Yoga, my ass!

Yoga kicked my ass!

I was lied to–bamboozled! Yoga isn’t about relaxation, its about focus. Make your forehead touch your glutes—but focus on your breathing. Yes, there are some forms of yoga that can relax you, but that’s because you are focusing on relaxing. Focusing is a driven, self-motivated process.    That said I will be going to  yoga class it next week. The week after too. I’m also going to buy a mat and read some books so I can practice outside of class. Will keep you updated on that.

I can see it clear as day now—I could not squat as deeply (and thus get the full benefit of the exercise) because I am not flexible in my lower extremities. I hated doing deadlifts because they feel uncomfortable. In truth, my form was terrible and I felt kinda strong when I could lift 135lbs. But rather than focusing on form, I decided, “lets add twenty more pounds!” I know, it made perfect sense when I did it, let’s just call that my “man moment” of the year. If you read my post earlier in the year, you will know that I hurt my back and ultimately had to stop lifting. When I couldn’t lift, I felt lost because my whole plan was centered around that.

I should have listened to the discomfort; it was my body saying, “your muscles are not flexible enough to complete this range of motion.”

Thus my new epiphany: I have been focusing on one particular aspect of fitness, when I should address them all. My limited flexibility is impeding my attempts at gaining strength and endurance…which are stepping stones to the larger goal of becoming healthier.

In the past I have focused on strength training; it was all that I knew.  However, in the level of your personal fitness, the scale is as such

1. Body composition
2. Flexibility
3. Endurance
4. Strength
5. Power

They all compliment one another. In fact, I would go as far to say that if you are only strong in one of these categories, you’re not very fit. If you have a healthy BMI but don’t exercise…you’re not very fit. Likewise, if you’re that person in the gym who bulk up, but can’t see you knees because of your belly or can’t run away from a six year old if you tried…you might want to change that.  There’s always this huge dichotomy between runners and lifters: I hate to be caught between diehards from both sides because the conversation never ends. But I would have to say, even if you can run a half-marathon you should still need muscle strength and vice versa. Am I an expert? No. But, something tells me you can’t run your way out of lifting a heavy box nor lift your way out of catching that last bus home.

Yoga was pretty fun. I also met a new friend. I’m looking forward to more yoga.

Every semester, I like to post goals for myself. I would like to have visible abs and I believe that I will reach that point. But I also want to do it in a way that I don’t hurt my joints. This semester I will work on my flexibility—I will have a fitness evaluation done now and at the end of the semester. I will still do weight training, but I will also incorporate yoga and endurance training.

The Takeover

As I think on it, I am really fortunate to have the such good friends around me. People who keep me leveled, keep me from being extremely stressed. People who keep me laughing and happy. And People who keep my ass in shape.

I am not a good pusher. I feel pain and I immediately decided my body has had enough. But luckily, I have good friends around me who are pushers and who won’t let me believe my muffin top is just baby fat.

A coalition has formed, a coalition which we are still trying to name. But an insane coalition.

I have decided to switch my exercise time to afternoons on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with hopefully Latin Heat dance sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.  Also, I am exercising with Funmi, an former track star from WPI, Natalie, a 5th year grad student with nothing to give but attitude and brutal honesty, and Stephanie, who is sweet on the outside , but I’m sure she can kick my ass.

What do I bring to the table you ask? Boobs.

Progress to be continued.

Inspiration of sorts

Usually, I run on the stair-stepper or elliptical to warm-up before weightlifting. If you’ve ever been on any of these machines you know the screen turns on once you start pushing. and when you stop pushing, it turns off. duh.

 

But then I noticed before it completely shuts down you get this sign:

Pedal Faster. Isn’t that amazing? Machine is telling me to work harder lol. keep up the pace. dont slow down or the bike will shut down.

Just thought I’d share.

Food Blogs

Actually pretty Useful

If you’ve been looking at my food log for the past week, you would see that I am eating a lot of food. Food that I didn’t realize I was eating.  Although it is a pain in the butt, I do find it is a useful tool. What it has helped me realize is that I need to eat smaller meals more frequently rather than larger meals at large intervals.

It also holds me more accountable. Now I have to count everything and I’m forced to look at the calorie breakdown.

The caveat is, it only works if you use it.

Here are some sites that I think are really good to use.

www.myfitnesspal.com

 

what’s cool is that there are also mobile apps, so you can track your food even if you aren’t near your computer.

 

www.fitday.com

Both our really good. I find they actually have more features than I want to keep track off. For instance you can not only track your weight, but your mood as well as chest, waist, hip measurements. You can keep a daily journal. It also uses the data you enter from your food to give you metadata. In other words, it tells you how many carbs you eat or how much calcium you get in a day or week. Depending on what you want to track, these are both good tools that I recommend.

 

You can do more than you think you can

You can move faster. Lifter harder. Push more. Be more. 

 

It’s an old lesson that I re-discovered in the gym last week. Needless to say, I haven’t been in the gym consistently since May.  I haven’t lifted weights very seriously since maybe March, because of my back injury. So now that I’m getting back into the swing of things, I’ve been taking things slow. REEALLY SLOW. Of course going slow is a smart thing; I’ve undoubtedly lost muscle mass and as Natalie, a friend of mine, has politely informed me “my butt doesn’t look as good as it used to.” (Every needs a friend like this, sure they are checking you out, at least you know where you stand, lol)

 

But back to being really slow. I was picking weight ranges that I KNEW I could do. And for a week I told myself that I shouldn’t press myself too hard lest I injure myself again. But the problem was, I told myself this the second week as well. In other words, I wasn’t challenging myself, thereby not making any progress, thereby not getting the most out of my exercise time.

 

As an example, I was doing bicep curls and I starting with 15lb weights. Easy. Too easy. I thought about it and instead picked up the 22.5lb weights. Still doable but not as easy. By the time I reached my 4^th set, I was lifting 37.5lbs (each arm) and I was for the first time in a while actually challenging my body. 

 

Even with squats, I was lifting a max of 125lbs and then decided to try higher weights. I lifted 155lbs. I was really underestimating what my body could handle. 

 

Folks, I didn’t think that I could lift it. I stared the dumbbell as it lay on the rack. I made excuses. I told myself that my body would give out and that I still needed time to “build up” to it. But the truth was, I could lift it and more. 

 

How many times do you estimate that your body can’t do something? That you couldn’t tolerate some test of your endurance or patience?  I hope that you are, like me, finding ways to prove yourself wrong everyday then look back and be proud. 

In NYC!!!! Now what do I eat?

New York City, concrete jungle where dreams are made of and where there are more food options than bills in my wallet.

My first day there, friends and I went to the Big Apple BBQ festival. The food was delicious.

On one block there can be six restaurants or bars, all with happy hour specials. Food trucks are on every corner. At first I thought they were too sketchy. Now I think they are delicious, especially the lamb and chicken over rice from the Halal trucks.

Halal and Fruit Smoothie Truck

How can I turn all this down? I’m in the city, I have to try it right?

Too bad my stomach isn’t always as happy. I struggle with what to eat, how to stay healthy in the city. Better yet, how do I stay skinny in the city? I could very well gain all the weight I lost this last semester.

Which would piss me off.

So to combat this, I give myself “okay days” days that I will eat what I want to. The only this will work however is if I am still exercising and keeping my metabolism up. I go for a run in the morning or do sprints in the gym downstairs. I walk to downtown Manhattan rather than taking a train.

And whenever possible, I make better food choices. grilled over fried. water over wine over soda (in that order .

A big lesson I pull from this is, in theory things dieting should always be easy. But when the situation changes and conditions are no longer ideal, its okay to adjust your plans. In fact you should, just make sure that your goals are neither too high nor too low, still a stretch but not a leap.

The Get Your “Poop” Together Summer

Folks, I’ve been thinking about goals a lot lately. Why don’t we reach them? Did we set our goals to high? Or did just we flop at the first obstacle? The difference between a FAIL and an EPIC WIN is really perseverance.

I hate to say this, but if you’re a can’t seem to stick to your weight loss plan, chances are you don’t stick to your other goals either. Chances are you’re as flaky as a bowl of Kellogs with no milk. How many other things have you started and not finished, giving excuses like “I wasn’t really into my new hobby anyway,” or “It was the only thing around to eat,” or “I really needed these shoes for my party tonight, I’ll just charge it and save money next month.”

It’s not about being harsh; it’s about being honest with the only person who matters–yourself.

I’ve thinking about my goals I’ve been thinking about how I approached them. I made a personal goal to reach 150lbs by the end of the summer. I also decided to save money– you know–to be able to pay for housing rent. I made a plan, which was very reasonable. The next thing I know, I’m spending $18 on bacon cheeseburger and fries. Doesn’t sound like someone who wants to lose weight or save money and yet I did it.

This is quickly becoming the “get my shit together summer.”sorry, I meant to say, “get my ‘poop’ together.” My time to focus, to allow less excuses.

There are reasons for things that may be beyond your control. Maybe you didn’t have all of the facts or someone else you trusted made a decision that impacted you. But if it is something that is well in your control and something you continue to let skyrocket out of control, those reasons become excuses.

What are your goals? Is there something you’ve dragged your feet on?

If this isn’t you, GREAT!  But if it is, then join me in…dare i say it..but join me in buying 12pk roll of Quilted Northern.

The summer isn’t over yet.

The Update Post

I have been meaning to write an update.

 

So let me just say, that I never imagined when I started that I would have be where I am now. As I’ve mentioned before, I have tried to lose weight and failed miserably. While I don’t have visible abs (which was a part of the deal I made with Bobby—hence no trip to Disney World either) I do have a lot more. I have a healthy start. Also as it turns out, now is not a good time to leave work for a vacation.

 

I lost 15 pounds. Getting lower than 160lbs was a miracle for me. When you’ve weighed so much for so long you forgot things.  I wasn’t sure I’d be able to lose weight after all my failed attempts. I was a sophomore in college the last time I weighed as little. Now I am at 159lb and my body is shaped better than it was before.

 

I learned how to swim. I didn’t get around to writing any blog posts about it, but when I hurt my back, I was really bummed. I knew I needed to get to the gym, but my entire program involved weightlifting…which was not an option. So I sucked it up and went swimming in the morning. It was more practice than anything, as I am still afraid of going into deep water. But I’d like to think that if I had to, I could swim. I also discovered the joy of wearing flippers, they make you feel super human!

 

 

My blood pressure is 110/70. As my last post said, this is a truly personal accomplishment for me. Not only do I feel like I claim five years of my life back, I can eat cheeseburgers while I’m at it.

 

 

 

Nutrition. I learned a lot about nutrition, more than I knew before. I also learned how my body works—I know what foods will make me balloon and what will make me lose.

 

So that’s my update. Still working at it. Still fitting exercise in and trying to make good food choices when possible, choices that are getting very difficult to make now that I am in New York City for the summer. Healthy and budget don’t go together at all. But that’s another post……..

Side Effects of exercise

Exercise has side effects, a list as long as those pills for restless leg syndrome on the infomercials shown at 3:00 am on Comedy Central. It’s in the small print, hard to see under the pictures of in-shape people wearing bikinis.

I recently discovered some of the side effects when I went to the doctors office. The nurse was checking my blood pressure, she stares at the meter and says “WOW.”

I was afraid. It’s generally not a good thing when a nurse thinks something about you is cool. I timidly asked what was wrong. She says nothing. I had a blood pressure reading of 110/74, which is awesome!

There was a time, about two years ago, when I went to my blood pressure was 158/90, which is extremely high. My body was in complete distress. I felt extremely tense, jittery,horribly to sum it up really.  Ever since I’ve had the words “stroke”, “diabetes”, and “heart attack by age 45″ hanging over my head.

And at that moment, sitting in the doctor’s office, those worries were gone. It felt great, triumphant to have stellar blood pressure now.  I felt like I had just added five years to my life.

Most people, when trying to lose weight only care about the aesthetics. I won’t lie, I’m aiming to look like Beyonce’s darker cousin. But there are also side effects with exercise, that are quite worthwhile.

• lower blood pressure
• more endurance
• higher metabolism (i.e. on that weekend that you do “celebrate” you won’t gain as much weight as you might have)
• lower risk for diabetes
• lower risk for heart attack
• more money in your wallet because you don’t have to pay for 5 monthly prescriptions

In my quest, I’d forgotten about these effects. and the list goes go. And honestly, I’d take these over effects over restless leg syndrome any day.

 

A side effect of exercise