I haven’t been feeling that great lately. I know that’s one of the reasons I haven’t been writing as much. The day we left Florida to come back home, I developed a cough which was much like the one I had back in March when I had bronchitis, so I thought I would go to the doctor and nip it in the bud so I wouldn’t get as sick as I was then. When they took my blood pressure, I was a little nervous because my blood pressure runs high when I’m not exercising regularly. To my horror, the bottom number was 98! The nurse practitioner (I went to a walk in close to my work) told me I should follow up with my regular doctor about possible blood pressure meds. I told her if I would just start exercising again, I could bring it back down. She said maybe I should be on meds at least for a couple of months until I had been exercising awhile.
This has been a wake up call for me. I talked to a guy here at work that’s on blood pressure meds (sometimes his BP is as high as mine was even ON meds), and he said that’s probably why I’ve been feeling bad. He said that’s a symptom. Why, oh, why did I let myself stop exercising? I knew exercise was good for me. I KNEW my BP could go up if I didn’t exercise. I feel like such a fool for letting this get out of hand. Today, I’m going to exercise even if I have to do it at midnight. I’ll exercise at least 5 days a week. I’m not going to be TOO BUSY anymore. This is going to have to come first!
Another thing. This is something I’ve learned about eating and losing weight. The reason I can’t stick to a diet is because it’s a DIET. When I try to count calories, leave certain foods off, deprive myself of something I’m craving…that’s when everything falls apart. No more diets for me. No more foods off limits. The thing that works the best for me is cutting down (not cutting out) on foods that aren’t that good for me. Stopping when I’m satisfied instead of feeling like I have to eat everything on my plate. Cooking more so I can have yummy leftovers for lunch instead of going out to eat every day. (That saves money, too!) In other words…just good common sense and good habits. Hey, I just bought a boatload of Pampered Chef items, so I should be good to go when it comes to cooking.
Okay, so on my Sunday ROW80 check ins, I’m going to include health related items, even weight loss. I’ve already lost 8 lbs. and gained 2 back while in Florida. So I’m going to include my current loss in my total. Because, you know, it counts, too.
So who will join me? Who wants to be healthier and is willing to report that along with writing stats? I know some of you are already doing this, but not many. We, as writers, sit on our butts a lot. I do this at my day job, too. We need to get up and get moving. If our bodies are healthy, our minds work better. Are you ready? I am!
lauralynnelliott.com 
Hey, I’m rooting for you! You know I always do. I need to do the same thing you know. I agree with the diet thing, not such a great idea to cut things out but portion control and knowing when you are full are key. A well balanced meal is always the best thing along with the exercise. We all know what is good for us it’s just doing it. Healthy habits need to be just that….habits! That way it’s second nature to us and not something we feel like we HAVE to do.
Good luck!
Thanks, Anya. You always support me in everything I do. Let me know when you are ready to take the plunge, too. 🙂
Gotta get the BP down, for sure! My strategy for weight loss is homemade low-calorie snacks…this way I have variety (sweet/salty) and I’m not eating processed foods which are inevitably higher in calories. For example, one of these snacks includes roasted vegetables which I then microwave with a little bit of cheese sprinkled on top. Delicious and healthy.
Thanks for stopping by! I checked out your blog and it looks like I could get some great ideas from you. I printed out your Simply Stir Fry post. I don’t like veggies as a general rule, and that’s one of my problems. But I like most of the types of veggies that are usually stir fried. And using broth instead of oil would never have occurred to me. I’m so glad there’s no broccoli in the recipe! LOL
I hope it works for you! The stir fry can really have anything you want in it!
Foodrefashionista, I’m super glad you posted this here, because I don’t know if I would have found you otherwise! I’ll be looking further at your blog. Thanks!
It looks like a great blog, doesn’t it, J.R.?
I’m so glad you got this checked out! I’m with you — I know how important exercise is and I’ve just recently worked it back into my daily life (at least 20 minutes a day). Good luck with your new healthy regime!!
Thanks, Tiffany! I don’t know why we are so bad to ourselves. I’m glad you’ve started an exercise routine. I’m hoping my “rude awakening” will make others stop and think about these things.
Accountability partner at your service!! If you want, I’ll ask, nag, and pester about aforementioned topic…lol. I’ve been reporting my exercise on the blog, just for that reason. When I know I’ll have to show my success – or lack thereof – I tend to get my buns in motion.
I’m a fan of no diets! Just swap out veggies for meat at least three times a week, add fresh fruits, and drink, a lot. When feeling hungry, first drink something. I recently read that most Americans walk around partially deyhdrated. They confuse thirst with hunger! How about that? It was news to me. Ha. The pampered chef baking tray is perfect for veggies. I cut up …whatever…carrot, zucchini, squash, beet, onion, potato, fennel, sweet potato, asparagus, turnip, parsnip, cauliflower, broccoli and add olive oil, a pinch of salt, and black pepper. Roast in oven or on grill – you’ll be amazed at how the flavors come alive. Also, add lentils to your diet. They’re so easy to make. I can email you some recipes if you’re interested. Here’s to success and health!
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Nadja, please nag and pester all you want. It will probably help. LOL
I wish I liked more veggies. Like I said in one of my comments above, I usually like the type of veggies you stir fry, like zucchini, bok choy, etc. And I LOVE onions! I really do need to try lentils. I think I would like them. I like beans, so that would be kind of the same thing, right? 🙂 Yes, please email recipes. I’m ready to start cooking with all my lovely Pampered Chef items. I just got some lemons so I can make fresh lemonade with the Citrus Press instead of the powdered stuff. LOL
You know what really will help with weight loss? Spouting Yiddish. I mean we all carry a whole bunch of water weight, right, and from what I’ve been able to figure out (I’m no expert) there’s a whole bunch of spitting involved in Yiddish. Ipso facto (Latin is also good for spitting), weight loss.
In other news, I am also a member of the Compulsive Clean Your Plate Club. Got a legacy bid. Was going to turn it down but then there was corn, mashed potatoes, broccoli…
I didn’t want the broccoli, but what I DID want was ice cream.
(In all seriousness, I think smiling lowers the ol’ BP. There’s gotta be some study on that somewhere… Also, ice cream does not.)
Hmmm. That must be why Nadja does so well…you know, the Yiddish and all.
I have finally resigned from the CCYPC. And I NEVER want the broccoli.
Matt, I may have to disagree about smiling. I smile a LOT, but still have the blood pressure issue. It must be the ice cream.
Sorry to hear about the BP. Don’t let that go! And keep up the exercise. Believe me, I’m one who knows. I’ve got an internal defibrillator hooked up to the old heart and I have to watch my BP all the time. I’ve dropped about 50 pounds in the last year, still have a ways to go but I’m not forcing myself. Good luck.
And yes, as writers we spend too much time on our butts. It can be difficult to get up and get moving, but I have to force myself to do it. I try not to write more than 20 minutes at a stretch without getting up and being mobile for a while.
Hello, Ty! Good to hear from you again. Wow, I didn’t know you had a defibrillator. It seems like dropping the weight helps with a lot of health problems. Diabetes runs rampant in my family, and I need to avoid that, too. I’m glad you’re not forcing the weight loss too strongly. Slow and steady is the way to go without stressing yourself out about it. And that’s a good idea about writing awhile, then moving awhile. I did a post about blood clots awhile back because my best friend died from that. Sitting too long can cause those, too. Exercise is so important for so many reasons! Good luck with your health issues, too.
Oh, dear, Lauralynn, I so have to join you — but I really don’t want to do it on the blog, which I want to keep writing related, you know? Maybe if I just checked in on your blog all the time. *g*
Either way, good luck and I hope you get the BP down soon!
Hey, you can check in on my blog any time you want! 🙂
I AM going to get this blood pressure down!
I’m guilty of not exercising much and I have an office job where I’m sitting down all day too. Good luck with your exercise routine and I’m going to get off my bum too 🙂
Do it, Emma! Even if a person isn’t overweight, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t exercise. EVERYONE needs to exercise, even thin people.
So sorry you’ve not been feeling the best. Keeping record of what you’re doing is a great idea, and I agree that “diets” are evil. It’s supposed to be a life change – something you can sustain, so I’m definitely on board with the whole cutting back vs. deprivation idea.
I’ve been slacking off myself recently, what with everything that’s been going on, so it’ll be nice to see your updates as a reminder for me to get off my arse that day. 😉
I hope I’ll have something positive to report on Sunday. On both writing and health!
Deprivation always makes things worse for me. No more of that.
Sorry for the rude awakening. But hey, at least you got one that let you make changes instead of no warning, game over. Because it is that serious.
I tend to _say_ diet because that’s an easy word to use, but I never considered myself to be on a diet in the sense that it would be temporary. I am 5’2″ tall and not an athlete or fitness enthusiast, and, for the rest of my life, I need to eat accordingly. I don’t think about this as deprivation, though. I’m also very light-skinned and burn easily, so I can’t spend a lot of time in the sun either. Fact of life. And just like other people can’t eat nuts, dairy, wheat, get stung by bees, have pets, etc, I can’t eat thousand calorie meals without expecting consequences. So I don’t.
The first thing I gave up was fries. I didn’t forbid myself from eating fries, just from ordering them–because it’s so EASY and expected to have a side of fries with whatever you’re eating, even if you don’t need a side of anything. A few weeks ago I actually ordered fries for the first time in a couple years. And found that I really don’t miss them. My tastes have changed. Because I love dessert but can’t take all the calories, my husband is really good about letting me pick the dessert that I’m only going to eat about a third of. So if you have some foods you have a problem controlling, maybe try something like that? (If he’s not around and I really want the dessert, I’ll order it and ‘waste’ the rest. I no longer worry about wasting food at a restaurant because, despite our training, I am worth more than half a plate of food.)
I don’t expect to lose much more to report. In the last 3+ years I’ve gone from about 160 to my current 123. This is basically just by changing how I eat, and I am more able to move now that I’m at a healthy weight, so I’m slightly more active.
I’m really trying to step up the fitness this summer. I do Zumba once in a while, but I kind of hate the cardio–of course I do! I have a whole lifetime of not moving. That would be like trying to go from 2000+ calories a day to 1200 calories a day with a snap of the fingers. That’s insane. So I’m trying to focus on stretching and strength training. I’m working my way up to one hundred pushups, two hundred situps, and two hundred squats. And after I do that and am physically stronger and better conditioned, maybe I’ll revisit Couch to 5k. So maybe I can report on that stuff. 🙂
Also, for some interesting information on why we keep wanting to eat crap we know isn’t good for us, check out “Forks Over Knives” Amazon, Netflix, Hulu).
Good luck and good for you!
One hundred pushups??? One HUNDRED? I’ve never been able to do that at my fittest time of life. Wow.
The other day I was at this restaurant with my mom, husband, and friends. I had a burger and decided I didn’t need the fries that came with the meal. So I didn’t eat them. So then my MOM ate them (after eating her meal), and she needed them less than I did. I may have to just tell them not to bring them. I’m getting better at leaving food on my plate. And I feel so much better when I do.
I’m 5’2″ as well, but I can eat about 1800-2000 calories a day and still lose weight. After I lose some, though, I probably won’t be able to maintain at that level since I would need fewer calories. But at least I can cut down gradually and make changes slowly. I need to do the exercise for sure, though. That’s what has always brought my BP down. It also helps prevent diabetes.
I’m always interested in how you’re doing with your fitness efforts. Your strength training goals are awesome!
Sorry to hear about your newly discovered high blood pressure, but now that you know about it you can keep it under control and even fix it. A loss of 15 to 20 lbs. alone can reduce your dyastolic number by up to 8 which would put your pressure in a better range (under 90 is considered acceptable in the 70’s is ,of course, better).
I got a rude awakening about a year ago when I kept getting spontaneous nose bleeds. Working in health care I knew what that meant, checked my blood pressure everyday for two weeks and sure enough, high blood pressure. I took the meds, started working out, and now I don’t take the meds anymore, and my blood pressure is good (plus no more nose bleeds).And I feel great! Remeber, you never regret working out, but you regret missing a workout.
Damn, I forgot to workout today (hangs head in shame).
But good luck to you and your health!
I haven’t experienced nose bleeds, so I’m glad about that. I haven’t had dizzy spells, either, which is another symptom, but I’ve been really tired and sometimes I feel kind of weird. I’m really going to work on my weight and do my exercise. I walked on the treadmill about 20 minutes tonight. I was shooting for 30, but my hamstring muscles started cramping up. I may have to start slowly. I was getting up in the mornings and walking a few weeks ago, but me getting up early doesn’t usually last long. LOL.
I’m glad you got your blood pressure back to normal. There are so many health problems we can avoid or fix if we just take care of ourselves!
I read a lot of posts that also include health/weight goals along with their writing goals. I think it’s great and it also inspires me to think about my own health. I have allergies that I tend to ignore and if I eat healthy, I know most of my issues will go away…so keep inspiring us!!
One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that in a lot of the posts I read, the exercise is where most people don’t meet their goals. It’s so hard! But I’m going to post about the health goals every Sunday even if I don’t do well. And I hope people kick my butt a little when I don’t do well instead of making excuses for me. LOL
Lauralynn, I have an inspiring resource to share with you. I started seeing this guy’s series through The Oregonian — my newspaper. He calls his series Diary of a Diabetic Chef. What’s cool is that over the course of a few months he turned a new diabetes diagnosis around, almost completely through changing his diet from the rich, high-fat diet of a chef to much more considered and low-calorie food. He met his goals, and is continuing to work on it.
I think in our culture, our relationship with food is something many of us need to deal with. There’s simply too much tempting stuff available, stuff we never should have invented! lol. I know I need to work on this, too. My own “diet” went by the wayside as soon as I got busy, and despite being tough on myself early in the year, I’ve only dropped two pounds since then. I’ve been trying real hard not to talk about that, but I’ll admit it to you. 🙂
It’s amazing how Type 2 diabetes can be turned around just by lifestyle…eating better and exercising. My mom, dad, both grandmothers, and some uncles are diabetic. My maternal grandmother died at 70 because she didn’t do what she was supposed to. I’m surprised she lived that long. My mom fussed at her all the time, but now she’s going down the same path. When she had a heart attack almost a year and a half ago, she started doing better, but she’s back to her old habits. I don’t want to walk down that path.
Pizza is my number one temptation. I’m never going to go on a “diet” that denies me pizza. But I realize that I can only have it occasionally, and I don’t have to eat four pieces at a time. Thanks for the link to the Diabetic Chef.
Hey, you’ve dropped two lbs. Now it’s time to work on some more. If you really need to lose weight, that is. Your picture doesn’t look like you do. 🙂
Here’s a link to the man who calls himself the Diabetic Chef, although he’s kicked that diagnosis. He tells how in his series. Here’s today’s column:
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/06/diary_of_a_diabetic_chef_its_a.html
Eek! Sorry to hear about the health upsets, but at least it sounds like you’ll be able to get things back on track. I could do with a bit of exercise myself, and luckily now that the semester is over, I no longer have the excuse of having to mark assignments. I love adding red capsicum (peppers) and snow peas to stir fries, so maybe it might be worth trying those? They’re healthy, tasty and they make your meal look colourful 🙂
Hi, Rebecca! We can come up with all kinds of excuses not to exercise. I’m making my exercise top priority right now. Even before writing. Because the writing will be there, but I might not be if I don’t do something. Plus, I will feel more like writing when I’m healthier.
I like all kinds of peppers. Especially hot ones! LOL. There are all kinds of things you can add to stir fry, and I like most of those veggies. (NO broccoli!) I’m also going to make some French Onion soup. The good thing about making it yourself, you can control the amount of sodium and other things that go in it.
I’d love to join you and do a comment on your blog when you do an update on exercise and eating post, if that’s okay. I like your idea of stopping when you feel satisfied. I can’t do diets because they feel like i have to give up foods I love, and I love chocolate. If I knew I could have chocolate but limit how much I do and only having salads and fruits after dinner, I think I could make it work. As for exercise, I definitely need to do it more. I think I’ll aim to walk five times a week.
I’m sorry you had this scare, but I am motivated by hearing your plans on handling it. I’ll be right there doing the less eating and exercising more. 😀
You may comment anytime you like and give an update on your progress. You know me…I’m all about interaction with people. 🙂