Healthy Living Club 2012

[garymacd]

Hi All.

Well , Patricia has posted her desire to run a marathon at WDW next year for her 25th birthday and I think we all wish her well and will send her quiet or not so quiet encouragement.

Where are you in your plans for a healthy year?

I have not had a great fall this year. My family spent most of the past 5 to 6 months running back and forth to the hospital looking after our mother. She died on December 28th after a long, hard battle that started with salmonella poisoning and ended with her death due to c. Diff. and uncontrolled congestive heart failure.

We didn't have time to exercise properly or eat well. Most meals were on the run or grabbing something at the hospital - not highly recommended.

But, I am back on the P90X program as of January 10th and feel better already. It's hard work, but if if wasn't hard, it wouldn't be work, would it?

I will start off with the first healthy living tip for 2012:

DON'T EAT EGGS 3 WEEKS PAST THEIR EXPIRY DATE!

That can lead to salmonella.

What are your healthy living tips? What are your goals?

Would one of the Mods please make this a Sticky thread? Thanks.

[MstngDrvnDsnyLvr]

What are we doing in my household in 2012 - we are walking a minimum of 30 minutes every day and limiting our dinners out to once a week and lunch out once a week.

We also don't over use antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers.

[garymacd]

We also don't over use antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers.

That is an excellent point. You don't really need anti-bacterial soap and sanitisers all the time.

The simple action of wetting and rubbing your hands briskly for 15 seconds will kill most bacteria. Soap helps the water get into all the nooks and crannies.

The only time you really need waterless hand sanitisers is when you don't have soap and water. We use it extensively in the field when we don't have regular facilities available, but always follow it up with a good scrub when we get back to the station.

The only time you need anti-bacterial soap is when you have been handling infected bodily fluids, or those you suspect of being infected. The problem now is to try and find a liquid soap that doesn't contain triclosan, benzalkonium chloride or isopropyl alcohol in it.

If you are going to use an alcohol-based waterless hand sanitiser, make sure it has at least 70% isopropyl alcohol in it. Anything less just gets the germs drunk and mad and more resistant to the killing effects of alcohol. (I know: facetious statement and not 100% accurate, but that's pretty much what it comes down to.)

How did we survive for millions of years without these products?

[magicofdisney]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss, Gary. I understand how that kind of schedule can wreak havoc on your eating goals.

I began kettlebell workouts this year. I'm doing it from the comfort of my own home using various videos. So far, so good. Something I find quite interesting is how I don't really feel it until about 24hrs after the workout. In fact, the very first workout left me useless for almost 3 days. Sitting down was like an experiment in medieval torture. Nonetheless, I'm excited to add to my video collection. So far my trainers consist of Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels, and Amy Bento. Like most others, I'm in it for the long haul, so we'll see how it progress.

[TheVBs]

Very sorry about your mother.

I'm having a tough time getting off those last 10lbs I'd like to lose. I've upped my workout to include more core exercises, more reps and now do at least 3 miles on the treadmill at over 4mph, 5/6 days a week. I'm trying to track my food and calories more consistently and making sure we get more of a variety of fresh veggies in the house.

In the spring I'd like to get us all bikes and make riding a regular part of our routine.

[Kairi_7378]

Gary, I am sorry to read about your Mom.

As for my "healthy living" goals... I did a CSA last year through work and really enjoyed that. It forced me to do a meal plan each week to use all of the vegetables. Now, I am meal planning, which keeps our family on track nutritionally. (I found that I am less likely to reach for an unhealthy option if I have planned out that I will make X tonight.) I am also making soups in my slow cooker over the weekend, and freezing for quick but healthy weeknight meals.

My husband told me that if I trained, that I could go to WDW for the Marathon weekend! I think that the Food and Wine run looks really fun, though.

[TheVBs]

I'm hoping I can get some help on a couple of questions I have.

Since I got off track on my food choices over the holidays, I've started tracking my calories and exorcise on My Fitness Pal. It seems to be a good tool to at least get a handle on things.

My first question: I've read that you're supposed to eat back your exorcise calories so that your metabolism doesn't slow down. But, surely you wouldn't do this if you're trying to lose weight, right? I'm trying to kick the few pounds I gained over the holidays and the last 10lbs I need to get to my goal weight.

Second question, I've come to realize that even though I'm making healthy choices, some of them really pack on the calories, especially if you're grazing on them half the day. What healthy, low cal snacks to you guys like? I know I'm not good about eating raw veggies, although I do like salads. So, I'm trying to incorporate more of those into my diet, carrots, peppers, broccoli. I try to eat small meals and have filling, healthy snacks in between.

Just thought of a third question. Sit ups - which are better, the regular ones or the crunch ones? I do about 60 of the crunches every other day, the kind where you raise your legs and lift a ball up to your feet, then back up to take it in your hands again. Can you do those every day, or are they like the weight lifting where you should do them every other day?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help!

[magicofdisney]

I have not heard of the eating back exercise calories. When I'm trying to lose weight, I do NOT do this. Nonetheless, I do feel it gives you some leniency with your calorie count. Another tip (and you may already know this) is to NEVER skip breakfast. That will ultimately sabotage any efforts to establish a healthy metabolism.

Besides fresh fruits and vegetables, you can try low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese (not processed), and walnuts or almonds. I know many people like to use egg substitutes but I prefer the real thing. Sometimes I'll have a boiled egg as a snack. Processed foods are the worst and I have, by no means, escaped them. However, I try to keep that in mind when snacking. Some days I'm more successful than others. Even lean cuts of meat can be a snack if the portions are right. I think that if you're one of those people that eats several small meals a day, pretty much anything goes if you're in the mood for it (and it's on your approved list of foods).

My grocery store (Publix) has a store brand of light bread that has only 90 calories per 2 slices! I believe it's called natural light grain. We stopped eating white bread a while ago. We're gradually trying to change our habits. We are committed to a lifestyle change and I know if we do too much, too quickly, we'll revert back to our old ways.

I was researching a diet recently called the Zone Diet. I believe it has a logical premise. Despite that, they prefer you use their food. I'm not a fan of that but I think he's on to something with dietary recommendations. Also, I don't think the information is glaringly new, but it's put together in a logical fashion.

As for exercise, I can only talk from experience which isn't that great for me, yet. I think Gary may be the one to guide you there.

[magicofdisney]

Another thing I want to mention is water, water, and more water. It will also help maintain a feeling of fullness. Some people naturally enjoy water. I was not one of them. But again, because I'm committed to this, I've had a gradual change of taste. I still crave a soda and will drink one occasionally, but my water bottle stays with me always. If I leave the house, it goes with me. I've even taken it to the movies with me but they occasionally balk at that. It is one of the healthiest choices we can make for ourselves.

[garymacd]

I was going to answer some questions, but I am just too tired right now and my post just wasn't making sense to me, and have to go to bed so I can get up and function at work tomorrow. I will try to make cogent arguments tomorrow.

[magicofdisney]

I got this email yesterday with healthy snack ideas. Hope this helps.

• 1 medium apple with 1 tbsp almond butter
• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 10 rice crackers with 1 tbsp hummus
• 1 sweet potato with ghee (clarified butter)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sliced mango and papaya
• 1 small box raisins
• 10 olives
• 10 frozen organic grapes
• 1 slice brown rice bread with ghee
• 10 grape tomatoes and cucumber slices with olive oil
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• One-half fresh pomegranate
• 1/2 cup raw, unsalted pine nuts
• 1 frozen banana

[BrerGnat]

I'm hoping I can get some help on a couple of questions I have.

Since I got off track on my food choices over the holidays, I've started tracking my calories and exorcise on My Fitness Pal. It seems to be a good tool to at least get a handle on things.

My first question: I've read that you're supposed to eat back your exorcise calories so that your metabolism doesn't slow down. But, surely you wouldn't do this if you're trying to lose weight, right? I'm trying to kick the few pounds I gained over the holidays and the last 10lbs I need to get to my goal weight.

I am using MyFitnessPal too! It is an excellent tracking tool...best I've used. EVERY food imaginable is in there. It's amazing.

Okay, so to answer your question, did MyFitnessPal give you a daily calorie limit? My goal is to lose 15lbs total, and I'm a "lightly active", 140lb, 5'2" female, 33 years old. I wanted to lose 1-2 pounds per week, so my calorie "goal" is 1200.

You will see in the diary that it breaks it down into calories eaten, then calories used in exercise, then your remaining calories until you reach your "goal intake." You want your NET CALORIES each day to equal your goal intake. Like, for me, if I eat 1200 calories, but then exercise and burn 350 more, I need to eat 350 more calories to avoid my metabolism slowing down. At 1200 cal per day, I am at a deficit of 800 calories already, even if I just sit still all day. My basal metabolic rate is 1979 cal/day. So, in order to not mess up my metabolism, I need to NET 1200 cal per day to lose weight. I've been doing this for 4 weeks now, and I've lost 6 pounds already! To be honest, I've gone over my "goal" intake of 1200 cal quite a few times. I think this is actually an important point. Every seven days or so, for one day, eat whatever you want and forget about the calorie goal. This keeps your metabolism churning. I kid you not, I've eaten brownies, ice cream sundaes, pizza, cookies, etc. I don't deprive myself of anything. If I want to splurge, I work out to make up for it. I think this helps me stay on track, because I don't totally binge on anything. I allow myself to eat junk about 5% of the time. The rest of the time, I'm pretty strict about my calories.

To be honest, for WOMEN, especially, if losing weight is the main goal, don't over exercise. Women's bodies respond to exercise by becoming ravenously hungry. The more you exercise, the more you will eat. Exercise (hard aerobic) only about 3 days per week. The best exercise for weight loss is brisk walking. You can do this daily if you want. Once you have lost the weight you want, you can incorporate a more vigorous exercise routine/calorie intake to maintain.

Always take a day off between any type of muscle work, ab work included. Crunches are best, but what's even better is just sitting in the crunch position, with a constant muscle engagement (start by sitting up with your knees bent, put your arms directly in front of you, and then lay back slowly until you are sort of balanced on the very lowest part of your back/butt), and do TINY crunches from there, moving about an inch back and forth. You will feel a burn in your stomach. Do about 10 reps, then sit all the way up to rest. Repeat several times. Another good exercise is the plank. I do these two regularly and they really strengthen your core quickly.

[TheVBs]

MagicofDisney, thank you for the snack recommendations! It's nice to mix things up a little. I do eat fresh and dried fruit, and I keep raw walnuts and almonds on hand, as well as Greek yogurt. I'm trying to be much better about drinking water. I sometimes just forget! I never forget breakfast though. I'd pass out!

BrerGnat - Oh!! Because it already gives you a calorie deficit for the weight loss, exercising gives you more of a deficit. I get it now, thank you! Right now I'm at 143 and I'm 5'5". I was 140 before the holidays. So I'd like to lose that extra 3lbs and an additional 10lbs. I think the calories MyFitnessPal gives me is something like 1260 and whatever calories I burn exorcising.

As for the exorcising, I do three miles on the treadmill at 4+ mph, 5 or 6 days a week. I had never heard of only doing it a few times a week. And, I DO get ravenously hungry sometimes! Although, I have to admit that I'm reluctant to cut back on the treadmill. How important is that? It also helps my asthma a great deal. I will stick to doing the crunches every other day and I will try the version you mentioned. I am doing a variety of planks on those alternating days as well, and some weights.

Gary, hope you've gotten some rest and are doing better today.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[BrerGnat]

As for the exorcising, I do three miles on the treadmill at 4+ mph, 5 or 6 days a week. I had never heard of only doing it a few times a week. And, I DO get ravenously hungry sometimes! Although, I have to admit that I'm reluctant to cut back on the treadmill. How important is that? It also helps my asthma a great deal. I will stick to doing the crunches every other day and I will try the version you mentioned. I am doing a variety of planks on those alternating days as well, and some weights.

I think you are doing alright, exercise wise. I was talking more about really strenuous workouts, like heavy duty running, biking, etc. These borderline anaerobic type workouts really sap your energy and cause extreme hunger, which is hard when you are trying to lose weight. You are doing more light-moderate exercise, which is exactly what you should be doing to burn fat.

I alternate 3 mile brisk walking workouts (3 per week) with jogging/running 3-4 miles (2 per week). I also ride my bike when the weather permits. I take two days off from aerobic exercise per week, and those are the days I do my strength workouts.

If you really want to see some weight loss results, and get toned up fast, try The Bar Method DVDs. Google it. My sister is a Bar Method instructor and she got me turned onto this. I do the DVDs at home. They work, and they work well! I use "Change Your Body" and "Accelerated Workout." All you need is a chair, and two 3-4 pound hand weights. That's it. I do each of these workouts once per week.

[dnickels]

Just keep in mind that often we make things more complicated than they need to be. Selling fitness DVDs, exercise routines, diet programs, personal trainers, exercise hard this day but not that day, do this type of exercise but not that one, etc. is a multi-billion dollar industry, but at the end of the day, you simply need to eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight.

Find what works for you, whether it's running every day of the week or alternating exercises or whatever else it may be. Some people have more time available for exercise so they can focus on that. Others have less time so they should focus on cutting back on the calories they eat.

One thing to maybe/hopefully scare some people straight
-There are no obese elderly people. There are smokers who live to be 100, drinkers who live to be 100, and people who eat bacon and eggs every morning who live to be 100, but none that make it to that age (or even into their 70s for that matter) while being obese. It's a better guarantee of early death than any of those things so for those who want to stick around and see what happens in life (or see grandkids one day) it's good motivation to lose some weight.

And finally, I often hear the excuse that people don't have time to exercise or they don't have time to cook healthy meals so that's why they're overweight. Fair enough, I think most people can find some time by simply turning off the television and / or computer, but I'll grant that some legitimately don't have time for those. Fortunately, I have stumbled upon a long-lost miracle diet plan for people who don't have much time. Eat less of what they're already eating. Make a dinner plate and then set half of it aside for tomorrow night. Ask for the take-home box when the meal arrives and put half of it away for dinner the next evening. Not only does it cut the calories, but it gives them more time as well because a) their next meal is already prepared and b) it takes less time to eat a whole plate of food than it does half a plate! Maybe I'll write a book about it and start selling them.

[BrerGnat]

One thing to maybe/hopefully scare some people straight
-There are no obese elderly people. There are smokers who live to be 100, drinkers who live to be 100, and people who eat bacon and eggs every morning who live to be 100, but none that make it to that age (or even into their 70s for that matter) while being obese.

Be careful with the generalizations. This is simply not true. My nanny died at the age of 97 of a stroke. She was obese. She ate a typical Puerto Rican diet (lots of meat, rice/beans made with LARD, root vegetables and fruits, lots of sweets, etc ). She had diabetes for over 40 years. She had a few strokes prior to the last one. She had an amazing life, ate what she wanted, had lots of friends and truly was a happy person. She was blessed with really good genetics, that's all, and an amazing outlook on life. Diabetes is not automatically a death sentence. Neither is obesity.

Also, while I totally agree with your assessment that burning more calories than you are taking in is how one loses weight, the problem comes from NOT KNOWING precisely how many calories one is burning at any given time. Most formulas and calculations are based on statistical averages, and do not take into account body composition or an individual's metabolic rate. No one will ever know their exact metabolic rate. Therefore, it's a guessing game at best, and since there ARE specific ways to boost metabolism, such as increasing muscle mass, this is why there are so many different ideas on how the best way to lose weight is. It's the same as "guessing" how many calories any given activity burns. It's a guess, but it can be off by quite a bit from person to person.

[magicofdisney]

Be careful with the generalizations. This is simply not true.

I agree. While I don't know the magical number used to define "elderly" I do know people significantly older than me that are obese.

[dnickels]

Fair enough, virtually no obese elderly people. If someone's plan for life is to be that 1 in 100 or 1 in 1,000 person who manages to live to 90 despite being 100 lbs overweight and living with type II diabetes they're free to shoot for that. The other 99 or 999 are going to lose that bet however.

[TheVBs]

How do you figure out what your metabolic rate is? Just curious.

I do believe in keeping it as simple as possible. While I've made a lot of healthy changes to our eating habits, I was still completely ignorant of how many calories I was taking in, or even should be taking in. MyFitnessPal has been an excellent tool to keep me aware of that.

BrerGnat, I totally agree on taking a day off from the tracking! I haven't consistently been tracking, more like a few days on, a couple off. I tried the crunches you described and I could feel it right in my lower belly. Does that sound like I was doing it right? That's another stumbling block for me, am I doing the strength/core exercises properly. Anyone know a good one for the back of the upper arms?

So, keeping it simple, definitely yes! But, I want to make sure I'm making educated choices.

[BrerGnat]

How do you figure out what your metabolic rate is? Just curious.

I do believe in keeping it as simple as possible. While I've made a lot of healthy changes to our eating habits, I was still completely ignorant of how many calories I was taking in, or even should be taking in. MyFitnessPal has been an excellent tool to keep me aware of that.

BrerGnat, I totally agree on taking a day off from the tracking! I haven't consistently been tracking, more like a few days on, a couple off. I tried the crunches you described and I could feel it right in my lower belly. Does that sound like I was doing it right? That's another stumbling block for me, am I doing the strength/core exercises properly. Anyone know a good one for the back of the upper arms?

So, keeping it simple, definitely yes! But, I want to make sure I'm making educated choices.

The only way to know your real metabolic rate is to go through some fairly extensive testing in a facility that most people don't have access to. This is why most people can only use the estimates.

For back of arms:

Sit down on the floor, knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Put your hands on the floor next to your hips, fingers facing forward. Lift up your hips, about 3-4 inches off the ground. Tuck your hips upward and shift your body back so your arms are pinned against the back of your ribcage. Bend your elbows so your butt touches the ground and then straighten. These are like "reverse pushups". Do a set of 10, then rest. Repeat 2 times. Afterwards stretch the backs of your arms.