September 1, 2010 - Amassing an Army

Hello All,

In the past, I have referred to my main supporters of my effort to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle as 'Kristi's Army." My army is the most important part of my weight loss adventure and new lifestyle. I must surround myself with individuals that not only encourage healthy living, but practice it themselves.

As you all know, I lost three of my main supporters causing me to wobble. I miss all three of these individuals for various reasons, but primarily because I sometimes feel I am starting over.  I feel like I am more apt to fail. You see, with all three of these people I spent many hours exploring what I need to do and how to accomplish it.  They all knew not to take my intellectualizing crap.  They were my Generals.

Fortunately, I have several Colonels left in my army. PT Bruiser, Miss Tappity Tap, and Dr. Pins and Needles are all ready and available at a moment's notice.  My Colonels will be promoted and new individuals enlisted. 

My Army only accepts the "best of the best."   I have already fired one new physician (not the one at the Weight Loss Clinic) for not listening and trying to put me in a box without understanding that one size does not fit all. 

I hope all that read this understand that you are also part of my army. You are with me in the trenches every day. We are in the foxhole together. You are on the front lines. You also try to follow the healthy lifestyle every day, but need lifted up by the troops to get through the battles.  The e-mails you send get me through the fire.

In order to fill vacancies and expand my army I am trying a few new things this Fall. I am taking a Boot Camp class, a Yoga class, and an online Metabolic Exercise class.  I also hope to take another Racewalking Seminar.  Over the next few months I will share with you all the outcomes of these endeavors.

For now I leave you with a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."


Til Next Week,
Kristi
Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com

August 26, 2010 - Ode to PT Bruiser

Today is PT Bruiser's Birthday....

So...here is an "ode"

There is a gal named Kristi Sue
Once so unhealthy she did "moo"
Pita says; "It's a trainer you need!"
So to PT Bruiser I must heed
Without her I would not know what to do


Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com/

August 18, 2010 - My How Time Flies!

Hello All!

What happened to August?  I did not realize how long it has been since I posted. I knew a week was missed (nothing to say), but TWO weeks!  Eeek!

Well, per request from my friend Kathy, I owe you an update/review of my BodyMedia Fit.  Well, I like it.  It tells me many things.  For instance…

How well I am sleeping….sorta freaky

It tracks your physical activity and steps taken…this is freaky, too.  Ultimately, all I am concerned about is the total, but it is nice to know that every step I take to go to the bathroom is additional calories burned.

When you buy the arm band you can have it automatically upload upon charging to the BodyMedia web site (for an additional fee).  Answering a few questions helps you develop goals. Notice in the following that my target to burn is 3410 calories and consume 2410 calories.  That is a lot of calories to burn a day, I set it that high so that it would encourage me to workout vs. cut back on calories. Right now, I am only meeting my actual goal once or twice a week.  However, I am consistently burning more than I take in on a daily basis.

Currently, I do not document my meals in the BodyMedia tool. I use SparkPeople and normally put the total for the day on the BodyMedia site. On this particular day, I did not do that.

I really like the BodyMedia fit. It definitely keeps me on track.  When I track my food I find that tracking calories in vs. calories out is definitely teaching me what I need to do to continue to lose weight. I also find that the BodyMedia tool is accurate. If I total my calorie deficit at the end of the week it does match to the pounds lost.

The main problem I see with the BodyMedia Fit is that it is not waterproof.  Unfortunately, my BodyMedia Fit cannot be worn in the pool.  For true heart rate measuring I would not rely on the BodyMedia fit anyway.  I use heart rate monitoring to improve my heart health. The BodyMedia fit is not intended for this, so the waterproofing does not bother me.

Dr. Pita’s replacement (she does not have a nickname, YET) questions the ability of it to track correctly when it is extremely hot because it does measure sweat in some of the calculations.   She believes it might be telling me a higher calorie burned count. I believe her nickname might become Dr. BurstMyBubble.

Finally, it is very pricey. Depending on if you buy the optional watch that can by synced with the arm band during the course of the day, it can total around 175.00 dollars for both. If you choose to use the web site, it has a monthly fee. 

For me, it is an encouraging tool and keeps me motivated. I can use the watch and see how I am doing during the day which encourages me to take not only a few more steps, but do activities that burn more calories.

Before you make the leap to buy the BodyMedia Fit, try using the SparkPeople food tracker and activity tracker (including steps taken during the day) to see if it meets your needs. The SparkPeople tools may not be as accurate, but it can get you close to determining your calories burned vs. calories eaten. I found it enlightening that some of the activities I do on a daily basis do not burn as many calories as I originally expected.

For more information check out the following:

http://www.sparkpeople.com

http://www.bodymedia.com

Hope this helps!

Kristi

Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com

August 1, 2010 - Pain

Hello All,

Several years ago I spent about 7 hours on the floor of my garage with a dislocated patella. It was 15 degrees outside and I was about 30 feet from my cell phone.  Needless to say, I sat on the concrete floor in agony.  When I got to the hospital I proclaimed; "I am a 10!"  I was of course referring to the pain scale.  The nurse mentioned that I was not crying. I told her that it hurt too much to cry. The staff immediately gave me Demerol (good stuff).

Before I left, the ER the physician asked me if I thought that I might have fainted at some point. I informed him that I was relatively certain that I was awake the entire time. I knew that if I fell asleep that I might not wake up due to the temperature.  He asked how I dealt with the pain while waiting for someone to find me.

For as long as I can remember, I have always used visualization to alleviate pain. You see, I HATE to take pills. I especially hate to take aspirin or ibuprofen. When I first started having knee trouble I learned how to concentrate the pain away to a dull ache. Many times, this was the only way I ever got any sleep at night.

If my knee hurts, I slowly visualize the pain moving down my leg until finally I convince myself that my big toe is throbbing. Once my big toe is throbbing I focus on a point past my toe.  This probably works because I basically put myself in a trance to get rid of the pain.


My self-taught visualization technique works on most types of physical pain except headaches and migraines. I believe that it does not work on headaches because I cannot concentrate enough with my head hurting.


There is one type of pain that I have yet mastered the ability to alleviate - emotional pain. I find emotional pain gut wrenching to the point that I want to sleep all the time. As I strive to live healthier, emotional pain is happening on a frequent basis. I believe a lot of the reason that I am experiencing it now more than ever is that I am trying very hard not to mask it with food or other unhealthy activities (including sleeping too much).


Granted, there may be some truth to the fact that I am wired a bit differently, but the situational emotional pain that everyone experiences is being confronted in a different manner. Now, I try to exercise or do something self nurturing.  For the most part, I am getting better at these type of techniques, but I still have some education ahead of me for mastery.

For the chemistry-based pain I will finally admit that the Rx I was given makes it bearable. I no longer think that the trash can has dead bodies in it (yes, I still find this funny) or feel the need to write down EVERY thought that crosses my mind. I also have thrown out a lot of papers and stuff that I felt I needed to keep.  I still reiterate that I had no idea that other people did not have these same thoughts (sorry Sister, I was convinced most people would have thought you and Sam were being held at knife point in the woods! LOL)

I do know that if I do not work on how to alleviate the emotional pain I will gain weight. I also believe this is some of what has slowed my weight loss down considerably. As a lot of these "issues" have come to the surface.

As I do not want to take the Rx for the rest of my life, nor gain the weight back, I am working toward alternatives to the medicinal treatment of emotional pain. So far, I have tried acupuncture (works), exercise (works if the pain is not too great), keeping up with my Omega 3s (not sure if it works or not), and talk therapy (works).  Of course, the passage of time helps as well.

I am currently enrolled in two new things to try.  Even though I DEPLORE support groups I am being pushed to try one by Miss Tappity Tap now that Dr. Pita is gone (another reason he is dead to me now. LOL). I also, am going to try a formal class of yoga.

I share this story on pain, as I believe there is a lesson here for us all. I am not sure what I/we will learn, but I am sure there is something to it other than personal growth.

Maybe the point I am trying to make is that to move forward we have to learn to deal (CORRECTLY) with the pain that can detour us from living the lives we were meant to live.

Til Next Week,
Kristi

Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com