As of yesterday I am SW -5. I've logged a negative on the scale. (SW being Starting Weight).
It's kind of ironic. When I last posted I had just been walking with a 10 pound pack. The next day I went to the weight room. That night I was in some pain, mostly my lower back but also my elbows.
I figure this was poorly distributed weight in the unpadded pack I was using, coupled with a bit too much of an increase in the weights in the gym.
So I laid off walking and working out for about four days. And registered a weight loss.
Huh.
I'm not going to read too much into this; I honestly don't think the suspension of my activity is going to achieve my goals for June.
I've been back at it the last few days and I continue to see some small changes in muscle tone everywhere. I'm quietly pleased.
I am tired at night (in a good way) so I'm going to bed earlier. This has the added benefit of keeping me away from evening snacking; which could be contributing somewhat to the mysterious weight loss.
I'm going to chalk it all up to the cumulative effects of being more active and let it be for now.
On another note, I started running a few days ago. It was the first time I'd intentionally run since I was 16. I've moved pretty quickly over the years...I've run to catch up to kids and farm animals, run away from fires (when our business burned), and run short distances when playing baseball with the kids.
But this was the first time I actually ran to be a runner.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't puke when I was done, which is what happened when I was 16.
Here are the steps I took:
1) Strapped the girls in my new jiggle-free armour (I purchased this new equipment on the weekend when I was in the Big City.)
2) Borrowed Chris' sports watch so I could time myself
3) Memorized the training times given to me by a fellow Tough Mudder team member (she kept the pamphlet from the Running Room and lent it to me.)
4) Took a deep breath and started.
At first glance, the running instructions seemed pretty easy...one minute running, two minutes walking, 6 sets. I was honestly thinking I might reverse them (two minutes running, one minute walking) but my friend assured me that adhering to this pattern for the first three runs of week #1 would ensure an injury free start for a beginner.
So after a five minute warm-up walk, I started running when the watch said 5:01.
I ran and ran and ran and figured I was easily over a minute...looked at my watch and saw 5:36. Darn.
The first three sets were pretty easy. By half way through I was still feeling o.k. I was a bit warm so I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist.
During the last half I was using my two minutes of walking to slow my breathing and to stop my legs from shaking. I kept one eye on Hwy 5 on the lookout for trucks too close to me, and the other eye on the watch to make sure I didn't start running until the watch read exactly on the minute!
I managed to run/walk half my 5K route during the allotted six sets and chose to walk the rest. Well, I was 2.5 kms away from my van, so I pretty much had to get back somehow! The entire route took me 46 minutes, which is exactly what it takes if I just walk.
I must have been walking slowly enough to use up any speed I was getting with running. Yeesh.
I was definitely more winded and my leg muscles hurt a lot more. But I did it! Which means I can do it again (and hopefully again and again until June 23rd).
Some things I've noticed while running:
1) Dress so you're a bit cold. You warm up faster and hotter than when walking. As my daughter Katie says when she dances, "Be bold, start cold."
2) Learn a certain amount of indifference...to what you look like to passing motorists and pedestrians
3)Learn to be gracious...if somebody recognizes you or honks their horn, give a wave, even if you can hardly lift your arm.
4) Drooling is probably not going to bother you if you can't feel your ankles anymore. I think I'm going to have to warm up my ankles a bit bettter. My first transition from the five minute warm up to actual running sent barbs of pain up my legs.
Today I do Day #2 of Week #1 running schedule. Yesterday while I was in Kamloops working I hit the weight room.
As a bonus, the weather is getting consistently warmer and drier. Can't wait until I can get on my bike!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Why haven't I lost weight??
I've been training, in a moderate way, for four weeks, but I haven't lost a single pound. I feel much better though and I feel like I'm not so lumpy. Muscle toning is happening!
I'm pretty sure -- o.k., I KNOW -- the reason I've not lost any pounds is that I'm not controlling my diet very well.
Sure, muscle weighs more than fat and yes, I'm not 20 anymore...and yeah, I've heard all the platitudes of the good old plateau. Blah, blah, blah. You can only plateau if you've actually been seeing some downward trends. Or, heaven help me, if I actually gain weight and manage to stop it I suppose I could plateau...
Although I've changed a few things in my diet lately, I'm still too fond of cheese and butter, and the after dinner snacking is still plaguing me. Please don't get me started on chocolate!
Winter isn't helping. Even at my most fit I struggled to keep pounds off during cold weather. Not only is it harder to get moving in the early part of the calendar year, I find it too tempting to snuggle somewhere warm with a book and hot chocolate. I yearn for spring when I know all of this will be easier for me.
In the past when I started to get alarmed with the direction my weight was headed in, I'd quietly register with Weight Watchers and shed the troublesome pounds. I never once reached what that organization deemed to be my goal weight for age and height, although once I got a doctor's note so that I could aim for a weight higher than the stipulated stopping point.
Because I could never reach the "ideal" I had a long discussion once with my doctor in Ontario about the BMI and weight ranges and she was always surprised that at my best weight (translated to a dress size 8), I was still outside the traditional ranges for women. Far outside (on the upper side) . In fact, she stepped on the scale herself to see if it was broken!
Even though I didn't fit in the ranges, I looked great and felt great and I knew it!
Because of that discussion in my 20s, I moved forward with a healthy attitude toward weight loss numbers--especially those on the scale--as well as clothes sizes and measures of fitness. In the end, I know when I'm healthy...because I feel healthy. When I feel healthy things fit better, I breathe better, I look better and emotionally I'm much more content.
It's what I hope to return to by the time June 23rd rolls around. Tough Mudder will be hard, but I want to be looking and feeling good for it.
I'm not keen to return to Weight Watcher's. Besides, the closest meeting is an hour away. I don't want to pay $60 per month just for the companionship.
I spend a lot of time intellectualizing all of this. You'd think weight loss would be pretty easy. After all, the math is pretty black and white. Eat a little less than you need to get through the day, exercise to speed up and get the benefits of natural appetite supression!
I hate that my intellect doesn't prevail in this particular case! I suppose the missing ingredient is will.
Last spring when I found myself in the same quandry-- carrying around some extra poundage -- I discovered a website called www.sparkpeople.com Essentially it is like a Weight Watchers program but with a real bent towards exercise. The online tools allow one to record every aspect of diet and exercise. Best of all it's free, something I can certainly appreciate as we continue to build our earthship.
You do have to put up with endless ads, and a sometimes irritatingly rah, rah to fitness and diet. Plus, a lot of the suggested meal plans use products that have aspartame and other sugar substitutes that I won't ingest knowingly. I also steer clear of low-fat products as they are often that way through processing.
However, users can do whatever they want for meal planning and I've been impressed with the online tools for figuring out calorie content of an individuals own stand-by meals.
Although I'm not too keen to be a calorie counter, I think I might benefit from it, at least for a while. Like a person who overextends herself financially, just the process of recording daily habits may reveal some helpful trends.
So I've become a "user". In the next few days I'm going to look around the site again and gear up for recording both diet and exercise. I may share some of it here in an effort to be accountable and to motivate me to stick to it.
If you have some favourite healthy meals and snacks, I'd love to hear about them as I move forward.
Please share!!
I'm pretty sure -- o.k., I KNOW -- the reason I've not lost any pounds is that I'm not controlling my diet very well.
Sure, muscle weighs more than fat and yes, I'm not 20 anymore...and yeah, I've heard all the platitudes of the good old plateau. Blah, blah, blah. You can only plateau if you've actually been seeing some downward trends. Or, heaven help me, if I actually gain weight and manage to stop it I suppose I could plateau...
Although I've changed a few things in my diet lately, I'm still too fond of cheese and butter, and the after dinner snacking is still plaguing me. Please don't get me started on chocolate!
Winter isn't helping. Even at my most fit I struggled to keep pounds off during cold weather. Not only is it harder to get moving in the early part of the calendar year, I find it too tempting to snuggle somewhere warm with a book and hot chocolate. I yearn for spring when I know all of this will be easier for me.
In the past when I started to get alarmed with the direction my weight was headed in, I'd quietly register with Weight Watchers and shed the troublesome pounds. I never once reached what that organization deemed to be my goal weight for age and height, although once I got a doctor's note so that I could aim for a weight higher than the stipulated stopping point.
Because I could never reach the "ideal" I had a long discussion once with my doctor in Ontario about the BMI and weight ranges and she was always surprised that at my best weight (translated to a dress size 8), I was still outside the traditional ranges for women. Far outside (on the upper side) . In fact, she stepped on the scale herself to see if it was broken!
Even though I didn't fit in the ranges, I looked great and felt great and I knew it!
Because of that discussion in my 20s, I moved forward with a healthy attitude toward weight loss numbers--especially those on the scale--as well as clothes sizes and measures of fitness. In the end, I know when I'm healthy...because I feel healthy. When I feel healthy things fit better, I breathe better, I look better and emotionally I'm much more content.
It's what I hope to return to by the time June 23rd rolls around. Tough Mudder will be hard, but I want to be looking and feeling good for it.
I'm not keen to return to Weight Watcher's. Besides, the closest meeting is an hour away. I don't want to pay $60 per month just for the companionship.
I spend a lot of time intellectualizing all of this. You'd think weight loss would be pretty easy. After all, the math is pretty black and white. Eat a little less than you need to get through the day, exercise to speed up and get the benefits of natural appetite supression!
I hate that my intellect doesn't prevail in this particular case! I suppose the missing ingredient is will.
Last spring when I found myself in the same quandry-- carrying around some extra poundage -- I discovered a website called www.sparkpeople.com Essentially it is like a Weight Watchers program but with a real bent towards exercise. The online tools allow one to record every aspect of diet and exercise. Best of all it's free, something I can certainly appreciate as we continue to build our earthship.
You do have to put up with endless ads, and a sometimes irritatingly rah, rah to fitness and diet. Plus, a lot of the suggested meal plans use products that have aspartame and other sugar substitutes that I won't ingest knowingly. I also steer clear of low-fat products as they are often that way through processing.
However, users can do whatever they want for meal planning and I've been impressed with the online tools for figuring out calorie content of an individuals own stand-by meals.
Although I'm not too keen to be a calorie counter, I think I might benefit from it, at least for a while. Like a person who overextends herself financially, just the process of recording daily habits may reveal some helpful trends.
So I've become a "user". In the next few days I'm going to look around the site again and gear up for recording both diet and exercise. I may share some of it here in an effort to be accountable and to motivate me to stick to it.
If you have some favourite healthy meals and snacks, I'd love to hear about them as I move forward.
Please share!!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Out of the comfort zone
I'm not a really sporty girl...never have been. I didn't play many team sports as a kid. I was one of those kids who were always picked last for team. A good book was always preferred over physical activity. When I met my husband in 1989 all that changed. While not a real sports fanatic himself, he was certainly very active. He introduced me to backcountry backpacking, scuba diving, wilderness canoeing/kayaking, and what has become one of my favourite acitivities, cycling.
In the last 24 years that we've been together I've come to realize that the biggest high in life is doing things outside my comfort zone, even though I'm sometimes scared silly. The sense of accomplishment is amazing.
That is partially why I've registered for the Tough Mudder in Whistler on June 23rd.
The Tough Mudder is an obstacle race, held in different places worldwide throughout the year. Designed by the British Special Forces, the race is configured to test your grit and endurance with obstacles meant to scare the height challenged (me), the electricity fraidy cats (me) and otherwise present obstacles that will make you really sore, bruised and perhaps pyschologically damaged.
Yikes!
A group of ladies in Barriere, close to where I live in British Columbia, Canada, decided to enter as a team -- called Tough Enough -- and I verbally committed to join them a few days later. I committed after watching the trailer of the race from the website (brave me!)...but I've refrained from looking at any other visuals since.
I'm terribly out of shape...since turning 40 six years ago I've let my physical fitness slide a fair bit. This was another reason I joined the group. I really wanted to regain some control over my sense of physical well-being.
For the last four weeks I have: given up coffee, walked 5kms three to four times a week with other team members, and my daughter and husband, I have tried to eat better (still a challenge!) and I work out in a weight room 2-3 days a week.
It's still winter here in British Columia, Canada, but here I am as of this morning, getting ready for my fast walk. This morning saw me add a backpack with 10 pounds in it. I sure felt it! When I was finished and took the back pack off, I almost fell flat on my face!
No stranger to narcissism (check out www.darfieldearthship.com) I've decided to blog about this bit of fun as I prepare for this physical challenge.
Oi! Stay tuned.
Sandra
In the last 24 years that we've been together I've come to realize that the biggest high in life is doing things outside my comfort zone, even though I'm sometimes scared silly. The sense of accomplishment is amazing.
That is partially why I've registered for the Tough Mudder in Whistler on June 23rd.
The Tough Mudder is an obstacle race, held in different places worldwide throughout the year. Designed by the British Special Forces, the race is configured to test your grit and endurance with obstacles meant to scare the height challenged (me), the electricity fraidy cats (me) and otherwise present obstacles that will make you really sore, bruised and perhaps pyschologically damaged.
Yikes!
A group of ladies in Barriere, close to where I live in British Columbia, Canada, decided to enter as a team -- called Tough Enough -- and I verbally committed to join them a few days later. I committed after watching the trailer of the race from the website (brave me!)...but I've refrained from looking at any other visuals since.
I'm terribly out of shape...since turning 40 six years ago I've let my physical fitness slide a fair bit. This was another reason I joined the group. I really wanted to regain some control over my sense of physical well-being.
For the last four weeks I have: given up coffee, walked 5kms three to four times a week with other team members, and my daughter and husband, I have tried to eat better (still a challenge!) and I work out in a weight room 2-3 days a week.
It's still winter here in British Columia, Canada, but here I am as of this morning, getting ready for my fast walk. This morning saw me add a backpack with 10 pounds in it. I sure felt it! When I was finished and took the back pack off, I almost fell flat on my face!
No stranger to narcissism (check out www.darfieldearthship.com) I've decided to blog about this bit of fun as I prepare for this physical challenge.
Oi! Stay tuned.
Sandra
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