One the most interesting revelations throughout these past few weeks is how much the simple things around me has helped me cope with the challenges of this endeavor. For anyone who has tried to lose weight, you know it isn’t easy. Most of all it isn’t easy to stay motivated. Just as in my previous post regarding the holidays, there are obstacles everyday that impede my progress to achieve the ultimate goal. This past week, i was thrown another curve ball that I’m sure everyone faces at this time of year… I developed a cough and cold! Now that made it tough to just do my everyday tasks and made it even tougher to convince myself to go to the gym. The first thought I had was that it would be another reason to miss days and further push me behind in my program after the “holiday hiatus”. Guess what came to the rescue… the Nintendo Wii!
My kids had received the Wii and a game called the Wii Fit Plus from their grandmother as a Christmas gift. So here I sat sniffling and coughing away thinking, “I guess I gotta skip today” when out of boredom I thought of making a Mii character (this is what they call the character that you make to play the different games on the Wii). But the interesting thing was that the Wii Fit Plus game actually tries to make an accurate model of myself and asks to take measurements such as BMI and Weight that it will track daily and place on a graph. More importantly, it asks me to create a goal to achieve over a catered time frame. Sure enough the measurements indicated that I was “obese” and need to lose weight. Next it had some exercises to perform and estimates calorie consumption after the exercise is done; I did some of exercises or games and lets just say it got me going.
Since that day, I use the Wii to measure my progress instead of a scale just because it’s more visual and interactive. I don’t exercise on it much except to play with the kids but I gotta say the whole thing prevented me from slacking off that one day and the next day I was back on schedule. I’m not suggesting that everyone should get a Nintendo Wii, rather I think there are simple motivations around us, you just got to find one for yourself.
UPDATE: So how is my obstructive sleep apnea today? Well I’ve lost about 8% of my bodyweight in 1.5 months but more importantly I lost about 0.25 inches in my neck-size. This I feel is a great simple tool to gauge if there is any improvements to the severity of one obstructive sleep apnea; even more than BMI and Weight alone. As a resource for everyone, here is the formula for the adjusted neck circumference that can be used as a predictor for having OSA.
ANC = (Neck Size in centimeters) + (4 cm) if one has hypertension + (3 cm) if a habitual snorer + (3 cm) if you choke or gasp in the middle of the night
If your size is less than 43 cm you have a LOW probability, 43 to 48 cm you have an INTERMEDIATE probability, and if your ANC is greater than 48 cm you have a HIGH probability.
Filed under: Sleep, Sleep Apnea, Tips | Leave a Comment »
