Well, maybe it wasn't a totally lazy Saturday...
After my last post, I decided to go for a walk. I don't know how, but my little evening walk turned into my whole three mile power-walk.
Dammit.
I shouldn't have done that, I know. I need to start SLOW. That wasn't slow...I did it in about 50 minutes, which makes my pace almost a 15-minute mile.
It was just so nice outside...still about 800 degrees, but with a slight breeze that made it bearable. I realized as I was walking why I don't like walking at the gym...I get BORED. It's so boring and lifeless, walking on a treadmill or around a track for an hour. It's so much more interesting to walk around my neighborhood, with its myriad smells and people. There are hills, too...one long gradual hill at the beginning, one short steep hill in the middle, and a long steep hill at the end. I can do that on a treadmill, but it's just not the same.
So many other benefits to walking at home. I can take my dog. I can dance down the street if I want to. (And I did, tonight.) There isn't anybody waiting for me to get off. I can't clock every single second and step of my walk, so I can pay more attention to what's around me. Like the smells...laundry detergent and horses and grills and flowers.
So nice.
I might have overdone it a bit tonight, though. Three miles may have been a little much to start out with...on the last hill, I really had to grit my teeth to get through it, and I had to take a second once I was at the top to catch my breath. My feet also got numb, but that's pretty normal when I start walking again after a break. No idea why.
Anyway, just some thoughts. I'll continue this walking thing, I think. : )
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Starting Stats
I guess I should start with some initial measurements and whatnot.
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Waist measurement (at smallest point): 34 inches
Hip measurement (at largest point): 43 inches
Thigh measurement (at largest point): 25 inches
Is that all? Hell, I don't know. But it's what I've got.
Now for some goals.
Goal weight: 140 lbs (or -20% of my current body weight)
Goal waist measurement: 30 inches
Goal hip measurement: 40 inches
Goal height: 5'10"
I'm not too hopeful about the goal height. ; )
But for the rest...I think those are reasonable goals. I know the goal weight is, I just don't know what to expect on the waist and hip front. Oh well. I suppose we'll see.
Medical issues? You betcha. I have asthma, high cholesterol, a herniated disc, broken bones in my knee from 16 years ago that never set right, shin splints, anemia, and a hypoactive thyroid.
So I guess I need a plan next, that goes along with both my goals and my medical issues.
I want to start out by giving my diet a little makeover. Not too much...I am already really good about staying away from fried foods, potato chips and the like, and I'm a vegetarian. So, I'll add more vegetables, and decrease the bad carbs...I think that taking my lunch with me to work every day will help with that, since work is where most of the bad food comes in. I don't want to give up my morning coffee or my evening beer...I'll switch to light beer, and drink less coffee, but cutting them out completely leaves me a miserable, wretched shell of a human being. I need to be sure to keep good snacky foods around me, like almonds or SunChips or all natural granola. I also need to be WAY better about drinking water...I have this great 3 liter bottle, and if I could get to a point where I drank one of those a day...that would be excellent.
Now for exercise. This is my main problem. I get up, get ready, and go sit at a desk all day. And, when I come home, I sit some more. Bad, bad, bad. My favorite things to do for exercise are walking and swimming, because those are both lower impact cardio exercises that I can do for a long time and that require nothing more than a change of clothes and/or an iPod. Walking is easy, as long as I can make myself do it...I just have to come home, feed the dog, change, and then go out on a walk around my neighborhood. Or, when school starts, I can do it in the gym either before work or after school. Swimming is a little more complicated, only because it requires either finding a free lane in the pool or driving to my mother's house. Either way, I need to do ONE of these activites EVERY SINGLE DAY. I can do both for 45 minutes to an hour, and that should do something at least.
My problem with perfectionism is that, if I can't do my whole walk, or swim for a decent amount of time, I will chalk it up as "not worth it" and I won't go. What I need to remember, and what I have to remind myself in here, is that I'm not doing ANYTHING right now. Something would be better than nothing.
Taking my vitamins and my thyroid medication is absolutely necessary for my success in this. Not taking them makes me tired, sluggish, and forgetful. So, no more forgetting those.
Finally, I can't weigh myself every single day. I do that now, and it just leads to me feeling either miserable or like I can cheat. Once a week is good...Fridays, maybe.
Ok, I guess that's it to start. My plan is to write here every day, about how I've done that day, obstacles, successes, etc. I guess, if I have to pick a goal date for something, I'll say that I'd like to have significantly made progress by the end of the year, and I'd like to have reached at least my goal weight by the time the Spring semester ends. Those goals seem really far off to me, but I would imagine they're appropriate. It is 35 pounds, after all.
: )
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Waist measurement (at smallest point): 34 inches
Hip measurement (at largest point): 43 inches
Thigh measurement (at largest point): 25 inches
Is that all? Hell, I don't know. But it's what I've got.
Now for some goals.
Goal weight: 140 lbs (or -20% of my current body weight)
Goal waist measurement: 30 inches
Goal hip measurement: 40 inches
Goal height: 5'10"
I'm not too hopeful about the goal height. ; )
But for the rest...I think those are reasonable goals. I know the goal weight is, I just don't know what to expect on the waist and hip front. Oh well. I suppose we'll see.
Medical issues? You betcha. I have asthma, high cholesterol, a herniated disc, broken bones in my knee from 16 years ago that never set right, shin splints, anemia, and a hypoactive thyroid.
So I guess I need a plan next, that goes along with both my goals and my medical issues.
I want to start out by giving my diet a little makeover. Not too much...I am already really good about staying away from fried foods, potato chips and the like, and I'm a vegetarian. So, I'll add more vegetables, and decrease the bad carbs...I think that taking my lunch with me to work every day will help with that, since work is where most of the bad food comes in. I don't want to give up my morning coffee or my evening beer...I'll switch to light beer, and drink less coffee, but cutting them out completely leaves me a miserable, wretched shell of a human being. I need to be sure to keep good snacky foods around me, like almonds or SunChips or all natural granola. I also need to be WAY better about drinking water...I have this great 3 liter bottle, and if I could get to a point where I drank one of those a day...that would be excellent.
Now for exercise. This is my main problem. I get up, get ready, and go sit at a desk all day. And, when I come home, I sit some more. Bad, bad, bad. My favorite things to do for exercise are walking and swimming, because those are both lower impact cardio exercises that I can do for a long time and that require nothing more than a change of clothes and/or an iPod. Walking is easy, as long as I can make myself do it...I just have to come home, feed the dog, change, and then go out on a walk around my neighborhood. Or, when school starts, I can do it in the gym either before work or after school. Swimming is a little more complicated, only because it requires either finding a free lane in the pool or driving to my mother's house. Either way, I need to do ONE of these activites EVERY SINGLE DAY. I can do both for 45 minutes to an hour, and that should do something at least.
My problem with perfectionism is that, if I can't do my whole walk, or swim for a decent amount of time, I will chalk it up as "not worth it" and I won't go. What I need to remember, and what I have to remind myself in here, is that I'm not doing ANYTHING right now. Something would be better than nothing.
Taking my vitamins and my thyroid medication is absolutely necessary for my success in this. Not taking them makes me tired, sluggish, and forgetful. So, no more forgetting those.
Finally, I can't weigh myself every single day. I do that now, and it just leads to me feeling either miserable or like I can cheat. Once a week is good...Fridays, maybe.
Ok, I guess that's it to start. My plan is to write here every day, about how I've done that day, obstacles, successes, etc. I guess, if I have to pick a goal date for something, I'll say that I'd like to have significantly made progress by the end of the year, and I'd like to have reached at least my goal weight by the time the Spring semester ends. Those goals seem really far off to me, but I would imagine they're appropriate. It is 35 pounds, after all.
: )
A Perception Problem
I did not grow up fat.
I was a dancer for 10 years. Until the end of middle school, I was thin and well-proportioned, and able to leap 3 cheeseburgers in a single bound. I never cared what I ate...I was never taught to care by my divorced parents who, despite loving me very much, didn't know a thing about vitamins or whole grains, and who could never get on the same page even if they had.
And then, I stopped dancing, and have gained weight ever since. Except for a short period when I started college in 2001, I have steadily added between 3 and 5 pounds a year, such that I now weigh 175 pounds.
I know the root of my problem, but I suppose it isn't worth mentioning here except in passing. My mother is a tiny scrap of a woman, with a metabolic rate that would be envied by an Olympian. When I weighed 140 pounds, she offered me $500 to lose 15 pounds. I didn't do it...part of me wanted that money so badly, and part of me was absolutely outraged that a mother could ask that of her 15-year-old daughter. So, stuck between desire and indignation, I did nothing.
Adding to my problem currently is an underactive thyroid, a real love for food and possible misconceptions about the health benefits of said food, and a crippling perfectionism. And, while I hate to add this as a reason...I am eternally busy. I am halfway through my Master's degree in Geology, and I work full-time as a bookkeeper for my mother's law office, neither of which contributes to a healthy food and exercise regimen.
Despite these things, I must change. I am uncomfortable in my skin. I am perpetually and unceasingly conscious of how my body moves and folds and bulges. I have mountains of clothing that I cannot wear, bought for a person with just a little less here and there. I am still well-proportioned, but "well-proportioned" means little when the proportions are enormous. I suppose the situation could be much worse...but in my own head, I might as well be 400 pounds as 175.
So, there it is. In this blog, I hope to chronicle my struggle with this problem. I have tried many different things, but perhaps it is writing about it that will ultimately force me to alter my perceptions and make a change.
Here's hoping.
I was a dancer for 10 years. Until the end of middle school, I was thin and well-proportioned, and able to leap 3 cheeseburgers in a single bound. I never cared what I ate...I was never taught to care by my divorced parents who, despite loving me very much, didn't know a thing about vitamins or whole grains, and who could never get on the same page even if they had.
And then, I stopped dancing, and have gained weight ever since. Except for a short period when I started college in 2001, I have steadily added between 3 and 5 pounds a year, such that I now weigh 175 pounds.
I know the root of my problem, but I suppose it isn't worth mentioning here except in passing. My mother is a tiny scrap of a woman, with a metabolic rate that would be envied by an Olympian. When I weighed 140 pounds, she offered me $500 to lose 15 pounds. I didn't do it...part of me wanted that money so badly, and part of me was absolutely outraged that a mother could ask that of her 15-year-old daughter. So, stuck between desire and indignation, I did nothing.
Adding to my problem currently is an underactive thyroid, a real love for food and possible misconceptions about the health benefits of said food, and a crippling perfectionism. And, while I hate to add this as a reason...I am eternally busy. I am halfway through my Master's degree in Geology, and I work full-time as a bookkeeper for my mother's law office, neither of which contributes to a healthy food and exercise regimen.
Despite these things, I must change. I am uncomfortable in my skin. I am perpetually and unceasingly conscious of how my body moves and folds and bulges. I have mountains of clothing that I cannot wear, bought for a person with just a little less here and there. I am still well-proportioned, but "well-proportioned" means little when the proportions are enormous. I suppose the situation could be much worse...but in my own head, I might as well be 400 pounds as 175.
So, there it is. In this blog, I hope to chronicle my struggle with this problem. I have tried many different things, but perhaps it is writing about it that will ultimately force me to alter my perceptions and make a change.
Here's hoping.
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