Category Archives: health & fitness

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

weight loss 2 Comments

Diet & Fitness Update, Week #22

Just a quick update this time…

I realized during my inadvertent hour-long nap this evening that I forgot to measure myself last Friday. So, although I know that I’m back down to 208 lbs and 34.2% bodyfat as of Saturday morning, I don’t have measurements to share.

Last week’s exercise was kind of slack: I did my PUSH workout on Monday, jogged on Tuesday, then did nothing for the rest of the week. I focused mainly on getting my carb-protein-fat ratio looking better, and keeping my calories under control, which I did fairly well.

The beginning of this week so far hasn’t been spectacular, and my Mom’s coming to visit starting on Thursday night, so I don’t have any preconceptions of losing a crapload of weight this week. We’ll see, though.

health & fitness 1 Comment

More Exercise Observations

Today, I opted against going to dinner in BG with some old co-workers, because I was looking forward to my jog and a healthy dinner instead.

Have I been abducted by aliens? Replaced with a Beta, a la The Last Starfighter?

I think I crave the dopamine or something. I feel soooo much better when I work out, even if I’m no more productive during the rest of the evening. 🙂 What would normally make me all depressed (‘I’m so unproductive; woe is me’) instead makes me look for something to do (like blogging).

I’m also better able to stave off hunger pangs late in the evening (like now). Or, rather, just flat-out ignore them.

I write this as kind of an historical record (yes, Diana finally exercised on a regular basis), but also as a future motivator. I know I’m going to want to slack sometime soon, and hopefully getting these words down on… well, not on paper, I suppose, but in writing of some form — hopefully that will help re-motivate me when I need it.

weight loss

Diet & Fitness Update, Week #21

After a month-long hiatus of slackitude, I’m back with a vengeance. After gaining back most of my recent weight loss, I managed to lose two pounds this week, bringing me back to 210lbs and 34.5% bodyfat (or thereabouts).

The big deal this week was exercise. I returned to doing my PUSH workouts, and I added jogging into my repertoire. Granted, it was a walk-jog, but it did the job of getting my heart rate up and getting the blood flowing. Even better, Aaron and I went on a walk-jog together on Saturday! If we can make this a weekend habit, it’ll be much easier for us to keep it rolling, I think.

So, the week’s exercise was: Monday, PUSH. Tuesday, jogging. Wednesday, PUSH. Thursday and Friday, rest; and Saturday, jogging. I hadn’t intended to put those rest days in there, but my legs were killing me, and Aaron convinced me that I should let my legs heal instead of going for a jog on Thursday. 🙂 And, as usual, the slackitude rolled over into Friday, when I’d had every intention of doing my PUSH workout. Ah, well. I’ll shoot for more consistency next week.

Food was pretty much the same as usual this week, although I continued to get caught up in my work and ended up foregoing the morning snack, for the most part. Dinner was more protein than usual, though, as I’ve been cooking up chicken breasts for most of the week. I haven’t been tracking my actual calories or carbs or protein lately, which is something I should be doing again. I think I’ll charge up the Palm and start using my Diet Organizer program again.

So, overall, this week was the long-awaited introduction of cardio to my lifestyle. I know I didn’t do nearly as much as I should, but I at least learned that a little cardio won’t kill me. In fact, it feels pretty good.

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Interval Training?

I’m feeling pretty good right about now.

Eariler today, I told Sheryl over e-mail: “Now, yesterday I did my Push workout again, for the first time in a couple of weeks. And y’know what I’m going to do tonight when I get home? I’m going to change clothes, feed the cat, and drive to Wildwood armed with some water and my iPod. Then I’m going to walk-jog the shortest trail. Cardio is my biggest obstacle, and I’m going to just DO IT already. Maybe I’ll find jogging fun. (Never did before, but there’s a first time for everything.)”

And that’s exactly what I did. Saw Aaron off to work, changed clothes, fed the cat, set some brown rice to cooking and some chicken to thawing, gathered up my wallet and keys and iPod and a camera with five exposures left and $1 in change (for water), and drove off to Wildwood Metropark.

I found an excellent parking spot, close to the trailhead; however, I failed to note what time it was when I arrived. D’oh! Anyway, I loaded up with my wallet, keys (obviously, since I couldn’t leave them in the car, could I?) and iPod, and went to decide on a trail.

Wildwood has about six trails, ranging in distance from 0.6 miles to 3.1, I think. I decided to take the yellow Meadow Trail, which was 1.2 miles. I thought that was fair to start a walk-jog routine. And away I went.

I’d decided that, instead of looking at my watch constantly, I would start jogging when whatever song that was playing got to the first chorus. I’d jog/run/whatever for one minute, then walk until the first chorus of the next song. That seemed like a good compromise.

Until I got to a.) The Pixies, who have two-minute songs, and b.) another band with a six-minute instrumental. That threw off my jogging cycle mojo hardcore.

About that time, I took a wrong turn down what wasn’t the yellow trail, so I ended up on a paved path. S’ok — I still knew where I was going, but I didn’t know exactly what distance I’d be travelling anymore. Since my mojo was thrown off and my distance gauge was no longer valid (since I forgot to bring my pedometer), I just jogged when I felt like it. ‘Let’s jog the length of this fence’ or ‘Let’s jog to the tree’ or something like that.

“That’s nice and all,” you’re saying, “but how did it GO?”

Surprisingly well, actually.

My first jogging stint was right out of the gate. Walked down from the trailhead, got on the yellow trail, started jogging. I really enjoyed it, and didn’t want to stop after my minute was over — but I did, anyway. Then I realized that I was winded. Bad. I hadn’t noticed while I was jogging, and I wonder how long I could have jogged before my body spoke up.

My next stretch was a little harder, and slightly embarrassing. A guy probably five years younger than me was on the trail in front of me when it came time for me to break into a jog again, so I psyched myself up to pass him. My keys were jangling in my back pocket, but there was nothing to be done about that. I was sure I looked like a total dork with my keys on one ass-cheek and my wallet on the other. Oh. well.

Approached, no problem. Passed on the left, no problem.

Pants started to fall down. Problem.

I didn’t even consider stopping to pull them up and cinch in the drawstring. Nope. Not an option; this is my jog-time. Instead, I yanked up my workout pants as I ran, trying to run faster to get around the bend and out of sight. They just fell right back down. I was sure this guy could see my underwear at this point, and I tried to be funny by making a frustrated gesture to the world in general as I hiked them up again and successfully disappeared around the corner. Once my minute was up, I had run waaaay too fast and winded myself even worse than before. But I did pull up my drawers and tie the drawstring tight. Guess that’s why it’s there — to keep your pants up while you’re running with keys and wallet and iPod on your person.

All in all, I think I had about four or five jogging stints and spent somewhere just over 30 minutes with my walk-jog. Next time, I’ll be more careful with checking the time and staying on the right trail. And bringing my pedometer.

After the walk-jog, I went back to the car, fetched my change and my camera, bought a water from the vending machine, used up the last few exposures on the camera I was testing, then got back in the car and headed home.

When I got home, the rice was done, which tells me I was gone at least an hour. That’s good. Finished making dinner (Szechuan chicken) and divided it into thirds: one for dinner, one for tomorrow’s lunch, and one for Aaron when he gets home tonight. Yummy.

So, how do I feel? Well, my quads were already sore from yesterday’s workout, and they’re even more sore now. My ass is sore. Actually, come to think of it, just about everywhere is sore, between yesterday’s PUSH workout and today’s interval training (if you want to call it that).

But I feel GOOD.

I’ve still got the memory of that I’ve-been-breathing-hard feeling in the back of my throat and my upper lungs, and I feel like my heart rate is still a little elevated (not much, but enough that I notice).

If I can do this every Tuesday and Thursday, and do it with Aaron on Saturday or Sunday, and keep up with my M-W-F PUSH workouts, I think I’ll see results. At the very least, I’ll feel better, which is part of what this thing’s all about.

P.S. – Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post or sent me e-mail. I really appreciate having friends and acquaintances who step up to help and know how to motivate me. You guys are teh awesome! ^_^