Monday, March 31, 2008

Eating, exercise and lots of miles

I've been really thinking about my eating and how I feel. Another thing that I've noticed and thought about...my stomach never 'growls' to tell me that I'm hungry.....what brought that up is that Dr. Ohz said in his book that ghrelin (the hormone that tells you when you are hungry) is working..t.hat's what causes the growling. Hmm...my stomach only rumbles when I'm sick or something.....interesting.

I did go to the grocery store on Friday night. I got the coconut and did make the granola bars. HEAVENLY! ADDICTING! YUMMY! Yes, they are pretty good. I also rode my exercise bike on Friday night. About 10 minutes into my 'ride' my mom called. So I talked to her while riding. We talked for about 10-15 minutes during which time someone else tried to call me. I ignored the call...but when I hung up with mom I picked up the voice mail. It was my friend. I immediately jumped off the bike and called her right back. What a blessing to hear her voice!

Saturday....we worked outside for a few hours! It felt so good to be outside and working! I grilled steaks and potatoes for dinner. Food tastes sooo much better when you actually work for it!

On sunday my eating went a bit downhill. Not only did I NOT exercise, but mom and I baked...I ate! ARRRGHHHHH That is so not cool! Then today, I did at least ride the exercise bike this morning...however my eating and choices of food have not been stellar! At least I'm denying myself. I could continue to eat .....I want to continue to eat...but I'm not. I'm refusing. I had a nibble of pretty much everything at the potluck. I had a piece of cake......taste wise, I know that I'm satisfied. What it is....I know how good the stuff tasted and I'd LOVE to have more! BUT NO! NOt gonna do it!

I'm anxious for my weight watcher meeting tomorrow night. If I heard correctly, my leader is starting a 'challenge' to get us up and moving. It is designed around walking but she had made a comment that we could adapt it so that it could work with biking and other forms of exercise. i've done that as Iv'e thought about my goals and that I want to aim for. I'm going to aim for 25 miles a week. I can get that anyway I can. If I'm doing something that can easily be marked by miles (such as the exercise bike, the treadmill, walking with my pedometer, outdoor bike, etc) I'll count the actual mileage. If it is something like swimming in a pool...actively that is...or manual labor outside or something that I'm actually working.....or even an exercise video. I'm goign to count 15 minutes of that activity time as 1 mile. In this way I can still have and lead the varied exercise life but i can still participate. I"m actually really looking foward to this challenge. I've mentioned it to a few people and they seem to be interested also...so maybe I will have some friends do it with me outside of my weight watchers buddies! That would be way cool! Sooo...how did I come up wth 25 miles a week. Well.....if I were just walking, that would seem like an awful lot....but since I bike and do the elliptical and stuff like that...I can rack up miles pretty quickly. In fact, in the summer when Todd and I do a long bike trip, I'll knock off 25 miles on one trip. So those weeks, the 25 miles will be a cinch. However, on busy weeks or rainy weeks when I can't get out on my bike, that 25 miles will be much more difficult to reach. It will be 5 days of riding the exercise bike for about 20-25 minutes. When I think of it in terms of time on my exercise bike...it's not soo bad. I'm also planning on riding my bike to work some this summer. That will rack up 5 miles (round trip). So I think i can do it. :-) Root for me! Join me! It's all good! Of course I'll know more exactly after my meeting on Tuesday as to the challenge!