Category Archives: health & fitness

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

weight loss

In The Home Stretch

In less than seven days, either myself or my co-worker James will be the winner of a $10 wager.

About three weeks ago, we agreed that we would compete for SparkPoints at SparkPeople.com, and whoever had the most points accumulated in the month of March would win $10. Right now, it’s still anybody’s game. I’m sure we’re both going to pull out all the stops this week, though.

The one major point-gaining strategy I’ve been slacking on is cardio. I can claim 1 SparkPoint for every five minutes of cardio, up to a max of 24 points (that’s two hours) per day. Usually, I only end up doing my 30-minute walk over lunch, and maybe some yoga in the evenings. (I’m not sure yoga should count as cardio, but that’s how they have it categorized, so OK…) This week, head cold permitting, I’m going to ramp up my cardio. I’ll do 45 minutes to an hour walk at lunch (which means I’ll have to get there and clock in on time in the morning), and I’ll do yoga and rebounding (trampolining) nightly. Hell, if I feel up to it, I’ll probably go jogging at Wildwood tomorrow or Tuesday, since the weather’s supposed to be so warm. That much activity in one week should not only kick up my SparkPoints, but also break me out of this goddamned plateau.

I thought before that maybe if I increased my fiber and protein, that would help. It doesn’t seem to be. So, this week, I’m also — no, wait. This week I’m already increasing my activity. I shouldn’t decrease my carb intake at the same time. I’ll hold off on that, and see if doing more cardio does the trick. If it doesn’t, *then* I’ll look at my carbs.

All righty. Wish me luck, both in my competition against James and in my battle against the neverending scale reading of 201.5 pounds.

weight loss 1 Comment

Numbers

I never thought I was much of a numbers person — not after snoring through a stats class my Freshman year of college, then struggling through other collegiate-level maths. I’ve discovered, though, that I enjoy finding and tracking trends, be they at work or in my weight loss.

I’ve been seriously bummed this week, and losing faith in the SparkDiet, because I’ve remained at 201.5 pounds for the past nine days straight (not counting one day when I lost half a pound, then gained it back the next). The only thing that kept me from totally giving it the big heave-ho was my $10 wager with James. For total SparkPoints earned, not for total weight lost, thank goodness.

At any rate, I have my own Excel spreadsheet and graph that I’ve been updating over the past, oh, more than four years, and I’ve incorporated weekly averages into it. I average my weight for the week, Sunday through Saturday, and subtract that average from the previous week’s average to help gauge my weight loss. I’d forgotten that last week’s average was 202.2, and it turns out that this week’s average is 201.4 (thanks to that one lower day), so I actually lost 0.8 pounds since last week. That makes me feel better.

SparkPeople, though not exactly the diet I would have chosen for myself without the online tracking, at least has some nifty graphs relating to food and exercise and goal-setting. It tells me that my recommended daily fiber intake is 25-35g, and informs me that I’m consistently below that level. I can also see that my protein isn’t as high as a former low-carber’s should be. So, my goal for this week is to meet my recommended fiber and exceed my recommended protein levels. Those things alone should push a lot of the evilness out of my diet.

Today will be fun. Today, Aaron and I are meeting Jason at the Happy Rose Buffet, where I will be selecting only the healthiest items possible, having only one plate of food, and sticking mainly to sushi. I will set a good example, and I will be proud of myself.

weight loss

Diagnosis: Funk

Damn these moods. I really, REALLY need to come up with the wherewithal to jumpstart myself out of a funk, once I recognize said funk.

Turns out that pulling a double-shift of sorts to complete a contracting project is A Bad Idea™, as the project will then have major issues and need to be fixed by someone else before going off to proof. Submitting B-minus work in Real Life has much different connotations than in college. In college, it’s just your grade. In Real Life, it’s your reputation.

Adding to my funk is the fact that my weight loss has plateaued before it ever really began. Starting March 1st, James and I have been having a friendly wager as to who can amass the most SparkPoints in the month of March. It’s less of a weight-loss contest and more of a contest of wills. Who is more involved in reaching their fitness goals? Right now, it’s James, totally. We were neck and neck for the first week of March, then I started lagging behind because of the same reasons I always stall out: I have other things to do, or I’m in a funk and can’t make myself exercise, or lack of planning convinced me to make a fast and evil dinner (like tuna mac).

My next dietary step is to increase my fiber and my protein. My next exercise step is to get back to doing it every day, like I’d been so enjoying for a week there. My next webstuff step is to do some minor updates on the LSM site, then complete a working demo of my freelance client’s website (the stylesheets, not all the content yet) by Sunday night.

Tonight was a night for myself to chill. And for cooking. Tomorrow’s potluck will have at least two reasonably healthy dishes: mine and James’s.

*le sigh*

health & fitness 1 Comment

The Root Of The Problem Has Been Isolated

I think I’m discovering that diet and exercise both play an important role in my mood. To some people, I’m sure my discovery seems like a big *DUH* moment. Really, though, I never thought about it much beyond the whole concept of blood sugar levels. Now that I’m in kind of a fitness groove, though, I’m finding that throwing a monkeywrench into my routine can really screw up my mojo.

Today’s example begins with an early day: doctor’s visit before work. Getting up early actually made my morning better, and I think I’ll try to keep up with the early rising. (Those of you who know me well may scoff at that. It’s cool. I don’t mind.) My breakfast-at-my-desk was a little too light: a breakfast bar. I had my morning snack a little earlier than usual, and still I was intensely and painfully hungry by lunchtime. My afternoon snack was pretty lame: a sugar-free pudding. So, when I got home, I was completely unprepared for my normal workout while dinner was cooking. I ended up eating a large snack, then foregoing the workout (I told myself I’d do it later, but I was lying) and making a dinner with waaaay too many calories from fat.

So, how do I feel? Unmotivated. Kinda lethargic. Only three or four hours ago, I was geeked to the gills to start a new phase of my freelance project. Now, I’d much rather shovel down a bag of cinnamon pork rinds and sit in front of the TV. I’m convinced this is directly related to my small breakfast and impotent afternoon (pre-workout) snack. Those two small links in my day caused a chain reaction that played on my not having planned an appropriate dinner ahead of time, and allowed me to say, “Fuck it. I’m having alfredo for dinner.”

The trick now is figuring out what I’m willing to do to shake this funk and get back to work. I’ve already lost a good part of the evening hours. I think I’m going to bust off a couple basic exercises — maybe some girlie pushups, maybe some stiff-legged deadlifts, and a few sets of crunches — then drink a glass of water (bringing me to eight today!) and get to work on this project.

*deep breath*

Let’s do it.