Category Archives: health & fitness

A narrative of my journeys with diet, exercise, and various healthcare professionals

weight loss 1 Comment

The Challenge: Week #2

Running Weight Loss Totals:

Diana James
Week 1: 0.5% 1.5%
Week 2: 1.6% 2.3%

Official Tuesday weight: 209. My low weight for the week was 208, though, and I’ve been hovering between 208 and 208.5 all week (except for last Tuesday’s weigh-in, of course).

Last week, I declared that my strategy would be to eat out only once during the weekend, and eat the remainder of the weekend’s meals at home. I managed to successfully stick to my plan, only eating out for lunch on Saturday, after aikido. I also managed to track everything I ate over the weekend, including my lunch at the Reynolds Garden Café.

Next step: eat HEALTHY at home and in restaurants.

Lunch? At the Reynolds Garden Café? Racked up every last calorie I’d burned in aikido that morning, plus some. Ninety minutes of martial arts wiped out by one giant Smothered Chicken Omelet. And I knew better, but I ate it anyway. Dinner that night was Sweet Mustard Chicken and frozen green beans; still a calorie-laden meal, though, since I ate two chicken breasts instead of just one.

It was Sunday’s lunch that was really the kicker, though: I broke down and made alfredo sauce. With full-fat cream cheese, and butter, and parmesan, and 2% milk. Ate it with baked chicken over low-carb organic whole-wheat elbow macaroni. It was a great low-carb meal, but not so much a good balanced meal. Incredible amounts of fat and overall calories… and with no aikido to balance them out. Dinner was super-spicy Thai Coconut Shrimp over brown rice: still a little high in calories, actually. Or maybe my portions are a little out of kilter. Either way, Sunday was a learning experience. I guess I should count myself lucky that I only gained a pound and a half from Sunday to Monday.

As far as exercise goes, I’ve been doing OK. I take half-hour walks during my lunch most days of the work week (although I’ll sometimes work through my lunch one day a week as personal penance for coming in late, even though I’m salary). I went to aikido on Wednesday and Saturday (finally, a day of no bleeding!), plus I did some pilates last Tuesday, and yoga last night.

My goal for next week is going to be portion control, especially on the weekends. I want to make a concerted effort to eat small, frequent meals on weekends, like I do during the week. Weekend weight-gain is my biggest challenge right now; once I can maintain a steady weight from Friday to Monday, I’ll move on to another challenge, like exercise.

aikido 1 Comment

Aikido Recap

Wednesday, Jan 2: Reviewed suwari waza (kneeling) techniques for sixth kyu test: shomen uchi ikkyo omote and shomen uchi ikkyo ura. Spent the full hour working on just those, with occasional moments of showing sensei the same techniques tachi waza (standing). Learned a lot, refined my skills. Realized later that I had developed blisters on my knees that had since burst, leaving my knees skinned.

Saturday, Jan 5: Returned to Aikido class for a second time in one week, which is not the norm for me. I need to prepare for my test on the 26th, though, so I stepped it up. My knees sported standard band-aids.

Before we broke into ranks to study for the testing, my fate was foreshadowed by unexpected bleeding from a shaving oopsie on my ankle. Later, once we broke into ranks, we once again started with suwari waza; within ten minutes, my band-aids had failed and my knees were bleeding all over my white gi. That class ended up being pretty much a wash, as I kept having to leave the mat to re-band-aid or re-secure said band-aids with medical tape. After class, everyone claimed that I was “hardcore,” although I knew that the initial blisters that had caused the bleeding had to be a result of poor or incorrect kneeling technique on my part.

Wednesday, Jan 9: This time, my knees sported the proper wound attire: large, fabric band-aids made especially for knees. i brought one extra, just in case, and left it in my bag in the changing room.

Again, we mukyu (unranked students) began with suwari waza techniques; this time, though, I was basically forced by my now-delicate knees to use proper technique. I made sure to keep my toes curled up under me, and to walk purposefully on my toes and knees, rather than just scooting and pivoting myself around. I also found myself pulling up my pant-legs and checking my knees whenever I got a free moment; the left knee was generally fine, and the right knee did start bleeding, but not enough to soak through the band-aid.

We then spent some much-needed time on two tachi waza techniques: mune tsuki kotegaeshi (the link shows a slightly more physical version than we practice) and yokomen uchi shihonage. Near the end of class, while I was acting as uke (the attacker/throwee), I felt my ankle scrape across the mat. I’d already gotten a mat burn on that ankle recently, and it hadn’t quite healed, so I wasn’t surprised when my training partner pointed out that I was bleeding. I excused myself, ran off the mat and into the bathroom to clean up, then into the changing room to apply my Band-Aid Of Awesomeness. Once I got myself all squared away and back on the mat, it was time to line up and show the class what we’d learned.

The mukyu demonstrated the two tachi waza techniques we’d studied. It was the first time I’d done any techniques in front of Sensei and the entire class, and it was good practice for how testing will feel. After we were done, the other ranks showed what they’d learned. The next rank up from us did a more advanced suwari waza technique, and the rest all demonstrated weapons work. I see now why we’ve been focusing on weapons more than before: weapons work is apparently a major part of testing for some of the higher ranks.

Assuming I go to two classes a week from now until testing, I have four classes left until testing day. If I step it up and attend three classes a week, I could make it six classes total. I could probably use the extra classes; there are ten techniques total that I need to know, and of those ten, I only feel totally confident with seven. I’m not entirely sure what the other three are. I probably know the techniques, but don’t know them by name. Actually, after a YouTube refresher, I’m feeling OK with identifying most of them, but I know I need some detail work with the techniques.

I also need to get some more practice with rolling, as I haven’t really had to roll for some time now. I was feeling fairly confident with it at one point. In the test, I’ll have to do at least ten forward rolls consecutively (not like these, thankfully — something similar to this, but more of a roll than a breakfall), and I don’t feel comfortable enough with rolling to do that right now. I will in a couple of weeks, though.

weight loss 1 Comment

The Challenge: Week #1

Week 1 Summary:
Diana: 0.5% body weight lost
James: 1.5% body weight lost

The good news is that I got back on the wagon. I lost one pound in one week, which is healthy and sustainable. I became more aware of my eating habits.

The bad news is that, while I became more aware of my weekend eating habits in particular, I failed to change them this week. This allowed James to pull ahead. Had I not regained weight over the weekend, I could have potentially tied James with a 1.4% loss (or more) in the first week. I did see 209 on Friday, but I said goodbye to it on Saturday with my day of Indian and Mexican food, and continued to wave farewell with Sunday’s lunch of Chinese.

My strategy for the coming week is to only eat out once over the weekend, and to make it lunch, not dinner. That will give me the chance to burn off any evilness during the rest of the day. Usually, Aaron and I will eat out for three out of four meals during the weekend, only eating Sunday dinner at home. That’s going to change. I’m going to be trying out some new healthy recipes this weekend, to make eating at home fun.

I’m going to continue my current plan of eating 1400 Calories per day, broken down into 40% carbohydrate / 30% protein / 30% fat. I’ve been doing fairly well with not overeating in the evenings, thanks to my DietOrganizer application. It’s like Deal-a-Meal: when my DietOrganizer Palm app says I have no calories left, I’m done eating for the day.

I’m also going to continue attending two aikido classes per week (Wed and Sat) instead of just on Wednesdays, although that has more to do with my upcoming test than the weight loss challenge.

I’m surprised at how much a challenge can motivate me. When I found out today that James had lost a higher percentage than I had, that immediately intensified my resolve to improve in the coming week. I know that I should be able to just compete with myself, go for a new personal best, make it a game, all that self-improvement stuff… but that doesn’t seem to work for me. I always rationalize that it doesn’t matter if I screw up, because it’s not like there’s anything at stake in the short run.

But now? Now, there’s bragging rights to consider. And a dinner. Preferably steak.

health & fitness

January Thaw

I always find it fascinating how many people go outside to walk during lunch when it suddenly becomes unseasonably warm. I’m one of those who will bundle up and go on my walk regardless, whether it’s 30 degrees (which is normal for January) or upwards of 60 degrees (like it was today).

When it’s cold outside, the outdoor contingent along the Maumee River downtown seems to be myself, one or two middle-aged men, and a few joggers of each gender. Today, I lost count of how many people were outside. Some were walking, some jogging, and some just looking out over the river.

If you’ve never gone on a walk in the snow, I highly recommend you give it a try. It’s quite invigorating, even if you’re like me and absolutely HATE the cold. Love the briskness, hate the physical pain the frigid temps can cause. Love getting my sunlight on, ramping up the Vitamin D and the serotonin and all the other goodness sunlight provides. Plus, the physical activity ramps up the serotonin by itself, giving me one seriously undepressed lunch hour.