For various reasons (one of them being the whole process described over in Mad Genius Club) I’ve been punting downstairs to the easy chair a lot. Which in turn made me feel all crotchety. (I have to put up the feet to type, or the laptop slides off. But this means I have to do weird things tot he back, and the whole position was just making me feel ick.)
I’ve also gained a lot of weight. Like 1/4 more weight than my already way too heavy weight in the last six months or so. Actually not related, and not sure HOW it happened (no. I didn’t change my diet. No, I didn’t change my level of activity. But my endocrines are a mess and for some reason never on the side of weight loss. Sigh.), but it has consequences, including making it harder and more painful to move, which in turn feeds the cycle.
I knew I needed to walk. Have known it since last November. The problem is I HATE WALKING ALONE. Yeah, yeah, get a dog. The problem then being that I’m a lousy dog owner, and trainer, and we’d have to get a specific breed or two, because younger son is allergic to dogs, and we actually like seeing him. And husband, though he’s getting better with knee therapy, is still not able to walk any long distance.
However, I need to walk. I also need other forms of exercise, yes, but I definitely need walking, because when I don’t my body doesn’t work right.
I even exchanged phone numbers with a hun, so we could walk “together” — but the weather is never right, etc.
On top of which I was profoundly depressed, because the writing wasn’t working. And because of a bunch of other things.
Two weeks ago, in a fit of “what the heck” I brought the laptop from the sofa to my walking desk in the bedroom. (Part of the problem being the walking desk being in the bedroom, honestly. I can’t get up before Dan and do the social media/blog stuff before he wakes.)
Since then, I’ve made it a point of walking a minimum of an hour every morning, then standing there while I do the insty posting.
This is doing two things: makes me pay for social media, which keeps me off it during work time. (The social media is on the laptop.) And of course, it keeps me off the chair/sofa till after dinner, when I’ll sit with Dan and my crochet, and usually watch an old mystery series. (Well, an episode thereof.) Which kind of calms the mind down before bed.
So — effects: I feel better. No, seriously, a lot better. In the first week, I realized the keyboard issue that was stopping the writing, because I’m concentrating better and thinking clearer.
I haven’t lost any weight because I don’t lose weight. In fact, I’ve gained a little. And before you say it’s muscle, the fit of my pants says otherwise.
I am obviously meant to achieve planet size and explode. But at least I’ll feel better and be able to think on the way there.
Now, is it all physiological? I suspect a lot of it is. As I said, I need to walk. I used to walk five miles a day give or take in the course of my normal day in college. (Partly because I hated public transportation.) And despite the fact that I lived on espresso and maybe a pastry a day (I’m only half joking. I actually only ate one normal meal a week: Sunday dinner with the family) I had a ton of energy and could run forever. Yes, I do realize I was much younger, but still. Throughout life, when I find myself in situations where I can’t walk, I tend to get profoundly depressed.
But the other part of it is physiological. It starts with me achieving something every morning. “I walked.” Even on days when I feel blah and can barely get myself off the bed, I achieve that.
This is an enormous boost. Now, I don’t know if it fits daughter in law’s dictum of “do at least one thing every day that won’t be undone by nighttime” because obviously, I need to walk every morning. On the other hand, it seems to be doing something. Every day things are getting a little better, even when I’m under-slept like today.
I’m going to keep doing it. At least until the treadmill breaks under my weight or something. (I’m joking, I’m joking. I actually do know how to lose weight. For me it involves a single meal a day. Yeah, 24 hour fasting. The problem is the first few days are very hard, because I can’t concentrate, as all I think about is food. I’d got myself into it, then the last course of prednisone kicked me off (there’s no way while on pred. Just no way.) And now I decided to re-establish the walking habit first, so I’m less depressed going into it. Because depressed and crabby is a terrible combination. But will start tomorrow. (Yes, there is a reason for tomorrow.) I mean no guarantee it will work this time, but it probably will.)
So, I’m going to gift you DIL’s dictum: do something every day that won’t be undone by the end of the day. Do it early. It helps with the depression. Success builds on success, and for those of us who work with the mind something physical done and accomplished tends to be a big boost.
And do go for a walk, or whatever your equivalent is.
You are not a mind in possession of a body. Your body does influence your mind. So give some care to the poor thing.
I can’t swear it will help you, but it seems to be helping me.
According To Hoyt 
Hey! I’m not on the couch! [Crazy Grin]
Seriously, take care.
Flyby c4c.
Whoosh
(Also, very good advice. Thanks!)
WHERE’S THE GD MANPADS
I believe they’re on the shelf with the other pads – plain gray plastic wrapper, pack of 12.
Oh bravo.
Flight can also be a good form of exercise.
Flight would be calorie intensive, yes?
(Flaps arms franticly)
Crap.
Depends on the details of your form of flight
Icarus, izzat you?
Wax on, wax off, oops!
All right, now I have a mental image of Icarus haunting his wings to a Brazilian wax salon thinking they can refinish them.
“Friends.” Yes, I’m sure that’s the word for it.
It seems someone snuck an “r” into your intended word…
I am looking forward to an end to Winter weather (it can stay Winter, just not so…. actively) so I can walk at least a bit. It was easier out in the country as neighbors were far enough away that I could walk – admittedly back and forth, but a quite a ways each way – without someone figuring something was screwy. The occasional vehicle’s occupants might wonder, but they weren’t stopping so why should they care? In town, anything not ‘ordinary’ is suspect. I have heard of “suspicious person walking on sidewalk” – Uh… ain’t walking on the walk sort of…expected. But, sure, after dark, dress light and have some sort of ‘HERE I AM” light source to avoid suspicion – and accident. (It amazes me how many times I just barely saw some fool walking in the road/street long after twilight, with no light and dark clothing. Dude, are you trying to become a statistic?!)
The Reader’s neighborhood is full of folks that do the dark clothing no light thing when walking. The Reader managed to just avoid one walking in the road (we don’t have sidewalks) when he saw the reflection off the collar of the (very small) dog being walked.
And that sort of thing is why when I walk to work (when I do…) I wear a SEE-ME-YELLOW jacket and a flashing armband light. Seriously the local deer are smarter. I’ve seen a doe trying to teach her fawns, “You stop here and WAIT for things to go by THEN cross.” Smart doe.
Yesterday someone stepped right in front of our car, with just enough room for husband to swerve (not enough to stop.) Lucky husband was driving. My vision at night is bad enough I wouldn’t have seen him.
Husband “What the hell was that?”
Me “Meth.”
I might be cynical.
Funny you all mention that visibility thing. I used to bicycle everywhere within 20 miles of the base when I was stationed in California, including back and forth to work. The number of close calls, and crash-into-ditches-to-avoid-being-run-into while wearing ordinary clothing, and especially fatigues or BDUs was unbelievable. So I started wearing a neon orange vest and that made a massive difference.
“WTH was that?”
An attempted isekai. Truck-kun survives to live another day.
Here that kind of stuff is usually caused by people looking down at their phones while walking around places where cars are without looking up to make sure they are not walking into the path of one.
It’s one thing to love your dog.
it’s another to give only your dog reflective clothing.
What, you don’t want the added resistance and balance training of trudging through knee-high snowdrifts? Where’s your sense of adventure? ^_^
Winter is trying to make up for the cold dry days with a few atmospheric river (AKA Pineapple Express when from the tropics) events. Kat the almost-2 year old border collie wants to walk around the place before she does her business, and for reasons known best to her, she wants company sort of close by. (25 yards is fine. Twice that, not really. Half of that, unless it’s late and we’re in the kennel, nope.)
So, I’ve been trudging through snow a lot. It’s been wet snow, so anything knee high is a plowing berm, but it’s Ministry of Funny Walks type terrain. I’m losing weight, so that’s a plus. (Lots of weight to lose; svelte ain’t in my future.)
With a certain amount of planning/good luck, I don’t have to drive in the dark. Walking in the dark is limited to our own property, and not a good idea when the coyotes are active. OTOH, there are appropriate measures. 230 grain ones in particular.
Where? In the mementos trunk, with my youth.
Some enterprising person should start a teenage fashion trend of using retroreflector fabric on collars and patterns hidden in the shirt or jacket fabric.
Make them show crazy/silly/cool patterns that you can only see when a light is on them in the dark.
Reflective ink in their tattoos.
And they’re usually wearing earbuds and listening to music just to make sure they don’t notice anything…
Yeah, my husband walks to audio books. One of these nights he won’t come back.
I used to listen to audio books while walking in downtown Colorado Springs. In my defense, I kept an ear free.
I used to walk to and from work at the university, about 3/4 mile each way, while reading real books. (Not during winter with all that snow and ice…maybe if I had snowshoes.)
Would still be doing it at the current job (which is even closer), but I’d have to pack my own lunch and there’s no place to eat in the corporate cube farm; you’re either stuck eating lunch at your desk (which I categorically refuse to do) or using a vehicle.
Make sure his nice set of headphones is wrapped in reflective tape? Take up sewing and add: “Please don’t squash my husband” in big friendly retro reflector letters on his favorite beater jacket?
Also, a bunch of the noise canceling headphones have pass through modes as well.
Addendum to dictum:
Do one thing every day that you KNOW needs to be done… and that you don’t want to do.
It works.
Yeah, this!
That’s definitely walking. Not that I object to the movement, it’s just boring on the treadmill.
How many times a week does a toilet need to be scrubbed out?
My father was a DI. The answer to that question when I was a recalcitrant child was “as many times as I tell you to do it.” ;p
For writers this is a preferred activity. It beats staring at the blank screen.
Dusting and vacuuming (the carpet, not the cat. The cat just gets rotated.) In part because it is a necessary thing, in part because it’s not staring at the blank screen.
Housework I can do. Not a fan of doing laundry, but it ain’t bad. Frikken burpees, which I need to do, those are the suck.
Only one thing a day I don’t want to do?
Cool. If I pick to do it at work I can go the rest of my life and never do another bit of housework. YAY!
One does not win when playing mind games with the universe. One only reaps a harvest of sorrow (and dust bunnies, and sinks full of dishes, and unwashed clothes, and hungry kids/spouse/pets, and…).
Besides, if the dirty dishes can see over the top of the sink to the laundry pile, they’ll start conspiring with the dust bunnies.
Speaking from experience, you don’t want that. Housework then moves from chore to hazard pay eligible.
Neat idea.
Not enough lamp posts.
You know all those big trees that are all over Arlington and the East Coast? Not the Eastern White Pines, the big deciduous trees with thick limbs. I’d suggest them as an acceptable field expedient substitute.
I’m so glad you’re walking. It’s great for mind and body. Ever since I found audible books. I love to walk. We’re still rural around here so I keep an eye out for predators of the four legged kind, mostly, but two legged at well. A can of pepper spray, good shoes, comfortable pants and shirt, a hat, and an audible book? Heaven.
When employer sent us to our homes with a laptop and said “Here, work out of your kitchen until the students go away” I bought a desk cycle.
It helped a lot to occupy my attention while I was waiting for the rather underpowered laptop to decide whether it was going to process my last mouse click
Now that we’ve officially given up on masks and social isolation, (and my “desktop computer” has been replaced by a box that actually fits on the top of the desk) I have the desk cycle at work under my desk.
Cycling for 5 to 20 minutes every so often keeps me from getting stiff from sitting, which mean I don’t hobble for the first few steps after standing up, and keeps my ankles from being swollen by the end of the day.
And, despite not being heavy exercise – not even enough to make me sweat – it’s improving the composition and tone of my thighs.
Walking or standing would drive me bonkers (chacun à son goût) but being able to exercise in any way during desk-work is so much better than… not.
… well. So much for closing that tag
It drives me bonkers. Just not bonkers enough to undo my appreciation of the benefits.
March is Winter Warrior Month. Departments are competing to see who can rack up the most exercise mileage possible. Too bad I injured my ankle a week ago.
You have nothing to complain about. I can only manage to walk 20 or so feet without stopping to rest and recover, due to a long-standing spinal injury that has got progressively worse – and other medical problems. So no exercise, and sitting down most of the time. For reduce weight, try smaller portions instead of skipping meals. I lost 70 pounds that way and have kept my weight down to a normal level for my height (on the rare occasions when I feel well enough to stand erect) at 126 pounds that way.
I have tried smaller portions. Can’t try smaller without its being non existent.
I’ve tried just about everything. My metabolism has been messed up for a long time.
I do know that “skipping meals” is supposedly not advisable, but seems to be the only thing that works for me. As well as staying under 800 calories, which, yes, I know, is also not advisable. Oh, it also needs to be absolutely no carbs (which is the only thing I’ve blatantly failed at for the last year, and probably responsible for the weight gain.) Which, yeah, I know, it’s nto healthy.
I did say my body is weird, right?
I haven’t a clue what my calorie intake is, but I tend to eat little and often. I.E. breakfast – 2 choc digestives and 3 cups of tea with milk but no sugar, times vary between 7.3 and 9 am. Brunch – usually at 11.30 am, one sandwich or a chunk of cheese with 4 buttered crackers according to what takes my fancy, with 2 or sometimes 4 choc digestives and a mug of milky coffee. Mid afternoon – usually a mug of hot choc with cream and 2 choc digestives, about 3 pm. Suooer – my main meal, times vary between 5.30 and 6.30 pm, usually minced beef because I’m allergic to most meats, with supporting veg, maximum total about 500 grammes. ofter one cup of tea with it. Evening snack, about 8.30 pm, Weetabix with milk and cream plus sugar – the only sugar intake I have. Probably not a diet that nutritionists would recommend but it works for me – I’m 82 and housebound by various problems, so no exercise except hobbling from sofa to desk and back.
Our bodies adapted to the culture and environment we came from. Which also means the type and construction of the food we eat. Don’t watch the food segments on shows like modern marvels the saying about no one wants to see how the sausage is made is true. Your body and more importantly the bio rhythms that run your body adjusted to that diet and culture. You not only evolved into the climate of the area but, also the diet. Now drop that body into the American culture of high sugars and high Carbs and you get all of us. We were also used to operating more on less food, so when there was an abundance, the body packed on the fat for the lean winter months. You can’t change five million years of evolution with five thousand years or so of civilization. We were made to move, and ya I got one of those backs held together with steel as well. But I do think the real solution is in the culture and diet of our genetic past. The foods of our ancestors so to speak, except for Haggis, I mean c’mon Scottish really?, ya, and not eating like a glutton as well. Sometimes just getting out of bed can be that one thing you did. Gravity like government is a necessary evil, they both suck.
Hon? The Portuguese eat like frigging sugar and fat addicted wolves, and they exercise less than we do.
They’re markedly thinner.
I think honestly my issues have to do with auto-immune because the really bad problem started after pneumonia almost killed me. (And my auto-immune went nuts.)
We eat an awful lot of processed food in the US, and I think it makes a difference,
And what we feed the cows. Yes.
Given the increase in allergies, combined with the discovery that the allergic system may actually be a poison neutralizing system instead of the anti-infection system, I wonder if what we’re really seeing is some sort of low level poisoning across the nation that we haven’t tracked down the root cause of?
Something certainly seems not right here.
They’ve pretty definitively tied allergic response to anti-parasite systems. We don’t have the parasites, so the system goes after other things. (Truly awful allergies can and have been treated with tapeworms. One such person was quoted as saying something like “I try not to think about what’s in this pill.”)
I could easily see both, but the thing I’d run into was that the specific compounds that people with peanut and shellfish allergies are reacting to was very similar to some fairly nasty poisons, and possibly the same with bee stings.
As I understand it, we are pretty poison resistant when compared to other animals. Chocolate, grapes and caffeine, after all.
It occurs to me that you also drastically changed environments from one that was making you sick to one that wasn’t. You might still be acclimatizing, and also your system isn’t using up energy trying to keep you in balance.
Not a doctor, but it seems reasonable.
It’s quite possible, but if that’s the case, I just have to stop eating altogether.
Biden is preparing to help with that…. 😎
Right? The one good thing that socialism can do for ALL OF US.
-Not- trying the Khmer Rouge diet…
Solve the obesity crisis?
The wife lost 50 pounds over two years using a protein shake called Almased, She drinks one or two shakes a day and then eats dinner, often low carb but not always. It’s a proper dinner too, and I think it’s important that one eat and enjoy what one’s eating, She’s just a bit of a thing and this amounted to a quarter of her body weight, She looks great and has managed to keep it off for a considerable time. She used the shake to change her diet permanently rather than going on a diet.
I’ve used it too, with significantly less discipline than she, and still lost 30:pounds from a significantly higher starting point. It doesn’t taste, bad, exactly, sorta like oatmeal, and you can’t add fruit or sugar because sugar is the devil.
It’s expensive too and can be hard to find but the wife uses the CVS 40% off coupons to keep the price reasonable.
Worth a look I think, worked for us anyway.
Good luck,
Might. Honestly, there’s something seriously off (I’m not stupid) but the problem is I keep giving up and hitting the carbs, because when I’m keeping things absolutely tight and still not losing, it feels like what the heck. And hten Is top walking. Weirdly that doesn’t make me gain weight. It just screws everything up.
The wife impressed the hell out of me. She managed to permanently change her diet. Now, over two years later, she will snack from time to time … even candy, but she says “it’s a numbers game” She’s able to snack because she never lets it drift out of balance. the important thing is that we eat one regular meal a day, none of this “diet” crap. We go out and enjoy eating too.
When she starts to drift, she’ll have a “three shake day” to restore the balance. She’s much more disciplined than I am. She’s able to cheat this day and get the balance back the next, me… I have an addictive personality Im afraid. I have to eliminate, cutting back doesn’t work. It’s how I quit smoking, but substituted food. I put on 60 pounds. I’ve been avoiding candy, Lent is good for this, and number two son gets me out and about to the gym and even playing touch rugby and full contact with the old boys. Not bad for a 60 year old fat man.
I hope you’re able to find your way. I know I feel much better now than I have in years. the exercise really helps with the depression. I was in bad shape that way this time last year and number two son basically nagged me out of it.
She lost it half a pound a week, It was awful for her.
Sounds familiar. Right now? I want to stop gaining. I think I have that under control. Now I need to just start losing steadily without plateauing. When I plateau long enough, I give up. I can’t give up carbs totally. But have to be careful. If I give up carbs then my blood sugar doesn’t go up enough, and I go hypoglycemic. If I have sugars or too much carb then my BS goes too high (where “too high” is “above 130”, higher the worse it is) and the insulin reactivity kicks in triggering the hypoglycemia.
I am watching what I eat and going to a gym. Just started 3 months with a trainer once a week, which I have to pay for. Gym membership is under “Silver and Fit” through medicare advantage. Right now goals are: Core Strength, High Elevation Endurance, ability to get off floor without hands, and weight loss. Trainer has me doing Core exercises with each muscle group working on, then afterwards 20 – 30 minutes cardio, either on elliptical or treadmill.
I’ll evaluate another 3 month stretch after we are back from our planned trip this May/June. Lot will depend on whether the weight is actually coming off or not. I know how to eat, not only what, but portions. I’ve lost weight before: 25 35#s like 7 or 8 times. But I can’t keep the weight lost. It keeps ambushing me.
I still think at least part of it is the medical advice to women that they should make sure they don’t gain weight while pregnant, or if fairly low weight to start with they are allowed to gain a small amount.
The one brother that my grandmother did not diet when she was pregnant with is the only one that didn’t have weight issues.
Not the advice I got. I got a lecture for only gaining 20#s when I was pregnant with our son. Also accounted for late pregnancy problems. Medical professionals kept checking me for high BP. If they’d checked me for pregnancy diabetics might have stumbled over the actual problem. My hypoglycemia was the problem. Symptoms: Very dizzy, faint, and tired. How SIL figured it out was after FIL funeral and my folks had left (they drove me from Eugene to Bend because, for reasons hubby was already there), dinner was being delayed. So I was going to lay down until dinner. While hubby explained doctors hadn’t been able to figure out why. SIL, the nurse, followed me back, took my BP, then checked my blood sugar (she’s diabetic). Her response “Dinner is NOT being delayed. Or you need a snack, now.” BS was very, very, low. Which in retrospect made sense. Baby, by then, had a tendency to stand on my stomach (and bladder), I wasn’t eating much … Born 4 weeks later.
Before BMI went from a screening tool to being used to (mis)diagnose?
Now standard to check for diabetic signs– although I can vouch that they don’t much look at the low. I had a time or two where I nearly fainted on the way to the car after the challenge, and when the blood results came back they were below the allowable range. (But you need two different out-of-range-results for it to be a “problem.”)
Which makes absolutely no sense.
Was it on here that folks were talking about people confusing the method to reach a goal with the goal itself?
Gestational diabetes is screened for because bigger babies are associated with negative outcomes; originally, that was the low hanging fruit, very low amount of work for a very high return. You were with one test making early birth, maternal complications, and a very high stress birth for the child less likely.
Unfortunately, people then fixated on the goal being “Fight Gestational Diabetes,” and don’t even think about any other bloodsugar issues.
See also, much worry about high blood pressure, no mention that you can get the same symptoms from a sudden drop in blood pressure.
100% on both.
Doesn’t help if you have someone like me who isn’t medical savvy. Better now that I’m focusing on it (FYI. What is “too fast” BS drop? All I can find searching is “Must be below 140 within 2 hours.” Well That is not a problem.) Not so much then. Then? When I was diagnosed with RH I was told “Do not consume sugary items on an empty stomach. Or the symptoms you have occur.” (Oh, sure. I know NOW how inadequate that was. Plus now, the full diagnosis is Hypoglycemic RH.) When I was pregnant, I was being very good. I was eating six small meals a day (baby tended to sit on the stomach, and tap dance on the bladder). I was not eating candy, etc., on an empty stomach. Which is why I never thought to ask or question (even if I hadn’t been a bit “out of it” on those urgent visits). Now BP for me what I have to watch out for is “BP is good”, but for me Normal high BP should be a warning sign. (Dad was the same. I’m sure that is why his problem wasn’t diagnosed until it was almost too late.) My normal BP, even now at 66, is considered low (I don’t have far to drop to “too low”). As Sarah says “People are not identical widgets.”
I think the only time, when I’ve said something is during Wednesday after the shutdown arena gathering 2005 National Jamboree. After helping the contingent adults make sure all scouts were rounded up (including going with adult to take two scouts to the medical tents – plenty of water, but hadn’t eaten enough), I tried to eat some dinner (salad) but couldn’t so gave it up and headed to tent for nap (I was district staff). One of the tent mates came in, checking on staff (she was national staff), insisted I get checked out (grumble). Wouldn’t take No for an answer. Doctor took BP. Naturally “normal”, gave me the numbers. My comment? “Oh. That is a bit high for me.” Got this funny look from the doctor. He checked BS, handed me a banana, and orange juice, and insisted finish both in front of him. Might have been because besides dehydration, the biggest problem they were having were scouts not eating because it was so hot (106F, heat index 115F. It was HOT. I did not do well that week.)
What is “too fast” BS drop? All I can find searching is “Must be below 140 within 2 hours.”
Before “meeting” you on here, I’d never heard of people being diagnosed as “their blood sugar drops like a rock” except as a weird sign of diabetes, which meant they’d have normal diabetes in a very short time.
I don’t know if that means it’s unusual, or if it means they’re not looking.
I was diagnosed at age 30. Probably had it longer much longer than that. That was 36 years ago. I’ve also been told that “can’t have RH if overweight” … I was diagnosed with a glucose tolerant test (and no, I do not want to retake, no, just no, it is foul, it just to prove to current general medical, took a different route). Note, while not AS overweight, I was overweight when diagnosed. RH today is a very common side effect of the more extreme weight loss procedures, based of the RH private FB group, or autoimmune, and other medical issues. Is my HRH, indicative of underlying undiagnosed problems? I have no idea.
For all I know it might be a early/pre diabetic sign. If so, no one has said so.
Dan’s grandmother had this problem. My dad had it when he was younger.
> “I still think at least part of it is the medical advice to women that they should make sure they don’t gain weight while pregnant”
[blink]
Umm… You’re carrying a second, ever-growing person inside of you. If you DIDN’T gain weight during that I’d take it as a sign that something was wrong.
I didn’t gain weight with younger son. In fact, I lost 10 lbs. I was smaller when I was at full term than I am now. Which is bizarre.
He was a full 8 and a half lbs and 21 and a half inches. A chubby little infant.
I have no idea. He’s weird. He’s always been stealth. 😉
I was already familiar with the, ahem, “accuracy” of BMI*, so when I was told to gain “no more than” 10 pounds– when I’d already lost 8 in the first month or so, before my appointment– I nodded, smiled, and ignored it.
I’ve got the pamphlets somewhere around here, but the mayo clinic;
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/pregnancy-weight-gain/art-20044360
has a chart as well; the lower numbers look roughly like the “gain no more than” numbers I was given.
And even if I wasn’t, that there was no correction made for wearing 15 pounds of boots, a heavy winter jacket, packing a cell phone, etc would have clued me in.
NONE of the doctors correct for that. It’s bizarre
Totem doctoring.
Good doctors knew they didn’t have to be that accurate for most of the time, and bad doctors didn’t learn when the numbers REALLY MATTERED.
Mom had to throw an abject fit to get the doctors to do an accurate blood pressure reading before prescribing anything for “high blood pressure.”
There’s actually a specific way to get an accurate reading, but it takes time, a chair that’s the right height, and like five minutes of being relaxed and sitting back correctly.
Not, walk into room, sit down so your feet hang off of the table, and immediately take blood pressure with machine while answering five hundred rapid fire questions.
Yep. Ten minutes. They never DO ONE.
Shamelessly stolen from elsewhere:
The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is what kills you.
I’ve hypothesized this…
Excessive worrying about what you eat is what kills you. 😀
😉 😉 😉
I don’t know if this will make sense to most people, but when I need to lost weight I cut the carbs and pile on the fat, mostly in the form of butter and cheese. When I start feeling like I’m at a sugar low, I eat a piece of cheese. It’s slower than sugar, but it lasts longer and I don’t get the blood-sugar yo-yo.
Makes sense to me. Low calorie yogurt triggers BS yo-yo because of the artificial sugar. Whole milk Greek yogurt does not trigger the same. Reason? The whole milk fat. Granted can’t have yogurt that includes a fruit component, or same reaction, but not for the same reason.
um
Celery is zero to net negative.
Munch a stalk instead of a snack.
Munch a stalk a bit before a meal, to start the “full” signal early.
Don’t stuff it with cheese or dip in sour cream.
Carrots are chock full of calories.
Dude. A) I hate celary. It tastes like perfume.
AND I don’t really snack. I have no clue why you think I do.
On my “Bad” days I have two sticks of cheese for lunch.
You mentioned Dread Pred. I can’t take it anymore. But when I did I could never not be hungry. Was a bit like 14 again.
Stuff I am on now is less so, but still drives an annoying “feed me!” signal. Vexing greatly, as had previously dropped 45 pounds. And exercise jacks up my appetite bigly.
Also, apparently growing again, as picked up another 1/2 inch of height in the past year. Talk about goofy hormones….
Perfume? Fascinating.
I’m used to always being hungry.
Look, I’m not mad at you, but I MUST discuss this, because someday you’re going to make a comment like this when someone is near you and this is the millionth comment (not this one, the previous one) of its kind they hear, and they put a knitting needle through your eye.
Look, let’s be blunt: I’m sure you knew someone who claimed to be dieting and was out there chowing on carrots and dressing. I — ew — hate dressing and a few carrots go a long way. I mostly eat vegetables for…. uh…. reasons.
I’ve had problems with my weight since pneumonia almost killed me at 33. So, you know, 27 years. Before that I had problems too, but I could starve myself into tiny.
Before the last 6 month 50 lbs gain, I was merely 40 lbs overweight.
Most of my life, I’ve exercised a couple of hours a day (at least) and eaten very little.
I’m on the internet. I do commentary for a reason. Think about your first comment: WHAT ARE THE CHANCES I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT CELERY? Or all the other similar “tricks”? What are the chances I’m chowing down on carrots covered in dressing when I say the only thing that works is one meal a day?
My normal “diet” is a yogurt for breakfast with black coffee; a couple of sticks of cheese for lunch. Sometimes a few rounds of salami (like six.) And a small portion of meat with cauliflower rice and/or salad for dinner. This is my normal “Don’t gain weight” diet.
I fell off the horse sometime during the move. My son (younger) was shocked I was working all day at violent manual work on the house, and then going out with him for a single meal, usually a burger and gaining weight. I wasn’t. You see, I was having a handful of fries. That’s enough to gain three pounds, right there. And no, don’t tell me how, I don’t think there’s a scientific explanation (I wasn’t even having the bread.)
Before the pred (I gained weight before the pred) I was sometimes having a small bag of microwave popcorn for lunch. (Not as a snack. For lunch.)
And I love corn chips, and we have been going out once a week and having — gasp — corn chips.
That’s enough (more than) to explain 50 lbs weight gain.
So, I need to completely stop the carbs. COMPLETELY, not partially. And I need to fast except for one meal a day.
That’s it. That’s the only way I’ve ever lost weight.
For the record, too, my doctors do their magical readings and tell me I’m hyperthyroidal. I have no symptoms of Hyperthyroidism, on the contrary. And I can’t lose weight.
So, this is not normal, in any way shape or form.
And yes, finding an endo is a quest, but the times I’ve tried they just insist I’m hyperthyroidal and want to “treat” that. And, hell no.
Now, the reason for this comment: I REALLY am not mad at you.
I’m mad at the doctors who ask if I’ve considered losing weight. I’m an American woman, 100 pounds overweight. WHAT DO THEY THINK?
I’m mad at the friend who when I was exercising FOUR hours a day in a vain effort to stay under 200 lbs gave me a book on exercise to help me lose weight. It was “gentle exercises for beginners.” Ten minutes of sit ups and such. I showed her what I did. She was shocked. You see, she was rail thin, ate like a rabid hog and had never exercised more than those gentle exercises, so she assumed…. I don’t know. I was never moving?
But I’m not mad at you. Because you don’t know me in person.
I’m just telling you to think about what you’re saying, because sooner or later it’s going to hit someone the REALLY wrong way.
My case is bizarre and again, it’s probably auto-immune. BUT I’m not the only person out there doing everything possible and still GAINING, let alone not losing.
I’m not one of the body-positive people. I want to lose weight because this isn’t healthy. But I kind of get them. After a while.
Fair.
I’m body-positive because of the extreme nature of American obsession with weight. No, excessive weight isn’t a healthy thing, but in America it seems to be a license to shame.
And here’s the thing: Excessive weight is almost always the following sign of a health issue. It’s not the thing causing the issue (which, admittedly, can be psychological.) So “well-meaning” people are often telling someone to fix their broken ankle by walking on it.
Or flat-out shaming. And you know what one of the things that makes you gain weight is? Stress hormones. Funny, that. Other things that cause weight gain include fluctuating hormone levels and at least three common uterine-based issues that, on average, take 8-10 years to get diagnosed. So, you know, “being female” is a common weight gain issue.
(I put together one of those Dr. Strange/Scarlet Witch memes after my husband lost 15 pounds in a month with a few minor change in diet and a couple of walks a day. I’d spent four months at one point hiking 20-40 miles a week and hadn’t even lost five pounds, so… “that doesn’t seem fair” was the correct response.)
I think it was back in the ’90s when some folks were pointing out that it wasn’t acceptable to be “judgmental” about married people cheating on their spouses, but it was perfectly acceptable to be judgmental and flatly abusive about what someone was eating.
Heck when I worked seasonally for the USFS, in the field. Not hiking trails, hiking up/down side of mountains, around and through trees and shrubs (western Oregon mountain sides have A LOT of shrubs/brush under trees) of presale units. I varied -5#s from school months. OTOH size 10 jeans VS size 14 … School involved walking or biking on campus 5/days a week (to/from first two years, no car). I weighted 135#-ish. My male colleague classmates, doing the similar would lose easily 10 to 30#s depending on how much extra they’d added over the school year.
A good part of my problem is, eventually, I worked at a desk for 35 years and rarely followed up with exercise outside of work. When I did take that extra effort, I’d lose weight, eventually (not quickly by any measurement). Then I’d plateau the weight loss. When getting up at 4 – 5 AM to go exercise before work gets dang old when not gaining goals like weight loss (after work not an option, not only are gyms busy, but until kid left for college, there was kidsports, and scouts, after work). So, quit. It’d take 4 or 5 years, but that weight always came back.
The difference NOW is weight loss, while a goal, is NOT The goal. Better Strength, Stability, and Endurance, are the goals. If the weight comes off? Great (and Please?!) But I will climb stairs. I will be able to get back off the floor without help (not without snap, crackle, or pop, that ship has probably sailed).
Not changing eating habits. Those are established for other medical reasons. They are not bad eating habits. We eat mostly non-processed foods because none of can stand canned or packaged.
Good description. When I started going to the gym 5+ years ago, my goal, in priority order were:
1. Get stronger
2. Gain weight (I’m currently at what I want as a minimum 200lbs at 6’2″)
3. Get bigger (not shredded, just t-shirts getting tighter across my shoulders & chest)
4. Burn body fat (goal is 15% – 18%, need a dexa scan to see where I am)
I know people have different goals, so I am not judging.
My lifting goals in no particular order:
deadlift 2x bodyweight
benchpress 1x bodyweight
squat 1.5x bodyweight
which are not extreme and should not cause me joint problems
To echo Sarah-
please do not give this advice unless you are very, very sure– from direct observation– that it is relevant.
I got variations on this advice all through school.
Long story short, I dieted to the point that I stunted my growth, and the entire time people were informing me that I just needed to eat less.
The one time that I effectively lost weight? I counted calories– and made sure to eat more, so I got at least 1,600 calories.
Just me, or everyone else throwing out ideas?
Just the people acting like the only reason that cutting calories doesn’t work is that the person being given advice has never heard it before, or is too stupid to realize that dressing has calories.
I am trying to be as polite as possible, partly because I “know” you and partly because as Sarah pointed out it’s not mad, it’s “would like to keep you from hurting those close to you–
this exact kind of zero-effort advice resulted in life long issues FOR ME. Ones which I blamed myself for, since– hey, why not, everybody assured me that X must be the problem, I just needed to do it harder.
Only to much later find out they were making assumptions that were not just unsupported, but which would not have stood up to five minutes worth of thought, much less actually asking what I did, and let’s not get started on actual observation. People tend to disregard evidence when they already have a conclusion.
Something like taking a B complex? Making sure you have enough iron (and the C to use it)? Chromium? Fiber?
THOSE are types of advice that haven’t been beaten over folks heads daily since, oh, the 60s.
Not like long term dieting might be part of the problem? Especially if one is forced onto diets as teen when not overweight? Have never been “Twiggy” thin. But at 5’4″, 130#s is NOT overweight.
Then heredity biology gets a vote too. I have pioneers from both sides of the family. My body not fed adequate calories goes into “famine” mode and holds onto every spare calorie possible.
I don’t know what the answer is for me, let alone anyone else. All I can do is state what I need to do, and what I am currently trying (of which jury is out on whether it will work, for me, or not), and why past failures have occurred.
:wry smile:
:waves:
5’3, 115-120, when I was supposedly so grossly fat.
If I remember right, you were highly active, too.
Don’t know about you, but my uncles sank on hitting water, even the ones that were “fat.” Heavy bones, dense muscle; one of them actually failed the dead man’s float, and they finally let him pass because he held his breath long enough, adn held the position long enough, that they couldn’t really blame him for being a foot or so under the surface.
5’7″ 145 lbs.
Starved myself down to 130. You could count the bones. Still considered grossly fat. Size 7 was at the time larger than clothes came in, in Portugal. Shrug.
The both times I actually got below 130# for any length of time? I got horribly sick. Even landed in the hospital (for a nano second. Mom pointing out I didn’t have medical insurance or rather that they weren’t sure their insurance would cover it, for reasons, got me out quickly.)
I’m comfortable and healthy at 180 (ish) pounds, size 14. No medical problems that I’m aware of. The thing I get frustrated about is that my strength is decreasing as I age. Which I guess is inevitable, but still grrrrr.
I eat a lot of fat, mostly butter and cheese, but few carbs. I suspect if I went full carnivore I would gain weight but slim down a couple sizes. People are different, and their bodies are different. Advice that might work for one would send another into the grave and drive a third to lethal irritability.
Years of reading diet & exercise books just leave me the conclusion that dieting advice is like parenting advice. Everyone has some, none of it applies, all of it sort of rhymes. And all the ‘This isn’t healthy for you’ is BS, listen to what your body is telling you instead and experiment.
No carb & intermittent fasting (eat once every 24 hours) was the only thing that worked for me.
Yep. It’s the ONLY thing that works for me, period. Sigh.
I will havecto give that a try.
The hard part is nuking that dang “feed me” signal.
There are people who take Semaglutide for that issue. Not that I’m an expert. Talk to a medical professional first.
Semaglutide – Ozempic, Wegovy – does work like that for most people who try it. There are side effects, some people cannot tolerate one or another of them.
I’ve been doing Ozempic since October; down about 20 lb.
But you better have wonderful insurance (we do). That stuff be ‘spensive!
And I suspect I couldn’t take it at all. I have normal blood sugar, of all things.
I have been following some gym related content, only partially bodybuilding. They talk about a number of compounds, heavy on the testosterone, including Semaglutide, BPC157, MK677, and others. Some of them have been using Semaglutide without being diabetic, with good results. If you are interested in listening to them, it is the “Too Much Test” podcast. I listen to them while driving.
I also have a couple of friends who are overweight or morbidly obese. One of them quit using Semaglutide when his insurance quit covering it. He needs to lose at least 150 lbs to get down to merely fat. I wish I could help him.
Dug into those with doc. Need to not add more pharma to my current load. But useful suggestion, thanks.
Bunch of interesting ideas here.
I’ve been struggling with weight issues for most of my life (at 70, sigh). Anything posted here is not advice. Some worked for me, and I’ve also had one or two spectacular backlashes.
At age 39, I was pushing 400 pounds and went for a medically controlled fast. It was a huge commitment, since insurance said “Nope, not gonna pay.” Combined with exercise, I got almost half of it off, and later on got down to 185 pounds. (Turns out I loathe dieting. Also 185 is too light for me.)
Grim determination and huge amounts of exercise kept it off for a few years, then oops. Saw close to 400 again. Left it alone until we moved to Flyover County, at which point I was on the “13 acre exercise plan”, taking care of trees, pine needles and doing a bunch of needed construction. That (and lack of ready access to high calorie goodies) got me down to 300 pounds, where it got stable for a while.
Various medical issues challenged that, usually to the tune of +20 pounds. Once I could resume activity, I could get that down. The biggest issue was when I blew out my knee. Several weeks of confinement to the comfy chair, followed by physical therapy lead to a minor daily exercise program, which helps the knee. Some. It also started me losing weight again.
Resumed construction, and started a major demolition project that took several weeks. (Removed a deck that was a fire hazard, along with the framing.) I found two things; serious pain in joints and more weightloss. I also shifted breakfast patterns, going from 7 days a week oatmeal + yogurt, to 3 days a week panfried potatoes and carrots with an omelette. It shouldn’t work, but it does.
I’m also taking Kat the border collie out on her potty breaks. When that entails trudging through 12″ of snow, more exercise. That and keeping the solar system clear for the occasional bright days.
So, I think I found something that works for me. The construction backlog now has a new walkway and patio to do in the spring, and work on the master bedroom (paint and new flooring, all on me). OTOH, I’m not going to do the replacement siding the house needs; that will be handled by a (large) check to the pros. I’ve worked with fiber-cement boards. Not gonna do panels.
The closest thing to advice is “try something, if it doesn’t work, try something else”.
I do 18 hour fasts, and feel better … and don’t stick to it as often as I ought, for as long as I ought.
The fast alone makes me feel better. Walking alone makes me feel better. I’m gonna try them together.
Daily fasting, OMAD – One Meal A Day is a thing. As long as you are not nutrient-starved, it’s not really any issue once you get used to it, so is said.
yeah. My problem is that Dan works late, and around 4 pm I’m ready to bite someone’s head off. It really works best with eating around 4 pm at latest.
When first married, we discovered we could not talk to each other in the morning before breakfast. Low blood sugar grumpy, we think.
I also suffer from an overdose of recliner. It’s one reason I’m seriously considering un-retiring.
Hadn’t made the connection before, but there is one task I am supposed to accomplish at work as soon as I can ( After 7AM, which is my NORMAL start time, so there are some days that doesn’t quite apply…). So that pretty much is one task I am quite good at that “can’t be undone”. Maybe that has the desired effect, without it something I was trying to do consciously? I know when I just have a ‘normal’ single day off ( Two days? Ha, that only happens when I am going on some trip.) and no scheduled tasks I always feel like I haven’t accomplished very much.
Things should improve as we get out of the winter.
No! It’s light out forever, and hot, and buggy, and there are too many people, and the pollen tries to kill me (if the dust hasn’t already), and that nasty ball of fire in the sky also tries to kill me. Ick! Bring on autumn and winter, and Standard Time.
DST is just as much of the Devil as Marxism.
There’s something to be said for DST limited to when there is enough Daylight to be worth Saving – have it start after the Spring equinox and end before the Fall equinox.
The current extended DST is a work of evil, and year-round DST is so bad that the US government’s two attempts to impose it both failed.
It’s not DST that’s the problem, it’s the switching. I don’t care which, just pick one and STICK WITH IT, for the love of God…
I am so very not a morning person that whether it’s dark or light in the morning is useless and irrelevant to me. In the winter I want more light later in the afternoon so I don’t get sleepy during work, and in the summer I want more light in the evening so I can go do stuff while it’s light out. DST all year for me.
Seconded.
Apparently DST is the problem. The later dawn time messes with people’s limbic reset, and that causes sleep issues, and we already have problems with that.
Also going to school in the dark of winter causes more deaths of minors due to visibility issues.
It also makes it harder for places to have reasonable adjustments for situations — you have to try to move “winter hours” around, not actual WINTER LIGHT and the demands of what’s going on, but “OK, the politicians tell us to change time HERE, and then we can make adjustments on our hours to try to maybe work with actual humans.”
I’m comfortable with you being wrong.
😀
Work outside early morning and evenings. I can’t go outside without a hat, long sleeves, and long pants, else I fry.
Do you also have problems crossing running water?
Actually, yes, if it’s wide enough or deep enough. I don’t float, so any kind of water without a flotation device is rather a panic situation.
I am also dead white. I have never tanned in my life. But I love garlic!
Just need the right sunglasses……
I’m not looking forward to Nighttime Spending Time. I’ve had to do various chores at 6AM (take the compost up, check the pumphouse heater*and do anything else that needs to be done and is easier if Kat the border collie isn’t helping).
With the time change, 6AM is 0 Dark hundred, and I’ll have to wear my coyote repellent tool** for a month or so.
(*) Yeah, automatic switchover regulators exist. Too bad the one I picked for that shed is an unreliable design. OTOH, I finally found the one that works, and it’s only 3-4X the price of the crappy ones. Hell yes, I bought it.
(**) .45 ACP until I get some range time with the .22.
My problem was never the winter, which was way milder than CO, just…. a combination of things.
I was planning on going walking anyway. 1) There’s a heavy overcast. 2) I need to let some writing sit so I can go back and catch typoos. 3) The faculty luncheon (Italian) has nothing to do with this activity. None at all.
Something I actually know a bit about. Strength training is more effective at burning fat than cardio. Personally, I have found that Strongman training has such a wide variety of movement and exercises that I don’t get bored or distracted. Also, it is focussed on strength instead of bodybuilding, so being overweight is much less of an issue. I recommend trying to find a good trainer locally. And before you play the age card, I started Strongman at age 60. In fact, I started the whole gym thing at age 60.
See… the problem that I have with strength training is… you have to set aside dedicated time and space to do it. Which would be nice, except for when setting up dedicated space requires one to clean or paint or install flooring or rearrange furniture, which takes more time and money.
Or you have to set aside dedicated time and money for it, and rent someone else’s equipment.
Walking-, standing-, and cycling-desks allow you to get activity in while you are working on something that pays.
And if you are completely deconditioned (raises hand), it’s an easy way of raising your stamina and conditioning enough to start weight training without completely breaking yourself.
Arguing “weight training” vs “Aerobic exercise” – especially when one argues it as if those two components are mutually exclusive – is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Have you looked at the isotonic exercises, the ones that use your own weight and the force of gravity instead of formal weights? Things like push-ups, crunches, wall sits, and so on. The Canadian Armed Forces used to have a training guide that was developed for the men and women stationed in places where going outside to train or leaving your post was not readily possible. I’ve used those when I couldn’t/didn’t want to train at a gym and I didn’t have hand-me-down weights at home. (Relative outgrew them, so I took them. Was a very good intro training set. Passed them on to a happy recipient when I moved back to Texas.)
I found one of those High Impact Circuit Training sets years ago that I started doing when the pandemic hit, where you do the exercise for 30 seconds and then rest for 8 seconds, then do the next exercise, etc. By the time the 9 minutes was up I was sweating like crazy and my heart rate was up around 150, so it was definitely doing its job. It was:
Jumping jacks (total body)
Wall sit (lower body)
Push-up (upper body)
Abdominal crunch (core)
Step-up onto chair (total body)
Squat (lower body)
Triceps dip on chair (upper body)
Plank (core)
High knees/running in place (total body)
Lunge (lower body)
Push-up and rotation (upper body)
Side plank (core)
And the only equipment was a rigid chair. Side plank kicked my ass.
I fell away from it once we started to be allowed to go outside again and transitioned into walking. I haven’t been for my 3-4x week 4-mile walk in a while, because I’ve been doing lots of very physical work on my house, and my knees are definitely complaining at me for skipping it.
I also got some resistance bands so I could do ersatz weight training like bicep curls and squats and so forth.
This is a podcast I listened to recently: https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/zone-2-cardio-podcast-viada/
Recommended listening, do what you want with the knowledge.
My problem is neither lack of equipment nor lack of interest in weight training.
I have an adjustable kettlebell staring at me reproachfully from under my kitchen table, and a list of exercises that I should be doing to improve my thoracic mobility.
My problem is floor space – I haz none. Not even enough to do a push up.
Between the furniture and books I’m storing for family who don’t yet have the space to keep them, and building materials, and the stuff I have piled so that I can move the furniture that’s in the way of me installing new floors, and my buckets of plant cuttings, my apartment looks like a mild episode of Hoarders threw up all over it.
I hate it, I hate living in it, and I’m working on fixing it. But I’m also spending half my weekends driving to my parents’ – two and half hours away – to help them build their house.
I’ll have more room when I finish the den floor and can re-shelve the pile of books, especially if I can sell some of my furniture that I don’t want to keep.
Until then… cycling it is.
I feel this.
yes. Almost for sure. I just am bad at following directions and don’t have a work out partner.
Walking is however essential FOR ME despite whatever else.
I started to work out with a weighted Indian club in November, it’s fantastic.
You can start out very low weight and build up from there. It opens up the shoulders and hips wonderfully. When I was playing ball I had to lift weights. I hate weightlifting. A guy I worked with, who was immense and the strongest man I ever met, told me to swing a sledgehammer in circles. I did and it did wonders for my athleticism. Still had to do weightlifting, but the hammer was fun and I had a WTF reaction as I git quicker and much stronger, Once I stopped playing ball, I stopped the lifting and the hammer,
The weighted club is the modern version of the hammer. Mine is adjustable from 5 pounds to about 40 and made in America. I highly recommend it. Swinging 25 pounds on the end of a lever, which is where I’m at now, around your head and body for 10 minutes does wonders. My grip is already vastly better. And it’s fun.
Adex is the brand and Mark Wildman is the guy on the tubes of you to learn how to use it. he’s the only fitness guy in the inter webs who keeps his shirt on.
It’s really worth your time taking a look at it.
Link?
http://Www.wildmanathletica.com has a link to his tubes of you channel. What I really like is that he’s about people of all shapes and sizes getting the most they can out of it rather than bodybuilding and GAINZ, though you’ll get GAINZ if you do it properly. Again, he’s the only expert u tuber I know of who keeps his bloody shirt on.
http://Www.adexclub.com is the club I use. I have two, the short and the intermediate.
If those are too heavy, there are wooden ones too, not through adex, What’s nice about adex is they’re adjustable in 2.5 pound increments so your can safely progress through the weights. I’m in love with the things,
If you like walking, heavy hands is great. You curl a light weight — I started with two pounds and am up to eight — while you’re walking. Sounds like nothing, but if you do it for an hour — and you can after a while — you’re doing 3600 or so reps per arm and your time under tension is insane.
Again, good luck. It’s hard and, unless you get lucky, you have to flail around until you find something that works for you. This works for me, doesn’t work for the wife. Hope it helps.
Lost in moderation. If it stays that way I’ll repost it.
I just freed it.
This just reminded me of something Larry Correia recommended writers do: go learn to do something physical your characters would do.
I’ve thought about tracking down a local medieval sword recreation group to go learn how to do that, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe I should? It sounds like something that would tie in with the Indian club type of exercises as well.
I do remember there was an outdoor range I used to go shooting at on weekends. They’ve closed now, but I think the hour or two standing in the sun was good for me.
Once upon a time, I helped out with a range training weekend at a mystery writers convention. Feedback was positive on the overall event. Walking through some scenarios for authors was kinda fun.
Certainly easier for me to write about stuff I have done.
I may have spotted your problem…
c4c
“I walked.”
I have the same reaction to getting up when my alarm goes off.
If I don’t, it’s hard to pull back up during the day.
God has informed me that my life will not improve until I take better care of myself. I’m still deciding how to best execute that.
Timely!!!
What I got from all that, is yet another reinforcement that “habit” always beats “will/wontpower”.
Yes. Of course. I’m trying to habituate the walk every morning, and perhaps having only one meal, if I can manage that. (It’s difficult, because I have to write while starving. I’m used to starving, but it’s still hard.)
Oh and I should point out on the “Dressing” front, the reason I said “ew”… I have a weird, possibly sensory quirk. I hate dressing and sauces. I will eat salad dressing, but I always ask for it on the side. Not because it’s “weight gain inducing” (Though most of them have way too much sugar) but because if a salad comes dressed the way most people eat it, I gag and don’t eat it. I do salad dressing “on the side” and basically barely touch an edge of it to the dressing, and that’s enough. routinely the dressing on the side looks full when I’m done.
Yeah, I’m weird.
I call that “scaring the salad with the dressing”. I can’t eat salads without Some dressing. Which is probably more than you use, but not drowning in it. I am the same about sandwiches or hamburgers. Although now that I’ve been getting the individual avocado (good fat) servings from Costco (freezing and having only a couple thawed to use) I’ve cut out adding any extra dressings (mayo, um yuck, catsup, etc.) to hamburgers, or sandwiches. Hubby likes his dry so that has helped too.
Is garlic salt an option for you?
When I eat lettuce salad, that’s my preferred topping.
Yes, Garlic Salt is an option. Problem is, I don’t like garlic salt.
I’d say that makes it not an option, no point!
True. Dislike makes garlic salt not an option. But still an “option” because no reason medically. OTOH technically liver is a medical option for Iron … Not that I’m eating liver anytime soon, or ever.
Point being that “dressings” do not have to be heavy and/or liquid. A little bit of seasoned vinegar, or cottage cheese, or a prepared spice mix that you like the flavor of. Lots of possibilities.
I use something called “Bacon Salt” which is so far from “salt” it meets the definition of “low sodium”, and far enough from bacon that it’s kosher outside Passover. But it replaces several things.
For me, getting outside and away from the keyboard ‘helps’ my writing as I do/think about other things. And the side benefit is exercise. But right now that is limited due to the weather… sigh… so I do isometrics when I can inside the house.
I need to go outside more, but yes, weather. I have planting to do!
I heard that Sarah! We’re vacillating between the 50s and the 80s down here… sigh
c4c