A Reward

It is official…

I am now registered for the local Marathon here in March.   It was already a plan, but holding off on the actual registration has been bugging me for the last couple of weeks.

Recent events (mother-in-law having a stroke,  major repairs at the rental property and a monster of a storm) had put a huge damper on any running for the last couple of weeks.  It has felt good to get back out on the road this past week and feel good while doing it…

Running relaxes me.

It is me and my body…alone.

Unless a car invades the crosswalk while I am still there.

Last year, I felt like I needed to run the Marathon to prove something to myself.

What I did prove was that “gutting” out a Marathon is not a smart thing to try to accomplish.  Signing up at the last-minute was a silly move on my part.   The 1/2 Marathon was sold out in Late January and, in a rash on-line moment, I signed up for the big daddy.

An unmentionable physical ailment also keep me from running for most of the last two weeks before the race to compound my lack of a solid training plan.

Not this time.

I have a training plan, but it is just a guide to keep me moving in the right direction…it is nothing to get too obsessive about until March.

Running is a release for me, and this time, the Marathon is a reward and not a challenge.

Not Just the Absence of Illness

Today’s message from DailyOm, a woo-woo website that sends me daily wisdom, is marvelous, and I’ll just quote it in full here.

Redefining Health: Throw Away Your Scale

Health is not a numerical concept and cannot be defined using statistics. Human beings, however, tend to want to quantify well-being into easily understandable figures. We feel compelled to ascribe numbers to every aspect of wellness, from the qualities of our food to our fitness levels to the physical space we occupy. As a consequence of social pressures, we turn our attention away from health and focus instead on the most contentious of these figures—weight—checking our scales to see how we measure up to our peers and role models. Yet each of us is equipped to gauge our relative healthfulness without any equipment whatsoever. When we have achieved a state of wellness, we feel buoyant and energetic. Some of us are naturally slim, while others will always be curvy. No matter what our weight, we can use the cues we receive from our physical and mental selves to judge how healthy we really are.

When you throw away your scale, you commit to a lifestyle that honors the innate wisdom that comes from within your body and within your mind. It is logical to examine how you feel while considering your health—a strong, fit, and well-nourished individual will seldom feel heavy, bloated, or fatigued. If you have concerns regarding your weight, remind yourself that at its proper weight, your body will feel buoyant and agile. Movement becomes a source of joy. Sitting, standing, walking, and bending are all easy to do because your joints and organs are functioning as they were meant to. When you are physically healthy, your mind will also typically occupy a place of well-being. Mental clarity and an ability to focus are two natural traits of whole-self health. Surprisingly, promoting this type of easy-to-discern wellness within yourself takes no special effort outside of satisfying your hunger with nourishing, wholesome foods and moving your body.

The numbers you see on the scale, while nominally informative, can prevent you from reaching your healthful eating goals by giving you a false indicator of health. You will know when you have achieved true health because every fiber of your being will send you signals of wellness. When you choose to listen to these signals instead of relying on the scale, your definition of well-being will be uniquely adapted to the needs of your body and of your mind.

Why Substitution Doesn’t Work

One of the gifts I got for my birthday was a cookbook called The Conscious Cook, by Tal Ronnen. Ronnen is apparently a highly respected vegan chef who is trying to bring meatless cuisine to the forefront. There’s much discussion in the book about why removing animal products entirely from one’s diet is the best way to eat. Although the self-righteousness is definitely present, the attitude is more…cultish: well, don’t you see that it’s just simpler, and just right, to think the way that we do?

For over a year now I’ve been trying to keep meat out of my diet as best as I can. It started because I had to lower my cholesterol, but then I found that the less meat I ate, the better I felt. There are fewer calories in non-meat protein alternatives, so it’s easier to lose or maintain weight with them, and they are much less expensive.

The issues I have with vegetarianism and veganism are another post for another time (I’ve written and deleted hundreds of words here because they’re off-track), and I’m really just trying to get at something weird in this cookbook that I’ve noticed elsewhere in the vegetarian world. That thing is the matter of substitutes.

The Conflict of Weight Loss

The connection that yoga gives you with your body is one that I find unique. Since I was never an athlete, it’s possible that as an athlete you become just as connected to your body, using it constantly to do what you do, and I just never experienced this. But with yoga, I certainly have.

By Popular Demand

I put the camera in her hand this time.

MTAE, look away!  Look away!

Hip! Hip!

I thought of this early this morning, and I’m kicking myself a little bit for not having thought of it yesterday, but better late than never!

I think we should all give three cheers to our own Crisitunity for realizing one of her huge life goals of making it to yoga teacher training.  One step along her own path, but surely a huge one.

Congratulations, C!

Hip!  Hip!  HOORAY!
Hip!  Hip!  HOORAY!
Hip!  Hip!  HOORAY!

Good Oof

After that one badass week in which I worked out four out of five weekdays (skipping only the night of my son’s Cub Scout meeting), I then got sick and then got busy and so it’s been a couple of weeks since I went back to the gym again.  But all things considered, things have still gone pretty well.  I figured out that it was time for my skinny jeans again, and this weekend I actually put said skinny jeans on, and they rocked.  It was awesome.  (I almost took a butt pic for you ladies but we didn’t get it done.  So sorry!)

So given that I was reaching a point of happiness with the way this whole weight loss thing was going, I thought that this would be a good time to switch it up again, to quit doing an hour of cardio per workout and go back to some weight training with cardio at the end.  (Which historically I rarely do – typically I have done all weights and then gone home.)  Yesterday was the day I circled on the calendar for that.

First was the dreaded weigh-in.  Not so dreaded, since the one metric I was really interested in, my belt, was already telling me “pretty good job, bud!”  But still, an important part of the motivation.  After all, seeing the number “217″ on the scale back in February made me so mad that I channeled my self-loathing into a TOO-hard too-soon workout that just about led to me passing out in the weight and/or locker room.  The number “201″ in late June back around when we started this here blog was much more palatable but still not where I wanted to be.  Yesterday?  189.  My goal of 175 looks a lot more reasonable from here!

Then I went into the weight-lifting.  I had promised both Dys and myself that I wouldn’t be stupid this time.  And I kept that promise, even though two intimidatingly gargantuan gentlemen were present there for a while, which is usually a blow to the ego.  Luckily, all things considered, my ego is pretty much bulletproof lately.  (More on that on my own blog later today, barring disaster.)  So here’s my workout for the day:

Dumbbell bench press:  1 set, 20 reps, 25 pound dumbbells (warm-up)
5 sets, 10 reps, 45 pound dumbbells

Deadlift:  1 set, 20 reps, just the bar (45 pounds)
5 sets, 10 reps, 135

Roman chair straight-leg lifts:  2 sets of 20, 1 set of 10

Pretty doggone light, even by my weak standards.  But the deadlifting still took a lot out of me, which was a bit of a vindication from my above-linked argument with Dys.  Despite all my cardio training over the last six months, deadlifting still just stresses your body (and your heart) in an entirely different way, and the only way to train for it is to do it.

(As a bonus, I was deadlifting at the station in front of the mirror, and I have to say that I may still be a slightly-chunky geek, but I look pretty good in mid-deadlift with all those muscles under load.)

After that, 30 minutes on the cross-trainer and a slightly stiff walk back to the car.  I spent a little time in the evening sitting on the floor stretching my noticeably tight legs out, but otherwise I felt fine.  I took some precautionary ibuprofen before going to bed, but this morning I’m okay.  A little tight through the chest and hamstrings, and mah bootay is sore, but I can sit down and reach overhead without wincing, so I’ll take it.

I may or may not lift weights again this week – I may just stick with all cardio.  But the worm has turned, and I’m going to gradually build the weight training back into my workout, and we’ll see where that scale is come the new year, eh?

Warning: Rant Ahead

Okay, so I just popped off and spewed a big fat rant on body image over on my blog.  In retrospect, that might have been better done here, because it’s perfectly appropriate for what we’re trying to do here.  All I can do at this point is link to it and beg forgiveness because it was done in the heat of the moment.

And said heat of the moment is still burning me the fuck up.

In Which I Am Mistaken For a Chick

I still haven’t worked out yet since I admitted to Laura how badly I suck; I should be able to get back on that horse next week.  But then again I’ve also been a bit sick.  And with the prominent exception of last night, I’ve been eating slightly more reasonably anyway.

This morning I put on my pants, cinched up my belt, and looked.  I was back on the last notch…the one I put in when I bought the new belt because I (wisely, as it turned out) bought it a bit bigger than I needed.

I had to back it out a notch, though.  Not because it was uncomfortable, but when I looked in the mirror it made my jeans bunch up in the waist something fierce.

It’s official:  I can now go out and buy skinny jeans.

Is this where I squee?  Okay.  SQUEEEEE!!

Confession time.

I haven’t done any purposeful exercise (meaning, a WORKOUT, not, say, a walk with Jen after lunch) since sometime in July. I haven’t been taking my vitamins, or paying attention to how much water I drink during the day. I’ve been eating whatever the hell I want, too. Now, other than perhaps one or two pounds, I have been able to get away with this shameful behavior with little consequence. My clothes still fit, I still look the same in the mirror.

But.

I FEEL like crap. Slothful, and achy, and I haven’t been sleeping well. Aha, there lie the consequences of my actions! I knew they were around here somewhere.

Calvin got the results back from his doctor – the high blood pressure and high cholesterol haven’t done any damage to his arteries or heart, so far. All the tests and scans and whatnot came back normal. BUT, the doctor literally said, “If you don’t start getting exercise and eat much better than you have been, you’re going to die.” How’s THAT for some scare tactics?