A Dumbbell In A Home Gym

He's Lucky He's Cute ...

Because Oz, our latest arrival, has developed an annoying habit that's not at all conducive to my treadmill workouts.

Like many cats, Oz finds his humans endlessly fascinating, so he follows me into the basement whenever I'm getting ready to hop on the treadmill.

Also like many cats, Oz is inexorably drawn to the most expensive and/or fragile items in the house. So right around the time that I'm all warmed up and about to start jogging, Oz decides to hop up and start walking around on the very expensive, very spiffy digital photo printer my husband bought a few weeks ago. The printer itself is big and fairly sturdy, but Oz has been known to perch on the paper tray, which was not at all meant to support an eleven-pound cat. Yelling at him does nothing other than elicit a bored glance (if that), so I have to pause the treadmill, go shoo him away, and then restart the jogging.

No, our basement does not have a door. If I'd known back when we were househunting that this would be such an issue one day, I think I'd have insisted we keep looking.

Grrrr.

Anyhow, in the comments on the previous entry Nina asked how Couch to 5K is working out for me, as she's interested in starting it herself. The quick answer: So far, so good. It's always a nice way to ease myself back into a regular exercise program when I've been slacking.

Here's the thing, though: I've never gotten all the way through the program, and the funny thing is that I don't really want to. What I really enjoy are the weeks in the middle of the program, when you're alternating bursts of jogging and walking. Dividing the treadmill time up into neat little portions makes it all go faster, and varying the intensity of the workout is supposed to be a good thing anyhow.

I'm also a treadmill-only jogger; the few times I've attempted it outside, I've absolutely hated it. If I'm out on a trail, I'd rather be walking or biking.

However, I know that some of my readers have completed the whole program, so if you've got any advice or comments to share, please do.

And happy weekend, all!

Bringing Me To Heel.

First off, this week is starting off much better than last week did. I've been able to get back to routine treadmilling, and I've done Week One of the Couch to 5K plan twice. (If C25K is new to you, I highly recommend it. It's a great way to shake up walks, even if you don't plan to become a runner.) And the eating is much more under control.

In other, not entirely fitness-related news, I seem to be developing a weird shoe addiction. I'll put all the talk about it under a cut just in case shoe talk bores you silly.

The Week In Review.

So Monday was a bloody awful eating day, the kind that filled me with despair because at points it really felt like this was It, the moment when I was destined to fall off the wagon for good and return to the land of the morbidly obese. To fail, as I have so many times before. And I felt powerless to stop it. That woman from the last two and a half years, that focused, disciplined one -- where did she go?

It took a lot of positive self-talk to get myself down from that ledge. I was acutely aware, as I've never been before, that the choices I made right now were going to be the difference between this time and all the previous times I've tried to keep weight off.

Just being aware of that felt like a step forward. At that point, I was taking whatever I could get. In the past, it's been as if the bad habits and the pounds slipped back on overnight without me even noticing until I'd realize all my clothes were too small.

Tuesday was better. Reasonable meals. Healthful snacks, and not too many of them. No cookies. And I forced myself down to the basement and on the treadmill that night.

Wednesday: the same.

By Thursday, it all felt like habit again. The chocolate in my pantry is a treat for the weekend. The Sun Chips and popcorn in the office cafeteria and the gooey pastries at Starbucks didn't interest me at all. I didn't allow myself any loafing time after work before we changed into our workout clothes and headed out to the rec center.

Every night, I dutifully filled out my new workout log. Every morning, I'd wake up, flash back to what I'd done the day before, and feel happy and optimistic about the new day.

The mojo is back. So how the hell did I lose it so easily? It felt like such a simple effort to move myself back in the right direction. What took me so long? What's it going to take to keep me on the right track this time? This is the part where I'm really operating without a net, making it up as I go along. Keeping the weight off. Keeping the bad habits away.

Accepting that this process doesn't ever really end. It evolves, that's all.

Going Old School.

So I was checking out the thread on Big Fat Deal about the diet drug Alli. The brochure's claims that Alli might cause you to, um, excrete stuff that looks like "the oil on top of a pizza" did the seemingly impossible -- it utterly killed the queen-hell pizza craving I've had all month. Wow, Alli's already working for me and I haven't even taken it. That stuff rocks!

Everyone good and grossed out yet? Great!

On to less grody subjects: On Monday, I hoofed it over to Barnes & Noble and picked up my third copy of The Ultimate Workout Log. I love that book. I used this book faithfully during my first year and a half of regular exercising. I came within two weeks of completing the logs in the second book before deciding to forsake the paper journal for SparkPeople's workout logs.

Shame on me. There's something to be said for dancing with the one that brought you. Sometime this weekend, it occurred to me that I've been missing that book. I like all the handy little spaces to tick for cardio, yoga, weight, nutrition, and the overall daily rating. Yeah, it's decidedly low-tech compared to Internet fitness sites, but somehow it feels more personal, even if my handwriting is getting virtually unreadable.

And I'm hoping that using one of the same tools I used religiously at the beginning of all this will help me to regain some of that killer focus I had.

So far so good. Today got a rating of "5" on the old "scale from 1 to 5" system. It's been so horribly hot that I'm amazed I got my ass in gear to do anything, but I actually walked on the basement treadmill tonight. That's yet another relic of my fitness past, and something that's very worth reviving.

Please Stop Saying "Purge."

As I've mentioned, our company is moving to a new location in August.

For the last month, we've been encouraged to start "purging" our offices and cubicles, which basically means "clean out all those ancient meeting agendas that date back to when Bill Clinton was still president".

I don't know why they couldn't just call this process "cleaning." "Discarding." "Throwing away." "Packing." Oh, no. It had to be "purging".

Our division heads have started pressing our department to get cracking on this. This afternoon's activity? Get together lots of yummy snacks to encourage people to start "purging". And call it a "purging party".

So this afternoon, when I walked down the hall with an armload of papers and passed the yummy snack room, I was hailed with "Hi! Are you purging?"

Couldn't they have called it anything else?

Oh well. Happy weekend, all.

Back from Limbo.

Sorry about that, folks. I wish I could say that my absence was due to me having some amazing adventure, but the truth is that I just haven't been able to think of a thing to write about. There's really not much new in the world of Nicole. I'm neither gaining nor losing (and not really trying to lose at the moment, honestly). And I'm having a bad case of "Been there, wrote about it already" as far as this journey goes.

And I'm probably going to have to take an extended break from the entire Internet in the latter half of July. The last week of Sopranosmania has convinced me that I can be on the Web next month or I can avoid spoilers for the last Harry Potter book, but I cannot possibly do both. (Mostly because I lack the self-discipline to not go snooping around to see what people have heard. I think it's a sickness.)

I *did* get a new bathing suit; it's a sporty Nike number that's more geared to lap swimming than my previous suit was. It took a few pool visits for me to make friends with the new suit, which reveals far more of my back than my old suit did. It does not, however, reveal so much of my backside; that's a tradeoff I can live with. I'm amazed by how many of you had the same "transparent butt" problem. I wonder why swimsuit manufacturers haven't been able to fix that one -- probably because they want us to have to buy new suits regularly.

And do NOT even get me started on the price discrepancy between women's swimsuits and men's swimsuits. My husband picked up some new trunks at the same time I got my suit; he spent about a fourth of what I did, and I tried to pick out a relatively inexpensive one. Grrr. I was going to complain that women should just be allowed to swim topless, but it occurs to me that this could make going off the diving board a very painful experience.

Oh, and a recommendation: I've already raved about the Jell-O sugar free puddings, and now they've come out with Mochaccino, a chocolate/coffee blend. SO good. I've also decided that one of my favorite things about summer is the blueberries; I love getting the big fat fresh ones from the store and mixing them in with my morning granola and Fage yogurt. Mmm. They're also nice to mix in with the sugar-free vanilla pudding for a dessert that tastes far more decadent than it is.

So that's about it. I'll try not to take so damn long for the next update. Hope you're doing well.