Edited to add: things you forget... like putting a TITLE on the entry, yipes!
Things you forget when you're working back up to a decent fitness level: circuit training will Kick. Your. Ass.
Rather than my standard biking for 40 minutes, instead I did 12 reps of several resistance exercises, a minute of planking (I thought I couldn't plank because of my wrists then I saw someone doing a forearm-supported plank, and that works), and then a four-minute set of Tabata intervals on the recumbent bike. Repeat x3, took about 40 minutes, done.
And so was I. Holy cow. Bad thing about planks? When you're already beat and trying to hold yourself up even using your forearms you can start to drool. It really isn't very attractive.
After I was no longer dripping my plan was to start dinner after I'd cleaned up. So, shower, done, exit bedroom and...
... what's this on my carpet?
[The weak of stomach should leave now until after the little dotted line thingie.]
"Mommy, I threw up on the carpet and on my hands and the toilet," came a rather sad little voice. The Gum Zombie had done it again, bless his poor little heart.
Remember that "Best Laid Plans" stuff? Pretty much sums it up.
I wonder how many calories scrubbing puke out of carpet burned...
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Regarding my whining about The Evil That is My Scale, I know. I know the scale isn't a good measure of overall fitness and so forth. It's just the one I'm most used to, and right now it's reading higher than it did about six months ago. Not atrociously so, maybe 5 pounds depending on the day? So I'm getting readings of 138 - 142 regularly, rather than 134-138. And it annoys. Ever since I had the endometrial ablation it's been reading higher save one day for about five minutes it said maybe 136. Maybe. So I'm just frustrated I can't knock off a few more pounds that I believe should be able to come off.
Then that frustration ties in with the fact that I do know I'm eating well, and I'm exercising well, and if I keep at it I will get results. They may not be numbers on a scale, but there will be results. I read a quote by Jack Dixon recently: "If you focus on results you will never change. If you focus on change you will get results." So I'm trying to remember that, and not focus on the stupid scale or other things so much and just buy into the process.
And I like being fit. It cracks me up when I'm putting on my mascara in the morning and do a double-take because I catch the cut between my deltiod and biceps. Or when I'm turning while driving and I can make out separate muscles in my forearms. I just need to chill when the results in my lower half aren't as visible. I'm a classic pear with the added joy of those fat collection deposits known as "saddle bags," and nothing short of plastic surgery will make those suckers go away. But they do get smaller with less fat on my body, so that's what I'd like to see.
Besides, being honest with myself, it's not as if I've been able to be that active on a cardio level lately (thank you Stupid Knee!) until I got the bike at the end of January, so really, three weeks isn't going to throw some magic switch or anything even though I've got months and years of decent activity behind me. I just need to be consistent going forward, know that exercise is always going to be a part of my life, and stay away from the damned Quarter Pounders with Cheese.
Oh, and on the plus side, I can't eat chips for a year. Or at least the gum surgery I had won't permit it. I'm sure I could, physically, but then again the spectre of losing my teeth or having my gum tissue flee my mouth is a pretty impressive one. So no nachos, no sea salt and cracked pepper kettle chips, no baked sour cream and cheddar chips, no Terra chips... nada. I'm really not that bummed about it (most of the time). Since I started watching my sodium too, I have a feeling that next January chips are going to taste horrifically salty anyway. Sometimes a hiatus from a specific junk food is a very good thing.
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4 comments:
Get a body fat analysis (calipers are pretty accurate). That will give you a much better idea about your body composition than the scale. I am just back from the gym & getting ready to scrub dog shit out of the white carpet for a little bonus calorie burn.
...And I hope I wasn't too vehement on the topic of weight-as-fitness. It's one of my soapbox issues, but I try not to go overboard about it.
No Michael, not at all! Intellectually I completely agree with what you said, and you didn't go overboard. This is just one of those issues I've been tossing back and forth in my brain for awhile. It doesn't help that my mother is my height and build and weighs a whopping 123 after 3 kids. Then again, she never got up to the weight I did. I think her max pregnant weight might have been slightly over 140?
Different generations, different ideas about appropriate weight gain during gestation, but it does make me wonder if I'm selling myself short, if I should be weighing less, etc.
Norma, re: body fat analysis, as far as I can tell (using mathematic calculations involving wrist, forearm, waist, and hip measurements) my body fat has varied between 26.7 and 27.2 over the past 5+ months. As of this morning, it calculated at 27.1, so not the best but not the worst. Since I'm retaining a decent amount of fluid at the moment (ablation and no periods apparently doesn't stop the whole monthly bloat-fest), that figure is likely somewhat off, but the entire variance is about half a percentage point. I figure I'll see where I am in 3 month, mid-May.
Oh yippie on the doggie doodle! Seriously though, my sympathies. I had a Great Dane puppy once, and poor Loki got a little gastro-intestinal illness, with all that entails. On ancient shag carpeting. It was... unpleasant.
A body fat analysis would probably help you. I saw you did it yourself but most gyms will do it for you - sometimes for free. Strength is so important and I am guilty of overlooking strength training.
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