Weekend Activities

I must have worked out a lot harder on Thursday than I realized because I am still sore today!  Maybe it was all that Sudafed.

So, I took the day off on Friday and just stretched.  Yesterday Lucy and I rode over to our local farmer's market.  We must have been some site: both of us with our pink jackets and pink helmets on.  Lucy rode on an attachment that hooks onto my bike - she had her American Girl Doll in her basket while my bike was sporting a new over-the-top basket from here.  I thought that the ride wouldn't be that bad, I mean I ride all the time for much lonter distances.  Well, pulling a 5 year-old who is theoretically helping is not easy.  But we made it over there, purchased locally grown flowers and strawberries (and a few other goodies from here and here) then rode home.  

The children in our neighborhood planned an entire afternoon of games and competitions.  They were quite motivated with obstacle courses, ball tosses and road races!  After they were finished, everyone headed over to the community pool to cool off.  While there I did the following circuit:

15 push-ups (girlie kind)

15 heel raises on each leg

20 lunges

Repeat above three times.

We all slept well.

Today we've already completed our activity - we participated in a local Bike Festival, riding 7 miles of local roads and trails.  Mitch and Lucy biked over the the festival, I took the easy way out and drove.  Later we'll swim and I'll probably do a mini kettle-bell workout.

Two years ago this much activity would have been unthinkable for me.  I probably would have complained...a lot.  But now, it's a given that we'll be physically active on the weekends.  I'm proud of us for getting out there as a family and enjoying our community and I'm proud of me for having the physical strength to do it.  

Sick and Sore

Monday night wasn't so great.  I thought I was having allergies which turned out to be a nasty cold.  No fun.  Plus the only thing I want to eat when I have a cold is chocolate.

I worked Tuesday so no exercise there except going up and down stairs.  Tuesday night was worse than Monday night.  Thank goodness for Sudafed, Benadryl and Motrin.

Wednesday I had high hopes that I would do some exercise so I woke up, medicated and put on exercise clothes.  I didn't do an actual work-out but I did ride my bike over to the little mall down the street.  At least it got the blood flowing and kept me from feeling like a lump.  Round trip it was about 20 minutes.

Today.  Much better.  Still, woke up, medicated and put on exercise clothes but this time I went to the gym.  Here's how it went:

25 minutes walking on treadmill with heart rate around 75%.

Then:

15 decline push-ups using exercise ball
15 dumbbell squats, different variation each set (see below)
20 dumbbell lunges (see below)

Repeat above for a total of 3 sets.

I like to switch up how I do squats.  Today I changed each set.  So for the first set I used 2 12 pound dumbbells holding each in between my forefinger and middle finger.  Keep arms straight with weights perpendicular to floor.  Squat going as low as you can.  I think this is similar to a Sumo Dead lift.

For the second set, hold the dumbbells in each hand with palms facing towards you (reverse grip).  Squat with weights between legs and then swing the weights up to shoulder height as you stand up.  It's like a squat and Front Raise combined.

For the third set, Hold them the same way as the second set and start the motion the same but instead of stopping at shoulder, swing the dumbbells over your head.  This one really works your abs.

You can do all of these with kettle bells if you prefer.

For the lunges, combine a traditional lunge, alternating legs, with a modified hammer curl.  Hold dumbbells using hammer grip.  Start with arms flexed, dumbbells at chest.  As you lunge forward, extend dumbbells forward,  on each side of knee.  Step back and repeat with other leg.

Here's what I like about this little circuit: it attacks a lot of muscles in a small number of exercises.  You are doing upper and lower body plus core in these few movements.  Plus because these exercises use large muscles (quads, glutes), you can actually get your heart rate up into the aerobic, almost anaerobic zone.  And the rumor is that this kind of training burns more calories throughout the day.  One of the books I have refers to this as "combination exercises" or total body.   Call it whatever you want.    Exercising groups of muscles together just makes physiologic sense.  Plus with this style of training you are always working your core - balance is a requirement of these exercises.  And we all know that core is the trendy thing these days!

Here's how I know this works: I'm sore.  I can feel my muscles and you know what, it feels really really good.  And my cold is starting to go away.  Can't wait to try something else tomorrow!

Be well.  Oh, and stretch, of course.

Getting back on schedule

The last few days have been nothing short of over-scheduled with lots of party food.  sigh.

Friday was spent preparing for Lucy's school fundraiser.  I ate all my meals at the school - breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.  It started well with fruit but degenerated to lots of salty and oily Indian food.  I wasn't able to get in traditional exercise that day but I did do lots of walking, lifting, pushing and carrying.  So at least I was active.

I arose early Saturday and decided to do a quick workout after being inspired by this post.  We had a family commitment in the afternoon and the school party that night which was not going to leave any room for exercise.  So I did a few push ups and sit-ups followed by a 15 minute mini-yoga session which consisted of lots of downward dog.

Sunday was a bust.  Tea Party (read cupcakes) and deli food.

And that brings us to today.  At last.  Back to a routine.  For perhaps the first time in my life I was relieved to know that I could get to the gym and here's how it went:

30 minutes on stationary bike.  I tried to mimic a spinning class by doing a 4 minute climb followed by two 1 minute sprints with 1 minute rest in between.  I did this for 3 cycles with warm up and cool down.

Then for strength training:

10 push-ups using Bosu ball (half ball thing)
10 squat/jumps with one foot on Bosu ball, repeat on other side, 20 total.

Repeat above for a total of 3 times.

15 medicine ball swings - squat, swing ball between legs then up until arms are parallel to ground.
15 medicine ball squat presses - holding medicine ball at chest, squat allowing elbows to touch knees then stand and press ball above head.  This one really gets your HR up!

Repeat for a total of 3 times.

30 seconds of "crawl" using resistance band - ok, let me try to explain this one.  Wrap band around a bar at about waist height.  Hold one handle in each hand.   S In a lunge position, bend at hip and do crawling motion for 30 seconds.  You should have enough resistance that it's hard but not so much that you can't go the whole 30 secs.  Rest for 30-60 seconds.  Repeat 2 more times alternating lunge with each rep.

5 minutes of stretching.

Time total with 60 minutes on the dot. whew.

A few comments about today.  I got another endorphin rush around 45 minutes which I think was due to the fact that I was working harder, a lot harder. That spinning class last week pushed me to the limit which was a good thing - it made me realize how much better shape I am in now thus encouraging me to add more resistance to my training.

There's something else that has been going on that I haven't written about much.  I have an IT band injury which can be painful but is really more of a nuisance.  For the most part I'm no longer jogging so I've had to reconfigure my training.  It means that I won't be doing a triathlon this year.  This decision initially crushed me but now I see it as an opportunity.  I'm biking more and trying to vary my routines.  Plus I've added stretching once or twice a day which can only be a good thing.  Try this book for some good stretching exercises.

And I just picked up this book of exercises to try to get some ideas for summer exercising.

The Substitute

We had a sub for spinning today.  It was so hard, I mean really really hard.  But really great.  Recently I've had a hard time getting an endorphin rush during my workouts.  I think it's because I'm in better shape and most likely due to my not pushing quite as hard.  That changed today.  About 40 minutes into the ride the endorphins rose up.  There's nothing better.  My body gets this full body quiver and tingling sensation.  It's a feeling of pure joy, excitement and release (sound familiar?).  And then I kept riding, pushing my body harder and harder.  And I was smiling.  God, endorphins are good.

After that was over, I headed to the cross pulley system thing for some chest presses and upright rows.  Then a few squats.  Then abs using the exercise ball.  Then lots and lots and lots of stretching.

I had an interesting experience at the gym yesterday that I had wanted to write about but I was just too tired last night, in fact I passed out reading old issues of Domino.  Anyway, yesterday while stretching after my workout I saw this woman in her 50's doing exercises that seemed incredibly familiar to me.   She had a whole routine set-up for herself of about 5 exercises.  When I was finished and when she was taking a break I asked her if Tom had been her trainer.  She said yes and asked me how I knew.  It's easy- I had done and still do the same exercises.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "How long have you been training?"

Her: "2 times a week for 10 months."

"How do you feel?"

"It's amazing.  All my joint pain is gone.  I thought I had arthritis but now it's gone."

"That's great!  Tom changed my life.  I feel better at 38 than I did at 30.  You probably sleep better too."

"I do.  I don't remember when I slept so well.  I feel great but I haven't lost as much weight as I wanted to but it doesn't bother me because I'm stronger.  The weight doesn't seem to matter as much anymore."

There it is.  The truth.  We get so hung up on the weight but the weight should not be our focus.  We should be focused on feeling good.  The weight will follow.  When we feel stronger, happier and better rested food no longer has the hold that it once did.  This woman was doing Weight Watchers and had lost weight but went on to say that she was no longer focused on being a size 8.  She wanted to continue feeling this good.

Weight Watchers has this saying that you hear all the time that goes something like this: "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."  That used to be my mantra.  Not anymore. I have a new one which I will leave you with today:

Nothing feels as good as feeling good.

Be well.

Back to the Gym

Went back to the gym yesterday:

25 minutes treadmill
15 minutes bike

weight disk circuit:
using a 25 pounds weight disk do the following
15 squats
15 overhead presses
15 rows - bend at hip, keep back straight
Get an exercise ball and then
rest back and shoulders on ball, and do 15 presses
then slide forward with only shoulders on ball, rest weight on abdomen and do 15 dips.

Repeat above 3 times.

I finished with 1 minute of plank.

Stretch.

Work, Play, Learn, Live

The last few days have been filled with frenzied activity as I work to put our house back together now that the kitchen cabinets are complete.  I'm still without a working kitchen but at least I don't have pots and pans strewn all across the house!  By week's end my kitchen should have a working stove, microwave and most importantly, running water.

Here's how Friday, Saturday and Sunday's fitness routines played out:

On Friday, I woke up, donned by workout clothes and waited for the arrival of a workman to measure the cabinets for our countertop.  He wasn't finished until 10am.  At that point I looked around the devastation that once was my living room and decided that it was time to clean.  So I cleaned and exercised at the same time.  I squatted, pushed and pulled.  I got into every nook and cranny.  Furniture was moved and bookshelves were dusted.  My body was working hard.  Beads of sweat dripped from my scalp.  If I only I had worn my heart rate monitor - I must have had my HR up pretty high.  This lasted for a good 2 hours when I decided to call it quits, take a shower and work on organizing the kitchen.

Saturday consisted of more organizing and cleaning.  Lucy and I decided to ride over to the local Whole Foods so she hopped into the bike trailer and we rode down the street for some lunch.  Pulling a 5 year-old is a bit more challenging than just riding on my own, trust me.  We talked and sang songs on our short trip, ate lunch, rode back home and got back to work in the kitchen.  The day was gorgeous so at 3pm we headed over to a park.  We drove and Mitch jogged.

Going to a playground used to be one of my dreaded parental duties.  Not that I don't love watching Lucy play - I just never knew what to do with myself so I often emailed or talked on the phone.  But that's kinda lame.  Children are so full of joy when they're on a jungle gym.  They jump, hop, swing and laugh.  Why can't I do that too?  So this time around, that's what I did, sort of.  I did push-ups, jumping pull-ups, squats and lunges all while Lucy swung from bar to bar and slid down the curvy slide.  Lucy and I went on the swings and pumped our bodies as high as we could until we got that free fall sensation.  We laughed, squealed and giggled. Then we jumped.  Have you ever watched a child jump out of a swing?  It's awesome.  Lucy had both the look of fear and excitement on her face.  Her hair flew behind her as her body was propelled forward.  Then she landed, stood up, shook off any dirt from the landing and got right back on that swing.  My jump was not as graceful as hers but it was still an freeing feeling.  I found myself thinking "Do it again" and so I did until I felt a bit queasy.

And then we found a nice spot on the grass and watched the clouds.  I saw dogs and hearts, Lucy saw the same.  We laughed.  She rolled down the hill gathering grass as she went.  Then we picked buttercups until Mitch arrived.  We watched some more clouds, did a few more rounds of swinging jumps then hopped back in the car to grab some dinner and head home.  It was marvelous.

Today we all woke up late but I had committed myself to riding my bike in the morning.  Mitch took Lucy to religious school while I rode over there.  I usually don't ride on the road with cars that much, I stick to office parks.  But today I clipped in and made my way over to Mitch and Lucy. It was short - just over 6 miles so it took me 30 minutes.  The air was a bit cooler than I had expected and there was a breeze.  My legs worked hard to get me up hills and across intersections.  I felt confident and strong like my body knew what to do.  And I ate a couple of bugs - I keep forgetting to keep my mouth closed!

When I arrived, I found our car, changed into my pink birks and hoisted the bike up onto the rack.  Once inside I changed into a pair of pants and joined Mitch at the adult class where I drank coffee, ate bagels and learned.  We walked outside until Lucy was finished.  I did a few push-ups and stretches while Mitch read the paper.

Fitness isn't just about getting 1 hour of activity each day.  It's a whole change in mental attitude.  The last couple of weeks have presented me with all sorts of reasons not to exercise but my body and mind have other ideas.  They need to be moved, stretched and challenged.  I just have to listen and obey.  In the end, I worked a little, played a little and learned a little.  In the midst of chaos, I was able to make room for peace.  For me, that's what this fitness journey is all about.  Making peace with my body and enjoying all that this life has to offer.

Give it 15 minutes

I woke up, put on my workout clothes and made a commitment to exercise today.  After getting Lucy to school and letting the workmen in to work on the kitchen (it looks great) I settled into sewing for a few hours.  For more on that, you will have to go over here.

I finished my project and then headed outside to get some exercise.  The first 5 minutes were horrible.  I felt like giving up but then I told myself "Just go for 15 minutes."  I stuck with it, jogging for 12 minutes then walking at a pace quick enough to keep my heart rate around 80%.  30 minutes later I was back home where I set up a mini circuit with a kettle bell and exercise ball.  Then three rounds of pushups, one arm rows and overhead kettle bell swings.  It felt great to be back into the routine.

I watched yesterday's Oprah which was about the book.  The show was interesting though I felt like they barely scratched the surface of this topic.  I haven't written much about my own relationship with food or the whole weight loss thing.  There's just so much I'm still working out but I thought that perhaps I should start writing some of it down.  Oprah said one thing that really struck me.  She said something to the effect that we are not that small girl of our past anymore and that we can't be hurt.

Like so many women, I eat when I'm upset, bored, anxious, bored, sad, bored.  I've spend years "dieting."  Weight Watchers has been my program of choice.  It works for a while and then I just get tired of the points thing and I still never resolve why I'm eating.  When I diet, food is still the center of my thoughts, I'm still obsessing over it.

So last year I had this realization that I no longer needed the food to fill the void.  The void was gone.  I am no longer that little girl in Oklahoma.  I'm a grown woman with a wonderful husband, lovely daughter and fabulous friends.  I no longer have to see my body as a burden but instead as a strong structure that gets me where I need to go everyday.  And food, it is a healthy part of my life that fuels my daily activities as well as offering me the chance to share meals with friends and family.

I am certainly not suggesting that I no longer use food at times when I'm low but I will say that it happens less and less.  I am aware of what is going into my body.  I recognize cravings as a way for my body to let me know that it needs something.  I actually crave fruit and water and vegetables.

For a long time I had this one ritual: I would go to Joann's Fabrics, pick up a box of Junior Mints and eat them while I flipped through pattern books.  Sometimes I would buy another box for the road.  I guess I was trying to escape.  Now, I still go to flip through pattern books but I don't need those little chocolate mints.  Just the thrill of designing future sewing projects is enough for me.

I don't usually go in for self-help books but Women, Food and God might just be worth reading.  It certainly seems to be in-line with what I'm experiencing in my own life.

And I don't know what the point of life is but I do know that I want to feel healthy while I'm here and enjoy those rare moments of awe.  Exercise and healthy eating is helping me get there.

Time flies when

Hmm.  It's been a while hasn't it?  I have to be honest, I have exercised only 3 times in the last week  for a number of reasons, most of which are inexcusable but I will confess them here.

For starters, we are redoing our kitchen so my house is a disaster.  All my appliances are in the den so I have no working stove.  My tables are covered with china, glassware and kitchen accessories.  Mess, mess and more mess.  I spend most of my days gathering stuff for the kitchen or attempting to keep some sort of order around here.

And then last weekend we went to NYC for our 10th anniversary.  It was great - we walked, we visited museums and we ate the most wonderful food.  For our final meal we went to DBGBs and I started weeping - I'm not kidding, I was weeping at the very thought that someone could take ingredients and make such beautifully tasting food.  At that moment, I vowed that once I have my kitchen, we will cook and enjoy our food not only as fuel but as humans who are grateful for the opportunity to share in the earth's bounty.  Don't laugh, or laugh just a little.  I'm serious about this.

I did a mini boot camp workout on Monday, nothing exciting. Just some kettle bells and ladder exercises.  I'll describe them later.  I'm hoping to get the gym tomorrow or at least outside for a jog and maybe some more kettle bells.  My body is begging me for some exercise!

Gardening

Today I took a day "off" from traditional exercise and decided to do some work outside.  Not sure why I decided to do this on the first day of May that also happened to be 90 degrees but what else was I going to do.

I love impatiens so I bought a bunch of those.  Then some fillers, herbs, potting soil, plant food etc.  When I got home, Mitch helped me unload and I got changed.  I don't garden much so I don't possess "gardening" clothes.  Instead I rolled up a pair of pants, donned a lululemon top, a floppy pink hat and my hot-pink converse high-tops from 1985 (seriously, they're from Junior High.)  Fortunately Lucy isn't old enough to know that this should have embarrassed her.

I lugged, dug, scraped, lifted, squatted, sweat for roughly 2.5 hours.    My muscles strained under the load of heavy soil and rocks.  My quads aided me in moving pots to various places around the patio.  The sun was beaming but there was just a touch of a breeze.  I could hear the neighborhood children gleefully riding their bikes and trading silly bandz.  Lucy and her friend encouraged my efforts and were always ready to water as needed.  It was glorious.

When all the planting was done, I cleaned up, swept, watered and rested.  With a fresh canteen of water I felt proud of my little bit of gardening.  And although I wasn't wearing my HR monitor, I'm certain that I got a good workout.  If not for my body, most certainly for my soul.