Tryphaena

Healthy Help, Please

Comments

[this is good]
i would love to get out to the gym
[this is good]
Well I've been doing a lot of reading on diets for controlling inflammation as it seems I might, (or might not - the Drs are undecided) have some kind of arthritis. It seems that anyone and everyone could benefit from a diet that is lower in wheat and sugar. Compared to our ancestors, our diets have swung alarmingly towards eating foods that encourage inflammation and away from those that reduce it. It used to be something like 1:1, now it's like 100:1 (totally made up numbers but whatever I read it shocked me). I know you eat healthy, but I do too, and was still amazed how I could re-balance what I ate, adjust a few things, and according to the books I read, have a diet that is truly more healthy. One book that I found particularly good is "The Inflammation Syndrome" by Jack Chellam. My two cents!
If you want to lose weight, ultimately, it all comes down to calories in/calories out. You need to cut from your diet or burn through exercise 3500 calories in a week to lose one pound. All successful diet systems work through calorie restriction--some of them claim you can "eat whatever you want" but they either eliminate whole food groups or limit portion sizes in order to achieve calorie restriction. There are a bunch of online tools to help you track calories. SparkPeople is pretty good and so is FitDay. Calore Count has a recipe analyzer which is really helpful when you cook from scratch. http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/recipe_analysis.php

It's very possible to eat a very healthy diet and not lose weight. If you don't eat substantially less and/or exercise substantially more, it won't happen. Mike and I have been eating very healthily (mostly vegan, mostly raw, very little wheat, etc.) but we haven't lost weight yet. Time to start counting calories. It's a total pain but it will work. Want to be healthy weight-loss accountability buddies?
I found it much easier to lose weight after child #1 than after child #2. With the first one, all I did was breastfeed! I was thinking the same thing would happen with #2 but alas it did not (althugh I did gain weight when weaning!). Things I have done have been to make changes to my diet so I am not eating empty calories. these include having cereal with low fat milk (instead of toast) for breakfast, taking my lunch and enough snacks to work so I am not just dictated by what I feel like at the time, not having dessert after dinner. Also trying to walk regularly (as part of my daily routine, ie, leaving the car at home to run an errand etc) and do at least one organised form of exercise per week (yoga and have also just started kung fu). It is pretty slow weight loss but more sustainable than more ambitious programs I have taken on in the past.
Sorry to hear that arthritis may be on the books for you, and even if it isn't you're obviously hurting. Bummer.
I may just pick that book up one day. For me, my issue when I was pregnant with Gus was diabetes. One day my blood sugar was particularly high and while the doctor never diagnosed me, he did recommend watching out for that so I hit all the pre-diabetes books. I'm sure they'd have some similar overlap - for me the big thing was simply getting more fruits and veggies into my diet and fewer starches. Still working on that!
Thanks for the websites, I've been checking them out. Looks like CalorieCount or FitDaily might do me best. The tricky thing for me right now is that I'm breastfeeding so I can't just simply hack back as I'd like to, though I really only need about 400 calories a day to feed Peaches; that's actually not too much.

I love the idea of being healthy weight-loss accountability buddies. I'll give you a call and we can chat!

This last week, food intake hasn't really improved, though I have been drinking more green tea and less coffee (along with the milk and sugar), I did get to the gym FIVE times last week. Woohoo! I built up my cardio from 20 mins to 30 adding 2 mins per workout and am going to stay at 30 for a week and get more comfortable there before pushing up. It's a good thing Gus likes the "playroom" there!


Yeah, my mom was just telling me last night that she had trouble with the weight loss after subsequent pregnancies. Like me, she'd bottom down after a month and then slowly gain again.

I think I do ok for regular walking - we deliberately selected a neighbourhood that was walkable with groceries, books (library!) and a bank nearby, among other things. However, with the weather getting cooler and having 2 kiddos to keep warm, walking places will be challenging.

I think it's really cool that you've taken up kung fu, too. Not only do you get the health benefits, it's a great way to hang out with your kids!
Yay, I'm excited! I started a CalorieCount account. I like it better than FitDay.
Yes, walking in the cold with kids would be hard. Sounds like a nice place to live though.
Good to know. I was leaning that way, too, especially given the amount of made-from-scratch stuff we do.

Post a comment

Already a Vox member? Sign in

Advertisement