It's the last day before my assessment. Tomorrow night I'll post about my results, but today I'm focussing on what I've accomplished. In the past two months, I have:
Worked out a minimum of 4 times a week--3 times at Fitness Together and at least 1 time at a spinning class
Gone from thinking about every minute of my Fitness Together workout to being surprised that the 45 minutes is done
Gone from only being able to complete 30 minutes of spinning class, and that at a fairly low level, to being able to do the full hour at a high level
Recorded everything I ate every day
Kept below my calorie goal every single day, including through 5 Christmas parties, an office party, Christmas eve and Christmas day celebrations, New Year's Eve, trips to LA, South Dakota, and wherever else I went in the past 2 months
Kept my commitment not to eat any desserts
Kept my commitment not to drink any alcohol
Made eating well-balanced, nutritious meals a way of life
Tomorrow I'll see what doing all those things has meant. And the day after, I leave for Nicaragua. No matter what I find out tomorrow, I know I am going to be going to Nicaragua in much better condition to do my part in building a house out of earth bags. I will have limited access to the Internet while I'm gone, so I'm unlikely to post until I return.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Winter
We are having the most incredible winter--the most snow we've had in the 39 years I've lived in Massachusetts. We were only supposed to have a light snow today, so Mariah (my assistant) and I headed north toward New Hampshire at 6:30 this morning for a 9:00 meeting. We got about 20 minutes out when the radio announced for the third time since we left that we would be having snow with intermittent freezing drizzle all day. That freezing drizzle scared us and we turned around. I wish I had known that before I set my alarm for 5 am this morning.
We drove back to the office and I had the meeting by phone. By noon we had gotten an alarming amount of snow, so I decided to head home. It's normally a 10 minute drive, and in about 10 minutes, I was within 50 feet of my driveway. That was just to make me mad--I didn't get into the driveway for another hour and a half.
We live at the top of a 2 mile long hill, which is very steep just before our house. I had gotten a good head of steam up, but my car really didn't want to go up the last section. A kind woman stopped and tried to push me, to no avail. A nice man with a plow plowed a section behind me so I could get some steam up, but that didn't help. Then 2 city snow plows came roaring up the hill and passed me, leaving me in my little island of snow. I tried backing up onto the section they plowed, but still couldn't get enough traction. People kept suggesting that I go around and approach my house from the other direction (about a 10 mile drive--I live in the country), but as I said, I live at the top of the hill and while the hill is much shorter from the other direction, it's also steeper.
So I backed Up about a half a mile down the road to a flatter section to see if I could get enough momentum to get up the hill now that the road had been plowed. A nice neighbor gave me a pail of sand in case I got stuck. I got going really well and thought I was going to make it, but I needed to go onto the left hand side of the road to bypass the snow island where I had been stuck, and just as I was approaching it--could it be, yes it could, the snow plows came roaring down the hill, forcing me back into the snow island and stuck once more.
So I backed down again and tried it again. I got past the snow island and was really close to home now and lost all traction. Two men from the fire department stopped to help me spread the sand and push me. We made a little traction but the damn city plows came along again and plowed away my sand.
At that point I decided to park in my neighbor's driveway and walk home. I tried backing in, but guess what, I couldn't get over the pile of snow from the snow plows to get in her driveway. I got in enough to turn around and decided I would try the long way home. I was amazed, but I had no trouble on any of the hills and was about to start celebrating when I turned into the driveway and got hung up on the pile of snow from the snow plows--half in the driveway, half in the road. I tried rocking the car back and forth--I was going no where. I decided if someone was going to hit my car, it would happen whether I was in it or not, so I got out and went and got a snow shovel and dug my car out. It really felt good to pull into the garage.
What does this have to do with getting fit. Who cares--I needed to share. Actually, the point is that I have been training for 2 months, 4 appointments a week at Fitness Together. Tomorrow was supposed to be my final appointment before my assessment on Thursday, and it is cancelled because of the storm. No perfect attendance record for me. I'll consider it a day of tapering to improve my performance at the assessment. I have to do things like step up and down off a step for 3 minutes to a metronome and have my heart rate checked, see how many sit-ups and push-ups I can do in a certain time period, etc., so I'll be nice and fresh, especially if Liz is in charge of snow removal. It's a good reason for her to do it, don't you think?
We drove back to the office and I had the meeting by phone. By noon we had gotten an alarming amount of snow, so I decided to head home. It's normally a 10 minute drive, and in about 10 minutes, I was within 50 feet of my driveway. That was just to make me mad--I didn't get into the driveway for another hour and a half.
We live at the top of a 2 mile long hill, which is very steep just before our house. I had gotten a good head of steam up, but my car really didn't want to go up the last section. A kind woman stopped and tried to push me, to no avail. A nice man with a plow plowed a section behind me so I could get some steam up, but that didn't help. Then 2 city snow plows came roaring up the hill and passed me, leaving me in my little island of snow. I tried backing up onto the section they plowed, but still couldn't get enough traction. People kept suggesting that I go around and approach my house from the other direction (about a 10 mile drive--I live in the country), but as I said, I live at the top of the hill and while the hill is much shorter from the other direction, it's also steeper.
So I backed Up about a half a mile down the road to a flatter section to see if I could get enough momentum to get up the hill now that the road had been plowed. A nice neighbor gave me a pail of sand in case I got stuck. I got going really well and thought I was going to make it, but I needed to go onto the left hand side of the road to bypass the snow island where I had been stuck, and just as I was approaching it--could it be, yes it could, the snow plows came roaring down the hill, forcing me back into the snow island and stuck once more.
So I backed down again and tried it again. I got past the snow island and was really close to home now and lost all traction. Two men from the fire department stopped to help me spread the sand and push me. We made a little traction but the damn city plows came along again and plowed away my sand.
At that point I decided to park in my neighbor's driveway and walk home. I tried backing in, but guess what, I couldn't get over the pile of snow from the snow plows to get in her driveway. I got in enough to turn around and decided I would try the long way home. I was amazed, but I had no trouble on any of the hills and was about to start celebrating when I turned into the driveway and got hung up on the pile of snow from the snow plows--half in the driveway, half in the road. I tried rocking the car back and forth--I was going no where. I decided if someone was going to hit my car, it would happen whether I was in it or not, so I got out and went and got a snow shovel and dug my car out. It really felt good to pull into the garage.
What does this have to do with getting fit. Who cares--I needed to share. Actually, the point is that I have been training for 2 months, 4 appointments a week at Fitness Together. Tomorrow was supposed to be my final appointment before my assessment on Thursday, and it is cancelled because of the storm. No perfect attendance record for me. I'll consider it a day of tapering to improve my performance at the assessment. I have to do things like step up and down off a step for 3 minutes to a metronome and have my heart rate checked, see how many sit-ups and push-ups I can do in a certain time period, etc., so I'll be nice and fresh, especially if Liz is in charge of snow removal. It's a good reason for her to do it, don't you think?
Monday, January 31, 2011
It Takes Two
I love Mondays because I have two workouts--Fitness Together in the morning and spinning with Peggy at the Y in the afternoon. It's really hard for me to get enough calories on Mondays. I felt like I was eating all day and only ate 1,650 calories. I burned off nearly 1,000 calories between the 2 workouts, so I really should eat more. The problem with eating so few calories is that if my body thinks I'm going into a starvation situation, my metabolism will slow down and it will be harder to lose weight. Please body, I have enough fat stored up to last through a long period of starvation. Trust that fat supply--it's there for energy.
My workout this morning was fun, with an emphasis on upper body exercises. I did 60 push-ups--the last couple were pretty poor and 80 pull-ups, using a giant rubber band under my right foot to support my weight. I've never been able to do more than 1 or 2 actual pull-ups. I remember when I first tried doing pull-ups. I was in 6th grade and we were doing a fitness test that John Kennedy had his Fitness Council develop to improve the fitness level of America'a youth--things really don't change, do they. Anyway, I tried doing pull-ups and was shocked that I could only do a couple. I was a very athletic kid and excelled at every athletic thing I tried, so I was quite disappointed to learn that I couldn't do pull-ups. I also did some exercises for the obliques and some lunges, because who would want a day without lunges.
Tonight, Peggy did an endurance class, where she was having us work at a high level with few breaks. It's so much tougher to do that than interval work, which is counterintuitive to me. I guess it's because I was getting my heart rate up in the area I normally do for interval training and not taking the breaks to get it back down. Maybe I should try keeping my heart rate in the 140s when I'm doing an endurance workout.
Only one more workout until my assessment!
My workout this morning was fun, with an emphasis on upper body exercises. I did 60 push-ups--the last couple were pretty poor and 80 pull-ups, using a giant rubber band under my right foot to support my weight. I've never been able to do more than 1 or 2 actual pull-ups. I remember when I first tried doing pull-ups. I was in 6th grade and we were doing a fitness test that John Kennedy had his Fitness Council develop to improve the fitness level of America'a youth--things really don't change, do they. Anyway, I tried doing pull-ups and was shocked that I could only do a couple. I was a very athletic kid and excelled at every athletic thing I tried, so I was quite disappointed to learn that I couldn't do pull-ups. I also did some exercises for the obliques and some lunges, because who would want a day without lunges.
Tonight, Peggy did an endurance class, where she was having us work at a high level with few breaks. It's so much tougher to do that than interval work, which is counterintuitive to me. I guess it's because I was getting my heart rate up in the area I normally do for interval training and not taking the breaks to get it back down. Maybe I should try keeping my heart rate in the 140s when I'm doing an endurance workout.
Only one more workout until my assessment!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Nearing the Finish Line
A short post tonight because I've got a migraine. Very weird, because my migraines usually have food triggers and I haven't eaten anything that would cause a migraine in two months.
I will train on Monday and Wednesday at Fitness Together and take a spinning class tomorrow evening. Those are my last three training sessions before my assessment on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to seeing where I am (at the same time I'm afraid that little will have changed). I know I'm doing what I need to do to be fit, and while the title of this blog implies that I'm neaing the end of something, I know it's just an interim check-in point.
Then I leave the next day for 10 days in Nicaragua, and will be using the strength and endurance I've built up in the last two months to build an earth bag house with a group of people from the United States and Nicaragua. I can't wait!
I will train on Monday and Wednesday at Fitness Together and take a spinning class tomorrow evening. Those are my last three training sessions before my assessment on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to seeing where I am (at the same time I'm afraid that little will have changed). I know I'm doing what I need to do to be fit, and while the title of this blog implies that I'm neaing the end of something, I know it's just an interim check-in point.
Then I leave the next day for 10 days in Nicaragua, and will be using the strength and endurance I've built up in the last two months to build an earth bag house with a group of people from the United States and Nicaragua. I can't wait!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Limit
My older brother told me I should blog every day, and I have to listen to my brother. I went to spinning class for the first time in 2 weeks. I could feel the effects of the lay-off, or at least I told myself I could. I didn't feel like I could keep the same cadence (pedal revolutions per minute) that I had the last time.
I did get my heart rate up into the 160's regularly, though, and averaged 144 beats per minute. I have this idea that I would average 149, because that was regularly my average when I was training for a rollerblading marathon. I think it will be hard to get to that average, though, because my training sessions on rollerblades typically lasted 2 hours or more. When I start spinning, even if I don't record my warm-up time, I'm usually starting around 120 bpm, and It takes a certain amount of time to get my heart rate into the 140's, 150's, and 160's. So when I'm only in spinning class for an hour, there isn't enough time at the higher rates to make up for the initial time when my heart rate is lower. Besides, the articles I've been reading about training talk about the benefits of periods of intense training, followed by periods of less intense training, which is what Peggy does in spinning class, bringing my heart rate down. I was probably training at too intense a level when I was rollerblading, which may have limited my progress.
I think I discovered my upper limit for aerobic training today. I went into the 170's for a brief time, and that felt qualitatively different. If that's the case, my maximum heart rate is probably 200 (assuming people go into anaerobic training at 85% of their maximum), rather than the 160 the standard formula gives for my age.
I did get my heart rate up into the 160's regularly, though, and averaged 144 beats per minute. I have this idea that I would average 149, because that was regularly my average when I was training for a rollerblading marathon. I think it will be hard to get to that average, though, because my training sessions on rollerblades typically lasted 2 hours or more. When I start spinning, even if I don't record my warm-up time, I'm usually starting around 120 bpm, and It takes a certain amount of time to get my heart rate into the 140's, 150's, and 160's. So when I'm only in spinning class for an hour, there isn't enough time at the higher rates to make up for the initial time when my heart rate is lower. Besides, the articles I've been reading about training talk about the benefits of periods of intense training, followed by periods of less intense training, which is what Peggy does in spinning class, bringing my heart rate down. I was probably training at too intense a level when I was rollerblading, which may have limited my progress.
I think I discovered my upper limit for aerobic training today. I went into the 170's for a brief time, and that felt qualitatively different. If that's the case, my maximum heart rate is probably 200 (assuming people go into anaerobic training at 85% of their maximum), rather than the 160 the standard formula gives for my age.
Friday, January 28, 2011
You Gotta Know When to Hold 'Em
I've been having great workouts this week. Tuesday in particular was great--Mark led me in a leg workout that made trying to sit or stand a challenge. I love feeling sore--to me it's the true sign that I pushed myself. Today, Savanah was into having me do 12-15 reps of an exercise and then holding the last rep for 20 seconds to a minute, depending on the exercise. Like doing a set of squats with a Swiss ball against the wall, and then holding the last one with my thighs parallell to the floor . I don't remember how long I held that one, but my legs were shaking by the end.
Here are some examples. On the right is a picture of me doing the bench press with dumbbells, holding the last rep until I wanted to drop the weights. It's such a mental challenge--trying to stay present with how I'm actually feeling rather than thinking about the next 20-30 seconds and what they're going to feel like and whether I can make it to the end.
On the left, I'm doing a static lunge with my front foot elevated. My quads were already sore from holding the squat. I don't have pictures of everything, but I did some shoulder exercises, push-ups, tricep extensions, all holding the last rep.
This on was really hard. I had to hold myself in a semi-squat position on the platform on one leg, and the touch the other foot to the floor 12 times. Again, on the last rep, I held my foot off the ground. Believe me, that didn't last long.
I did this exercise after holding a plank forever (ok, maybe 45 seconds to a minute), so my abs were already sore. By the time the hold was over, though, it was my legs that were shaking because of the number of quad exercises I'd already done. All in all, a fun set of exercises.
I had a good week in terms of my weight--I lost a pound and a half, which is really rewarding. I realized yesterday that I'm not turning my food diary into Fitness Together anymore, because I finished the nutrition consulting part of the training. I had my worst eating day in a long time today, and was aware that I wasn't turning in my food diary while I was doing it. I somehow managed to stay below my calorie goal, but I didn't eat a mix of foods designed to make me healthy.
The main problem is that I wasn't home most of the day. I had a good breakfast, and went to workout t 11:15. I was supposed to go get Bennett at 1, and didn't really have time to go home and make lunch after working out and before getting Bennett, so I ate a protein bar. I then spontaneously decided to take Bennett to the movies to see Tangled, which of course involved eating popcorn. Then I was going to the movies tonight with Bob and Diana to see The King's Speech, and the timing was such that I didn't have time to make dinner and had another protein bar. Then it turned out that the movie started a half hour later than we had originally thought, so we went to a restaurant near the theatre and had meat, cheese, and bread. Very tasty, but a lot of carbs and fat. If I keep having the thought that I'm not sending in my food diary, I'm going to talk to Mark about continuing to send it in. I want to make sure I'm in the habit of eating well long enough, that I don't want to do anything else.
Here are some examples. On the right is a picture of me doing the bench press with dumbbells, holding the last rep until I wanted to drop the weights. It's such a mental challenge--trying to stay present with how I'm actually feeling rather than thinking about the next 20-30 seconds and what they're going to feel like and whether I can make it to the end.
On the left, I'm doing a static lunge with my front foot elevated. My quads were already sore from holding the squat. I don't have pictures of everything, but I did some shoulder exercises, push-ups, tricep extensions, all holding the last rep.
This on was really hard. I had to hold myself in a semi-squat position on the platform on one leg, and the touch the other foot to the floor 12 times. Again, on the last rep, I held my foot off the ground. Believe me, that didn't last long.
I had a good week in terms of my weight--I lost a pound and a half, which is really rewarding. I realized yesterday that I'm not turning my food diary into Fitness Together anymore, because I finished the nutrition consulting part of the training. I had my worst eating day in a long time today, and was aware that I wasn't turning in my food diary while I was doing it. I somehow managed to stay below my calorie goal, but I didn't eat a mix of foods designed to make me healthy.
The main problem is that I wasn't home most of the day. I had a good breakfast, and went to workout t 11:15. I was supposed to go get Bennett at 1, and didn't really have time to go home and make lunch after working out and before getting Bennett, so I ate a protein bar. I then spontaneously decided to take Bennett to the movies to see Tangled, which of course involved eating popcorn. Then I was going to the movies tonight with Bob and Diana to see The King's Speech, and the timing was such that I didn't have time to make dinner and had another protein bar. Then it turned out that the movie started a half hour later than we had originally thought, so we went to a restaurant near the theatre and had meat, cheese, and bread. Very tasty, but a lot of carbs and fat. If I keep having the thought that I'm not sending in my food diary, I'm going to talk to Mark about continuing to send it in. I want to make sure I'm in the habit of eating well long enough, that I don't want to do anything else.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Journey
Oh yes, I'm referring to Miley Cyrus's philosophy in the title. I realized yesterday, that people may not know that I almost always quote song lyrics in my title. Liz didn't realize my title yesterday was from a Simon and Garfunkle song. What's with that. So I moved from a 1960's reference to a 2010's reference.
I dropped a full pound from yesterday to today. Psyched! I know I'm in this for the long run, but it sure helps to see my progress on the scale. I feel great as I walk around--I feel how differently my clothes fit me, and I can feel how much stronger I am. Then when I'm feeling good, I start getting down on myself--think how good I'd feel now if I'd started at the weight I was last July. Why oh why did I put on 15 pounds (other than the fact the I was ordered to do no exercise and to move as cautiously as possible in the world so I wouldn't break anything).
Then I have to remind myself to enjoy the journey (thanks, Miley). Enjoy seeing each pound go, having my clothes get loose, having to buy new ones, enjoying the food I eat, the exercises I do, feeling myself grow stronger. Some day, someone will actually notice the change and say something (what the hell, is everyone blind!?!??!!!).
I dropped a full pound from yesterday to today. Psyched! I know I'm in this for the long run, but it sure helps to see my progress on the scale. I feel great as I walk around--I feel how differently my clothes fit me, and I can feel how much stronger I am. Then when I'm feeling good, I start getting down on myself--think how good I'd feel now if I'd started at the weight I was last July. Why oh why did I put on 15 pounds (other than the fact the I was ordered to do no exercise and to move as cautiously as possible in the world so I wouldn't break anything).
Then I have to remind myself to enjoy the journey (thanks, Miley). Enjoy seeing each pound go, having my clothes get loose, having to buy new ones, enjoying the food I eat, the exercises I do, feeling myself grow stronger. Some day, someone will actually notice the change and say something (what the hell, is everyone blind!?!??!!!).
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