Getting Functionally Fit

thanks for swinging by again miss ladybug, appreciate the support

ok, so last night, i started getting really sick. i couldnt stand up because i would get very dizzy, my temperature went up about 6 degrees in less than 8 hours, my whole body ached terribly. felt like i was dying or something, lol. took a whole bunch of medicine, finally fell asleep, made it through the night, and woke up this morning with no fever at all, no dizziness, and just some very minor left over aches, and a bit of a sore throat from all the coughing. quite the change over night. whether or not its true, im going to attribute that to the healthy eating. just an added bonus motivator, lol. my gf had the flu and kicked her butt for over a week, my mother had very similar symptoms as me, and she was out for a week, and I can defeat it over night, lol. its gotta be the healthy lifestyle!

weighed in this morning at 428 flat. most likely some fluid reduction from being sick. however, it has made me curious about how illness affects the metabolism. if anyone has any information or studies on how illness affects metabolism, i would love to see it.
 
Hey Coach -- hope you're over your "flu". I found that once I started getting healthier, it was a lot easier to beat these bugs. I used to get colds that lasted 2 weeks. This year, I caught a couple of them, but they were gone in a day.
 
this morning i feel quite a bit better (lol, as i wrote that, i coughed a bit). no aches, no fever, no dizziness, just a bit of a cough still. i just hope it doesnt escalate back up again today.

anyways, weighed myself this morning, 426.2. i am expecting a fairly large jump in weight once i get over this sickness and can resume normal fluid intake, then it should level back out again. however, i am also starting to consider that perhaps i am also in too large of a deficit, as i have lost 13.8 pouns in a week and a half. i know larger people can lose weight quicker at the beginning without it being unhealthy, but it seems as though that might still be a little too quick. going to give it some more time while i fight this illness, a couple of days to balance back out after, and then re-evaluate.
 
Coach, 13.8 lb.s in one week is pretty impressive, but as you suspected, I think a very big portion of that (4 to 5 lbs) is water.
 
thanks cannon, teaching does impose some unique challenges, especially as a substitute, since I do not know what my schedule is going to look like until i get in and see the lesson plan. in this district, though, each teacher is pretty much guarenteed 3 periods of the 9 off each day, 2 for planning and 1 for lunch. so i just plan to have something ready to eat for those times, and hope that I can make something work as far as splitting it up a bit to keep my hunger levels even. one thing i never ever do is rely on the cafeteria to supply me with something to eat. in the rare occasion in the past where i have forgotten to bring my own food, i have driven home and gotten something, or driven to a local store and picked up something. i am kind of lucky however, that as a substitute, even things change a bit from day to day, i still do not have as much responsibility as a full-time teacher, which does give me a bit of leeway.

ok, here is todays update. woke up feeling not too bad, symptoms didnt flare up last night nearly as much as in the past couple of nights. it is actually bearable now, lol. think i can have this defeated by tomorrow, which would put me at 4 days, as opposed to my mother and other family members taking closer to 10 days. im using that as a good sign that eating healthy has plenty of benefits, lol. weighed in this morning at 424.8. appetite is off from sickness, not getting quite enough calories as i should be, nor am i getting quite enough fluids. as im sure lots are familiar with, its harder than hell to get in your food and drink when you are under the weather. so i am expecting a rebound in the next couple of days, probably shoot back up to 430 or so, which seems like a lot, but i have to remember that 5 pounds is still only 1% of my body weight, completely within natural daily fluctuations. anyways, for now, just going to continue taking it easy and getting plenty of rest while my body kicks this sickness to the curb.
 
oh the big numbers were the fun ones to loose back in the beginning *G* :D
I gained weight when i had a flue, then i lost it again. I think it was the body retaining fluid for some reason just for that week.
Somebody else iirc had the same thing happen - was very weird.
 
wow, cant believe i didnt post in my own diary for two full days, lol. oh well, been taking it easy trying to recover from my sickness, and i feel pretty darn good today. just have some residual damage to my lungs from the nasty hacking cough i had (coughed blood yesterday morning). otherwise, im pretty much back to normal, though i am still taking it a bit easy to ensure i dont aggravate anything right back. however, i am due for a weekly evaluation again, so i will be doing that sometime soon today.

anyways for now, at 425 flat. went to doctor yesterday for bloody cough, and their very high quality digital scales there confirmed that my scales are accurate. also, BP was lower than last time i went there, though not neccesarily as low as it should be. starting to notice a pattern with my weight, which i will go into more depth on in my eval.
 
Hey Coach that's good news about your BP. Losing 10% of your body weight gives you some pretty drastic health improvements. You're not too far away from that.
 
thanks for the kind words Kim and Cannon, appreciate it much. dont know why i never thought to look at weight in terms of percentages. thats a good way to set goals and progress checks.

going to do my evaluation now. I will do weekly with cumulative in bold. weekly is for Tuesday, May 29th through Monday, June 4th.

Average Daily Calories - 2,256 2,330
Fat - 64g (-1g) 25% (+1%) 65g 25%
Saturated Fat - 15g (-2g) 6% (+0%) 16g 6%
Carbohydrates - 247g (-14g) 40% (+0%) 254g 40%
Fiber - 26g (-5g) 28g
Protein - 178g (-21g) 32% (-2%) 188g 33%
Sodium - 5,700mg (-1200mg) 6,300mg
Average Daily Deficit - ~1850 calories
Low Micronutrients - Vitamin A (86%), Calcium (78%), Vitamin D (9%), Magnesium (58%), Vitamin E (92%), Manganese (44%), Copper (34%)
Total Calories for week, cumulative - 15,800 (-1,100) 32,700
Deficit for Week, cumulative - 12,900 24,700
Estimated Tissue Loss - 3.7 pounds 7.1 pounds
Actual Weight Loss - 9.4 pounds 15.2 pounds
Projected 4 Week Weight - 410 pounds on 6/26/07
Projected 12 Week - 366 pounds on 8/21/07
Exercise - Minimal

I also found some more interesting stuff that fitday does:
Minimum Daily Calorie Budget - 2,200
Maximum - 2,600
Average Percent of Minimum - 105.93%
Average Percent of Maximum - 89.63%
Days below Minimum - 4 days (29%)
Above Maximum - 0 days
Average amount below Minimum - 95 calories
Days within range - 10 days ( 71%)
Minimum Daily intake - 2,076 (6/3/07)
Maximum Daily Intake - 2,537 (5/28/07)
Median Daily Intake - 2,392
Standard Deviation of Daily Intake - 162 calories

So, as far as the actual evaluation...
All in all, things were about the same as the previous week. Still would like to lower fat by 2-4%, and increase protein by the same. Saturated fats are in check, sodium has gone down a bit. My total calories were a little bit low on a few occasions, due to being sick, but i still ate healthy and proper. Just didnt have much of an appetite so I had to force myself to eat on more than one occasion. Micros were hurting a little bit, i think also because of the calorie reduction. generally speaking, i think im going in the right direction and making good changes for a healthier lifestyle. Still working on the exercise thing, but I am pretty sure I will have access to a gym by mid-next week at the latest. Which means some forms of cardio that I can actually get myself to do consistantly. Weight projections are still a little "zealous", though I do think I will be hitting progress point number 1 (400 pounds) well before its originally planned date of 9/1/07. I think I will take Cannon's idea with percent lost, and do body measurements and maybe even pictures every 10% lost. Perhaps it might show a correlation between what percent weight must be lost in order for a person to see a physical change. Thats probably a bit broad, but might show at least what i need to lose to see change. Psychologically speaking, I am having no trouble with past demons. Temptation has reared its ugly head maybe twice in the last two weeks, and it was easy enough to pass up both times. Something has definitely clicked, and I am still searching to find what that was. Will make note of it if I can discover it, so that I can use it again in the future if i should start to struggle again.
 
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getting back on the horse after being sick is the hardest part - but its better to get back on than slack off.
I think i used to use that excuse a lot - i would get sick and drop the exercise and diet. This time i think i got it right by not giving up at the first sign of adversity, in fact ive been sick about 3 or 4 times since i started and even fallen off my bike and broke my ribs amoung other things.
On the other hand - last time i got sick i was better within 2 days - i used to end up with chest infections and 3 weeks of crap when i was larger. Now it barely even phases me! :D
Anyway, hopeing to inspire rather than rant here hehe :)

Keep up the good work! you are rocking along there!
 
Thanks for the kind words, I believe I have passed this test. getting sick did not deter me from eating healthy much at all, only reduced my calories a little. Was still able to stick to plan even though it took a bit more work and effort.

So far I have defeated the following tests: "Long day at work", "Full day out of town", "seriously ill", "Family function/event" and "prolonged fast hunger binge temptation". I still have yet to face, though have plenty of confidence: "Holiday", "large scale family function/event" (usually goes along with holiday, first one will prolly be july 4th weekend), "Vacation", "long day of classes", "Visiting girlfriend" and last but one of the hardest "Going out to eat".

Also, I have seen a little bit of a pattern form with my weight measurements. I seem to lose for 3-4 days, make a slight upward jump, take a day to get back to even, and then lose for 3-4 days again, repeat, etc. basically its a 5-6 day rotation that is resulting in fairly large net losses. I find it interesting, but I do not dwell on those numbers.

44 pounds lost will be a 10% decrease in weight, putting me at 396 pounds. I will re-measure my body parts at that point and post any changes. I havent decided if the next 10% loss should be based on the original starting weight (meaning another 44 pound loss for 10%) or if it should be based on the new weight (a 39.6 pound loss for 10% of new weight). i think the second method is probably more accurate statistically speaking. how about i worry about losing the first 10% first... lol
 
Ahh holidays and large meals are easy - fill up on veges, then when the good stuff comes you only need a little bit :D

And yeah mine used to be like that - the jumps and starts.
I would loose nothing for 5 days other than 0.5-1lb then over the weekend i would drop anything up too 2-5lb
 
When I was actually losing for several months and before I hit this plateau and then recent 4 lb gain (this SUCKS!), I also followed a pattern of going immediately back up after a loss (losses came at week's end and highs came when I tend to eat a lot on the weekends). The important point was that I would always hit a new low almost every week, so the highs really didn't matter (unless they would go up more than 3 pounds and stay there like this time!). I always recorded the new lows as my new weight, even when it would go back up again, because by hitting a "new low" it was clear I had lost some weight even if the scale would increase again, it wouldn't increase as much as the prior week. Rather than having a specific day when I would record my weight, I would record my new low for that week as my weight on Saturday night. It didnt really matter what my weight was every monday or thursday or saturday, it mattered more that each and every week my weight had hit a new low (that hadn't been seen in a few years). I found this a good strategy that allowed me to weigh every day without getting upset when it went up as I continued to view my new low as my weight.
 
Coach, your doing so well! As you probably know, I lose in fits and starts too, except mine tend to last 20 to 40 days instead of 5 to 7 days. That's what happens when you do this in your late fifties, I guess! :)
 
thanks for swinging by everyone.

now that i have said that, BLECH. lol. my weight is at 425.8, up almost 2 pounds. But, in reality, it does not bother me, because it is just as I had expected. I am, at least, now fully rehydrated after being sick, and suffice it to say, am pretty much completely over my illness. so, all in all, good news, and I am ready to keep on trucking, as usual. and its nice to get to say thats its been 15 days without a single binge or unacceptable cheat. actually, in the true meaning of the cheat, i havent even done that yet. havent even felt a need to really. heres hoping this keeps up for, say, the next 70 years, lol.
 
YEAH Coach is back in action once again. I'm happy your feeling better now! Good luck the rest of this week, I hope you drop those few pounds in no time!
Kim
 
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