in full makeup, hair and perfume.
The perfumes are almost as bad as the sweaty man smells.
ALmost, but not quite.
And I can never watch what I want to watch on the tv. IF I didn't get to it first, the first person to turn the channel will lay claim to the remote, watching stupid shows on the Food Channel.
Really? In a gym when you're trying to LOSE weight? You want to watch a baking tourment?
I much prefer exercising in the privacy of my home. My television channels are my own to choose; since I don't sweat, I don't stink, so the smells are lovely'; and I don't have to get dolled up in skin tight clothing that enhances my bulgies.
Of course it's a lot easier NOT to exercise at home too. I can always find an excuse to put it off: the laundry needs to be done; the litter box changed'; the porch dusted.
So going to the gym is a much better option if I really do want to exercise.
I just hate the GYM so much!

The value of exercise

So I went back to the gym.

I know: I can't believe it either.

Being away this weekend and using the gym in the hotel really pushed me to go back. I haven't been in the gym since last fall. I hurt my back and it just got too easy not to go back once I felt better. The gym at the hotel was chock full of the machines I like in a gym, so I felt good using them and that endorphin rush continued once I got back home. So I went last night after work and then again this morning.

I'll admit, I'm a little sore in places I haven't been sore in in a while, but it feels like a good sore; a worthwhile sore; a beneficial sore.

I also just found out I am a finalist in the Robert Ferguson 8 week weight loss challenge that ended last Tuesday!! Now God knows, I will not win anything, but I am thrilled to even be considered. After I got the email I had to write a 500 word essay on how the challenge helped me.

That was super easy.

So say a quick prayer for me the something comes from this.

And even if it doesn't, I am still plugging along and doing everything I am supposed to.

Vacationing and Eating

It's very difficult, I have found, to stick to a regime of good eating when you are away from your comfort zone - namely your house!
While in Boston this past weekend, I did great for breakfast and my first snack. But lunch and dinner were another story.
Although I didn't go hog wild and eat everything not nailed down, I did breaka few Ferguson rules.
1. I didn't eat every 2-3 hrs and because of this, when 3pm came around I was absolutely starving - something I'm not supposed to be because when I am starving, my insulin levels go all wacky. So, we were in a bar in boston waiting to take a brewery tour and I wanted a bowl of soup. They were out of the soup of the day so I had chicken tenders.
Fried chicken tenders.
Poor choice, but everything on the menu was fried. So my decision to eat something - antyhing at that point - was somewhat valid.
For dinner we went to PF Chiangs, a super chinese food restaurant,
Yup. Chinese food.
Most of that cuisine if wok fried.
It may be in a wok, but baby, it's still fried in the end!
I had cashew and almond chicken. Lots of veges - even tho they were coated in sauce, and some - I assume - wok fried chicekn pieces.
No the best choice I know. I could have had something vegetarian, but hey - I hadn't been out for a while and wanted something good.
No dessert - which was a good thing and then we walked back to the hotel whichw as baout a mile and chang,e so I didn't feel too bad.
I realize that I can't bring all my food for an entire trip every time I go somewhere, so I really need to start making much better choices.
next trip to boston I'm having something really healthy.
Like LOBSTER!!

Vacationing and exercizing

I'm in Boston this weekend for a quickie vacation and I went down to the fitness center in the hotel this am, hoping to get a good workout in before we start seeing the sights today and visiting with family. The place was packed.

I was able to get a treadmill next to the HUMONGOUS woman who was running on her own treadmill. She was there before me, I walked for 30 minutes, and she was still running when I left.

I'm not kidding when I say this chick topped out at about 300. She was sweating, panting, and the fat was jumping up and down, but DAMN! She could go.

I was so jealous, I can't even begin to tell you.

Got me thinking: even if someone is VERY overweight or even morbidly obese, can they still be physically FIT? I started talking to the lady - because you all know I'll talk to anyone anytime anyplace - and said, "I'm impressed! I wish I could run like you but I have bad knees."

She smiled and said she run on the treadmill 5 days a week for up to an hour and a half.

Now remember, she was HUGE! I wanted to ask her how long she'd been doing it but she beat me to the punch. She said she's been doing this for over six months and feels great. Her cholesterol level has gone down as has her blood pressure.

I congratulated her and asked if she had lost any weight, because remember: she was HUGE!

She smiled and said no, because she still eats all her favorite foods, just exercises.

I thought this sounded really crazy, because the basic laws of physics would tell you that if she is moving soooooooo much, even with eating, she should have lost weight.

Was she selling me a line of bull? I don't know, but she certainly had it on me in the endurance department!

So, I'm plugging along, getting some exercise when I can, and continuing to eat well.

Even on vacation!