Archive for March, 2008
March 19th, 2008 by Cynthia
I had this bright idea on Saturday afternoon... I had time, the house was peaceful, so I thought I'd try out this new body weight style resistance workout with a brand new fitness toy I'd bought that arrived over the past week. Something called a TRX Suspension Trainer. I was itching to try it out!
photo courtesy of FitnessAnywhere.com
For one thing, it looked like it might make some bodyweight exercises, like push-ups, more easy for me to modify and do, hopefully without aggravating my bad shoulder as much, or my feet. Well, I'll have to see about that, but I think I can certainly use it for some exercises. It is supposed to be excellent for hitting your core. And I really need more strength work now.
I set up my shiny new TRX trainer anchored to the front door so I could see the TV, and started trying the All Body Express Workout DVD that came with the bundle. Well, the pace of the DVD was TOO FAST for me, I couldn't keep up. So it was like, stare at the DVD, do a few reps, then move on to trying to get set up for the next exercise. That's OK... you have to learn somehow. Some exercises I "got" quickly, some, I will have to work on.
I found I could not do all of the DVD exercises and I will need to modify others to my ability level. The tricep exercise... well, I have never felt my triceps like that in all of my life! It didn't SEEM like I'd overdone things with my legs. I tried the single-leg squats and quickly realized that was too advanced and went to normal squats assisted in balance by the trainer.
Well, all seemed reasonably well... until after the drive up to the Tri-Cities! Perhaps doing a new workout before sitting in a car for a chunk of time was not a good plan. Perhaps forgetting to stretch after wasn't ideal either! Perhaps I just did a few more squats than my body was ready for!
I noticed I was starting to feel stiff in the car and was a bit sore when we arrived at the restaurant, but by the time we got home again, I was so sore it was hard to climb up the porch steps! And it got worse! The true onset of my DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) came right about at 24 hours after the exercise. And it was BAD! WOW my thighs hurt! They burned, they felt swollen to the size of redwood tree trunks! I didn't sleep well.
Sometimes, you don't realize that what you are doing is that difficult at the time and BOOM! I guess I caused a bit of an "earthquake" to my muscles. The quad pain lasted TWO SOLID DAYS. I missed Monday's water aerobics.
Today, I am just normally sore... I managed to do my Nordic Track, and am feeling fine after that. I even remembered to stretch after. I'm hoping I come out of this with a little new muscle! Trying new workouts is good and even necessary, since the body will adapt and burn fewer calories if it only gets same old, same old all the time. I'll just be a bit more careful next time I hit something new though! Sometimes less is more!
Can't wait to play with the TRX again... sucker for punishment that I am!
March 18th, 2008 by Cynthia
As I felt that weighing in on Monday would not truly reflect my progress this week, I made the "executive decision" to do it today. If I'd done it yesterday, it would have depressed me to post a gain when I knew that it wasn't the true story. So I didn't. And I'm not sorry.
I am at 225.4 pounds. And possibly retaining water, as I've not gotten my gallon of water in lately. I still have sore muscles from SATURDAY'S bodyweight resistance workout. Still another 1.2 pounds gone!
My eating Sunday was not ideal. I had hubby bring me a Subway breakfast sandwich before we left. Bread and no prior workout... non-compliant. Then, I did OK on portions at Kwan's, and did not have dessert.
But, by the time we got back from the drive, I was jones-ing for protein... and ate all three of the protein bars I'd bought for the drive! Not so good. Protein yes, but also a lot of sugar. Part of the trouble there was that I was starting to really feel the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) from Saturday. And I was tired and only had about 4 hours sleep.
Still, just excuses, I *could* have eaten a proper meal, but with Power Bars in hand, too easy to eat them instead.
Then, tired and feeling even more sore, to the point where I was barely able to get up or sit down, I went out to get a prescription that I'd called in Saturday. And as I was getting hungry again, I went and ate at McDonalds. So the day went from bad to worse, I didn't make healthy choices there! The food didn't taste as good to me as usual though, so that's a plus.
Way too many 10% meals this week. Not enough water.
All in all, I feel like I escaped a bullet this week! Forward HO!
March 18th, 2008 by Cynthia
I have an editorial correction to make... I told you that the new restaurant would be called "The Monk's Blessing." Sorry, I was wrong, I got confused by what my husband told me. It was a blessing ceremony for the restaurant that we were attending on Sunday!
The restaurant is STILL Kwan's Thai Kitchen. The address, for anyone happening to be in the Tri-Cities and feeling a hankering for Thai food is 6415 Burden Boulevard, just off Road 68, in Pasco, WA. Nice area, that looks to be growing. Kwan's is next to a butcher shop that looked interesting, but was closed. Quite easy to find.
But, we did get blessed by the local Buddhist monks! A lovely ceremony and while we didn't understand a bit of it, the chanting was wonderful to listen to and we were all sprinkled with some water.
I must say, the new premises were a vast improvement over the old ones! The restaurant had a cozier, warmer feel. The plants were arranged by the door... which they must like, because they were in a nice patch of sunlight. She's got a set up for a small luncheon buffet and the dining area is split into a section with comfy booths on one side and tables/chairs on the other. Good lighting, super atmosphere, all very nice and new looking.
Lunch was rather informal... we got to go into the new kitchens and serve ourselves, somewhat buffet style. She's got a great new kitchen, much more room! The food was not quite what I'd expected, since I am used to seeing a lot of vegetables with most of her dishes, but all was still good. There was sweet sticky rice, something I'd never had before, I took a small serving, about a couple tablespoons. Regular steamed white rice as well, I took about a half cup. There were also noodles, I think I had between a half cup to one cup of those. Then I took a large handful of bean sprouts and an egg that appeared to have been boiled in tea or broth or something like that. I put some fish sauce on my bean sprouts and green curry sauce on my rice.
The fish sauce was quite spicy... and I enjoyed getting a good tongue tingle going! The green curry sauce was very good. And Kwan came around with some chicken fried rice, also lovely. I passed on dessert, which appeared to be a non-traditional cheesecake affair.
Anyway, it was a nice day for a drive and we enjoyed it greatly. Hope to go up again some time for lunch or dinner.
March 16th, 2008 by Cynthia
Yeah, had a little slip up at the grocery store tonight. Two goofs in fact.
One... I bought a few Power Bar protein bars just in case I got hungry on the drive tomorrow or hubby got low blood sugar and truly, as it is only about an hour and a half or so, that was just BOGUS! Better planning would've gotten me to bed earlier and up in time to fix a healthy breakfast. Instead, I'm prevailing on hubby to bring me something from Subway when he gets off his mid shift.
Two... I got to the register and right there, smack in front of me, was a big pile of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. I tried to resist, but it was getting on towards a meal time and I caved. I stuck to just buying one and I have to admit, I really enjoyed eating it. At least that's the only Easter candy that has ever really appealed to me. The rest I can easily ignore.
The bad part is that I also ate three of the Power Bars when I got home, because my feet hurt and I didn't feel like fixing a meal. I went over calorie budget by a couple hundred tonight. I did stop before polishing them all off.
Tomorrow morning, we are off to eat Thai food. I just plan to enjoy and be moderate. A break might even do me good. You know, I am seeing progress... it's just been such a roller coaster that it isn't always obvious.
But the scale did hit a new low of 225.0 this morning.
March 13th, 2008 by Cynthia
The eating this week has not been at all ideal so far, as I did goof Monday night with a bit of a peanut butter binge. And then most of Tuesday's meals didn't include a vegetable and were therefore not compliant. Otherwise, the calories have been OK this week... and in fact, this morning I saw a new low on the scale of 225.4 which was encouraging!
A mid-morning Thai outing
Sunday morning, we've been invited to the grand opening of a friend's Thai restaurant in the Tri-Cities, well, actually, Pasco, WA. The name of her restaurant will be "The Monk's Blessing". So, George will get off work early after his midnight shift, and we'll just head on up. I don't know what she is planning to serve, but usually her food is delicious and reasonably healthy, so I plan to enjoy without worry. 
The closing of the Pendleton restaurant was a sad occasion. In fact, we ate at Kwan's Thai Kitchen nearly every night the week it closed, so we could have all our favorites once more! We've truly missed it, because it was so easy to get great food, with plenty of protein and very fresh veggies!
We miss our Thai food!
This is a MUST GO occasion!
Just before closing the Thai Kitchen, Kwan gave us one of her restaurant plants, a lovely Pachira Good Luck Money Tree. It's our one and only houseplant... because we have a young cat who is a PLANT KILLER!
Well, the money tree was lovely before Luna got at it. Twice. Now, out of the three original branches, there is one left, and it no longer looks nearly so full as you see here, sigh. Fortunately, the first branch she broke is putting forth a small green shoot, perhaps eventually the tree will recover.
I do retain water after eating Thai food. So the upcoming Monday weigh-in may not tell the entirely accurate tale this week... just sayin'.
March 12th, 2008 by Cynthia
Yes, I'm back! At least for a few minutes, before I race off to water aerobics.
Monday's weigh-in disappointed me. No change. AGAIN! The sad part being that Sunday it was looking like I'd see at least a half pound loss. And it's possible I would have... but I do admit to increasing leg resistance on my Nordic Track by a mere two pounds. I felt that within a couple hours of getting off the machine! And felt quite sore Monday in the pool as well. So my muscles could've been retaining water, 'tis true. But, I think I can do better than just a half pound a week.
Now, I'm seeing a lowering trend with my Omron body fat monitor (hit a new low reading today of 39.0% body fat), and I haven't gained, but I'd prefer to be making just a bit more progress than this!
So, where did I go wrong?
Here's my meal compliance chart...
Looks pretty good, right?
Well, it's not perhaps entirely as good as it seems. I was playing "compliance by numbers" rather than compliance by the spirit of the PN habits. Technical compliance... my compliant anytime meals were running at 24% carbs or less, but the truth was, last week, I kept feeling a little hungry or wanting something sweet and I was adding a single serving of dried apricots to many of my meals. OK, veggies and fruits are allowed, but veggies should outweigh fruit choices by about a 4:1 ratio. So I was pushing the envelope a little bit. A non-dried fruit choice might've been better, but I went for easy/quick. I also was eating a whole orange with my breakfast omelet, not my usual half orange.
I also added a tablespoon sized serving of almonds here and there. So, nothing unhealthy, nothing really non-compliant... but little "extras" that chipped away at my calorie deficit.
I need to nip this creeping sugar habit... I will leave off buying more dried apricots for the present! Yesterday was not a stellar eating day, nor was my last meal on Monday night. But the plumbers have been and gone, my house is at least somewhat cleaner and I've started in on the big pile of mail clutter in the kitchen.
I went back to my half orange this morning. The time to change things for the better is always NOW!
Time to run for water aerobics... more later I hope.
March 9th, 2008 by Cynthia
Well, I wish I could manage to always blog daily, but it just doesn't happen. It gets late, I'm tired and ah, I shut the computer down and quite boringly, go to bed. Then I get up, eat, exercise, try and get stuff done around the house, shop, etc... and I'm still too tired to blog. Brain fog.
But I swore I'd write *something* tonight, just so you know I'm not dead.
It's been OK here... I've had two 10% meals this week... one an actual meal of Papa Murphy's Mediterranean Chicken DeLite take and bake pizza and one skipped meal. One day where I fell asleep after being awake only 12 hours and only got four meals in. Otherwise, my eating has been OK, though I've had a couple days where I've had a distressing tendency to nibble a little extra on things like nuts or dried fruit. That's something I need to watch, because those calories add up quick. But not as quick as things like candy bars or chips!
MUST CLEAN HOUSE FOR PLUMBING APPOINTMENT TUESDAY!
Yeah, this has been on my mind... and I've not gotten much done on it. There's some weird thing in my brain that says it is perfectly OK to shut the bedroom door while hubby is sleeping during the day (he's on mid shifts), crank my CD player up, and workout on my Nordic Track! But when it comes to running the vacuum, it's "NO, mustn't wake hubby with vacuum noise!" And it's so bogus... because he sleeps like the dead and hardly anything ever wakes him anyway.
Yeah, in my book these days, exercise is preferable to cleaning house. Hard sweat vs. mildly pushing a vacuum around. Who'd a thunk it?
What's worse, yesterday, I got on the Nordic Track with every intention of being easy on my feet and making it a mild steady state cardio workout. And somehow, after I got well-warmed up, I ended up making it a very intense HIIT workout instead. The hardest one I've done to date. I was sweating buckets when I got off! Hubby complimented me on my "nice rosy glow". Interval training is supposed to keep burning a fair few calories quite some time after the actual exercise session... all I know is it definitely made me hungry and I ended up eating an extra small meal and going over my planned calorie budget.
Today, I could've easily excused myself from exercise on the grounds that my feet were tired, because after I worked out yesterday, I went and made a big batch of healthy stuffed cabbage soup. Then cooked myself a quick meal. So I was on my feet a LOT, with little rest. But I didn't. I did my steady state cardio workout... and even with a little increased resistance! Yeah, I'm feeling the resistance increase tonight... in my hamstrings. Big time. My feet are doing pretty good actually!
I'm trying to figure out some more exercise to do, now that my living room is clean again, I have options for DVDs. But finding time has been hard. I know, I know, I've just got to make time. The best I managed was to fast power walk around the perimeter of Wal-Mart this evening when I was doing some needed shopping.
I will say this, after doing a 2000 calorie day yesterday and a 1700 calorie day today, with lower carbs, I'm looking forward to my pool workout day tomorrow. A few more cals, more carbs. It's fun for me switching around a bit though, because I can have more fats on the lower carb days and I enjoy the change up. Tomorrow, I get more fruit though!
OK... that's it, officially brain dead. Sorry and all, but sleep calls.
