Archive for March, 2008
March 24th, 2008 by Cynthia
I joined a weight loss blogging community called Iowa Avenue recently. My first venture into social networking. Kind of overwhelming at first, but I've enjoyed it. Can't say I have the time to participate as much as others.
Anyway, someone there started a group on the President's Challenge site, called the Iowa Avenue Go-Getters. And that reminded me I was already signed up. I initially started using it back in North Dakota because the Department of Commerce was pushing it to government employees, including my hubby in the weather service (NOAA). I logged faithfully for a while, but my exercise was just too inconsistent at the time and I never did earn my Active Lifestyle award.
At first, I was hesitant to get back into it. Yet one more site to log onto and log stuff into. But, now that I've done it, the site loads fast even on my slow dial-up and I'm on the way to possibly finally earning my Active Lifestyle award. I remember days of yore when, as a child, our PE teachers would torture us in the name of the President's Fitness Challenge. I never did very well at that. This is far easier on the psyche.
Here's a little shot from my activity log-in page.
The idea is to do 30 minutes of activity a day and there are a wide variety of activity choices to choose from. Each day you are active, you can log and fill in a point on the star. Once you can fill in six stars completely, you are eligible for an award. Honestly, I'm not sure what the award IS... but being more active is really the point.
Then they have harder awards to go after, based on points earned. I might try that if I can get this first one under my belt.
March 24th, 2008 by Cynthia
Well, you should've bet against me on that! I hate Mondays. More to the point, I hate the way my muscles decide to retain water after every little thing I do. Who knew they'd react like this to YOGA of all things?
I should've known... I'm sore.
Note to self: Don't count your weight loss eggs before they've hatched!
So, my weight is up a pound for my official weekly weigh-in. C'est la vie. I suspect it will pop right down again, because of the three sub-225.0 weigh-ins I saw during this past week. Gotta like the new body fat % number though! Not that I think it is entirely real in all of this either, but the trend keeps going downwards. Gives me some hope for the next set of girth measurements.
The good news is that this has nothing to do with my eating. That's been good this week, except for last Sunday. Actually, since I do my weigh-in day on Mondays, next week I will change my Joe's Goals graph to reflect that, as it should give a better picture of my true week. I could have done a little better on my water drinking and am working on getting that up to par.
Here's my graph... as you can see, decent except for the water.
March 24th, 2008 by Cynthia
Is the DVD *I* needed Sunday night.
But what I had was "Yoga for Beginners". It *sounded* like the right DVD to start out with and it certainly had good reviews, but the sad reality is that I am not fit enough even for a beginner yoga session.
In my usual headlong fashion, I stuck the DVD in the player, quick vacuumed the cat fuzz off the living room floor and shoved assorted furniture around until I had a nice clean space for my yoga mat. Which was then promptly occupied by a cat!
Once Tablet was persuaded not to take his evening nap on my mat, there were several workouts to choose from. The first one on the menu only lasted 10 minutes but I wanted a longer session of activity. So I chose a 20 minute workout for "Strength and Balance" and then I figured I'd do another 20 minute workout of "Sun Salutations". Besides, 10 minutes of "Backbends" did not sound promising.
Sounds good, right?
40 minutes of yoga featuring a slim and very flexible instructor was a great plenty. My "cobra" pose has my nose only about two inches off my mat. My arms couldn't push me up into that position and my back just wasn't going there. "Downward dog" was possible... but not very comfortable.
Focused breathing? Forget about it, I was starting to breathe pretty heavy trying to do any of this stuff. Some poses actually expected me to support my body on my arms, imagine! They think my back can bend, ah, backwards! I guess the instructor never had to instruct someone like me! And the truth was, there really weren't much in the way of modifications given, which was a definite lack in a DVD for yoga beginners, IMO. Still, I did what I could do.
That said, the voice of the instructor was soothing and the scenery restful. She moved from position to position smoothly... I floundered about. She bent her back like a pretzel... I spent a lot of time replacing impossible poses with the one pose I could easily manage, "child's pose".
My shoulders and back aren't too happy right now. I'm not planning to give up just yet... I watched the 10 minutes of "Backbends" and perhaps I should start there and try to increase my flexibility a little. Slowly. Over time.
Meanwhile, if you know of a good yoga DVD for the unfit, fat and inflexible, feel free to let me know!
March 24th, 2008 by Cynthia
The Easter egg I want to crack is not a Cadbury's Creme egg nor even a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg.
It's the 225.0 pound barrier on an official weigh-in. Being below 225 pounds means I've lost the 10 pounds I re-gained over the holidays and will be continuing forward.
I think I've got it in the bag, certainly my last few weigh-ins look like it, but we'll see how it goes Monday morning. No doubt now that I've posted this desire, my body will do something crazy so that it doesn't show on the scale. If so, I'll survive it. I've done everything I can this week to make it so.
Place your bets now!
March 23rd, 2008 by Cynthia
Had my second workout with my new TRX suspension trainer on Saturday... this one went quite well. I warmed up for 5 minutes on my Nordic Track. Then, I put in the TRX All Body Express workout DVD and anchored the trainer to my front door. This time, I knew better what to expect. I did NOT try to keep the fast pace of the DVD, but instead, found my own cadence that worked with it.
I also modified many of the exercises to my level and skipped two that were just too difficult for my strength level. Single leg squats became regular bodyweight squats. Balance lunges became regular lunges, and I had sufficient difficulty doing those! Some of the arm/back work was modified by using a leg positioned a bit in front of me to help spot.
The result... a very good workout! It got my heart rate going from between 115 bpm to 136 bpm. I got sweaty, I did get sore... but was not a veritable cripple. I do admit to being very tired Saturday night and conking out on the couch during an old Gene Kelly movie "An American In Paris". But I woke in time to watch "Brigadoon". I confess... I love old musicals. Thank goodness they weren't running "Singing in the Rain" after that... I'd never have gotten to bed at all!
OK, but I'm wandering now... back to the workout.
I decided to up the ante a little and do a bit of cardio afterwards on the Nordic Track. Now, that was where things got tougher. Man, I could barely move! Also of interest, my heart rate quickly moved up to 136 bpm and STAYED THERE even though I was moving at a crawl of about 4 MPH. I found that I was unable to use the arm exerciser as per normal without shooting my heart rate way up. I guess this is a sign that maybe a little cardio after a body weight resistance workout will not be a bad idea for the future.
March 20th, 2008 by Cynthia
Is that when your veggie bin is going empty, an omelet is a great way to use up all those little scraps!
Many veggies work in an omelet! Or if not *in* one, then on the side as a simple salad. My usual technique is to dry sauté the veggies in a non-stick pan over medium/medium high heat by tossing them every so often. No oil required. This tends to cook some of the excess moisture out, which has the nice effect of also intensifying flavor. You will even develop a little carmelization and that's great for taste too!
I add slower cooking items first, then the quicker cooking ones. And usually toss some herbs or spices in as well. OK, sometimes I lose a few veggies to the floor or counter while tossing!
Once the veggie filling is done, I put them in a bowl and spray the pan with olive oil and get the eggs going. Sometimes, if I've gotten a lot of carmelization going on, I need to quick rinse and scrub the pan before spraying and adding my eggs.
Today's omelet was baby carrots (split in half or in quarters for a julienned look), chopped celery, several sliced mushrooms, about half a cup of red pepper strips and a handful of spinach. Served with a half orange, sliced.
Seriously, almost anything works. I've done tomato/onion, tomato/spinach, spinach/pepper/mushroom, zucchini/red pepper, celery/onion/carrot, avocado/onion, even broccoli... it's all good.
March 19th, 2008 by Cynthia
I don't know why, but my gym has the warmest pool I have ever seen anywhere. I swear, they keep it around 90F most of the time! When you swim in it, it kind of feels like swimming in soup. To me, it makes breathing more difficult. It seems sort of claustrophobic it's so warm. One doesn't feel motivated to push hard in such warm water.
Today, today the pool temperature was just right. A tiny shock to the body when I got in, but nothing major.
The funny part was as soon as I had gotten in the pool, the loudspeaker fired up and they announced a fire drill.
"Are they REALLY expecting us to exit the pool and stand WET outside in our suits in 40F weather?"
My water aerobics instructor looked rather alarmed at my question, but she checked and found they were just testing the system alarms. Thank goodness! Sometimes they actually DO have a full evacuation drill. It would've been a seriously bad day for that!
Once that little distraction was over, class went well. With the cooler pool, I was able to push a little harder than usual. Then, I decided to swim after class, since our instructor worked our legs more than our arms. With my quads still noticeably sore, I wasn't exactly anxious to walk/jog laps!
All I can say is it was such a relief to swim! My shoulder felt decent for once, I was able to do full breaststroke instead of my usual stunted modified version and I was able to do a normal crawl. Breathing was easier, I was swimming better and while normally, after a water aerobics class, it's a struggle for me to do a quarter mile, today, I hit the quarter mile mark and realized I had enough in the tank to do a half. So I switched to backstroke for a bit, then sidestroke to finish up.
Felt so good!
Of course now, I'm practically a zombie! Time to hit the sack.
