It should be illegal!

 I mean it really should just be illegal to have any and all metabolic blood work drawn during the holiday seasons.   Ok maybe if you have been very low and all the snacking and cheating would make it better.  But for the rest of us, it should be illegal.

Yes I had fasting blood work drawn today.   It wasn't bad, thank goodness.

My fasting blood sugar was only 100, which actually is pretty good.  My A1C was 6.1 which is the same as last time.  I really REALLY want to get it under 6.  But I've been cheating quite a bit in this last month. so I know that didn't help it go down.   

But I had a very wise dietician when I worked in a dialysis unit tell our patients more than once, it's less what you eat between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and more what you eat between the New Year and Thanksgiving.  So as long as my diet gets back on track in the next couple days, I guess it's all ok.  Or will be.   My next round of lab work will be in mid March so in about 3 months, I'll be able to see if my A1C is any better. 

I've been going through this book

I forgot how great a book this is.  I hear there is a new version of it out, and maybe I might just try to pick it up sometime.  But I forgot how many workout programs there are in this book.  I might just have to pick one and do it.  Last time I did one of his programs, I had great results, even if my diet at the time wasn't that great.

I also picked these up

These are the Rincon 3.  They are pretty dang comfy.  I'm planning on walking on my treadmill in the mornings 3-4 times a week just to get my blood flowing and my step count up a little bit.  Once winter finally ends, yes I know it has hardly begun, I'm going to walk outside with my fat beagle Odin, but for now, treadmill it is. 

Not much to say right now.  Just deciding what workouts to do for the next 4-6 weeks. 

First up in my reading!

 Is this book. 

I ordered this for my Kindle.  I usually prefer to get my fitness books in actual book form cause sometimes I highlight stuff, and I don't know.  I just like my fitness books to be actual books.

But when I went to place my order, it was out of stock.  I put it in my Amazon cart and there was one left, but by the time I got around to ordering, which was about an hour or more later, it said it was out.

Maybe someone else ordered it, maybe they didn't really have one.  I don't know.  But they did have it  for Kindle and I figured it was better to have it on my Kindle than not at all.

I read the forward last night.  Then I snacked on Cheez Its 🙄 Granted, it was a small amount, but still.  I didn't need them.  

I'll review this book when I'm done. 

Where are the other books?

 So in my digging around for my fitness books, I found these

Now I loved my Eat Clean Diet books back in the day.  I had these two, plus two others, that I can't find, and it's pissing me off.

I've looked where I have books, everywhere I can remember I have books.  Now, there might be other places books for put that I either forgot, or wasn't told when we moved.  I've spent a couple hours I know, looking through my books and just nope.  

So now I'm on Amazon looking at more Tosca Reno books.   I want the original Eat Clean Diet cause I used it back when it first came out to help me lose 20lbs, and I started out about where I am right now.  

And she's got a couple out that I never had that I think I want to pick up.   I mean, why not. If nothing else, it will be fun rereading a book I've not looked at in more than a decade.

I also found 2 of these

I also used one of these during my Eat Clean phase back in the early 2000s to drop that 20lbs.  I'm not sure how I ended up with 2 of them, put away in a pile of books in a storage tote, but hey.  

Here's what the inside looks like

I think next week, I'll get one out and use it.  

I also actually tracked macros one day this week!  Yippie to me!  I'm still debating if I want to upgrade to the paid version of Cronometer, or stick with the unpaid version.   Thoughts anyone?

Time for a reread

 Of this book

I read it in 2022.   And I read part of it earlier this year. 

But I think it's time to really REALLY reread it, take notes, highlight,  annotate, all that jazz.   I have things I want to just make habit. 

Tracking my macros, I want that to just be second nature.

Hitting my workouts,  I want it to be habit.

Keeping up on housework cause I slack on that to much.  I need that to be habit.

I'm also getting a little more excited to start my  Year One Challenge,  I might start it a bit early,  maybe do the  3 day a week plan until the new year, then start the 4 day a week plan, which is what I'm planning on doing for phase 1 at least.  Maybe even phase 2.  Then I'd like to start doing 5 days a week of lifting with a little cardio on the side 2-3 days a week. 

Now speaking of keeping the housework up, this short blog will come to an end.  I need to vacuum really quick and get a load of laundry going.   And I need to declutter in my bedroom cause I've sort of got shoes ALL OVER THE PLACE.   Put my shoes away, and maybe get some books put away. 

I need to get back to calorie counting

 Or rather macro tracking, but for simplicity sake, calorie counting.

But I'm just to lazy right now.  I was doing very good tracking  during the spring and summer.  I use this

I switched when My Fitness Pal decided to put their barcode scanner behind a paywall.  This one still has the barcode scanner in the free version.  So I'm using this. Or I was, until I got lazy about Halloween time and I've really not tracked more than a handful of days since then 😳

So I'm going to get back into working my way up to tracking my food by going slow.  First, until the new year, I'll use this method.  Just write down what I eat.  Don't mind calories, don't mind macros, just write it down.

And this is what I use.

This is a Happy Planner big teacher planner.  I have a whole bunch of pages I picked up off a swap site for next to nothing.  I use my white out and I turn it into this.

Sometimes I put pretty day stickers down, or use stickers that day Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Supper, Snack and use stickers across the top for the weekdays.  But I don't do it often cause I don't have that many stickers LOL.  

This helped me back early this year, like at the beginning of the year, get into the habit of writing down my food.  Then I worked on tracking breakfast on Cronometer for a couple weeks, and adding on more meals until I was tracking 5-6 days a week.  Then I broke the habit, and it's back to step 1 all over again.  
Probably why my weight loss has stalled.  I'm not tracking my food, not weighing, measuring, just eating.  But I'm getting back into it, so it's all good to have a minor break, as long as I get back to it.

I'm also well, not enjoying my full body workouts that much.  I never had really enjoyed full body work.   So maybe I'll go back to Joyce workouts, but follow the book until the new year.  I mean, I have the Bottoms Up book, I could just follow it for a couple weeks, then go right into my Year One Challenge for Women.  

Things to think about. 

Books books and more books

 So here are a few of the fitness related books I've got over the years.  Yes, I've been collecting fitness books for decades at this point.  And unless they were damaged far beyond being read anymore, or literally have just gotten lost, I've keep all of them.

Anyway, here are a few.

I was really into the New Rules of Lifting for a while, when the first 2 came out, the original NROL and the one for Women.  I did a couple phases of both those. It didn't work as well as maybe it could have cause I was only using the dumbbells I had which only went up to 12-15lbs.  But I did it and kept moving.   I never really went on to the other workouts 😳   I got into CrossFit shortly after the first couple books came out, and I was big into that for a few years.  Lost 15lbs, and was getting into pretty decent shape but work changed and my hours didn't lend me to go to CrossFit anymore.   I do kind of miss it, but there really isn't a CrossFit place within an hour's drive for me, and I tried to do it alone at home it just wasn't the same. 

So cause I found these, I decided to do the break-in phase of NROL until the new year.  Then I'll move on.

And I did the first workout.  It was actually pretty short.  About 30 min, so I tacked on a 30 min walk on the treadmill at the end. It felt good to get back at it cause all weekend I was pretty lazy.  

I really need to work on being more active during the weekend.  Seems like here lately, I do ok with my activity level during the week, then the weekend hits and I just sit around reading, and moving as little as possible.  I'm surprised at times that my FitBit doesn't message me asking me if I'm dead, or in a coma. 🤣

Maybe that's something I can work on in the new year.  Making sure I move during the weekend as much as I do during the week. 

I should be the fittest person in my area

 My digging around looking for the fitness books I mentioned in my last couple blogs, I've found SO MANY FITNESS BOOKS. OMG I should be the fittest person in Iowa, even if I halfway followed those books.  I'll get more pictures of some of the books I've got in a blog or two.  I mean I have dozens of fitness and diet/eating style books.  Man, I really should have followed more of the advice in these books, but hey, I'm getting it done now, so it's all good. 

But one book I did find, ok technically 2 books I found, even though I didn't really lose them, was these.

Not my actually copy cause mine is beat up and looks horrible.  But I've got this, and I've been reading it(again) cause I've read it a couple times.

And this, the follow along program

I've got this one and I've got a PDF version, which is slightly different.  The PDF is a newer version, and he made a revision or two in it.

I know I've said before I was gonna do this program, and I've started it about 3 times in the past. And I usually quit about the time phase 1 is done.  But I've been working on my mindset.  Changing the way I think from "I never stick with any workout program" to "I can stick with this for at least 6 months"   I think making my mindset that I can and I will follow this program for 6 months, then reevaluate how and where I'm doing, will help me keep going.

This program has several phases, each about 8 weeks long, with 1 week of deloading in-between phases. So i figure those deloading weeks, I'll do my workout videos/DVDs rather than the deloading program.  That way I won't start thinking "I've got all these DVDs I really should do them"  Well, in a couple more weeks I can do them. 

Now I'm not going to start this program until the new year.  I've got a plan already in place for the rest of this year,  and I'm going to stick with it.  Then on Jan 1, I'll start this program (again) but I'll stick with it until June.  Then I'll see if I'm still enjoying myself, if I've made progress, or if I'm ready to move on.

And maybe when I'm done I still might not be the fittest person in Iowa, but I'll be a little closer.

Bottom Up!

 I found these old VHS, yes, the antique VHS copies of the workouts Joyce Vedral put out years ago, Bottoms Up.

And I did the ab one, or rather, I did as much of the ab one as I could manage this weekend.  My abs are WEAK AF.   And while Joyce did 15 reps, I might get 8-10 done.  Oh ok, there were some of the moves I literally laid on my mat, bitching, cause I just couldn't.  I mean I COULDN'T get my abs to move to do that move.  Not 1 rep.  

This week, I did the Upper body on Monday and I loved it.  I really did. I forgot how much of a hoot Joyce is during the workout.  "This is not a game"  I also loved how she was talking about working on your back/shoulders can help hide a big butt and I'm like "But I want a bigger butt" 😂

Tuesday, I did the Lower body, and I just didn't like it as much.  I mean it's not bad I just don't enjoy it as much as I did the upper body workout.    A couple of the moves felt a little weird, off somehow.    Oh well.  I'm still glad I did it cause I worked on my body.

Today, 45 min on the treadmill.  I have a Peloton treadmill, and I LOVE the scenic walks.  I pick a place I'll never get to see in real life, put on i-Pod and pretend I'm really walking in the mountains of Austria.   I actually hit my step goal, 8000, for the day.  First time in probably a week.  I just don't wanna move this time of year.  Sitting and reading, or playing video games, that's all I want to do.  But that doesn't help my cardiovascular system, my bones, my muscles, or my belly get smaller.  So I really need to get up and get moving more, even when I'd rather just hunker down and hibernate like a bear, and lounge and rest and read and relax until spring.

I can thank a friend!

 I'm back blogging thanks to a friend.  She started a blog this month, and she's totally inspired me to get back into my blog.  

Crush it

A link to her blog, if you are interested.

I can also thank her for the workouts I've done in the last couple days.   She had gotten out a lot of her old and I'm talking OLD fitness books, books by Cory Everson, Joyce Vedral, etc. and some of the corresponding workout videos   And a few of them, I have, or had.  I went digging though some of the totes I STILL have yet to unpack, after nearly 4 years after our move.  It was totes FULL of books.  What can I say, I LOVE to read.  And love buying books.  And rereading books.  So I have 2-3 storage totes full of books. Half I've read, half I have yet to get around to cause my to be read pile will never ever be less than 100 books.  Cause I also own both a Kindle and a Nook, and both have multiple books I have read, or need to get around to reading. 

Anyway, I found 2 books.  Bottoms Up by Joyce Vedral,

and Body Flex Body Magic by Anja Langer

a bodybuilder who was very popular around the time Cory Everson was winning Ms Olympia. 

I also bought, or actually repurchased, SuperFlex by Cory Everson

and Hard Bodies by Gladys Portugues.

I also found Train like a Bodybuilder by Erin Stern. 

Now I have so many fitness books and such, that I should be the fittest person in Iowa, but alas, being lazy these last few years, and enjoying foods that are not healthy in any stretch of the imagination have led me towards being the chunky(fat) grandma with Type 2 diabetes.  Sigh.  I mean I must have 20+ fitness books, with eating plans, workouts, motivational tips, etc.  And some I've done, some I've not, and oddly enough, when I do the plan, even half ass it, I tend to get into better shape.  Gee imagine that🙄

So I've been being looking at these books, Remembering a time when, back in the 90s, I followed, loosely, a program in the Cory Everson book, and got in pretty darn good shape.  Of course, I was in my 20s, so... I'm sure that had a lot to do with it lol. But still.  If I could use programs from these books, and get myself back on the weight loss wagon, I'd be thrilled!  I put back on about 2lbs from my 24lb weight loss, thanks to to much stupid Halloween candy, and of course Thanksgiving.  

But until Jan 1 2024, I am mostly going to work on just maintaining what I've lost.  I refuse to allow myself to gain anymore.  Of course if I lost 1-2lbs I'd be very happy, but for now, maintaining what I've lost would be great.  But just keeping the 22-23lbs I've lost off through the season of food, no sunshine, and just wanting to hibernate would be great.  Cause once Jan hits I can sort of almost tell that the sun isn't going down QUITE so early.  I mean it's literally only 2-3 min later than it goes down on the longest night of the year, but by the end of the month, it's more like 20-30 min later.  And going down closer to 5:30pm rather than 4:50pm does make a difference to me, and my just wanting to hibernate like a bear.