I'm alive...

I thought I had better send out a post to let you all know I was still around alive and kicking. I had come down with a pretty good cold and had headaches from hell for the last 3 weeks so to be honest my exercising hasn’t been up to par. I’ve gotten some in but not like I wanted.

However I am feeling good again (even with some headache but not as intense as last week). I’m back in the game as they say.

And tomorrow is March 1^st,  62 days away from when I leave for Mazatlan. Hmmm… I’ve got some work to do to make that bathing suit look good on me… or is it me look good in it? Ahhh….

My fitbit stats have been suckin big time – low burn and steps. Food has been OK, not 100% on plan as it should be, but better than it used to be. I’ve got it all laid out for me and although I have to make some adjustments due to food triggers or allergies, I follow along pretty well.  But I need to do it 100%.

Weighed, measured and took new revealing pics yesterday. I’m actually OK with the inches lost, it’s just the scale that is slow. Muscle weighs more than fat but takes up a lot less room so I guess I’m balancing out. Eventually that muscle will take over that fat and the scale will see better results. That’s my theory anyway.

I just have to keep at it and do it with enthusiasm and pride.

It helps when folks mention they see a difference. Especially after a Sunday when I do a weigh-in and I’m only down a pound or pound and a half. Shouldn’t complain I guess, it is going down. J

 

I hope you are all having a fantastic week! I’m so busy at work that I can’t even read some of your blogs right now. As it is I’m working some overtime and figured I’d better send out a note just to say “HI”.

 

Ttyl

Sandra

Wow It's Friday!

Last post I sent out I was tellin ya all how sick I was feeling. I’m still sniffling and coughing today but I feel like a million bucks compared to this time last week.  I did have my grandson over for the weekend and I tried really hard not to pollute him. So far I think he is safe (at least his Mom hasn’t called me to tell me if he got sick or not). But we did have a lot of fun together.

 

I’ve been back at work all week and three other folks have come down with the cold, so whether I polluted them or they got it somewhere else… well we will never know.

 

And thank goodness it is Friday. When I came home from work on Monday, Mr. Sandra had a lovely dozen red roses lying on my pillow. I loved it. I have dried every bunch of roses he has given me and quite frankly I’m getting quite the collection these days. Anyway back to Friday – we are going away for the weekend. I am so excited. It’s just the two of us. Ms. Kate is going to be looked after by my daughter so we don’t need to worry about her. It’s going to be like a little valentine get away and spending some quality time together.

 

On the diet and exercise front, the hotel has a pool and a fitness center so I’ve packed my swimsuit and my runners (not to be worn together though J). And we plan on going for walks out in the country if the weather smartens up. It’s a bit cold here right now. But we will be in the Mountains and hopefully some trails will be open enough we can get our feet cold. For food, since I’ve never been there before I have no idea what kind of restaurants they have or the type of food. So I’m bringing along 2 dozen bottles of water (I can’t drink tap stuff) and although that still isn’t enough water to hold me over for 3 days it will get me started. And I’ve packed apples, oranges to snack on. I should be good.

 

I hope you are all having a fantastic week and have healthy active plans for the weekend.

 

Ttyl

Sandra

Sniffle…

I’m sick and it sucks…

Started coming down with a cold on Wednesday and rather than go to Hot Yoga (which might have done me some good) I chose to go home and get a bath in and hit the hay early. During the night however, it hit me hard and I’m just starting to come up for air.

Well I would if I could actually breath through my nose.

I actually have one of these Kleenex boxes..l Iove it!

 

 

 

 

I tell ya, drinking water when your mouth is parched… is not an issue. I’m drinking lots.

It’s food I’m having an issue with. Don’t want to eat, nothing tastes like it should – basically no taste at all.

My back hurts from all the lying around I’m doing.

I hate being inactive… really truly do not like it.

I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to just walk on the treadmill tomorrow. Nothing strenuous right off the bat, but just move….

I also have my Grandson this weekend so I’ve got to be extra careful not to pass this on to him.

I wish you all a FANTASTIC weekend!!

ttyl

Sandra

B4 Pic

This is going to be my before picture for this 120 day challenge (119 today)  

I know it isn’t a very good one because I took it today at work in the bathroom. I don’t have any full length mirrors at home and since I was at work, I kind of took it fast so no one would walk in and wonder why I was taking pictures of myself in the mirror… mind you, they all think I’m nuts anyway.

I do have other ones that are for my eyes only, you know the kind, the ones in that 2-piece bathing suit that no one on God’s green earth is going to see publicly right now. Maybe when I get to goal and I actually look good in a two piece will I show that before pic in public.

Yesterday was a good day, I hope to have 119 more of those good days. I burned calories in Hot Yoga and loved every minute of it. Even when struggling with the poses that I can’t do very well yet… if at all. Even the heat doesn’t seem to bad anymore. If they open the door too much, I actually get cold now. Weird…

Today I got up and did intervals on the treadmill. I was supposed to do that yesterday according to the challenge schedule but I actually didn’t read it until last night and so am running a day behind. Doesn’t really matter as long as I get exercise in (which really isn’t an issue for me). I will follow along and do everything that is required because I have a feeling this is a stepping stone to bigger stuff and I want to make sure my body can handle whatever gets thrown at me…. Allan’s a sneaky one

But I will also be doing more of my own stuff without over training my body.

I hope you all are having a FANTASTIC day! Keep on track!

ttyl

Sandra

Choices

I’ve read this statement twice in the last week, two different sources.

“You can’t out train a bad diet”

Last year I started training for the 3-day Kidney March and walked miles upon miles each week. But I didn’t lose any weight. In fact, I gained 10lbs over the summer. I shouldn’t have gained any weight because of all the walking I was doing.

However I was eating whatever I wanted and it counteracted any benefits I was seeing through all that exercise. And I stopped going to Hot Yoga.

This year I’ve been trying to get back on the “diet” bandwagon and attempting to keep my calories where they need to be in order for me to lose weight. I’ve done OK so far this year but am only down 5lbs. 5 weeks.  5lbs. Blah!  This isn’t good enough anymore.

Yesterday I booked my yearly trip to Mazatlan in May. With all this cold weather and snow we have had this year, I am really looking forward to this trip. But I want to get this body into a swim suit AND feel good in it.

So for the next 120 days (I’ve joined Allan’s Phase 5 challenge), I’ve got to kick my butt and make sure that I am keeping to the calories allocated every day not 5 out of 7 days, but 7 out of 7 days.  I am tracking my calories in FitBit and I can see a pattern. I eat really good for 4-5 days, mess up for one, back to good for 3 days, mess up for one, back on track again. The days that I forgot to track, I just entered 1500 calories for the day. Might have been less, might have been more (but not much more than that). The red line is where I should be no higher no lower.

And this shows my Activity Calories – stuff I actually record like Hot Yoga and my cardio/weight training sessions and it includes how many steps I’ve taken during  the day (so if I walk around the floor a LOT to go to my other office - cause I’m drinking so much water - it all counts).

I am Active compared to others in my age group – but my body still doesn’t need all the extra calories at this stage of my life. I need to control even more what goes into my mouth.

Keeping to my calorie limit is not an easy task. But to make this work, I need to make the right choices – which I’ve talked ad nauseam about before. No one is forcing me to drink the beer or eat the chips… or the burger, or the pizza, or whatever it is that is not only high in calories but high in fat … bad fat.

Mrs. Fat Sandra just needs to stop holding onto her covers and let FitnHealthy Sandra come out from hiding.

I will do this!

I hope you have a fantastic day! Make the right choices!

ttyl

Sandra

Bikram, Fascia, Stretching

When I was waiting for class on Monday night, I was talking to someone who had only attended her first class the day before and was back for seconds. She said that she had just spent two weeks at another “hot yoga” studio but not  Bikram Hot Yoga and she said that there was a HUGE difference between the two classes. She referenced Bikram as being more boot camp style and much more difficult.

I guess that’s why I like it so much – I really feel like I am getting a good workout.

I was looking at a bunch of websites today (yes I’m still busy at work but I needed to take a break ) and I found this link to a YouTube piece on Bikram Yoga.

The website that I found the above link to, this was his comment:

This is tough, it doesn’t matter your level of fitness and how strong you are, exercising in a room at 42 Degrees Celsius and 40% humidity will break you if you’re not used to it.

I must note here that you do get used to the heat and I haven’t broke yet

The point I am trying to get to here is that lately I’m really realizing how important it is for me to stretch. It is more important than just about anything else I could possibly do to get fit and healthy.  I was reading in a Men's Health book on Monday night after Yoga (I bought the book for Mr. Sandra as a hint to get started on the fit trip), and found an article on Muscle Fascia. It was a terrific article and I learned quite a bit about muscles and the fascia. So of course coming in to work the next day I had to “google” fascia and found tons more information (Raymond, that is how I found your website). Anyway, in the article he talks about a certain movement that I try over and over again to do in Yoga and I can’t.

"Connective tissue is the Saint Bernard dog of the body -- it's slow and loyal," Schleip says. "Once it's formed into position, it'll stick there." You can contort all you want in search of that mythical ideal alignment, but the odds are against you. The pull of your fascia is so ingrained in your movements, your friends can recognize you instantly at a distance before they even see your face. Making some kind of fundamental shift in those movement patterns is unlikely, at least in the short term. So if you can't make the fascia instantly obey, what's the alternative to injury?

"Easy," Schleip says. "Recruit one movement to enable another. Instead of straining to loosen a major fascia and muscle area, loosen a minor one instead."

To demonstrate, he has me stand up and try lifting my right knee until I can grab my foot with both hands. I make it only halfway before I'm tense and wobbling.

"Now grab your knee and swing your leg around," Schleip says. I lift my knee to waist height, grip it with both hands, and swirl my entire thigh for a few rotations. Then I try grabbing my foot again. This time it comes up easily. "You just loosened the minor fascia around the hip-joint capsule," he says. "You've increased the range of motion in your hamstring instantly, without stretching or working the muscle at all." If you've ever watched a cat yawn or a horse stiffen its rear legs, you're watching the same kind of joint extension in action. "That's why you feel such a feeling of satisfaction after yawning. You just popped a few joints loose."

But after reading this, I stood up and gave it a try and although I still can’t grab my foot properly (it’s the junk in the trunk syndrome), I was able to reach down much farther just by trying the additional stretch he mentions.

Last year when I joined the Kidney March, I started strength training at the gym and doing a LOT of walking. I almost stopped going to Yoga entirely. I did some stretching but I now know it wasn’t enough. Because since the summer, and with all that walking, I am tight all over again (maybe worse) and when I started back faithfully to practice Yoga in December, I felt like I hadn’t made any progress from when I had started last January. My calves and hip are so tight that I struggle in most of the poses … It’s time to stretch that elastic band so I can strengthen those muscles more and just feel better.

I hope you all have a fantastic day and remember to always stretch!

ttyl

Sandra

Things of note...

I’ve been making some positive changes and so far they have been sticking.

·         This one I am proud of - I am no longer snacking at night. Have been trying really hard to break that “habit” or “vice” of mine to munch on crunch at night time. It was actually harder to break than I thought it would be. But I have succeeded. I sleep much better because of it; less work my body is doing by having to digest food when it should be sleeping.  And this helps me with keeping my calories where they should be right now.

·         Because I’m getting a better sleep, I am able to get up with more energy at 4:00 and get a good workout in. AND I’m able to get in a Hot Yoga session after work without feeling too tired. Hot Yoga alone takes a lot out of you but so far doing the dual workouts isn’t hurting me. Mind you, I am not doing it every single day. Only going to Yoga 3x a week.

·         I love Bikram Hot Yoga - J although it is not for everyone the classes are sure getting busy.

·         Even though the scale is slow as a snail, my clothes are fitting better, measurements are down slightly (not completely satisfied with those results) but folks are commenting that they notice a difference. Not sure if it is because I am standing taller, stronger back from the Yoga work, or what it is. Maybe they are just right and seeing something I’m not really seeing just yet.

·         Trying really hard not to sweat the small stuff. Less I stress out about the better. Also trying not to stress out so much about the life of my kids. They are grown adults and if they’ve got problems, well they’ve got to figure it out for themselves (I’m still available for talking to and support if needed). But I can’t continue to lead the way or bail them out. They’ve got to stand on their own two feet or they will never let go of “mom’s apron strings”. Live and learn…

·         Been working on the emotional eating thing. I know now that it comes from being lonely or bored and I’m starting to recognize the triggers. I’m trying really hard not to succumb to it. I need to comment here for everyone’s understanding that food is not my only vice in this area.

 

You’d think at my age I would have had all this figured out by now J

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC week!

Ttyl

Sandra