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Sep 12, 2011

Pause

September 12, 2011 By

Wow, looks like it’s been awhile since I updated here, eh? Seems like that always happens – I get focused on looking and feeling healthy for a blog conference, and then after it’s over I just want to forget about it all for awhile.

Although the back-to-school season had a lot to do with it, too. It’s nearly impossible to keep up a workout schedule when your entire life is turned upside down with a new school schedule, bus routes, paperwork to fill out, school supplies to go purchase, and the overall exhaustion that comes with all of that. And my husband started a new job, meaning a new schedule to adjust to for him as well.

I know…excuses, right? Yep, I’ve been making plenty of excuses while I tried to fit in small amounts of sleep here and there.

But the fury of the school year is beginning to ease, and so my schedule is returning to a more predictable routine. Working out can no longer fall to the bottom of my priority list.

I’m registered for more boot camp classes this week, and I intend to go to them. Aaron also signed us up for a 5K this Friday, too. Unlike last year, I’ll probably be walking a majority of the route this time, although Aaron hopes to run the entire 5K. (And I think he can do it, too.)

It’s time to hit Play and get my fitness goals back on track again. After all, the holidays are looming ahead, and I refuse to let the lure of baked goods add more weight to the scale this year!

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Aug 19, 2011

After the Event: Staying Motivated

August 19, 2011 By

It wasn’t hard to remain motivated to watch my food intake and exercise in July. Knowing that BlogHer was around the corner kept me in line – I wanted to look my best when presenting myself to so many people.

At the conference, I ate and drank whatever I felt like having – it was a special occasion, and so I felt no need to count calories or worry about gaining weight. I’ve always had the philosophy that one day (or even a few days) cannot do that much damage, especially if you aren’t stuffing yourself to the point of feeling sick. I kept my portions in check at the conference, and for all of that food I didn’t gain a single pound while in San Diego.

But now that I’m home? Motivation is harder to find. I arrived home to a stressful situation of having my children home during the day while I needed to sleep, thanks to summer camp ending two weeks before school starts. (Not cool, summer camps. Not cool at all.) Plus I had plenty of work to catch up on. Add to that a slight depression at returning to my “real life” of responsibilities and work, and healthy living has become the last thing on my mind.

It’s been two weeks now. While I haven’t thrown all of my healthy habits out the window, I haven’t exercised in these two weeks, and I’ve eaten more than I probably should of foods I really don’t need. I’m still motivated by a goal of being healthy and feeling my best. But the external motivator of BlogHer is gone and there’s no external motivator in my near future.

I’ve scheduled a boot camp class for this Saturday. Hopefully my trainers still remember who I am after this break. And hopefully they won’t think I can do exactly what I could at the end of July – I’m a little frightened that it’s going to really hurt to get back into my workouts again.

As for food, well, I’ve eaten my way through most of my BlogHer samples, so much of the temptation is gone now. I’ve already gone back to bringing Healthy Choice meals to work again, and as soon as a routine can be established for back-to-school time we’ll probably begin cooking at home again, too.

The new, healthier habits are still with me. They just need a little encouragement to beat down the sloth that tries to take over whenever it sees an opening.

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Jun 17, 2011

When Workouts Attack

June 17, 2011 By

Now that my daughters are in summer camp, I have a little more flexibility in my schedule each day. As a result, I decided to try going to my strength training bootcamp class in the late afternoon rather than the evening yesterday. I know so many people who say that working out in the morning is the best for them, and well, late afternoon is the third-shift worker’s “morning” so it sounded like a good plan.

It wasn’t a good plan. OK, that’s not quite fair – it’s possible that working out at that time of the day is fine, but for whatever reason, yesterday did not work at all.

I ate a small meal with a glass of water an hour before my workout, just like I always do, and when I arrived at the gym I didn’t feel any different than normal. I signed in and began stretching, realizing I was a little tired but ready to get moving.

Class started and I made the decision to not push myself too hard. It’s been a busy week, so I used the 9lb hand weights instead of the 12lb ones. The first circuit was mostly lower body moves – I’ve got strong legs, so I had no reason to expect any difficulty. Jump squats, followed by twisting lunges, and then a wall sit (holding a 10lb weight for all of this) made up this circuit.

When we repeated the circuit, I found my balance was really off for the lunges: each time I lunged and twisted my upper body, it took a lot of effort to not fall over. I tried to slightly widen my stance, but still occasionally tipped over to the side and had to grab the wall for support. Balance has never been my strength, so I didn’t think anything of it.

During the second wall sit, though, I started to realize this was not going to be a good day. A wall sit usually doesn’t bother me. Sure, it burns, but nothing out of the ordinary. This time, my legs were practically vibrating with shaking as I tried to look at the TV on the wall and distract myself.

I took a few large sips from my Gatorade and tried to shake it off. I made it through the next circuit of moves (sumo squats, hip flexors, and dead lifts with bicep curls) twice, and while I was sweating hard, I didn’t feel that bad.

It was the next two circuits where something went wrong. At the end of the third circuit, I started to feel fuzzy-headed and a little sick to my stomach. I kept drinking my Gatorade, thinking I just needed a little burst of sugar to replenish my glycogen. Still, I kept going.

At this point my memory is very fuzzy. I remember sometime during the fourth circuit a weak sensation came over me. And then the next thing I remember is sitting on the floor with my back against the wall. Did I pass out? I don’t think so. But I definitely have a gap in my memory at that point.

I don’t remember how I got there. Apparently I quietly sat down, because the class would have stopped had I collapsed. After a minute or so, my trainer realized I wasn’t getting up and asked if I was OK. I mumbled something about being underslept and she instructed me to finish my Gatorade. I continued to sit there for a few more minutes, still wondering how I got to the floor and trying to piece together what had happened.

After I finished my Gatorade, I (foolishly) tried to get right back into the class. They were on abs, and I didn’t want to miss my ab work. I did one set of crunches before the dizzy/sick feeling came over me again. My heart was beating faster than the techno music from the classroom speakers. Having finished my first Gatorade, I was given a second one and told to rest. 

The workout was an epic fail. The remainder of the night I continued to be weak and foggy-headed, despite eating dinner and drinking plenty of water. I don’t appear to be coming down with any illness, so I can only guess that I somehow worked myself too hard, even though I wasn’t working as hard as I’ve done in the past.

Can the time of day really affect performance that dramatically? Or was I just having an off day? I’m not sure, but I’ve never had to quit in the middle of one of my classes, so something clearly wasn’t right.

I’m planning to take a few days of rest before attempting any further exercise. Maybe some extra sleep would be more useful than more workout time at the moment?

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Jun 13, 2011

The World is Upside Down

June 13, 2011 By

Ya know, sometimes you do everything right and get nothing for your hard work. And then sometimes you let things slide and find yourself rewarded for slacking off.

Consider last week one of the latter situations.

Despite trying to see the positive side of a plateau, I was still feeling irritated about being unable to make the scale move. That irritation translated into sloppy habits: grabbing not one but two cookies at work, eating fast food more often than I should, and choosing to not log my calories for a couple of days because it was just too tiring to think about.

I did go to my bootcamp class on Tuesday night, where I was completely whipped by my trainer. Not sure if that night’s routine was harder or if my lazy self was getting weaker, but I really struggled through it.

And then, on Saturday morning I stepped on the scale, fully ready to take the beating I deserved for a week of indulgence.

The number displayed was 166.8.

Not only did I finally break the 169 plateau, but I slid down over two pounds. I’m officially at my lowest adult weight ever.

I felt good, too. Looking in the mirror, I could see the two images of myself switching back and forth – still seeing the “fat me” that my poor, troubled brain perceives, but also seeing the muscle definition, the smaller waist and hips, and the healthier version that the mirror is really reflecting. I’m becoming healthy. I’m witnessing my risks for several diseases drop with each inch that disappears from my waist.

(And then I celebrated by eating too much that night and having cake for my husband’s birthday the next day. Eh, you win some, you lose some. No way I’m stepping on the scale again until I’ve had some time to detox from food overload. I seriously doubt I could get that lucky with the scale ever again.)

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Apr 5, 2011

My Week of Suck

April 5, 2011 By

Coming off of last week’s high of seeing myself creep ever so slowly to my lowest adult weight ever, I still expected to see some results at my weigh in on Saturday. What I didn’t expect was to see a number one and a half pounds higher than the week before: 172.8. What happened?

I reviewed my calories for the week and everything seemed to add up to loss. On Friday I did go out, but limited myself to two small glasses of sparkling wine and a very modest dinner. I tried to not feel down about the gain, and tried to convince myself it was just water weight from the alcohol.

Saturday was also the day when I had my strength training boot camp class. I had the alternate trainer again – the tough one – and she put me through a very difficult routine that felt like punishment for my weight gain.

When I woke up on Sunday afternoon, I could barely get out of bed. The only movement that didn’t hurt was my eyes. Still, I know the best way to cure sore muscles is to move them, so I attempted to go for a run in the early evening. Yet another fail – I did Couch to 5K, Week 3, thinking it would be an “easy” run, only to find it was terribly difficult. That’s what I get for not running all winter.

I focused Saturday and Sunday on drinking plenty of water and eating right in the hopes that my weight gain was just water weight. But when I stepped on the scale again on Monday morning, I was greeted with a weight that was half a pound higher than the previous one!

It’s just a number. I know it’s just a number. But I hate seeing it go up when I was so close to reaching my lowest adult weight. I’ve been to this point before a number of times, and this always seems to be the time when my body gives up and tries to correct itself back to heavy. I’ve already said goodbye to heavy, though, so I feel like I’m at war with myself to keep going.

I have another boot camp class tonight. No idea how I’m going to get through it when I’m still really sore. But I’m going to do it.

I’m also waiting on a delivery from Amazon with my Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30 DVD. I’m joining the Shredheads in trying out this DVD in April. I can’t do it every day, since I still have my boot camp classes, but I plan to use the DVD on as many off days as possible. I remember the success I had with Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred, and I’m hoping this might be the jump start I need to get the scale moving downwards again.

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