Medicine Wheel Health -Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Emotional

Kaiser3

Kaiser3

New member
Hi there,
I'm new to being serious about being healthy. I am a nursing student and I want to be a good example for my future and current patients by living the best life I can. I want to be as balanced as I can so that I am healthy overall, not just worrying about my weight and looks.

I want to keep a record of my activities, thoughts, moods, and foods every day so that I can track where I need to improve.

My bigger goals are to get up to an hour of physical activity every day, 5-10 vegetables and fruits every day, and to complete a sprint distance triathlon by next summer. In the process, I am hoping to lose 25 pounds, from 150 - 125, which is what I used to be when I was at my healthiest.

In the meantime, I will start with smaller things.

3 veggies and one fruit daily.
1/2 hour of time spent outdoors every day.
5 minutes of meditation every day.
4-6 small meals through the day, eating until I am 80% full only.
 
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Day1

It's been an interesting first day.
I saw that lots of people on here keep track of calories with FitDay, so I went on there and recorded what I was eating. I knew that a lot of things I ate weren't healthy, but seeing the numbers come up really hits hard.

Today, I had granola, saskatoons and milk for breakfast. And because I saw how much it was worth before I ate it, I only ate half and put the rest in the frig for later.
That's more than 400 calories right there. Yikes.

Then I had broccoli and cauliflower with veggie dip, and two slices of rye toast with an egg.

Then a carrot and dip and the rest of my granola.

Then a pear for a snack.

All told, about 1400 calories, and I didn't even wash it down with a beer or two like I normally do. Jeez, a beer has 150 calories!

I said earlier that I know the principles of eating well and exercising, but I already feel faudulent in that statement. If I knew what eating well was really about, why haven't I been doing it!? :)

And no exercise today, but I have a legitimate excuse. I twisted my ankle a few days ago and I've been walking on it because I had to work, but I wanted to give it a true break before I have to go back so it doesn't get any worse.
Although, I suppose I should have done crunches or something. Damnation!

This is going to be tough.
 
Hi Korrie,
Nice to meet you!
I'm just finishing up the 1st year of an after-degree program that speeds us through in 2 years. I get two months off, and then 12 months straight coming up!
How far are you in your program?

Rachel


Aside to myself...

I just realized that I didn't post anything about mood, thoughts, meditation etc.
My mood was pretty good. I woke up early, did some work, then wasted lots of time on the Internet.
I will meditate before bed.
I met my veggie/fruit goal today, so that's good
 
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Canada must do things differently than we do??? We only have 3 semesters (one year) of classes for nursing. I just finished up my 1st semester, we mainly focused on skills (trache tubes, shots, IVs, ect) and pharmacology. I did take the summer off though, so i'm gonna graduate later than I expected, but I needed the time off!!

good luck on your weight loss journey! let me know if you have any questions !!
 
Fried sushi and beer. Oh dear.

Today I woke up early. I hate that on a weekend! I had hoped my ankle would be better, but it is still swollen, so no running or biking for me. It sucks. I was just getting into a routine, and now I am all de-motivated again. I could do an exercise video, but we are having nice weather, and I hate being indoors. Maybe I'll do one later...

I started eating well early today, but it fell apart right away. I went out to go grocery shopping, and my cousin called me to go do some errands, so I went with her. Then I got hungry and bought a store-bought turkey sandwich that had butter/cheese/mayo on it. Blech. And I also bought a coffee, which I normally drink black, but it was too bitter, so I added full cream because I hate the taste of skim in my coffee.

Then we went for sushi, which would normally be fine, but we got some of it deep-fried. Not such a healthy choice anymore!

Now I am seriously considering the call of that nice cold beer in the frig - sitting out on my balcony on this beautiful sunny day with a book, tunes, and a beer or two. Even though I know it might be a poor diet choice, I'll probably do it anyway because it sounds deliciously decadent to me, and I am feeling a bit sorry for myself because of all the homework I have to do and the fact that no one is calling me to go out tonight. (I told everyone I had homework so it isn't that I have bad friends, but I am feeling sorry for myself anyways!)

I read somewhere, maybe on this forum, that a craving usually takes between 3 and 10 minutes to pass. That is doable, right?

I'll wait 10 minutes and have a glass of water, and then we shall see, shan't we...

To Korrie,
Yes, I guess it's different in Canada. To be an RN here, you need to do a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I am lucky because I did a previous degree, so they have a program that lets you skip the arts courses and such and just do straight science and nursing courses in 2 years instead of 4. We also have LPN programs that are shorter than 4 years, but that's not the stream I am swimming. ;)
Thanks for your support so far. I will definitely let you know if I have questions.
 
I filled my beer basket.

Oh Shit.

Well the waiting on a craving to pass thing definitely didn't work. I had three beer and a bowl of cherries while I avoided my homework, and then I went out dancing and had two more beer. At least the dancing was vigourous!
So I had a whopping 2500 calorie day yesterday, thanks to all the beer.
Nicely though, I didn't get wasted. That's a plus. Those 5 beer were over 9 hours.
However, the homework is still not done, so what am I doing HERE?

Today I'm having a good start again, an apple to keep the doc off my back.
More later.
 
Recovery

Well, today went much better than yesterday. Still no exercise though, which I am being silly about. Just because my ankle still hurts isn't an excuse to not do sit ups or some stretching or yoga or something. The truth is, today, I am suffering from lack of sleep and overage of alcohol, which made me very lazy.

I went for brunch this morning and had some amazing poached eggs on an english muffin with smoked salmon, capers, and a cream dill sauce and cheese, all baked in the oven. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I skipped the last egg and english muffin though, although I didn't miss a single piece of salmon or cheese. :Angel_anim:

Then I had snowpeas, plain airpopped popcorn, a ham sandwich with tomato, and a pear throughout the rest of the day. All told, not too bad.

Tomorrow, I start the pushup challenge.
 
I had a relatively good day foodwise. I feel overtired today though, so I ate too much, as I usually do when I am tired. Counterproductive, really, as all that digestion makes me sleepier!

It's a good thing I checked in here today though, because I already forgot I am supposed to start doing the pushup challenge today! I would have left it and then kicked myself. Now I can do it when I get off here.

I had a funny day in the mental hospital today where I am doing a practicum. One patient escaped his bath helpers and ran naked through the unit, to the glee of the other patients, and one patient who cut his knuckle somehow in the night decided to use it as an opportunity to express himself by writing on the walls in his blood...

It's too funny though because in reality these patients are very sweet. They just do crazy things!

Okay, off to do pushups. Hopefully it will get me started on the exercise train.
 
Hello Kaiser & fellow Albertan, welcome to the Forum. :)

LOL, sounds like some of the patients I was in with...;)

Those are some awesome goals!! Keep workin hard, I'll be cheerin ya on! WOOT! :)

Lata :waving:
 
Hi RunningGirl, thanks for the post!

I totally $%#^$ed up yesterday. But since I am trying to be truthful I will tell all.
Foodwise, I started out not so bad, veggies, and whole wheat and ham. But then I went grocery shopping to get some supplies for making a cake for where I am working and bought a package of those Annette's donuts, (cake donuts covered in powdered sugar) and ate 9 of them.
Jeez.
Then I came home and cooked a frozen pizza that I bought along with the donuts and ate half of it. I would have eaten the whole thing but for the fact that my brother came home and surprised me, so I gave him the rest, pretending I wouldn't have eaten it all in one go.
I have to admit, this is not a one-time thing for me. I go on these binges, not too often, but often enough. This is definitely one of the reasons I stay pudgy.

On the positive side, I am doing the push-up challenge just fine. At least one thing isn't falling apart.

Today though, I went out with my ex for a couple beer just to chat as he was picking up some stuff he left at my place. It was great to see him, and good to have the beer, but it is dietarily not a good choice. And I plan to have more drinks tomorrow as a celebration with some nursing buddies.

I was doing really well before I bunged up my ankle. I just have no motivation now, and I don't know how to get it back. I am not good at pushing through the rough times.
 
Okay, I am feeling better today. I think I am partially recovered from my binge.

I decided to follow my own advice I gave to someone else and decide on definite numbers for my calorie requirements. Then I will know how far off I am when I am off. I am using the site to figure this out.

When I am sedentary, I need 1777 calories per day to maintain my weight of 150 lbs. To lose a pound a week, I need to reduce that to 1277.

When I am exercising lightly 1 - 3 times a week, I need 2036 calories to maintain my weight. To lose, I should eat 1536.

When I am exercising harder 3-5 times a week, I need 2300 to maintain, 1800 to lose.

Obviously if I lose weight, I'll have to recalculate this, but that seems doable for now. Since my ankle is sore, I won't be doing any hard exercise for awhile, so I will aim to take in 1200-1500 calories a day, depending on my exercise.
Now I have a goal.
Slowly but surely, I hope to get there. I have never been successful with weight loss before, but maybe with these more specific goals, I can do it.
 
According to the same site I cited in my previous post, my waist of 35, hips of 41, wrist of 6, and forearm of 9.6 inches gives me a body fat percentage of 32.78.
That seems very high, as it puts me in the obese category, and I don't think I am, but whatever. I will use it only as a measuring stick to determine whether I am decreasing the percentage, not as an absolute number.

I do see that my because my waist to hip ratio is not great, .85, I need to work on decreasing my fat percentage to put me in a lower risk category for things like cardiovascular disease. I see that when they measure the waist though, they say put the tape measure at the top of your highest hip bone. If I put it above my belly button, my waist is 32, which makes me healthy. I am confused as to where 'waist' is defined. Is it just above the hip, or at the belly button?
 
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Hello Kaiser,

I am not too exactly sure about which waist (oops) measurement is the correct one either.

In the challenge I am in so that it is fair to everyone, because some are larger and not able to find certain measurement's is what my understanding of it is. Is that we've been measuring our "waist" across the belly button. Which makes mine 27, BUT when I measure my "other waist" ;) it's 24...so the Hip bone being easy enough, but the waist, I think it is where it goes in (if that makes sense) Although I have found other pics of bodies and where is the right area of the Waist...it seems to be one of those two places. You could always measure both places weekly...:)

I've seen ppl measure their "higher thigh" and than "lower thigh" along with their butt. LOL and why not?

Anyways, good to hear you pulled through that tough spot. I know all about those lil white powdered doughnuts. In another two weeks I will be fighting those lil cinnamon doughnuts at the Stampede. ;)

Take Care, Lata
 
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In my training we were taught to take the hip measurement at the iliac crest and the waist at the narrowest point. but as long as the measurement location is consistant it should be fine for tracking changes. I have measurements done each month by another trainer including calipers for bf%
 
I know, I know. That low of calories is not a good idea. But I just feel so much more motivated when I can see a dramatic difference early on. I'm more likely to stick to it. 10 pounds doesn't make a difference on me...I'd have to lose at least 20-30 pounds before seeing it. That would be like 3 months of dieting before I noticed, if I did it moderately. But I'll take your advice to heart...I went to that website you told me about and my BMR is like 1845 a day. I will be careful, promise :)
 
Good! I just don't want you to be ill. I understand your motivation needs though. It feels better if you see or feel a difference right away.
I do find that exercise itself motivates me, particularly the muscle-building type. When I feel sore a lot, I think I can "feel" my muscles growing, which makes me feel good even if I don't see the scale moving or change my clothes sizes.
Take it easy on yourself. You're doing great just by being here and making some changes!
 
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Thanks for your replies, Trusylver and RunningGirl. I do understand about the waist being the part that goes "in", lol. That's what makes sense to me, but it just seemed there was conflicting ideas about where to measure.
The iliac crest for the hip seems high to me because that isn't where I'm widest. Maybe it is for you, Trusylver because you're in shape! I think I will just keep track of it all and make sure it shrinks. . .
 
Reality check

Okay, so this whole calorie restriction thing is not yet happening for me.
I have been religiously keeping track of my intake since June 18, and discovered I generally take in around 2100 per day. Which is fine for maintenance and weight gaining, but I am certainly not going to lose any weight since I am not exercising. I need to reduce my calories and increase my activity.
I am noticing that I am pretty good throughout the day. It is beyond about 6pm that my intake goes to crap. Yesterday I was having a fabulous day and then scarfed two huge peanut butter sandwiches, thus putting me way over the top again. The day before, it was the alcohol that did it.

So, new goals are in order, I guess, since I am currently making no progress whatsoever.

Since my regular intake is about 2100, I will now not let myself consume over 1600 per day for the next while, and see how that goes.

Since I am not getting any exercise, I will now get outside moving for 1/2 hour every day like I said I would in the beginning. Either that, or I am doing a video.

I will not consume anything beyond water and an occasional apple after 7pm. My calorie intake goes to hell right around then, so if I just don't eat at night, I should be okay.

I think that's enough for now. My mood has not been so good lately, and I am sure it is related to the lack of exercise. Before I hurt my ankle I was doing lots and feeling pretty motivated and happy. Now I just sit around or worse, lie around, unless I am out drinking and dancing...
So, in spite of my silly ankle, I have to get back into exercise. My life is just not that fun without it.
 
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sigh...

Okay, tomorrow is a new day.
These last couple of weeks have been educational for me. I see how little activity I am doing, and how much I am eating. Recently too, I am drinking lots of alcohol, celebrating school's end and all. However, the last of that was this weekend, and my ankle is feeling a lot better, so starting tomorrow, I will be able to be better about my foods/drinks/exercise regimes.

Tomorrow I have a pushup 'workout', which I actually like doing.
Also, I am biking over to my new work site, so I can test how my ankle is doing when I bike.
Also, walking doesn't seem to hurt at all, so I will definitely get out for at least half an hour.
And tomorrow, I will keep my calories to 1500. Period. I know I can do this. Events just keep happening lately, and now that they are over, I can reset.

I haven't yet been very steady on the meditation thing, but I will do 5 minutes tonight before I sleep. Nice thing though, I am not stressed at all, and I have had lots of family/friend contact recently, so my social life is humming.

Just gotta get into food/exercise rhythm, and all will be right with my world.
 
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