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9/27: Health and Fitness Check-In
Let's see how this goes! Everyone's welcome to join... and to share as much or as little as you're comfortable. Hopefully these check-ins will help us feel extra motivated to take care of ourselves and to feel great!
And since this is our first check-in, maybe we can all spend a little time sharing our goals and our plan for getting healthy and staying fit. (Question #2)
1. How are you feeling this week?
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor:
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: 9/27: Health and Fitness Check-In
1. How are you feeling this week?
Happy to be getting serious about my health again!
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
Long-term, I want to reset my body to it's pre-baby state, where I craved fresh, healthy foods and had a physical need to be active. I want to feel strong and healthy, not weak and flabby and achey. And of course, I want to tone up and maybe lose a couple pounds. Short-term, I need to commit to making good nutrition choices for myself (as good as I make for my son) and to working out at least twice a week. My plan is to do more meal prep so our meals are consistently healthy and hit the gym twice a week when DH is home with A (probably one morning and one night).
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
I was actually pretty motivated because I knew we'd be checking-in! I went back to the gym for the first time in ages and was pretty unhappy with how difficult everything was for me. It felt great to be there, though. I've also been a rockstar in the kitchen and have been whipping up a number of healthy meals (lots of beans) and avoiding too many processed or prepared foods. Yay!
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
Finally hitting the gym. I speed-walked 2.5 miles and did ab work to ease myself back in. I felt kinda lame, but I've gotta start somewhere.
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor:
I weighed in and was a couple pounds heavier than expected. (It's not a lot, but it shows when you're petite.) It'd be nice to get back to my old normal, but I'm going to track my progress by monitoring my endurance levels, muscle tone, and nutrition intake instead.
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
I like what Michael Pollan says, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I looked best when I consistently loaded up on fruit, veggies, beans, soy, whole grains, and minimal meats -- lots of colorful, fresh foods. I cooked a lot and didn't eat out too much (I like knowing what's going into my food), and I think that helped a lot too. I was a chubby kid who always dieted, but once I adopted cleaner eating, I got thin and never had to worry about indulging a little.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
I don't have many yet. I do love this food blog, though: https://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/ Since all the recipes are affordable, there's lots of bean action going on and most things are made from scratch. Great photos, too.
1. How are you feeling this week? Proud of myself.
I'm making progress and sticking to my weight loss efforts, so things are going well right now.
On that night, I get whatever I want, guilt free. Burger and large fries? It's OK. Pizza with double cheese? No problem. I may not actually end up choosing those things, but knowing I CAN have them if I want helps me not feel deprived the rest of the week.
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack? I have a lot of weight to lose, so short and long are kinda the same right now lol. My goal is to get to 150lbs, which is at the upper limit of a healthy BMI for my height, but seems to be the weight at which my body is happiest and healthiest looking (if I drop below 145lbs, people ask if I'm unwell).
Diet/nutrition - currently, I'm simply monitoring my caloric intake. We eat pretty healthy food most of the time (lots of fruit and veggies, lean meats, 99% of meals cooked from scratch), so I haven't really changed the way I prepare food - just carefully watched the portion sizes to make sure I'm not exceeding my daily calorie goal.
Exercise - currently I walk a minimum of 30 min a day. I'm considering joining a gym, partly to shake things up, but also because it gets HOT here in the summer and I'm not sure how well outdoor exercise will work then.
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week? Yup, for the most part. I did cheat a bit too much over the weekend, but even during those meals I didn't have weight gaining calories (i.e., although I ate too much to *lose* weight, I didn't eat more than it would take to *maintain* my weight).
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS! I already AW'd about it a few days ago but yay me - no more 200+lbs!
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor: current - 197.5lbs (God, it kills me to write that! Still, it's better than when the number started with a 2, eh?). I've been averaging a loss of 1.5lbs per week, but am down to only 0.5 this week - not surprised, since I ate pretty crap Fri-Sun.
ETA: make that 196lbs! The 197.5 was from last week, and I just did my weekly "official" weigh-in today. I'll have to move my weigh-in up a day so it coincides with this check-in.
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body? I've tried a lot of different food plans in the past, and after a while realized that the actual TYPE of diet doesn't matter to my body - I gained weight when calories (of any kind) were too high and lost weight when I reduced them enough in general (vs omitting specific food groups the way low carb does, for example).
So my food plan is simple: everything in moderation. If I want a massive piece of cake, I can have it...but I still need to meet my calorie goals, so that means I can't eat much else that day, so I'd rather skip it or just eat a small amount and not feel famished the rest of the time! I guess this type of thinking is similar to the Weight Watchers point system? (I've never actually done WW - this is just what it seems like when I talk to my friends who are doing it.)
I also allow myself to have one cheat meal a week on Friday night. This is DH and my "in home date night" lol - we get takeout and watch crappy TV together.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites. I don't follow any blogs, but I've been using https://www.livestrong.com/myplate/ to track calories - I like it fairly well.
Hey can we throw out more questions for future check-ins? I have a few...
How do you track your progress (scale, measurements, how clothes fit, etc.)?
Do you have a real life workout/diet buddy?
What is your favorite type of exercise?
Do you prefer to exercise alone (e.g., running or using machines at the gym) or in a group setting (e.g., spinning class)?
1. How are you feeling this week?
Not feeling much change since I just got started, but I'm excited to start working on me again.
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
My short term goals for now is to keep tracking my daily calorie intake no matter how much I induldge. I tend to not track my daily calories if I go over because I'm embarased to look at how horrible I did today. My first goal is to lose my 10% body weight. Also just to workout at least twice a week for now until I get back into the groove. My long term goals are to workout 3-4 times a week (or just be moving) weather that be walks or something. Also I want to just be aware of healthy choices I make for myself long term so I don't have to calorie count, it will just be second nature. I feel I make work so hard to make sure R eats healthy in preparing fresh foods for him, why can't I do that for myself?
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
My goal was to just start tracking my calories and I have so I'm on the right track. My workout days are today and Thursday so I plan to be ready to workout once MH gets home from work.
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
Going 5 consecutive days of counting my calories! Although I sometimes have gone over a bit it helps me be able to look at it and see where I mess up and where I need to change things and make healthier choices.
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor:
I'm at 178 and I'm 5'9" (this is actually what I weighed pre-pregnancy). I was a little overweight to begin with so it's not great I'm still at this weight. However, I'm not toned and my stomach and back need some major work! I'm comfortable at 145-150, if I go under that I start looking too skinny.
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
For me counting calories has worked for me. Like Lisa, I track my calories on Livestrong.com (The Daily Plate). I did this for the wedding and it helped me lose 20+ pounds which was awesome. I have tried not eating, diet pills and shots, but counting calories tend to keep me in check better. I am interested in following clean eating. I really don't eat unhealthy other than the occasional indulging on the weekends (drinking to be exact), but my portions need to be cut and I need to be more active is really what it all comes down to.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
I don't have any yet and hope others will post some motivating sites.
Thanks for posting this!
| Olowalu, Maui ~ August 6, 2008 |
| Family of 4 ~ April 2, 2011 |
| Family of 5 - October 24, 2012 |
Yes, please add more questions for later!
1. How are you feeling this week?
Fluffy. I haven't worked out since Friday and we're leaving for our vacation tomorrow so I won't be getting any workouts in for a while. We will be walking a ton, though, so at least I have that. And maybe I'll sweat off some weight since it's going to be like 90% and 90% humidity.
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
I want to start eating healthier, for sure. I don't eat enough fruits and veggies. I'm such a carb lover. And I just want to be in better shape in general. When DH and I first met I was working out 5-6 days/week and I think it just made me a happier person. Even last week, I noticed I had so much more patience with Kaya on those days that I got a workout in.
I should probably sign up for a run (half marathon maybe?) to motivate myself. That's kind of how I roll. I gotta commit and spend the money to light a fire under my butt!
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
Well, I did workout, period, so it's an improvement over the last few months! I'm so sporadic with it.
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
Hmm...I got a tall at Starbucks rather than a venti. LOL. Baby steps!
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor:
My goal is to lose 8 lbs. I need a better scale at home because when I weighed myself this morning I was down 2 lbs, but I'm almost 100% positive if I had weighed myself again right after that it would have said something else. DH weighs himself several times and it can be off by like 7 lbs.
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
This is where I struggle the most. I love food. And I'm ALWAYS hungry. We would like to try going strict paleo for 30 days at some point (no grains, legumes or dairy) but it's hard. We are trying to eat gluten free as much as possible, though. The hardest thing for me is that for about the past 6 years I've been able to eat whatever I want and I haven't gained weight until now (besides pregnancy). I'm going to start by trying to reduce my sugar intake, eliminating dessert. *sigh* I'm also going to stop BCP, because I'm pretty sure that's why I've gained 5 lbs in 2 months. I went back on it because I hated not knowing when AF was going to come since I'm SUPER irregular. It was so annoying. Think I'm gonna chart so I know when I'll get AF.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
The only thing I subscribe to is fitsugar.com . Although, to be honest, I rarely read the posts unless it looks really interesting.
This is a big motivator for me as well. I work really hard to keep the boys' meals healthy and balanced...why not myself, too? Especially since I got GD while pregnant, which means I'm essentially pre-diabetic for the rest of my life...and my boys deserve a mama who will do anything she can to try to prevent getting diabetes!
Hey, this is GOOD! 1-2 times a week, I still allow myself to get a caramel latte. But I get a small one instead of a huge cup, so while the calories are still crap, they're a LOT better than they were!
I find that making these small adjustments really helps with my mindset, especially since I have a tendency to jump into things with both feet and then burn out rather quickly. I think this, while slower, is far more sustainable.
Good finally! I had started a workout/nutrition plan on Aug. 8th (Power 90, not P90X) and have recently fallen off the wagon due to illness and vacation time. Today is the first day back in the swing of things!
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
I really just want to tone up my body and get some cut abs. If I lose a bit of weight in the meantime, that's ok, but not really my goal. I have found Power 90 to be very effective, but I have to be consistent to see progress.
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
See #1: Today is the first day back to it!
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
At my 30 day check in I really saw some great progress! Muscles are starting to define, and I lost 4 inches off my waist, 2 inches off my hips, and 1 inch in each thigh!
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor: 125lbs. but then again, not looking to go much lower, just looking to lose inches. My tight pants are starting to fit looser!
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
Healthy and frequent meals. Making sure I eat every 3-4 hours with a good balance of protein, carbs, and healthy fats. Trying to stay around 1800 calories, but having to overcompensate since I am still BFing.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
I actually like going to the Power 90 message boards to keep accountable. Watching the success stories really helps to motivate me as well.
1. How are you feeling this week?
I am... optimistic! I've been going walking with girls from my mommy group. I am going to start up with my personal trainer again soon. He kicks my butt!
2. What are your nutrition and exercise goals, both short-term and long-term? What's your plan of attack?
Exercise - get back into shape. I was in amazing shape right before I got PG. I was toned and really strong, so I'd like to be somewhat back to that.
Nutrition - just to eat healthier. Since A was born I haven't cooked, and grandparents have been here cooking everything for us/doing take out. Not the healthiest, but we are just trying to survive right now...
3. Did you meet your nutrition and exercise goals for the week?
Meh, nope. Grandma and Grandpa O were here and my MIL bakes SO much!! So I'm always munching on cookies =P She keeps feeding me "because I'm BFing" haha.
4. Share at least one recent health- or fitness-related SUCCESS!
Hiring my trainer again!
5. Optional weigh-in or progress monitor:
Last I checked, I was down 20lbs from PG. 14 more to go...
7. What type of food plan are you following (e.g., low carb, low G.I., gluten free)? Have you found one that seems to work best for your body?
Just fresh foods! Lots of veggies.
8. Help motivate us! Share your favorite nutrition or health and fitness blogs or websites.
I don't have any, so I love these answers.