fortuneinthefollowup.com

It has been about 2 weeks since I have actually posted.  Yeah, not sure what’s up with that. :)  I have been working to avoid sweets.  It has been a bit of a struggle, resisting temptation and all.  On Thursday January 31st someone here had a birthday.  Yes, there was birthday cake.  I politely declined and was informed that I *had* to have some.  She put it on my desk and walked away.  There was some fruit on the cake so I ate that, intending to toss the rest.  The I made a decision to actually eat the cake.  As an experiment I told myself. :p   It wasn’t a really heavy cake; just white cake with a whipped frosting.  It tasted pretty good…  I think it was home-made by someone else in the office.  Needless to say, I enjoyed every bite.

That is until about 30 minutes later.  All of a sudden, I had this awful taste in my mouth and I began to feel nauseous.  By the time I headed home, I was feeling bloated, sick and just awful.  All from one small piece of cake.  I would say I am done with sweets!  This experimen teither went horribly wrong or horribly right. 

In the ensuing days, I have been offered cake, candy, chocolate and ice cream and have happily declined all.  When I think about eating any of that stuff my body shudders and a huge NO!!!  appears in my minds eye.  Interesting, I still have sugar in my coffee with no problem but all other incidences of sugar or sugar products are a huge no.

I have also learned that if I forget or don’t take something with me to eat, i get snack cravings.  I have not mastered the temptation of salty, cheesy, crunchy goodness.  I have upon occasion raided the vending machines when I haven’t brought some sort of food.  These days I am mostly bringing carrotts or apples or yougurt with fruit (that would be the plain yogurt) The other thing I am doing is still making salad in a bottle. It tastes fairly green but adding lemon juice or some fruit help make it more palatable. 

I have also found that my cravings are ruled by my emotions (yeah I know most people’s are) and how my day is going.  Now that i know this, what to do about it…  Apparently I am a victim of comfort food :p 

 I am trying to make better dinner decisions and when I give in to something that is really not good for me, my body tells me.  I am coming to understand that my body seems to be controlling my diet much more than my mouth and tasts buds.  I had Taco Bell the other night and felt bloated and ill most of the night.  Guess what food I am no longer eating. 

My husband bought me a Valentines treat; a bear that says I love you (very cute- what illusion is he suffering under) and a small box of chocolates.  I said thank you for the bear but offered him the candy.  He said 1 or 2 pieces aren’t going to hurt anything.  I responded “yeah, if I want to be ill”  (Has he NOT been listening to me?!)  I put the bear on my desk at home and gave the candy away at work. 

We went out for a Valentines day dinner and I had broiled icelandic cod (yummmmmy) and baked potatoe ok I had butter and sour cream :p However I didn’t finish the potatoe.  i have been eating ONLY until I am full.  I have found if I push the envelope there, that i feel yucky for hours.  As i said my body seems to be much more in control of what I eat. 

Onward Ho!!!!

Oh and I am back to walking.  Ted and I went walking on Wednesday night.  My end of the walk numbers are as follows:

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:28X4= 112

2min: 24X4= 96

5 min: 24X4 = 96

Thursday nights end of the walk numbers were a little weird.  They are as follows:

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:24X4= 96

2min: 25X4= 100

5 min: 21X4 = 84

All for now

I decided to do both days at the same time. 

Saturday- Today seemed like a good day to start off with…    yeah, yeah, yeah  Coffee :)  I needed a camera card so I could have a dedicated card to my homework.  I went to three different stores all to no avail.  All the XD cards it seems are now the “M” ones which are not compatible with my camera.  As time was getting short, I headed home.  I had plans to go out dancing at 6:00

I had dinner at the club Chicken breast with Vegetables and Iced tea.  There was birthday cake as well. i didnt have any and it wasnt all that difficult to say no.  I did have some sugar free Jello :)  I am thinking dancing is at least as good as walking in the exercise department :)  I had an excellent time until I got home.  Now that’s another blog.  Went to bed stressed and not too happy

 Sunday- Woke up and didn’t go anywhere, even to have coffee.  I had a cup of coffee here at the house… later.  Ted and I went and shot my homework, we got some great shots too :) 

For dinner we had Chicken Pot Pies and Mac & Cheese.  Not the greatest meal.  Neither ted nor i really wanted it but we ate it mainly to keep the peace.  Too much turmoil lately…

Went walking tonight but I do seem to be in the process of manifesting some sort of error in my body.  I have this pain in my upper chest on the right side.  While walking, I needed to cough and that made the pain way worse so mmm. Not fun.  I worked on moderating my walk so that I didn’t breath too hard because apparently that makes the pain worse as well.

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:36X4= 144

2min: 25X4= 100

5 min: 22X4 = 88

Got home and rested for a bit, then thought I would try some wall pushups and um, no….  OW!  and Planks?  Yeah, ow on those too. ok, I will not let this keep me from my goal.  I will see how i feel tomorrow…

Sadly I didn’t do an update yesterday.  I got home and did a few things and fell asleep. So here I am with an update.

Thursday started as usual, you know the cup of coffee :)  I had the yogurt I prepared late morning.  It was pretty decent… A little on the sour side but all up, not bad at all.  I will definitely be having more.  Another experiment that was successful.  I am thinking perhaps some pineapple and or bananas.  We’ll see.  Was busy as usual and somehow lately more sweets are finding there way into the office.  I bought 2 chocolate bars to help someone with their kids benefit.  I gave them back to her and told her to gift them to whoever she chose.  I was quite proud of myself. 

For dinner we had steak and teriaki (sp?) vegetables.  Finally a meal at home without a lot of extra calories.  It tasted good too.  After dinner, I found sitting on my desk, my Caltrac.  I opened it to find that it needed batteries I didnt have.  *shoot*  I read the quick start guide and talked to Rick online about some of the features.  I also asked what exercise might be substituted for walking on those particularly nasty rainy days.  He suggested perhaps lunges and then when I can do them, lunges down the hall.  Of course he sent me a video link that showed the proper form.  It’s always about form with Rick.

I had intended to do some wall pushups but flat out fell asleep in my chair after listening to Armand Moran’s teleseminar.   *pouts*

Friday!  At last, it’s friday!  My coffee was extra good today.  Perhaps it is because it is friday.  I didn’t bring any food or snacks with me to work today.  I knew we were having a get together to bid farewell to a collegue who is moving forward on the next rung of making her dream of being a teacher come true.  I also knew that food was involved.  There were donuts being offered all over the office.  Sheesh!

At 9:30ish we all gathered in the conference room to a repast of lots of pastries, cookies, muffins, and donuts .  Thank goodness there was plenty of juice, some fruit and bagels with cream cheese.  I had lots of fruit and a bagel with some cream cheese.  I had Orange juice instead of the more popular Crystal Light lemonaid and Apple juice. 

I have noted something interesting in the last few days.  It has gotten easier and easier to pass up donuts.  I hardly notice them if i am passing by unless someone actually mentions them.  Now THAT is cool!  Temptation isn’t a fun thing.  I moved a lot of paperwork off my desk today, so i felt really accomplished at the end of the day.

For dinner we went out again…  Ron was planning on Taco Bell but changed his mind to Cafe Bixby. Friday means clam chowder and him being from Mass, well that’s all it took I had Liver and onions.  I haven’t had that in forever and it was extra good!  I’m not sure what they did when cooking it but the meat as so tender.  Instead of potatoes and gravy, I ordered Coleslaw. I figured less carbs and calories. 

After I got home, I did some email and relaxing.  I got up and danced for about 30 minutes just because the music was good. Since it is actually Saturday morning when I am typing this, Apparently I relaxed a little too much.  As I was sitting here last night, I got a couple of cramps in my calf muscles.  Not sure if that was just last night or if it is something of concern- I will keep an eye on it.  All for now

Started today off with a cup of coffee (what else is new?) I didn’t bring a snack, salad or anything to eat.  The sales team bought lunch.  We had Togo’s.  For me it was the turkey & cheddar along with some BBQ chips.  They also bought sodas but I didn’t have any.  Kinda sucks that we had a sales meeting and I didn’t get my usual hour to me. 

Driving home sucked!  Was horibbly rainy and wet.  I do not like to drive in the rain.  I have made myself promise to let the weather do as it wishes this year, so yeah I have stuck myself with driving in inclement weather. :/  We went out for dinner. (yes again) I had the oriental chicken salad and it was sooooo good.  I ate most of it but saved some of chicken for a salad at a later time.  :) 

We went to the store on the way home and I got some plain yogurt and frozen fruit.  Blending the two together was quite the adventure :p  To say I made a mess was putting it mildly.  My son came in and started laughing at me… how nice.   He even took a video on his phone LOL…  What a pain LOL.  I am going to take some to work tomorrow.  Should be really yummy

Did wall Pushups 3 sets of 30 eah standing a good way back from the wall.  Not much more to reportother than i really didn’t feel like doing the pushups- Did em anyway

I started today out with a nice cup of coffee, ok so what’s new! LOL  Didn’t get much sleep last night so i laiddown and tooka nap this afternoon.  I woke up in time to catch the Ellen show and finish my BSF homework.  Had hanburger patties with gravy on them, mashed potatoes and french cut green beans for dinner. 

Had a snack of turket teriyaki jerkey and some harvest cheddar sun chips after lecture while we were watching Miyah.  Tonight is an exercise night…

Squats: 3 sets of 20 each
The Plank: 3 sets of 15 secs each (arms are still shaking on every second that passes
Wall Pushups: 3 sets of 30 each standing as far from the wall as is comfortable

 I think next week I am going to go to counter push ups… we’ll see.  I didn’t go walking today because of my busy night.

I weighed myself tonight and I am at 148.  Now as I have said before, I am not sure where I started darn it!  I usually was 150-155 riding toward the high side.  I am definitely making progress though.  Some gains have deffinitely been made which is awesome! 

Rick, you are my hero

I took the rest of the salad in the bowl today: The ingredients were the usual: Kale, cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, and some gound flax seed thrown on top. Oil & lemon juice was my dressing of choice.  I took an apple as well.  At some point this morning someone brought donuts to share.  It seemed like there were boxes of Yum Yum donuts everywhere :/   God at a couple times they sounded sooooo good.  I was good and stuck with my apple and salad.  

Wasn’t too awful sore today but was horribly busy.  For somereason lately I have been feeling the desire for junk.  *sighs* I suppose it is a mind game I am playing with myself, though not a fun one.  At one point Miguel offered me candy.  I was this close *holds fingers together* to taking a piece.    Another co-worker asked if i was on a diet.  

This got me to thinking about the whole diet concept.  If you are “ON” a diet and you lose weight, doesn’t that then set you up for what happens when you go “OFF” the diet.  Equal and opposite reactions no?  I wonder if this might be why so many diets don’t work. 

For me it’s about changing my life and the way I live it by the choices I make.  That’s what is so great about Rick’s program.  It’s about incorporating small baby steps of changes into your life until you integrate them and make them part of you.  Then he moves on to the next step.  It’s like he is coaxing you out of a closet. he allows you to run back and hide for a time before he begins to coax again.  Once you become familiar and comfortable, he coaxes you a bit more.  before you know   it the closet has disappeared.

Foe dinner we went to cafe Bixby and I had a hap and asperigus omelet with a light holedaise sauce.  Instead of the potatoes I had ascoop of cottage cheese.  Was yummy

Went for a walk again tonight.  My heart rate immdeaitely after i stopped was 33 X4= 132 (slghtly low)
2 minutes after was 28X4=112
5 minutes after was 23X4= 92

Stopped at the store and bought a bunch of beats, some more Kale (was .50 a bunch!!) milk, oj and Ron wanted some Hostess cupcakes *rolls eyes*

I mixed beets with half a turnip and some carrots.  I think i added just a tad too much turnip.  I sliced the rest of it and added some salt. Now that is how to eat a raw turnip!  The taste reminds me of a raw potato.  I have beet soup or juice or whatever for tomorrow.  I did 3 sets of 20 WallPushes and npow I am off to bed. Am thinking Saturdays and Wednesdays for squats and planks.  Oh and I bought my Caltrac today!  Just waiting for it to arrive…                                                                                      

I took a salad to work today. The ingredients were the usual: Kale, cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, and some gound flax seed thrown on top. Oil & lemon juice was my dressing of choice.

I was very busy today. It was probably good that I was :p I had a package of peanuts, which was quite the nice little treat. I received an email from Ron (my hubby) that Ted (my son) passed his high school equivalence test. This has what he has been waiting for. Now all he needs to do is complete his course work and then he is gone. I am glad for him but I am feeling quite exanimate over the whole ting. It’s a good thing there was no “comfort food” around. It would have been gone.

Got home and went out to dinner. I had Pot Roast which consisted of this super delicious beef covered in gravy (what did i say about comfort food? LOL) a baked potato with a teaspoon {appx} of sour cream and a teaspoon {appx} of butter (or other butter like substance :p) and mixed vegetables. The meal started with coffee with sugar (no cream) and a salad. I am guessing you can all guess what I topped it with LOL I couldn’t finishe the whole meal. I ate maybe 1/3 or perhaps 1/2 not sure. I only ate until I was ful. Go me!

When I got home from dinner i found an email from Rick answering the one question I had about his previous email. It is posted below. (My question is in red)

On 18/01/2008, at 10:52 AM, Becky Rhone-Nowlan wrote:

I only have 1 question which I have posted below.

If you can double the distance then test yourself at this level. Doubling my walk would put it at nearly 2 hours… Do you want me walking for that long at 80%?

Thanks.

If you have been walking briskly for an hour most nights for 3 years then you are already reasonably fit lol.

So lets test the HR for a week at 80% or so during your walk

and do the two minute 5 minute thing over say 2 weeks

if I see a falling heart rate over that time, then we can ramp it up…

Also if you feel you want to do a 2 hour walk every now and again to test yourself, be my guest but vary the pace 65% up to 80% back to 70% up to 90% etc.

Thanks for the feedback.

Don’t forget to write these HR numbers into the diary

On the comments line is ok.

Cheers

Rick

Yes, he has me filling out a goals form :p I am going to see if I can figure out a way that I can post it. maybe as a seperate page so anyone reading can see my progress.

I spent some time online, visiting with friends on Second life and checking email.
At 11:00pm I decided to go walking. I checked my HR 4 times along the route, trying to get it to the correct rate. Here are my results:
1st stop: 38 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 152

2nd stop: 38 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 152

So a little too fast on the first leg.

3rd stop: 35 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 140

4th stop: 35 beats in a 15 sec period X 4 = 140
80% of my max (177) is 141 so the second leg was right on target. I paid attention to how I felt as I walked so that i culd mimic it next time. It was kind of a rolling gait that seemed to work well.

At the end of the walk I immediately measured my heart rate, at 2 minutes after stopping and at 5 minutes after stopping. The reults are below:

Immediate: 36 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 144 {A little fast there at the end but not bad}
At the 2 minute mark: 34 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 136 {Not sure where I should be on this yet}

At the 5 minute mark: 28 (beats in a 15 sec time period) X 4= 112 {Not sure where I should be on this yet}

Oh and I am walking appx 2.30 miles each evening in about a 1 hour time period.

I did 3 sets of 20 Wall Pushups tonight and now I am heading for the hills… erm, the bed :p

I have been given more extensive information regarding why I am being asked to keep track of the heart rate. I found this all very interesting. below is an email I received regarding Exercising and heart rate.

Some Physiology behind Exercise and keeping track of the heart rate

The more exercise you can do at the highest HR possible, the more fat you will burn. Not so much during the exercise

but because for some reason the metabolic rate of the body stays elevated long after you quit exercising.
That said, I don’t want you (yet) going all out and doing max HR workouts for long times.

It is great you feel comfortable going higher and higher.

But your body might not be quite ready just yet.

So i want you to do around 80% for 2 weeks in as many walks as possible

If you can double the distance then test yourself at this level. Here is what you do…

Take the HR a couple of times during the brisk walk and see if you are on target. At the end of the walk immediately you stop, test HR again (number of beats /min). After 2 minutes test HR again.

After 5 minutes test HR again.

Write these numbers down every time you go for a walk.

You should find that over time, the 2 minute and 5 minute numbers will decrease as your fitness levels and heart fitness get better.

Once we see a decrease of say 5 bpm in those two numbers, THEN up the HR during the workout. Say by 10 or 15.

Note the numbers again. As the resting HR numbers go down, we up the exercise again rate again…

See the point?

You are safely upping the rate of work in line with your hearts capabilities to recover…

Now for the strength training.

Do the squats twice a week. 3 sets of 15 should be a good start. if they get too easy lift it to 4 sets. Remember good form and to take a deep breath

before you start the squat and tighten all your tummy muscles. HOLD your breath as you go down and bounce off the bottom of the squat. About halfway up and as you get to the top “whoosh ” the air out as fast as you can. Rinse and repeat.

Do the plank 2 times a week until your muscles don’t hurt very much. Then do it 3 times a week, for longer and longer.

Remember this is progressive. As your muscles get used to the work, and stronger, you have to work them harder and harder. But please be patient with yourself. Rmember the muscles actually get stronger and rebuild during the resting period. This is why trades like bricklayer and carpenter get injuries and wear and tear. they are physical all day, but because it is 5 days a week, they don’t have enough recovery time.

Do the wall pushups daily though. Once they are way easy, progress to the bench LOL.

and throttle back to 3 times a week until they get easy

For pushups build up to 3 sets of 10.

Then go onto the floor.

Eat your veggies and fresh fruit.

That’s all for this post. I will add a seperate post for my day Thanks for the great infor Rick

The mixture I had from last night thickened up but tasted pretty darn good. My son said last night it tasted of freshly mowed grass. LOL I woke up to some sore muscles. Legs: thighs. back of the legs and buttocks. (I know that is a result of the squats) The Wall Pushup have the chest sore and of course the Plank has the abdominals sore. In addition to that the lower bacl muscles are sore. I think that is because my basic core strength is so weak.

For dinner tonight we went to Jack’s (Cafe Bixby and Pizza) I consideredwhat I should eat for a very long time. I bounced back and forth between baked chicken, a charbroiled chicken breast (boneless and skinless) and fried chicken. In the end the fried chicken won out.
My son said “Mom, take of the skin and that chicken will be ok”
I answered, “I’ll take it off all right”
My husband returned, “It’s like having dinner with Jenny Craig”
My son said, “That’s right if she want’s to lose weight”

He has his heart in the right place.

With the fried chicken, instead of the baked potato with butter and sour cream, I opted for Cole Slaw and veggies, so not great, but not as bad as I would usually do. A little back slide this evening. I haven’t had fried chicken in months and the temptation was too much. *sighs*

We came home and I hopped on the computer for a bit. We went walking around 11:00pm and it was chilly! Yeah, I am a weather wimp so I bundled up and off we went. My heart rate at the end of the walk was 39 beats in 15 secs) x4= 156. Quite a nice raise from my last walk which was 132. Since I got home, I have had some sunflower seeds and some water.

I got a new form to keep track of my walking and such… today, so I will be keeping track of heart rate. I will need to maintain at about 80% of my Max Heart Rate so tonights walk was a little faxt. I should be maintaining at about 141 and Rick advises to walk farther- perhaps doubling my walk.

I just thought, I should have weighed myself before I started this adventure.  I forgot :/  I know I was varying between 150-155 I think it was hovering closer to the 155 mark for a while. I remembered tonight and weighed myself.  I am 151 pounds, I think I may have lost a pound or 2 :)  *huge grin*

Toonights workout:

Squats:
3 sets of 20 reps (ugh!  very ouchie!  But I did em! Yay)

Wall Pushups:
3 sets of 25 reps (I stood further away from the wall and upped the reps tonight. Oi, felt my arms shaking pretty good but I did em )

Planks:
3 sets of 15 seconds each (So I upped the amount of time I am holding em tonight)

I an going to do this!  *Hums we are the Champions as she goes to the kitchen for food*  (the good stuff :p)

*edit* I fixed some collard greens, spinach & brocolli steamed with water and lemon juice.  Not bad…

I made a green shake for tomorrow and put spinach, broccoli, a carrot, a tomato, Kale, half an apple, a banana, and romaine with some water and lemon juice.  This one tastes better I think, lighter than the one the other day.  We’ll have to see how it tastes tomorrow.