Today was my 20 minute swim. It was warm and lightly raining outside, which actually made for a pleasant temperature in the outdoor pool. I was equipped with my heart rate monitor, I felt good. I estimated I'd swim 16 laps = 800 meters = half a mile = triathlon swim distance. I was psyched.
It was a gruelling 20 minutes. I was never tired per-se, but I didn't even come close to swimming continuously. I kept stopping to catch my breath, then feeling better pretty quickly and getting back to it, just to feel out of breath almost immediately. I still can't figure out why I was breathing so hard. Sometimes I would swim on my back, but I felt like I was going so slow, and I would veer left and right too much.
My heart rate monitor didn't monitor my heart rate very well. Maybe the strap was moving too much, or maybe it didn't like the chlorine? When it did synch up it showed me what I suspected: my heart isn't the limiting factor; I was rarely above 150 bpm.
The whole process actually reminds me of when I started running recreationally three years ago: I would slow to a walk all the time but was never really sure why. Breathing? Boredom? I'm honestly not sure. But with practice and time came the ability to run continuously for 30, 40, more minutes. To just run and run and run, even when I don't feel like it anymore, to just tell my body to keep going as long as the body is still listening to me. Endurance is a very mental thing. I had assumed that since I have built up my running endurance to x minutes it would cross the sport divide, but I guess it doesn't.
Come to think of it, I am fighting this same endurance battle on the biking front. All the biking I've done so far is to get to or from work or errands, to get somewhere that I want to go. But now that I think about it in these terms, there's always a moment around 10 minutes into my rides where I just want to stop pedalling. I don't stop, just slow down, because I have a train to catch or some other compelling goal. But there is no such goal in the pool, just another lap to complete for no immediately apparent reason.
Wow, I feel like I've made a breakthrough in the mental game of this training. How cool! This entry didn't take the path I was planning at all, so now there's no good segue into this very important (to me) bit of information, so I'll just jump straight in:
I kept looking at my heart rate monitor's time display, wishing for the time to go both faster (so I'd be done) and slower (so I'd complete the half mile in time). With about 6 minutes to go I had 4 more laps to complete to hit that goal, so I bucked-up a bit and stopped being so lazy with my effort, and completed with five seconds to spare! I should have been elated, right? But something didn't feel right. I don't know all the statistics, but I just didn't think I should have been able to swim a half mile in 20 minutes with the truly lack-luster performance I put in.
So I went to the gym front desk on my way back to the locker room, and asked the girl there "Are we sure the pool is 25 meters?" and she said "Oh, no, it's 25 yards. We told you meters before, but I looked it up and it's yards."
There we go. I didn't swim 0.50 miles but 0.45 miles. I would have had to swim 1.6 more laps to make it to half a mile, probably taking another 2.5 minutes. I guess that isn't much difference. In fact, I'm tempted to go out there with my super-duper-mega-long measuring tape and measure that sucker myself.
The side meters have been updated appropriately.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Fastest!
I just ran my fastest mile ever (I think)! 9 minutes, 7 seconds.
My 1 mile run time actually didn't improve as much as it appears: I sprinted my heart out at the end of today's run, but didn't on the December 1st run. Still, just the desire and motivation to do that sprint is a sign of improvement.
And I really do think that's the fastest mile I've ever run. I never ran just one mile (timed) in high school, I think, which is the last time I was in as good of shape as I am now (last year I was in better strength-shape, but I'm in better cardio-shape now). I think, though, that even back in high school I didn't care about being fast or strong, but about being good at basketball and tennis and other sports, and I didn't connect being fast with being good at those things. I wasn't a very good athlete, in other words. I kind of blame it on bad coaching, actually, though surely part of the blame is on me. That's a full rant for another day.
Tomorrow's Triathlon Training Menu: 20 minute swim. ... I'm already nervous given how tired I was after the 12 minute swim on Monday. I'm trying not to think about it or I'll be defeated before I get in the water.
| Boot Camp Tests | December 1 | December 20 |
| 1 Mile Run | 9:50 | 9:07 |
| 30 Seconds Sit-ups | 16 | 20 |
| 30 Seconds Push-ups | 25 | 26 |
My 1 mile run time actually didn't improve as much as it appears: I sprinted my heart out at the end of today's run, but didn't on the December 1st run. Still, just the desire and motivation to do that sprint is a sign of improvement.
And I really do think that's the fastest mile I've ever run. I never ran just one mile (timed) in high school, I think, which is the last time I was in as good of shape as I am now (last year I was in better strength-shape, but I'm in better cardio-shape now). I think, though, that even back in high school I didn't care about being fast or strong, but about being good at basketball and tennis and other sports, and I didn't connect being fast with being good at those things. I wasn't a very good athlete, in other words. I kind of blame it on bad coaching, actually, though surely part of the blame is on me. That's a full rant for another day.
Tomorrow's Triathlon Training Menu: 20 minute swim. ... I'm already nervous given how tired I was after the 12 minute swim on Monday. I'm trying not to think about it or I'll be defeated before I get in the water.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Triathlon Training
My triathlon training schedule is based off of this plan I found on beginnertriathlete.com, then modified slightly because the bike and run distances it was designed to train for are slightly different than my race's. Today is day 1.
So!
Today's Menu:
28 min bike
12 min swim
My commute involves 70-80 minutes of biking, broken up into two 15 minute and two 20-25 minute chunks. For today, especially because I don't have all my gym gear here with me, I'm just counting my commuting minutes as my training minutes. In general, though, I shouldn't do that because I can't get a good, focused, sustained effort in while dodging cars and stopping for traffic lights. :)
The swim was fine, though I'm still very slow. 10 laps (500 meters) in 12 min 48 sec, 39 meters per minute, 43 yards per minute. My first lap was about 50 meters per minute. I just couldn't keep that up at all. I can run and run and run, but I look like a dying sloth in the water. :)
So!
Today's Menu:
28 min bike
12 min swim
My commute involves 70-80 minutes of biking, broken up into two 15 minute and two 20-25 minute chunks. For today, especially because I don't have all my gym gear here with me, I'm just counting my commuting minutes as my training minutes. In general, though, I shouldn't do that because I can't get a good, focused, sustained effort in while dodging cars and stopping for traffic lights. :)
The swim was fine, though I'm still very slow. 10 laps (500 meters) in 12 min 48 sec, 39 meters per minute, 43 yards per minute. My first lap was about 50 meters per minute. I just couldn't keep that up at all. I can run and run and run, but I look like a dying sloth in the water. :)
Free Food
I've been working for DW since September 6th; 15 weeks so far. 15 weeks of free food. Well, and lots of other things, but we're going to talk about the free food.
People at work predictably talk about the "DW 15," referring to the number of pounds people often gain after joining the company and having access to the commissary everyday.
Over the past 15 weeks I have instead lost weight, nearly consistently, at a rate of 0.2 pounds per week. There was a blip at Thanksgiving, which almost goes without saying. But since September 6th I've lost 3 pounds. While eating as much free food as I want.
People at work predictably talk about the "DW 15," referring to the number of pounds people often gain after joining the company and having access to the commissary everyday.
Over the past 15 weeks I have instead lost weight, nearly consistently, at a rate of 0.2 pounds per week. There was a blip at Thanksgiving, which almost goes without saying. But since September 6th I've lost 3 pounds. While eating as much free food as I want.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Last night's workout
My work gym has this bootcamp class. I think I've mentioned it a thousand times already. 1.5 hours of exercise twice a week. Last night's session:
10 min of warm-up and stretching
20 min of: 30 sec stationary bike standing sprint + 30 sec treadmill sprint, repeat. This was HARD!
15 min of calisthenics like medicine ball toss and lunge walking and squats and "running mans", etc., but in a circuit training, no rest periods between exercises kind of way
20 min of running sprint drills like "suicides" and gym laps, etc.
Then, at the very end, because I'm the fastest girl in the group, the instructor challenged me to do a suicide sprint in 30 sec or less. If I didn't make it the entire class would have to do an abs workout. I gave it my all, after an hour and a half of exercise, and made it in 26 seconds!
Then I iced my knee, took a shower, and went home.
That was easily the hardest workout I've had in probably a year. Never overestimate your own ability to push yourself: I like to think that I workout hard on my own, but it's just clearly not true.
Then, at the very end, because I'm the fastest girl in the group, the instructor challenged me to do a suicide sprint in 30 sec or less. If I didn't make it the entire class would have to do an abs workout. I gave it my all, after an hour and a half of exercise, and made it in 26 seconds!
Then I iced my knee, took a shower, and went home.
That was easily the hardest workout I've had in probably a year. Never overestimate your own ability to push yourself: I like to think that I workout hard on my own, but it's just clearly not true.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Validated and Verified
Last week I weighed myself on the fancy gym scale, then weighed myself again at home an hour later. There was a one pound difference, definitely in the noise given the hour that passed. So, I trust my scale again.
Which is good, because I'm hovering between 146 lbs and 148 lbs pretty reliably right now, and it blows me away. I'm keeping my total calories down, but the quality of those calories could definitely be better. All this exercising really is making a big difference. Whoo hoo! That said, I'd love to change the composition of my body a bit, for vanity and for the triathlon. Those 146 lbs would do me more good if 5 lbs of the fat magically transformed into muscle. And I'd still love to someday see a two or four pack on my abs.
But I've learned a few things about myself over the years. One thing is that everything comes in stages, and right now I want to be able to have a doughnut at breakfast when they serve them. But another thing I've learned is that I have to watch how much permission I give myself. I'm still tracking all my food, my weight, and my exercise. This has already told me why I still have a belly: too much refined sugar, not enough weightlifting.
So the doughnut sits next to me, saved to be a mid-morning snack with my second cup of coffee instead of the end of breakfast. I can have it, but later, and only because I have an hour and a half of bootcamp tonight.
Which is good, because I'm hovering between 146 lbs and 148 lbs pretty reliably right now, and it blows me away. I'm keeping my total calories down, but the quality of those calories could definitely be better. All this exercising really is making a big difference. Whoo hoo! That said, I'd love to change the composition of my body a bit, for vanity and for the triathlon. Those 146 lbs would do me more good if 5 lbs of the fat magically transformed into muscle. And I'd still love to someday see a two or four pack on my abs.
But I've learned a few things about myself over the years. One thing is that everything comes in stages, and right now I want to be able to have a doughnut at breakfast when they serve them. But another thing I've learned is that I have to watch how much permission I give myself. I'm still tracking all my food, my weight, and my exercise. This has already told me why I still have a belly: too much refined sugar, not enough weightlifting.
So the doughnut sits next to me, saved to be a mid-morning snack with my second cup of coffee instead of the end of breakfast. I can have it, but later, and only because I have an hour and a half of bootcamp tonight.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
First Swim
I went for my first swim in my new gym's swimming pool tonight. I was going to do it this morning, but a really long boring list of delays and distractions got in my way.
I haven't swam laps in a pool, I think, since middle school. The triathlon will start with a half mile = 805 meter swim, which is 16 laps in this pool. I actually didn't know those numbers until just now, so my goal for this first swim was just to get a feel for moving and breathing in the pool again. Wow, breathing. I need to really improve my lung capacity or decrease my need for oxygen during exercise. By the third lap I found myself not putting my head underwater at all because I needed to breath so much. And I kept inhaling water.
Anyway, in the end I did 9 laps, which is just a little over half of what I'll need to do. I didn't remember my heart rate monitor, and didn't see the pool clock until the very end, so I'm not sure how long it took me. I was only going to do 8 laps, but when I saw the clock I swam one more and timed it: 1 min 15 sec. Hm. I'd rather like to decrease that time. :)
New meters on the right to track my progress. Looks like I need to get some bike rides in, eh? Also looking at this site to come up with a more regimented training plan.
I haven't swam laps in a pool, I think, since middle school. The triathlon will start with a half mile = 805 meter swim, which is 16 laps in this pool. I actually didn't know those numbers until just now, so my goal for this first swim was just to get a feel for moving and breathing in the pool again. Wow, breathing. I need to really improve my lung capacity or decrease my need for oxygen during exercise. By the third lap I found myself not putting my head underwater at all because I needed to breath so much. And I kept inhaling water.
Anyway, in the end I did 9 laps, which is just a little over half of what I'll need to do. I didn't remember my heart rate monitor, and didn't see the pool clock until the very end, so I'm not sure how long it took me. I was only going to do 8 laps, but when I saw the clock I swam one more and timed it: 1 min 15 sec. Hm. I'd rather like to decrease that time. :)
New meters on the right to track my progress. Looks like I need to get some bike rides in, eh? Also looking at this site to come up with a more regimented training plan.
Monday, November 28, 2005
No Car
What a difference having no car makes! A four day weekend in my new neighborhood, without a car, running errands, plus 11 miles of biking today to get to and (eventually) from work, and I'm just a hair's breath from hitting 50k seconds of exercise in November. Yay!
Of course, a lot of that "exercise" was walking all over town, or biking but at a non-race pace. As previously discussed, does that all count as exercise? Again, I wouldn't want it to be my only exercise, but I think it's "a healthy part of this balanced (lifestyle)." :) Starting on Dec 1st I'll be having my ass kicked for 3 hours a week at a "boot camp" offered at my company gym. So I'm in no danger of giving up the "real" exercise habit anytime soon.
I'm loving my bicycle, and can't wait to log all kinds of hours on it, to and from work and around town and eventually training for the triathlon.
Oh, and one last thing. My weight has been hovering around 150 lately, a few pounds up from last month. This is no big surprise given my habits these past 3 weeks. Yesterday I weighed myself and it read 147. I didn't believe it, so I weighed myself again, and the scale then told me I needed a new battery. Okay, that made sense. But I weighed myself this morning with the fresh battery and it read 146. Um, huh? I tried on my skinny jeans, and they fit, and the mirror seems to at least not completely deny the possibility of 146, but, um, still. Seems kinda low. Tomorrow I'll come in early to work and weigh myself on the real scale at the gym. Because I know everyone is dying to know my weight. No, because it would kinda suck if I couldn't trust all the weight data I've collected from my bathroom scale. :(
Of course, a lot of that "exercise" was walking all over town, or biking but at a non-race pace. As previously discussed, does that all count as exercise? Again, I wouldn't want it to be my only exercise, but I think it's "a healthy part of this balanced (lifestyle)." :) Starting on Dec 1st I'll be having my ass kicked for 3 hours a week at a "boot camp" offered at my company gym. So I'm in no danger of giving up the "real" exercise habit anytime soon.
I'm loving my bicycle, and can't wait to log all kinds of hours on it, to and from work and around town and eventually training for the triathlon.
Oh, and one last thing. My weight has been hovering around 150 lately, a few pounds up from last month. This is no big surprise given my habits these past 3 weeks. Yesterday I weighed myself and it read 147. I didn't believe it, so I weighed myself again, and the scale then told me I needed a new battery. Okay, that made sense. But I weighed myself this morning with the fresh battery and it read 146. Um, huh? I tried on my skinny jeans, and they fit, and the mirror seems to at least not completely deny the possibility of 146, but, um, still. Seems kinda low. Tomorrow I'll come in early to work and weigh myself on the real scale at the gym. Because I know everyone is dying to know my weight. No, because it would kinda suck if I couldn't trust all the weight data I've collected from my bathroom scale. :(
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Witty Excuses
This morning I took my first run around the neighborhood. I appears as if, completely randomly, I ran 3.1 miles. That's 5k for you non-runners out there. Wacky. I ran it really really slow, though, because my knees are killing me from all of the packing and unpacking of boxes.
I'm still shooting for 50k seconds of exercise in November, but it's going to take some doing. I really totally let my eating and exercise fall all to, um, excrement, my last week in Los Angeles. I can feel the softness of my belly and it upsets me. Boo.
However, I've now been living in San Francisco for 3.5 days. In those days I've gone to my company gym twice and ran outside once. I meant to do yoga last night, but around 10pm I started to fall asleep standing up, so decided against it. Sometimes your body asks for something really specific, and you have no choice but to hand it over.
I'm still shooting for 50k seconds of exercise in November, but it's going to take some doing. I really totally let my eating and exercise fall all to, um, excrement, my last week in Los Angeles. I can feel the softness of my belly and it upsets me. Boo.
However, I've now been living in San Francisco for 3.5 days. In those days I've gone to my company gym twice and ran outside once. I meant to do yoga last night, but around 10pm I started to fall asleep standing up, so decided against it. Sometimes your body asks for something really specific, and you have no choice but to hand it over.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Simple != Easy
We all know what we SHOULD be doing. It's simple:
I get to sleep and wake up on a reasonably regular schedule, getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
I exercise every morning before going to work.
With a baseline of rest and activity under my belt, I my appetite is under control and I can indulge in tiny portions of dessert at the work-provided lunch without shame.
I'm ultra productive at work and at home.
But it's not easy. You know what's easy? This is:
I find myself staying up until after 1am most nights, waking up tired.
I sleep in and don't exercise.
I'm ravenous all day, trying to make healthy food choices but taking normal to large sized dessert portions.
I'm tired, so drink far too much caffeine through the day.
Sometimes I go back to the cafeteria after lunch hours but before they take away the dessert trays, and I get another portion.
All this refined sugar makes me sleepy in the afternoon, leading me to drink more coffee.
I'm not productive at work OR at home, which causes me to stress out more.
I stay up late trying to get things done (and probably hopped up on caffeine), but am too distractable and disorganized in this walking-sleep-stress state to get things done effectively.
Guess which senario is true right now? :( I think this all stems from caffeine: I never used to drink it on a regular basis, but the coffee setup at my new job is very appealing and tasty and stuff. I need to stop drinking the caffeine so I'll feel sleepy at bedtime. Once I start getting enough sleep on a regular basis EVERYTHING else will fall into place: time for exercise, feeling more alert at work and home, and thus being more productive in my life overall. Right now I feel like I can't concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time.
Corrective Action #1: I have ingested no caffeine today. I drank some decaf coffee becuase I have gotten used to the hot-coffee-as-comfort-food ritual, but I should really stop doing that too.
Corrective Action #2: Two days ago I set a "go to sleep" alarm for myself. Tuesday night was out at dinner when it went off, last night I just kept snoozing it until I finally turned it off and didn't go to bed until 2am. TONIGHT I'll set that alarm (which is on a wristwatch) and put the watch somewhere OTHER than next to my computer (crack, that thing is), somewhere I have to get out of my chair to get to. A full night's sleep will be mine.
Corrective Action #3: Make micro-task to-do lists so I can get things accomplished even if I'm feeling very scatterbrained.
But it's not easy. You know what's easy? This is:
Guess which senario is true right now? :( I think this all stems from caffeine: I never used to drink it on a regular basis, but the coffee setup at my new job is very appealing and tasty and stuff. I need to stop drinking the caffeine so I'll feel sleepy at bedtime. Once I start getting enough sleep on a regular basis EVERYTHING else will fall into place: time for exercise, feeling more alert at work and home, and thus being more productive in my life overall. Right now I feel like I can't concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time.
Corrective Action #1: I have ingested no caffeine today. I drank some decaf coffee becuase I have gotten used to the hot-coffee-as-comfort-food ritual, but I should really stop doing that too.
Corrective Action #2: Two days ago I set a "go to sleep" alarm for myself. Tuesday night was out at dinner when it went off, last night I just kept snoozing it until I finally turned it off and didn't go to bed until 2am. TONIGHT I'll set that alarm (which is on a wristwatch) and put the watch somewhere OTHER than next to my computer (crack, that thing is), somewhere I have to get out of my chair to get to. A full night's sleep will be mine.
Corrective Action #3: Make micro-task to-do lists so I can get things accomplished even if I'm feeling very scatterbrained.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Exercise?
ex·er·cise (Ä•k'sÉ™r-sÄ«z')
n.
3. Activity that requires physical or mental exertion, especially when performed to develop or maintain fitness: took an hour of vigorous daily exercise at a gym.
I walked for hours and hours and hours this weekend, criss crossing (jump jump!) San Francisco looking at apartments and seeing friends. I didn't pay attention to how many miles or minutes I walked for so I made a very conservative estimate in my fitday journal. But for the purposes of the 50,000 second challenge, does walking count as exercise for me? There were certainly hills that made me breath harder, and walking the 2.5 miles to the Caltrain this morning with two bags was more laborious than a leisurely stroll. But I'm in reasonably good shape, so can I really call walking exercise?
I think that I can, to an extent. Regular non-stressful physical movement is great for your body, joints, connecting tissues, digestion, etc. I count yoga as exercise because it provides a nice stretch, warms up my muscles, puts me in great touch with how my body is feeling, and improves my balance and core strength. I count the brisk walk I do to and from the gym in Los Angeles as exercise as it's the warmup and cooldown for my "real workout." Walking alone isn't going to make me a fast runner or cyclist, or a powerful lifter or rock climber. But I think variation in physical activity, just like variation in the food you eat, is fantastic for your body.
So I counted 60 minutes of the 4+ hours of walking I did this weekend as exercise in the 50,000 second challenge. Add in the 30 minutes of elliptical on Friday and 45 minutes of weightlifting this morning, and I've broken the 10k mark. Yay! I'm right on schedule.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Solidarity
As I mentioned before, many of my friends are doing NaNoWriMo in November: write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I also mentioned that I'd have to forgo NaNoWriMo this year in favor of staying in shape.
So, in a show of solidarity, my goal for November is to exercise 50,000 second, which is 833.33 minutes, also known as 13.89 hours. That's 28 minutes a day on average. Okay, so it's not the highest, most challenging goal. But it is doable, as opposed to the 50,000 minute goal I first thought of (there simply aren't 28 hours in a day).
Look a new and improved goal meter, coming soon.
So, in a show of solidarity, my goal for November is to exercise 50,000 second, which is 833.33 minutes, also known as 13.89 hours. That's 28 minutes a day on average. Okay, so it's not the highest, most challenging goal. But it is doable, as opposed to the 50,000 minute goal I first thought of (there simply aren't 28 hours in a day).
Look a new and improved goal meter, coming soon.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Give it a Tri
This year on my birthday I ran my first competitive race ever (outside of high school), the Revlon Run/Walk 5k. I did alright, finishing in about 31 minutes which is a 6 mph pace. Not too shabby for someone who wasn't trying to run for speed but rather "I have bad knees and would like to be able to walk tomorrow and don't want first-race excitement to get the better of me and make me burn out halfway through the race."
When I move to SF I'm going to buy a bike, so I've been thinking about triathlons lately. I went to Active.com tonight to see what kind of events are going on in the SF area in the spring, and lo and behold the 8th Annual Napa Valley Sprint Triathlon is on my birthday next year. This is prefect because most "beginner triathlete" guides I've seen involve about 5 months of training, which is basically how much time I have before I hit the big 3-0.
Anyone want to race with me? Or, barring that, does anyone want to go to Napa Valley with me for a relaxing birthday weekend and cheer me on?
When I move to SF I'm going to buy a bike, so I've been thinking about triathlons lately. I went to Active.com tonight to see what kind of events are going on in the SF area in the spring, and lo and behold the 8th Annual Napa Valley Sprint Triathlon is on my birthday next year. This is prefect because most "beginner triathlete" guides I've seen involve about 5 months of training, which is basically how much time I have before I hit the big 3-0.
Anyone want to race with me? Or, barring that, does anyone want to go to Napa Valley with me for a relaxing birthday weekend and cheer me on?
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Faking it poorly
I've been off the wagon lately, relatively speaking. Not sleeping enough, drinking too much coffee, not working out every day, non-ideal food ratios. I've been socializing, working, packing, working, driving, socializing. I've been distractable at work, so I value a full night's sleep above a workout. But I'm moving away from this city soon, so I value socializing over a full night's sleep. Hm.
Long story short, I'm out of my routine. And that's all bad for work, eating, exercising, and my weight. It's bad for pretty much all aspects of my life. Not to say that a strict daily routine is necessary for me to be happy, but if too many aspects of it are out of whack for too long then I start to fray at the edges. Exercise makes me feel better all day, and sleep makes me function properly: as soon as those two start to suffer everything else does too. So why do they end up at the bottom of the priority stack? Because they are boring. Unsexy. Uninteresting when compared to seeing friends and doing well at my job and packing my apartment. I see them as expendable, but really (this is me doing productive self-talk, by the way) they are the foundation of my life. With a good night's sleep and a little bit of exercise I am better equipped to do well at my job, be a good attentive friend, and pack my apartment efficiently.
I know this intellectually. Clearly. Why is there such a disconnect between knowing and doing?
Long story short, I'm out of my routine. And that's all bad for work, eating, exercising, and my weight. It's bad for pretty much all aspects of my life. Not to say that a strict daily routine is necessary for me to be happy, but if too many aspects of it are out of whack for too long then I start to fray at the edges. Exercise makes me feel better all day, and sleep makes me function properly: as soon as those two start to suffer everything else does too. So why do they end up at the bottom of the priority stack? Because they are boring. Unsexy. Uninteresting when compared to seeing friends and doing well at my job and packing my apartment. I see them as expendable, but really (this is me doing productive self-talk, by the way) they are the foundation of my life. With a good night's sleep and a little bit of exercise I am better equipped to do well at my job, be a good attentive friend, and pack my apartment efficiently.
I know this intellectually. Clearly. Why is there such a disconnect between knowing and doing?
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Injuries
I have a long and storied injury history, and my body definitely doesn't heal (short and long term) like it used to. This is very sad and annoying, but it's also my life so I am learning how to deal with it.
My biggest problem area is definitely my left knee, followed by my right knee (from favoring the left), then my left hip. Sometimes my ankles hurt, but not often. Right now my left foot is still recovering from the scooter accident so any "pushing off" movement aggravates it. Day to day, though, it's all about keeping the knees happy.
I find that the #1 thing I can do for my knees is to exercise every day. It keeps the supporting muscles and tendons and ligaments strong, keeps the healing nourishing blood pumping through the area, prevents fluid buildup, and the stretching done before and after exercise keeps the entire area more limber.
That said, I have to carefully balance that exercise with respect for what my joints are telling me and not overdo the exercise. My lungs might want a run, but my knee is demanding a walk, so I take a walk. Low impact exercise is good too, like swimming and the elliptical machine, depending on the nature of the discomfort that day.
After the scooter accident aggravated my knee injury I decided to take the long view on it all and stop trying to run for distance. Now I run for speed. If that is a problem too, I'll just cap my speed and live with that. No biggie. When I move to SF I'm going to sell my car and buy a road bicycle and tool around on that to get around town. That should be good for my fitness and good for my joints and good for the environment. Everyone wins!
I just hope that my "crashing two wheeled vehicles" habit doesn't turn into a trend.
This post was adapted from a comment left on a friend's blog.
My biggest problem area is definitely my left knee, followed by my right knee (from favoring the left), then my left hip. Sometimes my ankles hurt, but not often. Right now my left foot is still recovering from the scooter accident so any "pushing off" movement aggravates it. Day to day, though, it's all about keeping the knees happy.
I find that the #1 thing I can do for my knees is to exercise every day. It keeps the supporting muscles and tendons and ligaments strong, keeps the healing nourishing blood pumping through the area, prevents fluid buildup, and the stretching done before and after exercise keeps the entire area more limber.
That said, I have to carefully balance that exercise with respect for what my joints are telling me and not overdo the exercise. My lungs might want a run, but my knee is demanding a walk, so I take a walk. Low impact exercise is good too, like swimming and the elliptical machine, depending on the nature of the discomfort that day.
After the scooter accident aggravated my knee injury I decided to take the long view on it all and stop trying to run for distance. Now I run for speed. If that is a problem too, I'll just cap my speed and live with that. No biggie. When I move to SF I'm going to sell my car and buy a road bicycle and tool around on that to get around town. That should be good for my fitness and good for my joints and good for the environment. Everyone wins!
I just hope that my "crashing two wheeled vehicles" habit doesn't turn into a trend.
This post was adapted from a comment left on a friend's blog.
Goals
She tooks the words right out of my mouth. Goals, rewards, milestones, carrots and sticks. And it's very important that the rewards be things that you want, that are worth working towards, and that don't derail you from further progress. Rewarding my weight loss with a pint of ice cream wouldn't be a very good idea. :)
Here are my carrots. I still need to fill in some of the rewards. I also have to rearrange that road bike reward since I'm not going to reach 140 lbs by the time I move to SF, and the car is going bye bye when I get up there. But buying that heart rate monitor was very gratifying.
Here are my carrots. I still need to fill in some of the rewards. I also have to rearrange that road bike reward since I'm not going to reach 140 lbs by the time I move to SF, and the car is going bye bye when I get up there. But buying that heart rate monitor was very gratifying.
- Done
- 155 lbs
- 155 lbs
- fat% checked with calipers
- 150 lbs
- A new bag or outfit
- 150 is the new trigger weight
- 150 is the new trigger weight
- 148 lbs
- Heart rate monitor
- To Do
- 145 lbs
- 145 lbs
- fat% checked with calipers
- 145 is the new trigger weight
- 145 is the new trigger weight
- 143 lbs
- 140 lbs
- 140 lbs
- Road bicycle
- 140 is the new trigger weight
- 140 is the new trigger weight
- 138 lbs
- GOAL! (maybe)
- 135 lbs
- 130 lbs
- 130 lbs
- 25” waist?
Monday, October 17, 2005
Putting yourself out there
Some friends of mine are participating in NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a novel (50,000 words) in a month, specifically the month of November. I thought very seriously about participating (I tried last year, but failed to finish), then realized that between the new job, moving cities, and trying to exercise every day I didn't have time to write a novel, even a crappy one.
I came to that realization when I read this blog entry by a friend of mine about NaNoWriMo. She talks about peer feedback and expectations as a motivating force to finish an important, difficult task (in this case, writing a novel). Upon reading that I realized two things: (1) I prioritize exercise over NaNoWriMo (even though it would be fun) and I don't have time to do both in November, and (2) a little peer feedback and expectation may help me in my goals too!
Poof: Operation Active. Eh, dorky name, I know. I tried to keep it short and not diet/weight loss related, as it's more about staying in shape and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
(Of course, I now eat dessert every day at work, but that's why I exercise every day, right? Right!)
Subsequent posts on my friend's NaNoWriMo blog make me realize that people go about accomplishing large goals in very similar ways, regardless of what the goals are. She talks about planning ahead (plot). About trying to write at least some every day. She talks about tools for charting her progress and providing a useful feedback mechanism. Sounds pretty similar to what I'm doing, and what most people do, to realize weight and/or fitness goals.
So, I'm putting myself out there. By being a critical audience you will help me stay on track. At least, that's the idea. In the end, we write novels and lift heavy weights for ourselves.
I came to that realization when I read this blog entry by a friend of mine about NaNoWriMo. She talks about peer feedback and expectations as a motivating force to finish an important, difficult task (in this case, writing a novel). Upon reading that I realized two things: (1) I prioritize exercise over NaNoWriMo (even though it would be fun) and I don't have time to do both in November, and (2) a little peer feedback and expectation may help me in my goals too!
Poof: Operation Active. Eh, dorky name, I know. I tried to keep it short and not diet/weight loss related, as it's more about staying in shape and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
(Of course, I now eat dessert every day at work, but that's why I exercise every day, right? Right!)
Subsequent posts on my friend's NaNoWriMo blog make me realize that people go about accomplishing large goals in very similar ways, regardless of what the goals are. She talks about planning ahead (plot). About trying to write at least some every day. She talks about tools for charting her progress and providing a useful feedback mechanism. Sounds pretty similar to what I'm doing, and what most people do, to realize weight and/or fitness goals.
So, I'm putting myself out there. By being a critical audience you will help me stay on track. At least, that's the idea. In the end, we write novels and lift heavy weights for ourselves.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Fight the good fight
Thursday's plan: Woke up too late to go to the gym, so brought gym bag with me to work so I'd be sure to workout after work, even if I worked late. I rarely am able to bring myself to leave home to go to the gym at night, but if I stop at the gym BEFORE I get home I'm golden.
Thursday's revised plan: Friend calls me at 7pm and asks if I want to have dinner. Wednesday I had actually asked this same person if they wanted to have dinner Thursday and they had declined, so I had kind of planned my evening around that answer. I accepted the last minute dinner invite, reasoning that since this particular friend likes to get to bed early I could always go to the gym after dinner.
Thursday's reality: Dinner turns into late dinner plus record store, got home at 10:30 pm which is a bit late to hit the gym when bedtime is 11 pm. Stay up until 1 am doing random dumb stuff on the internet and around the apartment. No workout, no good night's sleep.
Lesson learned: I need to accept that as long I don't see working out as an essential oart of every day, keeping company with other mundane tasks like showering and dressing, I'll never reach the kind of effortless fitness and flat stomach I'd like to see. It's pretty much just a fact.
Today's plan: Having dinner with same friend tonight, but we're meeting at 9 pm. I have my gym bag. I will leave work at 6:30 pm, drive to the gym, get a nice solid unrushed workout in, shower, then go eat a tasty Father's Office burger.
Is it stubborn or dumb to expect different results out of the same plan? *sigh*
Thursday's revised plan: Friend calls me at 7pm and asks if I want to have dinner. Wednesday I had actually asked this same person if they wanted to have dinner Thursday and they had declined, so I had kind of planned my evening around that answer. I accepted the last minute dinner invite, reasoning that since this particular friend likes to get to bed early I could always go to the gym after dinner.
Thursday's reality: Dinner turns into late dinner plus record store, got home at 10:30 pm which is a bit late to hit the gym when bedtime is 11 pm. Stay up until 1 am doing random dumb stuff on the internet and around the apartment. No workout, no good night's sleep.
Lesson learned: I need to accept that as long I don't see working out as an essential oart of every day, keeping company with other mundane tasks like showering and dressing, I'll never reach the kind of effortless fitness and flat stomach I'd like to see. It's pretty much just a fact.
Today's plan: Having dinner with same friend tonight, but we're meeting at 9 pm. I have my gym bag. I will leave work at 6:30 pm, drive to the gym, get a nice solid unrushed workout in, shower, then go eat a tasty Father's Office burger.
Is it stubborn or dumb to expect different results out of the same plan? *sigh*
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Measuring Mania
I weigh myself first thing in the morning every single morning. Alarm, bathroom break, strip, scale. That's the routine. Has been since January 2001, when I had my first "get serious" moment. From my weight log you can see that I've taken breaks here and there (vacations, broken leg, just not writing the number down, etc), but daily weigh-ins and watching the weighted average of those weigh-ins is an essential feedback mechanism in my daily life.
Whenever possible I measure every bite of food I eat. I also log my food intake every single day (nearly) without fail. I have done those two since January 2004 when I had one of my "get serious" moments and took my weight-loss-game up to the next level. Actually, I took a small break from measuring and logging during the holidays of 2004, but I also gained 5 pounds. Negative case proves the positive, right? :)
I don't weigh myself only if I don't have access to my home scale in the morning at my designated weighing time. I don't log my food only on very special occasions, like long vacations out of the country or something. Actually I've been known to log food on paper even during vacations, then go back and fill in the data later in my fitday.com account. I do my very best to guess (or look up) the ingredients of food I've eaten that turns out to not be in the fitday food database.
Measuring food. This is the trickier one. Anytime I'm eating food away from home, like at a restaurant or the cafeteria at work, I'm at the mercy of my estimating abilities. Luckily I've gotten very very good at estimating food volumes. I try to double-check my estimates, for example by going home and measuring all parts of the half of a restaurant meal I've brought home in a doggie bag. When eating at the work cafeteria, where all food is free (what a mixed blessing that is), I try very hard to slightly low-ball my portions of calorie dense foods. Take the smallest muffin in the basket, a scant bowl of cereal, a tiny cookie, etc. I'm wondering, though, if my estimation ability is starting to slip.
Tonight my dinner was some whole wheat pita, hummus, and broccoli. I measured the hummus with a tablespoon onto my plate: 1, 2, 3, 4. I counted the broccoli flowerets. I actually input the meal into fitday before I even started plating it up, to make sure it fit into my nutritional plan for the day. This doesn't seem strange to me anymore, in fact NOT doing it would feel strange. But I also am very aware that other people don't do this. Don't need to do this.
Yes, this all seems a bit extreme and obsessive. I like to think that part of the rigor is my scientific mind: the FitDay reporting mechanism and weight chart averaging aren't worth squat without complete, accurate data. Part of it, though, is a real acknowledgment that if I were to stop all these behaviors and just "live life like a normal person," I'd backslide on my weight and fitness and health. I've worked far too hard to let that happen.
Theoretically, at some nebulous future time, all of these behaviors that I'm forcing on myself will truly be habits and second nature and I won't need these feedback mechanisms to keep me exercising every day and eating well and not gaining fat. I've already truly changed many behaviors, like how big I think a meal should be. Then again, there are lots of reasons for me to believe, or at least accept as a real possibility, that such a future is quite impossible. It's far better for me to just assume that I'll always weigh myself regularly and I'll always think very consciously about what I'm eating, at the very least.
The scale is my most important and vital feedback mechanism, and I don't care what the "don't weigh yourself, it only makes you feel bad" nay-sayers say. I know from experience. When I was gaining weight back over the holidays last year I didn't need the scale to tell me that. I knew it from looking at my body and feeling my clothes. Even 5 pounds is quite noticeable if you are paying attention. But did I change my overeating, non-exercising behavior? No. Nor did I stop weighing myself, however. And when the scale hit the "trigger weight" I had set for myself, then and only then did I snap out of it and get back on that horse and lose those pounds. It's all about understanding your own psychology, then setting traps for all those bad behaviors.
Speaking of bad behaviors, one of mine is staying up too late and being too tired to work out the next morning. Time for bed!
Whenever possible I measure every bite of food I eat. I also log my food intake every single day (nearly) without fail. I have done those two since January 2004 when I had one of my "get serious" moments and took my weight-loss-game up to the next level. Actually, I took a small break from measuring and logging during the holidays of 2004, but I also gained 5 pounds. Negative case proves the positive, right? :)
I don't weigh myself only if I don't have access to my home scale in the morning at my designated weighing time. I don't log my food only on very special occasions, like long vacations out of the country or something. Actually I've been known to log food on paper even during vacations, then go back and fill in the data later in my fitday.com account. I do my very best to guess (or look up) the ingredients of food I've eaten that turns out to not be in the fitday food database.
Measuring food. This is the trickier one. Anytime I'm eating food away from home, like at a restaurant or the cafeteria at work, I'm at the mercy of my estimating abilities. Luckily I've gotten very very good at estimating food volumes. I try to double-check my estimates, for example by going home and measuring all parts of the half of a restaurant meal I've brought home in a doggie bag. When eating at the work cafeteria, where all food is free (what a mixed blessing that is), I try very hard to slightly low-ball my portions of calorie dense foods. Take the smallest muffin in the basket, a scant bowl of cereal, a tiny cookie, etc. I'm wondering, though, if my estimation ability is starting to slip.
Tonight my dinner was some whole wheat pita, hummus, and broccoli. I measured the hummus with a tablespoon onto my plate: 1, 2, 3, 4. I counted the broccoli flowerets. I actually input the meal into fitday before I even started plating it up, to make sure it fit into my nutritional plan for the day. This doesn't seem strange to me anymore, in fact NOT doing it would feel strange. But I also am very aware that other people don't do this. Don't need to do this.
Yes, this all seems a bit extreme and obsessive. I like to think that part of the rigor is my scientific mind: the FitDay reporting mechanism and weight chart averaging aren't worth squat without complete, accurate data. Part of it, though, is a real acknowledgment that if I were to stop all these behaviors and just "live life like a normal person," I'd backslide on my weight and fitness and health. I've worked far too hard to let that happen.
Theoretically, at some nebulous future time, all of these behaviors that I'm forcing on myself will truly be habits and second nature and I won't need these feedback mechanisms to keep me exercising every day and eating well and not gaining fat. I've already truly changed many behaviors, like how big I think a meal should be. Then again, there are lots of reasons for me to believe, or at least accept as a real possibility, that such a future is quite impossible. It's far better for me to just assume that I'll always weigh myself regularly and I'll always think very consciously about what I'm eating, at the very least.
The scale is my most important and vital feedback mechanism, and I don't care what the "don't weigh yourself, it only makes you feel bad" nay-sayers say. I know from experience. When I was gaining weight back over the holidays last year I didn't need the scale to tell me that. I knew it from looking at my body and feeling my clothes. Even 5 pounds is quite noticeable if you are paying attention. But did I change my overeating, non-exercising behavior? No. Nor did I stop weighing myself, however. And when the scale hit the "trigger weight" I had set for myself, then and only then did I snap out of it and get back on that horse and lose those pounds. It's all about understanding your own psychology, then setting traps for all those bad behaviors.
Speaking of bad behaviors, one of mine is staying up too late and being too tired to work out the next morning. Time for bed!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
By any means necessary
This is a place for me to gripe about the trials and tribulations of trying to live a "healthy lifestyle" while living in this crazy modern world with a demanding job and a social life. I have another journal but if I wrote over there about all the measuring, counting, planning, calculating, and general purpose obsessing I do about my weight and fitness I might seem like a nut. Plus it might seem like I never do anything else, as I don't update that journal on a truly regular basis.
This journal is also a way for me to be held accountable/rewarded for sticking with my healthy living plans. Just the latest in a long line of self-inflicted motivational tactics to keep me on the right track.
Some history for strangers: Same beginning as many of these stories, I was active and slightly pudgy in high school, gained some weight in college, then gained more weight after college when I started a desk job. In January 2001 someone sent me a link to The Hacker's Diet, I bought a scale and saw 191 lbs, and got serious. Lost 20 pounds relatively easily (I say now, of course. At the time it felt hard). Then I moved across the country, got into a motorcycle accident and regained some weight, got serious again and lost another 20 pounds. I really improved my understanding of the weight loss and weight maintenance game that time through. I've maintained that weight loss for about a year, and am now trying to lose another 10 pounds or so.
The Present: Those first few pounds are easy to lose. These last few pounds, the ones that have been with me since high school? They have a death grip on my midsection and aren't letting go without a fight. They want a fight? They want me to bring it? Oh, I'll bring it. But in addition to losing these few pounds I also just need to maintain an active lifestyle and relatively clean eating so that I can maintain my weight now and in the future. It turns out that being skinny and strong and fast takes a lot more effort and upkeep than being fat and soft and slow. Who knew?
The stats, for the stats obsessed: Female, 29, Caucasian, 5'7". Highest weight 191 lbs. Current weight 148 lbs. Current target weight 138 lbs. View the gory details in my weight log.
This journal is also a way for me to be held accountable/rewarded for sticking with my healthy living plans. Just the latest in a long line of self-inflicted motivational tactics to keep me on the right track.
Some history for strangers: Same beginning as many of these stories, I was active and slightly pudgy in high school, gained some weight in college, then gained more weight after college when I started a desk job. In January 2001 someone sent me a link to The Hacker's Diet, I bought a scale and saw 191 lbs, and got serious. Lost 20 pounds relatively easily (I say now, of course. At the time it felt hard). Then I moved across the country, got into a motorcycle accident and regained some weight, got serious again and lost another 20 pounds. I really improved my understanding of the weight loss and weight maintenance game that time through. I've maintained that weight loss for about a year, and am now trying to lose another 10 pounds or so.
The Present: Those first few pounds are easy to lose. These last few pounds, the ones that have been with me since high school? They have a death grip on my midsection and aren't letting go without a fight. They want a fight? They want me to bring it? Oh, I'll bring it. But in addition to losing these few pounds I also just need to maintain an active lifestyle and relatively clean eating so that I can maintain my weight now and in the future. It turns out that being skinny and strong and fast takes a lot more effort and upkeep than being fat and soft and slow. Who knew?
The stats, for the stats obsessed: Female, 29, Caucasian, 5'7". Highest weight 191 lbs. Current weight 148 lbs. Current target weight 138 lbs. View the gory details in my weight log.
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