Moving Induced Break in Routine

I suppose it's fair to think that I love moving house considering that I do it so frequently.  For one reason or another it just seems that I move every 2 or 3 years.  Trust me - I can explain each move.  They all make sense at the time. 

After all these moves, you would imagine that I have moving down to a system by now, and you would be correct.  That doesn't change the fact that routines get thrown out the window, bodies get injured, and nerves get frazzled.

The Nerd and I moved from our cool - but seriously overcrowded - St. Lawrence Market-area multi-storey condo unit to a rowhouse in Corktown near the river valley.  Because it's a house, the new place has 2 bedrooms plus a den plus a finished basement plus storage space plus a small back yard, all of which combine to alleviate the overcrowding issue we had in the old place.

But no matter how good your movers are (and ours, Collins & Greig, were amazing), moves are still exhausting.  Between the packing, planning, lifting, unpacking, and multiple trips up and down stairs both of us were completely knackered for weeks. 

On the good side there is, at long last, a light at the end of the tunnel.  We are virtually all unpacked (all that is left to do is organize our crawl space storage and back porch storage a bit more), and all of the main areas - living room, kitchen, bedroom, weave-ateria, and gym - are all finished, with furniture in place and pictures hanging up on the walls. 

This is the first weekend in about 3 weeks that we are no longer packing or unpacking, but merely living in our place.  We had guests over to watch the UFC fights last night and the place showed like a charm.  The Nerd and I are slowly discovering the traffic flow and process flow in the new place (for example, our desks / office space are in the basement rather than in the living room), but that's a fun discovery.

As an example of how fractured our routines were, this Thursday was the first time in three weeks that Mr. Fitness came to kick my ass.  Between his schedule and ours we had to cancel two weeks of sessions in a row.  I still worked out with weights a couple of times on my own, but it's just not the same as when he enthusiastically pushes me beyond what I thought I could achieve.  I missed that, and was frankly very nervous about getting back into our training sessions.

It turns out that the new gym space (in our upstairs den) worked just fine, although it was a little bit of a pain in the butt to move the dumbbells from the linen closet where they are stored when not in use (the new gym has less floor space than the old gym area, and there's not as much free space to leave dumbbells laying about).  As far as the workout went, however, it was just as intense as always, and I felt wonderful when it was done.  Completely done in, as well, but then that's kind of the point, isn't it?

 

With some minor adjustments there is more than enough room for one person to work out, and even enough room for me and Mr. Fitness to go through our routines.  The space is not quite as large as the old gym, but overall the new place has so many benefits that a slight reduction in gym size is worth it in the big scheme of things.

For example, now my view from the elliptical is a pleasant look into our back yard, as well as our neighbours' yards.  The old place looked out onto an alley where the garbage bins for our building were stored.  Ambiance central, not so much.

On the downside, I now have "closet weights".

So we're still working out a solution for those...

On the good side the move is essentially complete, the house is amazing, our neighbours are wonderful, and I can still walk to work in the morning (my commute is now a 15 minute walk instead of a 10 minute walk). 

On the bad side, I have managed to undo almost a year of progress with all the chinese food, burgers, and pizza we have been eating during this transition period.  I don't blame anyone - I certainly was too exhausted to even think of cooking most nights, and ordering in was just too tempting.  Add the emotional eating on top of that, and ... let's just say it's a good thing that I am back into my routine. 

I am counting today as official post-move Day 1, and the Nerd and I had a healthy day together.  We both worked out, we stuck to our delicious homemade meals, and we went for a long walk today.  The walk happened to end at an ice-cream truck, but that's kind of the point.  I tracked all the food (including the ice-cream!), as well as my exercise, and it was a good balanced day. 

That's 1 down.  13 more to go to re-establish my good patterns.  364 to go to see big improvement. 

But step 1 is done, so I've got that going for me, which is good. 

Well THAT was a workout...!

I may have just experienced my first real endorphin, because hot damn that workout felt great, even though I was pushing myself more than I have done in years, apparently.

Today was the first day of the new experiment with the heart rate monitor and trying to get into a proper training zone.  My previous workouts on the elliptical were done on an incline of 10 (out of 20) and at a tension of 5 (out of 20).  I had briefly flirted with a tension of 6 for about 2 minutes about a year ago, but it was hard so I quickly went back to 5 (hangs head in shame).

Yesterday when I wore the new heart rate monitor for the first time to properly see how I was doing vis a vis training zones, I was properly mortified to see how easily I had actually been taking things (albeit unintentionally).  Although my elliptical workouts felt tough to me (in my head, anyways), that was just an illusion - - my body was so accustomed to the workouts that they were just not challenging enough any more (challenging, that is, physically). 

Today I resolved to push the tension up until my heart rate went into a proper training zone.  No more baby tension for me - - today I started at a tension of 6...then 7, but after 25 minutes my heart rate was only begrudgingly above 121 bpm.  It was clear that drastic measures were required.  That's right - - it was time for tension 8. 

It turns out that 8 was the magic number, for me at least.  You can see in the above chart exactly where I kicked it up to 8, because it's where my heart rate went into the green zone (121-139) and stayed there pretty consistently until the end. 

I can really feel this workout in my legs right now, which is the first time in a long time that I have noticed my legs after an elliptical workout, so maybe there is something to this heart rate zone training after all.

All I know is that I felt great throughout my workout, and I felt super great after it finished - - full of energy and ready to tackle the world.  Fortunately I was able to have a rye and Diet Coke and sit and read for a bit until the feeling passed, but wow, it felt great while it lasted! (grin)

It looks like heart rate zone training will continue to be part of my ongoing workout routine.  Level 8 - - I'll be back for you tomorrow!

The good news and the bad news

I have tried three new things in the past week, and today has been the first day that everything has been tried together.

First off, the good news is that I have EXCELLENT cardio health.  How do I know this?  Aside from the fact that my resting heart rate is usually 40-45 bpm, I recently started using a heart rate monitor again and it is very difficult for me to get out of the "mild workout" zone.  Damn cardio fitness.  It wasn't too long ago that merely turning over in bed would have pushed my heart rate to 220 bpm and walking down the hallway was considered a vigorous cardio workout.  Those days are gone.


Let me take a step back to give some context. 

As you know, I started a new job 4 months ago, and among many other positive qualities my company places a strong emphasis on personal fitness.  The company fielded a corporate team in the recent Weekend to End Women's Cancers 32 km charity walk, and they encourage employees to wear pedometers to become aware of their activity levels.  The company also has a partnership with Virgin Pulse, an online and app-based fitness tracker that gives members points for performing and recording physical activity. 


Although I have been working at the company for 4 months, it took Virgin Pulse 3.75 months to recognize me as an employee of said company, and so I was only able to register my account last week ... two days after the big 32 km walk.  Curses and shakings of fists were had in my office, to no avail.  But I am registered now, which is what counts.


One of the elements of the Virgin Pulse program is that users can get points for manually entering workouts, but users can get more points for validated workouts confirmed by a pedometer and a heart rate monitor.  In my case I have been wearing a Fitbit for years - - although the poor little guys die out regularly, Fitbit customer service is excellent about replacing the units- - and Virgin Pulse syncs my Fitbit steps. Score one for Virgin Pulse and wearing a Fitbit all day.


But it has been more than a year since I have worn a heart rate monitor.  I used to wear one when I used the Digifit app, but the app was very hinky and kept crashing so often that I just stopped using it - - and I also stopped using the heart rate monitor.  This Virgin Pulse program was a new opportunity to try the whole heart rate monitor thing again.


In the intervening year and a half since I last wore a heart rate monitor my cardio has significantly improved.  Imagine my disappointment last night when I did a quick test spin on the elliptical trainer for 14 minutes and I could not get my heart rate above 120 bpm for more than 10 bloody seconds.  WTF??  When did this happen?  Sheesh (yes, yes, I fully understand the irony of being disappointed that my heart health is good).


This morning I did my usual 45 minute elliptical session with the machine at a ramp of 10 and a tension of 5, and I was stunned to see that what I had always thought of as an intense exercise (judged purely by the amount I was sweating, which may not be scientifically accurate) was in fact really a "light" exercise, with 63% of the time spent in training zone 2 (104 bpm - 121 bpm), and a mere 4% spent in zone 3 (122 bpm - 139 bpm).  What an eye-opener.  Apparently in my case the "sweat of the brow" scale of effort does not correlate to heart rate, much. 

Needless to say, the calorie burn recorded by the heart rate monitor mirrored these results, giving me a burn of about 252 calories over the 45 minutes rather than the 450 calories that the elliptical gave me credit for, or the 500+ calories that MyFitnessPal thinks I should have burned.  Ouch!

Things only got worse when I turned to my new Zumba Dance workout.  I say Zumba Dance rather than merely Zumba because I am using the Zumba Dance app (the officially sanctioned Zumba app), to get a Zumba workout at home.  I quite enjoy it, actually, although it is pricy to purchase all of the different dance packages (around $30 all-in), but all the reviews I read recommended the variety to avoid wearout and boredom.  So far, so fun.

As it turns out, I am completely uncoordinated when it comes to moving my hands and feet at the same time, so most of the time I am shuffling around and waving my arms (apparently randomly, but in reality almost-but-not-quite mirroring the instructor) looking the opposite of graceful.  Kind of like a dancing zombie ... a dancing zombie in yoga pants and sports bra.  I am starting to get used to the Zumba-type movements over time, and ever so slowly I am starting to be able to shuffle my feet in more of a dance-like way, but it's still a loooonnnnggg way from proper Zumba technique.   


This morning marks my third Zumba Dance workout, and I have found it an enjoyable way to work out, and certainly it is a nice change from grim death marches or the elliptical.  Judging from the amount I was sweating (again, I understand this is not a scientific measure, even if it feels scientific), it sure felt like a good workout.  "Not so!" says my heart rate monitor - - 70% of my 30 minute workout was in Zone 1, or at a heart rate below 104 bpm.  Ack!

Soooooo.... it looks like I am going to have to take up the resistance on the elliptical to try and bump up my heart rate. Not sure what to do with the Zumba Dance app, but I do note that I am using the short intro class, which is probably easier than the more advanced stuff.


I don't mind my low heart rate too much, actually, because knowledge is power, and it's nice to know that my cardio is so good after two and half years of working out that I need to really push things to increase the challenge.  I won't say that I got complacent, exactly (*ahem*), I will just say that it was easy to push what I felt was a good amount - - when it turns out that I was barely pushing at all. 


So this is really a good news/bad news kind of thing.  The good news is that my cardio is great, and the bad news is that I have been overcounting my calorie burn for, well, years.  But back to the good news, I now have the tools to try and break out of this little rut and stretch myself again, which makes me happy.

So once again it is time to kick things up a notch.  Bring it on!  But this time I am bringing it on armed with better data, just like the numbers geek I am.

Another week of walking training in the books...almost

Well, it's week 3 of our walking training for the big Weekend to End Women's Cancers walk in September, and so far we have walked 23.7 miles this week, with another 6 miles to add to the count scheduled for tomorrow.

Toronto, from the Leslie Street Spit (Tommy Thompson Park)

We tried to fit today's walk into the schedule before my usual shopping/coffee/gossip-fest with my mom, so the Nerd and I left around 5:15 this morning in our attempt to walk 12.5 miles before shopping.  We made it - just! - but my legs were completely aching and sore while I was shopping (although a brief nap and some time in a haircutter's chair completely put me back to rights by the afternoon).

For today's grim death march - er - pleasant stroll, we walked out to the Waterfront Trail to Leslie Street and the Leslie Street Spit and Tommy Thompson Park.  The route was an almost perfect 12.5 miles, and it was such a lovely time of day to go out.  I will say this about Toronto, joggers and cyclists get out early, but there were hardly any of them out there for the first half of our walk.

Sandpipers

What was extremely cool about today's walk (other than finishing, of course), was the diversity of wildlife we saw at the Park.  There were the usual seagulls, loons, Canada Geese and ducks, naturally.  But we also saw a male Oriole in all his orange splendour, as well as a variety of terns, swallows, egrets, swans, sandpipers, and a multiplicity of bunny rabbits.

Ttust me, this is a bunny

The sounds of all the different species were very distinct, as well - - from forest sounding birds to waterfront birds to the absolute cacophany from a nesting colony of seagulls.  Neat.

Last week when we did our 12.5 mile march, I was in definite agony and struggling for the last 4.5 miles.  This week I was relatively comfortable for the first 10 miles, and uncomfortable for 2, and only seriously in discomfort for about half a mile or so.  The last couple of miles today were not fun, let's not kid ourselves, but I can definitely see an improvement in my comfort level for walking at distance.

Tomorrow's walk is "only" 6 miles, which feels like an easy stroll to me now.  The Nerd teased me when I told him we only had to walk 6 miles tomorrow, and reminded me that  2 years ago, 6 blocks were an impossible walk.  Last year, 6 miles was an endurance test that would have led to aching legs for the entire next day.  This year, it's a break from the half marathon distance walking we can do.  And although I definitely feel like I have walked a long distance today, my legs are mostly fine now, hours after the walk.  If last week is anything to go by, I will sleep very well tonight, and I will feel perfectly normal for our walk tomorrow morning.

I have significantly reduced my elliptical time over the course of the week because I do not ellipticalize (yes, that's a word) on walk days, so as to avoid burn out.  I can still do weights on walk days, because my weight program is largely a core and upper body workout. 

I have also maintained a good focus on what I have been eating this week, and have really controlled my snacking.  For me it's all about what I put into my mouth, because there is literally no amount of exercise that I can do that can make up for a serious binge.  Trial and error over the last couple of weeks has shown me that my calorie sweet spot is between 1600 - 1800 calories, regardless of my activity level.  Eating back my calories entirely doesn't seem to work for me, so I am now trying to stay within this range whilst avoiding snacking on peanut butter or M&Ms. 

We'll see where we walk tomorrow!

90 minutes on an elliptical machine is a loooonnnnnggggg time

I have continued to kick my ass with exercise this week, and am now up to 6 days of working out and eating well.  I am almost entirely back in the saddle; another couple of weeks and I will be officially back on the healthy routine, and these last few months of binge eating will just be a distant memory.

Yesterday was a 90-minute elliptical workout day, and I swear to god it almost killed my spirit.  It turns out that 90 minutes is a very long time when all you want to do is get off the elliptical machine.  I wanted to stop at 30 minutes, then I very badly wanted to stop at 45 minutes, and then again at an hour.  I don't know how the hell I managed to push for the entire 90 minutes, but it was more grueling than usual. 

I can put my finger on part of the reason why the workout was tougher than usual - - my old groin strain (gotten from a failure to bend my knees during my second-last move) has been flaring up since my ill-fated attempt to run.  It's not painful, per se, it just gives me twinges and maintains a dull ache with occasional sharp stabby bits once in a while.  Not super fun.  It makes the elliptical a little more challenging than normal.

The other reason why 90 minutes on the elliptical felt like it would never end is that I was reading a book that was ok, but not great.  I have many good non-fiction books on the shelf to read, but for some reason I prefer to read pulp fiction on the elliptical - - I can't have anything too intellectually demanding for my early morning workouts.  Usually it works great, as pulp fiction books are usually sufficiently engaging and distracting that they make the time pass.

I have been going through series after series of detective thrillers - Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski books, the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman mysteries, Ellis Peter's Cadfael books, the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton, Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels, and Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series.  Most of these series have strong female leads or good action, and I have generally enjoyed most of the books. 

Some of these books are better than others, however.  The Cooperman series was a little too self-deprecating to be true escapist fare - probably what I should have expected from a Canadian author.  The Stephanie Plum books were good, but the lead character deals with stress through eating donuts and junk food, and I found that I was craving those foods as well just from reading the series.  Thank god I have read everything in this series, because picking up those eating habits helped to erode months of progress.  I have literally never craved donuts like I did when I was reading the Plum books - - sheesh!

I just finished the first two Eve Duncan books by Iris Johansen.  They were all right, but not nearly distracting enough to keep my mind from clock watching during a 90-minute elliptical session.  I have picked up the next couple of books in the series to give the works a fair shake, but if they aren't engaging enough I may need to bring out the big guns and go back to non-fiction. 

Today was Sunday and both the Nerd and I were up at 7 am to work out - - we both did weights and elliptical, and I did a bit of walking on the treadmill as well.  Three years ago our Sunday morning would have started with a lie-in until 9.30 or 10 am, followed by a breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns with cheese, and hollandaise sauce full of butter, washed down with coffee with Baileys Irish Cream liqueur.  3 mugs of it, at least.  Those were probably 2,500 calorie breakfasts, and it goes without saying that there would have been no workouts in that era.

The Nerd and I were waxing nostalgic about those days whilst we sweated in the workout room this morning (mostly missing the hollandaise, cheese, and Baileys Irish Cream), but you know what?  Although it's not super fun to get up early to work out, neither one of us would go back to the way things were.   That's progress, I think.  I know that and a buck fifty will get you a double double at Timmy's, but I'll take it (the progress, not the double double!).

Coming back online, slowly

Photo by drinks machine, licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

Long time, no write.

For the past few months my workouts have been inconsistent (especially for me), and I have been using work stress and emotional stress as excuses to Eat All The Things.  Some days I couldn't even bring myself to log my food - - who can tell how many calories I was getting from a restaurant poutine, after all? 

That shit stops now.  Well, to be more accurate, that shit stopped this week.  I took myself in hand and started back with the intensive workouts and getting back to my healthy eating routine. 

I still need to lose weight, so adopting an easier workout routine that is more of a maintenance program (which I had rationalized as more sustainable than the hard workouts I had previously done) just doesn't make sense.  So now I am back to 90 minutes of kicking my own ass on the weights, treadmill, and elliptical, 6 days a week.  It's only day 4 of the new-and-improved world order, but it's amazing how easy it is to slip back into a healthy routine after having been so diligent at it for more than 2 years, even after a break.  In a strange way my healthy lifestyle is starting to feel more comfortable to me than the lazy ass binge eating lifestyle I used to adopt.  And only 2 and a half years later! 

Of course my complete abandonment of healthy eating has had its sequellae - - I gained back weight, and a lot of it.  Not that I look like Jabba the Hut or anything, but I have noticed that my clothing is tight, and that is just Not On.  I didn't go out and get all these new clothes just to eat my way out of them after a month, no sir. 

So how did I get here?  Simple - I gave myself permission to indulge myself, using my stress and depression about work as excuses.  Frankly, I feel much better about myself and my life when I eat well and do a hard workout, so abandoning those good habits only contributed to my feelings of depression.  And once you start feeling bad because you're eating like crap, it's ever so easy to eat more to try and feel better ... except, of course, that this never works.  The only thing that works is to fix the thing that isn't working and to stick to the good habits that I know make me healthier.

So I took control of the work situation, and I will have more news on that score in 2-4 weeks or so.  I've still got a ton of work to do on that front, but I recently received some very good news that has given me hope for the future with respect to work, which is wonderful.  I'm not out of the woods yet, but soon, hopefully. 

The Nerd and I are also working at fixing up the apartment to make it more livable.  We are both clearing out a lot of deadwood (I mean, do I really need to keep 30 years of old cards from strangers?) and we have donated a bunch of unwanted furniture to charity.  This gives us more room to move, and more room for books, to be perfectly honest.  Since "books" is kind of the decorating theme for the Palatial Estate, this works well.  As the place shapes up, my mood improves even more.  I hate living in disarray, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this side project as well. 

So the workouts - what's new and different and what have I learned?  I learned that 46 year old knees do not take kindly to running when I have never run before, and I have had to dial back on the C25K training I was doing.  I sort of wrecked my right knee and aggravated an old groin injury, and in the interests of my health I have changed up the running to merely walking on the treadmill at a reasonable pace.

The weights are effective, so I have not changed anything up there, other than to kick things up a notch with an additional set.  I am currently doing 4 sets of 10 for 9 different exercises, and I will likely keep things at this level for another week or so.

The elliptical is still my best calorie burner and step driver, so I now do 90 minutes on the elliptical on non-weight days.  It kicks my ass every time, but it's totally worth it.  On weight days I do 10 minutes on the treadmill and 35 minutes on the elliptical for a total workout of about 90 minutes, and it feels good. 

No more light workouts for the time being - - they are fine for maintenance, which will be wonderful when I reach my goal.  That's a loooonnnngggg way in the future, however.  For now I need to suck it up, buttercup, and focus on bringing on the sweat 6 days a week for 90 minutes each morning.  So that's what I will do.

As for the food, it's back to first principles.  No more illicit snacking.  No more donuts, unlogged chocolate or cupcakes, no more poutine or grilled cheese, no more nachos or rice krispie square bars.  What do I eat?  The Nerd's delicious cooking, of course, with his balanced and nutritious meals.  I am trying to keep my daily calories under 1,700-1,800, and although I don't succeed every day, it's something to shoot for.  I know that this calorie target gives me enough room to eat enough delicious food to be satisfied, but not so much food that I risk going over the edge again.

I know that eating sensibly, working out to challenge myself, and avoiding snacking results in weight loss, and soon I will be back in my old weight neighbourhood.  I have lost some ground, but I will be back again.  I'm stubborn that way. 

Tough Workout This Morning

Today was the kind of workout that makes you really happy when you're finished, but the entire time you are doing it your brain is trying to come up with excuses to stop.

It did not help that we were under a time crunch, so I could not dawdle - - we were expecting the Matriarch's call to go shopping around 9:30 am, so I needed to push my workout from one element directly to the other with as little time lost as possible (and as little rest as possible) in between so as to be ready when the call came. 

This meant that I went directly from 45 minutes on the elliptical to 30 minutes on the treadmill for W1D3 of my C25K program, then right back to the elliptical machine for a 20 minute cool down. 

Maybe it was feeling the time crunch an not taking more than a minute's rest in between the different elements, but this morning's workout was just plain grueling.  I didn't want to start the C25K program at all, and then all the way through I had to force myself to keep going through the running intervals.  Today was another 8 minutes of running broken into 1 minute intervals with 1.5 minutes of walking in between and I knew that I could do it, but man, it was tough this morning.  I basically psyched myself up 8 times before each interval, telling myself that I could do it.  I was wobblier than usual with my hands-free running, and had to really focus to bring my running back under control for the last interval.  When I was finished my whole workout, I was just exhausted, completely blown, and dripping with sweat.  Trust me, I looked super glamorous. 

But boy oh boy did it feel good to be done.  And just in time for the Matriarch's call ... cancelling shopping due to dangerous driving conditions.  D'oh!

Tomorrow will be a workout day because I took last Wednesday off (I had to present at a meeting and didn't have enough time to work out).  It will be a weight day, so back to the upper body work.  And then Monday it is back to C25K, week 2.

Still, I feel fantastic now that the workout is done, and the results since I have gotten back on track have been fabulous.  No snacking + tough workouts = weight loss.  I am down another 0.3 pounds from yesterday's low, for a new low of 187.8 pounds.  I sincerely hope that I am done with the 190's forever, because those 10 pounds basically took me 4 months to lose.  

Back to it tomorrow!

Starting C25K again, now, with actual running

Yesterday the Nerd and I spent an absolutely grueling day cleaning and organizing the house.  Lots and lots and lots of scrubbing and washing and scraping...  I woke up this morning barely able to move, almost crippled with back pain from all the bending and pushing and hefting.  Thank goodness for muscle relaxants and bags of frozen peas. 

I definitely did not need to work my upper body today after all of that, so today after loosening up my back I decided to go with the elliptical + C25K + elliptical cardio sandwich.  I will work my upper body again tomorrow, once my muscles have had a chance to recover somewhat from the beating I put on them yesterday.

This morning I decided to start the C25K program again, from the beginning.  Only this time, instead of hanging onto the treadmill for dear life during the run intervals, I was determined to actually run, like a normal person, without hanging on.  Big girl running.  I knew it would be challenging because I had not properly run for more than a few minutes the last time I did the C25K program, but I think there's an opportunity here to work on my stamina, done properly. 

I had some knee pain last week so I did not do the C25K, in the hopes that my knees would recover somewhat.  This seems to have worked.  I had minor twinges on the 5th interval this morning, but nothing significant, and overall the run was comfortable.  Today's set was 6 intervals of 1 minute running + 1.5 minute walking.  I did all 6 running intervals properly (i.e. without hanging onto the treadmill), which officially makes the 6 minutes I ran today the most I have ever run in my life. 

I was surprised at how challenging I found the running intervals this morning.  I do a lot of cardio on the elliptical, and yet the cardio of running on the treadmill is a different animal entirely.  It definitely makes me sweat, but it also makes me pant like I haven't panted since I first started working out.  It's like I am exercising for the first time. 

All in all, today's workout was a success.  I did the planned runs and I still had something left in the gas tank when I finished, which is more a moral triumph than anything else.  Tomorrow it will be back to the upper body workout - - hopefully I will have recovered sufficiently from my travails yesterday. 

Christmas was Tryptophan-tastic!

A few events of note happened this week.

The first is that I once again dusted myself off and got back on track for healthy eating and challenging workouts, just in time for the orgy of food that is Christmas.  Ah well, my timing has never been what we can call "good". 

This week I also began a new upper body focused weight routine, as well as a couch to 5K program with the intention of learning how to run.

As for the eating portion of my healthy lifestyle, I have been doing pretty well.  I managed to control my hitherto unbridled snacking when we had both sides of the family over to the Palatial Estate on Christmas Eve for a cocktail party, and I ended up staying on track for the most part.  At one point I caught my hand diving into a dish of cashews before the party and I turned the motion into an elaborate swoop and moved the dish into a cupboard to keep it out of my eye line and that seemed to work - - my snacking was kept at a minimum and I stayed on track for my daily calories. 

Yesterday on Christmas Day we had the full turkey dinner experience at the Nerd's sister's house, with all the tryptophan that comes with it.  The dinner was one of the best turkey dinners I have ever had, and I enjoyed every bite of it.  And the Mexican wedding cookies.  And the peanut brittle.  And the candy cane brittle.  And the chocolate letter "M" (for "Magniloquent", natch).  OK, so I went a little bananas yesterday with the food.  But I got it out of my system, and today had the usual breakfast and no cravings for illicit chocolate (or licit chocolate, for that matter), which is good. 

I have completed week 1 of the "5K Runner" C25K program using the iPad app.  Like most C25K apps, this one sets a warm-up period, then intervals of running alternating with walking, followed by a final cool down period.  The first day was a 25 minute workout involving a 5 minute warm-up followed by 6 intervals of 1 minute running + 1.5 minutes walking, followed by a 5 minute cool down.  Days 2 and 3 still involved the same warm-up and cool down, but with 8 intervals of 1 minute running + 1.5 minutes walking.  All in all this week I "ran" 6 minutes on day 1, then 8 minutes each on days 2 and 3, for a total "run" of 22 minutes this week. 

Am I actually running?  Probably not, but I am going 4.5 mph on the treadmill and I am making an awful lot of noise.  It could actually look like running, if you squint.  The point is to get my body used to the mechanics of what could eventually turn into running, and this is what the app appears to be good for.

Interestingly, for someone who has done 30 minutes to 90 minutes on the elliptical machine for months now, the cardio of the treadmill is very different and much more challenging.  I barely break a sweat after 30 minutes on the elliptical, whereas on the treadmill I am sweating up a storm after the first running interval.  I feel the treadmill more in my hamstrings and glutes than I feel the elliptical, too.  Overall, it's a very different cardio workout.

Right now I am still having to really push to complete the C25K workout, because: i) it is difficult; and ii) running is still not a natural motion for me.  But the emotional reward I feel for completing a C25K workout is still very positive and is helping to keep me on track, which is good.  I don't get a "runner's high", but I get a "stubborn woman's glow", which is almost as good.  The other nice thing about the C25K workout days is that I "only" do 45 minutes on the elliptical, which feels like I am getting away with something. 

On weight days I have been doing 3 sets of 10 reps of my various upper body exercises, which takes between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on how much I futz with the weight bench.  Overall the workout is very challenging, and I am definitely spent after it is done.  I have been following those weight workouts with 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, and each day this week I have really had to push myself not to stop early.  But I did it, and I feel the smug feeling one gets from pushing through to accomplish something one really doesn't want to do. 

Next week I will be doing week 2 of the C25K app, and it already looks a little intimidating to me - - 4 intervals of 1.5 min run + 2 min walking, followed by 2 intervals of 1 minute running + 1 minute walking, for a total run time of 8 minutes.  It's good for me to see that it is the same "run" time as I did this morning, just packaged a little differently.  We'll see how it goes...

This week I had a moral win by getting up at 3.15 am (!) to do my usual weight + elliptical workout on Christmas morning so that we could get out to my parent's house in Brampton around 6.40 am to open stockings with the family.  Driving back to town from the Nerd's sister's place at 10.30 pm I was initially puzzled that the CN Tower was still displaying the same festive green-white-red stripes as on Christmas morning, until I realized that it was still Christmas Day ... just an incredibly long day.  Whew!

Today (Boxing Day) the Nerd and I slept in to 8 am, and although we both did full workouts (he did 90 minutes on the elliptical and I did 30 minutes of C25K and 45 minutes on the elliptical), we were in no rush and it was a very relaxing morning, all things considered.

Tomorrow is Friday, and a normal day.  It's weigh-in day, too, so we'll see how virtuous I *really* have been able to be this week.  I will also be back to the office and back to 60 minutes on the elliptical, according to the plan. 

The balance of today is scheduled to be the day of a thousand naps, so I should get to it.  Those naps won't have themselves, after all...

It's not pretty, but it's not as bad as I feared...

Photo courtesy Emma V Valentine, licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

It was with a considerable degree of trepidation that I faced my nemesis the scale this morning.  After 2 months of eating like a barbarian, I knew there were consequences to be faced.  This was not going to be a quick little blip that was easily overcome.  Nope.  This time I am going to have to face the music and accept the fact that I have backslid and given up literally months of progress.

Yesterday was the first day back on track, and I had a great workout on the treadmill and elliptical machine, followed by a day of excellent healthy food.  I even managed to get my 8 cups of water in.  So far, so good. 

This morning I got up early and faced my new upper body focused weight program.  We had a few rough edges figuring out where to put the weight bench so that there was enough space to do the lifts whilst avoiding knocking the Nerd off the elliptical with the barbell.  I am pleased to report that there were no serious incidents, and we were both able to complete our workouts without major injury. 

This morning I did 3 sets of 10 reps of each of the following: i) military press (30 pounds); ii) barbell upright row (30 pounds); iii) barbell bench press (30 pounds); iv) dumbbell flyes (10 pounds each); v) modified pushups; vi) barbell bent over row (30 pounds); vii) barbell side bend (30 pounds); and viii) situps.  I will do this plan for a week, and then will see about adding reps and/or sets. 

After the weight training I did an hour on the elliptical machine, followed by a nice 5 minute cool-down on the treadmill at a relaxed 2.5 mph pace.  All in all, I felt great after doing what was a pretty intense workout, especially after having been such a slacker for a while.  I am definitely feeling the effects of my C25K workout yesterday, and I expect I will feel this upper body workout tomorrow.  I love the feeling I get when I work out hard - - the muscle soreness tells me that my workouts are shaking my body out of its complacency. 

With the workout finished, it was time for me to step onto the scale and face the music.  And you know what?  It was bad.  But not as bad as I expected.  I thought I was up around 15 pounds, measured after the sodium-tastic craft hot dogs of Saturday night's dinner.  This morning I was "only" up 10.6 pounds, to 199.1 pounds (of course, the word "only" is relative here).  This is still in onederland, still overweight (rather than obese), and not as bad as it could have been.  But it is still 10.6 pounds up from my lowest weight. 

To put it into perspective, I last weighed this much around the end of August.  That's right, I set myself back 4 months with 2 months of poor eating decisions.  In fairness, that's 2 months of creeping up, and 2 months of fighting a holding battle, but it's still 4 months behind where I had been.  So frustrating.

But I have a plan, I have the equipment, and I have run out of patience with my own excuses.  I have recorded this weight on my Fitbit and MyFitnessPal so I am not hiding the fact that I have lost ground.  The good news is that I know I can regain that ground.  It will just take time.  Here's where thing stand as of this morning:

I have 14.1 pounds to go to hit middleweight.  Let's go!

The stability ball waiting for prey...

It looks so innocent, sitting there.  No indication of the havoc that it will unleash on those foolish enough to actually attempt a prone jackknife or swiss ball crunch...!

Here is some of the new equipment in the workout room, intended to facilitate some of the workouts for the New Rules of Lifting for Women.  There is a squat rack and 5' bar (along with, optimistically, weight plates, even though they are completely unnecessary at this point in time).  There is also an adjustable weight bench and dumbbells in various weights, all placed on cushy rubber floor mats.

Today I did a couple of short yoga routines and a pilates routine on the floor and the rubber floor mats worked a treat - - sure, my toes turned black after the workout from friction with the mats, but I had no problem rolling around on the floor at all - - the mats are very cushiony and I had no problem with my knees or back at all.

I have survived the first week of the NROL4W, which means 2 days of workout A and the first day of workout B.  I was immediately struck with how much I felt these workouts in my legs, arms and shoulders - - especially since I had been doing a free weight routine for many months now.  The 5 little exercises really pack a wallop, that's for sure.  Ironically, I am a little less flexible than before because I am stiffer after these workouts, especially in the shoulders and arms, which is why I did some yoga today (even though it's technically a rest day - - but I kept it mellow, so it was still very restful).

I really like the swiss ball crunch and prone jackknife, as well as the bent over barbell row.  I am neutrally disposed to the dumbbell shoulder presses, push-ups and step-ups.  I don't like the squats and deadlifts, but recognize that they are important.  I hate hate hate the lunges, because they hurt my knees, although I suspect that is mostly because I am doing them wrong.  I am still struggling to do the pullovers properly - - my upper body strength is very uneven, and my left arm is much weaker than the right for some reason, making this exercise somewhat difficult. 

Tomorrow I get to do the second series of workout B (deadlifts, lunges, pullovers, shoulder presses, and swiss ball crunches), and then on Wednesday it's time to increase the weight on workout A.

The Nerd also likes the new equipment because he can do pull-ups on the squat rack, he can do his macho push-ups using the incline bench, and he can do his planks and floor work on the cushy rubber floor mats.  

Last week I had to travel to a conference in Washington DC, and happily I was able to do my usual elliptical and the weight routine in the hotel gym, more or less.  The hotel elliptical machine has a different stride length than the machine I use at home, and I find that I tend to lift up on my heels on it, even though I try and keep my foot flat on the pedal.  As a result, for the second year in a row, I have come back with a slightly messed up calf.  The hotel machine also doesn't let me mess with the incline, or at least not that I was able to figure out.  At least this year I only messed up one leg instead of both, like last year.   Another reason to be glad to be home - - I am used to my old faithful machine!

If you do what you've always done you'll get what you've always got

The title of this post cuts both ways - - before I began working out regularly and eating healthily, I was overweight and miserable about it.  And by doing nothing to change things, nothing changed.

But the opposite is also true.  Now, I have a consistent routine in which every day I try and do something good for my body, be it drinking lots of water, working out, or eating nutritious foods.  For the last year and a quarter I have continually worked to become healthier, step by step.  And by doing this every day (and by extrapolation, every week and every month), I have consistently generated positive results.

Case in point: this week I lost more weight - - down 0.8 pounds to 213 pounds.  That's 120.9 pounds lost overall, which is, as people seem to delight in telling me, "a whole person!". 

I did not lose as much weight as I would have liked this week.  Perhaps I have been spoiled by my weeks of larger losses, or perhaps I have gotten a bit complacent.  More likely, however, it's the result of a confluence of events.  First, it was shark week this week, which always plays havoc with my endocrine system and often has an impact on weight loss (and usually not in the direction I would like, either). 

Second, I really stepped up my workout this week.  I don't know what came into me, but this week I added more weight to my elliptical routine so that during the main workout I am carrying weight to add up to 230 pounds, up from the 227 pounds I was carrying last week (through a combination of wrist weights and ankle weights).  It is a little easier now, as I am carrying the extra weight in a backpack, but it is still a heavy load to carry on the elliptical.  I also took the tension back up to 6 (30%) from 5. 

I have also added an extra 15 minute "cool down" routine on the elliptical, where I don't carry any extra weight and where I keep the incline and tension at the lowest settings.  After the increased tension and added weight on my main workout, this little short spin on the elliptical feels like flying. One added benefit of this additional time on the elliptical is that it is really increasing my daily average step count, which I like.  After all, it is increasing my daily time on the elliptical by around 25%, which is a significant increase, even if I am not pushing extra weight or high tension. 

I have to admit that this made for a difficult week.  I really felt the added weight and tension in my legs this week after every workout, which I suppose is a good thing because I haven't felt a burn in my legs like this in a while - - it's good to push things a little bit once in a while (within reason).  Every workout this week was challenging, and although my streak of consecutive workouts remains intact, almost every day I fantasized with quitting early.  Not that I ever did - - but it made for a nice fantasy. 

I have to say that I felt amazing after pushing through and finishing the workouts every morning.   Stepping up to the increased challenge really felt good.  Especially when I stopped. 

I don't usually see fabulous weight loss results the first week that I step up my workouts for some reason.  Perhaps my body is trying to figure out what the hell I am doing to it.  But the second week after stepping things up is generally pretty good - - I am hoping to return to a 1.5 pound+ loss this coming week, although if working out for 16 months has taught me anything, it's that I am not the boss of my body - - I'll frankly take what I can get. 

My weight loss goals are closer this week than ever:

Only 10 pounds to overweight - - I can almost taste it!  The 48 pounds to go until my final target still feels a bit remote right now, but 200 pounds is looking increasingly accessible.  I am mere weeks away from being at my lowest weight in more than a decade.

In other motivating news, I think I have officially seen the first of my collarbone!  Hidden under its protective mantle of fat for years, my shy little clavicles are finally coming out to play.  About damn time, I say.  I can't balance an egg on the little guys yet, but it's really gratifying to see them. 

We'll see what this week brings!

120 Pounds Down! (with pics)

I know I keep harping on this point, but there sure as hell is something to be said for consistency.  I keep working out every day and striving to eat well every day, and the weight keeps coming off.  Huh.  It would be nice if there were a magic pill that would transform me overnight into a sylph-like goddess, but failing that, my brute force method and donkey like stubbornness appears to be working just fine.  Not quite "overnight" results, but nothing too shabby, either.

Last week I lost weight, right on track, but this week I lost still more and finally passed the 120 pounds lost mark with my loss of 1.4 pounds.  I am now down 120.1 pounds, or 71% of my target, representing 36% of my starting weight.  71% of the way there - - that makes achieving my goal sound almost close  (while simultaneously still being at least 3/4 of a year away, like a cruel optical illusion).

You know me and charts and graphs - - let's bring on the numbers...!

 

 

 I lost 7.5 pounds overall in April, which still keeps me in losing 1.8 pounds each week on average since I first began working out 66 weeks ago.  Speaking of workouts, I haven't missed a workout in 49 weeks - - almost a full year of working out at least 5 days a week (and since last August, 6 days a week).  That is the real key to my success - - regular workouts.  I love food too damn much to be able to lose weight by eating sensibly alone.  So far I am still on track to hit my 165 pound weight goal around the end of January, but I would love to hit that milestone sooner, if I could. 

Another month down, another set of measurements:

This past month I lost another 5" on various bits and bobs of me, for a total of more than 50" lost altogether.  That's more than 4 feet of person, gone.

I am officially a size 18 based on my measurements (my hips and waist still have a couple of inches to go to properly fit into a size 16), and my size 18 suits that I took out of the clothing archive are looking great.

The Nerd and I are cleaning out some closets and rearranging some things, and I finally went through some old duffel bags I had stored away.  I thought one of them, at least, was full of lingerie, but apparently my memory is not so good - - they were full of jeans from sizes 12 to 24W, as well as shorts, chino skirts, and a couple of sweaters my mom knit for me back when I was 18 and 19 (the sweaters totally fit, by the way!!!).

Just for shits and giggles I tried on the size 16 jeans I found in the bags.  I could totally put them both on!  It is not the most elegant look, and I am definitely embracing the muffin top in those jeans, but I have at least 2 pairs of jeans that I will be able to fit into soon - - likely within this month.  I haven't been a 16 in forever, so you can imagine my excitement.  I kept running into the Nerd's office to show off how I looked in size 18 chino shorts, size 16 jeans, and my mom's sweaters.  He made all the right appreciative noises, because his mother didn't raise no dummy.

Seeing as I was in the spirit of reviewing my clothing on hand, I took the opportunity to clean out some of the old 3X and 2X clothes that were taking up room in my closet.  They were more a security blanket than anything else, and I have to admit that I definitely look frumpy in those baggy clothes - - there is such a difference between the size 20 suits that are now dangerously loose, and the size 16 suit I found in the archive (which totally fits and is going into the rotation next week!).  I still found it hard to donate those clothes, because they were my camouflage for so long.

I was thrilled to have found this portable jean archive, because it was not only full of those size 16 jeans, but it was also full of 3 pairs of size 14 jeans and even some size 12 chino skirts.  I had been dreading the thought of having to go out and try on some jeans when my 18s got too laughably loose, and now I don't have to!  Even better, the Nerd and I are travelling down to South Carolina for his family reunion this July, and now I will have shorts that fit, as I found 3 pairs of 18s in the archive (and shorts can be worn even a size big, if necessary).  All in all a good day for clothes.

The Nerd brought 2 large bags of clothes to the donation bin this afternoon, and with the new things I have just pulled out of the closet, he has two more than can go.  Hopefully someone will get some use out of the clothes - - some of them are in amazing condition, barely worn.

The changes from last July are amazing:

 

This is what weights and cardio will do for a person.  That, and cutting out the long island iced teas.  I love how I stand more vertically now that I don't have the same amount of ballast dragging me down in front - - it's like I suddenly discovered posture after a year and a quarter of working out.   I am loving the changes, and the Matriarch was positively thrilled with these pictures.

I am still a work in progress, but every week and every month brings me that much closer to my goal.  Here are the current numbers:

It's a little amazing to think that I will have lost more than half my starting body weight when I hit my final goal - - I am horrified to think that when I started working out, I weighed more than twice as much as I should.  Not a figure of speech - - literally twice as much.  Gack!

Right now my eye is on the 11 or so pounds I need to lose to become overweight.  I am so close, I really want to get there within the next two months.  Fingers crossed!

With this objective in mind, I stepped up my workout again.  I have added weights to a backpack for my elliptical sessions to bring me back up to 230 pounds to increase my calories burned, and I increased the resistance up to 6 (out of 20).  I kept the stride rate the same as before, because my workout this morning was quite challenging enough, thank you very much!  We'll see how it feels to get into this new workout - - I have a huge sense of accomplishment for having done it, but I recall that during the workout I was having lots of second thoughts.

This lifestyle change is full of ups and downs...

Photo courtesy Steveage, licensed CC-BY-SA

It seems like each week I am on a high, or a low with my new lifestyle.  Some weeks it is an effort just getting on the elliptical every day, where my fasting sugars are high, where the weight seems to be coming off only in ounces at a time - - if at all.  These are the weeks that it is difficult to stay motivated and keep working my plan.  After all, what's the point in working so hard if I'm not going to see any results? These are the weeks that I feel like I am constantly walking uphill into a headwind, and making no progress.

Then there are weeks in which everything seems to click.  My sugars are low (or at least decreasing), I have a ton of energy and practically fly on the elliptical, and my mood is positive.  These are the weeks the weight seems to practically melt off me, and my lifestyle doesn't even feel like work.  It's as if I'm not doing anything, and I'm seeing all these good results (even though, in reality, I am working just as hard as ever - - it just doesn't feel like work when it all clicks).  In these weeks, I feel optimistic, like I can do anything, and my goals are all within reach.

It's not as clear cut as all that, of course.  Some weeks my sugars are awesome, and the scale refuses to budge.  And some days I just have more energy than others, regardless of whether the weight is coming off or not. 

Thinking back on it, though, a lot of my my high and low weeks are weight-related.  When I lose weight easily, I feel empowered and motivated, because my effort is delivering immediate results.  By the same token, when the weight sticks around despite my best efforts, it's frustrating, and demoralizing. 

Because I know that I need to see progress for my effort, I track many many different metrics.  Weight, fasting blood sugar, body fat%, measurements, # steps walked in a day, # minutes worked out, calories burned, # workouts, clothing size, inches lost, calories consumed, carbs consumed, and now, sodium consumed.  All of this is important because I know that if one metric is not moving (I'm looking at you, scale!), then something else usually is.  It's these little glimmers of progress that I cling to when the weight is hanging on, as proof that all my hard work is paying back results, even if they are not necessarily the results I prefer.

This week is one of the good weeks.  I upped my free weights last week, and as per the usual pattern, the first week of a new routine was a tough slog - - exhausting, and no huge weight loss.  This week, the weight appears to be dropping (although I won't know for sure until my official weigh in tomorrow morning), and the free weight routine feels more comfortable.

On a related note, this was my first week of really looking at my sodium intake, and the numbers so far have been pretty good:

     Monday = 1,928 mg
     Tuesday = 1,298 mg
     Wednesday = 1,952 mg
     Thursday = 1,434 mg

All of the sodium levels this week have been in the 1,500 - 2,300 mg recommended daily range, and I am happy about that.  I have had to change up some of my eating habits and be aware of serving sizes, but overall, it hasn't been as difficult as I feared to keep my sodium in a good range.  It's still early days yet, but this is certainly promising.

Tomorrow is the official weigh in day, and I will be doing measurements as well, because it's close enough to the end of the month.  Fingers crossed!

Welcome to Obese Class I. Population: Me

Yes, the title says it all - - today I reached Obese Class I, with a BMI of 34.9.  For some people, that would be a terrible thing, full of tears, recriminations, and a high risk of developing health problems.  I, too, have a high risk of developing health problems, but this is a huge improvement from where I used to be - - Obese Class III, with its "extremely high" risk of developing health problems.

Yep, it's true.  My 2.5 pound weight loss this week puts me at a BMI of 34.9, which is the lowest category of obesity there is.  Another 30-ish pounds down from here, and I will only be overweight. 

I have to confess that I am sooooo close to hitting the 100 pounds lost mark that I upped my program this week to try and keep the weight loss going.  I took the elliptical up to 55 minutes and a crossramp of 6 (up from 5) with a tension of 5 (down from 8), and a stride rate of 130+ strides per minute (up from 100-120).  The new workout music mix, combined with the lower resistance, makes it much easier for me to hit the 130+ strides per minute rate, and I can certainly see my calorie burn has increased.

My steps per day have also increased with the new workouts:

Looking at the steps taken as recorded by my Fitbit over time, you can see that I started off averaging around 2,000 steps per day.  The steps started to increase in the summer when I got the elliptical to around 5,000 - 6,000 steps per day.  Now that I have increased my stride rate and lengthened my workouts, I am regularly exceeding 10,000 steps per day on weekdays.  I call that progress for someone who still has essentially a sedentary desk job.

I also took the free weights up to 4 sets of 12 reps at 6 pounds for the various dumbbell exercises that I do 3x per week.  I am definitely feeling it in my arms, so that's probably doing good things.

I noticed an ever-so-slight hint of clavicles this week, which makes me very happy.  Eventually I will have actual visible clavicles, and I will jump for joy.  It's still a long way away yet, but I am prepared to be patient and keep plugging away.

So far I have lost 97.5 pounds, which is almost 100, no matter how you count it.  I have to be prepared not to be disappointed if I do not hit 100 pounds down next week, because it's not reasonable to expect to keep these 2+ pound losses every week.  Overall I am averaging about 1.5-1.7 pounds down per week, which means that I should hit 100 pounds down in a couple of weeks.  Assuming that I stay on plan.

Fingers crossed! 

Trying to step it up again

Photo courtesy Rickie22, Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

Another month or so has passed, and it's time to take up the workout intensity again. 

This week I pushed the cross-ramp to 4 (from 3), while keeping the tension at 8 (around 40%).  The big push however is taking my stride rate from 100 - 120 to 120 - 130 strides per minute on average for the 50 minutes of my daily elliptical workout.

I tried the new cross-ramp and increased stride rate yesterday with a mini workout after the dinner party, and rolled it out big time this morning with my usual Sunday workout.  I have to tell you, it was a barn burner.  I was able to do it, but hoo doggy, was it the longest 50 minutes ever! 

When I think about how tough it is to do this stride rate I think about the Nerd and his usual workout of 60 minutes at 150-160 strides per minute - - I get palpitations just watching him on the machine.  I also think about how I couldn't do 100 strides per minute back in July when I first started working out on the elliptical. 

Hey, I will take signs of progress wherever I can get them.  Another day of workouts, another day stronger. 

Some wins this week

It has been another productive workout week in the books.  I have managed to continue my consecutive days worked out streak alive, and now stand at 29 weeks without missing a workout.  For someone as good at rationalizing things as I am, this is something of a record. 

This consistency continues to pay off in terms of weight loss.  This week I lost a further pound, for a total of 81.5 pounds lost, to 252.4 pounds total.  Here's something - - workout out regularly, and eat sensible meals in manageable portions and you will lose weight - - nah, it will never catch on...

More than the weight loss, this week also saw some wins. 

My new workout clothes arrived this week from Go Figure (online at http://gofigurego.com/).  My original workout capris (purchased a few months ago) were literally falling off me while I was on the elliptical recently.  That had the potential of getting quite embarrassing, and necessitated regular hitching up.  Definitely not for public show- - it's a good thing that I work out at home.  My first capris were in size 5 (22-24), and my new capris are in size 3 (18-20) and they fit fine ... with the potential to be too loose in the not too distant future, I can see.  Yay!

Another win this week is something that has snuck up on me.  A little back story is in order here.  Back when I was in grade 8, our gym class was primitive at best.  Our school did not have proper gymnastic equipment other than those ubiquitous blue mats.  For balance beams they used wooden benches turned upside down.  Instead of the normal balance beam width of about 10 cm, the wooden slats on the bottom of those benches were only about 5 cm wide.  This wasn't a problem for most girls who possess both a sense of balance and binocular vision.  But for yours truly, a veritable gazelle (not) and blind in one eye to boot, it was a disaster.  I fell off the end of a bench and carved open the front of my shin. To this day I have a divot in my leg from the accident. I don't remember the accident clearly, but judging from the scar, it must have been spectacular.

When I was at my heaviest I suffered from edema in my legs.  Sometimes the pressure in my lower legs would be so severe that the skin of my legs would be tight, hot and painful and would leak lymph fluid (and for the record, yes, I know that is a very unhealthy condition).  Because the scar from my gymnastics incident was less flexible than the rest of my skin, it left a huge dent in my shin.  My scar was so deeply indented you could practically store candy in it.

With my weight loss, however, the edema has decreased to the point where it is essentially gone, in no small measure due to my increased activity levels.  It has been more than a year since I have noticed the edema being problematic, and just this past week I noted something else - - my scar was no longer a deep groove.  Rather, it was only a slight indentation, barely noticeable.  In fact, my scar had virtually disappeared.  This is a big deal, because it is not merely a superficial cosmetic change - - it reflects major improvements in my overall circulation that can only be good for me in the long run.  As a side bonus, this has made shaving my leg much easier, as I no longer have to try and shave inside a hole in my leg.  Hey - I will take the wins where I find them, thank you very much!

This week has been very social and this weekend in particular I have been enjoying baked goods provided by one of our friends.  In consequence, I think it is probably a good time to step up my workout routine, just in time for the holidays. 

So this week I am adding another 5 minutes to my elliptical routine, for 50 minutes x 6 days a week.  This is officially the most cardio I have ever done in my life, and I have to say that it was easier than I expected this morning.  I am not burning up the strides per minute, but I am able to handle the time just fine, which is very satisfying.  My fitness levels are such a long way from where I was when I started.

The other change I have made to my program is to add another set of weights to my free weight routine.  I am now doing 3 sets of 12 reps using the 6 pound weights.  I have really started to see some toning beginning to happen in my arms, and I am quite keen to continue to see progress.

For the new year I am exploring taking up some boxing routines to add yet another element into my fitness routine.  Stay tuned!

Washington D.C. Interlude

I had a conference in Washington, D.C. this week, and it has thrown off my routines for the entire week. 

I started off on the wrong foot Tuesday afternoon.  For some reason I thought that I was traveling to D.C. Thursday morning, when in fact my flight was scheduled for Wednesday morning at 6.45 a.m.  This meant that all the work I had planned to do Wednesday was all thrown in a tizzy, and I had to rush to pack, get ready for my trip, and try and get a couple of hours of sleep before leaving for the airport at 4.30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

I had a good flight down on Porter airlines (my new favourite airline), and was able to check in and have a nap.  What I was not able to do was work out, because I selfishly opted for 2 hours of sleep rather than 1 hour of sleep + 40 minutes on the elliptical.  So we're going to call Wednesday my rest day this week.  I did get some exercise lugging my heavy briefcase through various airports, but it doesn't really count as a workout, not in the traditional sense.

The hotel is good, as always, and the conference has been a whirlwind of sessions and networking with people.  As a natural introvert, I find all the networking activities to be exhausting, and I find I need to make time for myself away from other people from time to time, to recharge.

 I did something this week that I have never done before - - I went to the hotel fitness center and worked out.  This is a huge triumph for me, because I was never confident enough in my ability to work out in front of other people before.  The reality is that in a hotel fitness center everyone is completely self-absorbed and no one is paying attention to anyone else, but I was still too self-conscious to be seen in one of those places before now.  It helps that this hotel has a 24 hour fitness center, which meant that I could choose a time of the day when fewer people were likely to be there.  It turns out that the place is a veritable ghost town at 4.30 in the morning.  I had my choice of elliptical machines each day, and there was never more than 2 other people in the gym at any one time.  It was almost perfect.

I say "almost perfect" because my legs are quite stiff and sore after having worked out for 3 days straight on the hotel's elliptical machines.  The stride on the hotel's machines is shorter than the stride on my home machine, and I found that I was prone to keeping on my toes more than I should.  As a result, I was working my legs in a completely different way, and I can really feel stiffness in my quads and calves right now.  Tomorrow morning I will be back into my routine on my home elliptical machine, and hopefully my legs will settle down once I return to my normal stride.  Stiff sore legs are no fun.

But still - - working out 3 days this week on the hotel elliptical out of 4 days of my trip, I will take that as a win for good habits and be happy with this new development.

On the food front it has been extremely difficult to eat healthily this week.  American restaurant food is generous - - far too generous for a sensible portion - - and full of fat, sodium and calories.  Sure, the hotel had salads (dripping in dressing), and grilled chicken (smothered in cheese and sauce) and fish (breaded).  I have tracked everything and have tried to be as disciplined as possible, but there's no question that I have been eating much less balanced meals than my normal routine.  For that reason alone I can't wait to get home.  Is it strange that I just want some greek yogurt, strawberries and bran buds? 

Of course, because I have been eating such unbalanced meals, I am terrified to get on the scale tomorrow morning when I get back home.  Oh well - - I knew this trip would be a difficult one, what with all the cocktail parties and drinks / meals with foreign associates.  I did the best I could, though, and tried to keep under my calorie targets every day. 

Only one more networking event this morning before I head back home to Toronto.  Hopefully Tropical Storm Sandy will not pose too many problems for me in getting home in my small prop jet.  Turbulence is no fun. 

Tomorrow morning it will be back to my normal Sunday routine of elliptical and weights.  And the Nerd's cooking.  Let's not forget how spoiled I am...!