Wednesday, August 31, 2016
I Had a Dream
If you think this is going to be an inspirational post... well, maybe not so much, LOL. I did have a dream though. Last night I dreamed about food and exercise. Now, the dreaming part that centered around exercise, that was good right? Right, it was. However, it's the food part of the dream that went a little sideways. I wasn't dreaming about eating salads and such, no, no, no... I was dreaming about Pizza and Chinese food... oops. LOL Now, this type of thing does seem to happen to me when I'm making a drastic lifestyle change no matter how much for the better it is. Several years ago when I quit smoking I would dream of clouds of smoke, sitting in a room full of cigar smoking men (like that's a good thing, even when I smoked I hated the smell of cigars). In my 30's when I was on a serious goal-oriented diet like I am now, I dreamed of eating marshmallows and woke up to find the edges of the pillow were suspiciously damp. Luckily, my pizza and Chinese dream didn't result in any gnawed on bedding, and I'm still on track with my calorie/nutrition goals still. I could do without the eating part of the dream though. I am going to have to focus more on thinking about the exercise side of my goals when I go to bed from now on, and hopefully my dreams will stay on the same healthy track as my waking hours.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Monday, August 8, 2016
Thaat's What I get for Living a Healthy Lifestyle
Living a healthy lifestyle can be dangerous. Thank heavens for GREAT neighbors (thank you Dave and Sharon Pavey ) for taking me to the hospital and picking me up agsin when it was over. Even worse, and yes, there is worse, no swimming for a week, going to hve to settle for using the recumbent bike and doing leg strength exercises st the gym for s bit. Sorry, my pinky isn't working right yet, so the a key isn't alwsys pressed.
Lost my bslance and grabbed the fence -- top hsa metsl spikes sticking up, caught on it, and still fell, ripping the palm wide open down to the bone. Luckily, missed tendons asnd the srtery by millimeters. So, ll in asll could have been worse.
Funny thing, when it hsppened i didn't even really feel it. just concerned with getting bsck up agsin, wasn't until i sat down i realized i needed stitches. now it hurts though. lol
Sorry for ll the typos
Update:
A week and a half ago I sliced open my hand on a fence and got stitches. I was told I couldn't go in the pool until the stitches came out---yeah, I cried. That poor doctor didn't have a clue, although as I explained how hard I'd been working and what a big part of my routine was swimming, he did take pity on my situation. He even ended up saying as long as I don't get my hand wet, he wouldn't tell anybody. However, once I got home, I decided that it would be better safe than sorry, and I would do as much as I could of other things during this time of healing and pool restriction. In some ways it has been quite liberating. I found that I could indeed now ride a stationary bike for as much as an hour total (broken into three sections with a minute rest between each). Last night went and rode the bike when hubby got off work and could drive me... but it was just so painful, I only managed 45 minutes, my rear and my knees had taken all they could of it over the past 10 days. It will be GREAT as an alternating routine so I am not in a rut of only swimming, but I'm not up to it as a singular activity.
So.... even though I am supposed to go to get the stitches out tomorrow, today was my regular gym day, and I just decided to go for it. I wrapped my hand up in waterproof surgical tape (over the bandage), and put my suit on. I did keep my hand out of the water (almost as much of a workout as running the pool). I just jogged the laps instead of swimming. What a workout, but soooo enjoyable. I sure did miss that pool.
Like I said above, I am supposed to go to the doctor tomorrow, but I don't think the stitches will come out, not all of them anyway. The middle and left "branch" of the laceration look like they have healed well, and the stitches will probably come out of that, but the right branch and the center where it all comes together are still really groady looking. LOL But, at least I know that the surgical tape works well to keep any random splashes from getting the bandage wet, and I can run the pool for a good workout. I'll still do the bike as an alternate now that I know I can, just not as a sole form of workout. You just gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes. :)
Update #2:
Got my stitches out yesterday. A little bummed that the one area that i mentioned the other day is still opened too much to go swimming (technically, lol), but I'll just do what I did the other day. On the plus side, this doctor wrapped my hand up much better than the emergency room one did, and showed me how to do it that way, to keep the area closed more. I changed the bandage today and it really has made a lot of improvement. As they say--Patience is a virtue... too bad it's not one of mine. LOL I've never been particularly patient, but I am trying to improve on that.
Lost my bslance and grabbed the fence -- top hsa metsl spikes sticking up, caught on it, and still fell, ripping the palm wide open down to the bone. Luckily, missed tendons asnd the srtery by millimeters. So, ll in asll could have been worse.
Funny thing, when it hsppened i didn't even really feel it. just concerned with getting bsck up agsin, wasn't until i sat down i realized i needed stitches. now it hurts though. lol
Sorry for ll the typos
Update:
A week and a half ago I sliced open my hand on a fence and got stitches. I was told I couldn't go in the pool until the stitches came out---yeah, I cried. That poor doctor didn't have a clue, although as I explained how hard I'd been working and what a big part of my routine was swimming, he did take pity on my situation. He even ended up saying as long as I don't get my hand wet, he wouldn't tell anybody. However, once I got home, I decided that it would be better safe than sorry, and I would do as much as I could of other things during this time of healing and pool restriction. In some ways it has been quite liberating. I found that I could indeed now ride a stationary bike for as much as an hour total (broken into three sections with a minute rest between each). Last night went and rode the bike when hubby got off work and could drive me... but it was just so painful, I only managed 45 minutes, my rear and my knees had taken all they could of it over the past 10 days. It will be GREAT as an alternating routine so I am not in a rut of only swimming, but I'm not up to it as a singular activity.
So.... even though I am supposed to go to get the stitches out tomorrow, today was my regular gym day, and I just decided to go for it. I wrapped my hand up in waterproof surgical tape (over the bandage), and put my suit on. I did keep my hand out of the water (almost as much of a workout as running the pool). I just jogged the laps instead of swimming. What a workout, but soooo enjoyable. I sure did miss that pool.
Like I said above, I am supposed to go to the doctor tomorrow, but I don't think the stitches will come out, not all of them anyway. The middle and left "branch" of the laceration look like they have healed well, and the stitches will probably come out of that, but the right branch and the center where it all comes together are still really groady looking. LOL But, at least I know that the surgical tape works well to keep any random splashes from getting the bandage wet, and I can run the pool for a good workout. I'll still do the bike as an alternate now that I know I can, just not as a sole form of workout. You just gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes. :)
Update #2:
Got my stitches out yesterday. A little bummed that the one area that i mentioned the other day is still opened too much to go swimming (technically, lol), but I'll just do what I did the other day. On the plus side, this doctor wrapped my hand up much better than the emergency room one did, and showed me how to do it that way, to keep the area closed more. I changed the bandage today and it really has made a lot of improvement. As they say--Patience is a virtue... too bad it's not one of mine. LOL I've never been particularly patient, but I am trying to improve on that.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Checking Back In and Reporting on my LifeTrak Zone
I mentioned a few days ago that I got a new LifeTrak Zone fitness monitor. Of course, like any new toy, it was fun and exciting, and I was very exuberant in my letting you all know how cool it was. I am just checking back in to give a real review of the product, and let you know how it works.
Okay, I'll just spill it right now--I love it!
Is it perfect-No, but it is pretty close.
I was actually REALLY hard on it in my review on Amazon, but only for one reason, the biggest fault this watch has is that it is VERY hard to read in dim light (read that as normal house lighting unless the watch face is directly in line with a turned on lamp, even in the middle of the day). Even then I might not have been so hard on it except for the fact that on the Amazon page, the picture of the product showed the "newer" version (I found out about the versions through a little research after-the-fact) with a white background and black readout. What I received was a watch with the black background and gray readout, the initial version of the watch. The newer black on white version is easier to read (at least it is reported to be). So I was miffed about that.
However, when it comes right down to actual function, I LOVE this watch. It really is pretty cool. It tracks steps reasonably well in the house (there may be a few steps it doesn't pick up, and it picks up when I roll in a chair while working, but I figure pretty much those two instances kind of cancel each other out). It picks up steps when actually walking outside, shopping, or regular walking around the house quite well.
The calorie burn counter is pretty neat too. I can't help thinking it is a little overly optimistic, but it is supposed to be based on your stats (you can add your sex, age by birthday and current weight in to help it base it's BMR on) and you are supposed to track your heart rate regularly, which it also uses to judge added caloric burn.
Not only does it track steps, it automatically calculates daily mileage, and both steps and miles can be separately calculated during workouts that are also added into daily miles and steps.
Of all of the tracking functions, the sleep one is the only one I find kind of frustrating. Either sleep is one illusive thing for me, or it over does the tracking of tossing and turning, or moving around during sleep. I was in bed for 9 hours last night, and I know it didn't take long for me to "lights out." I'd give a half hour to getting to sleep, but I really don't even think it was that long. I did get up twice to go to the bathroom... old bladders suck, lol, but I went right back to sleep... not according to my tracker though. According to it I only got 4.5 hours of sleep. That's last night. Some nights it says I've gotten about 7.5 hours, some in between the 4 and 7 hour mark, it just depends I guess on how much my arm moves when I'm sleeping. I must really flail around in bed more than I thought (sorry Bob, I've always known you put up with a lot with my RLS but I must have been really beating the crap out of you at night for the last 33 years.)
The heart rate monitor is a fingertip pulse button, and it works really, really well. It's kind of fun to watch the "EKG" line run while you take your pulse, lol. What I really love is all of the features, including the heart monitor work great IN THE POOL. The band is secure, and stays on even during the most rigorous strokes, and I can keep track of my heart rate to get a good idea of how well I am doing in intensity.
All of the functions: sleep, miles, calories and steps have a bar graph available for comparing hourly, daily and monthly totals.
I hope that helped anyone who is interested in the fitness watch. It is as reliable as any, I do not use the phone app so I can't report on how well that works, my phone isn't good enough to do it. I don't really miss it though. I probably wouldn't use that much anyway.
I got my LifeTrak Zone C410 for about $75 from Amazon, so it was a very reasonably priced fitness monitor compared to Fitbit and other similar types of watches. It also does have, by the way, a time and date readout on the face, lol, so it is also a watch. I like the looks of it better than the band style Fitbit type monitors as well.
Okay, I'll just spill it right now--I love it!
Is it perfect-No, but it is pretty close.
I was actually REALLY hard on it in my review on Amazon, but only for one reason, the biggest fault this watch has is that it is VERY hard to read in dim light (read that as normal house lighting unless the watch face is directly in line with a turned on lamp, even in the middle of the day). Even then I might not have been so hard on it except for the fact that on the Amazon page, the picture of the product showed the "newer" version (I found out about the versions through a little research after-the-fact) with a white background and black readout. What I received was a watch with the black background and gray readout, the initial version of the watch. The newer black on white version is easier to read (at least it is reported to be). So I was miffed about that.
However, when it comes right down to actual function, I LOVE this watch. It really is pretty cool. It tracks steps reasonably well in the house (there may be a few steps it doesn't pick up, and it picks up when I roll in a chair while working, but I figure pretty much those two instances kind of cancel each other out). It picks up steps when actually walking outside, shopping, or regular walking around the house quite well.
The calorie burn counter is pretty neat too. I can't help thinking it is a little overly optimistic, but it is supposed to be based on your stats (you can add your sex, age by birthday and current weight in to help it base it's BMR on) and you are supposed to track your heart rate regularly, which it also uses to judge added caloric burn.
Not only does it track steps, it automatically calculates daily mileage, and both steps and miles can be separately calculated during workouts that are also added into daily miles and steps.
Of all of the tracking functions, the sleep one is the only one I find kind of frustrating. Either sleep is one illusive thing for me, or it over does the tracking of tossing and turning, or moving around during sleep. I was in bed for 9 hours last night, and I know it didn't take long for me to "lights out." I'd give a half hour to getting to sleep, but I really don't even think it was that long. I did get up twice to go to the bathroom... old bladders suck, lol, but I went right back to sleep... not according to my tracker though. According to it I only got 4.5 hours of sleep. That's last night. Some nights it says I've gotten about 7.5 hours, some in between the 4 and 7 hour mark, it just depends I guess on how much my arm moves when I'm sleeping. I must really flail around in bed more than I thought (sorry Bob, I've always known you put up with a lot with my RLS but I must have been really beating the crap out of you at night for the last 33 years.)
The heart rate monitor is a fingertip pulse button, and it works really, really well. It's kind of fun to watch the "EKG" line run while you take your pulse, lol. What I really love is all of the features, including the heart monitor work great IN THE POOL. The band is secure, and stays on even during the most rigorous strokes, and I can keep track of my heart rate to get a good idea of how well I am doing in intensity.
All of the functions: sleep, miles, calories and steps have a bar graph available for comparing hourly, daily and monthly totals.
I hope that helped anyone who is interested in the fitness watch. It is as reliable as any, I do not use the phone app so I can't report on how well that works, my phone isn't good enough to do it. I don't really miss it though. I probably wouldn't use that much anyway.
I got my LifeTrak Zone C410 for about $75 from Amazon, so it was a very reasonably priced fitness monitor compared to Fitbit and other similar types of watches. It also does have, by the way, a time and date readout on the face, lol, so it is also a watch. I like the looks of it better than the band style Fitbit type monitors as well.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Tracking the Numbers
How many steps do I take each day? I really don't know, well, I didn't. Today I got a fitness watch that hubby ordered for me. (How many times can I say thank you, baby? Not enough for sure.)
It came in the mail and I set it up. Along with looking like a watch (unlike some monitors) it has a watch built-in, it also tracks sleep time, calories burned (including BMR calories) and it tracks workout times, steps taken and how much daylight I'm getting.It is also a heart rate monitor which is really cool.
This is the actual watch in the color I got. There are other colors available.
The set up included regular stuff like setting the time/date/month/year etc, and also setting goals for calories burned, steps taken, and it also allows you to log in weight, age and sex to more accurately judge the different areas. It was very reasonably priced (as fitness monitors go). Much more affordable than the fit bit, and it looks just like a (large) watch. The band is even reversible (black or blue) and there are a bunch of other colors that can be purchased.
The company makes several levels of fitness tracker watches, but I got the LifeTrak Zone C410 -- so far I really like it. The one thing I would have to say could be better is the screen is black with a gray readout, and it is hard to read, even with the so-called backlight, in low light areas. In direct light it's fine.
Edited to add: DUH, I forgot to mention one of the most important parts for me about this tracker--it's WATERPROOF! It is waterproof up to 30 meters (90 feet) so swimming with it is fine, and I'll finally be able to see if I am actually reaching a good heartrate when swimming!
It came in the mail and I set it up. Along with looking like a watch (unlike some monitors) it has a watch built-in, it also tracks sleep time, calories burned (including BMR calories) and it tracks workout times, steps taken and how much daylight I'm getting.It is also a heart rate monitor which is really cool.
This is the actual watch in the color I got. There are other colors available.
The set up included regular stuff like setting the time/date/month/year etc, and also setting goals for calories burned, steps taken, and it also allows you to log in weight, age and sex to more accurately judge the different areas. It was very reasonably priced (as fitness monitors go). Much more affordable than the fit bit, and it looks just like a (large) watch. The band is even reversible (black or blue) and there are a bunch of other colors that can be purchased.
The company makes several levels of fitness tracker watches, but I got the LifeTrak Zone C410 -- so far I really like it. The one thing I would have to say could be better is the screen is black with a gray readout, and it is hard to read, even with the so-called backlight, in low light areas. In direct light it's fine.
Edited to add: DUH, I forgot to mention one of the most important parts for me about this tracker--it's WATERPROOF! It is waterproof up to 30 meters (90 feet) so swimming with it is fine, and I'll finally be able to see if I am actually reaching a good heartrate when swimming!
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