Weight Loss and Exercise #7

I did pilates this morning though I didn't have the best sleep last night, so I'm a bit tired. I did a beginner's video, but about 12 min. or so in, it got pretty challenging, with a bridge, leg, and plank series. Plank at the very end when you're tired and ready for the stretching at the end. (That is one thing I really like about the Move with Nicole pilates series; she always ends it with stretching at the end.) It was plank, stay in plank, tap right kneeto ground, stay in plank , tap left knee to ground and so on. Yep, that it is a pretty hard exercise!

I try daily to hold the plank for 1 min. and mostly I succeed by singing songs in my head during the minute. But before the planks I can also do 4 pushups, though sometimes only 3 pushups at the final plank. I have never been able to do this many pushups in my entire life, so plank pratice is good for something! Either that or the arm work in pilates combined with moving the arms powerwalking.

I inject in my stomach. I thought it’s spongier because there’s so much fat there I may as we inject my stomach. Haven’t tried my thigh yet. Not sure if it will be a better spot!

I was hungry this morning so I ate 960 calories. Then my hunger fizzled out as it has been doing and I need to figure out what to eat for dinner.

I lost weight at my weigh in this morning. Pretty much what my gp predicted I’d lose per week. Would have been nice if I lost more though!

A nice little 6k jog this morning felt good, a little chilly but luckily not much frost, almost into March - getting excited about Spring. Working extra tomorrow so going to cut the exercise until Saturday.

@Discombobulated It's awesome you are getting in some great runs! I miss the runner's high, not the injuries I get (but I know I overtrain plus the roads here tend to have tilted grades in parts, potholes in others, though not as bad as the sidewalks! And people park their cars blocking the sidewalks, which they are not supposed to but the HOA which jumps on any little infraction could not care about this at all.

@Tart Cherry Jam - I am so sorry about your migraines and not feeling well. It is so hard to exercise when you don't feel well.

@Crazy Hitch - Awesome job on the weight loss! I'll bet if you add exercise, you will see an even greater result! Is your treadmill set up where you could watch TV while walking on it or have a place to set up a cell and watch something? Definitely DO listen to music at the very least. I think @Blue_Bird over in the bipolar forum listens to audiobooks while she is on the treadmill. I used the treadmill when I belonged to the gym, but those were gym quality; they had a big tray below all the options you could set stuff on; I got a book holder and read books from the library while walking on the treadmill. They also had individual TVs on each treadmill, but they only could show like 5 channels at once in the gym, and it was always on stuff I never wanted to watch. That gym closed after damage from a tropical storm. A new one opened very close to me, but since I started walking outdoors, I just like it better. Of course, the trade-off is I don't have the weight training. Weight training and drinking whey protein shakes had me looking almost like a fitness model except at 5'4" I'm too short, and also I was in my early 30s then!

Our treadmill is in the garage and I think it hooks up to blue tooth because my partner is always listening to music in there. There’s nothing in the garage except 4 white walls, an exercise bike, treadmill and rowing machine. It has a few free weights that I bought from Kmart last year. Nothing fancy. But there’s enough to get me going and getting into an exercise regimen. My psychologist mentioned joining a gym but I’m sole carer of my son during the week because my partner leaves for work at 4:40am and he doesn’t get back until 6:30pm. He works really long hours so I’m better off training at home with our equipment than I am joining a gym!

I had an Atkins shake at 4 then I fell asleep for almost 3 hours and then I ate a frozen micowable cheese omelette for dinner. So I'm a bit low but its not bad.

Crazy Hitch,

It is possible to use the rower for leg strength. A very unusual way to use the ergometer, but fun. My trainer used to give me those exercises, but it was more than a year ago and I forgot. I will ask him next time I see him and record a short video. He said it is an alternative to lunges. I liked those exercises better than lunges!

Today I did stretching.

Yesterday I didn't exercise, but I had a high step count, over 12k, from just moving a lot inside and outside the apartment, talking on the phone.

Normally I've had about 300-450 calories by now. But I just had a couple string cheese and some water. My weight is still the same. I need to be eating more.

@Tart Cherry Jam - 12K steps is awesome! And stretching is good for you too. I once read an article maybe in Women's Health magazine, something like that which said that stretching is actually linked to longevity.

I wish I could wear a Fitbit or similar. I actually do own a Fitbit (Versa, maybe?), but when I wore it, I got really super obsessed with step counting and trying to get higher and higher step counts each day, and finally I said to myself, "This isn't good. This reminds me of ED behavior when I exercised hours and hours a day. I need to stop this." So I stopped wearing it, and for my mental health sake, I am so, so glad. Anyway I know that on the days I go walking, when I get just over 5 miles, I've hit 10,000 steps (from wearing the Fitbit in the past). And that will have to do for me.

This morning, I took a long power walk again, 7.2 miles. The weather wasn't too bad, and there was a nice sunrise. MapMyFitness estimates my power walk burns over 500 calories, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. It does feel like it probably burns close to 500 calories, power walking the entire 7.2 miles. For me, at my current weight, I have to do a lot of work to burn that many calories, but it's also why I eat a lot more than most women probably do. Sometimes the ED thoughts I still have make me feel guilty about it, like I'm eating over 2000 calories a day, some days like 2500 calories but on the other hand, I must need it as I am maintaining my weight. It's still hard though as this ED thinking has never really left my mind

After saying I’d skip the exercise today it actually ended up being super active. Work was fast paced, a bit too much so, then I went for a good walk with my son who walks fast so it pushed my pace, then we washed his car which was actually good fun. None of it felt like exercise which was kind of nice for a change. Time to relax now.

Blueberry, i think i remember that 1 mile is avg 100 calories, no matter if you walk or run. Its the work of transporting your weight that distance. A bike is like one sixth the work, so six bike miles is 100 calories.

So at your efficiency now, 500 plus calories is probably a good ballpark. Certainly not any lower than that.

I actually quite enjoy the rower. When I belonged to a gym it was my go to machine. Our digital display on our one at home is broken and I do prefer to see how many calories I’m burning. Makes me more motivated. My partner still uses the broken display one at home. My iwatch can actually be programmed for exercise so perhaps I should try that. Pretty sure it has an inbuilt rowing app. My partner has just run for half an hour on the treadmill. He’s doing extremely well with his weight loss. His wake up call is prediabetes which the gp reckons he can reverse with diet and exercise. He tests his blood sugar every morning and it’s not quite in range of where it should be - even though he’s not eating anything with sugar. Really struggling with gastro like symptoms this morning. Wegovy, again.

I cleared out my freezer of all the stuff that bugs my GI issues. It was a lot of stuff. I also got my fridge cleaned out..

Today I had a lot of string cheese but not much soda.

@Blueberrybook yup I listen to audiobooks while on the treadmill. Sometimes podcasts or listen/watch YouTube videos on my phone with my Bluetooth headphones just depends what I’m in the mood for

I haven’t been on the treadmill in a couple days but I’ve been waking a lot outside, getting 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day outside. I plan on getting back on the treadmill soon but I need a break from walking in general though cause I have a cut on the back of my ankle I need to heal so I need to take some time away from walking all the time so it can heal. I might just be doing yoga the next couple days while that heals

My wrist felt better after giving it a rest for a couple days so I went back to working out. I did my normal 500 reps with the the ab roller but I didn't push so hard on the roller.

This morning breakfast was pretty decent. Besides the berry Fanta I had, I had a yogurt smoothie pouch and a Kind protein breakfast bar.

Nice 6k this morning, chilly first thing but no frost underfoot, just on cars and rooftops, glad I had my thermal gloves on. Mall walk afterwards with my husband.

Did pilates today, but I've been low energy, only slept 4 hr. last night. I hope I sleep better tonight!

Great job @Discombobulated! I did the mall on Saturday too! Today I’m kind of just lazing around the house right now. Will go to a cafe by the beach later on because my partner has a gp appointment at 1:45pm so we need to wait until after his appointment.

I did my long 7.2 mi power walk today. It was weird; I was tired, and I thought, "oh, this is going to be a hard slog". Then, I got going, and it wasn't hard at all, and I enjoyed the time to think and listen to music. Practiced pushups & planks in the morning, still want to do it twice yet today. Have to start dinner soon; this recipe usually takes awhile to bake. It's called Tuscan Garlic Chicken and is made with chicken breasts seasoned with salt/pepper, rubbed with minced garlic in a casserole dish, then you place baby spinach, artichoke heats, sundried tomatoes & mozzarella cheese layered and cover and bake. Very delicious and healthy too!

Tuscan garlic chicken sounds heavenly .... yum!

I inject in the thighs, alternativng left and right. I have read somewhere that there are fewer dose effects when you inject in the thighs. It has not been the case on a systemic level for me, but I do get less of a skin reaction at the site of the injection when I do thighs