One of my major downfalls is that I have absolutely NO ROUTINE in my life other than wake up, get the kid to school, get to work, and pick him up. Oh, and laundry on Wednesdays when I get desperate. This is in all areas of my life, not just the health/eating/fitness aspect. I do this with my bills, my cleaning, my social life, some aspects of my work, EVERYTHING.
So there is one thing I have added in the last week and a half. I am now dedicating 1 hour a week to a self-defense drop-in class run by Makoto Kabayama. It's 1 hour a week for me time, where I can work on some fitness, and at the same time, some don't-get-stabbed skills. (If you knew the area of town I work in and some of the stuff that goes on there, you would be taking a self-defense course too. I was at court 2 Fridays ago for some jackass that pushed his way into the office and pulled a knife. Thank spaghettimonster the security guard happened to be around. Sheesh.)
I'm also making a lunch for work the night before, so that I am not starving and rooting through the junk at the local donut shop when I get ravenous at work. Today I brought some cut up peppers and tomato, baby spinach, sprouts, hummus and salsa with a tortilla, and made a veggie wrap.
They are small steps, but they are steps nonetheless. I will add another routine next week, most likely dealing with the chaos that is my household, and just keep plugging away at it. Consistency, I think, is not a way of being, but a way of doing.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Getting into it, but OH the soreness!
One of the major roadblocks I set up for myself with working out and eating is consistency. I have a track record going back six years where I work out consistently for three weeks, then I stop.
There is one 8-month exception to this rule, when I joined a Goodlife Fitness near my work, and would go 3-4 week days, and 1-2 weekend days. I was also attending Physio twice a week to try to address the issues I have in my legs. (Turns out it actually originates in my upper back, but I ran out of benefits before we could fix it permanently.) When my then-spouse and I split, so did a lot of the disposable income, so the gym is something that had to be cut.
Now for the past 9 days, I have done a workout on 5 of them. As much as I would love to get straight to 6 days a week solid working out, I have to tell you, I have been beyond sore. Even though I am warming up, stretching after the workout, getting my water, and taking glutamine after strength workouts, my back has been sore to the point that sitting and sleeping is difficult.
I know this will pass as I start to be more consistent, but it is an added excuse when I am trying to talk myself OUT of working out. (Oh come on, you do it or have done it too...)
I've done 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts. What I have not done yet is a stretching workout. I have some pilates and yoga DVDs, but I have to say, I am not a fan of either, and never have been. Mostly because it hurts, and because some of the moves aggravate the nerve crap going on in my legs. Regardless, one of my goals is to consistently do 1 stretching workout a week.
Food has been good for the majority of my meals. I am cooking a few meals ahead of time, and bringing lunch and a snack to work so that I am not ravenous by the end of the day. Tonight I am making a really simple Chicken Cacciatore recipe, and will have a few servings left over to freeze for the rest of the week.
I'll be back again to post, sooner than 9 days from now. I think perhaps I will set Fridays as a guaranteed posting day, and try to post at least once during the beginning of the week if I have anything interesting to say.
There is one 8-month exception to this rule, when I joined a Goodlife Fitness near my work, and would go 3-4 week days, and 1-2 weekend days. I was also attending Physio twice a week to try to address the issues I have in my legs. (Turns out it actually originates in my upper back, but I ran out of benefits before we could fix it permanently.) When my then-spouse and I split, so did a lot of the disposable income, so the gym is something that had to be cut.
Now for the past 9 days, I have done a workout on 5 of them. As much as I would love to get straight to 6 days a week solid working out, I have to tell you, I have been beyond sore. Even though I am warming up, stretching after the workout, getting my water, and taking glutamine after strength workouts, my back has been sore to the point that sitting and sleeping is difficult.
I know this will pass as I start to be more consistent, but it is an added excuse when I am trying to talk myself OUT of working out. (Oh come on, you do it or have done it too...)
I've done 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts. What I have not done yet is a stretching workout. I have some pilates and yoga DVDs, but I have to say, I am not a fan of either, and never have been. Mostly because it hurts, and because some of the moves aggravate the nerve crap going on in my legs. Regardless, one of my goals is to consistently do 1 stretching workout a week.
Food has been good for the majority of my meals. I am cooking a few meals ahead of time, and bringing lunch and a snack to work so that I am not ravenous by the end of the day. Tonight I am making a really simple Chicken Cacciatore recipe, and will have a few servings left over to freeze for the rest of the week.
I'll be back again to post, sooner than 9 days from now. I think perhaps I will set Fridays as a guaranteed posting day, and try to post at least once during the beginning of the week if I have anything interesting to say.
Friday, April 6, 2012
A Rambling Introduction to My Weight Loss.
Well hello there. And some of you, hello again. (This would be the third time I have started blogging on this topic. "This Topic" meaning my anti ass-expansion project.)
Just to give you some history, I have been beating this dead horse for 6 years. 6 years of stops and starts. 6 years of never quite hitting my groove. I have started, then deleted 2 other blogs on the topic, and I am not really sure why I do that.
What I do know is that when I read, and track, and pay attention to my eating and exercise, I do quite well. My body really likes strength training, I have learned to love a select few forms of cardio, and stretching is the devil, but I must do it. When I track my food, I pay attention to what I eat. When I plan a few days ahead and cook accordingly, I do amazingly.
I eat fairly well in my house. My son, who has autism, also has the gift of food allergies. (We're not talking GFCF diet here, autism people.) His eating precludes cow and goat dairy, garlic, corn, pork, spelt, and whole wheat. That means I can buy nutritionally deficient white bread, not delicious and textured 12-grain or multi-grain breads. It means I cannot buy most pre-packaged foods from the grocery store, with a few exceptions. It also means that I have had to transform myself from a hopeless meal preparer into a creative cook.
FOR INSTANCE: Here is a pot of soup I threw together in the slow cooker on Wednesday night:
I know, it looks delicious, right? Beef stock, lean ground beef, onion, mushroom, red potato, kale, tomato, bay leaves, white pepper, paprika, sea salt, and parsley. No recipe needed, this is the kind of stuff I really like to make these days.
That being said, when I decide to enter "Screw it All! I will eat what I WANT!" mode, then we have your no-veggies-to-be-seen, burger, pizza, butter chicken, potato chips, brownies, and cupcake type eats. That is much less common for me to do these days, and it tends to be a few things at a time, rather than a gorge fest. I am much more likely to decide I am going to have 2 pieces of pizza and track it than I am to order a small pizza and eat it all to myself.
So now I have talked about what I know works for me, and I talked a little about the food aspect of my life. I think the approach I will take will be to post pics of awesome food when I make it. I'm not so sure I want to be posting my daily food intake, but we'll see. I have started tracking it on my BodyBugg App on my Android though, as it helps me to make sure what's coming it does not exceed the calories going out.
As for my first goal for the year, I am going to start at a reasonable level. I have a wedding to attend in mid-May, so for that wedding, I am going to burn off 8 lbs. of fat. I want to reduce my fat levels, not my lean body mass, so the eating and exercise balance is critical.
I came upon this article recently, which talked about a woman in the UK who is considered too fat to be a model for certain plus-size labels; She is 5'11", and 175 lbs., and wears a size 10-12. I have no idea what clothing size I will be aiming for at the end of all of this, but having a similar physique seems inspiring to me. So I am going to aim to wear whatever size makes me feel like I have hit the finish line; I am going to wear a Size Awesome.
Just to give you some history, I have been beating this dead horse for 6 years. 6 years of stops and starts. 6 years of never quite hitting my groove. I have started, then deleted 2 other blogs on the topic, and I am not really sure why I do that.
What I do know is that when I read, and track, and pay attention to my eating and exercise, I do quite well. My body really likes strength training, I have learned to love a select few forms of cardio, and stretching is the devil, but I must do it. When I track my food, I pay attention to what I eat. When I plan a few days ahead and cook accordingly, I do amazingly.
I eat fairly well in my house. My son, who has autism, also has the gift of food allergies. (We're not talking GFCF diet here, autism people.) His eating precludes cow and goat dairy, garlic, corn, pork, spelt, and whole wheat. That means I can buy nutritionally deficient white bread, not delicious and textured 12-grain or multi-grain breads. It means I cannot buy most pre-packaged foods from the grocery store, with a few exceptions. It also means that I have had to transform myself from a hopeless meal preparer into a creative cook.
FOR INSTANCE: Here is a pot of soup I threw together in the slow cooker on Wednesday night:
I know, it looks delicious, right? Beef stock, lean ground beef, onion, mushroom, red potato, kale, tomato, bay leaves, white pepper, paprika, sea salt, and parsley. No recipe needed, this is the kind of stuff I really like to make these days.
That being said, when I decide to enter "Screw it All! I will eat what I WANT!" mode, then we have your no-veggies-to-be-seen, burger, pizza, butter chicken, potato chips, brownies, and cupcake type eats. That is much less common for me to do these days, and it tends to be a few things at a time, rather than a gorge fest. I am much more likely to decide I am going to have 2 pieces of pizza and track it than I am to order a small pizza and eat it all to myself.
So now I have talked about what I know works for me, and I talked a little about the food aspect of my life. I think the approach I will take will be to post pics of awesome food when I make it. I'm not so sure I want to be posting my daily food intake, but we'll see. I have started tracking it on my BodyBugg App on my Android though, as it helps me to make sure what's coming it does not exceed the calories going out.
As for my first goal for the year, I am going to start at a reasonable level. I have a wedding to attend in mid-May, so for that wedding, I am going to burn off 8 lbs. of fat. I want to reduce my fat levels, not my lean body mass, so the eating and exercise balance is critical.
I came upon this article recently, which talked about a woman in the UK who is considered too fat to be a model for certain plus-size labels; She is 5'11", and 175 lbs., and wears a size 10-12. I have no idea what clothing size I will be aiming for at the end of all of this, but having a similar physique seems inspiring to me. So I am going to aim to wear whatever size makes me feel like I have hit the finish line; I am going to wear a Size Awesome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)