Accountability

I am a little embarrassed that I have not written a post for over eight months. Unfortunately, my fitness has gone downhill, and my weight has gone up. I am hopeful if I take the time to write about it, I will be encouraged (or shamed) to get off my butt and move!

This blog was never meant to be about weight loss, but it has come down to that. And since almost no one reads this blog to begin with, I am just going to lay it all out there, in a rather boring way. But I think it will help me.

So let me begin.

The summer of 1989, when I was 17 1/2 and getting ready to head off to PSU, I gained about 8 to 10 pounds and weighed 150. That has been my weight, other than some high and low points, which I will list below, for the past 24 and a half years. To me, 150 is an okay weight for my 5' 8" body. I feel better when I am just below 150, but that is mostly because when I go to the doc, I like it when the scale notch is at 100 pounds, and the nurse has to slide the thing (to the end for sure) from there. I do not like it when I am on the 150 notch and I feel a little embarrassed when the nurse has to move the slider thing five or more pounds past the 150 notch.

My weight has gotten to about 155 probably a handful of times since the summer of '89. Following are the most notable times, not including when I was pregnant:

• Several months into my freshman year, the fall of 1989
• At different points in my sophomore and junior years; the summer between those years my parents separated, which put me at one of my heaviest (156 or so)
• Sometime around 1997 or 1998; I recall my roommate and I looking at pics of ourselves and being horrified.
• The first year I was married (1999-2000); I might have actually hit 158.
• Fall-winter of 2008-2009
• The past four months, and I am now at pretty much my heaviest, 157 pounds

I also have lost weight a number of times since 1989:

• When I first got to PSU in 1989; I did not eat that much at first.
• When I got mono in the middle of 1990 (which helped erase the weight game of late 1989)
• At the beginning of my senior year in 1992 (several months into a new relationship)
• In the winter of 1993-1994, when I broke up with my (last) college boyfriend. I was down to 142, my lowest since my senior year in high school. I was back home and I did a lot of snow shoveling!
• Sometime in 1997 to 1998, after the roommate and I realized we needed to start exercising again. Aerobics was our savior.
• A few months into my second year of marriage (gaining five to seven pounds during that first year was horrifying). I worked with a personal trainer and had pretty low body fat. I could even do 25 push-ups!
• The spring of 2009; I was around 147-149 for over four years; unemployment and swimming, running, and walking kept the weight off and me in shape.
• I also got to my lowest (again) in late 2010, when my mom was really sick. I stayed around 142-145 for only a few months. I don't recommend stress and constant worry as a diet aid.

I can say that when my weight starts to get around 152 or 153, I tend to take action. I am pretty sure once during my four years of hardly working I was around there, but put the kibosh on any further weight gain.

So what is happening to me now? Well, a big part of it is that I used to walk up and down about 600 steps going to and from my office. It took me eight minutes in the morning, and 10 minutes on the way back (because most of the almost 300 steps were up!). My thighs were pretty darn toned.

Unfortunately, since around August 21, I been taking the bus. My walk now consists of almost three minutes from my car to the bus, all flat, and about three to five minutes (depending on when I get off) from the bus stop to my office, just a slight grade. On the way home, I always get on the closer (three minutes away) stop. So 18 minutes and a huge hill has turned into about 13 minutes and mostly flat land. I do walk about 75 steps in the morning, but it is nothing like the almost 300 one way I used to. Some coworkers and I walk during lunch, but not the 20-30 minutes we used to and not every day. And I did next to nothing when I was off for over 1.5 weeks.

I could sense I was gaining weight a month into my bus riding, and I also started eating more. For many weeks I did not get on a scale. Once I did, I was past the creeping up weight. I waited another month or so, and when I weighed myself over break, there it was, staring me in the face.

I don't have a big plan. I can say I did some sit-ups on 12/30 and 1/1. I almost did two push ups on the 30th; pretty sad. Today, did a little jumping and shadow boxing for all of a couple of minutes. And I forced myself to walk up and down the steps at home a bunch of times. But several of those trips were to get food. Sigh. I did take about a 20-25-minute walk in the snow early this evening. Part of my street is hilly, so I went up that hill three times.

So far nothing I have done is great, and I have cut back on my eating only a little (compared to what I ate during the past two weeks, I have cut back).

But you have to start somewhere, and every little bit counts.

Until next time. And here is hoping next time will come soon! A special thanks to my friend Cherlee, who inspired me to get back on the horse!

Over 3,000 steps

Three weeks ago, I started a full-time job. Parking is no easy feat; if you want to park in the garage connected to the building, you have to pay a premium, and even then there is no guarantee there will even be a spot available. So I decided to park in lot that was a four-minute walk away. It worked out pretty well, but if I was not gone within eight hours, I had to pay an extra $2. Several days into the job, I found a lot that was $5 a day cheaper and good all day. But the catch was it was a seven- to eight-minute walk going at a brisk pace and covering about/slightly over 270 steps.

As it turns out, this has worked great for me. Working FT and getting home at around 6 means no more afternoon Zumba, swimming, or running (not that I did that last thing too often). But since I can get in these two shortish brisk walks and close to 550 steps a day, I have managed to stay in decent shape and my thighs are even better. Plus about 240 of the steps are down on the way to work, so I can shave off a minute and not be sweaty. At the end of the day, I actually try to jog up the steps. Sure, I am out of breath before I even hit the 200th step, but since I am headed to my car, it is all good. On top of that, at least three days a week, I also take a 10- to 20-minute walk in the afternoon.

I realize that in the heat of the summer and in the dead of the snowy winter, the allure will end, but for now, it is keeping me moving. In fact, when I went swimming today, for the first time in almost 3.5 weeks, my legs were not tired at all. Unfortunately since my arms no longer get a workout, those babies felt exhausted within two laps. Still, I managed to get in 20 laps, over two sets, plus some water treading. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do 18 arm dips and a dozen push ups. Normally I would do about 20 and follow that up with 20 push ups, plus try to throw in another set. But considering my layoff, I will take what I did.

Here is to the next update, which I am betting won't be for awhile, but which hopefully will not be because lack of exercise. 

I don't know how Olympians swim that many laps

When I went swimming on Thursday (which, by the way, was only my second day of exercise for the week), I felt pretty good doing laps. I did about 25 total, broken into 15 and then two smaller sets. A number of my laps came at a good speed. In fact, for about three or four laps I felt challenged by a boy swimming next to me who appeared to be about 10. I was not about to let that kid swim faster than I could, so I swam pretty quickly.

When I went swimming again today, the laps did not come as easily. I felt slow and sluggish almost the entire time. I started off with 15 again, then did a few smaller sets, eventually ending up with 30. I also jogged in the water a few times, probably for about 20 minutes total. And I did some lunges, squats, push-ups, and dips while in the water. I definitely had a good workout, but I was just not "feeling it." I pushed myself to swim fast a few times, but it was a struggle. I could barely do two fast laps in a row.

I am blaming this on the four to five pounds I have gained the past three weeks, which is related to my poor eating, which probably hinders me even more. Hopefully I can get on the right track soon...

20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 10 = exhaustion

When I swim laps, I have a hard time keeping track of which number I am on. I tend to swim four or five laps of the same stroke before switching to another, but my mind wanders so easily that I often lose count. Recently, I decided to swim only two laps per stroke before moving on to the next. That has helped immensely, though at least once today, I actually could not remember if I was on my first or second trip for that stroke. Crazy!

Anyway, this morning, to mix it up a bit, I decided to jog in the pool first. Since jogging for 15 minutes has been pretty easy for me, I decided to up my time to 20 minutes. In the interest of helping the balls of my feet and working some different muscles, I decided to jog backwards for the last five minutes. Then I swam about 20 laps (which takes me about 23 minutes). I next got in another 20 minutes of jogging, again including the backwards jogging for the final five minutes. I followed that up with 20 more laps (which may have been 19 or 21). Finally, I jogged backwards for about 10 more minutes before rounding out my workout with some push-ups and leg exercises in the water. And that is where my title comes from.

All told, it took me almost two hours to get everything in, and I was (and still am) pretty darn tired. But it is a fulfilling tired. Throughout my workout, I felt good. Admittedly, during some of the laps, I was not sure I could keep going. But always competing with myself and wanting to do what I set out to, I pressed on.

As I was, per usual, struggling with the butterfly stroke, I realized that it is a lot like that first killer hill when I run. In both cases, I keep doing it, yet the task almost never seems any easier.

The other thing I find interesting is that when I run, even though I typically complete only two miles, I think I have achieved this great workout. Yet when I swim, if I end up doing only 15 laps, which typically takes me about the same amount of time as it does to run two miles, then I feel as if I barely did anything. I guess a big part of it has to do with the intensity; I tend to run harder than I swim, which leaves me sweaty and out of breath; it just feels as if I have run for an hour, even though I never do.

Regardless, I am glad when I can get a really long swim in. I am quite certain, however, even if I jog super slow, I won't be running for an hour anytime soon. Or probably ever.

15 >> 45

The Race for Pace is just 11 days away. In the past four months, I have run about six times. In the past 30 days, I have managed about three runs. Sure, I have run up and down the steps a few times. I have also been swimming two or three times a week, but as for running at least two miles, on the road, well, that is just not going well.

As I was swimming today, I decided that if I don't run at least two times between now and next Saturday, I should probably skip the race. If I run three times, then I should be able to make it through, though undoubtedly with a time much higher than last year's (27:01).

On a positive note, today, I spent two hours at the pool. The title above refers to my workout there. I swam 15 laps, then I jogged around the pool for 15 minutes. I did that two more times, for a total of 45 laps and 45 minutes of jogging (it took me about 55 minutes to swim the 45 laps).

When I was barely into my second lap, I felt tired and unconvinced that I would accomplish much today. Not wanting to waste this alone time, I decided to break things up and alternate between swimming and running. Well, when you have the resistance of water fighting your arms especially, it is nothing close to running. But I am hopeful that makes the workout even better.

All in all, it was great exercise. It was probably not my fastest, but that I managed to get in the jogging and swimming along with some water exercises such as walking lunges, squats, and push ups, in a two-hour workout, I say bravo to me! (And let's just pretend that when I came home, I did not eat a brat, some cookies, a banana with PB, some tortilla chips and salsa, and a few gingersnaps.)

Hopefully, I will be able to write a post on Thursday or Friday, saying that I manged to get a run in on Thursday.

Stay tuned.

That was pretty productive.

This morning after I dropped the kid off at school, I decided to go swimming. As I have probably mentioned before, the laps I do at the pool are between time spent playing with the kid at the pool. Typically I swim about 10 laps before taking a break to splash around. Some days, I may only manage six or eight before I am summoned to "play with me."

This morning, I decided I would swim at least 30 laps before calling it a morning. My last two times at the pool, I swam 20 and 25 laps respectively, so I figured I, being alone, should be able to surpass that.

I ended up swimming 45 laps, so yeah me! Most laps were at a medium speed, and some were even slow. I ended up doing only about a half dozen fast laps. As I have stated on this blog before, I could probably swim way more laps than what I normally do, so long as I go slowly; I have a lot of endurance.

When I finished lap #45, in about 55 minutes, I decided to run around the pool for 15 minutes. Before I started my swim, I considered going running this afternoon. But once I hit 40 laps, I figured it might be best to skip the run. Jogging back and forth the length of the pool is so much easier than pounding the pavement, and it still counts!

Since I was feeling pretty good, I spent the last under-10 minutes doing some walking lunges, split squats, regular squats, and push ups. All in all, it was a good workout.

But if I expect to run in the Race for Pace, which is two and a half weeks away, I better get myself motivated to run soon.