Post: #1

Hi Everyone!

To keep track of them, I thought I'd copy here my original intentions.

1.) Drinking more, between 1,5 and 2 liters - my personal record is 1,4 liters a day, normaly it's less than 1 liter.

2.) Excercise every day, preferably in the morning; burning at least as many calories as I have in a cafe latte made with honey (my favourite sin, 180-250 calories).

3.) Keeping an eye on my food; eating fruits at least once a day. (Preferably more, and raw vegetables, too.)

4.) Doing the tasks from the challenge, as they come.

Let's begin!

Melinda


_____________
"We must distinguish between the unusual and the impossible." P.G. Wodehouse

---

Hi,

since I was without internet-access, I started it all on Monday. I'll either do it in the same pace, thus always a few days behind, or shall have a few occasions, when I do two days' tasks at once.

2010-01-03:

1.) 13,5 dls; still, sort of success, as I rarely ever drink this much.
2.) No excercise (yet).
3.) Eating the things I'd normally would, for the sake of calorie-counting. Result was 1970 Kcal.
4.) I suppose I did that.

Not a very bright beginning; more like an "acceptable". To see the glass half full: I did better than I'd have without the callenge in 1.) and 4.); and I expect things to get better.

Good luck to fellow challengees! :-)

Melinda

______________
"We must distinguish between the unusual and the impossible."

Post: #2

2010-01-04

1.) 18 dls - cool!
2.) 30 sit-ups, 15 minutes/6 kilometers of exercise biking: even cooler!
3.) fruits and veggies all right.
4.) Ideal meal plan is in processing.

I've been wondering about if 1970 calories were okay; frankly, I've never paid too much attention to them. I thought it was supposed to be under 2000, but for the sake of being sure I decided to check it out.

For easier calorie-counting I found a free website (it's http://www.everydayhealth.com/ ).
Now I'm HORRIFIED by the knowledge, that the amount of calories I usually eat equals what they’d recommend for me to gain a pound a week!!!

After recovering from the shock (took quite some hours), I registered there, and now I have a handy net-based help to count calories, nutrition data, glasses of water, and all such things.

The bad news were also an explanation, how come my new jeans ("it's good to have something that's a bit loose") started to become tight.
Good news: they say, that if I limit calories to 1200 a day, I am to lose a pound a week - in three months I could weigh as much as I did after high school, nine years ago. Excellent!

I wouldn't be so full of enthusiasm, if I couldn't have done it, but actually, 1200 Kcal per day was fine, when I tried it that day. Needs attention, sure (and there's still too much Christmas sweets left!); but with some exercise, it's absolutely attainable.


Melinda

Post: #3

Thanks Melinda - Loved the website.

I found the same thing you did about the calories. Even when I cut my food, I was still getting calories without good nutrition. The new challenge for increasing fruits and veggies will be something I have to pay attention to in order to achieve.

Post: #4

2010-01-05

1.) 20 dl, eight glasses. A new personal record.
2.) 20 minutes of excercise biking, 10 virtual kilometers. V.g.
3.) Fruits and veggies fine.
4.) I'm lagging behing: I made a plan, finally, but it requires too many things I didn't have acces today. I tried to settle with a very good instead of an ideal day, which I shall do after the shopping.

I've been wondering about the water-thing. I'm not sure if I believe the "if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated" rule. My cat and all other animals also drink when they're thirsty, and it seems to work fine for them. And logic says, that if I'm to drink before the signal, then I should eat before I'm hungry, go to bed before I'm sleepy... it just sounds weird.

To solve the problem: I know that our faithful and clever body is also very facile and adaptive, so I decided it probably learns how much water it can expect, and learns to work with that, even if that's a lot less than ideal. (In the deserts there also live people, and as far as I know, dispite of the extreme hot, they never drink eight glasses a day.) So I offer my body the option of an eight glasses per day budget for three weeks, and we'll see how it feels at the end of the challenge. I'm already more often thirsty than before, so I may stick with the habit.

Melinda
____________
"We must distinguish between the unusual and the impossible."

Post: #5

(01-06-2011 11:31 PM)Melinda Wrote:  I've been wondering about the water-thing. I'm not sure if I believe the "if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated" rule.

Yeah, you're right: that's old logic and only applicable to long-distance runners. It was debunked by modern science a while ago, but a lot of people still cling to the old wives tales. Like, "you'll get sick if you go out with wet hair". I go out in frigid weather with wet hair all the time. It's germs that make you sick!

The old arbitrary "8 glasses of water" rule was also disproved. Every person has different needs, of course.

But water is so good for us, and it quenches our thirst, unlike tea!

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

Post: #6

(01-07-2011 12:48 AM)Maji Wrote:  that's old logic and only applicable to long-distance runners.

Now I can't decide which info I like the best: that it's not true, after alll, or that it did have a context, where it made sense. I'll call it an even.
Thanks!

(01-07-2011 12:48 AM)Maji Wrote:  Like, "you'll get sick if you go out with wet hair". I go out in frigid weather with wet hair all the time. It's germs that make you sick!

You've hit the nail right on the head, again!

Melinda
____________
"We must distinguish between the unusual and the impossible."

Post: #7

2010-01-05

1.) 9 glasses. Excellent.
2.) Plenty of biking: 20+10+8 minutes. Not that good: reason why is below.
3.) Not five servings of fruits/vegetables; but I had four. Acceptable.
4.) Shopping.

The day was diastrous. It all went well, and then I thought I could have something sweet. And I did. And in a hour or two I felt I needed another one; still within the acceptable calories. And then I felt I was more hungry, than usual, and specifically sugar-hungry. I ate 1.5 plate of spaghetties, but I stayed "hungry" (why and how? just how?!) and despite efforts of excercising more to balance it, the day ended in it's ruins.

I was reading others' journals, and run into Emily's (look for 'pianissimo'), where I think I found the answer.

Mario mentioned the "sugar spike", and I know that my body often overreacts that (too much insulin, and blood sugar level actually ends up lower than before eating). It usually didn't left me starving - or maybe I just wouldn't notice it without having a calorie-plan.

The lesson from the day: when on diet, I shall be a lot more careful with sugary things.

___________

On another note, I switched from EverydayHealth.com to MyFitnessPal.com.

Main reasons: 1.) more clear-out design; 2.) more foods and excercises in the data-base; 3.) more European brands; 4.) being a lot better at motivating.
Eg. I'm big a fan of charts and graphs, and here I can have one, nice and coloured; and when I click on the button "Complete this entry", it says:

"If every day were like today... You'd weigh [imagine here your aim!] kg in 5 weeks."

I SO love this sentence!

Melinda

PS: the end-of-the-day joke was, that on the new site I stayed within my calorie budget.

Post: #8

Hi Melinda, I think that as we change our current source of retribution, be it sweets or whatever, we are in the way to solve the problem. Change is coming, just look for creating new, different retributions by introducing new habits. They may feel better then the previous ones after a short while!

Good luck!

Post: #9

Hi Melinda. Don't feel too bad about not sticking to your diet. Keeping healthy is hard and everybody goes off track sometimes. I find that when I feel like eating junk it helps for me to just remember what my end goal is and concentrate on that vision for several minutes. It really helps to keep me focused.

Post: #10

Thank you guys for encouragement!

I had a very thick weekend, so I couldn't post about those days. Yet.

2010-01-08

1.) 5 glasses only; been better before.
2.) No excercise as such; but spent more than seven hours with walking and standing.
3.) Lots of F&V.
4.) Been busy from 6 in the morning to 23.

I've been working or travelling, with almost no time even to eat or drink. Not a healthy day, but I helped out someone, so its worth the effort.


2010-01-09

1.) 7 glasses - almost there.
2.) Lots of dancing and walking, this time for fun.
3.) Acceptable.
4.) Review made in my head. (I'll post it for next day's date.)

Post: #11

Ugh, three days behind with journaling... Plus, I'm half asleep, so I'll either be short or be incoherent.

Summary for 2010-01-10 and 11

1) water: 8 and 7 glasses
2) Excercise: two hours of dancing and 10 mins of bicycle; and 20 minutes of walk for 3 times the day
3) Check; check.
4) On 10: signing in for a short note and canning through the tasks; 11: almost the same.

Tomorrow morning I catch up with things; most tasks are done in my head, just too tired to write them down now.

Post: #12

Your exercise routine sounds really fun with all that dancing and cycling!! Did you join a class or something for the dancing? What kind?