Archive for the ‘exercise’ Category
Reboot Camp Continues – This Time, Exercise
As mentioned in a few earlier posts, I have really been struggling with my exercise routine.
This summer I decided to follow a couple of different HIIT exercise programs and while they were okay, for a while, I eventually felt like I was losing ground cardio-vascularly. Maybe it the fact that I was panting on the Nordic Track after just five minutes that gave it away – can anyone say, “Former Spinning Instructor”?
Since HIIT is all the rage, I decided that I simply must not be doing it right. Right?
Well, I logged into the members area for the program that I was doing on-line and all of the women that it was working for were using it as a supplement to their other cardio workouts! One woman in particular, was bragging about how it had really improved her training.
What training, you ask?
The training she was doing for her upcoming marathon!
No wonder it was working for her! Jeez!
I expressed my dismay about my less than optimal hit rate with my then current HIIT program to my personal coach (who is not, btw, my fitness coach) and she said, oh yeah, I do HIIT – it’s great. I’ll send you a workout and a mix tape. Make sure you do a 15 minute power walking a couple times a day in addition to these more bursty-type exercises.
Okay. Why not? I’ve tried everything else this summer….
So, I start with 15 minutes on the Nordic Track (HIIT style; 30:30 sec interval ratio) as a warm up.
The new HIIT workout (6 different exercises on a 60:60 second interval ratio)
Then 10 minutes cool down, back on the Nordic Track
I just about died.
Did I mention that twice a week, I’m supposed to do this not once a day, but twice?!
I feel bad about switching horses in midstream, so to speak, but that’s life!
Maybe I’ll mix in the other routines on the days that I’m supposed to do two sets.
Regardless, in just three days, I can already feel a big difference – and this time, in the right direction – in my body!
Go me!
I’ll keep you posted!
Shining the Light On the Ghost of Gym Teachers Past
A few weeks ago (or maybe months at this point), I told you that I had started doing High Intensity Interval Training, otherwise known as H.I.I.T.
I was pretty excited about it and I told you that I would keep you posted. Part of the reason I was excited about it is that it gives you little bursts of energy – bursts of energy that may very well have saved the life of Michael J’s super-friendly, but not overly bright feline, Harlequin. But that’s another story and one that I’ve shared before.
Since that fortuitous day, my love of H.I.I.T. has dwindled.
1) It’s hard.
2) It’s not nearly as fun as spinning.
3) Did I mention that it’s hard?
Or at least that’s the story I kept telling myself – all the while ignoring the fact that I loved how I felt once I was done (partly because it is hard and I really felt like I accomplished something) and how I could literally see and feel myself getting stronger by the day.
So, I sat down and really thought about it. Why do I dislike this so much? Why do I have such strong internal resistance to this particular form of exercise? I mean, seriously. I am a woman who did P90X (three times) with more enthusiasm. So what’s the deal?
The clues to the answer to my question came from two places.
One, I was bemoaning my fate to my Aunt Linda and she said, “I think I might actually like this. It sounds like the stuff we used to do in school. And it doesn’t sound like you need a lot of fancy equipment.”
Ding.
Something resonated deep down in the depths of my psyche.
Two, I’ve been working with a personal coach who is awesome. She’s been having me do written exercises that will help me bust through the resistance I have to doing certain things in my real life – things like reviewing articles, starting my book, cleaning the house, doing H.I.I.T. exercises.
During the one of the exercises, one of the steps is to write down all of the negative emotions and thoughts associated with doing H.I.I.T. When I got to that part, I heard that same low tone. And all of a sudden, I was back at the gym at Carver Middle School, during the week of the the Presidential Fitness Test – thank you Ronald Reagan. May you be best remembered for terrorizing poor, clumsy, fat kids across America.
I realized that not only did H.I.I.T. remind me of middle school gym class in general (just like they had reminded my Aunt of hers), but it also reminded me of one particular instance of middle school gym class that was so personally horrifying that I didn’t even tell my sister about it until a few months ago (some 27 years after the fact). And when I told Michael J., sometime after that, I cried.
Methinks herein lies the problem.
I’m putting this out there – shining the light on my demons, if you will – to see if I can exorcise them once and for all and hopefully, get on with the act of exercising!
At my middle school, we had a female coach (Coach Holmes) and a male coach (Coach Rogers). Technically, I was in Coach Rogers’ class, who was a very sensitive and perceptive soul. However, during the week of the Presidential FItness Tests, all of the girls went to Coach Holmes’ office to get weighed and measured and all the boys reported to Coach Rogers’. Unfortunately, Coach Holmes, though nice enough, was not nearly as sensitive or perceptive as her male counterpart.
Imagine, if you will, a group of middle-school aged girls standing in line as the teacher for all intents and purposes shouts out your weight to her student aid, who just happened to be her very attractive, athletic, and if memory serves reigning kick-pin champion/cheerleader daughter, Kendra.
I step onto the scale.
Dead silence.
I look at Coach Holmes.
She looks at me.
We look at the scale: 180.
“It must be broken,” she says.
“It’s not broken,” I say. “Why would it be broken now when it wasn’t broken when anyone else stepped on it?”
“That can’t be right,” she says.
“It’s right,” I assure.
Kendra, bless her heart, looks embarrassed.
“Go down to Coach Roger’s office and use his scale. That can’t be right.”
“It’s right.”
“Just do down to Coach’s office and try it again.”
I remember stepping off the scale and marching, face beet red, down to the other end of the cavernous gym, thinking I had never been so mortified in my life.
I was wrong.
Halfway down the length of the basketball quart, I hear Coach Holmes yell, “Coach Rogers, I’m sending Lively down there to weigh, because I think this scale is broken.”
The entire gym fell silent and 60 pairs of eyes landed on my chubby body simultaneously.
Someone laughed.
(Do you blame them?)
I kept my head up and walked steadily into Coach Roger’s office.
“Lively?”
“It’s not broken,” I said.
And he nodded silently and laid a sympathetic hand on my arm. “I’ll tell her.”
Maybe there is something valuable about airing your dirty laundry, because as I tell it, it doesn’t seem that bad. But as I carried it around with me for years, it was one of my most tightly guarded miseries. I’m hopeful that tomorrow, when it’s time to exercise, I will not feel that lingering sense of dread, reluctance, or resistance.
By putting it out there for the world to see, to share, and perhaps even to think, “What’s she complaining about? That’s nothing,” maybe it will, indeed, become nothing.
As always, I’ll let you know.
And if any of my old middle school friends read this and you ever happen to see Coach Holmes, give her my best. Because I realize, in retrospect, that that’s what she was only trying to do.
Searching for a new love
It’s important to love what you do – else you won’t do it.
When you find something you love, it’s not a chore. You feel awesome afterwards. You enjoy it in process. You look forward to doing it. And you miss it when you’re not doing it.
When you haven’t found something you love (but you’re making yourself do it anyway) it’s always a chore. You don’t feel awesome afterwards (if you’re lucky, you just feel relieved). You don’t enjoy it in process. You dread doing it and are therefore susceptible to any reason to not do it. And you certainly don’t miss it when you’ve skipped it. You might feel guilty, because all too often it’s something that you should have done, but you don’t actually regret not having done the thing itself.
This is true of almost everything that you know you should be doing.
In this case, it’s exercise.
For those of you who know me, you might be surprised that I am bemoaning exercise. I mean, I am addicted to exercise, right?
Wrong.
I was addicted to the long drawn out intensive cardio workouts that the new weight loss experts actually tell you causes fat storage!
I liked being on the stair mill for an hour.
I loved spinning!
I loved the feeling of working out anaerobically and being drenched in sweat!
Since I gave up spinning (almost two years ago) I have been struggling to find a new love.
I tried straight cardio, which, as noted, has been suggested actually causes fat storage (and based on my own experience and the credentials of the weight loss coaches I have encountered, I believe it). I tried kettle bells, and I have tried High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
HIIT works, no doubt about it. Problem is that I don’t love it, so it’s hard for me to be consistent with it. It’s hard and even though it’s only 20 or 30 (or sometimes 40 minutes depending on the workout) there is a big psychological resistance to be overcome every time I think about dusting off the exercise shoes.
Then of course there is my own ongoing love affair (NOT!) with yoga. Oh, if I could just learn to love yoga! I love yoga clothes. I love how good it is for you on any number of fronts. Hell, I love the bodies of the women I know that do it. But there’s just something missing.
Then there’s the newest weapon in my arsenal: Belly Dancing.
I actually tried Belly Dancing today. It was fun. It was harder than it looked. It is definitely going into the rotation – even if only because I want to wear the nifty belt!
Spinning was my one true love – followed quickly by the TreadClimber, then the StairMill.
Everything else has been a far fourth, fifth, and sixth.
I’m not sure how to remedy that. Though maybe I’ll just mix it up. Maybe if I have five or six things I sort of like, I’ll be able to convince myself to do at least one of them (if not more).
Yeah, as my father is so fond of saying, that’s the ticket. I’ll mix things up and see how that goes. And maybe, just maybe, if I try hard enough and squint long enough, I’ll fall in love again when I least expect it!
Wish me luck.
Revisiting Exercises from Days Long Past
Everyone always tells you that exercise should be fun – because, let’s face it, if it’s not fun you’re less likely to want to do it. And despite the fact that recent research has now pretty much shown that exercise is not going to make you thin, there are a lot of positive benefits of getting your heart rate up – the least of which include helping your body absorb calcium from the blood, detoxifying your skin, and strengthening your heart.
So what does it mean to find an exercise that you love?
As adults, particularly women, we tend to think about exercise as going to a gym or taking a class. Admittedly, men are more likely to have stayed active with sporting activities or games throughout their lives, for example, playing pick up basketball at community gyms or going rock climbing, skiing, or cycling on the weekends with their friends.
But if you watch young kids play, they are constantly in a state of motion. They don’t need any excuse to exercise. They don’t need any additional motivation. You don’t need to convince them to move. In fact, if anything, you usually have to convince them to stop running, to sit down, to take a nap, and to settle down. Unfortunately these messages are usually pretty well internalized by the time they’re teens – which is the time when they need to start running, to get up, to stop sleeping, and pick it up. This is especially true for young women whose bodies (especially if they’ve grown up drinking dairy products enriched with fat storing growth hormones) are naturally designed to start storing fat upon adolescence.
Kids move their bodies.
Adults look for excuses not to.
Well, yesterday, I was doing a round of High Intensity Interval Training and one of the sets was to skip in place.
Remember skipping? 
It took me a minute as I really had to think about what I was requiring my body to do. You throw one arm up as the opposite knee also goes up? What?!
After a couple of false starts, I figured it out. And once I did, my body memory kicked in and I remembered: I love skipping! Or, more accurately, when I was a kid, I loved skipping! I didn’t just like it. I seriously loved it! In fact, I remember my mother telling me repeatedly to slow down, to stop skipping, to not skip in the house, etc. Now, granted, I was a bit of a klutz, so I’m sure that I spent more time on the ground face first than I did moving gracefully above ground and we also lived in a pretty small house, so she was probably just looking out for my best interest – so I don’t mean to be bashing my mom. But the bottom line is that eventually I stopped skipping. I stopped skipping so resolutely that I had completely forgotten about it. I had completely forgotten about how much I loved it.
So, during my H.I.I.T. I was supposed to skip in place 75 times.
Without going into too much detail, let me just say that that’s harder than it sounds! I was gasping by the end of it. I was particularly out of breath given that you did this 12 times, plus a lot of other stuff (the entire routine was based off the of the song The Twelve Days of Christmas with the skipping on day one! Just in case math isn’t your strong suit: 75 times 12 is a 900 skips. That’s a lot of skips. If you don’t believe me, just give it a shot!
Well, after that I started thinking. What would my life had been like if I had never stopped skipping? How many calories a day would I have burned just doing something that I loved instead of doing something that I felt like I had to do? How much better shape would I be in if I skipped from my car to the office and back again? Or if I skipped from one end of the house to the other ten times a day as I went about my daily routine? More importantly, how much more fun would I have?
So, after my 20 minute exercise routine, I drank some water and decided to skip to the end of the driveway and back. Michael J and I live in a house that’s pretty set back from the road; I would guess that it’s less than a quarter mile, but I couldn’t tell you for certain. It is pretty steep though, at least in places. Regardless, I took a deep breath and without so much as even taking a glance around to see if anyone was watching, I took off.
Skipping in the real world is fun. Skipping in motion (that is, not in place in your living room) is fun and exhilarating. There’s enough movement that it creates a nice breeze. I felt ten years younger. I laughed. I had fun!
Heading down hill (away from the house) my heart rate pretty quickly went from 85 (post workout) to 115 and by the time I had made it to the street it was 145. After taking a few seconds rest, I turned around and headed back up the hill, which, granted, was much harder. By the time I crested the last hill, I was totally winded and my heart rate was 162!
But it was fun! In less than 6 minutes, I burned about 70 calories and had a complete physiological and emotional state change. Not only because I was moving my body, but because I was moving it in a way that brought back memories of being happy, easy, free, and comfortable in my body. I was literally transported back to a time where I accepted myself whole heartedly and could enjoy being in my body without any feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment or shame. And trust me, that’s worth something.
If you need to mix up your routine or you just need a quick way to shift your state, try skipping. Or, better yet, reach into your old childhood toy box and find find the thing that you used to love the most. Even if you don’t think you remember how to do it, I bet your body can remind you. And even if you think you’re body can’t do it because you’re too old or you’re too out of shape or that you couldn’t possibly still like X, Y, or Z, I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
Personality and Stress Eating
I have battled with stress eating my whole life. I always assumed that it was a lack of will power.
I am currently at a five day seminar on personality types. (Michael J and I are all about the learning vacations!)
Yesterday we covered the Myers-Brigg in more detail than I have even seen it covered in any psychology class in college.
Much to my chagrin, I am still a hard core INTJ (Introvert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger). I would like to think that I have have practiced my Feeling muscle over the years, but it’s not totally clear after sitting at a table with a bunch of self-identified hard core feelers.
The interesting thing (one of many) about yesterday’s presentation, is they helped us to identify our strengths and our weaknesses. The thing that you are most weak in is your achilles heel, so to speak, and under times of stress, you revert back to it. It’s sort of like letting a 3 year old drive your brand new Mercedes! Because my weakness is Extroverted Sensing, under times of stress, I often seek out whole body sensory activities, which, if left unchecked, can manifest itself in addictions – to food, to alcohol, to drugs! (Notably, my struggle with stress eating has tripled since I stopped drinking red wine on a regular basis).
Interestingly (and I actually felt good about this), my positive “hack” is exercise.
This means when I get to feeling overwhelm and stress in my strength, my Introverted Intuition, instead of reaching for the almond butter or tahini (or whatever the full fat flavor of the week happens to be) I should exercise! Even if it’s just a short ten or fifteen minute burst.
I tend to do this anyway, but hopefully having this insight will encourage me to do that first, instead of after the fact.
Although the course is on personality type, I think it’s really about preference and habits. I’m hoping to get some additional tips on how to not only strengthen my strengths but also to strengthen (or at the very least shore up) my weaknesses.
Female Fat Loss Over Forty
No doubt about it, Facebook is the internet marketer’s best friend.
A few days ago, I posted a comment-status-thingie on Facebook about doing Tabata Training and or High Intensity Training (H.I.I.T.) and – literally – within 24 hours an information products ad popped up on my profile that was obviously tailor made for me. The headline was Female Fat Loss Over Forty and said something about working out less than 15 minutes a day. I knew exactly what it was when I clicked on it. And, in fact, it was almost as if Facebook had been sitting in my living room listening in (which they may have been given their egregious privacy policies), because I had just said – not five minutes before – that I really wish I could just find a bunch of H.I.I.T. workouts that were timed for you, etc.
Ask and you shall receive.
Besides it was only $29.00, so why not?
So, I hit the button and in my mailbox arrives Fat Loss Over Forty (plus bonuses – of course)!
Actually, all I’ve been doing is the bonus, which is a 21 day fat loss program, which includes three 30 minute workouts (an interesting cross between Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred and P90X) and 3 days of 20 minute H.I.I.T. workouts (to be done on your off days). Other bonuses include a pretty standard diet/nutrition program (which is worthless to me, but might be a good start for someone who hasn’t really thought about nutrition) and a two page reminder of the biochemical benefits of sleep! It also comes with a full color exercise encyclopedia.
The woman is Canadian. She’s a health and fitness coach with a string of letters behind her name. And she seems to have a penchant for bad pop music. (I’m pretty sure that was Lady Gaga she was playing in the background). And she’s shooting these workout in her living room!
Now, you may think that’s pretty cheesy and you’d never buy an exercise video of someone working out in their home. However, there is something really endearing about someone checking their notes between exercises, breathing hard right along with you, and working out in the same non-optimal conditions you are! I particularly had to laugh when she was doing skaters and the rug kept sliding out from beneath her feet. Been there!
I also like the fact that she is over 40 and she gets winded – really winded! Seriously, the woman is working. And it makes me feel less self-conscious about my own panting and groaning.
Now I’ve done videos/DVDs for years, and I must say that this is as serious a workout as I have ever gotten with Jillian Michaels (and with a heck of a lot less impact on the knees).
And let me also say that the first “off day,” where I did the H.I.I.T. training, kicked my ass.
Another benefit to this particular approach to home fitness, is that I was able to download all of this stuff immediately onto my computer, which means I will be able to take it with me – without having to cart around a bunch of DVDs – while I am traveling this summer.
According to the marketing, this is what I can expect to experience in the next 28 days:
* Firmer arms, legs, thighs, and buns
* Increased strength, energy, and stamina
* Faster Metabolism to burn more fat at rest
* Tighter, flatter abs – means smaller waist
* 4-12 pounds of weight loss
* 3-6% decrease in body fat
* Increased muscle tone and flexibility
* Greater confidence and self-esteem
* Decreased stress, tension, and anxiety
* Increased sense of overall well being
* Reduce cravings for fats, sugars, and junk foods
* Sleep better at night and increase daily productivity
* Decrease back pain and discomfort
* Lose the uncomfortable “bloated” feeling
* Look and feel better in your favorite clothes
Sounds pretty good! Even if I just accomplish a third of that, I’ll feel like I got my money’s worth!
Regardless, I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
By the way, today’s workout was awesome: 30 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest (which really was just about the time it took to change positions), for a total of 30 minutes. Super challenging, but absolutely enjoyable – probably because I knew if I didn’t like something (or, better yet, couldn’t do something) it wouldn’t last long!
My new favorite blog and (believe it or not) it’s not about food!
I’ve never been one to follow exercise blogs, but I stumbled across this one a few days ago and have found myself returning again and again: GetFitTv with Jenny DiDonato. I originally found her when I did a google search on Tabata Training and I was immediately riveted. For more information on Tabata, you can check on Jenny’s introduction, here.
So, why do I like her so much?
- She covers a wide range of exercises and for people at all levels of fitness (ranging from Tabata training to Kettlebells for beginners).
- She’s easy to follow.
- She looks like a real person – albeit with a body that any woman would envy.
- She’s really just showing you how to do the exercises without a lot of hype.
- She also covers a range of health topics, including things like strengthening tired knees, the health benefits of the contents of your spice rack, etc. And for those of you who actually cook your food, she also has a number of healthy recipes you can check out!
Although I haven’t figured out her approach entirely, apparently she posts a new video episode every weekend and if you’re truly motivated, you can watch in real time via ustream, submit questions, and all that stuff. Me? I tend to come to things late, so I’ve just been cruising the archives.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a no nonsense way to diversify your fitness routine, check her out! I’ve certainly added her to my bookmarks!!!
H.I.I.T. – 1 Fox – 0
A little while ago, decided to hang up my long distance cardio shoes and have been been experimenting with shorter workouts, which have eventually culminated in a method known as High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T). According to the latest gym logic, H.I.I.T., through a combination of short explosive movements and short rest periods in between cranks up your metabolism, in large part because you’re building muscle and generating heat in your core.
Because you only do it for up to 20 minutes you also trick your body into not releasing cortisol, which is a hormone that the body releases when you’re under stress (unlike what happens when you work out hard for periods longer than 20 minutes). Cortisol, for those of you who don’t know, is a stress hormone that signals to your body that it needs to store fat! And not just any old fat – but belly fat! (No wonder I couldn’t lose those last 10 pounds when I was spinning; my body thought I needed that to survive)!
Regardless, when I first started this, I began with 4 one minute sets of getting up and down out of a chair as fast as I could, with a minute of rest between sets.
(Yes, these are the basic equivalent of squats, but when you sit down each time, you get to experience that extra little gift of gravity – which, after a set or two, begins to feel like the gift that keeps on giving).
I must admit that when this was first suggested to me, I laughed. I thought, there is no way that this is going to get my heart rate up.
Wrong!
By the end of the first set I was huffing and puffing like a steam engine. (And keep in mind, I’m in pretty good shape!)
After a couple of days of this, I was able to keep in adding reps – not time mind you, but reps. So, whereas the first day I did 45-46-49-42, by the end of just a few days, I was well into the 50s, if not the 60s.
One of the big selling points about this form of training (besides only taking 20 minutes a day [or in my case less than 10]) is that it increases your ability to engage in short explosive bursts of intense exercise, because you are training your body to store excess energy in the muscles (as glycogen) instead of in the belly (as fat).
So, you may be asking, what does this have to do with a fox?
Earlier this week, I let Michael J’s cat, Harley, outside. We live in the country and Harley has been an indoor/outdoor cat for several years. Personally, whenever I let him out, I always tell him to have fun, to stick around the house, and not to get eaten on my watch.
(The indoor/outdoor cat policy is one of the few things about which Michael J and I truly disagree!)
As I went around puttering in the kitchen with my very cosseted indoor cat, I heard this God awful cacophony outside. The crows were literally going nuts.
My first thought was that Harley has killed a bird (another reason why Cat is an indoor cat) and is – quite possibly – getting attacked by crows.
Only slightly annoyed, I headed out onto the deck and was immediately struck by three things.
- Those birds are really loud!
- The sun is absolutely gorgeous hitting the trees!
- Why are the horses standing right at the edge of the stone wall (all three of them) staring at the same point like they’ve seen a ghost)?
Though it really did look like something out of a Disney film, I followed their line of their vision and lo and behold: 
‘Where’s Harley?’
And like clockwork, there he was – curious little creature that he is – about 10 feet from our bushy tailed visitor.
The list of blood curdling expletives that exploded in my brain and were torn from my lungs are not fit to print, but it’s fair to say that I pretty much brought the house down! I certainly woke Michael J, who until that moment, had been enjoying a rare Tuesday morning lie-in!
The funny thing was is that I was so panicked that I literally could not figure out how to get off of the deck and down to the stone wall, which is maybe 150 feet from the house. I also was afraid that if I took my eyes off of the scene in front of me that Harley was doomed. (As if me standing on the deck screaming was really making that much of a difference!)
Eventually – it was probably only fifteen seconds, but it felt like an eternity – I figured out how to get off the deck (that is, I remembered that there were stairs!) and took off, literally, like a shot!
I have never moved so fast in my life.
Was it the H.I.I.T. or just the sheer volume of adrenaline?
It’s hard to tell, but I’ll say one thing: I learned in that moment that there are very good reasons other than what you’re going to look like in a bathing suit this summerto be able to engage in short, explosive bursts of concentrated activity!
As I got closer to them (the fox had not given up at this point), I slowed down and took a series of deep calming breaths.
The last thing I wanted to do was to scare Harley, who at this point, was getting a little jittery himself.
Let’s just say that the tension was pretty high on all fronts.
Did did I mention that the birds were still screaming? Seriously, the racket was deafening.
So, here I am, in my pjs, barefoot, standing between a scared house cat (who at least at this point had figured out that something was wrong), three spooked horses, and a predator. And all of this against a soundtrack that sounded suspiciously like something out of a Hitchcock film!
Luckily for me (and for Harley and for Michael J, who by this time was also on the scene), Harley actually came to me and allowed himself to be scooped up and carried back to the waiting arms of his father.
Interestingly enough, three things happened as soon as Harley was off the ground: the fox cut and ran, the horses cut and ran, and the birds – bless them and their ungodly warning system – fell eerily silent.
Well, four things, as my commitment to H.I.I.T. pretty much doubled.
Learning to Listen
Filed under: calories, challenges, exercise, struggles, weight loss |
Leave a Comment Over the last few weeks I have been doing my best to learn to listen to and, subsequently, trust my body.
I’m doing this, in part, because I am beginning to appreciate that my longest term, most committed relationship to date is not the one I share with my 19 year old long haired white tortoise shell cat, but the one that I share with my body.
And unlike all of the men in my life, the relationship that I have with my physical self is literally, “Til death do us part.”
With a little help from some very talented weight loss coaches, I’ve come to understand that I need to love my body, because when I start loving her (notice I did not say it), she will start loving me back.
When I start trusting her, she will start trusting me.
And when that happens, we will begin to do what we want.
And what we want, ostensibly, is to feel great, have tons of energy, and live comfortably in our skin.
My journey towards self acceptance started about two years ago when I realized that there was some part of me that still linked weight loss to death. I named that part of me Kathy Jo and have since teamed up with her so that we can, in fact, reach our shared health goals.
Today, my body was hungry. Very hungry.
In fact, by 10:30 a.m., not only had I eaten breakfast, I had also had a couple of snacks and started lunch.
Was this a binge? No, not really. And I say that not because I didn’t eat 750 calories in the space of a few hours (which I did), but because I took several deep breaths between bites, drank quite a bit of water, and really thought about the question: Are you really hungry?
As it turned out, the answer was yes.
So, I ate: an Organic Raw bar, a handful of raw almonds, a serving of tomato and basil soup (also raw), and a zucchini sliced up like Ruffles Potato Chips.
Then, not surprisingly since I had just consumed all that energy, my body wanted to move.
Was this the mind, feeling guilty about all that food? Maybe. I hope not.
So my body and I packed up our work and went to the gym.
And instead of punching in a pre-selected workout, I did whatever my body felt like doing – at whatever length and at whatever level of intensity.
And the minute that she was done – the minute that it even whiffed of punishment – I stopped.
I didn’t push.
I wasn’t disappointed.
In fact, as it turned out, I actually had a better workout (body-wise, heart-rate-wise, and even calorie-wise) when I let her do it.
My weight loss coaches tell me that the body doesn’t like to be defined by a number on the scale and the body certainly doesn’t like counting calories.
While I have let her have her way on the former, I still cling stubbornly to the latter. I’d like to think that I am merely recording what I eat, without actually restricting what I eat, but – in practice – I know that’s not entirely true.
Sometimes I wonder what (and how much) I would eat if I stopped counting calories. Other times I wonder if it would be possible for me to sit down to a meal and not automatically know how many calories were adorning the plate.
My biggest fear is that I would overeat (whatever that means) and that I would do it often.
My coaches, however, would say that if I were truly listening, I would only do it once, because the body doesn’t like to be numbed out, overfull, or stuffed. That if I truly listened, I’d reach for the salad naturally instead of the tahini or the cacao or, better yet, the full-fat, full-sugar ice cream that I haven’t had in months, if not years.
Needless to say, I’m not entirely there yet.
But I am listening – or at least I am trying.
And, perhaps even more importantly, I forgive myself for my inability to trust.
I also keep reminding myself (particularly every time I fire up LoseIt) that the more I listen, the more likely it is that I will eventually hear.
Exercise and Weight Loss (or Not)
Fascinating (albeit somewhat depressing) article on the effects of exercise on weight loss.
Lots of science! And backs up my own experience of rapidly dropping weight after dropping the heavy duty calorie burns associated with spinning!
Favorite quote, which explains a lot:
In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat. Exercise for many women (and for some men) increases the desire to eat.
This isn’t the first article I’ve read that has caused me to rethink my attitude on exercise. For a less scientific, but perhaps more human perspective, check it out here!
Meanwhile, I’m off to do some yoga and get some sleep – two strategies that are (or at least still) consistently associated with shedding unwanted pounds.
Namaste and goodnight.
One Hundred Pushups
My colleague invited me to join her in her quest to do 100 consecutive push ups. Since I’m normally the extreme exerciser in the office – though not so much lately – I agreed to join her.
My initial test yielded 18 good push-ups; obviously I’ve lost quite a bit since my back to back P90X days!
Anyone care to join us? Come on, you can even get your very own iPhone app to keep you motivated. How much fun is that?
Regardless, I’ll keep you posted periodically as to my (our) progress!
Breaking Fast (and heading into the 21-day Sugar Detox)
Well, the limeade fast is officially over. I got up this morning, did some yoga, had some herbal tea, waited for Michael J to get up, then made the Biotics NutriClear and Rice Protein Shake. I blended in a couple of extra ice cubes to make sure it was chilled, then served it in goblets.
It was okay. But more to the point, it wasn’t limeade! Laugh!
I personally think it’s nothing a little cinnamon and vanilla bean wouldn’t fix (though MJ wants his cacao)! We decided to try it straight the first time and see how long we could last before we start the modifications. Though it’s breaking protocol, we figure anything that doesn’t contain sugar is fair game!
I realized how weak I’ve gotten doing yoga this morning. It was tough and it used to be something I could breeze through. I think I may add a couple of different exercise routines in during the day, keeping them short and sweet until I get my strength back.
I tell you sitting down to break-fast will never have the same meaning again!
A Simple Step
Or, rather, several.
Over the last month or so I started walking more.
I think it’s because the weather has been unseasonably nice where I live and it’s just nice to be outside when the sun is shining and it’s reasonably warm – especially in November.
I used to discount walking. It’s not hard enough. It’s not strenuous enough. It’s boring…. You name it, I had used it as an excuse not to do it. It wasn’t like I was one of those people who drive around 30 minutes in the gym parking lot to get a park near the door and then go sweat it out for an hour (or two) on a spinning bike, but it was close.
But walking, like any other exercise, burns calories. And, not like a lot of other exercises, it’s incredibly easy on your body!
I remember someone telling me once that joggers are simply walkers who don’t have a lot of time!
I’m beginning to see that.
I live on a dirt road with some steep and some rolling hills, interspersed with some rather scenic flats. In addition to just getting out in nature, on an hour and 15 minute walk, I can burn almost 500 calories. And sometimes my heart rate gets up as high as 147 beats per minute! Granted it doesn’t stay there, but it doesn’t really need to.
Heck, just walking over to the gym from my office (and back) I burned 120 calories! (Again, thank goodness for hills!) I was shocked – not to mention pleasantly surprised!
In fact, I was so pleased, that I’m going to start wearing my heart rate monitor when I park so that I will actually be motivated to park further away from my office. (Yes, I am a geek – it’s sad but true!)
And instead of complaining about “having to park in the North 40″ I may purposefully park in the last spot on the very last row at the bottom of the hill!
Seriously, walking adds up and it’s easy on the body. I dropped my car off at the shop this morning and walked to work – 139 calories. I have to walk back – probably closer to 100 (given the direction of the hills). But still, in addition to the gym workout, I will have burned an extra 350 calories shuttling myself to and fro!
Think about it.
And stop looking for the closest parking spot – even if you are looking in the gym parking lot!
Sometimes showing up really is the hardest part!
I spent four hours yesterday trying to convince myself to go the gym. And failed.
I actually started over there a couple of times, but every time I did, something more important came up (like playing yet another game of the New Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook). I won’t provide a link, because I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s downfall!
When I realized that I was never going to knock my mother off the board (and having received not one, but two notices that I had played 20 games in a row), I decided that enough was enough. I was going to go to the gym. I got so far as picking up my bag when the justifications started.
“There are people with swine flu at the gym. If you go to the gym, you’re going to get swine flu!” (A stretch, I know, but it held me at bay for at least 20 more games, er, I mean minutes).
“But my leg feels so good after yoga this morning. Do I really want to mess it up by going to the gym?”
And then, on my way to the gym: “I forgot my heart rate monitor!”
Taking a deep breath I forgave myself for being a baby and accepted that fact that I really didn’t want to go to the gym – or so I thought.
The reason why I am telling you this story is twofold. The first is simply to get those of my friends who think I am a total exercise junkie off my back! 
The second, is to let you know that when you really don’t want to do something, it’s okay not to do it.
Okay, maybe it’s threefold, because I realized – once I was miles away from the gym – that I had hit an internal wall of resistance. And with temporal and spatial hindsight, I realized that everything I had tried to accomplish yesterday was stymied.
Does anyone ever really need to play 60 straight games of Bejeweled Blitz? No, not ever. Did I? Oh, yes. And maybe then some. And did I at least knock my mother off the board? Not even close.
So what was going on?
I had a lot of emotional anxiety about a couple of things going on in my life and, like I used to do more often than I do now, I dealt with it (or not) in my choices about food and exercise. As it turned out, I didn’t exercise at home either; I simply ate Chocolate Velvet So Delicious straight out of the carton just minutes after telling MJ to leave me alone for an hour because I “wanted to exercise.” Ironically, I did want to exercise; I just couldn’t make myself do it.
My subconscious mind was definitely in control yesterday and it drove all of my good intentions and so-called will power right off the cliff!
Last night before bed, I went up early and did a little 15 minute meditation program to promote clarity, before crashing into troubled, integrating dreams.
This morning, without giving it too much thought, I rolled out of bed and hit the yoga mat. Then, without changing clothes, I packed my gym bag full of work clothes and drove straight to the gym.
I had a great workout. It was fabulous. It reminded me why I like going to the gym.
Morals of the story:
1) If you just can’t do it, forgive yourself and let it go. Don’t beat yourself up, which will inevitably invite you to overeat or eat something that takes you further away from your health related goals.
2) When you’re having an off day (before it turns into an off week or even an off month) ask yourself what’s really going on. Is there something going on in your life that you’re using as an excuse to not show up? If so, is it something you can change or is it just something you need to let go? Or were you really just tired and didn’t want to go to the gym?
3) Get a good night sleep and do whatever it takes to get up and show up.
In my case, there was no way that I was going to sit in my office all day in my sweaty yoga clothes and even though I could have just taken a shower at the gym and gone to work, that really would have been ridiculous. Even more ridiculous than playing 60+ games of Bejewled Blitz!
Cardio, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
Up until about a month ago, I was a self-proclaimed cardio queen. Spinning, NordicTrack, StairMill, Elliptical, you name it. If it moved, and got me to move faster, I was all over it.
Somewhere along the line – somehow – I gave up on cardio and became a yoga junkie. Now, I had been trying to get into yoga for years, but I didn’t realize that to do so would undermine my first and (so I’d always thought) my truest love, that is, cardio.
So early on in this blog, I said that the reason that I started blogging was to “remind myself of what I know to be true.” Today I am going to remind myself (and maybe you as well) of why I love cardio (and maybe why you do too).
And I am going to do this so that when I forget, as I have forgotten in the recent weeks while I have been focused on making micro adjustments and opening up my chest, I can go back and remember. Hopefully, just the act of of writing this down will get these reasons back into my consciousness and, given that I am such an abysmal typist, into my body!
This morning, after much negotiating, I decided to hit the NordicTrack and just go for it. I put on my favorite music and hit it for about an hour. This is what I noticed:
- It really feels good to move my body.
- I like the way it feels when I’m sweating the toxins of the day (or in this case, the week) out of my body.
- I love knowing that I am training my heart to be more efficient.
- Now that I know that it’s cardio exercise that allows your body to absorb calcium into the bones, thus preventing osteoporosis, I enjoy imagining actually feeling my bones getting stronger.
- I love how my body feels when I stop.
- I really enjoy the slight fatigue I feel in my limbs after a good cardio workout, even though my mind feels alert and refreshed.
- I’ve noticed that I often get my best ideas in the morning while I’m doing cardio – no doubt due to the increased oxygen flow to the brain.
- I get to feel superior when I write -500 (or whatever it happens to be) into my daily calorie/food journal. (Today it was -754 since I followed up my cardio with 30 minutes of resistance training.)
- I get an amazing sense of satisfaction from knowing that by strengthening my heart (see #3), I’m making it easy for every part of my body to get the blood and the oxygen it needs.
- I love contrasting where I am now with the unhealthy (but nonetheless intelligent, creative, and determined) teenager that I once was who couldn’t make it up a half flight of stairs without panting.
As I sit here compiling this list, I realize that I could go on for a really long time. There are many, many reasons why I love cardio. But the main reason I love cardio is because I love myself. And engaging in cardiovascular exercise is a great way to take care of my most valuable resources – my body, my health, my mood, and my emotions.
So with that said, I’ll just leave you with my Top Ten.
Hopefully when I get up tomorrow, I will remember my list and I won’t have to argue with myself, I’ll just do it. Because as is the case with most things that are good for me, showing up with 75% of the problem. Once I get going, I’m golden.
What’s your compelling reason that gets you out of bed and into your exercise shoes in the morning (or to the gym after work)? I’d love to hear it!
p.s. Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to love both cardio and yoga, as one is the perfect complement to the other!
Comprehensive warm up and cool down guide from Jillian Michaels
Everyone knows that they’re supposed to warm up and cool down before any strenuous exercise.
The problem is that most people haven’t been kept up with the move from static stretching (holding a stretch in place) to dynamic stretching (stretching while in movement).
Or, like I used to, they simply ignore stretching all together because it takes too long, they’ve only got 50 minutes to work out, or they want to get on to the business of burning calories.
Warming up and cooling down have innumerable benefits, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll just give you the top three: they get your body ready to (and recovered from) strenuous activity, they help prevent soreness (which promotes continued activity), and they prevent injury! See more here.
In case you’re like I used to be, check out this very nice warm up/cool down guide from Jillian Michaels. She also has a related article on the dos and don’ts of stretching! Check it out here!
Enjoy! And if you aren’t warming up and cooling down, try it. You might be surprised how much more you enjoy your workout!
The many smells of fat and exercise
This is more of an observation, a question, and, potentially, a request.
Have you ever noticed that fat really has a repulsive smell?
I’m not talking about frying bacon or sauteing onions in olive oil, but fat?
I remember jogging around the loop at Vanderbilt in the summer (well, it was more like the shuffle of a wounded animal to tell you the truth) and coming around Peabody Campus and hitting the wall of grease that surrounded the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
You could literally feel the grease that hung in the air; it coated your skin and the smell and even the taste filled your nose and lungs.
It’s been years, but I can still remember that smell – the cloying nature of it, held in place as it were by the pollution and humidity (shudder).
So, you might be wondering what this has to do with anything related to losing the last ten pounds. Well, here it comes: there’s been a lot of chatter lately about whether working out in one’s “fat burning zone” is just a lot of hooey.
The critics say that it’s better to work out at a higher heart rate because you burn more calories and if you burn more calories (even if a smaller percentage of them is fat) you will eventually burn the same number of fat calories, which seems to make sense. The proponents of the “fat burning zone” argue that your body burns fat more efficiently at this level and that when you work out at the higher level, you burn sugar and eventually muscle (which also makes sense).
Here’s the observation, as well as the question and, if you’re game, the request:
Observation: I’ve noticed that when I work out at the high end of my cardio zone (or above), which I used to do in spinning (HR 147-157), I would sweat a lot, but I didn’t necessarily smell afterward. However, when I work out for the same amount of time at the low end of my cardio zone (HR 130-142), I reek! I mean, seriously, it’s disgusting! My personal (non-scientific) theory is that the disgusting nasty smell (again, I’m being 100% honest here), which is disturbingly similar to the smell of KFC in the summer in the south, is the smell of my body burning fat, whereas the clean, almost sweet smell post spinning is the smell of my body burning sugar.
Question: Has anyone else experienced this?
Request: Would anyone else be willing to try this and let me know if they experience the same? Or, if you have any suggestions on what this might be about, I’d love to hear them!
As is probably evident by this post, I am perplexed yet, to tell you the truth, fascinated in a repulsed sort of way.
Dusting off old friends
As you might imagine, I have a ton of workout DVDs. Heck, I even have some old VHS tapes (including Billy Blanks’ original Tae-Bo program and Susan Powter’s “Lean, Strong, and Healthy“). It’s too bad I don’t have a VHS player anymore, because those were the best!
So, while I didn’t go all the way to 1993, I did go back to my workout routine from a couple of years ago: P90X, which is available from Beachbody.
Since I was just mixing it in, I pulled out KenpoX. KenpoX, which is the sixth of the twelve DVD set, is – for want of a better description – Tony Horton’s version of kickboxing.
Making sure I had my heart rate monitor securely fastened, I strapped on my 2lb weighted gloves and my 5lb ankle weights and, to use a derivative of Horton’s catch phrase, “Brought it!”
One reason why it’s a good idea to go back and do old workouts that you haven’t done in a long time is that it mixes things up. Another is that it provides a nice marker of where you are now in relation to where you were. Not surprisingly, since it’s been over a year since I went through P90X, there were things that were definitely harder than they used to be. My balance, for instance, is not as good as it was when I was in the thick of it. On the other hand, my horse stance was much deeper and much stronger than it ever was; I’m assuming that has to do with all of the curtsy lunges I’ve been doing in K-bells and as part of my own floor program that I designed from some of the my favorite routines (more on that later). During the vertical punching sequence, I could also see that my abs are much more defined than they used to be and I have definition throughout my core (especially in my sides). This was a particularly nice bonus, as I’m vain enough to think that that kind of thing is pretty darned cool!
So, if you’re stuck in a rut with your current exercise routine, whether it’s a DVD or a class or just a favored activity like running outdoors, swimming, or biking, trot out an old routine to mix it up. You can always try something new, but when you try something old – something you haven’t done in months, if not years – you actually get a much better picture of where you’ve been, where you are now (relatively speaking), and, if you’ve lost ground, the direction in which you need to go in order to catch back up and, hopefully, get ahead.
For me, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing in terms of legs and core, but I will definitely start incorporating more balance postures and exercises back into my workout! Revisiting KenpoX thus not only put me through my paces in terms of just being a kick-ass workout, but it also provided me with a reality check on my overall fitness and some insight on where I need to focus my attention in the future.
So if you’ve got an old box of workout DVDs or a bike that hasn’t seen the light of day in six months or more, dust them off and take them for a spin; you might be surprised! I know that I, for one, will be slipping KenpoX back into the routine. Who knows? There may be yet a fourth round of P90X in my future. It could happen.
15 Minute Results: Yoga (Day Three)
In my last post, I mentioned that I was looking for an easy and reliable way into yoga. Well, I may have found it! Rodney Yee & Marial Hemmingway’s 15 Minute Results:Yoga is great!
Why?
It’s short. It’s easy to follow. It’s totally invigorating. And it’s not “precious.” Instead, it’s two people doing yoga, who are obviously passionate about their craft and really enjoy each other. Some reviews have suggested it’s too chatty and that they prefer the Yee productions that are more scenic and have been voiced over. Personally, as a non-yoga adherent (at least not yet), it’s perfect. It’s like being at the gym with friends.
Additionally, if you are new to yoga, there is a lot of overlap between the total body, upper body, and lower body. Some reviewers have said there is too much overlap, but, again, as someone who is relatively new to yoga, I find the repetition useful.
It is pretty fast paced, but I don’t feel like I’m struggling all that much to keep up. Whenever I do lose my place, I just figure there’s room for improvement. Why invest in something if you can already do it perfectly right out of the box?
Overall, glad I got it and am looking forward to section four! When’s the last time anyone’s heard me say that about anything related to yoga?
Oh, and the other thing? It’s only 15 minutes! So if I feel my energy start to lag throughout the day or if I get stiff from sitting at the computer, I can always just do it again! I may even buy another copy for the office!
Still looking for an easy and reliable pathway into yoga
I went to Borders today and bought 15 Minute Results: Yoga with Rodney Yee and Mariel Hemingway. It looks pretty good. Fairly straightforward. There are supposedly four different routines, one for total body, upper body, lower body, and abdominal strengthening, but (to tell you the truth) the first three look remarkably similar! Though, given my skill at yoga, similarity is good. At least two of them include a little bit of rebounding, which is great not only for circulating lymph but also for elevating mood.
Regardless, surely I can do anything for fifteen minutes! Besides, I am determined to love it!
I’ll let you know how it works out for me!
UPDATE: I did the total body segment and at 15 minutes it was over, seemingly, before it even started! It’s actually not bad. Very, very doable! Will move onto upper body in the morning! Can’t wait!
