Well-Trained Bodies- July

[Soror]

Back from my bike ride and I did so much better this time than last 2. Temp was cooler than both previous times but not greatly so from the first. I knocked off 50% off my peak HR time(did far better from my worst run) for the same route and 12 bpm off max HR. Even better I didn't have a huge recovery time where I felt dead.  

[wintermom]

13 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

Your description of your daughter sounds like a line from Shakespeare, "She is little but fierce"  😀. Glad you had a good time haying.

I grew up in a very dense, urban area. Not much green. We had a small yard with hardscape as in concrete. Plants we had were the obligatory curry leaf plant, jasmine and coconut tree. The only nature we had was house crows, ravens and pigeons as birds. An occasional Koel which would sing beautifully. I do remember some more birds but do not know the names We had squirrels though, lots and lots of them. We did have snakes too, both venomous and non-venomous even the occasional cobra. We had chameleons in the garden and geckos living inside the house. Now we have exterminators, but then even pests were part of the household as some amount was expected and killing things was met with so much angst. So my idea of small creatures is very strongly associated with pests. 😂

My strongest association of nature was the sea and the beach. Anything resembling woods was in a rural area or national parks or up hills and mountains. Pretty much every bit of land was used to either cultivate or build houses. People even live in national parks with the tigers as space is a premium. People go trekking now, more than hiking. The nature I love is tigers, lions, elephants and I've seen them in the wild. Domesticated elephants are all around in the cities in India. Not that common now, but not that rare either.

I DH is more urban than me. We both can navigate  well around new cities, but completely lost even in urban trails.  We will absolutely learn about local wildlife and nature safety courses. I want my kids to explore nature and be at ease with it. Not have my fears. Thank you.

I think it's pretty common that large, majestic animals are thrilling to see, especially in the wild, and small creatures in and around our homes are often seen as pests - they are cute in the forest, but not so fun running around in the attic. 😉 For you, tigers, lions and elephants were part of your world, and that sounds incredible to me! For North Americans it's often bears, moose, and bison. You could visit Yellowstone National Park and see bison on the side of the road. That's pretty exciting.  

If you are able to find a map of a local urban trail, that would probably be very helpful for you. Sometimes google maps is good, and sometimes there are maps of the trail system on a website. One of the woods I walk in is also a mountain bike park, and there is a map of the trails on the mountain bike association website. Using a cell phone to locate where you are and help you find your way on a urban trail is also handy. I've had to do this plenty of times! Getting lost isn't usually a problem as long as you can figure out how to find your way again. 

Edited July 5, 2020 by wintermom

[wintermom]

8 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

I think fear, lack of information on what it actually is and an overactive imagination have kept me from venturing out. DH is a gym guy, not an outdoorsy person so though we travel it is more to cities and their attractions vs nature. We both have never ventured into anything resembling camping or anything outdoor.

The tip about the local urban trail is a good one. DH and I can navigate cities quite well without google, with just a map. We depend on landmarks of buildings and signs a lot to navigate which is not there in the woods. I just want to know where to start. 

Right now though I've bought a book for the kids and me to learn about local birds, identify bird calls, tree names, wild flowers and so on. We bought a binoculars for bird watching. We have started a small container garden. Even suburbia has so much nature when you look for it.  I know a bit about wildflowers because TX has so much of them.

I've been very fortunate when it comes to seeing huge animals in the wild. We have a nature preserve in India where the only way to go in the forest is on the back of an elephant. I've also seen a python eat a deer live, a tiger live, whales in the wild in the US, touched a dolphin. While all those are exciting and incredible experiences, they are one off. I want to incorporate nature as part of our lives, not just incredible beings in the wild, but the ordinary birds and animals that make up our backyard. I can't even identify a robin or even know if TX has them. I want my kids to grow up knowing about these things. You once said something about going into the woods to have nature saturate your senses. I've never heard of something like that and it sounded incredible to me, I've always walked with headphones on. Now I do not, only the chatter of DD when we both walk. But I am more aware now and thank you for that. 

This is definitely true! There is so much nature all around us, and it's a lot of fun to share these explorations with our children. Enjoy learning to identifying wildflowers and birds, but even if you don't have the energy or skill to identify them it's quite alright to simply enjoy their beauty. The last walk I did with my ds 14, I overdid the identification part of the walk and it became a chore. When I walk on my own, I'm on the look out for new wildflowers, frogs and bird calls, but I've yet to come home and look up what they are actually called. I'm a very lazy nature lover. 🙃

[wintermom]

I'm taking it easy today as I recover from haying yesterday and prepare for more haying tomorrow. I will be playing mixed doubles tennis this evening, though. I may also go out for a bike ride. No push-ups. I don't want my arms to fall off. 😉

[Soror]

2 minutes ago, wintermom said:

This is definitely true! There is so much nature all around us, and it's a lot of fun to share these explorations with our children. Enjoy learning to identifying wildflowers and birds, but even if you don't have the energy or skill to identify them it's quite alright to simply enjoy their beauty. The last walk I did with my ds 14, I overdid the identification part of the walk and it became a chore. When I walk on my own, I'm on the look out for new wildflowers, frogs and bird calls, but I've yet to come home and look up what they are actually called. I'm a very lazy nature lover. 🙃

 

18 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

I think fear, lack of information on what it actually is and an overactive imagination have kept me from venturing out. DH is a gym guy, not an outdoorsy person so though we travel it is more to cities and their attractions vs nature. We both have never ventured into anything resembling camping or anything outdoor.

The tip about the local urban trail is a good one. DH and I can navigate cities quite well without google, with just a map. We depend on landmarks of buildings and signs a lot to navigate which is not there in the woods. I just want to know where to start. 

Right now though I've bought a book for the kids and me to learn about local birds, identify bird calls, tree names, wild flowers and so on. We bought a binoculars for bird watching. We have started a small container garden. Even suburbia has so much nature when you look for it.  I know a bit about wildflowers because TX has so much of them.

I've been very fortunate when it comes to seeing huge animals in the wild. We have a nature preserve in India where the only way to go in the forest is on the back of an elephant. I've also seen a python eat a deer live, a tiger live, whales in the wild in the US, touched a dolphin. While all those are exciting and incredible experiences, they are one off. I want to incorporate nature as part of our lives, not just incredible beings in the wild, but the ordinary birds and animals that make up our backyard. I can't even identify a robin or even know if TX has them. I want my kids to grow up knowing about these things. You once said something about going into the woods to have nature saturate your senses. I've never heard of something like that and it sounded incredible to me, I've always walked with headphones on. Now I do not, only the chatter of DD when we both walk. But I am more aware now and thank you for that. 

I love walking with the family. Nature walks was a big part of our hs, especially when the kids were younger. I have a bunch of nature guide books and the kids loved looking up what we found be it fungus, wildflowers, reptiles, etc. We don't do as much as we used to do but we did so often for so long it is ingrained. They even have simplified guides for kids that are just sheets, great for taking out on walks for a nature bingo, make sure to get one more specific for your area though. We don't have any big animals here but enjoy lots of forest fauna and flora.

12 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

The usual bike ride and elliptical. It is monotonous but I am glad for that. Just want a routine. I am ok with change just not lightening fast. With all that is going on, I would love one part of our life which is exercise to be on auto pilot and we finally seem to have that. 

Have  a good day ladies ! 

Monotony and routine gets things done.

[Soror]

Finishing up my lunch prep for this week- taste tests is delicious- I'm looking very forward to my lunches this week.

I combined the recipes from Pinch of Yum and Budgetbytes for Thai Red Curry and Coconut Curry.

Sauteed 1 onion chopped, 2T fresh garlic and 1 T each of ginger and tumeric, 2TBSP red curry paste. Added in 4 cups of my veggie broth a  bunch of napa cabbage and sweet potato chopped cooked until tender (about 5-10 min). Then I pureed most of it, added in 2 cups of chickpeas and 4 cups chopped kale and 1/2 a can coconut milk. Serving it with chopped cilantro and crispy baked tofu (from Cookie & Kate). I was going to do it over brown rice but have brown rice pho noodles.   That will be 4 servings- 1 serving bean; 1 cruciferous veggie; 1 greens; 2+ other veggie; 1 whole grain- garlic, ginger, and turmeric

 

[Matryoshka]

6 hours ago, soror said:

For weights- 1/2 gallon (get juice or milk if no water this size), 1 gallon/5 gallon jugs. 1 gallon of water should be able to be available and is around 8 pound, if you dump the water and fill it with sand (available in construction section, play areas, landscape or pool) it is nearly 13#. Of course 5 gallon will be 5x as heavy if you are looking for something to hold with both hands for something like squat or deadlifts. I'm glad that you are having better days, congrats on all the walking, I'm not very creative myself I'm not sure on the other.

Seems like all home-exercise equipment has become hard to come by since the pandemic hit!  I'm so glad I bought those weights years ago and hoarded them all this time. 😂  The OT  at-home workouts assume that people don't have proper weights, and all the demos are with soup cans and gallon jugs, sometimes backpacks or a suitcase I'm assuming filled with something-or-other.  I think you're right that a gallon of water is about 8 lbs.

Quote

MMM, that dinner sounds yummy, care to share?

Here you go!  This is from Feeding the Whole Family, a cookbook I got way back in my La Leche League days.  It has adaptations for each recipe on how to set some aside or alter a bit of it for a toddler, lol.  I still make this, the quinoa chili, and a pancake mix from this book...   I tend to make a bit more than this says - I use a whole head of bok choy (usually more than 2c!), whatever that comes to, and a whole package of tofu, because what am I supposed to do with the rest??  This time I also bought a small package of shiitakes and used them all, which was also more than 5...

Bok Choy and Soba Noodles in Broth

• 1 package soba noodles
• 2 t. toasted sesame oil
• 1 onion, cut into thin half-moons
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 c. chopped bok choy
• 4 c. water
• ½ c. tamari or shoyu
• ½ lb. firm tofu, cut into ½” cubes
• 1 T. freshly grated gingerroot
• 2 scallions, cut into thin slices

Prepare soba noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a 4-qt. soup pot.  Add onion and garlic; sauté over medium heat until onion begins to soften.  Add carrot and mushroom pieces; sauté a few minutes more.  Add bok choy, water, tamari, tofu, and gingerroot.  Bring heat up until mixture begins to simmer.  Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve this dish by placing a handful of noodles in each serving dish.  Ladle broth and vegetables over noodles.  Garnish with scallions.

Quote

Good job getting in your workout, you worked it today! Interesting in the HR, I've only looked at FB and I'm not sure what there zones are calculated as for Peak, cardio, and fatburn. I know I hit fatburn all the time just cleaning house but I'm guessing that is quite a bit lower than your green zone.

At least on my Fitbit, Fatburn is roughly equivalent to the OT Gray/Blue zones, Cardio is roughly Green, and Peak is roughly Orange/Red; they're only off by 1bpm or so.  FWIW, my Fitbit thinks I'm working much less hard.  For example, workout yesterday, OT/FB monitors said 16 min O/R(6 Peak), 15 Green(9 Cardio) and 8 Blue/Gray(22 FatBurn).  OT said my ave hr was 140(FB 123), max 169(FB 162).  My walk Thurs (OT #s first), 21/0 Peak, 8/11 Cardio, 5/13 Fat Burn, ave 145/121, max 179/155.  The Fitbit really stinks at rowing, my last was 19/3 Peak, 14/5 Cardio, 6/9 Fat Burn; ave 146/121, max 177/172.  I know my heart rate is high when rowing, especially if I do sprints.  When I check my Fitbit during exercise, almost all the time it isn't even registering anything (yes, I have it pulled up tight on my arm).  I think it kind of takes intermittent measures and averages.  I tried 3 different OT monitors when I started (because things were even crazier before we adjusted my max hr), including one across the chest, and they were all consistent, and they all do continuous rather than intermittent monitoring - so that's why I still use it when I'm exercising rather than just the Fitbit...  I've been wondering if I should pop on my PulseOx to see which it agrees with for a spot check, lol...

Edited July 5, 2020 by Matryoshka

[Soror]

32 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Seems like all home-exercise equipment has become hard to come by since the pandemic hit!  I'm so glad I bought those weights years ago and hoarded them all this time. 😂  The OT  at-home workouts assume that people don't have proper weights, and all the demos are with soup cans and gallon jugs, sometimes backpacks or a suitcase I'm assuming filled with something-or-other.  I think you're right that a gallon of water is about 8 lbs.

Here you go!  This is from Feeding the Whole Family, a cookbook I got way back in my La Leche League days.  It has adaptations for each recipe on how to set some aside or alter a bit of it for a toddler, lol.  I still make this, the quinoa chili, and a pancake mix from this book...   I tend to make a bit more than this says - I use a whole head of bok choy, whatever that comes to, and a whole package of tofu, because what am I supposed to do with the rest??  This time I also bought a small package of shiitakes and used them all, which was also more than 5...

Bok Choy and Soba Noodles in Broth

• 1 package soba noodles
• 2 t. toasted sesame oil
• 1 onion, cut into thin half-moons
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 c. chopped bok choy
• 4 c. water
• ½ c. tamari or shoyu
• ½ lb. firm tofu, cut into ½” cubes
• 1 T. freshly grated gingerroot
• 2 scallions, cut into thin slices

Prepare soba noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a 4-qt. soup pot.  Add onion and garlic; sauté over medium heat until onion begins to soften.  Add carrot and mushroom pieces; sauté a few minutes more.  Add bok choy, water, tamari, tofu, and gingerroot.  Bring heat up until mixture begins to simmer.  Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve this dish by placing a handful of noodles in each serving dish.  Ladle broth and vegetables over noodles.  Garnish with scallions.

At least on my Fitbit, Fatburn is roughly equivalent to the OT Gray/Blue zones, Cardio is roughly Green, and Peak is roughly Orange/Red; they're only off by 1bpm or so.  FWIW, my Fitbit thinks I'm working much less hard.  For example, workout yesterday, OT/FB monitors said 16 min O/R(6 Peak), 15 Green(9 Cardio) and 8 Blue/Gray(22 FatBurn).  OT said my ave hr was 140(FB 123), max 169(FB 162).  My walk Thurs (OT #s first), 21/0 Peak, 8/11 Cardio, 5/13 Fat Burn, ave 145/121, max 179/155.  The Fitbit really stinks at rowing, my last was 19/3 Peak, 14/5 Cardio, 6/9 Fat Burn; ave 146/121, max 177/172.  I know my heart rate is high when rowing, especially if I do sprints.  When I check my Fitbit during exercise, almost all the time it isn't even registering anything (yes, I have it pulled up tight on my arm).  I think it kind of takes intermittent measures and averages.  I tried 3 different OT monitors when I started (because things were even crazier before we adjusted my max hr), including one across the chest, and they were all consistent, and they all do continuous rather than intermittent monitoring - so that's why I still use it when I'm exercising rather than just the Fitbit...  I've been wondering if I should pop on my PulseOx to see which it agrees with for a spot check, lol...

Oh, my, that brings back memories. I had that cookbook when the kids were small, lost it in the housefire. Thanks for sharing the recipe, it sounds delicious.

Very interesting about the HR, I shudder to think what my HR actually gets up to if FB is reading it lower than it is, when it read at 189 and stayed in peak for several minutes that is when I was so sick from it.

[Matryoshka]

1 minute ago, soror said:

Oh, my, that brings back memories. I had that cookbook when the kids were small, lost it in the housefire. Thanks for sharing the recipe, it sounds delicious.

Very interesting about the HR, I shudder to think what my HR actually gets up to if FB is reading it lower than it is, when it read at 189 and stayed in peak for several minutes that is when I was so sick from it.

I think you're a lot younger than I am??  Or I could be remembering wrong... but max is of course higher the younger you are.  But then it's also individual; mine is much higher than my age would account for.  My max seems to be 180, which is not where I can actually sustain - by definition max is where you really empty your tank, want to fall over, pass out and puke if it stays there more than a few seconds.  I can stay in the Orange (which in FB is part of Peak - FB's Peak covers a very wide range) for long periods (though my FB doesn't think I get there as much...).  It's when I was spending half the class in the Red zone that it was apparent the 'standard' formula didn't work for me.  Sometimes I'd spend 10 minutes over "100%" - by definition then, that's not 100%.  At OT they now average your max for the past 10 classes if the standard doesn't work.  OT calls the Orange zone where you should be with a "Push" pace - uncomfortable but sustainable, Red is "All-Out" - empty the tank, take a break.  Green is "Base" - you're working, but you could also hang out there.  How you feel at each hr is probably as good an indicator as any number.  The whole "Orange" theory is to get your hr to the Orange zone at least 12 minutes per 1-hr class, then it somehow keeps your metabolism up even after.  I almost always get way above that even with the adjustment, but either the OT monitor reads high just on me, or I'm still weird.  But I feel good and can maintain it. The  other good news is now my hr comes back down quickly when I stop pushing, which it didn't when I first started.  

189 does seem high to sustain at, even for someone younger... what does the calculation say your max is? (cheat sheet - it's 220 minus your age)

[Jenny in Florida]

Ended up not doing the 5K (again) this weekend, for a variety of reasons. I think the plan, though, is to drive to Titusville/Cocoa (sans dog) one morning next weekend, do my "official" walk on a path that allows to me at least glimpse the buildings at Kennedy Space Center and then walk through Space View Park to explore the monuments before heading home. I kept looking at the park, but had dismissed it as a walking option because it's quite small and there doesn't seem to be a good, walkable circular path around the perimeter. But as "dessert" following the distance walking, it should be pleasant. 

instead, I took the dog and walked my current favorite four-mile trail, which was more than enough to finish off my virtual Hadrian's Wall trek.

Today was my self-imposed official weigh-in day, and I finished the week one pound down from my theoretical maintenance weight, which doesn't make me sad. I have a long history of yo-yo dieting and unhealthy patterns when it comes to my weight, so my husband urged me to not get crazy this time, to just pick a weight I thought I could live with (not worrying about it being "ideal" and not being so thin that I make myself miserable restricting food to stay there) and aim to stay within a five-pound range. It's all good advice, but if it just so happens that I end up losing, say, three or four more pounds, that would be fine with me.

Today has been a weird day for food, because I had a busy morning driving to the park to walk, bringing the dog home, then running three drive-through/curbside pick-up errands. 

• Breakfast: 2 granola bars
• Lunch: Oatmeal with fresh strawberries (because I had been looking forward to it for breakfast this morning)
• Snack: Kettle corn
• Second snack: Cookies (reward for finishing the work I needed to do over the weekend)
• Dinner: Falafel with yet-to-be-determined sides. My husband plans to eat his in a burger-type patty form on a bun with burger-style fixings. Since I still haven't found a gluten-free bread I think is worth eating, I'll skip the bun and maybe eat mine with some leftover rice, sliced veggies and hummus.  

Oh, and I did get both sets of weights from Target today. Looking forward to using them this week.

Next project is to find something  I can put down over the carpet in my office/craft room (which current doubles -- triples? -- as my fitness studio) to provide a better surface for walking/aerobics. I experimented with using the bamboo mat I keep under my office chair, and it was great, except that it slides around and is too small. I want whatever i get to be easy to put down and pull up again, and I don't want it to cost a fortune. But I did find the combination of the solid surface over the padding provided by the carpet to be much more comfortable on my knees. 

Edited July 5, 2020 by Jenny in Florida

[Ali in OR]

Here's a couple of pics from my corner of the world. Dh and I took our wheelchair kid and labrador on a walk on a paved trail nearby--a little more than 2 miles. I got the lab on the way out and the kid on the way back in. If you watch the evening news and see a map with most of the country colored red with temps this week from 90°-100°, we're in the little green corner in the Pacific Northwest. Temp was 75° with nice breezes for our walk. We try not to vacation elsewhere in July (pretty easy this year), as Oregon in July is about perfect.

 

[Soror]

7 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

Here's a couple of pics from my corner of the world. Dh and I took our wheelchair kid and labrador on a walk on a paved trail nearby--a little more than 2 miles. I got the lab on the way out and the kid on the way back in. If you watch the evening news and see a map with most of the country colored red with temps this week from 90°-100°, we're in the little green corner in the Pacific Northwest. Temp was 75° with nice breezes for our walk. We try not to vacation elsewhere in July (pretty easy this year), as Oregon in July is about perfect.

 

Oh, so jealous about the temps, thank you for the lovely pics, is that a mountain in the distance?

15 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

Ended up not doing the 5K (again) this weekend, for a variety of reasons. I think the plan, though, is to drive to Titusville/Cocoa (sans dog) one morning next weekend, do my "official" walk on a path that allows to me at least glimpse the buildings at Kennedy Space Center and then walk through Space View Park to explore the monuments before heading home. I kept looking at the park, but had dismissed it as a walking option because it's quite small and there doesn't seem to be a good, walkable circular path around the perimeter. But as "dessert" following the distance walking, it should be pleasant. 

instead, I took the dog and walked my current favorite four-mile trail, which was more than enough to finish off my virtual Hadrian's Wall trek.

Today was my self-imposed official weigh-in day, and I finished the week one pound down from my theoretical maintenance weight, which doesn't make me sad. I have a long history of yo-yo dieting and unhealthy patterns when it comes to my weight, so my husband urged me to not get crazy this time, to just pick a weight I thought I could live with (not worrying about it being "ideal" and not being so thin that I make myself miserable restricting food to stay there) and aim to stay within a five-pound range. It's all good advice, but if it just so happens that I end up losing, say, three or four more pounds, that would be fine with me.

Today has been a weird day for food, because I had a busy morning driving to the park to walk, bringing the dog home, then running three drive-through/curbside pick-up errands. 

• Breakfast: 2 granola bars
• Lunch: Oatmeal with fresh strawberries (because I had been looking forward to it for breakfast this morning)
• Snack: Kettle corn
• Second snack: Cookies (reward for finishing the work I needed to do over the weekend)
• Dinner: Falafel with yet-to-be-determined sides. My husband plans to eat his in a burger-type patty form on a bun with burger-style fixings. Since I still haven't found a gluten-free bread I think is worth eating, I'll skip the bun and maybe eat mine with some leftover rice, sliced veggies and hummus.  

Oh, and I did get both sets of weights from Target today. Looking forward to using them this week.

Next project is to find something  I can put down over the carpet in my office/craft room (which current doubles -- triples? -- as my fitness studio) to provide a better surface for walking/aerobics. I experimented with using the bamboo mat I keep under my office chair, and it was great, except that it slides around and is too small. I want whatever i get to be easy to put down and pull up again, and I don't want it to cost a fortune. But I did find the combination of the solid surface over the padding provided by the carpet to be much more comfortable on my knees. 

Ya, for weights!! They have the mats that are used in kids rooms, they are foam and lock together, that is what I used before. They provide a bit of cushion although are not fancy looking, I had some in black that weren't horrible.

15 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

I think you're a lot younger than I am??  Or I could be remembering wrong... but max is of course higher the younger you are.  But then it's also individual; mine is much higher than my age would account for.  My max seems to be 180, which is not where I can actually sustain - by definition max is where you really empty your tank, want to fall over, pass out and puke if it stays there more than a few seconds.  I can stay in the Orange (which in FB is part of Peak - FB's Peak covers a very wide range) for long periods (though my FB doesn't think I get there as much...).  It's when I was spending half the class in the Red zone that it was apparent the 'standard' formula didn't work for me.  Sometimes I'd spend 10 minutes over "100%" - by definition then, that's not 100%.  At OT they now average your max for the past 10 classes if the standard doesn't work.  OT calls the Orange zone where you should be with a "Push" pace - uncomfortable but sustainable, Red is "All-Out" - empty the tank, take a break.  Green is "Base" - you're working, but you could also hang out there.  How you feel at each hr is probably as good an indicator as any number.  The whole "Orange" theory is to get your hr to the Orange zone at least 12 minutes per 1-hr class, then it somehow keeps your metabolism up even after.  I almost always get way above that even with the adjustment, but either the OT monitor reads high just on me, or I'm still weird.  But I feel good and can maintain it. The  other good news is now my hr comes back down quickly when I stop pushing, which it didn't when I first started.  

189 does seem high to sustain at, even for someone younger... what does the calculation say your max is? (cheat sheet - it's 220 minus your age)

I'm 41 so 179 is my supposed max. Looking at my bike ride I was at peak for 7 minutes continuous, I'm not sure how long at the high point, I said several minutes but that is probably not accurate as it doesn't show minutes on that probably just felt that long and the graph doesn't break it down that much.  There is a bit of a flat point at the 189 where I was nearly there hit it and was a bit under for awhile then dived down when I finally made it to the top of the hill. I'm trying to improve my recovery. I did HIIT before but with thyroid disease now my body doesn't tolerate it as well.

[Soror]

Today's plan: strength, walk/bike, ?

Hs'ing the girls and not much else on my plate (ya!).

Temps today in low 90s so I need to be doing whatever outside things need done as by the end of the week the temp is 103, without the humidity factored in.

Sleep has been great after a not so great couple of nights where I was way too busy. So, I'm happy to see that the current WOE isn't negatively affecting that. My REM sleep has been up even. 

Weight popped back up to 122.6 today after it randomly going down to 120s yesterday, I assumed it was a fluke and my period is coming so I'm going to be having some fluctuations.

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by soror

[wintermom]

@Ali in OR Gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing what it looks like near you. Looks like the perfect path to explore with your family!

@soror  Enjoy your walk or bike ride today. Glad your sleep is back to being great again. The daily weight fluctuation is certainly interesting to experience while on maintenance, isn't it. 😉

@Jenny in Florida  Congratulations on walking the wall! Sounds like you have some interesting walking areas near you. I think your maintenance weight plans sounds great. 

 

I had a good rest day topped off with some great tennis yesterday. Doing a little bit of stacking hay bales this morning with the family, and then hiking with a friend. The weather continues to be beautiful. 

I think I'm going to eliminate the daily weigh-in and go to once a week. I've seen the weight bounce around between 130 and 133 enough now that I can simplify things and track less often. 

[Soror]

1 hour ago, wintermom said:

@Ali in OR Gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing what it looks like near you. Looks like the perfect path to explore with your family!

@soror  Enjoy your walk or bike ride today. Glad your sleep is back to being great again. The daily weight fluctuation is certainly interesting to experience while on maintenance, isn't it. 😉

@Jenny in Florida  Congratulations on walking the wall! Sounds like you have some interesting walking areas near you. I think your maintenance weight plans sounds great. 

 

I had a good rest day topped off with some great tennis yesterday. Doing a little bit of stacking hay bales this morning with the family, and then hiking with a friend. The weather continues to be beautiful. 

I think I'm going to eliminate the daily weigh-in and go to once a week. I've seen the weight bounce around between 130 and 133 enough now that I can simplify things and track less often. 

Jealous of your weather. I think it is great to go for weekly weigh ins now that you have been settled in for awhile. I haven't stayed in one spot long enough long enough to be there yet but hope to be back there by the end of the month.

[Matryoshka]

2 hours ago, soror said:

I'm 41 so 179 is my supposed max. Looking at my bike ride I was at peak for 7 minutes continuous, I'm not sure how long at the high point, I said several minutes but that is probably not accurate as it doesn't show minutes on that probably just felt that long and the graph doesn't break it down that much.  There is a bit of a flat point at the 189 where I was nearly there hit it and was a bit under for awhile then dived down when I finally made it to the top of the hill. I'm trying to improve my recovery. I did HIIT before but with thyroid disease now my body doesn't tolerate it as well.

Well, 'Peak' with FB is a huge range, from a quite sustainable effort to max hr - I'm thinking that's why OT broke it down into Orange and Red.   The lower range of Peak if your FB is auto-set for 179 max is only about 150.  Peak =/= Max.  You can see where your FB is set by going into settings - you can also override it - that's what I did.

Do you know how often you get to such a high number?  I've had my hr monitors fluke high from time to time, but if you see that number (or something close to it) when you put in an all-out effort, then somewhere around 189 might be your actual max - which is a number you can hit when emptying the tank, but can't sustain for more than 30 sec or so.  My actual max hr is about 15 bpm higher than the formula says.  But I do really seem to be an outlier.  There are hundreds of other people I've been in OT classes with, and they all have their hr data up on the screens, and at least with the OT monitor (not so much the FB) I spend more time at higher hr - and before I adjusted, it was just silly how out of line things were.  

What kind of FB do you have?  I have an older version - an Alta. I wonder if the newer models measure more accurately when exercising hard.  Like I said, when I look at mine when I'm really exercising, it almost always has '--' for my hr, so it's got to only be capturing snapshots and averaging...  

[Ali in OR]

5 hours ago, soror said:

Oh, so jealous about the temps, thank you for the lovely pics, is that a mountain in the distance?

We call that a hill. We're on the west side of the Willamette Valley, and I guess you could say these hills are the very beginning of the coast range, which is pretty low elevation compared to what we call mountains which would be the Cascades on the east side of the valley.

[Ali in OR]

Barefoot Cardio this morning. I wanted to try one that focused on core so I tried one that had core in its name. It was only 25 minutes (± 30 min is my preference), so I also did another Foundations of Yoga video after. This one was Reclined Twist and I thought it paired very well with the "core" workout. I'm not sure if I'll repeat this one on Wednesday as it wasn't THAT core-heavy. Will see what else is available.

Gotta love Mondays--fresh start. I thought I did pretty well last week with tracking but weight is still up a bit. I'm going to focus a bit more, choose some healthier dinners, make a better effort at getting 5 fruits/veggies each day. We have a family birthday celebration this next weekend, so there will be cake and ice cream. Will try to have everything else in line to make room for that.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Some info on heart rate:

- Your max HR very likely does not correspond to the age formula.  The age formula can be used to discuss populations, but definitely not individuals, as the spread is huge around this population average.  The only real way to know your max HR is to run a max HR test- you can find info about this online.  My max HR is about 205.  Formula gives 182.  If I tried to create zones based on the formula, I probably could not even break into a jog without approaching the red zone.  So definitely DO NOT rely on formulas, and don't be freaked out if your HR runs high, as long as your perceived effort is on target for the zone you are looking for.  https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20820170/do-your-own-fast-or-slow-thing/  This has a pretty good description of perceived effort scales, but I was hoping to find the one in Jack Daniel's Running book, which has an excellent one, IIRC.

 

--------

I'm still running!  Still working on portions.  The weather is beautiful but hot.  

[Matryoshka]

So, with all this hr talk, I just had to do another check - I know my Pulseox is pretty close to my FB monitor when I'm just sitting around.  So I thought I'd pop it on during a workout, and see if it agreed with the OT monitor, or the FB (when I can even get a reading).  Seems like I was right to trust the OT monitor more - the Pulseox was within a couple bpm of the OT monitor each time I checked, and the FB, when it gave me a reading at all, was reading about 50bpm lower than the other two!  Oy.  So, there ya go.

I did an OT workout this afternoon, with a 6-minute warm up on the rower first.  About an hour total, good day for the OT challenge, got 25 min in the Green, and only 22 min in the Orange/Red.  Still only 75 min in the Green total, with only tomorrow left in the week.  Drat, I think I'll end up missing the 120min target.  Am totally overachieving in the O/R zones, tho'...   I feel like they should have just said X number of minutes in Green, Orange, or Red.  But I'm probably biased.  😉   

[Matryoshka]

29 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

@Matryoshka Wow at the information. Never knew or bothered about that.

I never paid any attention at all to any of this till I joined OT and they handed me the hr monitor. I didn't even own a fitbit.  Now I'm probably a bit overly-obsessed!   

Gives me something to quantify...

Edited July 6, 2020 by Matryoshka

[barnwife]

Exercise-wise this week is off to a fine start. I did a 30 minute pregnancy walking video today. It continues to be really hot and humid here, so I haven't been managing walks with the kids. It's just too much at almost 30 weeks pregnant. 

I have been flying by the seat of my pants regarding food for me (and the whole family). I try to buy only healthy things to counter that. I hard-boiled some eggs today, and boy did it feel like a major accomplishment. Also, when did scrubbing a bathroom become such a good cardio activity?

I'll go back an read everyone's updates, but as I skimmed, I didn't see one from @IvyInFlorida? Hope her pregnancy is progressing well! @Jenny in FloridaI might have to give some virtual walking a try throughout the rest of this pregnancy, thanks to you.

[IvyInFlorida]

13 hours ago, barnwife said:

Exercise-wise this week is off to a fine start. I did a 30 minute pregnancy walking video today. It continues to be really hot and humid here, so I haven't been managing walks with the kids. It's just too much at almost 30 weeks pregnant. 

I have been flying by the seat of my pants regarding food for me (and the whole family). I try to buy only healthy things to counter that. I hard-boiled some eggs today, and boy did it feel like a major accomplishment. Also, when did scrubbing a bathroom become such a good cardio activity?

I'll go back an read everyone's updates, but as I skimmed, I didn't see one from @IvyInFlorida? Hope her pregnancy is progressing well! @Jenny in FloridaI might have to give some virtual walking a try throughout the rest of this pregnancy, thanks to you.

 

Doing pretty well so far, thanks for asking!  It's hot and humid here too so I try to do morning walks when I can and swim in the afternoon when it's not raining (we're having one of those traditional Florida summers where it rains most afternoons).  I'm 19 weeks, so almost halfway!  *cheer*  My anatomy scan is next week.  You don't have that much longer to go, yay!

[Soror]

18 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

We call that a hill. We're on the west side of the Willamette Valley, and I guess you could say these hills are the very beginning of the coast range, which is pretty low elevation compared to what we call mountains which would be the Cascades on the east side of the valley.

LOL, it is all in the angle. Where we live it is all hills, no mountains. When we went out west we were so excited to see all these mountains we took so many pictures, when we got home we thought why did we take all these pics of hills as the further we went the taller things were.

18 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I did get out to the pool and did some swimming this morning.  I did 300m in 17.5 minutes.  

Good job!

20 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

Well, 'Peak' with FB is a huge range, from a quite sustainable effort to max hr - I'm thinking that's why OT broke it down into Orange and Red.   The lower range of Peak if your FB is auto-set for 179 max is only about 150.  Peak =/= Max.  You can see where your FB is set by going into settings - you can also override it - that's what I did.

Do you know how often you get to such a high number?  I've had my hr monitors fluke high from time to time, but if you see that number (or something close to it) when you put in an all-out effort, then somewhere around 189 might be your actual max - which is a number you can hit when emptying the tank, but can't sustain for more than 30 sec or so.  My actual max hr is about 15 bpm higher than the formula says.  But I do really seem to be an outlier.  There are hundreds of other people I've been in OT classes with, and they all have their hr data up on the screens, and at least with the OT monitor (not so much the FB) I spend more time at higher hr - and before I adjusted, it was just silly how out of line things were.  

What kind of FB do you have?  I have an older version - an Alta. I wonder if the newer models measure more accurately when exercising hard.  Like I said, when I look at mine when I'm really exercising, it almost always has '--' for my hr, so it's got to only be capturing snapshots and averaging...  

The peak is a huge range, I notice a big difference between how I feel at the bottom and top. I've only hit that high once and close to it another time but that is also the hardest I can recall pushing myself since I've had the monitor, maybe ever. The other day I hit 177 and it felt hard, but not the I'm going to puke and die hard.  I have a Fitbit Versa Lite, it often has the HR displayed but not always, and of course when I'm biking it is very hard to check while biking up hill! Working on customizing mine now too.

16 hours ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

Some info on heart rate:

- Your max HR very likely does not correspond to the age formula.  The age formula can be used to discuss populations, but definitely not individuals, as the spread is huge around this population average.  The only real way to know your max HR is to run a max HR test- you can find info about this online.  My max HR is about 205.  Formula gives 182.  If I tried to create zones based on the formula, I probably could not even break into a jog without approaching the red zone.  So definitely DO NOT rely on formulas, and don't be freaked out if your HR runs high, as long as your perceived effort is on target for the zone you are looking for.  https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20820170/do-your-own-fast-or-slow-thing/  This has a pretty good description of perceived effort scales, but I was hoping to find the one in Jack Daniel's Running book, which has an excellent one, IIRC.

 

--------

I'm still running!  Still working on portions.  The weather is beautiful but hot.  

Thanks for the link with the chart, handy info

Great job on the running

13 hours ago, barnwife said:

Exercise-wise this week is off to a fine start. I did a 30 minute pregnancy walking video today. It continues to be really hot and humid here, so I haven't been managing walks with the kids. It's just too much at almost 30 weeks pregnant. 

I have been flying by the seat of my pants regarding food for me (and the whole family). I try to buy only healthy things to counter that. I hard-boiled some eggs today, and boy did it feel like a major accomplishment. Also, when did scrubbing a bathroom become such a good cardio activity?

I'll go back an read everyone's updates, but as I skimmed, I didn't see one from @IvyInFlorida? Hope her pregnancy is progressing well! @Jenny in FloridaI might have to give some virtual walking a try throughout the rest of this pregnancy, thanks to you.

Its hot and humid for us all, I'm happy not to be pregnant on top of it! Scrubbing a bathroom when pregnant is a major activity.

[Soror]

My period came yesterday, this is the first time I can remember not having my sleep screwed up beforehand. Usually it is really whack it was great. Is that the progesterone (although I stopped it 2 nights before) or diet change? IDK but it is very nice.

I was extra snacky yesterday, probably period hormones. I had my black bean brownies  in the morning (just when I said I wasn't having morning snacks I was dying for one yesterday) and in the afternoon a spoon of dark choc chips w/ pb, an apple, 2 mandarins, kale chips and popcorn w/ nut yeast.

We got the yard mowed yesterday and I'm hoping to do a couple of little jobs outside.

Exercise: yoga and walk

Tonight is taco night. I'll just have black beans w/ veggies.

I'm continuing to notice my resting HR drop w/ smaller meals and less carbs I aim for skipping grains, beans do well. Blood sugar affects pulse, I'll be interested to see any change in my fasting blood sugar on my blood work this year, seems it is going down but I am eating many more carbs throughout the day than I was before heatlhy ones though.. I also think there is a hormonal component too but I'll have to watch that longer to verify. 

[IvyInFlorida]

I thought I'd outsmart the weather and sneak a swim in this morning...but after 1/2 an hour, it started to pour!  Oh well, the swimming I did get in helped loosen up my lower back, which is great.  I had peanut butter toast for breakfast, an apple and a low fat cheese stick for a snack, and then am planning to stir fry some Asian-style slaw with possibly some kind of lean meat if I am up for the challenge for lunch.  🙂  Yesterday I was nauseous all day and in general felt achy and weak so today is off to a much better start!

[Ali in OR]

I did not sleep well last night. I always fall asleep fine--it's sleeping all the way through until morning that can be challenging. I woke up wondering if it was 4:00 or 4:30, looked at the clock, and it was only 12:22! I was awake from then until maybe 3:30. I'm chalking it up to a bit of anxiety. We'll have cuts at the high school where I'm an educational assistant helping with math. Just learned yesterday that they will cut a math teacher just based on enrollment numbers--we don't even have the state budget cuts yet. Anyway, my brain wakes up and tries to solve problems that I have no control over. I think I will nap today.

After sleeping in a bit later than usual, I did my bodyweight circuit and then 2 yoga videos--Warrior 1 and The Cobra. We have cool overcast weather today--perfect for washing windows which you're not supposed to do in bright sunshine. It's on my summer chore list, so I will get at least the outside done today even though I don't really want to. It's tough being a grown-up.

[wintermom]

I did my push-ups and stretches this morning, biked to the dentist, then spent the rest of the day indoors doing some brain activity. It's 100F with the humidex, which means a heat warning to us Canadians more suited for cold weather. ;)  I may walk the dog late this evening when/if it has cooled down.

I made Masoor Daal w/sweet potatoes and tomatoes and it came out great this time. I boiled those lentils to a pulp! I forgot the chili pepper until the end. Why is it so much more powerful when added at the end instead of the beginning of the frying process? 

 

[Soror]

19 hours ago, IvyInFlorida said:

I thought I'd outsmart the weather and sneak a swim in this morning...but after 1/2 an hour, it started to pour!  Oh well, the swimming I did get in helped loosen up my lower back, which is great.  I had peanut butter toast for breakfast, an apple and a low fat cheese stick for a snack, and then am planning to stir fry some Asian-style slaw with possibly some kind of lean meat if I am up for the challenge for lunch.  🙂  Yesterday I was nauseous all day and in general felt achy and weak so today is off to a much better start!

Ya, we've had a couple of pop-up storms too. At least you got pool time, that is good.

17 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

I did not sleep well last night. I always fall asleep fine--it's sleeping all the way through until morning that can be challenging. I woke up wondering if it was 4:00 or 4:30, looked at the clock, and it was only 12:22! I was awake from then until maybe 3:30. I'm chalking it up to a bit of anxiety. We'll have cuts at the high school where I'm an educational assistant helping with math. Just learned yesterday that they will cut a math teacher just based on enrollment numbers--we don't even have the state budget cuts yet. Anyway, my brain wakes up and tries to solve problems that I have no control over. I think I will nap today.

After sleeping in a bit later than usual, I did my bodyweight circuit and then 2 yoga videos--Warrior 1 and The Cobra. We have cool overcast weather today--perfect for washing windows which you're not supposed to do in bright sunshine. It's on my summer chore list, so I will get at least the outside done today even though I don't really want to. It's tough being a grown-up.

I'm so sorry, I'm sure that is stressful, best wishes 😞

17 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

Scrubbing bathrooms while pregnant ?? 😱Where is the bowing low emoji ?? @barnwife, you astound me. I treated both my pregnancies like I was sick. I was never that active at all. Yay for 30 weeks. You are down to the home stretch.

@IvyInFlorida Glad you had your swim. Hope you have nausea free days ahead. 

@soror Glad you slept well. I get so much information from your posts and this thread about what to watch for. Thanks.

@Ali in OR Sorry you did not sleep well and the anxiety. Naps are good. It is tough being a grown up. We can only control what we can. 

Did a family bike ride and played with DS. DH has had his PT moved home now. He has been given a bunch of exercise equipment including dumbbells which we already have and exercise bands. Don't know who is paying for them. Perhaps insurance ? Anyway, he has also been prescribed exercise so we plan to do it together. Weather is holding out here surprisingly. I will take all the good news we have because the cases are rising at a rapid level and we have withdrawn again in our bubble. We can only control what we can. 

Awesome that dh can do PT at home, sorry cases are rising where you live.

12 hours ago, wintermom said:

I did my push-ups and stretches this morning, biked to the dentist, then spent the rest of the day indoors doing some brain activity. It's 100F with the humidex, which means a heat warning to us Canadians more suited for cold weather. 😉 I may walk the dog late this evening when/if it has cooled down.

I made Masoor Daal w/sweet potatoes and tomatoes and it came out great this time. I boiled those lentils to a pulp! I forgot the chili pepper until the end. Why is it so much more powerful when added at the end instead of the beginning of the frying process? 

 

Over 100 is hot everywhere! I think nearly the whole US has heat advisory this week, it stinks. I've been aiming to get out early and late and skip the mid-day. Glad you finally got the masoor daal right, or nearly, you'll remember the spices next time!

[Soror]

Today's plan: bike and strength work early

Enrolling dd1 in 8th grade today (not looking forward to that but I don't blame her for wanting to go- even though the school year is going to be crazy).

Grocery shopping and menu planning (which I should have already done but skipped)

Today is day 28 of hitting the daily dozen. Still going well. I had too much chocolate yesterday (had just been eating my black bean brownies) but hormonal indulgences happen. Snacks a bit less than the day before, hoping for a normal day today.

Edited July 8, 2020 by soror

[wintermom]

Yes, during a heat wave is definitely the time to exercise early or late in the day. I got up at 6:30 and went for a lovely bike ride to the river. It was beautiful outside, with lots of birds singing. The scene at the river was breath taking, though the photos don't really do it justice. Passed a couple of bird watchers with cameras and giant lenses. It was worth the effort to get out of bed early! 😉

 

[barnwife]

One day of cardio and one day of strength in for the week. Not great, but not bad either. I feel like I hit 3rd tri. and just...have no motivation or energy. And the hot and humid weather isn't helping. 

@Ali in OR Not sleeping well. I have struggled with insomnia ever since my last pregnancy. I, too, usually have no problem falling asleep when I go to bed. It's getting back to sleep if I wake up that's a problem (and for me, currently, waking up at night is a given). I hope you sleep better tonight!

[Soror]

wintermom, lovely pics as always, 6:30 is a great time to go out. I am usually teaching from 6-8 so I miss the nice early and cool times. I've been waking around 4:30 -5 I don't feel like exercising quite that early most of the time and it is too dark to go outside.

super fast 20 min strength workout- doing high sets (10) and low reps (3) so I really have to hustle to get it done but I had a break between classes and wanted to get it done 

bike ride done- max HR up 8 points but my avg speed was up .6 mph and I knocked 2.5 minutes off my time

I notice that my perceived exertion is much lower bike riding then doing other activities. I guess it is the wind blowing in my face.

New swimsuits ordered- I just went for some cut ones after looking all over. I'm going to try out some bikinis with high waists, we'll see how I feel once they come in...

https://us.shein.com/Plant-Print-Halter-Bikini-Swimsuit-p-1136145-cat-2194.html (prefer just the top on this one- think the bottom will be too small but couldn't order just the top)

https://us.shein.com/Floral-Hanky-Hem-High-Waisted-Bikini-Swimsuit-p-1364128-cat-2194.html

https://us.shein.com/Lace-up-Floral-High-Waisted-Bikini-Swimsuit-p-951536-cat-2194.html

https://us.shein.com/Ruched-High-Waisted-Bikini-Panty-p-906911-cat-2293.html (just the bottoms)

Edited July 8, 2020 by soror

[Ali in OR]

Decision-making is hard this morning, so I just did the same cardio workout as Monday. And its shorter length is ok on Wednesday since I have to get to the grocery store this morning. Slept better in that I had no long wide awake periods, but I did wake often. Got all the windows done yesterday, inside and out, so that was a major accomplishment off the summer project list. And got my disabled dd in to the orthotics guy and got her new straps, also on the summer project list. Just routine chores today--groceries, collect trash/recycling, get laundry sorted and started.

[Soror]

20 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

Decision-making is hard this morning, so I just did the same cardio workout as Monday. And its shorter length is ok on Wednesday since I have to get to the grocery store this morning. Slept better in that I had no long wide awake periods, but I did wake often. Got all the windows done yesterday, inside and out, so that was a major accomplishment off the summer project list. And got my disabled dd in to the orthotics guy and got her new straps, also on the summer project list. Just routine chores today--groceries, collect trash/recycling, get laundry sorted and started.

Sounds like you got a lot done, WTG!

__________________________

I'm having some stress here, mostly things out of my control, some pandemic induced, some life (at least we are all in this together).

I'm squeaking out the steps and getting in my food but being back in the swing of school and the extreme heat is throwing off my schedule. I had purposed we do school in the afternoon so we have the morning, when it isn't so hot to do things outside but they don't want to.

Anyway- have to grocery shop today as I didn't get to yesterday (due to stresses)

Plan- yoga, maybe short Barre as I haven't done that yet this week.

appetite back to normal

Edited July 9, 2020 by soror

[wintermom]

2 hours ago, soror said:

I'm having some stress here, mostly things out of my control, some pandemic induced, some life (at least we are all in this together).

I'm squeaking out the steps and getting in my food but being back in the swing of school and the extreme heat is throwing off my schedule. I had purposed we do school in the afternoon so we have the morning, when it isn't so hot to do things outside but they don't want to.

Anyway- have to grocery shop today as I didn't get to yesterday (due to stresses)

Plan- yoga, maybe short Barre as I haven't done that yet this week.

appetite back to normal

Sorry you are feeling stressed. This heat is really messing up my routine and sense of calmness as well. I'm getting head-aches that last hours and completely drain my energy. I hate being stuck inside for the house most of the day. I can't wait for the heat wave to break! 

[wintermom]

I took the dog for a walk early this morning, and now it's already really hot and humid outside. I'll do my indoor strength and stretch routine. 

[Jenny in Florida]

Sounds like everyone is doing really well, staying focused through challenges with life and weather. Good for us!

Nothing new here, either. I'm still meeting/exceeding my step/mileage goals each day and keeping my food in an appropriate calorie range. I've been trying to keep an eye on protein, too, since that is sometimes a challenge for me. My maintenance calorie goal is about 1500, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. And, especially when I'm stressed and/or busy, which I have been for the last couple of weeks, I have a tendency to select foods that offer volume rather than nutritional density. 

I inaugurated the new weights over the weekend and definitely felt the difference come Monday morning. I have stuck with it, though, and done at least a short upper body workout two days this week. (I aim for Monday-Wednesday-Friday.) 

I still have not gotten out to try the Nordic poles. I think I'm just feeling weird about using them in public, at least until I can do so proficiently, but obviously I'm going to need to get over that if I ever want to use them at all.

After a couple of very busy, stressful weeks at work, I have decided to take a vacation day on Monday. My husband has indicated he might take a half day, too, and if the weather cooperates go rent bikes with me that morning. If that doesn't work out, or if he/we run out of steam quickly, I may go wander the nature trails at a nearby state park or possibly take the self-guided audio tour of a local historical cemetery. 

Food today (an illustration of what I mentioned above):

• Breakfast - Rice cake thins with all-fruit spread, banana, small handful of pecans
• Snack - Kettle corn
• Lunch (probably) - Spring onion soup/noodle cup or home-made vegetable fried rice left over from last night's dinner
• Dinner - No clue yet. I had planned to try a new recipe we saw online, but given that it's 10:30 and I have barely managed to accomplish any work, I probably will need to be at my desk late. This may well mean we eat Amy's frozen meals tonight.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Jenny in Florida

[Ali in OR]

I did 2 sets of my bodyweight circuit this morning but didn't add any yoga as I wanted to get some early morning blueberry picking in.  Which I did--a nice, quiet hour and a half to pick 22 lbs. About half of that will be fresh eating over the next week. I'm planning to can maybe 4 pints and make a crumb-topped blueberry pie today. Anything leftover will be frozen.

5 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

Nothing new here, either. I'm still meeting/exceeding my step/mileage goals each day and keeping my food in an appropriate calorie range. I've been trying to keep an eye on protein, too, since that is sometimes a challenge for me. My maintenance calorie goal is about 1500, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. And, especially when I'm stressed and/or busy, which I have been for the last couple of weeks, I have a tendency to select foods that offer volume rather than nutritional density. 

This is so me! I do eat meat but I don't want a lot. I could eat a ton as a growing teen or when I was pregnant, but now 3 oz feels like a huge portion. And I don't eat meat every day. My Fitness Pal gave me the goal of 58 gm/day for protein (which may even be low) and I'm often up to 10 gm short on that. It can only be harder being vegan.

[wintermom]

7 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

I still have not gotten out to try the Nordic poles. I think I'm just feeling weird about using them in public, at least until I can do so proficiently, but obviously I'm going to need to get over that if I ever want to use them at all.

I know what you mean about using poles while walking stands out. When I added them to my hiking I tested them out in a wooded area so that I was less visible to others. They look more like hiking poles and attract a little less attention. Hopefully you will enjoy using them and your enthusiasm will counteract any self-conscious feelings you have. 

[Matryoshka]

7 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

I still have not gotten out to try the Nordic poles. I think I'm just feeling weird about using them in public, at least until I can do so proficiently, but obviously I'm going to need to get over that if I ever want to use them at all.

I have to admit to similar shyness - after I got them I let them sit for a while because of this.  I don't have a beach or other secluded spot to use them; I'm walking right in my neighborhood.  I just forced myself to get over it.  I did walk a bit around the yard trying it to make sure I wasn't going to trip over them or otherwise make a complete fool of myself, then I just went out.  They really do help me walk at a brisk pace, include my upper body and core in the exercise, and elevate my heart rate to a good cardio level, so I made a very conscious decision to stop caring what other people thought of my poles, lol... 

[Soror]

21 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

@wintermom Happy you got the Masoor Dal and sweet potatoes thing figured out ! If you want to bulk it up throw vegetables in it, but after boiling the dal al dente first. Spinach and dal is divine. Great pictures as usual too.

@soror Sorry about the stress. Not a great time at all with the heat and pandemic induced how much ever we try to minimize it. But we press on. Be gentle on yourself. Appetite back to normal is good. Hope your sleep is better too. Love your choice of swimsuits.

@Ali in OR Slow and steady, routine days are a blessing. It is nice to have a schedule in the midst of rough. Clean windows make the sun shine more, so yeah for that.

Our exercise schedule is the same. Bike ride, elliptical, playing with DS. Mercifully the heat is less while it seems like the pandemic rages outside. 

Yesterday DH and I made a final decision on homeschooling DS as in he will join the virtual academy offered by the PS. We had to send in the enrollment form, so it is final. We can still change within certain parameters but not likely for the foreseeable future. We both looked at curriculum extensively, definitely wanted to try to see if we can come up with our own. But in the end we decided just schooling at home itself was too big a change to make curriculum changes. It is comforting to have the PS curriculum as a spine and we always supplement very much anyway so we have more to look at now. Rapid change in so many areas of our life, figuring out the exercise itself was exhausting so we were honestly scared to jump into a new curriculum we designed ourselves to find out it is not working. We can't even recognize if it is not working. So that part is figured out. 

congrats on your decision, I hope it goes well for you guys.

20 hours ago, Jenny in Florida said:

Sounds like everyone is doing really well, staying focused through challenges with life and weather. Good for us!

Nothing new here, either. I'm still meeting/exceeding my step/mileage goals each day and keeping my food in an appropriate calorie range. I've been trying to keep an eye on protein, too, since that is sometimes a challenge for me. My maintenance calorie goal is about 1500, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. And, especially when I'm stressed and/or busy, which I have been for the last couple of weeks, I have a tendency to select foods that offer volume rather than nutritional density. 

I inaugurated the new weights over the weekend and definitely felt the difference come Monday morning. I have stuck with it, though, and done at least a short upper body workout two days this week. (I aim for Monday-Wednesday-Friday.) 

I still have not gotten out to try the Nordic poles. I think I'm just feeling weird about using them in public, at least until I can do so proficiently, but obviously I'm going to need to get over that if I ever want to use them at all.

After a couple of very busy, stressful weeks at work, I have decided to take a vacation day on Monday. My husband has indicated he might take a half day, too, and if the weather cooperates go rent bikes with me that morning. If that doesn't work out, or if he/we run out of steam quickly, I may go wander the nature trails at a nearby state park or possibly take the self-guided audio tour of a local historical cemetery. 

Food today (an illustration of what I mentioned above):

• Breakfast - Rice cake thins with all-fruit spread, banana, small handful of pecans
• Snack - Kettle corn
• Lunch (probably) - Spring onion soup/noodle cup or home-made vegetable fried rice left over from last night's dinner
• Dinner - No clue yet. I had planned to try a new recipe we saw online, but given that it's 10:30 and I have barely managed to accomplish any work, I probably will need to be at my desk late. This may well mean we eat Amy's frozen meals tonight.

Great job keeping on track. 

Some ideas for protein- something like quinoa or oats that is whole grain would have more, increase the nuts or just a nut butter. Adding some tofu, tempeh, edamame, or other beans/legumes to your soup.

13 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

I have to admit to similar shyness - after I got them I let them sit for a while because of this.  I don't have a beach or other secluded spot to use them; I'm walking right in my neighborhood.  I just forced myself to get over it.  I did walk a bit around the yard trying it to make sure I wasn't going to trip over them or otherwise make a complete fool of myself, then I just went out.  They really do help me walk at a brisk pace, include my upper body and core in the exercise, and elevate my heart rate to a good cardio level, so I made a very conscious decision to stop caring what other people thought of my poles, lol... 

What poles did you guys end up getting? I looked but most were more money than I could afford now.

[Soror]

My day started out rather blah with leftover stress but picked up.

I did not get dd registered as I forgot some paperwork (remembered as I was pulling in) and the right person wasn't even there, so we go back Monday.

I did Yoga+ Barre (managed to not hurt my knee this time) and some easy bike riding and walking with the kids.

Today I'm taking the kids swimming (going to try the outdoor city pool when it opens and hope it isn't too busy) and strength work in the am. I did a little outside work yesterday and hopefully can finish a couple of little jobs today since we aren't schooling today and the pool doesn't open until the afternoon.

Hoping to balance meals better today, yesterday breakfast was a bit too big, lunch a bit small, and dinner a bit big (I aim to have dinner the smallest meal of the day but lunch was small- I had some other leftovers I needed to eat up and should have put more with them).

Feeling a bit drowsy today I guess because my alarm woke me up in the middle of a dream. I got plenty of sleep. Hopefully I pep up soon.

[wintermom]

1 hour ago, soror said:

My day started out rather blah with leftover stress but picked up.

I did not get dd registered as I forgot some paperwork (remembered as I was pulling in) and the right person wasn't even there, so we go back Monday.

I did Yoga+ Barre (managed to not hurt my knee this time) and some easy bike riding and walking with the kids.

Today I'm taking the kids swimming (going to try the outdoor city pool when it opens and hope it isn't too busy) and strength work in the am. I did a little outside work yesterday and hopefully can finish a couple of little jobs today since we aren't schooling today and the pool doesn't open until the afternoon.

Hoping to balance meals better today, yesterday breakfast was a bit too big, lunch a bit small, and dinner a bit big (I aim to have dinner the smallest meal of the day but lunch was small- I had some other leftovers I needed to eat up and should have put more with them).

Feeling a bit drowsy today I guess because my alarm woke me up in the middle of a dream. I got plenty of sleep. Hopefully I pep up soon.

Great job with the yoga, barre and bike ride. Hope the swimming works out for you all. 

I didn't invest in Nordic Poles as I have cross-country poles that are perfect for me. I use them on snow or softer ground so I don't need the rubber tips. 

[wintermom]

Hey, I'm becoming a morning person! I got up at 5:30 to play tennis with dh and his group. I was so desperate to play, and I can nap or relax in the afternoon. It's insane how hot and humid it still is at that hour, though, I can't wait until this heat breaks. 

[Ali in OR]

Did one last day with the cardio core workout, and then I tried her 10 minute ab session which wasn't too hard for me. Formal exercise done for the week; just need to get in some yoga and/or a walk or something this weekend.

Food is not going as well. I had a couple of days that I didn't track, then I did track yesterday but was over on calories (but...blueberry pie!), and it doesn't get better until Sunday or Monday--have a family birthday tomorrow with cake, plus there's still half a pie! I do best when I plan all of my food for the day in the morning, so I'll plan for that piece of pie, I know there's bread at dinner so I'll do something else for lunch, and of course I'll be snacking on blueberries all day. On picking days, we wash the berries and spread them out on towels on the kitchen counter to dry, and the blueberry eaters in the family just wander in and grab a handful at a time throughout the day. Now they're all in the fridge (they're even better cold), but we do have a problem with certain family members (ahem...dh) thinking any size tupperware is a single serving.

[Soror]

20 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

Did one last day with the cardio core workout, and then I tried her 10 minute ab session which wasn't too hard for me. Formal exercise done for the week; just need to get in some yoga and/or a walk or something this weekend.

Food is not going as well. I had a couple of days that I didn't track, then I did track yesterday but was over on calories (but...blueberry pie!), and it doesn't get better until Sunday or Monday--have a family birthday tomorrow with cake, plus there's still half a pie! I do best when I plan all of my food for the day in the morning, so I'll plan for that piece of pie, I know there's bread at dinner so I'll do something else for lunch, and of course I'll be snacking on blueberries all day. On picking days, we wash the berries and spread them out on towels on the kitchen counter to dry, and the blueberry eaters in the family just wander in and grab a handful at a time throughout the day. Now they're all in the fridge (they're even better cold), but we do have a problem with certain family members (ahem...dh) thinking any size tupperware is a single serving.

Good thinking to plan ahead to have the pie. One indulgent meal doesn't have to make the whole day bad.

21 hours ago, wintermom said:

Hey, I'm becoming a morning person! I got up at 5:30 to play tennis with dh and his group. I was so desperate to play, and I can nap or relax in the afternoon. It's insane how hot and humid it still is at that hour, though, I can't wait until this heat breaks. 

Look at you 🙂 sometimes it is worth it to get up early, huh.

[Soror]

I did not do strength work. I went out to do some outside work right after my breakfast to beat the heat and when I was done didn't feel like it. I had some digging to do. I also took a short walk in the evening and swam and played at the pool with the girls.

I went ahead and bought a family pool membership. We got there shortly after they opened and it was not busy at all, 4 other families or so. It was starting to get busier as we were leaving but we were still able to easily keep distance. Mostly I played with the girls but I did throw in swimming when I could and swam one lap back and forth. I'm not very good so my form was not great at the end so I'll aim to improve on that then add on. 

I'm a little sore today with the digging and swimming but am aiming for a short strength session and we'll be doing some outside work today.

[wintermom]

1 hour ago, soror said:

I did not do strength work. I went out to do some outside work right after my breakfast to beat the heat and when I was done didn't feel like it. I had some digging to do. I also took a short walk in the evening and swam and played at the pool with the girls.

I went ahead and bought a family pool membership. We got there shortly after they opened and it was not busy at all, 4 other families or so. It was starting to get busier as we were leaving but we were still able to easily keep distance. Mostly I played with the girls but I did throw in swimming when I could and swam one lap back and forth. I'm not very good so my form was not great at the end so I'll aim to improve on that then add on. 

I'm a little sore today with the digging and swimming but am aiming for a short strength session and we'll be doing some outside work today.

The swimming sounds like a lot of fun. Glad you and your family are able to add in this activity. I couldn't believe how sore I felt after my little bit of swimming. There are definitely different muscles being used! Digging is also pretty hard on the body. Hope you recover soon. Sounds like a good idea to drop the strength work. 

[wintermom]

We finally have a lot of rain and slightly cooler temps, though the humidity is still very high. I'm going to get back to doing some more painting inside and eventually outside the house. Today is probably a good day to start the inside work. I'll try to get outside for at least a walk with the dog as well. And I've still been keeping up the push-ups and other strength and stretches.

Eating is a little sketchy. It's hard to build up an appetite or energy to make food when it's so hot.