Category Archives: health & fitness

A narrative of my journeys with diet, exercise, and various healthcare professionals

weight loss

Diet & Fitness Reboot

I allowed myself one week to keep eating as I had been, instead of jumping back into weight-loss mode right away. Figured it might be better on me both physically and mentally, being that my body was still pumped full of pregnancy hormones. This past week, though, I started purposefully increasing my activity level and tracking my food intake.

Monday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Tuesday: 30 min walk + 15 minutes of jogging on a trampoline (rebounding)
Wednesday: 30 min walk + PUSH DVD #2, Session #1
Thursday: 30 min walk + 10 minutes of DDR Supernova, workout mode (60 calories burned)
Friday: 30 min walk

I signed up for an account on SparkPeople, mainly because a.) I’d been tracking my food intake on their BabyFit website, and b.) I had previously been tracking my food using Diet Organizer on my PDA, but my PDA battery had died. I only recently replaced said battery, after I already got in the SparkPeople habit.

I’m planning to give my impressions of SparkPeople on an upcoming podcast, but I’ll mention here that I like it overall. It touts the “Spark Diet,” which is mainly just Eat Right And Exercise, but it’s really the tracking that does it. Plus, there are “trophies” members can achieve by earning SparkPoints online. SparkPoints can be had by entering food eaten, entering exercises done, tracking goals, reading articles, reading e-mails, logging in, and basically just surfing around the site. It’s an ingenious idea to generate return traffic, and to keep people entering their info daily.

My weight hasn’t changed this week; I’m still at 201.5 lbs. I’m OK with that, though — at least I’ve lost and kept off the few pounds I put on in those two months of pregnancy. Now I have the chance to lose at least ten more pounds before we try again. The healthier I am, the better… although going through the medical game of 20 Questions at the hospital last month made me realize that my only major health issue IS my weight. Apart from that, I’m good to go. No heart disease, allergies, high blood pressure, any of that. So, count me lucky, I suppose.

Next week, I plan to measure myself and compare to my last measurements from September (if I can find them… I think I inadvertently threw away the sheet I’d recorded them on, thinking they were also in my PDA).

Here we go, on another fun weight-loss adventure. The way I figure, I should be able to jump in where I left off in the Fall, and keep on losing half a pound a week, if not more. If I can do that, I can lose ten pounds by the time we leave for our trip to Japan (during which I may end up gaining it all back). 🙂

health & fitness 3 Comments

An Open Letter To Aetna

Dear Aetna:

I have been covered under my husband’s insurance, provided by your company, since we were married in 2003. However, as my family did not always have insurance coverage, I did not get in the habit of visiting medical professionals for regular checkups. Therefore, up until recently, I only had rare occasion to use my husband’s insurance, and had little to no problems with the coverage.

When my husband and I decided to try to conceive, I decided that I should visit a gynecologist, to get a pap test and ensure that all my parts were functioning properly. My doctor prescribed pre-natal vitamins, which were covered by my husband’s prescription program (not through your company). My pap test, however, was not covered by Aetna, and I had to pay $148 for an exam which is generally accepted to be a necessary preventative measure for all adult women. Since this expense was not for the treatment of an existing condition, and was considered preventive medicine rather than treatment, your company did not foot the bill.

One is forced to wonder whether Aetna would prefer millions of women to develop cervical cancer, instead of paying for the preventative measure of an annual pap test.

Yours truly,
Diana Schnuth

health & fitness

Con Crud

I feel pretty asstastic. Queasy, sore throat, drainage, dry eyes. I think I must’ve caught the Con Crud at Youmacon this weekend or something. I haven’t felt like eating all day, and I nearly went to bed at 9pm tonight, just because I felt like it.

Con Crud. AKA Convention Flu. Notorious for striking convention-goers after they have returned from said convention. Con Crud does not discriminate; it can strike con-goers of anime conventions, sci-fi conventions, basically any convention with a massive amount of people in an enclosed space for a weekend’s time.

I assume that’s what I’ve got, anyway.

I’m fading fast, but I need to go clean up my candlemaking mess before I go to bed. Ugh.

weight loss 4 Comments

Patting Myself on the Back

I’ve kept track of my weight in Excel ever since December of 2002. Yep, I’m in it for the long haul.

It does me good sometimes to remember how far I’ve come, and how good I’ve managed to stay, for the most part. I lost fifty, gained ten, and lost ten again.

Also: look where the big post-loss gains are. Christmas 2004 and Thanksgiving/Christmas 2005. Tell ya something? Tells me that I don’t work off that holiday hogging, and I let it get the best of me instead. I’m all for enjoying Christmas dinner with Aaron’s family, and even eating “evil” foods like stuffing and sweet potatoes and dessert (OMG sausage cake!). This year, though, I need to be all for ramping up the workouts the week afterward, too.

Just a quick pick-me-up pep talk, and a reminder that I don’t suck. Now I need to walk my talk.

health & fitness 1 Comment

Head Cold Update

Got a sore throat last week. Started taking medication to head it off at the proverbial pass. Nasal spray, Theraflu, Mucinex, generic Meijer severe cold tablets, and plain old tea with honey.

Had a couple days of runny nose, some hoarseness, but nothing too serious. Thought I’d successfully fought it off.

Yesterday and today, I was SO exhausted. I can breathe, sure, and I can speak and hear fine, but I’m dead tired. Hence the lack of substantial blogging. And the fact that I posted my podcast a day late, since I couldn’t make myself focus on editing yesterday.

I was so tired this morning, I declared a do-over. I called in late to work, went back to bed for 15 minutes, then got up and started my morning over. Sure, I had to take a short lunch today, and will again tomorrow, but I think it was worth it. I actually felt pretty good until the evening, when I really started to crash.

Speaking of… it’s totally time for bed.