Health Matters

Finally, I managed to get the widget countdown onto this blog.  The embarrassing thing is that it is so simple and the button I had to press is so big, that I have no idea how I missed it in the first place!  Anyway, I am thrilled with this little gadget.  No more manually counting days for me.

One of the major contributing factors to my growing awareness of health and fitness and my determination to take action was watching my own mother's descent into dementia.  The world of Alzheimer's/dementia is frightening and devastating; for the person with the disease as well as for those close to them.  Although there are no effective drugs to either prevent or arrest the development of the disease, there are indications that diet and exercise might help.  It has been shown that exercise can:

1. induce growth factors in the brain
2. help build new neurons into the circuits
3. build synapses
4. improve learning
5. improve vascular function

There are no drugs that can do all of this. 

It has also been shown that eating badly can severely damage the body, cause disease (diabetes, cancer heart/vascular disease) and death.  Look, I know that we all have to die but I just want to increase my chances of having a good quality of life right until the end.

Saturated fat can clog up arteries and reduce blood flow to the brain and the rest of the body.  There are no drugs that can fix bad eating habits.  Health really lies in the hands of the individual. 

Diana Elsmere

8th Day: Stick to the plan!

In spite of sticking to the plan, my weight is up again this morning.  This time it is 65.9kg  The good thing about keeping a daily record is that I have begun to recognize my own 'losing weight pattern'.  As soon as I drop a few grams it is as if my body says 'oh my gosh, we can't lose that, let's get it back' and the weight goes up/down, up/down, for a few days and then finally, really eases off.  I am on to you, fat globules, I can see you bouncing this way and that; trying to hold on and not get eliminated.  Just carry on, we will see who triumphs in the end!

This lack of apparent progress, that so often plagues any undertaking, is why I keep telling myself, stick to the plan.  Goals are not always achieved instantly.  I usually achieve them by inching (I wonder why no-one ever says centimetring?) my way there.  Sometimes progress is imperceptible and it is then that perseverance is essential for success. 

Diana Elsmere

Slow down and keep at it

Today is Day 7.  I have tried to get one of those widget things onto this blog without any success.  I managed to make the thing but how to publish it here when it is somewhere else is a mystery!  I still cannot get my picture up either.  One day I will get the newly created countdowner and I won't have to keep on saying this is Day ---!

The scale told me that I weighed 65.1kg this morning.  Sure - I'll take that with a pinch of salt.  Considering the fact that water weighs so much I could theoretically gain or lose half a kilogram overnight and it would be nothing but a change in hydration levels.  Ho-hum, just stick to the plan and do not be distracted by minor details.

When I first started walking,  I was walking about 3 to 6 km per week.  This week I walked/ran 93.6kms!  My slogan is:  Slower, further, longer.  In the beginning I kept it slow, walked further distances and spent more and more time exercising.  I did not care that I went as slowly as a snail, I just did it every day.

Now that I have improved basic health, fitness and endurance levels I notice that I go a little faster every day but I still only stick to what is comfortable.  Every now and then I cannot stop myself from running over the limits for short bursts just for the sheer joy of it.  Small pushes when exercising regularly are good to improve aerobic fitness but I still do not overdo it and the result is that I never have stiff, lactic acid filled muscles that are too sore to move. 

Every now and then, on my daily walk/run I see the odd person on an exercise 'spurt'.  I know that they are on a spurt because they usually appear on the road the day after some holiday, they are overweight, breathless, going much too fast and I never see them again.  Exercise for these people must be agony, I want to tell them to SLOW DOWN and that gently does it but I don't suppose they would listen to me. A pity that, they would end up enjoying exercise. 

Diana Elsmere

Awakening the body's voice

This morning I weighed in at 65.6kg.  I am not too excited as I am sure that the ups and downs will continue throughout this endeavour.  There are 272 days to go until D-Day, 5 November 2010. 

Another one of those incidental things that has happened on my journey towards better health, is the awakening of my body's voice.  It became apparent for the first time about a month ago when I was suddenly aware of  how extraordinarily good my body felt.  I could feel this tingling and vitality that I had not felt since I was a child.  I was so taken aback by it that I mentioned it to Stuart and he said that it was because I was getting fitter.  This sensation of strength, vigour and wellbeing has become a daily reality for me now.

I no longer have to force myself outside, my body gets me up and going all the time.  There are no more cravings for cakes or chocolates or biscuits.  It is like my body has woken up and has joined the team in project good health! 

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle are the key to everything.  After all, without the body, the mind and the emotions what is there? 

Diana Elsmere

Losing weight and the big picture

Weight this morning is 65.9kg. 

This is quite an interesting exercise for me.  The business-trained part of me is impassive, calculating, determined.  The emotional part of me that is somehow hitched to my body image is bouncing around in a very unreasonable fashion.  There is an inherent 'ideal' body image that is imbedded somewhere in my psyche.  This 'ideal' has been created by mindlessly absorbing marketing machinations for years.  Logic tells me it is meaningless; my emotions rage!

This is very similar to getting a group of people to reach a target and I have engaged the same strategies in this endeavour.    

1. Set an achievable goal (9kg weight loss)
2. Have a time limit (278 days)
3. Always know current status (brutal truth is required here - record everything every day)
4. Have a workable strategy (expend more calories than are consumed daily)
5. Stick to the plan (keep on going in spite of weight fluctuations)

I have always found that even emotions become happier when there is a plan and everyone is sticking to it.  In this case, it is that all parts of me are sticking to the plan.  I just have to keep an eye on my emotional part that can be incredibly childish.  The part of me that, when not properly directed, is scared and confused.  Understanding and dealing with this saboteur within me is the same as understanding and dealing with a saboteur in a team.   Emotions are wonderful for enriching life, they are hopeless at directing anything. Emotions can colour in; they are not allowed to design!

Diana Elsmere

Yo-Yo Weight - does it matter?

Yip, once again, my weight is up; this time up to 66.5kg.  Fortunately, I am feeling pretty phlegmatic about it this morning.  I know that there is no way I can put on weight if I expend more calories than I  consume.  Unless, I am somehow eating more than I think I am.  I will give it a month and if there is no movement in the right direction (down) I will check it out. 

When I was younger this sort of thing would have sent me into a tail-spin; it would have been enough for me to ignore the scale and go out on a BINGE of note.  Talk about denial.  This negation of reality is the reason for my weight gain during my forties.  Of course, lots of business lunches and an office potato lifestyle did not help matters either.  I virtually had no exercise but I was still eating as if I did.  I spent my life at a computer, sitting in meetings or sitting in my car driving to and from meetings.  I was miserable.  So I ate and sat around even more when I got home.  I could have stepped outside and started walking but I did not.  A victim of my own distress.  I wonder if other people ever feel like that?

All this puts me in mind of the reasons for choices.  Reasons can be no more than justifications or excuses for doing or not doing something.  Reasons can also be incentives, goals, challenges all of which are considered 'good'.  The former, justifications/excuses etc. are considered 'bad'.  Sometimes I think that the consequences of our choices are much more important than the reasons for them.  The difficulty is in being able to predict the consequences of choices, not just as individuals but for all life for all time because the consequences of our actions will still be here long after we are all gone.  That is why I love Wendell Berry and I quote: 

'If we have the wisdom to survive

To stand like slow growing trees

On a ruined place, renewing, enriching it

Then long after we are dead

The lives our lives prepare

Will live here.'

Rachel Carson says a similar thing, we have:   'The obligation to endure'. 

'The wisdom to survive' Wendell Berry and 'The obligation to endure' Rachel Carson.  I find this so powerful, so moving. 

Thank you Wendell Berry and Rachel Carson. 

Diana Elsmere

    

An accidental exerciser.

If my scale was in one of those animated movies, it would have had a terrified face on as I approached it this morning.  It was so lucky that I had lost some of the weight I had gained yesterday.  My weight is now 66.1kg.  I weigh more now than when I started 3 days ago but at least it's less than yesterday!

How did all this begin?  It all started the moment I stepped outside, a couple of years ago, to walk the dogs (they are the ones that needed the exercise).  Slowly, I lost weight and became fitter.  I lost so much weight that people who had not seen me in a while would screech and yell out the fact in these high pitched,  astonished voices.  I began to think that I must have been enormous but don't ask me how much I weighed back then because in those days I would not even weigh myself.  I can tell you though that I have dropped 3 dress sizes since.  I have a picture, taken in July 2006, of me and a baby elephant and the only difference between the elephant and me is that I am wearing a purple top!   

I am an accidental exerciser.  I was fat, unfit and unhealthy.  I needed to do something about it but I didn't.   Walking the dogs was the first reason I stepped outside; so I started exercising by default and I can't claim any credit for it. 

When I think about it, it really is pretty wonderful ...

Diana Elsmere

This is NOT a hiccup; its rubbish!

This morning I weighed 66.7kg!  That is a lot of weight to put on in one day!  Fortunately, I know that what the scale says is not necessarily true.   I also know that last week I created a deficit (through exercise) of 1110 calories and I have not over-eaten either.  So, what the scale says is RUBBISH. 

I think I need one of those special scales that measures fat and lean body mass - the method of dividing body mass by height to find body fat % is ineffectual.  I just have to learn to understand that I don't always have the right tools or measurements at hand.  All I know is that 3500 calories equals 1lb and as I work up to those calories, the weight will shift.  Anyway, that is the theory and I suppose, like all averages, it will be different for everyone.  Let's see how it works in practice!

Diana Elsmere

The current challenge

I am not a competitive person by any means and the fact that this whole business has evolved into a challenge, albeit to myself, is a bit of a mystery to me. Anyway, my own doubts, dissatisfaction and struggles might encourage/inspire some other woman who is fat, unfit and over fifty. Believe me, if I can do this, anyone can!


My current challenge is to lose 9kg (19.8lbs) of body FAT (I do not want to lose muscles, bones or any other body parts) in 278 days.

This is how I worked it out: there are 3500 calories in 1lb of body weight. This equates to me having to create a deficit of 69,300 calories. My plan is to aim for a daily deficit of 500 calories (about 250 through exercise and 250 through diet). To build up the deficit should take about 139 days which I am doubling to 278 (this allows for mishaps and a reasonable maintenance period).

Tomorrow, 1 February 2010 is the first day of the challenge. Until then...


Diana Elsmere