A Dumbbell In A Home Gym

Weighty Matters.

I've been spending the new year reading several fitness and diet-related books. Just reading about these things helps keep me focused and motivated. Of course, actually moving my body helps even more.

One of my recent purchases was The New Rules of Lifting For Women. I'd really been slacking off on my strength training (along with everything else, alas) by the end of last year, and I wanted a good, focused program to help me get back on track.

The subtitle "Lift Like A Man; Look Like A Goddess" might have irked me a little at first, but I get the underlying idea here: Too many women are conditioned to believe that if they lift anything over five pounds, they'll end up looking like Hulk Hogan. If only it were that easy to build muscle, particularly for women. If the author had his way, we'd all purge the words "tone" and "sculpt" from our vocabularies (a sentiment I think I've seen over on Stumptuous as well) and start getting used to hefting heavier dumbbells and barbells. It's hard work. Anything worth doing usually is.

His program is broken down into several stages and subworkouts; I did Workout A of Stage 1 on Sunday. Three days later, my abs are still killing me. And it's all due to the evil, evil "Prone Jackknife" move. I should have known that one was going to be trouble; the book recommended 15 reps of all the other exercises in Workout A, but only eight for the dreaded Jackknife. It doesn't *look* that bad in the video -- indeed, nothing in Workout A looked all that forbidding -- but I was one sore puppy for the next couple of days.

One of the nicest things about the workout? I was able to do it at home thanks to the dumbbells, barbells, mats, bands, and Swiss balls we've accumulated over the years. Naturally, it's optimal to do the workouts at gyms where you'll have a wider range of weights and equipment to use, but most of the exercises can be done at home.

And you know what? It was fun. I kinda missed my friendly little basement gym. It may not have all the fancy machines and weights and stuff, but on the other hand I don't have to wait for equipment, or wipe someone else's sweat off a bench I want to use (ewwww!).

That being said, I'm looking forward to trying Workout B at the rec center tomorrow night. I really do like the way I feel when I'm lifting weights; one of my goals is to see this program through to the end.

Mining My Archives, Part 1.

I've noticed some new activity in my referrer logs lately, so for those of you who are new to the blog -- hello there, by the way! -- I wanted to point out an entry I wrote two years ago. (Wow. Time flies!) I like this entry. I still believe every word of it, and it's advice I'd never hesitate to give to people trying to get
into regular exercise: Haste Does Not Bring Success. I have not seen that particular Bally's ad campaign yet this year, but I've already seen way more than my share of Miracle Diet "Lose 10 pounds in 10 minutes!" ads. Blargh.

Speaking of regular exercise, I'm still in the groove. I cannot believe how much stronger my legs feel after only one week of regular walking and jogging workouts.

The weather has been unseasonably gorgeous here this week and I've been taking advantage of one of the only good things to come from our company's move to the Hellmouth: our proximity to the Mt. Vernon Trail. Both on Monday and today, I walked over to the trail on my lunch break and told myself "OK. Fifteen minutes fast in one direction, and then turn around and come back. Go." And just like that, I've gotten in a speedy half-hour walk. I even brought my cross trainers to work on Tuesday; the path is a little hilly and walking in my normal office shoes on Monday was really uncomfortable.

Today, with my walkin' shoes on, I was able to hoof it all the way to Gravelly Point Park and back; I didn't have enough time to actually hang out there, but I was delighted to find that it was much closer to my office than I'd believed. I may not be in DC anymore, but at least I can still walk to a place with a stunning view of the city. I'll take it.

I Get It Already.

Dear Treadmill:

Yes, I realize it's been a while since I've walked/jogged on you. What with us joining the rec center with its fancy machines, and preferring to walk outside or ride our bikes or swim when we're not at the center, I can't blame you for feeling somewhat neglected down there in the cold basement.

But my goodness, it just isn't necessary to make those ungodly groaning and creaking noises when I first start walking. Yeah, I get it: It's been a while. I'm carrying some extra holiday pounds. Okay. You can stop with the horrible sounds now. I mean, really.

Anyhow, I did it. I enjoyed that trail walk on New Year's Day. On Wednesday night, I threw on my exercise clothes as soon as I got home and ran down to the basement before the sloth could set in. I popped an old-school "Doctor Who" DVD into the Xbox and alternated jogging and walking for a half hour. Just like old times. Mission for the day accomplished. And the poor treadmill stopped the dreadful noises after a minute or two. I think it's just getting old.

And tonight, we forced ourselves out into the bitter cold to go to the rec center, where I resumed my weightlifting.

My eating for the last couple of days has been spotless. (It helps that right now, after the holidays, I never want to hear the word "cookie" again.)

I hereby declare the first week of 2008 a success.

Reset.

(The above is why we're probably not going to be invited to any more gingerbread house decorating parties next Christmas. Or ever. It summed up this season really well for me, though.)

Hiatus over. See? Told you I'd be back.

So this is why December sucked: I spent my birthday having my elderly cat put to sleep. I'd had Rascal for almost my entire adult life; it's hard for me to think of a time when he hasn't been around. He was my buddy when I lived alone and was desperately lonely; I'd come home from a shitty day at work, hear him howling before I'd even turned the key in my apartment door, and think "Well, someone missed me." And even though he'd been declining for a while and I knew his time with us was growing short -- and that given the various illnesses he had, I got far more time with him than I had any right to expect -- his death still broke my heart. This wasn't like the last time one of our cats died; Rascal had a good long life and we have no regrets about any of the medical decisions we made for him. But it still left me completely gutted. We came back from the vet and sprawled on the sofa and watched the first Harry Potter movie (the most innocuous thing either one of us could think of) and drank hot chocolate and cried.

(I think that since my 39th birthday was so shitty, I get to be 38 for another year. That seems only fair, right?)

That pretty much knocked every last bit of joy out of the holiday season for me. After that, I was just going through the motions. Neither one of us was in the holiday spirit at all. If you're generally on my snail-mail Christmas card list and didn't hear from us this year, I apologize; we meant well, but we just didn't get to them.

If it weren't for my husband I probably wouldn't have gone to the gym at all for the rest of the month; I just couldn't care less. I had very little energy, and no inclination to spend what little energy I had exercising. And my eating went completely to hell, too.

2007 had its occasional high points but was, on the whole, a rotten year, and I guess I'm not surprised that I really struggled with my eating and exercise habits. I'm afraid I've still got some real work to do when it comes to the whole "Not abusing food when things get bad" issue. I always will, it seems.

But that's over. It's 2008 now. Time for me to get back on the stick. When things already kind of suck, letting my eating and exercise go to hell until my clothes start pinching only makes things worse.

As far as I'm concerned, this year is a totally new start. I'm going to try to think as if the last three years didn't happen and this year's effort is an entirely new one. For reasons I can't quite articulate, I feel like I've been coasting on the previous weight loss for too long. It's as if I assumed that the good habits I developed would just kick back in eventually without any actual effort on my part, and that's Not Good.

I've already blown all my old plans and stats out of Spark People and started my tracking there anew. And I'm going to try to restart by doing exactly what I did in the beginning: going slowly, instead of trying to make too many radical changes at once. I need to remember to keep doing the small things that add up: Taking the stairs more often (I'd been slacking on this a lot since my company's move to the Hellmouth earlier this year). Measuring my portion sizes with actual measuring cups instead of my eyes, which were starting to become very unreliable judges. Entering my food into SparkPeople. I hate, hate, HATE doing that, but it really does help keep my eyes open about what I'm eating.

And I bought myself a little gift for the new year, suspecting I might need it: an "All is forgiven; move on" rubber bracelet from Our Lady of Weight Loss. No more beating myself up for whatever I failed to do last year.

My husband and I went for a nice long trail walk today. It was brisk and windy out, but the walk felt great. A very good start for a new year.

Happy Holidays.

Might as well make it official: I'm taking the rest of the year off from blogging. (Since I've only been updating about once a week anyhow, it's not like this is going to leave a glaring hole in the blog or anything. More than anything, I'm just giving myself permission to not feel guilty about my lack of updates for the next several days.)

This has been a wretched Christmas season thus far and I just don't have that much to write about without turning the blog into a big fat moanfest.

I will be back in the beginning of 2008, and I will bring with me a renewed focus on my goals. I've realized in the latter half of this year that while maintenance is okay, I really wasn't quite done with my weight loss yet. I know it's rather trite of me to be making new weight loss decisions for the new year, but heck. That's how it all started for me almost three years ago.

Anyhow, I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays. Thanks to everyone who reads and posts here. See you next year!

A Cut Above.

Last week was not a banner week. I don't want to go into details right now, but it's been miserable. Aside from Friday, when I walked all over DC (more on that in a bit), I haven't done any exercise to speak of; I've been so emotionally wrung out that I just didn't have it in me. "Fortunately", I've not had much of an appetite, so at least I'm not coupling the laziness with lots of stress eating. I suppose that's something.

On Friday, though, I gave myself a bit of a break; my birthday is on Monday and as an early treat, I did something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. The rest of this entry is rated EG for Extra Girly, so I'll put it behind a cut.

Party Girl 2007.

Hi, all. Long time no update. Sorry about that; I just haven't had much to write about.

I realized that I haven't posted any entries about frenzied hunts for the perfect outfit for our company Christmas party, as I did in 2006 and 2005. That's because I pretty much knew what I was going to wear; I wore the same dress I wore to the family wedding back in October. Have a pic:

I cranked the contrast on the picture way up so you could see the dress; standing in a black dress against a dark Christmas tree made me look like a floating disembodied head and arms in the original photo. (We hadn't gotten around to decorating our tree yet; we did it the next morning after my hangover wore off.) This time, it was more than cold enough out for me to get away with the wrap I couldn't wear in the steamy South.

The party was on Saturday night. This kicks off a whole month of partying and celebration; my birthday is a week away and I've already given myself a four-day weekend as a present (and have three of those days booked with fun activities). I want to make the last year of my 30s memorable.

Gobble Gobble. (Or: Holiday Coping Strategies.)

And just like that, it's That Time of the Year again. Is it really Thanksgiving already? (In the US, yes.) Good lord. I'm still mentally back at the end of October.

I don't generally fear the holidays; I've managed to navigate my way through the last two seasons without any longterm damage, and I see no reason why I can't do it again this year. In the absence of any actual news to write about, I figured I'd talk about what I do to keep from going completely off the rails during the various parties and family dinners and pies and nogs and roast beasts that tend to turn up at this time of year.

First and foremost: Although it isn't always easy, I make every effort to keep up with my regular exercise and to incorporate even more walking to offset the eating. Instead of sitting around in a turkey coma, I try to go outside for a brief after-dinner walk on Thanksgiving. I actually enjoy being out and about at this time of year, which seems to make me a freak among people who hate cold weather and Christmas shopping; it's not a hardship for me to walk around looking at decorations and drinking in the autumn air. Even a few extra laps around the mall during shopping helps.

The holidays bring some of my favorite treats, things like Starbucks eggnog lattes and Trader Joe's Peppermint Bark white chocolate bars. (Man ... those things just shouldn't be allowed. Even my not-a-big-chocolate-fan husband loves them.) I treat myself to one per week while they're available. And to keep myself from getting cute, the allotment doesn't carry over; if I don't have one this week, I don't get to have two next week. One per week, period. I really like doing things this way; the good things become treats to be anticipated and savored, rather than something to beat myself up over after I've overindulged. (Back in my mindless days, it wasn't totally unheard of for me to have two grande eggnog lattes in a day. According to the Starbucks site, that's a cool 960 calories on top of whatever my daily caloric intake was at the time. Yeouch.)

I also have a survival strategy for holiday parties that feature lots and lots of decadent food: I look through everything that's being offered and pick out three things that look appealing. And the choices don't have to be the least-fattening stuff; I do try for balance, but I refuse to completely deprive myself. If I want more food when I'm finished (or if something I picked looked better than it tastes), I can go back and take something else; usually, though, I'm satisfied after the first round. And if the chips and salsa or pizza or homemade cookies start calling my name too loudly, I just leave the room.

And if there's turkey or chicken available, I tend to pile it on (without gravy; I'll save that for mashed potatoes). It's filling, it sticks with me for a while, and it makes me far less likely to cram in a second helping of pumpkin pie.

For those of you who want extra incentive to stay on track, the Lean Plate Club has kicked off its annual Lean Plate Club Challenge. This one is pretty straightforward: Simply maintain your weight between now and January 1. If you can do that, they reason, you're ahead of the game, as over the holiday season many people put on a few pounds that never come off.

There's nothing particularly earth-shattering about any of their advice, but the site updates every Tuesday and it can give you a goal to shoot for if you like that kind of motivation. The LPC also gave me one of my favorite coping tips for when I'm in the kitchen cooking and start feeling tempted to take fingerfuls of this and tastes of that; I put together a plate of baby carrots and grape tomatoes and pick at those instead. It satisfies my grazing urge and helps me get in my veggies at the same time.

Hope these are helpful; if anyone's got any other tips to share, feel free to do so in the comments.

There And Back Again.

Sorry for the delay in updates -- I've been in a haze of exhaustion since getting back from Quebec City last week. Two major trips within a couple weeks of each other is just one too many for me these days, I think. I don't know how people who travel for a living do it.

Anyhow, we loved Quebec City to the point that we're sort of only half-kidding about eventually emigrating there someday. We liked the climate (it's a bit colder and less humid than it is here in Virginia), and we loved the way of life, which seems considerably less tense, fast-paced and frenetic than it is here. I can't remember if I've ever seen my husband so depressed to leave a place. I put together an album of some of my favorite photos from the trip: have a look if you're interested.

I cannot recommend the place enough if you're looking for a vacation opportunity. The city itself is stunning, the people couldn't possibly have been nicer, and although I was thrilled by how much French I remembered and how well I could read street signs, almost everyone we encountered could switch easily between speaking French and English, so there wasn't even a language issue for us. Even though I studied French for several years in school and could read it well enough to get around, I've always been lousy at speaking it. However, by about the third day of our trip, I found that I could understand what people were saying to me if it wasn't too complex, although I couldn't always summon the words for a correct response. I did do a happy dance when I was able to conduct an entire transaction in French without getting hopelessly confused, and without the cashier switching to English.

Although my husband and I never did try out the fitness center in our hotel, exercise really wasn't a problem. Quebec City has one thing in common with my old college town: You cannot get much of anywhere without walking up either steep, steep stairs or a steep, steep hill. I'd remembered this from the last time I visited QC in the early 90s and I'd been trying to build up my walking stamina in the weeks before we left, but even my reasonably-fit self had to pause for breath halfway up one stairway near the Chateau Frontenac. The views from the areas outside the hotel make the hike totally worth it, though.

As for food, I'll say straight out that I had no intention of depriving myself while I was there. There are people who seem to take pride in visiting new places and refusing to deviate from their eating plans. I am not one of those people, and don't particularly want to be. Even so, I didn't do badly. Aside from our first and last nights in QC and the night before in Maine, where we ate dinner at a local restaurant that had unexpectedly fabulous food, we got into a fairly comfortable routine: a big breakfast at a nearby cafe that served up tasty fritattas and great coffee, and then relatively light lunches and dinners. Even on our lavish nights, my "Eat only until you're satisfied" training kicked in and I'd leave food on my plate, a habit that got me scolded by one server who thought I didn't like my food. (Yes, I liked the entree. I also like not feeling like I'm going to explode after I eat.)

My one not-so-secret (now that I'm mentioning it here and all) shame: for the first -- and likely last -- time, I ate poutine. This was utterly premeditated; I've been seeing Canadians talk about it online for years, and my curiosity was piqued. It sounded like one of those things that's really disgusting, horrifically bad for you, and yet really, really good. And while I didn't generally bother with the arena food at Skate Canada, figuring that there was much better food around for me to use up my calories on, when I saw that the food stands sold poutine, it was only a matter of time. And, well ... let us never speak of it again. (OK, it wasn't bad. I won't be lamenting the fact that it isn't sold in the US, though. Aside from the fact that my stomach was upset for hours, eating it just seemed *so* outrageously wrong that I felt as if I had a scarlet "P" branded on my coat for the rest of the day.)

So anyhow; I'm back, I think I'm finally fully-rested, and I promise that the next update won't be so long in coming.

Au Revoir!

So updates for the next several days are going to be nonexistent, but this time I actually have a good reason. The husband and I are off to Quebec City; I'll be checking out Skate Canada and we'll both be taking in ice hockey, plus the beautiful sights of the city.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week and I'll see you next week! Oh, and Happy Halloween.