My Very Active Day

Last night my husband took me out for a birthday dinner at From The Boot, a great new italian place nearby.  The food was A-Mazing, and I loved every bite.  I made a real effort not to eat everything in sight, and to leave the restaurant full, but not stuffed.  In addition, I got a great workout in the morning and went lighter on lunch than usual.  Still...after the garlic bread, bruschetta, pesto pizza and homemade cheesecake for dessert, I consumed about 3500 calories for the day.  YIKES!  According to my my BodyBugg, I only burned 3000 calories, even with a 600 calorie workout in the morning.   Sooooo...Sunday is going to be all about burning as many calories as possible to counteract yesterday's indulgence (and the upcoming week's 3 dinners out).

Obviously, I need to do an extra long workout today to help pick up the slack.  And that is definitely on the schedule - 60 minutes on the treadmill and another 15-20 in the pool.  However, that will account for maybe 600-700 calories at best, and I need to generate a deficit for today as well as yesterday!  Which brings me to today's strategy:  stay on my feet all day to generate a slow but steady burn.  My husband would call this a Very Active Day - a technique he uses when training for his many endurance events which require several hours of activity - but more about that another time.  Very Active Days have a great benefit besides conditioning your muscles to be active for long periods of time...they burn a lot more calories than just sitting around watching TV after your workout!

For inspiration on incorporating this strategy into my everyday life, I consulted this article from Apex Fitness which provides a side-by-side comparison of the extra calorie expenditure for things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, standing instead of sitting when talking on the phone, etc.  I tend to be extremely sedentary by nature, and this information really opened my eyes to how much the small things really add up.  Could this be the secret of thin people everywhere?  Have the modern conveniences I am so used to having really contributed that much to my current poor fitness level?  What can I do besides the obvious stair-elevator swap to keep the burn going?  Turns out, there's a lot of opportunities just waiting right in my own home.

This morning I got up at about 5am, and started wandering around the house picking things up and returning them to their rightful locations.  Normally I would put everything that needed to go upstairs in a big pile and take it up at one time.  Not today!  When I found a book that belonged upstairs, I took it right up and put it away in the bookshelf.  Then I found a pile of clean dishtowels that needed to go down to the kitchen.  So down I went.  Back and forth, up and down, constantly moving with a high degree of inefficiency!  That took about a half hour (the house was a bit of a mess, I'll admit).  Then I walked the dog around the yard for 10 minutes or so.  Then I decided to get all the summer clothes out of my closet, another 20 minutes.   So far so good, on my feet and moving around for an hour and it's only 6am!  Looking around, I found a lot more things to do today to keep the calories coming off: wash all the silverware and the tray in the drawer, clean out the fridge and wash all the shelves, organize the guest room in advance of my inlaws' visit next week, clean the doggie noseprints off the windows, you get the picture - any chores that require standing and movement.  The finale will be a trip to the mall wearing my MBTs and of course I will park far from the entrance and not use the escalator!

I'll report back tomorrow on the burn rate from my BodyBugg - my goal is a 3500 calorie day, with about 2000 calories of food.  Wish me luck!

Facing Down Fear...or...Why my butt really hurts today

This morning I faced down one of my long-standing fears: spinning class. For the uninitiated, spinning is indoor cycling on a special stationary bike, in a group setting, with an instructor that talks you through moves designed to simulate riding on different terrains. It is touted as one the highest calorie burn workouts you can do, and the creator, Johnny G, has achieved cult-like status among his ‘disciples’. He invented spinning as a convenient and quick way to train for races - and with the cold weather coming on, I need to find an alternative to outdoor cycling to keep up with my triathlon training.

I have wanted to try spinning for years - devotees rave about the calorie burn and the toning, and their physiques certainly speak for themselves. But I have observed a few classes (from a safe distance on a nearby treadmill) and was skeptical about whether I could actually keep up with the pace. During class, which takes place in a very dim (read: creepy) room, there is a lot of grunting and yelling going on. The seats are narrow and hard. Really narrow, and really hard. All of the participants are drenched in sweat within minutes. In fact, most instructors leave the door to the spinning room open during class so the humidity doesn't get so high it rains.

And of course virtually everyone in the class has a rock-hard body and carries an air of intensity and determination that quite frankly intimidates the hell out of me. They all wear skimpy, form fitting clothes - some even have special shoes that look really uncomfortable. Normally, I have no objection to uncomfortable shoes - think pointy toes and 4-inch stiletto heels - but these fancy cycling shoes are anything but pretty, and I doubt they will do much to show off my pedicure:

Are you kidding me? These things are U-G-L-Y-you-ain’t-got-no-alibi ugly.  They make my MBTs look almost sexy.

Shoes aside, I was just plain scared and intimidated, and had built my fear up to mammoth proportions.  But this fitness journey I'm on is all about changing my way of life, and facing fear is a big part of that process.  So this weekend I decided it was time to (wo)man-up and just go.  At my husband's advice, I got myself a gel seat cover (seriously, those seats are HARD) and picked a 45-minute class early on Saturday morning in hopes that it wouldn't be too packed with regulars.

I arrived early to get a good spot, then sort of slunk towards the back row and claimed a bike near the door in case I needed to beat a hasty retreat. I tried to adjust the seat and handlebars on my own, did it wrong (almost tipped the bike over on myself in the process) and then found a kind woman in the front row to help me set up. She told me to just go at my own pace, regardless of what the rest of the class was doing, and reminded me that everyone is a beginner at some point. Wise advice, that. The instructor, Toni, was also encouraging, and the woman on the bike next to me was very kind and supportive. So far, so good. I got my gel seat cover situated, and found that the seat was still really hard. Sigh.

Class started, nice easy pedaling - hey, I can do this! - and then....then...all hell broke loose. The instructor started yelling things like 'Gimmee some tension - I need more tension' and this weird guy a couple bikes to my left started yelling 'WOO' at random intervals. WTF? Get out of the saddle, lean forward, focus, go half your max, gimmee some tension...I was so confused. In an effort not to look like a complete idiot, I just copied whatever the guy in front of me did.  The class was really hard, and there were several times that I just couldn't keep up. But the instructor came over a couple times to give me some tips, and the kind woman next to me said I was doing 'fabulous'. After about 30 minutes my legs were so shaky that I could no longer stand up on the bike so I just stayed seated and changed the tension on the bike when she shouted (all the while trying to ignore the fact that my butt bones were screaming in pain). The music was great (AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Guns-n-Roses), and LOUD - just the way I like it - and at the 40 minute mark I thought "Wow, I just made it through my first spin class and survived! Nothing left but the cool-down!". That's when the instructor announced we would be going for a full hour...

After class, I hopped on a treadmill at a nice easy pace and walked for about 15 minutes to loosen up my legs and reflect on the morning's accomplishment. Then I caught up with Ken, who was just getting out of a step class in the next room, and gave him my verdict: Challenging but fun. I'll definitely do it again - hopefully regularly. And it feels amazing to have faced down my fear and survived.  But wow, does my butt hurt!!!!  And I'm not wearing those stupid shoes until Kate Spade comes out with a line of cycling gear.

Free Greek Yogurt!

Check out this link for a chance to win greek yogurt and a tote bag:

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MBT review

Today I wore my MBT shoes to work.  They are dorky looking:

but are so uber-comfortable that sometimes I wear them to work with jeans.  The soles of the shoes are rounded so that the heels and toes don't touch the ground when you're standing in neutral posture.  This design results in a slightly unstable walking surface, which forces you to engage more of your leg muscles in the act of walking.  To date, I've mainly worn them on level walking surfaces, and have found my posture is greatly improved and my feet feel really good with each step.  I think my ankles are better aligned as well.  There is also a feeling of mild resistance - the closest sensation I can think of is walking in sand.

Anyway, today I wore them on my lunchtime walk with Jenn.  There is a moderate hill right outside the back door of our building, and we took this route to get to the track for our walk.  Whoa, within about 90 seconds my legs were BURNING!!!!  I honestly could not believe just how much more difficult it was to walk uphill in these shoes!  I was really pleased to find out that I can throw on these shoes to give a 20 minute lunchtime walk a nice intensity boost.  And I'll definitely be lacing them up everytime I go to the mall or walk the dog.  Thanks MBT - now you just need to work on making them a bit more business casual and less like freaky bowling shoes...

A work in progress

Tonight Rena was kind enough to do a little photo session with me during our workout (well to be honest, to spare my audience they were taken at the beginning of the workout before I got all sweaty).  Originally I thought of them as "Before" pictures.  But mulling it over on the way home, I realized that dividing myself, my life, my fitness journey and so on into "before" and "after" implies that one is good and the other is bad.  All or nothing thinking, in other words.  Which is one of the more common traps that I've fallen into over the past 30+ years - i.e., "I ate a candy bar this morning so I guess I've blown it for the day.  I'll give myself a free pass for the rest of the day to eat whatever I want and start over again tomorrow".  This is one of the habits I desperately want to change - rather than thinking "I've blown it" and allowing myself to go hogwild in Wegman's dessert section, I want to think "That was a yummy treat, but now I'd better compensate elsewhere by exercising more or eating a lighter dinner."  My goal is to be somewhere in the middle, living a life of moderation rather than extremes of behavior.

So....I've decided to refer to the fruits of tonight's photo session as my "Now" pictures - living in the present and accepting myself exactly as I am at this point in time.  No judgment, no unkind words, just acceptance.  I am a work in progress, but a work of art nonetheless.

Watersports

I think that the most challenging piece of triathlon training will be the swim.  Although I was on the swim team for a year in high school, it has been years since I have done more than just splash around in the water.  This past weekend I did 200 yards in the pool at the gym and was so winded that I had to rest after every other lap!  I'll approach this the way I came at the 3-Day training - one step (or stroke) at a time.  First goal, to swim 200 yards without taking a break.  Ultimate goal, to swim 1000 yards at a decent pace.  First step, get back in the pool this weekend and swim some laps!!!

To help motivate me to train, I ordered a fun swim cap:

Positive changes

3 months later, and I still weigh about the same as last time. However, not everything is the same - in the past 5 months, I have developed a bonafide exercise habit! It all started when I signed up for the Breast Cancer 3-Day on a whim. I thought if nothing else I'd drop a few pounds and raise some money for a good cause. I signed up in February and then proceeded to do nothing for 3 months. During that time, I was travelling back and forth to the UK pretty regularly, and it was tough to develop a routine. But in June my travels ended, and I contacted a personal trainer in hopes of getting some support - with only 4 months left to train for a 60-mile walk, I thought some professional guidance might be in order.

So......I spent the summer walking walking walking every weekend, and training with Rena for 45 minutes twice a week. Somewhere along the line I started going to her weekly yoga class and really enjoyed it. It has been 5 months, and I haven't missed a single workout unless an unavoidable conflict has arisen - and I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened!

Best of all, I learned that I DO have muscles underneath all my 'insulation' and that they are strong and healthy. I CAN walk 20 miles in a day and still have enough energy to go grocery shopping. I LOVE finding out what I am capable of! I look forward to every workout and take pleasure in pushing myself each time. In addition to that, I feel grumpy when I can't workout - which has turned into a great motivator. I've learned that attitude adjustment is as easy as a 30 minute walk. Believe me, I always envied those who crave physical activity and wondered if I would ever achieve such a state of being. The feeling of using my muscles and heart and lungs the way they were meant to be used, well...it just feels wonderful.

Anyway, my intention with this post was not to wax on about the benefits of exercise, or how ridiculously happy I am with my new workout routine...no, I am writing to remind myself that change is possible and that I believe I am capable of changing other things about myself as well. Eating habits are first on the list, and I plan to tackle them in the same way I changed my exercise habits - one day at a time, over and over, until suddenly I realize that I prefer the new way of eating to the old way. At first, each choice of healthy over unhealthy will be hard work, just like making myself work out when I'd rather go home and eat pasta. But with time and dedication, the work will get easier.

And now that I've made exercise a habit, I'm going to take it to the next level - by training for the SheRox triathlon next August. Wish me luck!