HYC Check In - May 4th

Here I am, with 2 (soon to be 3) perfect days under my belt. And by perfect, I mean I have planned what to eat, and I eat what I plan. I get hungry every few hours, so I'm armed with fruit, veggies and sugar free gum, which is just as satisfying as a packet of Starburst, or something salty and crispy, you know. That, was sarcasm my friends. I also had a week of perfect workouts - 3 days of strength training with a little cardio and one cardio only day.

Oh! I almost got mauled by a lady in her seventies on Sunday. I usually work out downtown near my office after work, but the YMCA in my neighborhood is offering water aerobics a few times a week. My favorite class is on Sunday. It is at 5 pm for 45 minutes. It's a great time of day for me, because I have all Sunday to do my chores, or laze about, and then go to the gym for strength training, and then hop in the pool for water aerobics, then go home and eat dinner! Love it. So anywho, the instructor decided that we would play water polo for that class. I groaned inwardly and wanted to hop out of the pool and say "Um, I don' t do sports, thanks anyway." but I decided to stick it out. First of all, it turned out to be a GREAT workout - 10 ladies scooting around the pool on their noodles which we're all riding like horses - oh we must have been such a sight - at one point, a woman looked at me and said "This is exhausting!" I concurred, as we were all red-faced and sweaty. So this other woman was so aggressive, at one point, I had the ball and she lunged at me and tried to hit it out of my hands, but when that didn't work, she held on and started desperately trying to pull it out of my hands. It was brutal! And the funniest part was that the teacher kept shouting "Virginia! Virginia! We have to just stop, and put the ball back in play!" As much as I wanted to say "Lady - it's just a game, let go!!" I also hope to have that kind of grip when I'm in my seventies! There's my anecdote for the week. Hope everyone else at HYC had a great week too!

No, I said cable

I’ve completed 3 sessions with my trainer. One talky – two working out. I am challenged, sore, and feeling good. I’m getting to know my body in a new way. A painful and sweaty way. Muscles (I hope they are muscles) are screaming at me.

I’ve decided that my hell is a world where I am forced to do walking lunges all day. I tried to get out of lunges. “3 years ago I tried them with the other trainer, and they hurt my knee!” “I’ve got this hip thing.” “I might fall over!” Each argument was retorted with the fact that my body has changed over the last 3 years, I’m much more physically fit and I weigh less. And lo and behold, I can do lunges without hurting my knees and hips! Or falling over! Honestly, I am in awe of how many different muscles come out to yell at me when I do the lunges. They are a powerful weapon. I sweat, grunt and huff while I’m doing them. Which lead me to the thought – do people really get dates at the gym? I mean, I’m so sweaty that my hair is wet, my face is red, drippy and usually features some mascara running. Hot mess, my friends, hot mess.

And I cannot wrap my brain around the back raise. It is like a carnival ride, but I control the terror level. And “Back Raise” makes it sound like a hip hop dance. They should call it – just as painful as a lunge, but with gravity! Basically, your feet and calves are held captive against a plate and cushion, respectively, while your thighs rest against another cushion, and you let yourself hang down at 90 degrees, then heave yourself back up. Who the hell thought of this? Torture.

The highlights were these:

• When my trainer said “Let’s head to the cable machine.” I said “Did you just say Kegel machine? Because I don’t need a machine for those.”
  
• Planking for 3 sets of 15 seconds each – impressing the trainer “You’re a great plankster!”
  
• Being able to hold a bridge for 35 seconds – and two more sets of 20-30 seconds! Thank you, Pilates class.
  
• When I felt like I was wimping out during my second day, only doing 6 back raises, she said “You are working hard, I can see it, and your muscles are full of little tears. Respect the tears!”

And with that, I am taking a rest day. So far this is time and money well spent - I'm glad to feel like I'm not spinning my wheels any more and that I'm comfortable with the trainer. And did I mention that I did lunges. Like a million. That's amazing!

Make it count

I realized that since I've started this extended plateau in the 220's that my exercise has gotten stale, and doesn't challenge me as much. Last night I didn't want to go to the gym. I've been tired this week, and I only wanted to go home and relax. Here's the thing I realized, if I go to the gym and phone it in, I'm only hurting myself. (Um, duh, Sara.) My work out has to count to make a difference, and also to allow me to eat more! That's the whole whole point! Oh, and healthy lungs and heart and stuff. If I show up and just go through the motions while my mind is at home in the kitchen, then I am not doing myself any favors. And that afterglow never manifests itself as "Well, that was a waste of time!". In order to kick my own tush, I looked up how to maximize my efforts so that when I leave the gym I feel spent and as though I really didn't waste my time there. Here are some tricks to get the most out of your workout when you really don't want to be there.

Maximize your cardio calorie burning effort!

• Jumping rope - this kills me, absolutely kills me. On average, this burns 684 calories an hour. (The heavier you are, the more you can burn!) If you can jump rope for an hour, you are a superstar, and little crazy. But what if you do it for 2 minutes in between lifting weights?
• Stationary cycling, moderate effort - on average, this burns at least 556 calories an hour, again, the more you weigh, the more you can burn. When I take my cycling class, I literally fill up the little hand towel with sweat - so, so, gross! But it burns so good!
• Rowing machine - on average, this burns at least 530 calories an hour, for someone under 200 pounds. This machine is kicking my tush, and I don't have the strength to sustain a lengthy workout on it yet, but I'm working on it!
• Elliptical trainer - on average, can burn up to a whopping 800 calories an hour! When I first started working out, I could barely do 10 minutes, now I can go 40 and feel good. Keeping the resistance increased has helped me a lot too.

Maximize weight lifting

• My fantastic trainer at the YMCA told me a secret once. She said that if you were really in a hurry, you could do a slow burn weight lifting routine. Whatever weights you're lifting, do so slowly, to decrease the natural momentum, and increase the tension time on the muscle. But be careful and don't hurt yourself, she also added. Choose and appropriate weight.

This way, if I only want to spend 50 minutes at the gym - 20 minutes on cardio, 10 minutes stretching, and 20 minutes weights, I can choose the most challenging exercises. Or, make up a little circuit training routine, where I do some cardio exercise, some body weight exercises, some weight lifting, then sprinkle in some jump rope inbetween reps. All the while I have my pouty face on, and then later I can pat myself on the back, and remind myself, it isn't that hard, is it?

Exposed!

I got an exercise routine, ya'll. Here's what I'm planning on doing for the next three weeks, and then I'll change the body weight exercise part. Posting it here keeps me honest, yes?

Monday - 45 minute spin class
Tuesday - 20 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes rowing (I could only do 5 this week!)
3 sets of 15 mountain climbers, with 10 push ups (alternating)
3 sets of 12 press-up squats with weights, 15 varied crunches (a la 30 day shred)
Wednesday - 30 min elliptical
3 sets of 12 lateral raises, with 10 push ups
3 sets of 10 kick backs and thigh raises
Thursday - 1 hour Pilates
Sunday - Same as Tuesday

Various parts of me are sore - and I am hungry a lot, so it feels like I am kicking up my metabolism. Hope so! The scale has not budged, however.

Know what is embarrassing? Doing the always effective but never enjoyable Mountain Climbers in the very busy YMCA - in front of some very fit men. But I was determined to get rid of my self conscious self, and just do it. You know what is even more embarrassing? While doing sets of Mountain Climbers, having your shirt fall down to your neck - exposing your belly and breasts in one fell swoop. After I scrambled upright, I was forced to tuck my shirt into my pants and look like Mr. Magoo. This was not in the brochure on how to be glamorous while getting fit.

Pilates and that PC guy

Thursday evenings are when I take my Pilates class. I love it because it is challenging, the instructor is hilarious and it also marks the end of my work out week. I set a rule with work out buddy those 2 long years ago that I would not exercise on Fridays. Imagine my despair when class was canceled last night. Oh no! I didn't want to face the elliptical again, but I wanted to meet my exercise goals. I figured that I could do a series from memory in the room anyway, since they weren't going to have another class in there. Another woman followed suit, and soon nearly the whole class came in, and we lead each other through the series. Go team!

Then Mr. Black surprised me with a secret date to see John Hodgman, who was promoting his second book on complete world knowledge, More Information Than you Require. He's most recognizable as PC from the Apple commercials, or as a contributor on the Daily Show, so he regaled us with tales of being a famous minor television personality. This mostly involves being recognized on the subway of New York and then referred to as the chubby PC on blogs and the like. Some Pilates and some laughter, equals a great Thursday! Now, on to the weekend.

Superstar Spinning Cycler

Status: Sore

Activity: Strenuous Spinning

I ventured into new territory last night, the Group Cycle class at the YMCA. Also known to the cool kids as spinning, I think. It started out like most group exercise classes for me: biggest girl in the class? Check. Most sweaty and inexperienced? Check. If I were friends with the other riders and could ask them embarrassing questions, I would likely be able to confirm that I also qualify for most sore pelvis today. Note to self to check the seat next time. This was 45 minutes of serious activity; I had no idea how hard it would be. Walking out on my spaghetti legs, I had a feeling that I haven’t had in a while. Pride mixed with oh my gawd, I am so completely tired and spent and so sweaty gross must shower - NOW. The kind of work out afterglow where you finish and feel like you’ve earned a piece of cake, but then you don’t eat it because that would ruin it. I haven’t been there in a while.

It’s also an honor system work out. You can decide how tense to make your resistance, and how fast you want to go. I sometimes suffer from “Keeping Up with the Instructor” syndrome. Where I push myself to learn something quickly and do it just as skillfully and quickly as the instructor, even though I should focus on learning it before trying out for the Olympics. But I realized that the class is 45 minutes, and 10 minutes in I was already sweating, so maybe just dial it back notch, sister. This turned out to be prudent advice to my self. When I walked out of there I felt exhausted, but also somewhat excited. Here’s a new activity that could be the key to making that durn scale move the other way. I challenged myself and I liked it. I'm feeling powerful again - like I will succeed instead of just hoping that my efforts will work. Kind of like a superstar.

Plan B

Last night, my work out buddy and I headed to the gym, ready to brave a new frontier, the Racquetball court. Work out friend is a former high school athlete, while my hand-eye coordination leaves a lot to be desired - picture trying to teach a Saint Bernard how to juggle. That's about where I am at. But I'm all about the funny and being open to a new way to move my body, so we had a date at 6 pm. When I arrived at the locker room, work out buddy was feeling a bit debilitated due to super cramps, but she was ready to hit the court with me. I started changing into my gym clothes, and when I dug for my tee shirt, I found another pair of pants. Whoopsie! Two pairs of pants and no shirt does not a YMCA approved outfit make. Although our friend Dave at the membership desk encouraged us to try topless racquetball, we declined. Are there no mistakes? Was my subconscious trying to save me from embarrassment on the court? We'll never know for sure. Thwarted by my poor planning, we headed to happy hour - wouldn't you have?

I'm 63% lean!

What would make one feel the most vulnerable?

• Stating your weight out loud to a person you don't know all that well?
• Re-confirming that weight on a scale in front of said person?
• Having that person pinch, grab and measure your chubs to get your body fat percentage?

Lucky for me, I didn't have to choose just one. I got to experience all three! In step one of shaking up my fitness routine and diet, on Saturday I had my body fat percentage measured. I imagined that I would be gently pinched a little on my upper arms, and maybe around my tummy. And la, la, la it would all be over in a minute, and we'd laugh. Little did I know that I would be pinched in 7 places, and 3 times in each spot. (She also said most gym employees when measuring body fat, don't do it this way, and they do it inaccurately, and people walk around with the wrong numbers. Aren't I lucky that she was doing it the right way? I'm still sore!) I adore my YMCA trainer, I trust her, and to her credit, she warned me that it would hurt. But oy even with that warning - standing in your sports bra, with your pants just under your belly button in the office of the YMCA with a woman grabbing as much of your chubs as she can REPEATEDLY - not really a good time.

So here's the good news! I weighed in at 223 on the YMCA scale, which was a loss from Tuesday, and my home scale showed 222, which was glorious. Then, she found I was 37% body fat, which according to her calculations makes me 82 pounds fat, and 141 pounds good things like muscle, bones and organs. That was interesting to me, since that is around how much more I wanted to lose, around 78 more pounds. But according to her calculations, if I lost 35 pounds, which would put me at 188 pounds, that would make me 25% fat and is considered healthy. That's only 12% - and 35 pounds, that's easy, right? HA! None of it is easy, but it seems achievable. A little less daunting than 78. But I'm only 5'6", so I can't imagine not being considered overweight at 188. I guess I'll find out when I get there - no sense worrying about something that is 35 pounds from now! And my trainer also pointed out to not pay so much attention to the number on the scale, focus on your clothes fitting differently, and needing smaller sizes. So true! But, I'm still weighing in tomorrow. Come on, 222!

I would recommend doing the body fat measurement, even though it hurt - very informative, and I left my session feeling rejuvenated to keep on trucking. And now my trainer has an intimate appreciation of my cellulite, lovely.

Ouch. and Yum!

Okay, so in the spirit of mixing it up, Workout Buddy Katie and I tried a Pilates class Tuesday night. I own the DVD and have done the Winsor Pilates DVD 20 minute work out in a former lifetime. When I was enrolled in weight watchers and also using the very retro, very hip Sweating To The Oldies series. Richard and I used to get down! Where was I? Oh yes. Pilates class.

For trying something new, this was in the most stressful possible situation. We walk in - and being the big girl that I am in a sea of size 6s, I notice that the only places in the room available for us to set up in, is dead center. Normally I don't care that I'm the biggest girl in the room, because I could spend every waking minute of my life doing that, and I have better things to do, but dead center when trying something new? Hard. Everyone has their mats and balls and straps and blocks all set up and so I get our instructions from the instructor and we go fetch our supplies. The instructor is lovely, but talks a mile a minute and I can hardly keep up. The sweat I am producing, my god, you'd think I was on the elliptical. And the best part, she asked us to bounce on our balls as fast and as high as we possibly can. I fall off of mine. Twice. So she kindly trades balls with me. And then some of the moves, I just had to stop. I couldn't sustain them. And I hear her say "If you need to do this with your knees bent, that is okay, or okay, you could just stop too, that's okay too." Clearly she saw me poop out a couple of times. And today, the soreness! My quads were already mad from the squats on Sunday, so they hurt, and my obliques - oh la la - they smart. But overall? I loved it. Seriously! I loved feeling the way my body moved, and how strong I actually am. It also reminded me of my theatre classes when we would do movement exercises. So falling off the ball or not, I talked to Katie about it tonight, and I'm going to continue once a week. It's not the right class for her, but we'll still be water aerobics and elliptical friends. There's also a bellydancing class that Katie wants to take, that is up by her house. So she might do that without me.

In yum news - I have two new favorites! Broccolini! It is so good. I steamed some the other night and splashed it with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Fabulous. It is tender like asparagus, and sweeter than Broccoli. Awesome. I highly recommend it. I would never put balsamic on regular broccoli, but this just seemed right.

And sweet potato fries. I could eat these all the time. Sweet potatoes are supposed to be really good for you, too.

1 large sweet potato
2 tsp olive oil
Bacon salt! So bad, but so good.
or
salt, pepper and paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Toss with olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with salt and seasonings to your liking. Bake on an ungreased cooking sheet for 25 minutes, turning halfway through. Sooo good.

You’ll Thank me when You’re 70

Oof. Last night I went to water aerobics as per my usual routine. Then, after water aerobics, I met with Kari, my complimentary and fabulous YMCA trainer. She showed me the free weights. She is amazing. Super positive, really clear in explaining the exercises, and so funny! We laugh as much as we work out, so I love her. So today I am sore and feeling good. My current upper body strength is pathetic – and that is an improvement from one year ago. I estimate that my arms aren’t really bones and muscle, they are filled with cheese and bacon. She took me to the bench press, and asked me to lift the bar. The 45 pound bar that most people add weight to. My goal is to do 15 reps. As the bar wobbled and shook and I panicked that I was going to drop it across my larynx, I did 4. 4! So funny. But when I can do more, it will be a nice milestone to mark my progress by, yes? Kari was even positive about that.

Then she showed me lunges. I have seen people doing lunges around the track, and dreaded the day they would come into my routine. Well, out they came. And for some reason, they hurt my knee, so she said I didn’t have to do them. Yay! Oddly though, I am tempted to do them anyway. She advised that there is a fine line between working through it, and harm. So as a rule, she says if it hurts, don’t do it. So we have other things for me to do. My favorite part – before she explained the lunges, she said “You know why I’m showing you this? So when we’re 70 we’ll be able to get off the toilet.” That made me laugh, and then I realized that she is right. Throughout my whole life, I’ve been planning and waiting for someday. Someday I’ll hunker down and lose the weight. Someday I’ll exercise. Someday I’ll be on the David Letterman show. The fact remains, someday is now. There’s never a perfect time to do anything. This whole journey feels like a second job and I want a Tee-Shirt that says “I can’t – I have to go to the gym and get rid of my chubs”. Sometimes I resent the sautéing of vegetables, the evenings spent at the gym instead of with my hubby or friends, or just puttering at home. The payoff is wonderful ( or sometimes plateau-ish) I am getting stronger, and healthier and smaller. So I keep going. And I’m getting off that damn toilet when I’m 70!

Mission :: NOT Impossible

For my current health and weight loss, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my dedicated, positive, and encouraging work out buddy, Katie. I really never wanted to exercise before. But in August of 2006, we decided to stop bitching about our plus size bodies and join the YMCA that is in between our offices. We've suffered through bad water aerobics instructors, (and great ones), weird people on the machines - like the Bunny who does the Elliptical at warp speed, and the man who tries to get the recumbent bicycle into orbit. Odd people in class, like the woman who can't stop screaming at the water aerobics instructor, or the man that mostly wants to be in your personal space while in the pool. But it makes for good cocktail chatter, no?

Half the time I only go to the gym because I know Katie's waiting for me. We meet 4 times a week, and vow to keep each other entertained to keep the time passing quickly - and encourage each other. Well, I was on my own tonight. And armed with a mission from my personal trainer. Kari is my gal, and she is a kick -who also rocks as a trainer. I had a session with her on Tuesday, and she has put me back to zero, essentially. It has been nearly 1 year since I saw her, so she was tsk-tsking me. I wanted to leap into free-weights, but I've got a mission for one month, before then. Circuit Torture. I mean, Training. Who wants to do cardio and Nautilus machines at the same time? I wince and cringe just thinking about it. Tonight I was on my own and responsible for not only getting myself to the gym, but also to do circuit training. I had to actively talk myself into going tonight. So after a warm up on the Elliptical, it was down to the weight room. I would use a Nautilus machine, and then have to do an aerobic activity for one minute. I chose walking the track while carrying a weight. I felt so nerdy - leaping up from the machine, speed walking while carrying one weight. And my little eyes were searching the room for some sign that people were snickering. Logically, I know I shouldn't feel nerdy, but I did! So now I'm the weirdo people will tell their partners about - shifty-eyed woman with only one weight in her hand.

So get yourself a work out buddy if you don't have one - they make such a difference. But not my Katie. She's mine!