MyWeightLossForLife.com

Archive for October, 2007

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, then you know that sticking with an exercise program is really tough for me. With that in mind, I’ve been searching for some motivation, and I think that you might enjoy them as well.

Marc and Angel suggest music and varying your routing will help to keep you motivated. I’d add one more suggestion that I may try — books on CD. I think I’ll try listening to a book only when I’m exercising. Hopefully the desire to finish the book will keep me exercising.

Don talks about building a habit, and I’m in total agreement. Do one very small thing each day and gradually build the habit of exercising.

Finally, Women’s Health and Fitness lists more tips for staying motivated, including finding a way to be accountable.

There are lots of reasons that we fail to lose weight, but I think one tends to stand out, and I bet it’s not something you’re thinking of.

Is fear of success holding you back?

Think about it for a minute. How many things do we put off until we lose weight? Maybe you’ll get a new wardrobe, job hunt, take the family on that great vacation, or finally go to a high school reunion. Whatever it is,  you’re going to do it just as soon as you get some weight off.

What if the weight is just an excuse to not do it? What if you’re scared to find a new job, or maybe you don’t feel that you’re successful enough to face your high school rivals. Isn’t it easy to avoid it by not losing weight?

If you lose weight, what will happen to your relationships? Most people might assume they’d get better, but will they? You’ll feel more attractive, right? Presumably, more people will be attracted to you. Is that what you really want? Are you avoiding weight loss to avoid some bigger relationship issues?

Whether it’s success in general or regarding something specific like weight loss, changes can be frightening. You may want to lose weight for many reasons, but I bet there are also some reasons why you don’t want to. Unless you think about, and face, those reasons, you’ll find yourself sabotaging your own efforts without realizing it.

If you’re diabetic, then your doctor has probably done an A1C test (or a few of them) and discusses those with you. The A1C can measure your blood glucose over the last 120 days (approximately).

While taking your blood sugar several times a day gives you a good idea of your daily control, the A1C gives you a picture of your overall blood glucose control. Both are important in being able to tell if you’re making the progress that you should.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this summer. We’re learning another benefit of the A1C: proof that you’re doing what your doctor recommends! I suppose doctors get a bit jaded; they’re accustomed to people saying they’re doing the right things and then learning that they’re not. Often, I imagine many people just don’t know what the right things are! My husband gets “lectured” often by his doctors, even though he’s made drastic changes. I know it’s frustrating for him to do the right things and still be treated as if he isn’t. His A1C was MUCH better this time, and his doctor is thrilled!

So, what’s a good A1C?  First off, a normal A1C is around 5 or so. Diabetic Technologies I cite below says that a 4.3 to 5.5 is a normal A1C for a non-diabetic.

The ADA recommends that diabetics stay under 7. However, you can see that 7 is still much higher than the normal range. In fact, a 7 A1C means your average blood sugar has been around 145-150. That’s not good! Some doctors, my husband’s included, work to get blood sugar, and the A1C back to the normal range. So, the ultimate goal is an A1c of 5-6.

Remember, the better your blood sugar control, the fewer diabetes complications you’re likely to have. If you haven’t had an A1C in a while, go ahead and schedule one. It’s a simple blood test, and you’ll have your results in a couple days.

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ADA has a good explanation of what it is, but not much discussion about what constitutes a “good” score.

Wikipedia shows a chart that correlates A1C to average blood sugar. They also give a good explanation of what the A1C is.

Diabetes Technologies discusses what constitutes “normal” A1C levels.

I’d like to see a WordPress plugin that would make it easier to add related posts while allowing some control over what posts are added. I’d like to see

• ability to search for related posts by keyword, tag or category
• ability to click on individual posts to identify which ones would be added to the “related posts” list

What I often see in using some of the plugins I’ve tried is that the posts may share a keyword, but they really don’t “go” together as well as I’d like. I can always add posts manually, but that’s too time-consuming.

Something like this, I think, would give the control of choosing posts manually and the convenience of having a plugin add them automatically.

This post is an entry in Marco Richter’s group writing project. The deadline isn’t until the 21st, so you still have plenty of time to enter.

I wanted to take a minute and ask those of you who aren’t subscribed to my RSS feed to consider subscribing. I have two links to the right that will allow you to do so.

RSS is a simple way to keep up with the sites you read without having to visit each site every day to see if it has been updated.

First, you can subscribe using a reader (like Google reader). With this option, my feed will be added to a list of all your others, and you’ll see when it’s been updated.

The second option is to subscribe by email. When I post, you’ll receive an email letting you know that there’s an update.

Thanks!

I love the autumn. The cooler temperatures, the colors, the crisp breezes… All entice us outside during this time of the year. With winter around the corner, it’s a good idea to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible now.

With that in mind, here are some ideas for getting you outdoors, and working in a little exercise to boot.

1. Grab your camera and go for a walk. With a little exploration and patience, you can bring back dozens of great photos.
2. Walk the dog! Put on your walking shoes and take the dog for a long walk this time. It’s cool enough to not have to worry about either of you overheating!
3. Get in a few last bike rides before storing them away for the winter.
4. Plant your spring bulbs. Daffodils, tulips, crocus, etc. can go in the ground right now. Get flower beds cleaned up and ready for spring.
5. If you had a garden, trim the plants back or till them under.
6. Mow one last time, rake leaves, trim shrubs. Get the yard ready for the winter. Don’t forget to take time to play in the leaves!
7. Decorate for Halloween! Create a centerpiece for the yard, stretch cobwebs across the porch, or carve some pumpkins. Enjoy the season.
8. Walk around the house and do a quick before-winter inspection. Caulk and paint windows if needed. Put new weather-stripping around the doors.
9. Clean out the garage and stock up on cold-weather supplies. If you have a generator, test it out. Buy de-icer and store it for the winter.
10. Go nut-gathering. Now is the perfect time to gather all types of nuts; just be sure to ask before gathering on someone else’s property. Our black walnut trees have dropped lots in the back yard!

The holidays are fast approaching, and these are our first after my husband’s diabetes diagnosis. This year, we’ll be working extra hard to stay on track with diet and exercise through the holiday season, and I’ll be writing about that on the blog over the next couple of months.

To kick things off, let’s start with some useful links.

Phil Morris gives some tips on avoiding holiday weight gain. I like his suggestion to show up late. That’s not a bad idea!

Dr. Val is setting up a group to actually lose weight over the holidays.

Kathryn Lively also gives some tips for taking control through the holiday season.

We were out of town again, this time for a conference, not vacation. So once again we had to deal with eating out, irregular schedules, etc. One good thing was we got lots and lots of walking in while we were gone!

I have a couple of posts in the works, so expect those over the next day or two. Right now, I’m catching up on a mountain of laundry and trying to get cleaned up.

Over at Fuzzy Notions, there’s a great article about motivation and struggling to lose weight. Wow, can I ever relate.

One thing that really speaks to me… she says that junk food in the house is like a “siren song.” Yep, I can practically hear it screaming “Eat me!”

I think a lot of dieters struggle between wanting to lose weight (and keep it off) and wanting to just be “normal” as to eating. I get so tired of watching what I eat, thinking about calories and how much exercise I’m getting (or not getting). I’d like sometimes just to eat and not have to worry about it.

But when I do that, the pounds creep back on.

I do know some things about myself that can help, if I pay attention to them.

1. If I have it around, I’ll eat it. No amount of rationalizing will cover up the fact that I will eat it! So, the key is to not have it around.
2. I’m a snacker. It’s not practical for me to plan not to eat in the afternoons/evenings. If I don’t have something to snack on, then the vending machine will start calling to me around 2 o’clock or so.
3. I’m a stress eater, and chocolate is my drug of choice. I simple feel better when I eat. For someone who doesn’t eat in response to stress, I know that sounds a little crazy, but if you drink, smoke, bite your nails, etc. when you’re stressed, it’s probably a similar response.
4. I don’t like exercise. The only exercise I’ll usually stick with is what I think of as “meaningful” exercise. So, I’ll take a walk through town, but not on the treadmill. I’ll spend an hour doing heavy housework but not fifteen minutes lifting weights.
5. And this one is probably the biggest culprit in helping me gain weight… The more I beat myself up about my weight, the more weight I gain. I think it really boils down to how I feel about myself. If I feel rotten about myself, then I tend to eat more. Paradoxical, I know, but true.

If you’re reading this blog, then you can probably relate on some level to what I’m talking about. I believe that talking about your weight loss issues can help to overcome them. I certainly hope so!

Wow, it’s been a bad few weeks. Work has been extremely stressful, but I think things are FINALLY winding down a bit. I’ll be traveling next week for work, but I’m actually looking forward to being out of the office for a change.

Unfortunately, the long hours and stress have really taken a toll on my eating and exercise. I’ve put on about seven pounds (yikes!), so I have a bit of work to do to get myself back on track.

That’s the issue with weight loss, isn’t it? It’s all too easy to put it back on when life gets stressful. Given that I’m a stress eater, it’s doubly difficult.

I found that when this happens, it’s even more important to keep a positive attitude. I also try to stick to my eating plan as much as I can, even if I know I’m not doing as well as I should. One danger that I watch out for is simply giving up. Taking the attitude that I might as well eat anything I want because things are already going downhill is the wrong approach, but it’s all too easy to fall into that trap.

How many times have you allowed a diet slip up turn into a diet catastrophe? I’m trying to not let that happen!