4A-HEALTHY-BMI's SparkPeople Blog

Contra Dancing - burning calories and socializing...

Mon, 8 Apr 2013 18:58:48 EST

A little over a month ago XC ski season was winding down and the rivers hadn’t really thawed enough to kayak on safely. And socially I’ve been a bit of a hermit over the winter, not really getting out there and meeting new people.

So I forced myself to go to a local contra dance, as a way to burn some calories and socialize. There are videos from that dance on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/watch?...

Report on a 1 Rep Max test

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:40:36 EST

BREWMASTERBILL has been bugging me to do a 1 rep max test so I inserted one into my lifting schedule.

Since I usually lift at home alone in my basement, I generally do the 18 or 24 reps that the New Rules of Lifting for Women has prescribed.

I'm visiting my sister (HAVASUROSE) in AZ at the moment and this afternoon visited her local gym to get some real 1 rep max numbers, in a place where there were folks who could spot me, or at least call 911 if something went wrong....

Gun Show!

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:14:49 EST

Enjoyed catching up with NIMNIX, WOLFKITTY, and GEE-KNEE this evening after hours.

Communal Project: a log reinforcing healthy choices & thoughts

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 07:15:03 EST

After two pretty rough months emotionally, I fell off the bandwagon last weekend and overindulged at three parties in four days - with predictable results.

In addition to getting back on track with the food and exercise, I thought it would be a good idea to work on reinforcing my healthy choices and thoughts.

I can see from the http://teams.sparkpeople.com/maintai
ning blog posts that I'm not alone here, and I know I'll be more likely to do this if oth...

5 reasons why I want to get these 10 lbs back off and continue with the strength training

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:34:27 EST

So it's been a very good year.

I broke all previous records from 2010 and 2011 (the year I was on shoulder rehab) for number of rivers paddled (47), hours in my boats (366:37:03), days paddled (103), difficulty of rivers paddled (IV-V), calories burned on rivers (48,146) and calories burned boating overall (116,200).

I kayaked in NY, MA, WV, PA, Costa Rica, Canada, Argentina, and Chile.

I paddled the Bottom Moose (IV-V)
http://www.sparkpeople.com...

Where I started, 186 lbs ago. Never, ever, EVER give up!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:34:31 EST

Now and then people contact me and say that they are currently around the same weight as where I started, and they ask what it was like, and how I felt when I started, and how I even GOT started, and how I kept going.

Back then I would have been happy to get under 300 lbs. I don't think I ever really believed I could go under 200. But I tried (again) anyway, because I just didn't want to continue, in ...

Making my bed as an anti-binge / maintenance strategy

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:31:02 EST

Whenever houseguests have stayed in the past I've whipped myself into a frenzy to try and make my home hygienic, if not presentable. Litter box and cat bathroom spotless, cat hair tumbleweeds swept out of the corners of the stairs, my bed made, everything vacuumed, dishes done and put away, kitchen clean, laundry folded and put away.

And I've otherwise pretty much neglected the house and yard the way I used to neglect my exercise and nutrition. I'm starting to see that this perv...

Bottom Moose (class IV-V)

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:31:10 EST

Yesterday I ran a new river, the Bottom Moose.

This river has been a sort of milestone for me. I have been aspiring to run it for a while. This is the kind of river most white water kayakers come to the Adirondacks for, and the past couple of years I've had to run easier things while my friends paddled on it because I was a beginner.

The description of it on the American Whitewater websit...

Epic paddle through the locks

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:20:13 EST

This weekend LESLIELENORE and her brother joined me and two others for what we’d planned to be a 20-mile paddle through the canal from Cayuga Lake to Seneca Lake and then down along the shore of Seneca.

Here's LESLIELENORE's blog post about the trip:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=51
09030

Pics and the gps track here:
www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?tri
p_id=1838919

...

What superpower would you choose?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:53:16 EST

On the way to work this morning I was thinking about that game we sometimes play as kids. You know, the one where you get to pick a single superpower. Would you rather be able to fly, or maybe be invisible? Because people who write Wikipedia articles apparently have too much time on their hands (perhaps that’s their superpower), there’s a whole organized list of superpowers, here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superh
uman_features_and_abilities_in_fiction

...

SparKayaking on Keuka

Mon, 1 Oct 2012 21:34:08 EST

I had a good kayaking weekend!

Saturday I went to the Black River in Watertown, NY and played with friends in my whitewater play boat behind Maggie's. http://www.americanwhitewater.org/co
ntent/River/detail/id/1255/#rapid5224

Sunday I went in the OTHER direction, and paddled a sea kayak 14.4 miles from Branchport to Hammondsport with LESLIELENORE and her brother. Here's her blog post about the day: http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_j...

30 questions challenge: 21-30

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:04:28 EST

I’ve joined in on TANYAP71’s blog question challenge.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=50
51162
I don’t often manage to post blogs daily, so I’ll be answering questions here when I can and posting them en masse.

It’s been fun reading the responses from others, and to help me keep track of them, I’ve made a spreadsheet, here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=
0Ah4KrA4GkhKgdGpVRkhuUGgtVllINi1Oa...

The year of brushing monsters out from under my kayak

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:00:39 EST

In my first season of white water kayaking (2010), I kayaked 95 days. Three of them, on three different rivers, were bad ones, where I got significantly hurt, shaken up, or both.

I spent most of 2011 in shoulder rehab, healing after surgery repaired a snowboarding injury.

This year, 2012, I went back to all three of those rivers, and ran them without incident.

One of those rivers was the Dryway section of the Deerfield in Massachusetts. I blogged about that,...

Rockstars of Maintenance, Revisited

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:10:49 EST

Just about a year ago I wrote a blog post about a list of successful maintainers we’ve been compiling in the At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance team.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=45
12102

One of our team leaders, TINAJANE76, suggested that I do a new blog post about this list, as a reminder to all of us that not only can maintenance be accomplished, but that we’ve got a list of people doing it, ri...

30 questions challenge: 11-20

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:43:05 EST

I’ve joined in on TANYAP71’s blog question challenge.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=50
51162
I don’t often manage to post blogs daily, so I’ll be answering questions here when I can and posting them in clumps of 10. In this case, since I won't have access to a computer until next week, I'm going to post some of these ahead of when they're "due."

It’s been fun reading the responses from others, and to help m...

30 questions challenge: 1-10

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:59:30 EST

I’m joining in on TANYAP71’s blog question challenge.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=50
51162
I don’t often manage to post blogs daily, so I’ll be answering questions here when I can and posting them en masse.

It’s been fun reading the responses from others, and to help me keep track of them, I’ve made a spreadsheet, here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=
0Ah4KrA4GkhKgdGpVRkhuUGgtVllINi1Oa...

Get off the merry-go-round

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:22:32 EST

http://www.clipartheaven.com

GOING4HEALTHY, a member of the At Goal & Maintaining + Transition to Maintenance (AG&M+TM) team recently described what used to be her annual loss and regain cycle:
www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/team_mes
sageboard_thread.asp?board=0x1111x2845
4049

- Dec 31: begin weight loss
- March: achieve goal weight
- Sept: lose all ...

Will Horton hear OUR Whos??? Maintainers ARE HERE.

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 18:17:40 EST

I was saddened to see a feature on the front page of SparkPeople.com today.

www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellnes
s_articles.asp?id=423

It is a feature that was written five years ago (the first comments date back to November 2007) listing 5 "secrets" of the "elusive" 5% of successful maintainers. Who "prefer to stay relatively unknown."

Although I am glad they recycle this column at all (at least it addresses maintenance), I am very sorry ...

Learning Maintenance: Mental Phases

Wed, 1 Aug 2012 20:27:11 EST

I believe maintenance can be learned. I’ve been at this for over two and half years, and I seem to be getting better at it. Here’s a way of looking at my progress in terms of what is going on in my head at any given time. See the bottom of this post for a related blog post about framing my progress in terms of levels of maintenance.

Over the past 2+ years I’ve noticed some phases that I seem to go through. I don’t think I ever saw these phases so clearly before because I never ...

Learning Maintenance: Levels

Wed, 1 Aug 2012 20:24:51 EST

I believe maintenance can be learned. I’ve been at this now for over two and half years, and I seem to be getting better at it. Here’s one way of looking at my progress, based on the number on the scale. See the bottom of this post for a link about how I frame my progress in terms of mental phases.

There are various levels of maintenance. You can define weight maintenance in many ways. www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=4323116 ...

SOULOFWELLNESS' insightful questions

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:26:07 EST

I've had a recent email exchange with SOULOFWELLNESS who had some questions about the steps I took to remove a lot of weight (body fat).

I really like her questions, because they show that she is putting a lot of effort into understanding this monumental task she's set for herself. I see that as a sign she is likely to succeed - especially because so much of this process has been one of discovery for me. I've had to learn a lot about myself and about nutrition and about the vario...

Talking about Maintenance, TODAY.

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:32:28 EST

Lots and lots of folks have been sending me kind words about the segment in which I appeared on the TODAY show this week. Thank you!!!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_pu
blic_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=49
83177

And wow, I’m very happy if anything I’ve ever done or said has helped anyone else on their own journey. I’ve been (and continue to be) inspired by plenty of other people, both here on Spark People and on other sites. I’m not very goo...

BMI values are kind of meaningless between 18 and 30

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 04:00:31 EST

There is a fun link floating around on the blogs here lately, where you can see how your BMI compares with the averages in other countries and globally overall.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18770328

"You're most like someone from Tanzania*
* Compared with other females aged 45-59 in Tanzania"

It kind of underscores the meaninglessness of BMI between the values of 18 and 30. Below 18 can be unhealthily thin. Above 30 is often unhealthily fat. ...

Did I mention I like kayaking? LOL

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 03:23:55 EST

Finally got a picture with my biggest boat (Wilderness Systems Tempest 165) and my smallest boat (Wavesport Project X 48)

If they look like they're made of the same plastic, that's because they are. Both come from the Confluence Watersports factory in South Carolina.

I like taking the big one out in rough open water (like Lake Ontario when there are big waves), and the little one is for learn...

Road Food

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:09:04 EST

My friend RUSSLANE ( http://wekeepitoff.com ) and I had a friendly debate a while back about road food. He claimed that Asian restaurants were a good choice. I disagreed and countered with grocery stores. I’ll let him make his case for his choice, and expand on my reasons, here.

I like whitewater kayaking. As a sport people often joke that it involves 90% driving around looking for rivers, 25% drinking beer, and 5% actual paddling. While the ratios are usually a ...

Surfin' and Rollin' in Canada

Sun, 8 Jul 2012 22:45:29 EST

I just got back from a week of kayaking in Canada and no phone or internet access. It was AWESOME.

Here's a link to the place:
www.owl-mkc.ca/mkc
It's on the Madawaska River near Barry's Bay in Ontario.

My instructor was a crazy Argentino who seemed to know exactly when to push and when to back off and got stuff out of me I didn't even really know I had. He was also pretty fun, as well as an amazing boater:

The myth of zero-calorie foods

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:54:40 EST

Lots of things we eat are labeled as having zero calories. Some even use it for marketing, such as Splenda.

It is interesting to note that while these items are low in calories, they are usually not devoid of them. The reason they are labeled as such has to do with labeling laws, not science.

According to US FDA labeling codes,

The terms "calorie free," "free of calories," "no calories," "zero calories," "without calories," "trivial source of calories," "n...

Horsie Vacation!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:53:23 EST

I spent a few days this past week visiting my sister HAVASUROSE in Arizona where she helps out at a nearby Arabian horse farm.

Every morning we'd get up and go out there by 6:30am to feed them breakfast, rake up the poop, groom, and exercise a few of them. We'd work until noon (my HR monitor would report 650-700 calories), then go home and change into our swimsuits and eat a salad and hang out in her backyard by the pool, reading and napping until it was time for dinner. I caught...

A way to estimate changes in body composition using BIA numbers - get stronger and lighter

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:05:29 EST

A few months ago I wrote a post about how I estimate my total calorie burn given daily calorie intake and scale weight.
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=4636113

At the end of that post I promised to explain how I estimate changes in my body composition (muscle versus fat). I have procrastinated because this topic is much harder to explain and the means of measuring it are much less reliable than a scale and counting calories...

New low weight after 2+ years of maintenance - still working on the internal aspect of me

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:57:39 EST

Well. That's different.

It's what I saw on Monday morning when I weighed in.

Yesterday morning it was 148.0

This morning it was 149.4

It looks like I might actually solidly be under 150. Wow. Holy Carp.

The lowest I ever got on this most recent journey was 151.0 on March 12 2010 a few months after reaching goal (159.4)

So here I am, 2 years into a...

Playing in the power plant wave

Sat, 3 Mar 2012 20:59:12 EST

The local coal-fired power plant on Cayuga Lake dumps the warm water back into the lake in a way that is super convenient for us white water boaters to play in.
www.americanwhitewater.org/content/R
iver/detail/id/10314

We went there today. That's me, in the orange boat.

Returning to the scene of the accident

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:47:33 EST

11 months after a rotator cuff injury that took me out of my kayak for 6 months I have tried snowboarding again.

I seem to remember how to turn, which is nice. My form isn't great, but that's not surprising, given that I was a beginner last winter and didn't ride that much, and today was my first day back.

I took it super slow and lightly today - there are too many friends who would rip me a new one if I went out there and hurt myself again! LOL

P.S. That's...

Punching it back down - the joys of maintenance

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:51:43 EST

Holy Moley, this maintenance thing takes vigilance. And not just vigilance, but DOING SOMETHING about it when you see a problem.

My last night in Costa Rica involved a painful stomach bug and between that and the ensuing weakness and exhaustion from traveling I was laid low the week after returning. Missed two and a half days of work, even.

I tried to get back into my "normal" routine last week, but the eating was spiraling out of control and by Wednesday I knew there ...

A week of kayaking class III-IV rivers in Costa Rica - with pictures!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:47:28 EST

As a reward for not desparing and eating everything in sight while recovering from rotator cuff surgery this year (I missed my entire kayaking season which was a terrible blow) I signed up for a one week vacation in Costa Rica, kayaking in January.

The PT and surgeon cleared me for boating in rivers again starting October 1 and I worked hard between then and the trip building back up my strength, agility, and stamina.

The trip was run through a group that are based in No...

I look OK in street clothes, I think. :-)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:37:50 EST

Here's what I wore to chair my session and give my talk at the conference I'm at this week:

And can I just say "yay" for thrift shops? Because that whole outfit (including the 100% silk skirt and the shoes) came from Salvation Army.
334

I have 50-50 odds of regaining my weight! Woo Hoo!

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:47:20 EST

Doesn't sound like very good odds, does it?

Flip a coin. Heads I gain, tails I keep it off.

But I'll take it.

Because I've reached the 2-year mark in my maintenance and it's a whole lot better than the odds I was staring down two years ago.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing. At one point I gained back 30 lbs and got it back off again. This past summer I gained back 20 lbs and then...

How I minimize binge triggers in my life

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:16:47 EST

Out of control eating while alone is probably one of my worst problems for controlling my size. It's particularly a danger late at night when I'm tired and should be going to sleep (around 10 or 11pm). Here's an old blog post about a typically uncomfortable case:
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=2881460

Since this topic has come up a few times lately, I'm listing my strategies here so I can refer to them in the future....

Who's hand-rolling sea kayaks on both sides now?

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:48:38 EST

Oh yeah that's right. *I* am! LOL ;-)

Figuring out YOUR personal calorie burn. Accurately.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:36:57 EST

I read a lot of blog posts and forum messages from people who feel confused and dismayed about plateaus and slow weight loss. Knowing your personal total calorie burn is important so you can figure out how much to eat - so you can set up an appropriate calorie deficit for losing, or set a target to maintain.

There are tools available here at SP for estimating your basal metabolic rate and calorie burn through exercise, etc. Unfortunately they can be wildly inaccurate because they...

Woot! Solidly back in maintenance range!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:44:06 EST

physicsdiet.com/Public.aspx?u=4a-hea
lthy-bmi

I use Physicsdiet.com to track my weight because it calculates a weighted moving average, smoothing out the fluctuations. (Depending on how much salt I have, I can fluctuate up to 4 lbs from one day to the next.)

physicsdiet.com/Chart.ashx?t=WeightL
oss&s=2...

Would I even recognize me? (old pics and videos)

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:49:55 EST

This is a time-lapse I took of myself, playing with my cats in the spring of 2008.
(The black and white cat is the one who died of old age a couple weeks ago)

This is also from the spring of 2008.

Here's a picture of me in December 2005.

I did have good times then. Life definitely wasn't horrible. I traveled, ...

The long road to recovery

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:37:21 EST

I tore my rotator cuff while snowboarding (on ice, of course) at the end of March. They cut it open and repaired it at the beginning of May.

I did PT April - September. By the time they discharged me from PT in September both arms were at half the strength of the uninjured one in March.

I wasn't even allowed to kayak on rivers again until October. I didn't start really being able to do tricep dips and pushups until this month (December).

This kind of thin...

So close back to my legitimate goal range in terms of the moving average that I can taste it.

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:51:35 EST

This has been a rough year for me.

I was all set to get back into kayaking for my second season and then tore my rotator cuff snowboarding at the end of March.

I had hopes that PT would fix it, and set a goal of getting back into goal range, with a new boat as a reward. I worked hard at it.

Unfortunately the shoulder ended up requiring surgery, which happened in May.

I got back to goal range in late June. There was no point in getting the boat sin...

According to RealAge I'm 40

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:33:43 EST

I got this tradition from Don. http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.as
p?id=DDOORN

Every year he goes to RealAge.com to see what his "biological" age is.

I did it for this year:

2011 40.5

Here are some past years:

2009 38.6
2008 46.1
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=2582089

My actual chronological age? 46 as of Tuesday.

W...

Woo Hoo, back in my Happy Range! I've earned my NEW BOAT!

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:39:21 EST

My current maintenance "goal" weight is 155, with +/- 3% range around it.
(150.4 - 159.7) It's here that my body fat usually settles down to around 20% or below.

And I'm BAAAACK!

It'll take my moving average tracker a few days to catch up which is why my ticker doesn't show it, but YAY. I'm going to have my happy strength to weight ratio back. Where I can really DO things.

It's funny ho...

Look, Ma, no paddle!

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:39:08 EST

Remember when I posted my first kayak rolling videos two years ago? With a paddle?

September 2009
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=2441242
A roll on one side

October 2009
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=2508362
Rolling on both sides

Well, now I can do it in one of my own boats with NO PADDLE! And here's proof!

Did I mention...

It's becoming about the athletics, not the weight loss.

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:37:03 EST

I found myself writing a long response to one of MAGGIEROSEBOWL's blog posts, in which she wondered if not divulging the fact and magnitude of her weight loss meant she wasn't proud of it.
www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=4581118

Here is part of my comment:

In a lot of ways I am prouder of my recent athletic achievements than I am of having lost the weight.

I can whitewater kayak better than almost any w...

Rules for Humans #13 & #14 You will forget all of this. You can remember any time you wish.

Wed, 9 Nov 2011 15:42:49 EST

Rule 13: You will forget all of this.

Rule 14: You can remember any time you wish.

And yes you can. Because they are online here rules4humans.com or you can buy the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076
7902386?tag=manifolds-20

--------------------
For the past 2 weeks I have commented on the Rules for Being Human. I like their sensible approach and now that I'm transitioning back into kayaking and trai...