Who wants to be a centurian?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the moms, dads, aunts, and uncles that are living to the ripe age of 100+. I have to admit that I sit on the fence when it comes to the decision of if I want to live to that age. My Grandmother lived till she was 92 and I still wonder if I want to add another ten to twenty years onto my life.

The study goes to show that people in Okinawa are living a very long time through a diet of fish, vegetables, corn, buckwheat, and mushrooms. That’s great and all but the culture in Okinawa is different than it is in the United States.

My honest question is who is going to take care of me when I’m in my 90′s and 100′s. People in the United States just do not seem to respect people of older ages. Families seem to put thier elderly away in facilities as if they were problems and not people. I’m not saying that all families and facilites are like this but I’m sure we have all read the horror stories.

What kind of quality of life am I going to have? As I said before my Grandmother lived into her 90′s but to me her life wasn’t that great. Grandma was stuck in her home because of nagging leg problems with television and her knitting as her only company.

Though I do have to say that this generation of elders is quite different than the generation that my Grandmother was in. Men and women are into breaking the mold, setting new hieghts, and really pushing themselves in thier elder years.

So right now I still stand on the fence when it comes to the decision of life in my 100′s. Who knows maybe sixty years from now that generation of elders will be far healthier and active than the current.

Holiday Season is over

The presents have been unwrapped and the Christmas tree looks bare. Hopefully all the holiday treats will be fair.

Actually I did really good this holiday season. I wasn’t 100% perfect but I didn’t pig out like have done in previous years. Though I do now have a bag of Doritos, Movie popcorn, Hershey Bar, and Snickers Bar to burn off. No it wasn’t eaten in one sitting.

So somewhere in the world it’s December 26, 2007. Time to set out the goals and steps to acheive them.

• Learn Fluent Spanish 
• Obtain a full-time job
• Get into the routine of eating six small meals a day
• Be 52+ pounds lighter
• Gain some muscle

Will I be the Biggest Loser in 2008. Even though I probably would not do the show, I have the time to work out like they do on the show. Hopefully I can find a county doctor that will work with me since we don’t have enough for a private doctor.

One thing for sure, I’m not going to wake up on December 25, 2008 with the scales tipping at 460. 

All or nothing

I was making Biscotti for family this morning. It’s part of the Christmas gift that I will be sending them. I had good results with the Biscotti but they didn’t come out like something you would see on the Food Network or at Starbucks.

I can’t believe that I was going to trash a heart felt gift idea because they weren’t perfect. It made me realize how much of an all or nothing attitude I had. I was going to make the perfect Biscotti or I wasn’t going to send any at all. Which is a bad thing because they taste really good.

How much of an all or nothing attitude do I have with weight loss? I honestly believe that the journey of weight loss is about learning. You don’t allow a baby to learn how to walk because the fall down, get bruises, scrapes, and bumps. You let them experiences the journey of learning to walk.

 I’m learning a new life-style. There are going to be days when I don’t exercise. There are going to be days when I don’t eat 100% correctly. It’s the point that I continue through the journey of creating a healthy lifestyle.

Eating For Today

Breakfast
fruit shake with skim milk and ice

Lunch
2 cups of Fresh Choice Chinese Chicken Salad
1 Fresh Choice Corn Muffin
2 cups of salad (spinach,radishes,zuchini,carrots,peanuts)
4 Tbsp thousand Island dressing

Dinner
Strip steak
1/2 baked potato

Total Calories 2014
Total Miles Walked 2 1/2 miles

I really have to get use to eating like this again. I’m really use to not eating anything for breakfast and lunch. I think I have some healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinners planned for my family and I. They include imitation crab salad with lots of vegetables, burritos with blackbeans, vegetarian lasagna, and some other things.

The 2 1/2 miles really kicked my butt. That was just from shopping for Christmas gifts and doing things around San Jose, California. I can really feel the muscles in my legs and behind saying “Stop Walking.”

I don’t want to stop. I have the duty to transform my body, mind, and spirit. I’m looking forward to seeing changes happen in my body and in my spirit.

Eating For Today

Total Calories 1466
1 hour of walking

I had wanted to eat close to 1800 calories today. On Friday, I’ll have to shop to make sure that we have more nutritious meals at the end of the month.

At the moment I’m writing down what that I eat because I want to get use to portions. I also ate before my husband came home. I wanted to eat a couple of hours before we went to bed.

On some nights he doesn’t get home till 10p.m and for me that’s just a little too late to eat. I also didn’t want my honey to portion out the food. I wanted to be responsible for the amount of food that was on my plate and went into my mouth.

Once again, I’m looking forward to going shopping on friday. I’m going to my favorite buffet place that has tones of fruits and vegetables. My honey just doesn’t like his vegetables and I’ll take any chance that I get to get my vegetables.

I went on an hour long walk today because I had a lot on my mind.

Eating out of emotion

Richard Kuhn from Dstressdoc saying “Most people focus on food to shed weight and then wonder why they gain it back. The better goal is to focus on the emotions that we use food to dilute. Learn to embrace them and literally forget about food as pounds come off naturally”

 

While I agree that we should focus on our emotions when we are dealing with life and weight loss. I cannot agree completely. I think there has to be a balance between dealing with our emotions, feeding our body healthy food, having an active lifestyle, and having time to reflect each day.

 

How emotions became connected to eating, I don’t know. People see it during every holiday, birthdays, and even nightly dinner. People have learned to connect around the dinner table and with food.

 

When people don’t find answers to road blocks in their life they could turn to habitual, emotional, or destructive eating. I know for me it was boredom and emotional eating that was my downfall.

 

Plus the fact that money burned in my pocket like a five alarm fire. So not only did I use food to deal with emotional stress but also I bought food to deal with my need for spending.

 

As for spending, I’m now trying to save has much as I can instead of spending it on food. If I do spend extra money, I try to look for ways to enjoy life. Some of these things are local trips, the movies, local theaters, and spending time with my hubby.

 

As for emotional eating, I try to recognize the times that I want to eat due to stress. Then I talk myself out of it. I will give myself points on why I do not want to eat something. I’m not perfect but I find other ways to deal with the situation at hand

 

I look forward to the day, but I’m not a counselor at the moment. If you’re dealing with emotional eating, work on other ways that you can solve the road blocks in your life. You’re always going to come up against roadblocks but you have control on what you do about them.

 

Tell yourself:

I’m not going to use food to relieve stress.

I will find another solution to this problem.

I eat food only to fuel my body.

Family gatherings don’t have to be about the food.

Week 2 Report

Last Weeks Weight 465+
This Weeks Weight 460+

I feel that next week is going to be so much better. 459 Lbs is going to hit my scale at home next week. I feel it so much that I can visually see it. If you don’t already know this, currently I have to use to scales to weigh myself. I do this because when I step on the one scale, it gives me a read out of ERR.

Except when I weigh myself with two scales I’m at 461 pounds. So I know that If I get down to 450 pound on two scales then I can start to only use one scale. Major joy for me because I can donate the other scale.

Last Weeks Measurements
Neck 20 in
Bust 57 in
Ribs 54
Waist 70
Hips 75
Left Arm 16
Right Arm 16 1/4
Left Bicep 25
Right Bicep 25
Left Thigh 43
Right Thigh 43
Left Calf 23
Right Calf 23 /12

Week 2 Measurements
Neck 20 in
Bust 57 in
Ribs 54 in
Waist 70 in
Hips 75
Left Arm 16
Right Arm 16
Left Bicep 25
Right Bicep 25
Left Thigh 43
Right Thigh 43
Left Calf 22
Right Calf 23

Not bad results, wooohoo! I would have liked the measurements to be from my chest, ribs, waist, hips, or thighs. Any reduction in measurements is a good reduction.

As for this week. my goal is to plan out healthy meals for thirty days. I just think that Michael and I are eating a lot of high processed foods. I personally don’t think that is healthy. I’m really trying to stick with the diet pulpit of eating food for fuel. I need to figure out the things that I want to fuel my body with.

I also want to increase my activity. Three hours of activity was good but I really would like to have five hours. That will be two days to do something like light stretching and then the rest of the days will be cardio and weight training.

I don’t think I’ll have any problem including more activity because I will be adding volunteer time at the Animal shelter that I volunteer at. Hopefully they will have me doing things like walking the dogs, cleaning cages, and all the active stuff. Then I know I’ll be getting my activity in.

2nd Week Review

Total Minutes Exercising: 240

We’ll see what the scale and measuring tape say today after NBC’s The Biggest Loser. I don’t feel lighter, so any loss on the scale will be a big joy.

I wonder what the major drama is going on at the Biggest Loser? What is bringing the 40 year old from New York to tears? Don’t tell me he’s at goal weight already. All of them looks so good. I can’t wait to see the final show.

Bug Your Body

I knew that these would be out on retail soon. It’s the Bodybugg and anyone who has been watching The Biggest Loser has seen the contestants wear it.

 

How does it work?

The sensors on the Bodybugg tell you how many calories you consume and expend online. So if you don’t like to set exercises, the Bodybugg will tell you how have many calories you burn just going through your daily life.

 

The cost?

For $500 owners of the Bodybugg will get:

• The Armband

• Digital Display

• Online food logging

• 3 month subscription to the web based program

• 2 phone sessions with a bodybugg coach

 

All I can say is OMG! For that price, I can purchase a membership to 24 hour fitness. Of course as someone who has over 300 pounds to lose, it’s a tool that I could use to figure out how many calories to eat during the day.

 

Sure there have been people who tested it and that have lost weight. I believe the largest amount of weight was in the 40-pound range. The question always will be “Will it work for me?”

 I’m wondering if Apex (a division) of 24 hour fitness is willing to give a girl like me one to try out. I could see myself wearing one every day and talking about it.

For more on health and fitness check out:
Encouraging Health

Midweek Check In

Weight loss is an absolutely long journey to travel or at least it feels that way. Especially around the holidays when there is food, sweets, and treats all over the place.

My plan is to let myself have one treat each week so I don’t end up in that all or nothing attitude. I know if I end up with that kind of attitude then everything will go haywire and I’ll end up eating more sweets than I want to.

Target Heart Rate
Now that I have a routine of doing aerobic activity every day. I want to work on my rarget heart rate. The last time I exercised my heart rate was at 130. I have no idea if this is what my target heart rate should be. So today I’m going to have to sit down and figure it out here.

Eating
I’m still working on having my calories range between 1800 – 2200. I have two things against me at the moment. We don’t have the food in the house and I don’t get very hungry during the daytime. It looks like it will have to come down to someone reminding me to eat during the day.

How is everyone else doing? How are you going to handle the holidays?