Snarkyfishguts: DBL

[Snarkyfishguts]

 

 

 

 

 

This is my plan for March when it comes to exercise.  I'm going to rely heavily on the Switch. I've got dumbbells, resistance bands, and the Ringfit for strength training as well as my own body weight.  Minimum time requirement for walking is ten minutes, or about one lap around the neighborhood. I just want to get in the habit of putting on my shoes and jacket and getting out of the house to walk. Ideally, I want to walk several times a day, so those ten minutes will add up. Same for strength training, and fitness games. Minimum ten minutes each. I am hoping to exceed those ten minutes, but I want to set a really easy minimum for those days I hate everything.  

 

For my diet, I'm going to continue to avoid coffee and candy. I am having dessert once a week, and coffee once a week.  I'm going to drink tea or hot  lemon water the mornings I want something warm and comforting. I'm sticking with the cup of green vegetables and cup of non-green veggies. I'm also going to start cutting out salt, and relying more on spices to flavor my food. 

 

For stress relief, I'm going to journal and meditate daily, as well as spend time doing things that make me feel happier that aren't chores. Crafts, reading, video games,  drawing. Things that have a meditative quality to them. And I'm going to adjust my sleeping and try to wake up at 6:30am instead of 5:00am.

 

For learning, I'm going to practice Spanish, German, and learn how to take better photos with my phone! It's going to be a busy month, but I'm really excited to go for it. I'm going to have plenty of time to relax and rest once I have my eye surgery on April 6th, and I want to feel really good and be in good health when that happens.  I also just really want to lower my blood pressure overall without medication. I really genuinely enjoy exercise, and even on the days I hate everything, it usually helps me feel better. So having this on the calendar is a nice way for me to make sure that I'm giving myself the time to do this

 

Okay! Here we go! ?

[Sovalis]

Here to cheer you on! ?

[Shello]

Love your schedule.  You got this! 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 2/27/2023 at 1:40 PM, Sovalis said:

Here to cheer you on! ?

Yay! Thank you!

On 2/27/2023 at 5:17 PM, Shello said:

Love your schedule.  You got this! 

Thank you! 

 

So far so good! Yesterday I boxed for 15 minutes and walked for 20 minutes. Today I played Ringfit for about a half hour but the game only records active minutes so it said 11, and I kinda feel annoyed by that. So I will be ignoring the game clock.   I also walked again for 20 minutes.  It felt good to get back to Ringfit and not have any pain in my wrist or hand, but my knees are not so happy with me  I have full range of motion and can bear weight on them. They are just sore. Nothing on the schedule tomorrow but if Mom feels good, we'll go on a hike, and if she doesn't, I'll walk with Dad again for 20 minutes. The last couple times we walked, it was really nice. We've talked about books and friends online. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Wednesday: walked 40 minutes

Thursday: fitness boxing 30 minutes

Friday: ringfit 10 minutes walk 20 minutes 

 

(Flexes) feeling mighty!

[Snarkyfishguts]

Saturday: rest day. 

Today's plan is yoga and walking. Yesterday the weather was C-O-L-D and today is going to be so much nicer, so I just swapped out the days. My blood pressure is a little high from high sodium restaurant meals, so I'm drinking a lot of water, green tea, and am going to walk more and get some yoga in.  

 

After one week, the plan is working. It's still new. I have the schedule hanging up downstairs where I work out and Mom is like "What are we doing today?" and it's really fun to just say "We're going to do this today" and then we go for it! Last week, I didn't use the food checklist, and I realized I need it. I like it because it's not time consuming, I just make a checkmark for each serving of that type of food that day, so instead of putting all my energy into logging food, I'm using it to make healthier decisions.  

 

I'm also back to weighing in each week.  After I stopped weighing in for a few weeks, I weighed in at 250, and I was like "Okay, that's a tool that was working for me."  I now weigh 246.6. I'm striving to lose a pound a week, except on period weeks, where I'll be happy to maintain. If I'm gaining weight, then I'll look at records for the week and see if I need to make changes.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

My schedule is all wrong this week.  

Yesterday I started boxing for 10 minutes, then I got pissed off.  I walked for 10 minutes and got pissed off, and skipped core exercises. Today everything ached, so I rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes and skipped everything else. 

 

I'm in a funk, and I miss candy and coffee and everything hurts and I dont' really understand why everything hurts. I'm not pushing myself too hard at all, and I'm sleeping fine, and I'm eating well. STUPID, STUPID BODY ACHES. 

 

I'm blaming perimenopause.  It may not be, but saying tha tmakes me feel better so that's what it is.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

Yesterday Mom and I played Fitness Boxing for 30 minutes.  I've been writing all the changes to this week on my printed calendar. Today is supposed to be Boxing and Walking, but I think we'll do something else today. 

 

I realized yesterday I'm scared about eye surgery. I posted about it in my challenge, so I'll keep it brief. Dad was really helpful in reassuring me it's not so bad, and that dental work is actually worse, so he thinks I'll be fine. And he said "They're not even really going IN your eye, it's all on the surface. You're probably going to feel a little burning and a lot of itching." 

 

He really helped! I slept a lot better last night, and I could actually feel my blood pressure go down  

[Snarkyfishguts]

Ringfit today, and a 20 minute walk.  We've done a lot of upper body focus in the last couple days, and I don't know about my mom, but my shoulders are tired. I think tomorrow will be yoga, 8 minute abs, and riding the stationary bike.  Even though I'm not sticking to the schedule this week, I'm giving myself stickers because we're still working out.   I think I'll duplicate the calendar and write in what we've actually done so I can plan ahead in the future too.  

[Shello]

On 2/28/2023 at 5:58 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

Today I played Ringfit for about a half hour but the game only records active minutes so it said 11, and I kinda feel annoyed by that. So I will be ignoring the game clock.  

HAHA!  I had the same reaction and the same solution! 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

2 hours ago, Shello said:

HAHA!  I had the same reaction and the same solution! 

 

 

Yeah! It’s so much better to ignore that nonsense! ?

[Snarkyfishguts]

Non-scale victory- my blood pressure was 124/84 today! This is huge. It’s been consistently 146/92 for a while.  So all the little changes are making a big difference.

1. cutting coffee back to twice a week
2. Cutting out candy
3. increasing vegetables
4. exercising 5 times a week.
5. losing 4 pounds
6. cutting out chips, crackers 
7. limiting burgers and fries to sometimes 

 

now I am gonna cut back on fluffy white breads and waffles, starting Saturday. If we go out for breakfast friday, I am getting the pancakes. I am told they are perfect. After that, I’ll stick to the MIND diet guidelines of 5x a week, instead of 2x a day  ?.  
 

It feels like this is gonna work!

[Snarkyfishguts]

We didn’t get pancakes! But I we t to dinner with my cousin and ordered fried food and we shared dessert, so that’s a great consolation. ? tomorrow I start focusing on cutting back on white fluffy food! ?

[Snarkyfishguts]

Ringfit for 17 minutes today.  I worked out every other day this week, disregarding my schedule. LOL. Will I get back on the schedule this week? I don't know. I feel like two things a day is enough, or one really good thing. Also, yoga is not on my schedule, I enjoy that again as well, so.. the schedule is flawed.  

 

Weighed in at 245, and my BP was 128/86. I'd love to creep those numbers down a little more this week, so I'll be following the MIND diet a little more and continuing the exercise  We'll see how it goes!

 

[RES]

On 3/17/2023 at 9:43 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

tomorrow I start focusing on cutting back on white fluffy food! ?

I had to laugh at this since it's a constant battle for me

[Snarkyfishguts]

27 minutes ago, RES said:

I had to laugh at this since it's a constant battle for me

I only say it every day! ?  I feel like if I ate one fluffy white food a day, that would be a great compromise from eating it multiple times a day and I could live that way. That’s a cookie a day, yes, I could deal ?

[Snarkyfishguts]

30 Minutes of fitness boxing today and I feel really good today. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

15 minutes of Ringfit focusing on balance and stretching today and yoga poses. It felt really good to do and the flamingos came in handy for different poses.  
I felt capable and relaxed during the workout and it feels good. Normally I feel tired but energized, like I just made it to safety before the boulder could roll me over ? so this was a nice change in pace. 

[Shello]

That sounds very refreshing! 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 3/21/2023 at 5:13 PM, Shello said:

That sounds very refreshing! 

It was!

 

 

today was 20 minutes of fitness boxing 2. I was anxious today and my mom

finally sent me downstairs to work out because I was just not feeling better. And dang I felt better after punching the air for 20 minutes ?

[RES]

9 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

today was 20 minutes of fitness boxing 2. I was anxious today and my mom

finally sent me downstairs to work out because I was just not feeling better. And dang I felt better after punching the air for 20 minutes ?

Kudos to mom for recognizing that!  

[Snarkyfishguts]

30 minutes ago, RES said:

Kudos to mom for recognizing that!  

She is pretty awesome. Also, I think I was annoying her ?

[Snarkyfishguts]

I downloaded the Lose It! App for calorie counting. I know! Calorie counting! I HATE calorie counting! But the anxiety was strong. I couldn't calm down. And I thought “what am I eating?”

 

short answer: not enough. About 1000 calories a day. So I made another dinner, and the anxiety disappeared. Now I’m around 1500 and feeling better. I’ll have to go back and review my checklists but I my just count calories for a bit to make sure I am eating enough. I get full from eating more vegetables, but I need to look at proteins too and whole grains. There must be balance in the force.

 

32 minutes of boxing felt awesome. Tomorrow I want to play ringfit adventure and kick my own butt. ?

[Snarkyfishguts]

Victories this week: Good BP and Weight Loss

My BP was 122/82 at the doctors office yesterday. I had a good chat with my doc and I'm set for surgery now!  I'm so relieved my body is responding to diet and exercise so well and that I dont' need medication. My family doesn't have good reactions to medication, and avoiding it is gonna be big for me. 

I weighed in at 243 this morning, which puts me back where I was in January. Now to keep losing the weight and keeping the BP down. 

 

I can improve this: Eating

Looking at Lose it! and my MIND diet checklist, I can eat more whole grains, nuts, beans, yogurt and milks...there's a LOT.  So I'm feeling good, because the checkmarks really let me see the trends and where I can improve. It's gonna be okay.  

 

Now I feel like I can relax and focus on other things. Getting the OK from my doctor made me feel a lot better. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

This weekend was really relaxing. I loosened the reins on my eating habits, and had a delicious italian hoagie and potato chips for dinner Friday and today I made french toast with maple syrup and bacon. It was a lot of fun! I rested from exercise yesterday, and today I went for a 30 minute walk and it was good to work those muscles for a change.  Looking ahead at the weather it seems promising for getting a lot of walking in. 

 

This week, I will be back to eating healthy, and minimizing the junk as well as exercising. It's been a month of this, and I like it. I like checking off the boxes but I am thinking about when I run out of printed checklists just switching tracking veggies on Habitica. I find focusing on the veggies is pretty great for me, and as long as I'm eating those, and avoiding junk food, I do okay throughout the day.  

 

I think it's time to broaden my focus to include more than just health-stuff.  Nothing that would be a challenge topic or a chore, but just kinda have some fun and take some mental energy away from my health all the time. I feel like I'm becoming boring when I talk to people, so it's time to have some fun!