Are you looking for support on your health and fitness journey? If you are, then this thread is for you.

There are no expectations in this forum. Post as often as you like. Post anything that you feel is relevant to your own personal health and fitness goal. Here are some ideas:

• Monthly health and fitness goal
• Daily health and fitness goal
• Progress (or setbacks) in reaching your goal
• Personal stories about why you are joining this topic
• Healthy recipes that you feel others will enjoy
• Links to articles or books that you feel others would find helpful
• Food Choices (healthy or unhealthy)

Remember, your health and fitness journey is your own. There is no one program, method, or philosophy that is right for everyone. This thread is for support only.

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Just getting this set up to start using in the morning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year!!! I hope this will be the beginning of a wonderful year of good health and great possibilities.

I'm starting out the New Year at 249.3. A little too much sodium yesterday, hence the weight gain from yesterday. Haven't done the measurements yet, but will add them later today.

I will only weigh in once a week, on Sundays, here on out, with the exception of weighing on the 1st of every month. If I could weigh just once a month, I would, but I don't think I can stay off the scale that long, as long as the scale is in the apt. But I can manage once a week.

My ultimate goal is to get below 200 lbs. and then stay below that number. I don't know if I can lose that much in a years time, but it's my goal. I'm going to push losing it sooner than that because I'm planning a trip to SC. in August to spend a long weekend with my son and daughter in law, and celebrate our birthdays together, and I'd like to be in better shape for the trip. So I want to lose as much as I can between now and then. It may not be that much off, but at least 1/2 would be great, so 25 lbs.

I'm going to be working on cutting portion sizes and eating a more high protein, lower carb plan. I love my carbs, but I know I lose more weight the less carbs I eat. For now I'm eating what food I have in the apt. In Feb. I'll be restocking my kitchen and will buying more chicken, fish, and lean cuts of beef. The main carb I will continue eating will be potatoes. One baked potato is about 56 carbs, but it helps to fill me up. I think that's healthier than other forms of potatoes, or eating foods I simply don't like because they're lower in carbs. I'm basically only eating one meal a day, so a nice baked potato and 4-5 oz. of meat will be my meal of choice, 98% of the time. I know I can't eat this way every single day but this will be how I eat most days. My son & DIL gave me fast food gift cards for Christmas, so once a month I will use one of those and have a cheat meal.

Exercise wise; I can't do a lot of regular exercise because my back goes into spasms when I do much of anything where I'm on my feet any length of time. I do own an exercise bike so plan to ride it as much as I can 2-3 times a week. More than that and I'll make excuses not to get on it. I'll do some chair exercises daily.

What are your plans to get healthy, weekly, monthly, and for this year?

Thanks for setting up the January chat, Vicki! I'll get my mileage tracker posted soon.

Your goals sound very realistic and worthy. I love a baked sweet potato. Just plain, no butter is delicious!

Thanks Heather. Hope you reach your monthly goals.

I love the fresh start feeling each month!

For the last several months, life was all about my knee, and that is still a high priority, but I also want to get back to other healthy habits. 

I weighed 219.4 on 1/31/2023, so I met my goal of under 220 by the end of 2023. It was a little higher that  day due to eating out the day before. This morning I weighed 216.6. I weighed 240.6 on 1/1/2023, so I'm thrilled! I do want my goal to be health and not just a number on the scale, but at this point I'm heavy enough that I think true health includes a lower weight. Also I realized I got a little more focused on the scale number last year because the surgeon wouldn't do the knee replacement till I got to a certain number on the scale.

I needed a few new clothes to prep for my new job, and I am very excited! I don't know whether it's just a different brand, but size 2X dresses fit! In the recent past, I had to go to 3X in dresses and tops because of the size of my upper arms.

I have ridden a stationary bike every day since the breakthrough on December 24, either at PT, or Planet Fitness, or the exercise room in Mom's complex. I'm gradually going longer. Yesterday and the day before I went for 15 minutes.

Heather, I'm so sorry you were sick last week. I hope you are better now.

i was busy last week trying to get Christmas presents out, which didn't end up happening due to my credit card getting compromised, but I made some progress. 

Goals for 2024:

• weigh less than 200 pounds by the end of the year
• establish a healthy habit each month

January New Habit
i have a machine that guides me in deep breathing and I have used it before. When I use it regularly I do see a benefit to my blood pressure, but life happens and I don't make the time for it. I want to establish daily use during January, though I expect to miss days here and there as I establish the habit. I already missed Jan 1, because we were at Mom's all day.

website: https://www.resperate.com

January Continuing Habits to focus on:

• do the assigned knee exercises
• Stamina: bike (stationery) or walk at least 15 consecutive minutes. Try to extend time.

Margaret, you've done great in 2023. Remember we started out as weight twins? But you far passed me by. I get so frustrated with myself over my weight. Noone forces me to eat like I do. That's all on me. So this year I've got to make the changes I need to do to get healthier. And by the way, I've weighed every day even though I said only once a week. I'm 251.5 today, thanks to eating Summer sausage and crackers for lunch yesterday. Just way too much sodium.

January New Habit

• Use RespErate

January Continuing Habits to focus on:

• do the assigned knee exercises
• Stamina: bike (stationary) or walk at least 15 consecutive minutes. Try to extend time.

Jan 2: PT in the afternoon. Then some errands. Then went to game night at church, followed by attending Iowa women's basketball game. Just overscheduled, so I did not get the exercises done. Also did not use RespErate. Did walk plenty from car to arena and back. Also did lots of stairs up from my seat to leave game. (Took elevator down to get to seat for game, but line too long for elevator (1!) after game.) So I got the stamina work in!

Hi, all

Karen is hosting a fitness challenge in case you didn't see it. It starts this Friday.

Fitness Challenge

Thanks Heather. I'm passing on the challenge.

Current weight is 249.2, so at least it's heading back in the right direction again.

January New Habit

• Use RespErate

January Continuing Habits to focus on:

• do the assigned knee exercises
• Stamina: bike (stationary) or walk at least 15 consecutive minutes. Try to extend time.
   

I overscheduled again! I did the bike at PT and I did do an hour shift at the thrift store as a cashier, so that was standing and walking. But then I was so tired after my zoom meeting for work that I fell asleep early before the other things were done!

You still got in plenty of exercise Margaret, especially with a still healing knee. You did good.

My weight today is 248.9.

January New Habit

• Use RespErate

January Continuing Habits to focus on:

• do the assigned knee exercises
• Stamina: bike (stationary) or walk at least 15 consecutive minutes. Try to extend time.
   

I hope my lack of progress yesterday was because it was a recovery day! But I still haven't used the RespErate this monthI hope that if I do it once I won't want to break the streak. I did all of the assigned knee exercises once, but I'm supposed to do them twice. However, I did do more than the previous day. 
 

I did get the stamina in. I went to Planet Fitness and rode a recumbent bike for 17 minutes.

I am finally adding my exercise tracker. It took me a few days. My heart rate monitor records my distance, so I have the numbers from the past few days.

Since I am adding in more strength, I am adjusting my mileage goal to 20 miles for the month. A stretch goal would be my usual 26, but with so many fewer running days, even 20 will be hard to reach. I am going to try to do longer runs on Saturdays, so those days should add more distance if it becomes my new routine. I am starting tomorrow with a long run and will decide about future Saturdays once I see how I feel.

Total Run Distance January (Goal for the month is 20 mi)

22.33 miles for the month

Total At-Home One-Hour Strength Training Days January (Goal for the month is 8 days)

Six for the month

Margaret, your bike time has really boosted in just a little while. You're doing great! 17 minutes on a bike is solid.

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I bought a scale and have started weighing myself for the fitness challenge. This is interesting for sure. I started yesterday. I weighed myself at 1:00pm. Then this morning, I weighed myself again before eating or drinking anything. I weighed 3.5 lbs less this morning. I guess the time of day really does matter.

Happy Saturday, Ladies. I'm at 249.8 this morning so just yo-yo-ing by about 1/2 lb., as I started out the new year at 249.3 lbs.

I forgot to Watch the topic!  Still battling holiday weight gain, which wasn't too bad but still...  Its a matter of breaking bad habits...again. But there's no more holidays coming up.  It was 197.8 this morning.  Well, if we get the snow they are forecasting, I'll work off weight shoveling!!!  Both my knees ache today, maybe its the weather changing.

Glad to see you Teri. And I'm sure you'll get any holiday weight gain back off in no time.

Yesterday was a bad eating day for me. Not bad foods, but grazed all day long, and the scales told on me this morning (250.7). So I'll be working on being more mindful of my eating this week and hopefully see a difference next Sunday. I know I shouldn't let the scale rule my feelings but sometimes it gets really discouraging when the numbers climb instead of going down. But with the eating I did yesterday, I couldn't expect the numbers to be down. Yet, I hoped.

Well, gang! I did my second day (for January) of a one-hour strength workout, and that is definitely needed. I did a long run yesterday, and that was not as hard as today's strength. These strength days really trigger muscles that don't get worked much otherwise - even though I do 15-20 minutes of strength everytime I go to orange theory, these slow, steady, long strength days are legit hard.

I am definitely glad I added two one-hour strength days per week to my new routine. I need these way more than I need more cardio days.

I was thinking back a couple of years.  I didn't allow myself dessert and  I was losing weight.  In the last few months, I have felt entitled to dessert after supper, usually cookies. Lately, I've had a lot of difficulty losing weight and keeping it off.  I am probably doing other things like too large portions of meat but cookies have both carbs and sugar.  I must work harder at controlling this. Its important to me to NOT have my nephrologist unhappy with me on March 4.

The last few days all I've done is graze, and it's really telling in the numbers when I step on the scale (252.4 today), so that has to STOP NOW!!

I know I have trigger foods in the apt. so those have to go.

Well, the weekend was pretty much awful.

Saturday I went in person to work, and I had to bang on the door to be let in because it was locked. The guy working had no idea I was coming and had no clue what I was supposed to do. So I just explored a little to see where things were, then got on a workstation and worked through some of my online training.  Then when I got home was when my tooth really started to hurt and I just got nothing done.

technically, I'm not supposed to go to the dentist for three months after the knee replacement, and for a year I'm supposed to get antibiotics to take before I go, so I suffered from what is probably an abscessed tooth all day Sunday, using mostly over the counter drugs and a lot of ice, knowing I already had an appointment with the surgeon on Monday at 8:30 am.

Monday (yesterday) the follow up with knee surgeon went great! I bent to 132 degrees, andi wasn't sure how well I would do because I was too miserable on Sunday to do any of my exercises. He put in the prescription for antibiotics. I went straight from there to the dentist and begged them to take me, and they did squeeze me in. After several very painful X-rays they decided nothing was clear and I would have to see an endodontist. But they did put me on a 10- day set of antibiotics. But it takes a while for them to really kick in so while I did have patches of time where I could manage to do my online job training, I didn't do any exercises, though I did go to my scheduled massage and I walked around the Walgreens to stock up for the storm when I got my prescription.

Today I won't be going to the fitness club to bike, because of the weather. It has already snowed 2-3 inches and is supposed to dump about 6 more on us today. I was supposed to have a 6-hour shift at work today but I got a text from my team leader saying to stay home and safe.

i was a little disappointed with my weight this morning. I thought I might have lost some because I'm barely eating because it hurt to bite and chew. But maybe it is just the swelling. My jaw is somewhat swollen this morning, so some of the infection has spread, which is bad since we do not want infection to spread to the knee, but it also has relieved the pressure so I'm in a lot less pain.

January New Habit

• Use RespErate Hah! Haven't even done this once!

January Continuing Habits to focus on:

• do the assigned knee exercises Usually do at least half, often not all, did none Sunday or Monday.
• Stamina: bike (stationary) or walk at least 15 consecutive minutes. Try to extend time. Done most days, but not Sunday.

Heather, don't be too impressed by 17 minutes on the bike! I'm doing the least resistance and not going very fast according to the screen. I need the strength training too. Now that I can bend the knee, the physical therapist is switching to exercises that focus on strength and balance.
 

Teri, I know the best way for me to lose weight is intermittent fasting and very low sugar. Counting calories just isn't as effective for me as simply making sure I don't eat anything with more than 4 grams of added sugar per serving. However, this fall I had so many periods where I had no appetite so I just ate when I was hungry, which just wasn't often. I ate nothing during Covid, obviously very little during colonoscopy prep, and only enough so pain meds wouldn't kill my stomach after surgery. So the intermittent fasting was ignored. But the weight loss has stalled. I am positive this is due to all the Christmas candy!

Vicki, hang in there! Last year I gained back all the weight I lost in 2022, which was only 10 pounds, and I was giving up. But somehow just focusing on eating healthy , and getting exercise, it suddenly clicked and I was losing without really trying, so that I ended 23 pounds under my start weight, even after gaining 10 first. This can be your year!

Margaret, Oh my God! The thing with your tooth!  I used to work in an ortho office. For a long time, taking antibiotics before dental work (after surgery) was pushed. Then around 2017, it wasn't a thing anymore. This is in NYS. I guess every state is different in their regulations.

Margaret, I hope the antibiotics clear up the infection in your gums and the tooth won't end up having to be pulled.

My weight is still going up (254.4). I think it's just too much sodium so am going to try to really cut the sodium the rest of the week and see what happens.

I'm 253 today, so it's heading down again. I've just got to keep it going in the right direction.

Teri, I'm really not all that interested in sweets these days. But I seem to crave the salty foods. My go to snack is peanut butter on saltine crackers. I will not touch an unsalted cracker. Those things have no taste at all, IMHO. But when I eat the peanut butter and crackers I tend to eat a few more than I should in one seating. Actually, I can't really call it a snack. It's more of a meal for me, usually for lunch. Then I have a small supper around 6pm, something like soup or maybe eggs. Yesterday I had a tuna sub (tuna, provalone cheese, and black olives) from Subway  for a late lunch ( took friend to doctor appt., then stopped for subway subs before taking her back home), and then about 8pm I had the peanut butter and saltines as supper. But that was all I had for the day. I know I eat a little too much of the peanut butter and crackers, but my only concern with them is the sodium count. And it's not something I'm willing to give up since it's a cheap meal for me, and peanut butter is kind of a comfort food for me. So I try to work around them in the other food choices I make.

Heather, you're doing great with the exercises. That's something I really struggle with because I have to be so careful with my lower back. I'm trying to do some chair exercises and when my back isn't acting up I'll ride my exercise bike. But I'm not consistant with the exercises.