health | lifefullyinhabited

Well, I think I’ve turned a corner on the whole fitness thing. Finally the weight is creepy downward. Finally, I’m seeing progress. VERY slow, but progress anyway. My trainer says they call it “slow-cooking”.

I’m a long term project, that’s for sure!

I feel better every time I work out. I feel crummy on the days I don’t work out. I am less intimidated when I go to the gym. I know some of the weight machines I can use without looking like a rookie.

I’m getting comfortable sweating.

So this is progress.

And I got to sit in the sunshine today drinking iced tea!

The weather is making progress very slowly toward spring.

We are all slow-cooking these days.

Getting it to work all at the same time

02 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: health

Well, the past couple weeks into this fitness thing have me more than frustrated. Do you remember the last time you tried to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time? That sort of summarizes my fitness regime the last couple weeks. Some days I do the “food” part really great and then don’t work out. Some days the work outs are fantastic and then I get off track with the “food” part.
Sadly, the scale does reflect all this uncoordination. And frustration is flirting with me to be a best friend.

Today, appropriately, my bible reading in Philippians chapter 4 led me to some new hope.
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in
any and every situation
whether well fed
or hungry
whether having plenty or
in want.
I can do all things through
Him
who gives me
strength.” (Phil 4:11-13 NIV)

I have always read those verses with the idea of “wordly goods” in mind with the whole “plenty” and “in want”.

Today I took it for emotional fullness and emptiness. Whole new worlds of meaning opened up for me.

I have a lot of learning to do in the school of contentment today.
Blessings

18 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: asthma attack, asthma condition, health, yoga class, yoga teacher

I have asthma, and for the most part, a well managed asthma condition. I learned the hard way a few nights ago not to take my breath for granted.
I had a scary asthma attack during the night and found myself waking up gasping and struggling to breathe.
Now of all the anxieties that plague me daily, I rarely feel anxious about breathing. It is just one of those things I take for granted. You probably do too.
The lungs do all the work, and I really don’t give them credit.
When I’m in my yoga class I think about breathing and moving with breath. And it’s in this yoga practice that I learned some techniques that probably saved me the other night during this terrifying asthma attack.
When you can’t get air, panic sets in and makes everything worse.
So the practice of breathing calmly through difficult poses helped me to turn the scary into manageable.
Almost instinctively, I started to try to breathe through my nose calmly. Exhaling completely, deeply as I could. It took awhile, but I began to breathe easier.
My lungs felt bruised for a whole day after this episode, so I was aware all day long of my lungs and my breath.
It was a good reminder that the most basic things in life are also the most essential. And sometimes its really all you need to do.
If you can’t breathe and you can’t breathe well, not much of anything else is really very important that day.
Don’t take your breath for granted. Thank your lungs today for the hard work they do every second of everyday of your life.
Learn to breathe properly. Most of us don’t.
Thank your yoga teacher. I did.
Blessings

Reality Check

11 Mar 2013 1 Comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: diet pepsi, health, healthy breakfast, healthy-living, working out with weights, yoga classes

This morning I decided it was a good idea to start journaling my food intake again since getting over the flu and now I’m eating again.
Yikes. Reality Check! It is shocking at how quickly the calories add up. And that was just breakfast. It was a healthy breakfast. Well thought out and carefully prepared. But seriously more calories than I thought possible.
Now wonder the scale doesn’t move down very fast.
To keep my spirits up, must do a positive review.
In the past month: gave up diet pepsi addiction, joined a fitness center, meet with personal trainer once a week, 2-3 yoga classes per week, working out with weights at the gym, increased sweating workouts on the treadmill, drinking more water, eating more protein, and journaling about emotional triggers.
That’s pretty good progress in a month. *patting myself on the back*

Slow and steady progress. If anybody out there is reading this, please keep me accountable for journaling my food intake!!
I need re-inforcements 🙂

Detoxing the old fashioned way

04 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: detox diets, health, stomach flu

Sooooo, I’ve heard a lot about these detox diets. I don’t get it. I just wait until I get the “nature’s detox” every other year. Otherwise known as the stomach flu. So the “detox” caught up with me the past few days in spite of hand washing, disinfecting wipes, lysol, and wearing my gloves in the stores while pushing a shopping cart.

There’s only so much you can do against these germs.

I really thought after the fast and furious creeping crud hit me this time I would have dropped 11 pounds. The scale is a cruel machine. Really cruel.

Well, anyway, I feel thinner. Weaker. Dizzy. Tired. Pale. And not too interested in food.
I’ll ride this gravy train as long as I can.

I’m sure my normal ravenous hunger is going to return with a vengeance and I’ll be fighting my usual battles soon.

Right now, I’m just easing back into life and food slowly. And my trips to the gym have added up to ZERO.

And when I go back to the gym, the disinfecting wipes are coming with me.

Yeah, I’m that weird.

Surviving the snow storm

28 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: diet soda, food, health

Hello, yes, I survived the snow storm. The one with the heaviest wettest snow I have ever shoveled in my life and I have lived in Wisconsin a lonnngggg time. And boy, oh boy, did I ever shovel.

No need to go to the gym yesterday. Two hours of hard shoveling and I think I burned at least 50 or 56 thousand calories.

I felt entitled to a cold diet soda break. Even though I gave up diet soda and haven’t had any for over a week.

I poured that smooth elixer in a glass and drank a few pulls. Poured the rest of the can down the drain. It really didn’t taste all that great and I really didn’t want any more.

I count that a huge victory in the “changing behaviours” department.

On the other hand, my other hand found the chocolate chips in the baking cabinet and while one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing, I shoveled a few handfuls of chocolate chips down the old gullet.

That’s called insanity!

Oh well, that’s my life right now.

Off to yoga to stretch out and relax all those snow shoveling muscles and to mediate about the chocolate chip shoveling incident.

Have a blessed day!

So Easy

26 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: doer of the word, feeble knees, health, healthy-living

So easy to get sidetracked. So easy to get lazy. So easy to grab a handful of this and that and not write it down. So easy to eat in a hurry. So easy to not even bother tasting and enjoying. So easy to eat distracted. So easy to say, oh bother, why bother?

I am sosoo like Winnie the Pooh: Oh bother! Give me the honey jar!

So hard to change patterns. So hard to pay attention. So hard to overcome inertia. So hard to stick to it, every day.

So that’s one reason I’m writing this post. To force myself to pay attention. To stay on track. To write things down. To slow down. To bother with it all. Yes, it is a bother. But the alternative is a bother too.

If I don’t at least try to stay healthy, I will eventually have to bother with illness and disability as I grow older. If I don’t bother to strengthen the feeble knees and legs and arms and core, I will lose muscle and strength and become a burden. I have to at least try to bother.

So today I am bothering with me. I am choosing “easy does it”. Nike says “Just do it”. “Just do it” is not all that easy. “Easy does it” is softer, but still does it.

The wisdom of scriptures says to be a doer of the word and not just a hearer. Doing things today. So easy. One moment at a time.

Blessings!

First workout with a personal trainer

23 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: crossfit, food, health, healthy-living

Okay, so I survived my first workout yesterday. This morning however, I feel like I’m walking in a fun house. My legs are sooooo wobbly. There are some muscles in these old legs of mine that haven’t been used for awhile. I could tip over at any moment. In spite of this, I am going to attempt a yoga class this morning.

Speaking of personal trainers, I think I have a nice one. He’s very encouraging and he didn’t laugh at my attempts on the big rolly-polly exercise ball when I thought I would go flying across the room! I give him points for that.

He kept asking me if I was doing okay, if I needed a short break, or if I needed water. Makes me wonder if I looked like I was dying. I lied and lied and told him I was just fine. I have a few shreds of pride, after all.

Call me crazy.

I had a protein shake yesterday made with fresh pineapple and carrots. It was quite delicious. It would be refreshing on a hot humid summer day. Yesterday it was in the twenties and snowing and windy, so the cold drink was followed by two cups of hot tea with honey.

It’s gonna take me awhile to figure all this out. In the meantime, I may act a little crazy from time to time. Bear with me, people!

More changes this week

22 Feb 2013 1 Comment

by lifefullyinhabited in Uncategorized Tags: breakfast, dessert, diet soda, food, health, unsweetened cocoa powder

Yeah for protein shakes! I bought my very first canister of protein powder, french vanilla flavor. Mixed it with milk, unsweetened cocoa powder, and 1 cup of raspberries. Eh, it was okay. I might have NOT followed any recipe and just added too much unsweetened cocoa powder. Don’t recommend it. I’ll try again. Less cocoa, no raspberries.

In the process of trying to eat more protein, I’m realizing how many carbs I want to eat! I hope I don’t get tooo crabby.

On the positive side, I haven’t had any diet soda for 3 days and I don’t really miss it. I never thought I would be able to make it through a day without it. Then two weeks ago I read an article in AARP magazine that made me think I should quit the diet soda habit. A recent study found that diet soda drinkers increased their risk of diabeties by 30% or something crazy like that. So I started weaning off of it. And now I think I’m done.

I started brewing my own iced tea and making flavored waters with lemons and cucumbers and such. I’m getting enough caffeine with coffee and tea, so no withdrawl headaches. And I have lots of handy hydration that is way more satisfying than diet soda.

(also no more embarassing burping)

What’s next for this old gal? Maybe I can give up real cheese! Someday. Not yet!

lifefullyinhabited

Ode to “54” (Happy Birthday to Me!)

Turning a corner

Getting it to work all at the same time

Reality Check

Detoxing the old fashioned way

Surviving the snow storm

So Easy

First workout with a personal trainer

More changes this week

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