Work(s) in Progress

A Girl Day

I cannot remember the last day I have taken completely off. I worked through December 31 at my old job before starting the dream job on January 1. I still spend my weekends (at least one day per week) being a scientist closing out and transferring my research project to my new co-investigator. This generally leaves one weekend day for errands and anything not work related (grocery, laundry, sleep, dinner with my husband - yes I know it's sad to see him in the errand column).

Today was mine.

I started my day at the Body & Sole Day Spa. It does not look like much from the outside in its suburban strip mall location but it's terrific inside. A bit of muzak & water sounds with soothing scents of the products they use. I went in to get my face microdermed. This may sound odd but it's kind of like grinding and vacuuming your skin at the same time. I like it but your mileage my vary. It makes my skin feel really soft so I do it every few months. They always try to sell you a facial to add onto it but there is actually one built into the procedure. Today my aesthetician was Elizabeth. She was great - really warm hands, not a chatterer, very good facial massage.

I came home and did a Turbulence Training workout - Intermediate A if you are interested. I've been following the program sporadically for the last few weeks - I'm down about 5 pounds (with about 10 to go) and will do a formal fitness update soon. I need to get ready for the Pink DumbBells Cruise in August.

I fit in some grocery shopping and laundry today so did not take the day completely off, but I did go buy some pretty unmentionables and also got a pedicure. There is a place near my house staffed by 15 - 20 mostly Vietnamese immigrants. They have rows upon rows of vibrating chairs in front of whirlpool foot baths. Their sanitation procedures comfort me. It's not the respite of the Body & Sole Day Spa but for $20 it's a great way to keep my feet pretty on a regular basis.

It was beautiful here today - breezy with cloudless blue skies. I spent the rest of the afternoon with a glass of wine outside laughing through Lean Mean Thirteen. I grew up in New Jersey so find these books especially humourous.

 

Starting at the Beginning

Last January I made a failed attempt to leap back into fitness with the Turbulence Training plan leading up to the Turbulence Training 500 workout. I did make it through some of the workouts but often found, like my recent experience with Evil Jen, that not being able to walk up and down stairs comfortably for several days, let alone raise my arms, is NOT conducive to sticking with a fitness program. I don't mind some delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that lasts a few days but muscle spasms where the muscle contracts and won't relax for days on end is not my thing.

I've been more successful adding the cardio back. Three days a week, I run, then I reward myself in the jacuzzi at the gym. That's a start (good heart health anyway) but to change my body, I need to add resistance training.

Yesterday, Craig Ballantyne wrote a post called Start at the Beginner Turbulence Training Workouts! Today I heeded that advice. Workout A done. Interval A done. I feel good. My muscles worked and I will have some stiffness tomorrow but will likely still be motivated to get my run in. I may not need to do 4 weeks at the Beginner level before moving to Intermediate but I suspect that because these workouts are more achievable for me - i.e. I don't need to modify the exercises to try to approximate the move - that I will be much more likely to stick with it.

Spring is here and so is my motivation. There is something about sunny weather and the prospect of wearing sleeveless shirts and short skirts that inspires me. There is a new Turbulence Training Competition starting May 1. This one I may do. I'm ready.

Evil Jen

I joined a gym about a block from my work about 6 weeks ago. One thing they do for all new members is assign you to have two personal training sessions. The fist session is a fitness assessment - you get weighed & calipered to assess body fat, heart rate & blood pressure are tested, your VO2 max is calculated on an exercycle. Tests for overall fitness included a series of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and measures of flexibility. So the first session was OK if a bit depressing. I know what I should be able to do and but my upper body strength is currently non-existent.

For my second session, just Wednesday night, I met with Evil Jen. Actually she's not truly evil; I hurt today as I knew I would and & we had joked that I would be thinking of her as evil . I am. Granted I asked her to push me hard and warned her that I was sadly unfit outside of my cardiovascular health. I have been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week running sprint intervals for about 3 miles a pop. I am back to running 3 miles in just under 30 minutes. This part is fine.

Jen focused on strength training. We started with bar bell squats, moved to lunges on a bosu ball. Most every exercise recruited multiple muscle groups by design. She likes sets of 15 to 20, done twice - I've generally done sets with fewer than 12 reps in the past. The core exercises, done at the end, were fun and made use of stability and medicine balls. The middle, working chest, shoulders and back, was simply brutal. She likes range of motion exercises so there was some cable work as well as some chest press exercise where the weight was lifted not only straight up but over to each side at about 30 degree angles away from center. Doing each location (left, right, center) was 1 rep - lets do 2 sets of 20 after killing me with pushups. She had to spot me on the 25 lb plate I was using for this. I am very weak in my upper body but at home I can still use my 25 lb dumbbells to press (twice the weight but only straight up, and not after push-ups). The shoulder exercises (lateral & front raises) involved standing on one leg with the other held high. 

By the time she was done with me I was grateful to go sit in the jacuzzi for a bit. Even after a long soak I could barely raise my arms enough to drive home safely. The next day I was struggling with the stairs. Oh my quads. I was also very aware of my core.

This was my first real experience with a personal trainer. I'm tempted but it's quite expensive  ($75 per 1 hour session! - only about $60 each if you commit to 24 sessions) at my health club. I see the advantage, much of which is simply paying someone to meet you there to make sure you get it done, who will laugh with/at you while you struggle to finish the set.  I need to try out some of the group fitness stuff. I never thought I was a joiner but a class might be just what I need at this point.

Do It Tomorrow

I should confess. I am pressure prompted. Give me a tight deadline I'm your gal. Otherwise, I am prone to procrastination. Somewhere in the many blogs I read I came across Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management and thought this is the book for me (note for quick delivery in the USA order it from one of the discount sellers).

Alas, this is not a book for procrastinators. Instead, this book is all about prioritization. How do you decide what to do today and what can safely be postponed until tomorrow? How can you optimize your time to do it all? How are you wasting time so that not everything gets finished each day?

Almost all of the secrets in this book are summarized on page 0, before the book even starts. But, for me there are several gems. Let's talk about lists. I love to-do lists. I live for crossing items off my list. Did you know that "closed" lists are about a gazillion times more effective than "open" lists? I've always kept open lists. I add items constantly to the things I need to get done but the list grows and grows. A closed list is finite. The only thing it can do is get shorter and ultimately completed. How novel, how inspiring, a list that gets finished. The author strongly supports multiple closed lists.

The premise of this book is almost ridiculous and yet it interests me. Toss all of the undone items into yesterday's closed list. Do all of the current items from today & peck away at yesterday. In theory, with good time management, you do indeed have enough time and then some to get through your daily tasks leaving time to peck away at the old stuff. It is essential to finish your lists each day. At some point, all of the old is gone, you are current on the new and life is grand. In my current reality, some of the day to day stuff has slipped past due so that I can focus on future oriented tasks and initiatives. I've been haphazardly pecking away at the old by cataloging everything in Google Notebook as time allows. But I don't have anything as organized as the proposed system.

There is also some fascinating stuff on goal setting in this book. It's all targeted at daily success and contradicts much of what I've read and done previously. The author recommends not setting big audacious goals. Instead set goals where you are sure to succeed every day. Do not plan to run 3 miles each morning. Instead plan to go outside each morning with your running clothes on. It is much more likely that the later goal will achieve success and motivate you to actually go out and run- even if not 3 miles. And truly any miles are better than zero miles. The way this is organized is all linked the reptilian vs. rational brain. I'm not sure that I agree fully with this theory but did see a lot of myself and my procrastination in his examples.

Forty

For months I have been dreading that shift from 39 to 40 which occurred yesterday. I'm not sure why this birthday worried me but it did. I woke up yesterday and did not feel any different. Of course my brother wrote to tell my I was "half way done." I suspect this was the reason I was dreading. Is my life truly half over? Many of the women in my family live to their late 80's or early 90's but not always in great health.

Yesterday was great in an honoring Bacchus kind of way. I was wined and dined for both lunch and dinner. For lunch I met up with three magnificent women I used to work with.  We ate at the Washington Park Grille. I always get one of their ahi tuna dishes, in this case the wasabi green pea crusted ahi tuna. It was terrific. For dinner it was O's Steak and Seafood at the Westin with my husband and his brother who is in town this weekend. I love O's. We go for almost all birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and essentially anything important. The food is outstanding with a beautiful presentation of the meal. When they bring the plates out, you often just want to admire it for a minute before eating.

As a present to myself, I finally, at long last, joined a gym. Or perhaps I should say, I joined a posh athletic facility. Every day, I walked past the building for the Colorado Athletic Club between my parking lot and work. Yes, I have a well stocked home gym, but with my long days (often 8AM to 10PM at the office), I have not been using it. However, I generally have an hour or two in my day that could be used to work out. I really needed to make it easier to find a way. This place is incredible. Yes there are 3 floors of athletic equipment and workout rooms, but it was the women's locker room that had me signing within minutes. Every beauty product imaginable is provided. There is a sauna, steam room & jacuzzi tub. Heck there is even a tanning bed and massage area if you really want to live it up. The women of all shapes and sizes walk about comfortable in their own nakedness. Apparently the place is packed in the early mornings (before 8AM) and during lunch. I have not been there during those times and feel like I have this magnificent place almost exclusively to myself. As part of being a new member, you get two free sessions with personal trainer. I have not scheduled my appointments yet, but they've been leaving me voice and email messages. Happy Birthday to me.

I've been doing most of my writing about my new job over on our alumni association website. Reaching out to alumni has been fun. I emailed all of the people in our database last week. About 600 emails bounced back but I ideally 1100 or so are still active addresses. I've already heard from more than 60 alumni and have meetings planned with some of them.

And finally, I found this fun test over on Kyra's Art Blog (need Java to see it). I am Handy Smurf.

You can take the test here.

Coming up for air

This week had far too many days that started with 7 AM meetings and ended with me arriving home at about 10 PM. Even knowing that this is what my week would look like, I started Turbulence Training this week. It was simply time. I took my fine before pictures and posted them to the Turbulence Training members forum. I have done what I can with the workouts. I'm down about 3 pounds from my bloated start. Muscles that thought they were forgotten have been reawoken.

Today I came home to this surprise in the mail. Months ago I had seen this on Irene's blog and googled to find out how to get one. Someone, who I have long forgotten, had a link on their website to a Nike women's page. So much time had passed that I thought it was a long expired perk for registering.

Perfect timing.

I needed this.

White Christmas

I have so absorbed some of our cultural political correctness that I now find it difficult to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays seems to be OK for now so I found myself using it extensively this season. We woke up this morning to snow. We'd planned to celebrate Christmas day with a friend from work and his family. They were planning a massive holiday feast for more than a dozen including us. My husband had baked amazing chocolate bourbon pecan pies to  take along. Yes, I risked my wheat and dairy intolerance to try a piece. Oh my, the rash and stomach pain were worth it. Yes I know this was stupid but oh so very tasty.

I shoveled the drive and unburied the car but another 4-8 inches of snow was predicted on what we had already gotten in the night. Since our road is not plowed, we decided to be safe and stay home. One day, we really need to invest in an AWD vehicle. It's hard to tell from the picture  of our street from  our front door but it's still snowing hard.

Christmas is the anniversary of this blog. I started it on Christmas Eve in 2004 as a present to myself. In three years, I've made three hundred and sixty posts on this blog alone. I also expanded my blogging efforts to include Songs of Hope and Glory which I need to spend more time on and A Slow Decline which is dedicated to my grandmother. My grandmother, Nana, is slowly losing her fight with Alzheimer's disease. She has begun to hide things. This holiday she decided to hide the box of presents I sent to my mother. Hopefully she did not hide them in the trash can.

I always get myself a Christmas present. I suppose it is an odd thing to do but it's one way I can be certain that I get one thing I really want just for me. As you may have noticed from my dearth of posts on fitness lately that I've lost my daily focus on my own health and fitness. The scale is kindly holding steady but I am getting more fat. OK so 22% fat is not all that fat, but I know that I can maintain at about 17-18% and it feels (and looks) a lot better. This year I invested in Turbulence Training. I'd seen both Maggie and Skwigg promote it on their blogs. Skwigg (aka Renee) who is insanely fit made great strides with Turbulence Training. I have not completely committed to the program yet, but I love the twelve 12 minute workouts that Craig Ballantyne released for Christmas (sorry members only). You can check out some of the freely (no membership required) available workouts created by Craig Ballantyne on YouTube. I especially love the spiderman exercises. I kid you not. Working out should be fun and the spiderman (yes like the superhero) push ups and lunges are simply FUN. My goal is to complete the Bodyweight 500 series. It's like the 300 workout on steroids.  Oh my. So if you are a fan of the movie 300 and the glorious abs of the Spartans, like I am, you should know that Craig Ballantyne also created the 300 workout to get those guys in shape. You can read about it here in Men's Health. Turbulence Training is also hosting a 12 week contest. The last start date is January 21. Look for my official start sometime between now and the new year. Merry Christmas to me.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you as well.

Diabulimia

I saw a headline today "Diabulimics shun insulin to get thin."

I am horrified. Unregulated diabetes (chronically high blood sugar) will cause blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and nerve damage. It is the major cause of limb amputations. Untreated diabetes can lead to diabetic induced comas (generally from diabetic ketoacidosis) and death.

In spite of knowing all of this, "One in three type 1 diabetics reported skipping or underdosing their insulin to lose weight, according to a study by researchers at the University of Toronto" One in three people; 33% of diabetics are risking their lives just to be thin.

"The problem is widespread enough that physicians now see insulin underdosing as a form of purging, making it a close cousin of the eating disorder bulimia. Some doctors even call it "diabulimia." "

There are a number of frightening stories in this article about women facing this problem. Take insulin, feel good, perhaps get plump or risk your life to be thin? You can read the whole article here.

The "Treadputer" commercialized

Details recently launched a "walkstation" which is essentially a computer workstation positioned above a treadmill (pdf brochure). I first saw and coveted this idea back in March of 2006 on Brad Feld's post about his magnificent "Treadputer." I still think Brad's set up is better if you are interested in rigorous training.

The walkstation is designed for the otherwise sedentary population. Unlike conventional treadmills the walkstation has a maximum speed of about 2 miles per hour and is designed to minimize vibration and disruption to work. I think the idea is that people forget that they are not sitting. I suspect that the slow pace is better than simply standing. The science behind this design was the study that showed the people that fidget burn far more calories per day than those that are more sedentary. The walkstation creates the opportunity for us all to fidget and is part of the Mayo Clinic's prototype office of the future.

The global trend toward obesity is simply staggering. In 2005, more than 1.6 billion people world wide were either overweight or obese, with 2.4 billion predicted by 2015. The health care costs related to obesity are skyrocketing. Even back in 2002, the medical costs associated with obesity related illness, dwarfed those of heavy smokers and heavy drinkers. Some are proposing we initiate a campaign to stamp out obesity much like we have irradicated most smoking. Something about how we live and how we eat must change to halt and reverse this global trend. Perhaps the walkstation or other workplace innovations can help.

Week 1 - Back on Track

I am still Back on Track. I am averaging 1866 calories per day 41% Carbohydrate, 34% Protein, and 25% Fat. The weekly macronutrient ratios were a bit skewed by my  splurge meal at BoneFish Grill. I love the Mussels Josephine. Of course a single serving of these contains a whopping 41 grams of fat. I did leave most of the rich broth behind, focusing on the tomatoes, basil and mussels but even so, these are not fitness friendly. I also added a glass of the Rodney Strong Merlot which I find to be a great daily wine, although with being Back on Track, wine is no longer part of my daily dinner menu.

Most of my meals are fairly similar, since I cook only a few times a week for lunches/snacks. For example: (1) chicken, asparagus, brown rice; (2) chicken, asparagus, yam; (3) chicken, broccoli, brown rice; (4) tuna, celery, apple; (5) elite whey, soy milk, berries, oats (made into paste & frozen - great as snack). Costco recently started carrying a great product called Naked Nuggets. These are pre-cooked  frozen chicken nuggets with no coating; just grilled.  They are great for when I get home late from work and am starving. I can pop a few in the microwave (7 nuggets have 140 calories, 25 grams protein, 3 grams fat, 2 grams carb) for a healthy snack while I fix dinner. For a while, Costco was also carrying sliced yams, cut as fries, in a big bag-no coatings-in their refrigerator section. Just bake and you have healthy yam "fries". I loved these. But they were gone during my last shopping trip. My biggest weakness is some gluten free granola I found with pumpkin and flax seeds that calls me at night.

Last Sunday, at my peak of PMS bloat, I weighed in at 140.2 pounds and 24.4% body fat. Even with last night's splurge, this morning I weighed in at 135.2 and 23.8% body fat. I've been holding at 135.2 to 135.4 since Thursday, which means the bloat is gone. I'd like to get back under about 19 to 20% body fat so have 7 or 8 pounds of fat to lose from today.

I have a black tie event to attend on November 9, so will be pushing hard between now and then. Generally, I do best losing about 0.5 pounds a week to retain lean mass, but I am going to push for more than that for shallow reasons. I do not want any belly pooch protruding out of the line of my dress. I will focus on the weight training to help with lean mass retention.