LDL? HDL? what the......?

On Monday evening  I went to an Aqua Zumba party at the gym.  I took my mom and my cousin Whitney with me.  We all had a blast but by the end of two hours we were so exhausted! We did win some prizes... We all won zumba bracelets and I won a free spray tan! Whitney won a CD as well.  Fun times! I think mom and Whit enjoyed it.

So, we had physicals today.... It went well.

The only bloodwork I had was a cholesterol break down and it went great.

Cholesterol:

Total Number 173 (down from 199 a year ago, but total number is rather uninformative)
HDL 53
LDL 104
Triglycerides 115

These are all in the normal/ideal range. 
HDL is the good cholesterol (above 60 is the very best, so i would like to see that move up a little)
LDL is the bad cholesterol (ideal for me is below 130, if one has a high risk for heart disease their "ideal" would be 100 or below)
Triglycerides are in relation to sugar (they should be below 150, so I'm golden there)

HDL and LDL what the.....?
Dr. Oz explained HDL and LDL in such a simple manner on one of his shows.  I'll see if I can share his explination.  Imagine an icecream scoop and a melon baller....one is scooping butter into your arteries the other is scooping it out... which one do you want to do each job.  Well of course! The icream scoop scooping it out and the melon baller putting it in right? Well that is the idea of having a high HDL and a low LDL which is good.  If you had a low HDL and a high LDL that would be the ice cream scoop putting in the butter and the melon baller working as hard as possible to scoop the butter out but it would never be able to keep up.  I hope that wasn't too confusing... maybe it even helped (esp, for people my age that are just now thinking about these things).  My doctor explained that all of my numbers were great but I also looked up ranges on the mayoclinic website.  So I'm good, I would like to increase my HDL though.

I will tell you a quick story, when the nurse first went over my bloodwork she told me that my fasting glucose was 108 (i could have died).  She began going over my eating habits, no soda (check), no whites (check), use Olive Oil (double check), whole grain pasta (check)..... so what on earth could I do better!  So, she said the doctor would likely check me again at the end of July and I started to cry.  I freaked out, ME???? the one who tries so hard to be healthy and encourage others to do the same? the one whose Mom and Dad swapped me to whole grain everything 10 years ago? What in the world.  Brandon was looking at me kinda funny cuz I was crying...the nurse felt all bad for me.. then all of a sudden i hear these words from the nurse, "oh, i am SOOOO sorry, I have made a mistake.... that glucose was from your April bloodwork and was not fasting, so it is perfectly fine" WHEW!!!! I got a big ol' smile and was so excited.  The nurse apologized like 100 times and I said "well, dont focus on scaring me, focus on the fact that you go to give me really good new afterward!"

So my glucose is NORMAL, he had tested it one afternoon when I had a bit of a panic attack just to make sure it wasn't off because I was rather shaky.... it was fine then to.

The only other thing that he told me was that he does think that I have exercise induced asthma and I now have an inhaler to take before each run.  Thank goodness, because the tightness after my runs was getting worse and worse the longer my runs got.  I will be trying out the inhaler for the first time tonigh.

I asked him about my slow weight loss (even with the loss of lots of inches). He told me to stop fearing a rapid heart rate and push my intensity up.  He said that it will help and that I also have to realize that I AM building muscle, so I am still losing fat, I'm just replacing it.  So I texted my trainer this afternoon and told him to plan something hard for tomorrow.  I told him what the doctor said.  His text back "cool, will do". Should I be scared!??? I think so.....

Below is a picture that I recently posted on facebook.... Left side is about two weeks ago, right side is in Jan. with my old trainer.  Not a lot of pounds lost but the inches are pretty great! I am so thankful that my new trainer has pushed me and helped me find results.  Thanks Chad!

FACEPLANT

Well I gained today. Welcome to Bethney's weight loss roller coaster. Just throw your hands up and say Woohoo though because I lost lots of inches!!!!

Waist - down 1" (total -7.5")
Hips - down 1" (total -4")
Thigh - down .5" (total -1.5")
Calf - down .5" (total -1.5")
Forearm down .25" (total -.75")
Upper arm down .5" (total -1.5")

We didn't check my body fat % today...
The gain was not a huge deal. I'm actually planning to talk with my doctor about my plateau in regards to my underactive thyroid. I'm not beating myself up. 

I was thrilled to have lost inches. You know what's crazy though. I'm just going to go on and share this. Women know where the first place we lose inches is (chest) well. I never post that measurement because it hasn't changed even a tenth of an inch. Crazy huh? But I'm not complaining.... Lol

So my workout was great today. I'm starting to sweat better. I love sweating!   I did have a funny moment though. I was doing plyometrics by jumping (both feet together) onto a big huge truck tire (the same one in the plank picture.  Anyhow. This is my second time doing these and I have been pausing between each jump and doing 10 jumps for 3 sets. So on my second set today my trainer had me do 5 single jumps then 5 with no pauses. It was really tough (mentally and physically). I failed a few times but then I got going ... 1,2,3,4, FACEPLANT!!! I jumped short and hugged the tire!!! Chad asked if I was fine. I said oh yeah my shins hurt an my pride went down the drain. He said it's ok to fall sometimes. I guess it just means I'm pushing really hard. Those of you that know me know that I thought it was hilarious. You have to laugh at life for sure. Anyhow I got up and did another 5 successfully!!! Yay! So aside from brushed shins (those tires are HARD) I'm good and I got better. 

I hope my post made you laugh today. 

So I continue doing what I do....

Workouts, swimming, running

Workouts are so different from day to day. Yesterday I was going like the energizer bunny. I ran my C25K run, did a few upper body exercises, Had an amazing stretch session ( found the aerobics room empty, yay for summer daytime workouts! ) then spent 90 minutes in the pool and made some progress toward swimming laps.

Speaking of swimming.... Swimming laps is on a level all it's own. I can swim well. I can swim with a variety of strokes, I can tread water for ages, I can even turn the flip and push off! All of that thanks to my parents who had me in swimming lessons with amazing teachers for like 6 or 7 years!  Now back to swimming laps... I stink at it. The technique of the breath stroke is one that takes practice. To me it's been a use it or lose it type thing. I've lost it.  Now. Swimming underwater is great. I can go 3/4 the length of the pool underwater on one breath. Back to the breath stroke.... It's a constant rhythm and timing struggle. I started out breathing on every right arm. That was terrible!!! I felt like I could pass out! So I'm breathing on every other right arm now.  That is better. I'm getting better at turning my head enough that I don't get water in my mouth, YUCK! But all in all I still stink at it. I have to stop about halfway down the pool (full size pull at the gym) and start my whole rhythm over again. Now. I'm no where near in shape to be swimming laps. It takes work. It's totally separate from running or circuit training. Its really tough. For me I think it's all about fitting into a rhythm and relaxing. Like I said before I know the stroke I just have to get better at it in the context of swimming laps. I really admire the people that get in the pool and swim 100 laps a day! Wow. My goal right now is to swim a half lap (baby steps) I hope by the end of summer to be able to swim 2 laps without a stop. I think I can do that!

So today was a whole other story... I was tired, exhausted, unmotivated, had a sinus headache all day that started in my eyes. Ya know just one of THOSE days. Brandon was ready to hit the gym and I sent him without me. But I didn't allow myself to do nothing. I still paid attention to my nutrition and while he was at the gym I took some time out for yoga. I knew I had to do something to help pep myself up a bit. So I popped in Bob's Weightloss Yoga and did a workout and it felt great. I felt much better afterward.



Gracie seemed to want to join me for yoga... or maybe just make mine more difficult!

 I think it is so hard to work out on blah days but also so important. I think I actually wore myself out yesterday. The fibromyalgia kicks in sometimes and screams at me for overdoing.  Yesterday during my run I got a throbbing pain between my accelis tendon and my calf muscle. I decided not to run today for that reason and it seems better. I'm hoping it doesn't show back up on my run tomorrow. I don't have too much time for rest. My 5K is coming up soon! 23 days!!!

About the 5K. I'm so excited. My cousin , Whitney, that is training and running with me is doing really well. My cousin, Lindsey that has started running about the same time we did is also doing really well. I'm trying to convince her to join Whit and I in July (Lindsey I hope you read this) Whit and I are excite that we have some days coming up where we will be able to run together for the first time! My next run is 25 minutes. Woah!!!!

Lots of random thoughts in this blog post huh?

I have a weigh in and measurements tomorrow and I'm training with Chad AND my hubby!!! Can't wait.

I'm also having my cholesterol checked in the am. Doctor will give me results Tuesday. He didn't think I needed it checked but I wanted it checked because last time it (my total number which is nit the end all be all) was leaning toward high (my thyroid was still of balance then) so I'm looking for an improvement. Hoping for good LDL/HDL ratio. I'll post all about that on Tuesday.

I'll post some results tomorrow! (also, I editted the recipe section)



It was so nice yesterday to find the aerobics room open and available for some good stretches!  This room is so motivating to me.  I think its the openess, the motivating sayings on the mirror that change each week and the overall feeling of the room.  So relaxing for stretching! (somehow, I managed a picture with my iphone while I streched)



Lots to talk about!

Well, I lost 1.2 pounds since Wednesday!!! Woohoo!!! I'm very excited to see some results.  I finally did what I've been blogging about trying to do for months.  I got the whole package in check (exercise AND nutrition) all together! Chad was excited too!

Below are some updates and thoughts on a few different things....

Food Journal -
writing my journal out on paper has really helped.  I am an iphone person, but the LoseIt app just wasn't working for me like I needed it to.  I found myself dreading the "searching for food" part and the entering part.  I think the app is amazing. I'm still using it to record my weight and keep track of how many calories I need each day.  I also like how detailed the journal pages are that Chad gave me.  They even have places to mark your thoughts throughout the day.  It's a good thing to journal your feelings and thoughts with your food details.

I'm still working on getting my calories down where I need them.  I'm running 100-200 calories too high each day.

As you can see below I'm having a little fun making my journal pages colorful.  As silly as it sounds even the little idea of using markers to keep my journal keeps it fun to do.  LOL.  Silly, I know!

Sodium??? - well, I'm getting better at it.... I'm learning, knowledge is what I'm missing when it comes to Sodium, So i'm still recording sodium this week to help me become more aware of good and bad foods in regards to Sodium.  I was able to pull my sodium down from 4000+ mg a day to 2,000.  So that was exciting!

Running - I did my longest run yet on Saturday night.  I was very nervous to do this run.  All of the runs to this point had been intervals with runs up to 8 minutes each.  The 8 minute intervals were in the Week 5 Day 2 and they were difficult for me, so Week 5 Day 3 was a 5 min warm up, 20 min run, 5 min cool down. Yikes???!!!! I went late Saturday night, my parents were in town so my Dad agreed to walk along with the dog so I wouldn't be out there on my own, then Brandon decided to go as well.  He's still doing intervals. Below is a picture of Dad and I before I headed out:

Brandon was extra supportive on this run.... when we would pass (some places we run down and back a road) he would say "keep going" "your doing good".  That made me feel so great!  At about 8 minutes into the run I was hurting, breathing was a little tough, but it was mainly physical pain.  At 10 minutes I hit a point, I was in my rhythm, in my groove, on auto pilot.  I had zoned out my music (couldn't tell you what I heard) and it was all about rhythm, breating, and running.  It didn't hurt anymore, it felt good.  When my C25K came on and said "one minute remaining" I sprinted until I heard "walk now".  I did it!!!! Dad and Brandon were right there where I finished and I was so proud.  I felt great!  It made me feel like I really will be able to run the 5K!!!! I went 1.5 miles in the 20 minutes.  So that would be about a 40 minute 5K.  So i either have to run faster or run twice as long!  So, I better keep on working!

Yoga - we got our blueray player set up this weekend so I pulled out my "Bob's Weightloss Yoga" (from Biggest Loser for those that don't know, Chad!) I did it last night and this morning and it felt so good.  I am better at it now than I was last time I did it over a year ago.  I am so much stronger and more flexible and I have less stomach fat to get in the way (seriously).

So, I train again on Friday and I can't wait to see what I can do between now and then.

Thanks for reading!!!

A hidden hurdle?!

Ok Wow! Sodium is the hidden hurdle! I started my written log this morning and decided to record sodium as well as calories because Chad has mentioned sodium a lot. 

So breakfast.... 1 egg, two pieces of turkey bacon and two whole wheat biscuits. Sounds ok right???? WRONG. So which one do you think would be the sodium killer?.......

Turkey bacon...?.... No, BISCUITS!!!! They were whole wheat but they have 580mg of sodium EACH!!!! 

So I texted my trainer and asked how many mg of sodium I should shoot for each day..... He said keep it less than 2000mg. 

Next was lunch (a whole wheat tortilla with left over chicken with brown rice in it). Well how about another shock. My whole wheat tortilla was 500 mg!!! Seriously???!!!!

So here I set midday and I've already had 2,170mg of sodium. I can't help but wonder if Sodium is part of what's holding me back.  I've spent time since high school paying attention to things like calories, fat, and carbs. My parents taught me all about complex Vs.  Simple carbs and whole wheat etc. So when I look at a food I can make a good educated guesses about it's cal, fat, and carb., but I'm in the dark about sodium!!! Who knew that biscuits and tortillas were high?!! I may sound silly but if I had my guess I'm not alone in this shock over sodium!  Let's see how well I can finish out this day!

And in case anyone is wondering my upperbody is sooooo sore today. My shoulders especially!

Getting Stronger!!!

I am getting stronger even though I struggle with the whole package (nutrition, sleep, exercise) and that is currently keeping my weight from dropping.  I gained 0.4 pounds today.  I did not stick to recording my food in my Lose It app.  Chad really can't assess how my eating is going if I don't record it for him to see.  So, we've made a bit of a change.  I will not be logging in my Lose It app any longer, but i will be writing it on some printed food log pages.  I will be much more detailed in my logging.  It will incude my water intake, times that I eat, hunger levels when I snack, etc.  I am excited to get this started.   Sometimes you just need a change in you process. 

Now, on to the getting stonger part... If you read reguarly you know that my trainer has had me doing planks since the get go!  I've done some intersting types of planks along the way, but I did my most difficult plank yet today (maybe even tougher than "jelly rolls"!!!) I had my feet on a tire and my hands on a BOSU ball, ever seen one of those? It's half of a stability ball on a flat foundation, you turn it upside down and it creates an unstable surface for your body to be forced to stablize itself (core, abs, etc) The most difficult part of this plank was keeping my abs and lower back extra stable to avoid sagging in the middle.  * My trainer always holds my phone for me during my work outs and today suggested that he take a picture of this plank for me to post on my blog, so you can see that picture to the left of this post and below.

 Below that picture (and this paragraph)  you will see another picture of me doing what he calls knee drives.  There you are somewhat in a plank positioon, but you have to raise your rear end up a little to allow leg movement and you pull your knees to your chest and back alternating sides, almost like running in place...  Its pretty tough on the BOSU ball becuse you have to have that much more stability in your abs and back.  I did these today in 3 sets, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, and the last one 1 minute. This picture was taken at the end of my 1 minute of knee drives.  I was about to have to fall over. 

So, again I'm looking forward to trying harder.  But I am proud of myself for where I have come strength wise.  So here goes.... I train again to Monday, lets see what I can do!

Sleep and Sweets

So I guess I need more sleep. I am always craving carbs and sweets and it's killing me. Kathy Lee and Hoda mentioned this on Today this morning. It's because being tired makes us more likely to give in to our temptations and also carbs and sugar give us the temporary energy that we are seeking. 

I'm kinda nervous about my weigh in today. I have just craved and craved and craved this week. I was watching Extreme Makeover Body edition (if you haven't seen that show I highly recommend it , Monday nights). Anyhow on there the trainer cleans out the pantry and throws out all sweets or anything else the client is not supposed to eat. I think I need to make sure that sweets don't make it into my house. Maybe more fruit. I wish I could let Chad go through my pantry, I'm sure that would be tough. But maybe he can give me a list of requirements for things to keep/get rid of. Hmm? I'll talk to him about that today. 

I'll let you know how the weigh in goes tonight. 

Feelin' the burn Mary Catherine Gallagher style!!!!

Well. I lost .8 lbs this week. It's a loss. Little losses add up!  I talked with Chad about my 15 pound goal for summer. It's doable but it's gonna take lots of work. Here is hat we discussed today to improve my weight loss. 

After Chad looked over my food journal he suggested that I cut the sugar. I have a tendency to do sweet things like  jello chocolate mousse pudding. I do these things in order to curve my sweet craving. What I actually need to do is learn to beat my sweet craving, then treat myself once in a while. So hears to cutting sugar...

Also,  my Couch to 5K running schedule has me running 3 days a week. I'm adding two other days that I will run 1 mile. So now I run 5 days a week.

With these two things in hand let's see what I can accomplish this week. My nutrition is falling into place and I had a loss. Wow. What do you know?  

Chad and I were talking to a guy at the gym tonight and this is what he said (I liked it) , "working out and not eating right is like taking a shower with no soap"

Let me tell you about my lower body exercises we added tonight. Yikes!

One was squat jumps. I've done these before. You put your feet shoulder width apart, squat and go directly into a jump, directly to a squat.... Repeat over and over. "like Tigger" Chad says. Lol. I did 3 sets of 10. Ouch!

Then we did "Superstars" ya know Mary Catherine Gallagher???.... from SNL.?? Well yeah. So you start in a lunge, one foot in front with the knee bend, the other leg straight out behind you. (like Mary Catherine)Then you jump into the air, cross your feet and land in the opposite lunge. So I did 16 of these twice. Double ouch! I promise that if you do those, think of Mary Catherine Gallagher and glance in a mirror you will lose your balance laughing. Lol. 

Needless to say after that plus more on my legs AND running my thighs feel terrible. Let's hope I wake up not so sore!!!

Vanity Sizing?

Did anyone else see Dr. Oz yesterday?  Seeing a few daytime shows here and there is one perk that I enjoy about summer... anyhow, they talked about "Vanity Sizing".  What is vanity sizing?  It is when designers size their clothing larger so that you feel like you are wearing a smaller size than normal and purchase more or stick to their brand to get a size 10 or 8, when you normally wear a size 12.  This is not only frustrating but can be an unhealthy view of "how you are doing".  Here are a few facts from Dr. Oz that I found interesting.  They are all based off of a size 12 (which is what I wear)

1950s size 12 = 26 inches (so when you hear someone say, "but Marilyn Monroe wore a 12" it wasn't a 12 as we know it)
1970s size 12 = 28 inches
1980s size 12 = 33 inches
today size 12 = 36 inches

YIKES! right?

They measured over 25 brands of size 12 pants and found a 5" variation.... OMG Gap was a 38" waist according to Dr. Oz, I don't remember GAP fitting big, but I guess it does.

So, with all of this said... how dangerous for our heart to base our waist size on the inconsistant sizing of clothing.  This is why I DO pay attention to what the scales say.... and why I have my trainer take my measurements.  This way I can NOT be fooled.

Dr. Oz shared some articles of clothing that are good to base your size off of to compare if you refuse to measure or weigh.:

* a belt - on the same belt pay attention to which notch you use and even mark a goal notch
* shoes - if your feel start bulging on at the edges of your shoes it could be a sign of water wieght gain
* a blazer style jacket - pay attention to how the upper arms feel and how the jacket feels if you place your hands straight out and put your hands together (Dr. Oz says this will indicate fat around your back and sides)
* jeans that do not contain lycra (stretch)
* button up white shirts, will stretch or gap at the buttons if they start to fit too tight.

So, with all of that said.... I prefer my scales and a measuring tape, but this is just something to think on.  Its crazy how the fashion industry can affect people huh?

About waist size, Dr. Oz says that your waist measurement should be no more than half of your height in inches... So I'm 5'3" (63 inches) so my waist should be no larger than 31.5 inches. Kinda scary, and they talked about how heart heath is most at risk with extra weight around the abdomin (as opposed to weight around the rump and thighs)

I hope that some of you found these things interesting... I did. (find more at http://www.doctoroz.com/)

So, the summer is going well for me so far.  Not having a daily routine does WONDERS for my nutrition.  I guess its because I have nothing to stress/worry over and I have plenty of time to plan meals.  I went to a morning Zumba class today that was great.  I've been running on schedule and I've been within my calories for the last 3 days.  I'm really looking forward to my weigh in and workout with my trainer tomorrow night!

Stay tuned! I will hopefully make a stride toward my 15 lb summer goal!

A group of little successes build to a big success

I did it!!! I recorded in my Lose it app. Silly accomplishment it may seem, but I recorded in my lose it app for like 8 weeks straight. It was routine/habit I went a few days without recording and it made it seem impossible to start up again. I came in 24 calories under today.  However, I skipped breakfast. That is not a good thing.  So now that I got over the hurdle of simply recording my food again, tomorrow will be more structured and I'll see how balanced my nutrition can be! Woohoo for small successes!!!!

I was going to do an extra run today, but didn't want to go out when it was still hot and by the time dark rolled around I was really tired. I'm on Week 4 Day 3 of Couch to 5 K. I'm pretty excited, I've never gone this far before in the C25K program. Not only am I in week four, it's going smoothly. I run slow for sure, but speed comes later. My circuit training with Chad involves so much cardiovascular work. It is really helping with my running!!  I'm looking so forward to this summer and all of the successes it will bring!

Oh and my first day of summer break was busy yet relaxing. Groomed Miles, lost a screw to the clippers down the drain lol, tried to fish it out, it's still in there, took all the dogs to the vet ! Then hung around home cleaning. Good day!

I'm still here!

I apologize for my lack of posts these last two weeks. I have not fallin' off the wagon or anything we've just been meeting ourselves coming and going for these last two weeks. 4 choir performances in two weeks, plus brandons band concerts, a trip to Cincinnati with my choir. All sorts of stuff!!! Anyhow, in the midst of the chaos I still worked with my trainer and ran, but couldn't get my nutrition right. Over the two weeks I gained 1 pound. Not too bad. I'm kinda at a plateau. Boo plateaus! Anyhow. Wednesday when I met with Chad I asked him to insist on seeing my food journal.... He agreed (we had slipped on looking at it each week).  I'm hoping that may be the boost I need to get my nutrition in check. I can't seem to get it there. 

Anyhow, I'm starting summer break tomorrow and our summer, other than band stuff, is really laid back this year. The last 5 summers have been filled with one or both of us moving/job searching or us having a wedding. Lol. So this year I just get to be a stay at home wife while Brandon takes grad classes and I can't wait!  Anyhow, I know it might sound backwards, but I do better nutrition wise during school breaks. You would think the structure of the work year would help me, but I actually do better without structure. So here goes..... SUMMER!

I have a few summer goals...

--- run my first 5K

--- lose 15 pounds by August 9th (first day of school). That is 9 weeks to lose 15 lbs. It would be hard, but I think I can do it. 

Weigh in Thursday this week and I'm positive.  I will start my food journal again as of tomorrow. I can imagine that it will help dramatically!

Have a good week y'all!