Anatomy of Walking

Some of the benefits of walking.

Found on Pinterest.

Hmm Yes...

Turns out that I don't feel like posting on my "health" blog when I'm feeling bloated and fat. 

Also, I've been at the top end of my "happy to weigh this much" range for a couple of weeks now and it's starting to bug me a bit.

I need to start bushwalking again! Back in January we were going on a bushwalk every weekend, and I lost three or four kilos in a month while eating about three times as much as I usually do! I can't afford to be fit! Food costs will skyrocket! 

Actually, my husband wants to start bushwalking again soon, and today I realised that if we bushwalk once a week starting next week, by Christmas time I'll be ravenous all the time, which means that I'll be able to eat HEAPS over Christmas! Talk about excellent motivation!

One things that I have been noticing a lot this past week is my posture. It's quite bad when I'm sitting on the computer and I want to start working on improving it - I don't want to be one of those old ladies who is hunched right over.

And that's all from me for the time being! Hopefully next time I right it will be a bit more positive =)

Giant Box of Fat and Sugar

Totally worth it.

80-10-10

I was reading this post the other day, and thought it was pretty interesting. I decided to make a note of it over here so it's easy for me to find in the future.

Post: It's okay not to work out, right?

(By Cassey Ho)

Some bits which stood out:

"Did you know that the way you look is based on: 80% DIET, 10% EXERCISE, and 10% GENETICS"

"It all goes back to what you put into your body and how many calories you are consuming and burning at the end of the day. You need to fuel it correctly to have great energy. Now what you do with that great energy depends on you…if you want to workout and you’ve consumed a ton of protein then muscle building and lean physique is what you’ll get. You can use the energy to study or work late into the night..."

"...being lean is not JUST ABOUT working out, it’s 80% diet."

"You still do need to get moving for heart health, to prevent muscle loss, and to build bone strength. I know most of us reading this probably are thinking about bikinis not bone strength, but at the BARE MINIMUM please workout at least 2-3x a week (even if it is 30 min) to keep your body in check. Think of a car. You gotta use it once in a while or else the engine won’t even start!"

"Even if you eat clean and you eat “too many good foods”, you’ll still gain weight. So workout to burn some calories and feel good about it."

Exercise vs Plastic Surgery

Still here!

Well, first off, my cold seemed to last for AGES!! It's coming up on two weeks and I'm still and bit sniffly. Hopefully I won't get sick again for the rest of the semester!

I really need to work on my sleeping habits. Yesterday we stayed out at some friends until nearly 4am and we didn't really even feel tired!!!!!! Isn't that awful!!!! Lot's of exclamation marks are needed to convey the horror!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good and Bad and Hope

The last few days have been interesting... here's a little snapshot:

Good: Have been having more fruit - oranges and pineapple in particular.

Bad: Have been sick... what's worse is that I brought it upon myself by letting my body get rundown. 

Hope: That this will be the last time I'm sick until the end of semester.

Good: Discovered I don't really like McDonalds that much anymore (except for the fries).

Bad: Still love deep fried chili chicken tenders from the local takeaway shop.

Hope: That the dislike for Macca's signals a change in my body's food preferences.

Good: Having Aisan takeaway for dinner, which is pretty healthy I guess!

Bad: Takeaway is expensive, but that's what happens when you have a head cold and your husband doesn't want to cook (and we have no food in the house besides pineapple and oranges).

Hope: That my husband picks a yummy meal for me to eat and that he gets back soon!

Not getting new posts?

I like to subscribe to my own blogs so that I know how they're appearing in rss readers (specifically, google reader).

I've had some trouble with this blog due to a 'parsing error' which resulted in the feed never getting updated.

I don't know if this has affected people who are followers - I hope not.

I've done some fiddling around, and have now also added some subscribing thingamies on the left hand sidebar. In case none of those work for you, here is another rss feed that works: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IdXcA

Progress

At the start of the year I was 64 to 65kg.

After seven months of occasional exercise and sort of slightly more careful eating...

I am now 61kg. Yay me!

=D

I'd love to lose another 3kg, but I'll be more than happy with another 2kg... to be under 60kg again will be fantastic.

I must reiterate though - fit over thin. I'd rather be over 60kg and fit and toned than under 60kg and at the same fitness level as I am now.

Eating My Way to Healthy

I love to eat. Loving exercise is something I'm working on. 

Though I did walk up a hill today. In the rain. My feet were filthy.

Today while doing some grocery shopping I successfully ignored the chocolate and instead got a bag of almonds (natural), a bag of walnuts and a 1.5kg packet of sultanas. And a 6-pack of yogurt.

Healthy snacking, here I come! 

That said, I still have 2L of my favourite ice cream in the freezer... Tomorrow, if I walk home from uni, I'm going to DEVOUR a substantial amount of it!

Not Stretchy

I just did a stretching video.

I am not stretchy or flexible at all, I have found out.

Truthfully, I already knew I wasn't, but I am even less flexible than I thought.

This will be fixed.

(video: Stretching for Flexibility)

The Dimensions of Health

This semester at uni (my last semester before I graduate!), I am studying a subject named "Personal Development and HPE" (HPE = Health and Physical Education).

Today was the first tutorial, and one of the things we talked about was the "Health Alphabet", more commonly known as: The 5 Dimensions of Health.

I wanted to note them down here, because it fits in so well with what I'm starting to focus on in my own life - being healthy inside and out.

So, the 5 dimensions of health are:

Social - family, friends; our support network

Spiritual - morals, beliefs, values, belonging

Mental - intelligence and thinking

Emotional - feelings, self esteem, etc

Physical - strength, fitness, energy, nutrition, hydration, sleep, etc (I would probably also put down flexibility).

Personally, I think I'm quite healthy in the first four areas, but the physical aspect really needs improvement. In fact, it doesn't just need improvement, it needs a total overhaul! My sleeping patterns are bizarre, I feel tired a lot, I know I don't drink enough and I can count the number of times I've done a substantial amount of exercise in the last month on one hand. But things are going to change!

Also, my tutor has had two kids in the last 2 or 3 years, and I can't even tell! She's rather inspiring!

Decisions

I have decided I am not going to count calories or even think about them much at all.

The truth is that while they are useful for people who need to loose weight, I do not fit in that category and loosing weight is not my main aim.

Also, I have not put on weight all year, but have actually gone down a couple of kilograms just by being a little more careful and starting to exercise a little more. I don't eat too much. Maybe I don't eat enough of the "right" foods, but I'm not eating junk... I can't even remember the last time I had McDonald's and the thought of KFC makes me feel sick.

I desire to get fit. I actually wouldn't be surprised if I start eating more, like I used to when I was bushwalking every weekend back in January. Seriously, I was eating 2-3 times as much and still loosing weight (which indicates that I was eating way below what I needed to).

Most of all, I dislike how thinking of calories steals my joy and makes me feel confined. I'm doing this to improve my life not make it harder.

As an aside, I realise that calorie counting is useful for some people, and suits them, or that it may simply be necessary. For me, however, it doesn't sit right. 

So yes, my decision: eat well and don't worry.

Back Again!

I have been away since Thursday (Saturday's post was a scheduled one), and now I am finally home again!

I didn't even try to eat well or exercise while away (but did lots of dancing, and also a laughing fit that lasted about 15 minutes - no one can tell me that laughing isn't exercise! hahaha!!), but now I am back home, and ready to start exercising some self control over eating choices, and some self discipline in regard to physical activity.

Today, I'm just enjoying being home SO MUCH.

My Ideal Vegetable Garden

Fresh fruit and vegetables are so much better than shop brought ones, and cheaper too (spinach is a perfect example). Working the garden is also great exercise! I grew up eating produce from a garden my dad maintained, and from fruit trees he cared for (as well as eggs from our chickens and the occasional chicken, too). I know that it's not impossible to grow a large majority of the produce a family needs - it just takes time and effort.

If I had the space and the time to grow all the veggies I wanted, my vegetable garden would ideally include:

• beetroot (you can use the leaves in salad, too)
• tomatoes (large and tiny tims)
• cucumber
• zucchini (just 2 plants!)
• pumpkin and squash
• spring onions
• leeks
• onions
• lettuce (iceberg and loose leaf varieties)
• spinach
• bok choy
• capsicum
• chili
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• garlic
• carrots
• peas (snow peas, green peas, sugar snap peas)
• beans (green beans, scarlet runner beans)
• rainbow chard (the rainbow bit is very important)
• corn

I've never grown sweet potatoes, but if it turns out that they're less backbreaking to grow than normal potatoes I might allow them on the list.

NOT: brussel sprouts.

I would also want to grow things like sunflowers (beauty and seeds), strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackcurrants. I would want an apricot tree, as well as plum, nectarine, peach and cherry trees. 

I would love to have a bay tree (which could be a shade tree or kept small in a pot) and a herb garden filled with rosemary, thyme, mint, chives, parsley, coriander, marjoram, dill, sage, basil (for caprese salads) and more.

I think I'm going to have to hire a gardener.

At the moment, in my nearly non-existent garden, I have mint, thyme, lemon thyme, marjoram, rosemary, lemon balm and a nearly dead sage (it's too cold for it here), toadstools (not good) and a giant, ugly, useless bush.

Kathy xxx

Journal No.2

Food:
7/8 cup of cocopops with 3/4 cup full cream milk (approx. 204 + 119 = 323 calories)
2 mentos (20 Cal)
2 glasses of water and my multi-v (zero cal)
Potato salad (see this post) -  after some rough calculations, I think this was about 890 Cal.
Chai Tea (approx 80 Cal)
Total calories: 1493 Cal

Exercise:

I got a massage... I don't suppose that counts though. I also did a little walking (10min, nothing outstanding) and packed.

Overall:

I am very sore from yesterday, so it was good not to really exercise at all today. I was kind of reasonably busy, however, with packing and preparing for going away tomorrow for four nights.  I think that I broke even in terms of calories in and calories out!

*   *   *

Tomorrow (Thursday), I'm going away for 4 nights. Over this time, I'm not going to worry about calorie counting, but I am going to be careful about what I eat, and I am aiming to go running on the beach at least once, but hopefully twice. I'm aiming for a 20 minute run each time.

Glorified Potato Salad

Today's main meal was based on this Sweet Potato, Bacon and Egg Salad.

After some substitution (we had no sweet potatoes or dill) and some increasing so it would feed Julian and I, this is what I ended up with: a tangy dish with a lot of flavour and different textures. Even better, my husband loved it!

Glorified Potato Salad

4 eggs

5 potatoes (I used kennebec), diced

a dash of olive oil

4 rashers of bacon (fat removed), diced

half a head of broccoli, cut into quite small florets

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoon mild English mustard

Put the eggs in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them, and bring to the boil. Boil them for 5 minutes. Remove them from the water and allow them to cool.

Into the water, tip the diced potatoes and bring them to the boil. Cook until tender then drain. Rinse with cold water.

Meanwhile, begin to heat up a fry pan. When it is fairly warm, add the olive oil, and when the olive oil is hot add in the bacon. Fry until it is starting to get crispy, then toss in the broccoli. Continue to cook this over medium heat.

While the bacon and broccoli are cooking, shell the eggs and then dice them.

Chuck the potatoes, eggs and bacon and broccoli into a medium sized salad bowl (or you can use the saucepan the potatoes were cooked in, or even the fry pan). 

In a small jug or cup, mix the mayonnaise, lemon juice and mustard. Pour this mixture over the potato mixture, and mix it in.

Serve straightaway.


I calculate that this recipe, all together, contains roughly 1782 calories. Divided among 4 people, this equates to 446 calories per serve.

Homework

My massage therapist gave me homework:

• Drink more water
• Get my heart pumping often
• Learn to love salads
• Start moving my arms a lot

She says that I'm retaining fluid in my arms, and this is why I need to start moving my arms more, to help drain my lymph system. She says that doing this will cause my arms to slim down really quickly, as it's mostly fluid, not fat.

I'm also really crooked, and she worked on that a bit, lengthening muscles in my hip so that my legs are the same length and other things like that. 

I must prioritise seeing her again a few more times this year so that I can really work on relaxing (sounds strange, but it does take a lot of conscious effort when you're used to being tensed) and get straighter.

I just need to start somewhere

Making this journal helpful

I am very much afraid that I am going to have to dive into previously unexplored waters if this journal is to be any use.

I'm talking about calorie counting - a thing I have previously despised. However, I recently found out what a calorie actually is, which makes them more tangible and therefore graspable and not quite so despicable. 

For the past, oh, half an hour or so, I've been busy finding out my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the minimum amount of calories we need daily just to breathe and keep our heart beating). Apparently mine is 1,439 calories a day (calculated with this Basal Metabolic Rate & Daily Energy Requirements Calculator ).

If I factor in being moderately active (which is defined as "Moderate exercise/sport 3-5 days/wk"), my total energy requirement are 2,230 calories per day. At the moment, though, my energy requirements are probably more like 1,980 calories a day, as I am more "lightly active" than "moderately active".

(I think I have either an eyelash or mascara in my eye. It hurts.)

However, my aim is not merely to loose weight, rather I am concerned with becoming fit! Because of this, I need to start exercising more, not just consume less calories. Between pilates and cardio (I want to be able to run 4km nonstop by the end of October), plus the everyday exercise of cleaning, walking up and down stairs, typing, cooking and so on, I think the energy requirements for being moderately active are an appropriate starting point for me. 

As you need to create a deficient of 3,500 calories to loose 1 pound (500 grams), this means that to start loosing weight, I need to eat less or exercise a heck of a lot more than I currently do.  Over a week, 3,500 cal equates to 500 calories a day. I have read that a good way to create this deficiency is to eat 250 cal less and exercise and burn another 250 through exercise,

Using this theory, I should be consuming approximately 2,000 cal (I rounded it to the nearest thousand) each day. If I can't exercise on a certain day, or it's a rest day, I should consume even less, probably an amount in line with being "lightly active" minus 500 cal (1,980 - 500 = 1480 cal a day, so slightly more than my BMR).

All in all, I am very new to this sort of thing, and feel a bit like I'm walking blind. It is good, however, to get all this down so I don't have to think through it all again. 

Looking at the previous post, and doing calculations for a few things, I think I may have come out pretty even with the exercise and food intake. But then, maybe I'm totally off... I don't really know. For future journal entries, I'm going to have to start calculating calories, I think!

Til another day, then!

Kathy xx

Journal No.1

Food:
Half a block of Cadbury "Bar of Plenty" chocolate
2 Mentos
Potato and sweet potato bake (a couple of serving spoon sized scoops)
White rice
Curry (thai flavour?) with sweet potato, cauliflower, chicken and some other veggies.
Corn muffin
Homebaked biscuit
Two or three handfuls of crimson grapes
Hot chocolate


Exercise:
One hour of pilates (POP pilates: this twice, then this and then this - I need to do a post about POP Pilates soon - it's great!)
15 minute brisk walk uphill to West Hobart


Overall: 
This is far more exercise than I usually do, and I'm feeling great about it! It was hard to do the pilates, especially some of the leg exercises, and walking up that hill puffed me out. I love how exercising gives you more energy! I have been feeling so lethargic lately, and it's great to be feeling better today.

I could have done a lot better with the food, I know. Part of the problem is that my kitchen is a mess, and when it's like that I'll tend to eat whatever junk is in the house rather than doing something like frying or poaching a couple of eggs to have with toast. Also, I totally would have had cocopops, but we had no milk left. The milk situation has been rectified and cocopops will be had tomorrow, right after I've been for a run! (Well, okay, a brisk walk).

Also, does a massage count as exercise? I want to say yes, because tomorrow I'm getting one! And yes, I'm very exited!

It starts with food

The First Post

The first blog post always seems slightly surreal. What to write, what to write...?

I suppose I'll get straight to business... It must be business time (there's a call out to all you Flight of the Conchord fans).

Basically, I envision this blog as a sort of food and fitness journal, with a bit of a Christian twist. I am, after all a Christian, and it's the sort of thing that invades your whole life. Well, let's be honest: it should be part of every bit of your life, but people are pretty good at categorising and I'm no exception.

It turns out, however, that food (especially honey) is talked about heaps in the Bible, and a lot of what is said makes good sense (some of it, of course, is more specific to the Jewish culture, like the Passover feast). I figure that I might as well talk about that too, and so provide some spiritual balance to a blog which is predominantly about the physical body.

I plan on keeping a journal of what I eat, the exercise I do, as well as things like recipes, motivational things and the aforementioned Bible bits.

If you made it to the end of the post, well done. I tend chat on, and I'm sure that my ramblings are not endlessly interesting, even if they might be endless.

That's it for now!

Kathy xxx