A good friend of mine was visiting me this weekend, and I allowed myself to eat way too much food and neglect exercising altogether. Yummy Indian dinner at Pakwan plus a concert (= drinking) on Friday, brunch at Boogaloo's and dinner at a Korean restaurant in the Tenderloin plus another concert (= more drinking) on Saturday, capped off by Tartine (butter!) and new england clam chowder in a bread bowl on Sunday. Add in two skipped workouts (Friday and Sunday), a coworker's housewarming party followed by a social dinner I wasn't hungry for on Sunday night, and we have a very icky and bloated feeling me on Monday morning.
But I'm such a trooper; I not only did my short swim + short bike workout this morning, I broke my fastest swim record AGAIN. I wasn't feeling very good while doing it, though, so I'm hoping I didn't miscount my laps. :/
I also added and rearranged the bits and bobbles on the right over there. I'm tracking my "2006 in 2006" minutes, and am slightly ahead of the curve to meet that target (34.6 gym exercise minutes on each of the 58 non-holiday weekday days between Jan 23 and April 13 is the target pace). I also calculated my triathlon finish time based my current "best times", and I'm so glad I did because it points out that cycling, not swimming, is my big clear obvious weak spot. I've been skipping a lot of long biking workouts because they are on Fridays, so maybe I should rearrange things a bit for a while so I can get that average speed up.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
Functional Exercise
2006 in 2006 progress: 150 minutes this week (60+30+60). Only workouts done at the gym count for this goal, and exciting unknown prizes await me. Free personal training session, maybe?
I had to ditch today's workout in favor of sleep. :/ I keep meaning to add another meter in the right hand column, but haven't gotten around to it yet. (http post upload size too large to do at work). My training could really use that 61 minute bike ride I was supposed to do today, too. I'll get my run in on Sunday, though.
Good internets: This article from Stumptuous talks about the importance of integrated, lifelike exercise, and I couldn't agree more. It's an older article, but I thought of it when I came across this site about functional exercise on lifehacker.com today.
Triathlons and running a mile in x minutes and bench pressing y pounds is all fine and well, but really we stay in shape so we can carry all our groceries upstairs in one trip, and put that bulky box on the top shelf without fear of dropping it, and break into a run at a moment's notice to avoid getting clipped by a car. We stay in shape so we can keep doing these things for years and years to come.
I had to ditch today's workout in favor of sleep. :/ I keep meaning to add another meter in the right hand column, but haven't gotten around to it yet. (http post upload size too large to do at work). My training could really use that 61 minute bike ride I was supposed to do today, too. I'll get my run in on Sunday, though.
Good internets: This article from Stumptuous talks about the importance of integrated, lifelike exercise, and I couldn't agree more. It's an older article, but I thought of it when I came across this site about functional exercise on lifehacker.com today.
Triathlons and running a mile in x minutes and bench pressing y pounds is all fine and well, but really we stay in shape so we can carry all our groceries upstairs in one trip, and put that bulky box on the top shelf without fear of dropping it, and break into a run at a moment's notice to avoid getting clipped by a car. We stay in shape so we can keep doing these things for years and years to come.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Records, records everywhere
Swim: Last night I swam 600 yards (12 laps) in 16 minutes = 37.5 yards per minute. My previous "record" pace was 800 yards in 24 minutes = 33.3 yards per minute. It's hard to compare those two workouts, as my overall pace last night may have been slower if I had swam for longer. However, last night was the first swim workout I've done in preparation for this triathlon where I haven't had to stop (albeit briefly) to rest. I swam straight through, only stopping two or three times to cough up some inhaled water, and then only for a few seconds. So progress is definitely being made! Even if FitDay still says 50 yards per minute is "Swimming, crawl, slow (50 yards per min), moderate or light effort." *grrr*
Bricks: Last night was the first night I did a "brick" workout: that's "training on two disciplines during the same workout, one after the other with minimal or no interruption in between, just as you would do in a race." So after my swim I popped out of the pool, toweled off and changed into my cycling gear, and jumped on the stationary bike. I changed quickly, though not at race pace or anything (didn't want people looking at me too strangely), and I still did a 5 minute warmup then a stretch on the bike before I started my real workout, but it was definitely good practice.
Edit:
I forgot to talk about the event that made me want to write this entry in the first place!
Weight: This morning my scale read 145 pounds, my lowest adult weight ever. Whoo Hoo!
Bricks: Last night was the first night I did a "brick" workout: that's "training on two disciplines during the same workout, one after the other with minimal or no interruption in between, just as you would do in a race." So after my swim I popped out of the pool, toweled off and changed into my cycling gear, and jumped on the stationary bike. I changed quickly, though not at race pace or anything (didn't want people looking at me too strangely), and I still did a 5 minute warmup then a stretch on the bike before I started my real workout, but it was definitely good practice.
Edit:
I forgot to talk about the event that made me want to write this entry in the first place!
Weight: This morning my scale read 145 pounds, my lowest adult weight ever. Whoo Hoo!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
All out of order:
The Ugly
January has been an ugly month. I've had more binge eating days than I'd like to count. Okay, depending on how you count it, there have been about 11. Here's the sad evidence. I can see what's happening, and it's not good. Last year one or two days of overeating would be followed by a day or two of barely eating, as I was listening to my body and things evened out naturally. This month that has only happened once, near the end of December on the chart. As you can see from the averaged numbers, FitDay thinks I'm eating exactly enough food to account for my activity, but I know from experience that I actually need to keep that "Calories Eaten" value lower than the "Calories Burned" value. Even setting my activity level on FitDay to "bed-bound" doesn't fully account for my low metabolic rate. :(
At any rate, the ugly is that I've let this go on for so long, just watching it happen. Watching myself eat when I'm not hungry. Eat out of stress and sadness and discomfort, eat for the sugar's affect on my brain chemicals and eat because I feel sorry for myself. Eat when the food doesn't even make me feel good anymore, when I'm so in tune with my body's signals that I know it's just making me uncomfortable, but so used to the idea that food provides pleasure that I eat anyway. Eat eat eat. This is making it sound like I'm some kind of binge eating depressed maniac. I swear I'm not. I've been "binge" eating only compared to how I'd like to eat, how I've eaten in the past for longish stretches and how I'd like to eat again.
The other part of the ugly is that being in New York for xmas and being sick last week really threw a monkey wrench into my exercise regimen. Add to that a real need to work long hours at work right now, and lots of coffee drinking.
The Good
FitDay, being in touch with my body, having the triathlon as a goal, and setting up 150 lbs as my trigger weight have all helped to get my mind back in the game. I will spend the next month in full healthy mode, no excuses. My ability to compete in the triathlon, not slipping back into unconscious bad habits (so far the bad behaviors are all very conscious), and staying healthy and comfortable (not exercising = creaky knee, too much sugar = bad digestive track and bad skin, too much caffeine = bad sleeping habits, etc); all these are more are at stake. I've done this before, I can do it again. All that delicious food will still be around when I'm done. I can have tiny portions of things I truly want to taste. I can drink, just plan for it. I can make time to work out. I can, and I will.
The goal this month isn't to get to a certain weight, it's to enact a certain set of behaviors.
The Bad
Today is a working Saturday here at work. They feed us here, and are piling on the comfort food to make us feel better. I get in much earlier than most people, so had already had my half-of-a belgium waffle (with banana slices and a touch of maple syrup) and two, count them two small muffins before anyone else in my group got in. I "justified" the second muffin as... well, it doesn't matter. It was justification, pure and simple. I hadn't yet fully decided to buckle down on my behaviors yet.
So what does my boss bring in to help us through this Saturday? Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I had some. I did. But I only had a quarter of a chocolate glazed and half of a original glazed (would have had a quarter of that one too, but the yeast doughnuts are hard to tear apart without mangling. I know, I should have just thrown out half of what I took. No, wait, I shouldn't have taken them at all.)
Add to that my Dine About Town dinner at Rubicon tonight. I'm going to keep that dinner in the front of my mind during lunch today, resisting the onion rings and cookies on the menu. I want to enjoy my Wild Anise Chocolate Mousse relatively guilt free. I've already chosen what items off the Rubicon fixed price menu I'll be ordering and entered those into FitDay (my best guesses, anyway). The muffins and doughnuts "ruined" today's calorie intake and nutritional breakdown, but I'll do some damage control at lunch with a big salad, veggies, and grilled chicken. Then I'll fully enjoy my delicious indulgent dinner, because I'm completely convinced that those sorts of events have to be part of any long-term plan. Big salad for lunch (it's not like I hate salad, after all), indulgent dinner, moderate eating tomorrow. As it should be. The ugly would have been onion rings and cookies at lunch AND an indulgent dinner, after all. :)
The Ugly
January has been an ugly month. I've had more binge eating days than I'd like to count. Okay, depending on how you count it, there have been about 11. Here's the sad evidence. I can see what's happening, and it's not good. Last year one or two days of overeating would be followed by a day or two of barely eating, as I was listening to my body and things evened out naturally. This month that has only happened once, near the end of December on the chart. As you can see from the averaged numbers, FitDay thinks I'm eating exactly enough food to account for my activity, but I know from experience that I actually need to keep that "Calories Eaten" value lower than the "Calories Burned" value. Even setting my activity level on FitDay to "bed-bound" doesn't fully account for my low metabolic rate. :(
At any rate, the ugly is that I've let this go on for so long, just watching it happen. Watching myself eat when I'm not hungry. Eat out of stress and sadness and discomfort, eat for the sugar's affect on my brain chemicals and eat because I feel sorry for myself. Eat when the food doesn't even make me feel good anymore, when I'm so in tune with my body's signals that I know it's just making me uncomfortable, but so used to the idea that food provides pleasure that I eat anyway. Eat eat eat. This is making it sound like I'm some kind of binge eating depressed maniac. I swear I'm not. I've been "binge" eating only compared to how I'd like to eat, how I've eaten in the past for longish stretches and how I'd like to eat again.
The other part of the ugly is that being in New York for xmas and being sick last week really threw a monkey wrench into my exercise regimen. Add to that a real need to work long hours at work right now, and lots of coffee drinking.
The Good
FitDay, being in touch with my body, having the triathlon as a goal, and setting up 150 lbs as my trigger weight have all helped to get my mind back in the game. I will spend the next month in full healthy mode, no excuses. My ability to compete in the triathlon, not slipping back into unconscious bad habits (so far the bad behaviors are all very conscious), and staying healthy and comfortable (not exercising = creaky knee, too much sugar = bad digestive track and bad skin, too much caffeine = bad sleeping habits, etc); all these are more are at stake. I've done this before, I can do it again. All that delicious food will still be around when I'm done. I can have tiny portions of things I truly want to taste. I can drink, just plan for it. I can make time to work out. I can, and I will.
The goal this month isn't to get to a certain weight, it's to enact a certain set of behaviors.
The Bad
Today is a working Saturday here at work. They feed us here, and are piling on the comfort food to make us feel better. I get in much earlier than most people, so had already had my half-of-a belgium waffle (with banana slices and a touch of maple syrup) and two, count them two small muffins before anyone else in my group got in. I "justified" the second muffin as... well, it doesn't matter. It was justification, pure and simple. I hadn't yet fully decided to buckle down on my behaviors yet.
So what does my boss bring in to help us through this Saturday? Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I had some. I did. But I only had a quarter of a chocolate glazed and half of a original glazed (would have had a quarter of that one too, but the yeast doughnuts are hard to tear apart without mangling. I know, I should have just thrown out half of what I took. No, wait, I shouldn't have taken them at all.)
Add to that my Dine About Town dinner at Rubicon tonight. I'm going to keep that dinner in the front of my mind during lunch today, resisting the onion rings and cookies on the menu. I want to enjoy my Wild Anise Chocolate Mousse relatively guilt free. I've already chosen what items off the Rubicon fixed price menu I'll be ordering and entered those into FitDay (my best guesses, anyway). The muffins and doughnuts "ruined" today's calorie intake and nutritional breakdown, but I'll do some damage control at lunch with a big salad, veggies, and grilled chicken. Then I'll fully enjoy my delicious indulgent dinner, because I'm completely convinced that those sorts of events have to be part of any long-term plan. Big salad for lunch (it's not like I hate salad, after all), indulgent dinner, moderate eating tomorrow. As it should be. The ugly would have been onion rings and cookies at lunch AND an indulgent dinner, after all. :)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Pissing me off today: Fad Diets
Saw this article in the Google News: Health section.
A "mad cacophony of flavors"!?!?!? Has this guy ever seen a sterotypical American meal? Last I checked, American food had a pretty solid reputation as being bland and boring. If "sensory-specific satiety" was a really significant phenomenon I don't think SuperExtraDuper Super Sized Fries would exist, or 72 oz Super Gulps. Most of us with a weight problem eat what's in front of us, even after we're full. That's why big plates, eating ice cream out of the pint, and buffets are evil.
Let's look at a typical suggested day of food:
Ah ha! Could it be that people in his "study" lost weight because they actually ate HEALTHIER food? Hm, could be. I somehow doubt there's a "white bread" day. You'll notice that Tomato Day didn't involve a heaping plate of white pasta and tomato sauce. What garbage. They even list the calories for crying out loud! And are capres and olives not flavorful? Will they not fight with the tomato flavor, urging you to eat more and more according to this theory? Come on! The first sentance in the AP article is a crime: "Forget about counting calories" it says. Yet here we go, he has you count out the number of chips you can eat with dinner, limiting your calories. And did anyone else notice the 53 grams of fiber. 53! I bet that would fill you up a lot more than "sensory-specific satiety" does.
Top that off with a paragraph buried deep in the article, that the book recommends 30 minutes of exercise most days, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, etc, and we see that the whole "flavor diet" is a thin sheet over the same boring health advice we all know and love to hate. The article even ends with this: "Whether Katz’s diet works because it limits flavors, or because it promotes healthy eating and exercise, is unclear, Raynor said. 'If you’re eating healthy and exercising, you’re going to lose weight,' she said." *sigh*
What I'm afraid of is the Atkins Effect: people will think they can eat as much food as they want as long as it meets the flavor requirements, leading to lots of pineapple ice cream and not much pineapple shrimp. And shame on the press for not being more critical of this garbage and (probably) basically reprinting the book's press release as the first half of the article.
Limiting flavors may be key to a successful diet
CHICAGO - Forget counting carbs and calories. Obesity researcher Dr. David Katz says the way to lose weight is to limit flavors.
Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center, says people stop eating when the brain's appetite center registers 'full.'” But eating lots of flavors promotes overeating because different sensors must register full for appetite to subside, Katz says.
The typical American diet 'is a mad cacophony of flavors,'” Katz said this week during a book-tour stop in Chicago.
Instead, Katz advocates flavor-themed meals - an apple day, for example, or a sesame day, even an occasional chocolate day.
A "mad cacophony of flavors"!?!?!? Has this guy ever seen a sterotypical American meal? Last I checked, American food had a pretty solid reputation as being bland and boring. If "sensory-specific satiety" was a really significant phenomenon I don't think SuperExtraDuper Super Sized Fries would exist, or 72 oz Super Gulps. Most of us with a weight problem eat what's in front of us, even after we're full. That's why big plates, eating ice cream out of the pint, and buffets are evil.
Let's look at a typical suggested day of food:
For “tomato” day, breakfast is a sandwich of two slices of while grain bread, one soft-cooked egg, two slices of tomato and 1 tablespoon of part-skin mozzarella cheese. Morning snack is 12 cherry tomatoes with two tablespoons of hummus. Lunch is tomato and black bean Mediterranean salad in half a whole-wheat pita. Afternoon snack is 12 baked corn chips and one-third cup tomato salsa. Dinner is baked tilapia with tomatoes, olives and capers, cooked bulgur wheat, sauteed cauliflower florets, tossed garden salad with chickpeas. Dessert is peach-blueberry salad.
Total calories: 1,535, 24 percent from fat, 20 percent from protein, 56 percent from carbohydrates; 53 grams fiber; 272 milligrams cholesterol; 2,186 milligrams sodium.
Ah ha! Could it be that people in his "study" lost weight because they actually ate HEALTHIER food? Hm, could be. I somehow doubt there's a "white bread" day. You'll notice that Tomato Day didn't involve a heaping plate of white pasta and tomato sauce. What garbage. They even list the calories for crying out loud! And are capres and olives not flavorful? Will they not fight with the tomato flavor, urging you to eat more and more according to this theory? Come on! The first sentance in the AP article is a crime: "Forget about counting calories" it says. Yet here we go, he has you count out the number of chips you can eat with dinner, limiting your calories. And did anyone else notice the 53 grams of fiber. 53! I bet that would fill you up a lot more than "sensory-specific satiety" does.
Top that off with a paragraph buried deep in the article, that the book recommends 30 minutes of exercise most days, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, etc, and we see that the whole "flavor diet" is a thin sheet over the same boring health advice we all know and love to hate. The article even ends with this: "Whether Katz’s diet works because it limits flavors, or because it promotes healthy eating and exercise, is unclear, Raynor said. 'If you’re eating healthy and exercising, you’re going to lose weight,' she said." *sigh*
What I'm afraid of is the Atkins Effect: people will think they can eat as much food as they want as long as it meets the flavor requirements, leading to lots of pineapple ice cream and not much pineapple shrimp. And shame on the press for not being more critical of this garbage and (probably) basically reprinting the book's press release as the first half of the article.
2006 in 2006
My gym at work stole my idea! No, not really, but it is awfully similar to the 50,000 seconds of exercise I did in November:
Needless to say I signed up. I wonder what the prizes are...
2006 in 2006
This incentive program is to help you achieve your goals and keep you moving over the next 12 weeks...
Program Details:
1. Starts January 23rd ends April 13th
2. Complete 2006 minutes of exercise in 12 weeks (at the club or traveling – when traveling we need proof J contact Stephanie for the travel guidelines)
3. The math: 2006 minutes= 5 days per week x 35 minutes per day OR 3 one hour workouts per week
4. Sign your log sheet every time you complete your workout to get credit for it
5. Everyone who completes the 2006 minutes gets a prize...SUPER special prize!! Prizes to be distributed April 17th
Needless to say I signed up. I wonder what the prizes are...
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Plodding Along
The holidays were rough with my schedule and waistline, big surprise. Eating and drinking out with friends was frequent and excessive, but eating with my family was moderate and healthy. Healthy eating with my family? Is it possible? My weight problem (partially) stems from bad eating lessons learned at home when growing up, but now that I've fallen into the "ultra-health-nut" role with my family it's easy to say no to anything unhealthy because I'm hyper-aware of trying to be a good influence when I'm around them.
But now the holidays are over and I'm home, pseudo-sick, and struggling to transition back into the healthy regular eating plus triathlon training exercise schedule. I love pleasure as much as everyone else, and the cold weather and sickness and ramping up of pressure at work and prolonged singlehood are making thoughts of coddling myself with food and other pleasurable vices very appealing. I did just that on Sunday night, tasting so many different sweets that my small portion sizes were outweighed by the number of portions.
I'm hovering just south of 150lbs, but a soft 150lbs. Battleplan:
1. For the time being no more coffee at work, just tea.
2. Strinctly limited personal internet time at work. (Easier now that I have internet at home, finally)
3. Eat food that will help me get over this cold.
4. Full nights of sleep are manditory. Using my car to commute is encouraged to realize this goal.
5. Excercise moderately. Yoga, for example.
This cold may actually HELP me get back into the healthy groove, after all.
But now the holidays are over and I'm home, pseudo-sick, and struggling to transition back into the healthy regular eating plus triathlon training exercise schedule. I love pleasure as much as everyone else, and the cold weather and sickness and ramping up of pressure at work and prolonged singlehood are making thoughts of coddling myself with food and other pleasurable vices very appealing. I did just that on Sunday night, tasting so many different sweets that my small portion sizes were outweighed by the number of portions.
I'm hovering just south of 150lbs, but a soft 150lbs. Battleplan:
1. For the time being no more coffee at work, just tea.
2. Strinctly limited personal internet time at work. (Easier now that I have internet at home, finally)
3. Eat food that will help me get over this cold.
4. Full nights of sleep are manditory. Using my car to commute is encouraged to realize this goal.
5. Excercise moderately. Yoga, for example.
This cold may actually HELP me get back into the healthy groove, after all.
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