Solid numbers...

Maybe it's the logical side of my brain - you know, the part that likes numbers and statistics and solid data to look at and examine - but I actually feel so much better after going to get my metabolic testing done this morning. According to the fancy-schmancy computer that they have, my resting metabolic rate is 1488 and my restime metabolic rate plus my lifestyle (light activity at work - this doesn't count any exercise that I might do) is 1934.

Basically, I can eat around 1900 calories a day and not exercise at all if I want to maintain my weight. I should never eat less than 1500 calories per day and on the days that I do hard exercise I should add the number of calories that I burned during that exercise session to my daily intake for that day.

When I exercise with my heartrate between 127 and 136 beats per minute, I'm burning 6.6 calories per minute, 4.7 of which are from fat. When I exercise with my heartrate between 137 and 153 beats per minute, I'm burning 8.4 calories per minute, 3.1 of which are from fat. When I exercise with my heartrate between 154 and 171 beats per minute, I'm burning 11 calories per minute, 2.1 of which are from fat. Above 171 beats per minute, I'm not burning any fat because that's my aerobic threshold.

When Sara was explaining everything to me this morning (some of which I already knew from my own research), she told me that people who work out at higher intensities burn more calories but tend to have higher cholesterol because their body has not been taught how to burn the fat that is floating around in the blood stream. I generally exercise between 124 and 165 beats per minute with the majority of the time spent between 124 and 140. That explains why my HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) are both at 70. That's a very good number for HDL and an extremely good number for LDL. My doctor was actually pleasantly surprised at those numbers and told me to keep up whatever I've been doing.

So, now that I have a solid grasp on the caloric intake and expenditure rates of my body, I can get back down to the nitty-gritty of my diet and exercise plan. Yea!

I love technology...

Too early to tell...

But, I think I'm getting back on track... I went to the gym last night right after work and did some walking/running intervals on the treadmill and then I got up and did yoga this morning. It feels so good to exercise!

Yea!

I dragged my tush out of bed early this morning (okay, compared to when I usually get up to work out, I was sleeping in) to go to the club to get a body age test done. After doing my 5 minute fitness test on the treadmill to measure my VO2 max, I did the strength test, weight, flexibility test, and body fat measurements. I am happy to announce that while I am chronologically 31 years old, my body is only 29. Is that great? No, but it's okay. It could be worse. When I first had this done two years ago, I was chronologically 29 but my body age was 34. So, there is some improvement. I have a ways to go if I'm going to catch up to Michael - he just turned 35 and his body age is 21.

Exercise struggles and bacon...

Okay, I know that the Holiday Season is a hard time for just about everyone when it comes to diet and exercise. That being said, I fell off the wagon and then it ran me over a couple of times. I have put back on everything that I lost in the last couple of months thanks to the gift baskets that have been delivered to my office and all of the family holiday gatherings and (yesterday and the day before) my company Christmas Party. Too much food and drink and absolutely no exercise.

Adding to that, we ordered room service at the hotel for breakfast yesterday morning (the company puts everyone up in a hotel for two nights as part of the festivities), and part of my breakfast was three delicious slices of thick bacon. REAL bacon. Not the turkey bacon that I occasionally buy. It was so good that I bought a package of real bacon on the way home today and had two pieces on my turkey sandwich (along with some potato chips) for lunch. I froze the rest of the bacon so it wouldn't be as tempting, but I won't try to kid you (or myself) into thinking that it will stay in the freezer for more than a week. I LOVE bacon! (and chocolate, and cookies, and many, many other things)

To top all of that off, I somehow hurt my ankle last night. I didn't drink last night, so it's not like I twisted my ankle in a drunken haze and don't remember hurting it. I honestly have no idea how I hurt it. It was fine when I climbed into bed and when I got up at 5:00 this morning to go to the bathroom and get a glass of water, it was killing me. My biggest worry is that I won't be able to exercise for a few days, pushing my lack of regular exercise to three weeks (I only exercised three of the six planned days both last week and the week before), and with three more family dinners (two for Michael's birthday and one for the big family holiday gathering), I'll be doomed.

I'm going to try to do some light yoga tonight to see if I can make it through that. If I can, I'll go to the gym tomorrow night to do cardio and just take it easy. Better to do something than to do nothing...

Ugh! I need motivation...

Long story short, I loved my old doctor. She was awesome and then she moved. I hated the doctor that they shuffled me to in her old practice, so I put off going to the doctor for a while. I normally go for my yearly physical etc. in March, but I just went yesterday. I didn't want to go back to that horrible lady they assigned me to so I picked a guy with an office two blocks from my house. It turns out that he's really nice and I feel really comfortable with him (first male doctor I've felt comfortable with in many years) so I'll keep going to him. His office staff is very nice, it wasn't hard to get an appointment, he actually listed to my concerns and questions, validated them, and then answered them with what sounded like honesty. All of the things that you want in a doctor.

The one thing that was not nice was his scale. I know that I haven't been working out (and I've been majorly overeating), but come on! I really need some motivation to get back on the bandwagon.

My back felt better yesterday and almost back to good today, so I'm going to try some light yoga with minimal back bends before I go to bed this evening and see how it goes. Assuming that I don't kill myself in the process, I'll proceed to walking tomorrow. I'm going to repeat last week's scheduled workouts since I only did the first three. That will put me on doing walking/running intervals again on Friday.

It's so hard to climb back on the wagon after you fell off and it ran over you. Especially with the craziness that is the Holiday season and the end of the calendar and fiscal years at work.

Exercisio and the holiday weekend...

I have to say that even though I definitely over-ate over the course of the Thanksgiving weekend (not at one meal in particular, just over the entire weekend), but I did manage to exercise almost as much as I was supposed to. Granted, that couldn’t make a dent in the amount of calories that I ate, but at least I stayed moving.

I started doing longer running intervals last night (after yoga yesterday morning) – walk 3 minutes run 2 minutes for a total of 45 minutes. The first couple of intervals running were really, really hard, but then my body settled into the routine and by the end I only stopped because I had reached the prescribed time limit for the workout. The only issue was my shins. They are screaming at me to get new shoes, which I will do in about two and a half weeks. I’ve asked for them as my holiday present from Grandma. Like The Manz, I have flat feet and I tend to over-pronate, so I need the expensive shoes. Enter Grandma. Yea!

Michael is also getting back to the gym on a regular basis. Thank goodness – I think his body fat had ballooned to something like 5%... Heaven forbid!! I don’t think he’s really set any goals for his workouts, he’s just getting in a working out. He started this last week on week 4 of the Platinum Workout. This will be his third or fourth time through the program (if he completes it again). Crazy… But, he likes it and he’s got the arms and abs of a Greek God because of it, so I can’t complain.

I did yoga this morning and will do it again this evening before we go to FPU. Tomorrow morning is a session of walking with pickups followed by yoga tomorrow evening. Thursday is yoga morning and evening and Friday is another set of intervals (3/1) followed by a long session of walking on Saturday. I really want to get in and have my RMR and MAP tests done so I can keep a more accurate count of my caloric intake/burn rate, but I need to get a replacement heart rate monitor first. The connections on mine have managed to corrode just enough over the last two years to make it next to impossible to maintain a solid connection so partway through my workouts I suddenly see that my heart rate is 0 BPM.

I just need to figure out how to get it synched up with my watch so that they communicate once I get the new one… If anyone has any experience with Polar Heart Rate Monitors, let me know…

Crazy early...

5 am is just crazy early, but that's what time I've been getting up for the last several mornings. I did yoga at 5 am and 9 pm on Tuesday and Thursday, walked at 5 am on Wednesday, and walked/ran at 5 am this morning. I'm definitely planning on sleeping in tomorrow morning...

No, I'm off to cook a couple of eggs for breakfast (one for Kyle) and then I'll wander to work to find the coffee pot...

Slow and steady wins the race...

I weighed myself on Sunday morning and I was at 162, so I decided to weigh myself yesterday morning and this morning to make sure that it wasn't just a momentary dip in weight due to dehydration (I can never seem to drink enough water on weekends) and both mornings I was still 162. I even tested my scale with a dumbbell to make sure that it was accurate - that's how paranoid I am. So, I can only conclude that I have, in actuality, reached 162. Slow progress, but steady progress. :)

I couldn't drag myself out of bed at 5:00 this morning to save my life, so I'll do my walking/running this evening and then back to yoga tomorrow morning at 5:00 and tomorrow evening at 8:30.

Update...

Okay, so I haven' been exercising, so I haven't been weighing myself. I have been keeping track of my caloric intake religiously (which has, at times, been a very bad thing), and I started exercising again day-before-yesterday. I decided to weigh myself this morning and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I am now at 162. I took measurements as well, and I know that a couple of them have changed, but I didn't plug them in to see how much.

So, I'll keep on keepin' on and check in with my friend the scale next week and my friend the tape-measure in a couple of weeks. Now, on to lunch and the latest Newsweek...

Yea! I'm back...

Well, the phlegm isn't completely gone, but I have felt pretty good for the last couple of days, so I went to the gym tonight to do intervals and it felt great! It's amazing how listening to your body actually works...

Almost as exciting is the fact that I determined that my favorite burrito bol at Chipotle is only 245 calories for the 1/2 that I eat at a sitting. I get rice, black beans, carnitas, and tomato salsa. That's it. I put half of it in a container before I start eating (because I know that I don't have the willpower to stop once I start) and viola! I have a yummy, 245 calorie main course. Throw in a glass of soy milk and an apple and it's all good. :)

Still sick...

Okay, so I haven't exercised at all this week. As soon as I can breath somewhat normally (and not cough up a lung) after walking up the stairs in my house, I'll start up again.

I love yoga...

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love yoga. Michael and I did two sessions of yoga this evening and I feel great! (I don't know how he feels other than frustrated that he couldn't do the inversion at the end of the last session...)

The mystical parts of yoga and Buddhism don't appeal to me as much as the mental focus and centering does. I just feel so calm and at peace when I'm done with a session. It really is amazing, especially when I stop to consider how much stress I carry with me all of the time. (I'm THAT person - always worried about everyone and everything to the detriment of my own mental and physical well-being.) But, yoga helps me unravel all of the knots and relax, something that no other form of exercise has ever been able to do.

Yea!

BTW... I had a really, really bad day today with the eating. Too much going on at work and too many candy bars and cookies lying around... But, with my exercise, I managed to net 1834 calories, which isn't bad considering that my BMR is somewhere between 1800 and 2200, depending on which formula or calculator I use...

I have exercised every day this week and will be walking tomorrow and Saturday for 30 minutes both days. Sunday will be rest, and then back to intervals of walking and jogging on Monday. I can already tell there's a huge difference in how my body is responding to this training program. My knees and shins aren't killing me during or after runs. The yoga is helping to get/keep me limber. I just have to stay on top of my eating and force myself to go to bed at a reasonable time so I get enough sleep. I'm really bad about that...

For example, it's now 10:48 pm. I was planning on getting up at 5:15 to do my walking before work. Now? There's no way. I need to get at least eight solid hours of sleep in order to function, especially on my reduced caloric intake. If I don't, my throat is soar and I start feeling generally crappy. So, I will not be walking tomorrow morning. I'll just go right after work while Kyle is at soccer practice.

Well, back to the original point of this post... I LOVE YOGA!

Goodnight!

Being accountable...

Okay, to help with accountability (mine or anyone who wants to join me in this) I'm going to start posting more of my workout information in my blog. I'll start with today's fun...

Calories eaten: 1629
Calories burned: 494
Net Calories: 1135

Exercise:
Walk 3 minutes / Jog 1 minute - total time = 44 minutes, distance = 2.5 miles
Yoga - total time: 45 minutes

I thought about doing this daily, but that might get old in a hurry. So, I'll just post this info once or twice a week and go from there.

Back to Yoga...

Okay, so the instructor was definitely a fitness instructor and not a yoga instructor, but it was so nice to stretch and strain for an hour in a dark room. I had forgotten how much I enjoy yoga. I'm not that good at it - weak shoulders, weak abs, inflexible legs - but I do like it.

I was actually a bit surprised at how quickly some things came back to me. I'm already sore today, but that's okay. I have a 30 minute yoga video that I can do at home over the next couple of days. It's much more focussed on stretching than on poses, which is what I need for now. I think I'll check out the Pilates class next week. I really need to work on my core strength.

Well, back to my giant bottle of water (re-usable container filled from the water tank) and the invoices that need to be entered so Sheri can apply the commissions that we've received. :)

Looking for inspiration...

Okay, I know that we all have this issue. Some more than others. Right now I'm having a hard time finding inspiration to actually get off my tush and exercise.

Looking at all of the empty space in my closet (because I have packed up anything too small for me and refuse to buy stuff to fit me at my current size) is doing nothing but pushing me toward depression. Of course, watching shows like "What Not to Wear" isn't helping... $5,000 to spend on a new wardrobe would be sooooooo nice...

Thinking about how good I'll feel when I drop more weight isn't helping. I can't get past my aching legs and back screaming at me after every run long enough to think about feeling good.

Watching my co-workers (who were gung-ho in the office weight loss challenge a few months ago) inching back up in size just makes me feel sad for them. It does nothing for my motivation. The fact that I've stayed the same weight for the last month is fine. At least I haven't been gaining. Right? Such a poor excuse for only working out the minimum amount suggested in my training program...

I'm planning on going to a Fitness Yoga class tonight to kick my butt into gear. Of course, I won't be able to kick anything, much less my butt, when I get up tomorrow, but that's what the 2 mile training run is supposed to take care of - loosening up those screaming muscles.

Wish me luck!