Monday, August 28, 2017
My brain has been anywhere but here...
Between the fourth Navy ship collision in Asian waters this year (only August people) and Hurricane Harvey, not much has been on my mind except two of my children--Sonshine in the Navy in the Asian waters and my Brown-Eyed Girl in the vicinity of Harvey.
Sonshine is really the safer of the two as much of South Texas is getting submerged. There's just no where for the water to go. Luckily, the Brown-Eyed Girl and her roommate live on the third floor. But they're pretty much stuck there for the duration, which will probably three or four more days. In addition to the rain itself, Lake Conroe, located just north of where my baby lives is full, full, full and is overflowing/being drained, and because the earth is already saturated, it just runs down the streets and sidewalk. So yeah.
DD is safe and sound here with us, so that's good.
Please keep my oldest and my youngest in your thoughts and prayers.
Of course so many folks have it way worse, so also pray for South Texas, our leaders and our citizens. If you have any cash to spare, please give to the Red Cross.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Weight loss update...
Last Wednesday I talked about fasting and the number of calories in a pound and what that meant to me...
So here we are a week later and despite two very calorie and carb-laden days (Sat & Sun), I have dropped 2-ish pounds. I promise I'm being safe in my choices. I'm eating enough calories for my body to exist and then some--did you know it takes everyone 1200 to 1600 calories a day just for basic body functions to keep you alive??--and drinking *plenty* of water during these dog days of summer.
What I did do was increase the length of time I go without eating. I've been waiting to 11 am to consume my first meal of the day to maximize my body's fat-burning mode. I do give it some easily accessible carbs right after going to the gym for a recovery boost in the form of my cinnamon/honey elixir I take for arthritis.
It's not always fun or easy waiting until 11 and, starting tomorrow, I will go back to a more normal schedule. I'd been in a pretty static eating mode and I think the increased fasting shook my body up a little bit. Made it adjust and pay attention.
I'm getting closer to my goal, which, after probably three years of being stuck with ten pounds to go, pleases me greatly. Once I get there, then it's muscle-building time. Not super huge ones, just nicely rounded muscles appropriate for my age.
Happy Hump Day...
Catch you Friday.
Monday, August 21, 2017
Who knew??
You might have, but I didn't and learning it gave me a boost.
Apparently, when tracking carbs, you're supposed to subtract the grams of dietary fiber from the grams of carbs and that's the actual number of carbs your body's going to absorb/utilize/store...
On top of that, I discovered this Lavash bread that has very low carbs to begin with. Subtract the fiber and now I've got a super low carb way to eat my tuna and fill my tummy. I can't begin to tell you how excited this makes me. This Lavash bread is also low in calories and high in protein and is made with flax and oat bran as well as whole wheat. So WIN WIN and WIN. :0)
How was your weekend?
All prepped for the solar eclipse?
Friday, August 18, 2017
Online friends becoming in person friends...
It's no secret--or it shouldn't be--that I'm what's called a fan girl. A girl of any age who has more than a passing or basic love of something--specifically things like tv shows, movies, books and the like or characters from those things. It seems that it's okay to be a rabid fan of sports or your country or the military (I'm passionate about all those things too), but being so crazy about a tv show or book or character that you participate in fandom culture, that's still a bit of a head-scratcher for most people.
But I digress...on Saturday, I get to meet a gal who is a part of the BBC's Robin Hood fandom that I've been involved in since 2010 or 2011. The show's been over for many years, but there's a few of us who still congregate online each week to say hi and catch up. One of those friends is in Dallas this week, and so we're going to meet at a local restaurant and do what we fan girls do--chat and share and chat some more.
I'm super excited about this. It's not the first time I've met someone from the Robin Hood fandom. Back in 2012, four other ladies all traveled from around the Mid-West to Fort Worth and we had a meetup at my house. It was a precious time to meet like-minded women and to get to know one another and share ourselves.
In fact, I'll be rooming with one of those ladies when I go to Denver in October for a writing conference. Can't wait to see her again either.
And then the other day, I sort of connected with another gal who's also attending the con in Denver. She wants to go to see the Avalanche (Colorado's hockey team) play as well and mentioned she was getting tickets to the Stars first home game against the Vegas Golden Knights and--bam--we're gonna meet somewhere at the American Airline Center and connect. And if that wasn't enough, she actually lives in Pittsburgh and already invited me to her fair city.
Which means what, Jen???
The Pittsburgh Penguins!!!! I can go see a game at some point on their home ice. woooot!!
Okay, so happy Friday to you and happy Friday to me.
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
My Fitbit, weightloss, and me...
So I learned how to track my various exercises via the Fitbit and it seems the device does a better job tracking my heart rate when I do that, so yay. I guess the question still is...how accurate is the heart rate as gauged by the Fitbit in exercise mode versus figures provided by the machines at the gym?
I haven't done a detailed analysis of this, but the times I've compared the two, they seem close enough. As long as I'm in the heart rate range for fat burning, it doesn't matter much if the discrepancy is within five to seven beats.
There's a larger difference, however, in the "calories burned" figures. The machines always tell me I've burned more calories than what the Fitbit says. While I'd like to burn more calories, I use the Fitbit's figures just to be on the safe side. As long as I eat/log fewer calories that I burn, I'm always in the process of losing weight.
Apparently a pound is 3500 calories, so it would take a seven-day week to lose a pound if you consistently consumed 500 fewer calories than you burned every day.
I haven't been making as much progress as quickly as I'd been hoping, but learning that info the other day, has made it easier to make sure I keep at least that much of a difference between intake and outgo.
So new challenge for Jen--consume 500 fewer calories a day than I burn. Let's meet back in a week and see what's happened. :0)
Have a great rest of the week.
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