Abdomination

spartacus26

spartacus26

0
Hi diary. I'm going to use you to help me do a health 180. I have plenty of bad habits and a generally unhealthy way of living. I have dieted, pretended to diet, worked out infrequently, worked out frequently for short spurts of time, and given up and given up and given up. I know that this is everyone's story, and not just mine, but I need to see it.

How healthy have I been overall in the past 10 years? Not very, and now it's starting to wear on my system in a way that I feel/deal with on a daily basis. I must get better or I'll get no where.

I'm currently in college to put my life onto a more successful track than it was when I was a teacher. I've put a lot of thought into what made me leave and what parts of that job not working were me as opposed to what parts were the school I taught at. I have a few personality traits to clean up before reentering the working world. I'm also more than 100 pounds overweight, which appears in many people's eyes as an outward sign of an inward problem (sorry to quote Clean House, but there it is). Two of those eyes are my own.

I'm working on dealing with low self esteem, but it's hard to keep it up when I'm ashamed of the nothing that I'm doing to help myself. Lately I've felt a fire building. It's been getting bigger little by little as I realize how I've limited myself due to my size (and because of that, my osteoarthritis being more of a problem than it should and getting worse more quickly than it should, and bursitis in a knee making me realize that walking miles and miles at Disney World isn't just a financially-impossible dream, but a physically impossible one as well).

I see all the bad. The hard. The hurt. And I eat to quell it. That has to stop. So I'm making a commitment to myself, which goes as follows (mostly stolen a Bob Greene, in case you recognize it):

I, Amber P., hereby commit myself to 12 weeks of regular vigorous exercise (scheduled at 7 AM four days a week and 9 AM otherwise, but not limited to that) and to self-control when it comes to my eating.

I will be focused on challenging my abilities in the pursuit of elevating my physical performance and adding healthy habits to my daily life. In addition I will not indulge in more than one alcoholic drink per day, and only that if I have drunk at least 64 ounces of water previously.

I will also terminate my consumption of all food after 7:30 PM. I will endeavor to be conscious of when and why I eat and will, to the best of my ability, eat simply to satisfy my nutritional needs as opposed to my emotional needs.

I will also do my best to make healthful food choices. I realize that this contract is solely with myself and that is carries no rewards, penalties, or punishments other than those associated with the reflection of the strength of my character.

13 Day of November, 2009
ASP
 
This Week's Menu ~ Gold Standard

Breakfast: 3/4 cup bran cereal; 8 oz lowfat milk
Snack: 1 small banana
Lunch: RF peanut butter tortilla wrap (lowcarb tortilla); apple
Snack: 12 grapes
Dinner: either: orange ginger glazed or roasted baby carrots
either: macaroni and cheese or indian vegetable curry
either: spinach salad or baked onion rings

All recipes from Kid's Diet book I found.
 
First off - good for you and your decision to get healthy!

Second, have you read all the stickies? There's a ton of good information in them. I don't think you need 7 days of vigorous exercise for 12 weeks. One day of light or no exercise can actually be healthier.

Also - what if you miss a day? I urge you in advance - if you slip up, don't eat right, can't make your exercise workout - DON'T PANIC! Just make sure you get right back with the plan. Do your workout in the evening, do extra the next day. Don't focus on the mistake - focus on getting back on track. Even if you can't make 6 days a week for 12 weeks, 3 days a week for those 12 weeks is still better than 6 days for 2 weeks, and then nothing the remaining 10 ;)

All in all, welcome a board and good luck!
 
Thanks for your encouragement! I was trying to get the message across that if 7AM didn't happen, that I'd do it later. Thank God my job isn't writing, right?

I also don't plan to work out 7 days a week, but if I plan to miss Sunday, and miss Thursday instead, I give up. I'm trying to work with myself.

And I'm excited to get started! A workout plan is upcoming...
 
Hey, sounds like a good start!

And my point about 'skipping' was that even if you do miss Thursday because something comes up - don't let that make you miss Friday and Saturday and, and, and...

A slip-up once in a while is finding. Turning a single slip-up into an excuse to fall off the wagon not so much. In fact, it's better if you can avoid thinking about 'the wagon' at all. Just shore yourself up and realize that maybe you could have done better in the past, but the past is done, and the trick is to do better during the week.

How's your workout plan coming?
 
Jeannette401, thanks again. I didn't get what you meant before. You're absolutely right, though. The wagon should be wholly avoided in order to get anything done.

My workout schedule is going to start out small and work it's way into bigger, so:
Monday: Wii strength/yoga
Tuesday: bike ride
Wednesday: Wii strength/yoga
Thursday: bike ride
Friday: Wii strength/yoga; elliptical options
Saturday: bike ride/elliptical
Sunday: bike ride/ elliptical

I also have a huge amount of workouts stolen from magazines that I'll work in when I feel up to it. I can't believe how completely out of shape I've gotten. Thirty seconds of plank on Monday still hurt last night when I went to sleep.
 
Who got all excited and bought produce for last week that didn't get eaten? Me.

Who's cheap? Me.

Who's only eating veggies and spinach salad today until they're all gone? Me.

Don't worry, I'm counting calories, too. I mean, 5 apples can really pile up.

And I think tomorrow my body may hate me, but that's okay, because tomorrow is not Monday. Yay!
 
Haha. I'm bad about buying produce and having some of it spoil. I've just tell myself 1) EAT IT and 2) it's better to buy it and have some go to waste than to never buy it and not eat any of it.

But this year I actually have a planter box with some greens in it - the hope being that the veggies won't spoil if they're still attached to the plant ;)

Don't forget to include some protein in your meal today though! It helps make your body hate you a little less ;)

Hopefully Monday isn't going to badly for you. ine is... definitely Monday.
 
Hi Amber. I love the idea of making a contract with yourself! What a good idea.

One thing that helps is to focus on baby steps - pick one thing a day or a week that you'll try to change - whether it's eating more veg, or increasing your protein, or getting out and exercising. You don't have to do everything at once ... it's all progress.

I have a friend who always reminded me that it's kind of like playing the piano: No one expects you to sit down the first day and play Beethoven's 9th. :) You have to start small, with scales and notes, and move up to the big stuff. Learning to be healthy is the same way. No one expects you to know it all and do it perfectly right away. You have to take it in small steps and before you know it - you're there. :)
 
To jeanette: you're absolutely right, and so far none of it has spoiled. I sure did eat protein that day. Two servings of grapes and an apple into it I decided that turkey lunchmeat needed a place somewhere in my tummy and I took care of that! My monday ended up being okay, sorry yours wasn't. My today, however, has been filled with klutziness to the nth degree! No!

To Kara: Great comparison!! I'll keep that one in mind. And that's how I'm trying to get it done; my Jewish mother voice telling me that I should be doing more at any moment while I plod along day by day and realize little things that'll add up (like, I can't pack fruit for lunch unless I have some way to keep it from bruising. and When do I overeat the most? At night, when I'm tired and/or bored. I also noticed another pattern of destructive behavior that I do after I overeat. And I realized that not buying pastries when you're hungry for them is a great way to have no overeating option. Apparently I'm lazy before all else, so if there are no quick eats I just don't. Great, huh?)

Whoa that was longer than I intended. Point being, I'm still on the fact finding part of my journey. I've lost 2.5 pounds so far, which is great, but my primary focus is on making my life healthier. I have produce in the house, but now it needs to get into my belly!
 
Hey, sounds like you're doing good!

And definitely not buying the pastries is the first step to not eating them. Just make sure you keep enough in the house that grabbing fast food isn't easier :D

And I just put an apple in my jacket pocket - it hasn't seemed to have bruised yet! I also keep some dry roasted Edamame (soy beans) at my desk if I have the urge for a snack :D
 
Dry roasted edemame? Very nice idea there. I love edemame, only it's hard to carry around. Where do you find it dry roasted?

As for my updates, I'm getting a stationary bike here soon!! I'm really excited, only not in the usual now-I'll-get-off-my-butt-and-do-something way, but in another way:

It's really cold in my house, which is under trees and not a slab. So I'm excited about the stationary bike because that means when I'm freezing (like now) I can jump on for 5 or 10 minutes and warm up. Which is the best thing ever!! It's also recumbent so my butt is already happy.

I'm working on finding a good strength workout, but I realized in typing that, that a) I have one a couple posts up and 2) I need to just jump in and get my hands dirty, rather than finding the perfect one. The excuses we come up with, right?

I'm also excited because I printed off a chart with 1500 square for fruits and veggies to be consumed in the coming year and another with 300 squares for hours of working out. Woot! (I'm really visually oriented, so charts help a lot).

Thanks, as always for your help!
 
2) I need to just jump in and get my hands dirty, rather than finding the perfect one. The excuses we come up with, right?
Click to expand...

Lyle McDonald posted something in his forum the other day that I saved:
... you will get far more benefit from actually doing SOMETHING than spending endless time trying to figure out 'what's best'. People waste weeks and months worrying endlessly about irrelevant details when what they should be doing is acting.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people need to take that to heart. Sure, do some research and figure out what's best for you, but don't spend so much time researching that you use it as an excuse to not actually act. :)
 
KaraCooks said:
Lyle McDonald posted something in his forum the other day that I saved:


I think a lot of people need to take that to heart. Sure, do some research and figure out what's best for you, but don't spend so much time researching that you use it as an excuse to not actually act. :)
Click to expand...

You got it. I live in academia, so that works on a myriad of levels. Or maybe a plethora. ;-)

Have a great weekend!
 
Hooray! My astonishingly wonderful benefactors (e.g. my parents) have decided to buy a stationary bike for me! This is what I plan to do until it arrives.

Walk to/from school each day that I can (trying to keep the bursitis from coming back)

Monday: Wii strength bball push ups
Tuesday: Wii yoga
Wednesday: Wii strength
Thursday: Wii yoga
Friday: Balance ball ab work and push ups
Saturday: bike ride/elliptical
Sunday: bike ride/ elliptical

Just 6 of these. Hell, if I do three it'll be a start.
 
Nice! I like my Wii fit, although admittedly I use it far far less than when I first got it :D

I get the dry roasted edamame at a regular grocery store (Smith's). I've also seen it in 'health' stores, although it seems its more commonly called 'soy nuts'. I like the ones I've got myself.

And yay for the stationary bike! :D I'd like to get an elliptical for home, but I really don't have room for it right now.

Have you looked at the sticky here for a basic weight training plan? There are some really simple ones that will work, or you can ping Steve who gives advice based on the equipment you've got. If you're using the Wii strength program you should still try to do at least one major lower body exercise, plus one each of push and pull for vertical or horizontal. ... That probably sounds confusing. An example:

Workout 1 - Squats, pushups, dumb bell or band rows.
Workout 2 - Squats, pull-ups (assisted or negatives* if you're like me!) overhead press with band or dumb bells.

*Negatives just means you climb up to the top of the bar on a chair or something, and then fall down, trying to slow yourself as much as possible.

Good luck on keeping the bursitis away though!
 
Genius! Thanks!! I'd totally forgotten about horizontal/vertical and push/pull. Or maybe I never quite got it.

I just made up my own tonight, but I'll try yours tomorrow. And I'm looking up assisted negatives, because all I've ever done when it came time in the gym for pull-ups was fall. I have seriously bad upper body strength!

Maybe next year my upper body strength goal will be a pull up. It's 25 full push-ups this year. I'm going to be working on the balance ball for them at first, to build myself up.

I'm a little worried about lower body, since the bursitis knee crackles at anything where I bend my knees (stairs included. Who know I could be so scared of them so young?). I did some plie squats and normal squats until I was scared. Who knew being terrified of hurting myself would confine me like this? Whew. Sorry. I had to vent.

On a positive note, I ate well today. Even included some veggies! (Plus no seconds at dinner which was nice.)
 
Sounds like you're doing good on the eating! I wish it was always easy!

And I hear you on the knee. I tore mine up trying to run on a hard track while carrying too much weight... not good. I have one knee that crackles going up stairs, and the other knee crackles going down stairs.

I can do squats now, although for some reason my knee doesn't like lunges. Squats that go below parallel are safer than staying at parallel. And supposedly box squats (where you actually sit on a box) are safer. I keep meaning to do box squats instead myself, but I have a tendency to forget until I'm done and have that V-8 moment. :p

Good work on the push-ups! I can probably do 10 sloppy full push-ups now :D I know I don't do them perfectly, but these things take time, right? I'm hoping to be able to do a good pull-up some time next year, but I know it'll be a while. My gym has an assisted pull-up machine which I use. Although I hear people recommend using bands for the assist rather than the machines... I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen though, so I make do with the assist machine.
 
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