Coach - Facilitator - Trainer
Because there aren’t already enough wacky diets to try, I am helping to spread another one. It is the LexySmash Diet. It is so simple. You catch some horrendous virus and are reduced to a ball of dehydrated mess. It is hell on your schedule, so plan the diet for a week when you can pack the kids off to a camp somewhere.
Unfortunately, I didn’t do the advanced planning for my trip through sickdom. Does anyone want to move in for a couple of days and play mommy? No? Damn.
I plan to eat for the rest of my life. That means that I need to balance good, healthy choices every day with a few of those not-such-great-choice splurges once in a while. I will not go the rest of my life without pizza, cheesecake, martinis, and pasta.
Some folks may have read my posts the other day and tried to put them together: I reached the halfway point and “rewarded” myself with pizza. Not so. I reached the milestone and ate pizza on the same day, but they were in no way related.
I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about what I am going to eat, but everyone once in a while I get a hankering for something. I can live without it, but if an opportunity to eat that something comes up, I am going to go for it. The paradigm shift came with the realization that I cannot eat pasta in cream sauce 3 nights a week and maintain my health – but I don’t have to deny myself all access to it, either.
It’s that balance thing, again. Is it really neccessary *for me* to be absolutely perfect in my eating and working out? Um. Nope. As a matter of fact, perfectionism is an illness that I am trying to overcome. I am able to moderate what I eat and do and have managed to lose nearly 20 pounds without losing my mind in the process. Whether it takes me 2 months or 2 years to lose the next 20, I am heading in the right direction, and at some point I am going to want to maintain my weight. When that day comes, I do not want to have to re-learn how to live. Because, like I said, I plan to eat for the rest of my life, I figure the best time to learn how is now.
My approach to fitness is not for everyone. Heck, it probably isn’t for anyone but me! I am all about choice and self-determination. If you have determined that you cannot go off plan at all, you know yourself best, so stick with it. Either way, here’s to long, healthy lives. Oh, and pass the pasta. Thanks!
I made it to the pool for workout 43/200 today. Spending time in the (heated, indoor) pool felt great. I really babied my hip – which basically left me with arm strokes – so I don’t feel like I got that much of a workout. I didn’t work up a sweat, and I didn’t have a heart rate monitor and a stride counter flashing in front of me, so it is hard for me to judge my effort. However, I am not going to obsess over it. I miss my elliptical pal. Sniff. But, I will forge ahead, undaunted by lack of electronic feedback. I am going to celebrate my ability to be flexible and to keep moving and motivated in spite of the weirdness going on with my hip.
(Music swells and dies.)
On this fitness adventure we like to mark progress and milestones. By we, I mean I. Anyway, I am very resistant to writing everything down for fear of turning into my IronMan brother-in-law who is famous for his shoe mileage charts. However, every once in a while, I manage to jot something down that turns out to be very inspiring. Case in point: when I got home from my first elliptical run to nowhere, I wrote this on my calendar:
That is 7 minutes at 100 strides per minute. That statistic is meaningless unless you compare it to my last workout. I didn’t write it down, so this is an estimate, but it is fairly accurate.
That’s almost an hour at 122 strides per minute – and keep in mind that I was hurting the entire time. I can recall hitting nearly 9000 strides in previous weeks. That’s an hour at 150 strides per minute. Just over two months ago it was all I could do to move for 7 minutes at a walk. Now, some 40 trips to the gym later, I literally run for an hour straight and then go on to do weights and have energy left over to function for the rest of the day.
Our bodies are amazing.
I had to go and botch up my hip. Either that, or I am having a serious flare of arthritis. Either way I can barely walk. It was a little tender this morning, but I tend to have aches and pains, so I ignored it. Once on the elliptical, it didn’t loosen up. I should have quit about 10 minutes in, but I did all but the last couple of minutes of my hour run to nowhere (42/200). My pace was off quite a bit, but I still should have stopped. Bah!!
The good news is that the other branch of my gym has a pool. So, in spite of the fact that I don’t feel even close to ready to show off my body in a suit, I am going to venture into that forum tomorrow. My one saving grace is that school is back in session, so there shouldn’t be any 85 pound teenagers running around.
Oh, and at the risk of sending Allan into fits, I have to share what I ate for dinner. Pizza. Loaded. I thought about it all day, and decided that I really wanted pizza for dinner. I ate two slices and was full. But there was a whole lot of pie left, and I took the third piece without even wanting it. That was where I went wrong. I am sooooooo full.
The pizza made me think of the Discover Card adds that showed the couple digging into lobster and saying something about a splurge being an occasional thing. That’s what is different. Over the past couple of years tonight’s dinner had become routine. Now, it is a treat. Once in a month instead of several nights a week. And when I do “splurge” I actually get to look forward to it and enjoy it. How cool is that?
Mark this day on your calendars, because history has been made, today. Yes, folks, I have officially hit two MegaMilestones in the fitness quest.
Drum roll, please.
I have officially entered the Normal BMI category. Barely. My BMI is 24.9, but it is green for the first time in recent memory. Okay, the last time I was here was in 2000. But, I am back! And I am staying. So, goodbye Obese and Overweight! Welcome home, Normal!!
In order to reach milestone number one, I had to reach milestone number two.
Another drumroll, if you would.
I am halfway to goal weight! No, really!! I weight 168.5 lbs (76.4 kg). That means I have lost 19.5 pounds and have 19.5 pounds left to lose. Woot!!!
In case you need a visual:
And, no, I am not celebrating with ice cream. I didn’t really set up rewards for reaching various milestones, so I dunno know what I will do to mark the occasion. Dancing around (a la Rocky atop the Philadelphia Art Museum Steps) might be a start, though. Hang on while I get my Rio cued to Gonna Fly Now.
I actually made it to the gym to complete workout 41/200. I was seriously getting wigged out from lack of exercise opportunities. I never thought I would say that. But it is addicting. The run to nowhere was actually pleasant.
The eating is going okay. I probably need to eat – gasp – more food. I just have no appetite right now – and this is salt and chocolate week. What’s up with that?? I’m not complaining, mind you. Just noting how weird my world has gotten.
To the gym, that is. I used all of my childcare favors while I was helping my sister out, and subsequently have not been able to carve out the hour to go workout. I could use the childcare at the gym except that my kids aren’t potty trained (please don’t send me links to sites/books on teaching kids with autism how to potty – I have read them all) and I end up getting interrupted like 4 times in order to change them. By the time we go through all of that, the childcare closes and I am no closer to getting a good sweat in. I decided that the increase in blood pressure out of sheer frustration was worse for me than missing the gym when I can’t get coverage at home.
Having said all of that, I think I might actually get to go workout, today. I really miss my hour runs to nowhere. Truly! Which is sick, I know. But I feel better after I work out – and I sleep better, too. So, say prayers to the gym gods that I can still find all of my gear and get to the gym before I completely forget where it is located.
Oh, and that weight (170) in the stats area is correct! I can almost taste the 160’s. I am incredibly close to a green BMI, too! At that point I can officially claim to be “normal” – and how often do I get to assert that??
Though I havent been posting much, I have been updating my stats this week. One really cool item is that the scale finally fell a little more (171 – it is the lowest reading to date and comes just before my TOM) and now when I step on the scale fully clothed after eating all day it reads 173. Kinda cool to not see 175 pop up anymore.
I have been pitching in at my sister’s all week, so the gym trip didn’t make it into the schedule today. I did go Sunday (39/200) and Monday (40/200), so I am not completely falling apart! 20% of the MegaChallenge is behind me. It is so cool to hit these milestones. I suppose I am still a sucker for a gold star – though elementary school is a foggy memory.
In other news, my eldest munchkin turned 7 this weekend. He seems all grown up to me. Of course, put him in a room full of 15 year olds and he reverts to his true stature. I never stop being amazed by my children. A girlfriend once said to me, “Get where they are and just enjoy the moments as they whiz by.” She’s right. Sure, I gotta think ahead a little. Of course, I get misty when I see baby pictures. But right now is the only moment that really matters.
Gotta go smooch my babies.
Being at the hospital wastes me. I don’t know if it is the stress (yes!), the lack of the normal routine (yes! yes!), or the chairs (most definitely yes!) but I can barely function from exhaustion today. Bleck.
In MegaChallenge news, I actually relocated the gym today! It was right where I left it, though after a 5 day break, my muscles weren’t. I slogged through 50 minutes on the elliptical carousel and limped home happy to have the very elusive workout 38/200 in the books.
I also found a 171.5 waiting for me on the scale this morning. It took me a month to lose one half a pound and a day to lose the next. Funky strange body. I am not arguing, though. Being over 40% to goal weight is nice. Very nice.
I have lots of rants that I would love to stick onto soap boxes, but my arms are telling me that typing is out of the question. Maybe later. 🙂
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