Shipwrecked & Comatose

Tip of the day:  Do NOT ever neglect to take your iPod, or at least your headphones, to the gym, even if you think you don't need them.  This week I went to Zumba class.  I didn't take my gym bag, which contained  my music gear, because I was going to Zumba and wouldn't need to be entertained.  I arrived at the gym to find that there was no class that night.  The teacher didn't show up.  I was stuck doing the hamster wheels for exercise with no music or even television to keep me from going crazy. I don't like my new Lean Eating exercise phase.  I have no problem doing the exercises.  It's just that in the demos they provide for us they show a model doing front squats in the cage with 20 pound plates on the bar.  I went into the cage to do front squats and learned I can't even hold the bar in front unweighted.  Now that demo just makes me feel inadequate! I know I said in another post that I should accept spring as is, but this ...

This week I finally hit the 10 pound mark.  The key is to keep going past here.  Every 10 pounds I want to lose gets harder and harder. In fact, I don't think I have ever managed to lose more than 15 pounds on any program.  These past two weeks have been very satisfying though.  I went through a pretty tough plateau in the past few weeks.   For much of March and April I seemed to lose no weight, lost weight in tiny increments, and even gained.  I was corresponding with my coach this week and she said this to me: Y ou are making awesome progress and that is evident in your measures and photos. Not only has your weight and girth declined steadily since January but your most recent pictures show some clear changes. Your tummy is tighter and flatter and your arms, shoulders, legs, and back are more toned. You should be really proud of the progress you've made so far!  I hate the word "tummy" and I hate the word "toned".  Still I think I tea...

This is a truly dreaded week.  I have a triple-whammy.  Along with the weekly weight and girth measurements, I have to submit photos, and worst of all, bodyfat measurements. There really is no better measure of progress than bodyfat. Photos are two dimensional and will always make me look bigger.  The scale simply measures the pull of gravity on my body, which can change from day to day depending on what I eat, how much I drink, how often I went to the bathroom, and what time of the month it is.  Girth measurements can change with water retention levels and how tightly I'm holding the tape measure that week. Bodyfat measurements are the real deal.  They're saying just how much of that excess weight is truly muscle and how much of it is life-shortening adipose tissue.  Granted I am not great with the calipers, but even in my inept hands, I can see if my bodyfat has moved down at all. So the results are in.  I barely lost a pound this week.  I h...

I'm still trying to figure out why people in the gym have such a hard time re-racking their weights after lifting.  Maybe they worked just so hard that they no longer have the energy to pick up the weight and put it in the rack?  How about doing fewer reps so you still have some strength left to hoist that bad boy into it's proper slot? How Do Be Dumb (equestrian version) - You start trotting along.  You decide to look down and check your diagonal.  You see it's correct.  Then you sit and change it anyway. I don't care how much you paid for it.  I don't care where it's imported from. I don't care if it's lovingly handcrafted.  I don't care if the rest of the boys in your boys' club do it.  A cigar looks and smells like a turd on fire and you will have none of my respect for smoking one. (If you are one of those folks who is always crying about the "socialist" government or how all teh eebil libruls want to turn us all into communis...

This week has been a good week. I finished Week 3 of Phase 3 of the workout and I’m keeping up very well, but still feeling challenged.  I know after next week, workouts will likely be very interesting.  Yikes! The latest habit is to plan Lean Eating-Friendly meals. In other words, start creating meals based on the habits we have been working on for the past two months. Our meals need to incorporate lean protein and “smart” carbs, while still making sure that we eat five vegetables a day. Plus we still have to remember to eat slowly and eat until we are 80% full. I have to say I’m pretty good at this meal planning thing. I do my best to prep some meals (or at least parts of meals) ahead of time. I try to have all of my meals planned out for the week. For example I improvised a nice pot of lentil soup this week with caramelized onion, spicy chicken sausage, mustard greens (frozen) and chopped tomato (canned) to take for lunch this week. Knowing I wouldn’t be home to cook ...

Conversation yesterday morning. Rachel : I am a Ninja Goddess Kevin : Why are you a Ninja Goddess Rachel:   Because I just am  Sorry I didn't make a post about Week 11.  I was in a bad place last week.  I gained what looked like a pound.  It wasn't really a pound.  It was about six ounces.  I made some bad choices earlier in the week and was beating myself up about them.  I only lost about 6 ounces this week, but that's because I made some bad choices yesterday (just yesterday) and they're showing up on my body temporarily.  I am not too worried about them.  Anyway, I was going to whine and complain and beat myself up.  In fact, I went to the team message boards and did just that.  I talked about all of my past failures where have managed to lose a few pounds and go back to bad habits.  I questioned my ability to keep going.  I got it out of my system and realized that dwelling on it was not going to do any go...

What is sleep?  No one knows for sure.  We all know we need it.  Health authorities say most Americans don't get enough of it.  Most of us wish we had more of it.  What regular transition do we make in the day that is more difficult than going from sleep to waking? There is a paradox about sleep though.  Even though most of us want more sleep, we don't want to take the steps needed to get more of it.  There is almost a stigma against sleeping well.  If you go to bed early, or do whatever else it takes to ensure enough rest, people view you a little strangely.  At best you are seen as dull and nerdy with no life.  The cool people stay up late.  At worst you are seen as unproductive.  If you are spending a third of a twenty-four hour period sleep, when are you actually doing anything?  You should be up late doing work or playing with your children or paying your bills or working on your backlog of email...