Recently in Fitness & Exercise Category

Last Fall I fell off the exercise wagon, and fell hard. I didn't go to the gym at all after Halloween, and frankly, I had been slacking before that. A combination of just plain being busy and a general lack of motivation completely derailed my workouts and most of my healthy eating. I mean, I didn't eat crap constantly or anything, but let's just say I had more than my share of Christmas cookies this year. And that there is now a "section of shame" in my closet with pants that don't fit me anymore. Wow, do I hate admitting that, but it is a truth I have to face.

So now I'm starting again. Back to the gym, back to counting carbs like a good diabetic, back to not baking except on special occasions. No more trips to Starbucks and no eating free donuts or bagels when they show up at work. And it's not so bad, or at least it won't be. I know I'm happier and I feel better physically when I'm working out regularly and eating the right way. I just have to get through the first two or three weeks of being sore and exhausted as my muscles remember how to exercise again.

And boy do they have some remembering to do. It's really not fair that it is so easy to lose fitness and so much work to get back in to shape. My core still feels pretty strong, but the rest of me is in sad shape. One of the ways I intend to keep it interesting is to go through and do each of the fitness DVDs I have. There are some that I've never even tried! Tonight I grabbed a kettlebell workout and it was a disaster. Right at the start there was this move where you have to hold the bell above your head, get down on the floor and then get back up again, and I hoisted the weight above my head...and then kind of fell over instead of lowering myself to the floor and getting back up. A point in my favor though - I didn't just give up. I grabbed another, slightly easier DVD and fought my way through it.

It's a little humiliating to basically be back at the absolute novice level, but I keep reminding myself that if I keep at it, I'll get back to being as strong as I was. I just have to be patient. I suck at being patient, but it's not like there's an alternative, so here I go. Maybe this time I'll even master doing a proper pushup.

So I come back, write two posts and wander off again. Whoops. I guess my focus still needs a little work. Let's blame the new TV season, although, honestly, I haven't even started watching any new shows. I'd kind of like to try that Flash Forward show, but I've missed the first couple of episodes, so I have to get caught up on that one.

Another area where I've been slacking is working out. Some days I was working late, other days I had house-related stuff that had to get done, and then other days I just didn't feel like going to the gym. Except that what I forget is how much happier I am when I do go to the gym. So Internet, guess what? You get to be my workout buddy. I'm going to give setting goals and publicly naming them a shot. You get to hold me to them.

This week, my goal was to try to get back into my routine. I made it to kickboxing and abs on Wednesday, survived a return to spinning last night, and I have every intention of going to kickboxing tonight. A decent start, right?

Next week's goal: Add working out with weights back onto the schedule. I'm really more of a cardio person, but every single study says that weights are important too. Time to stop avoiding them.

A while back I wrote about my fondness for new fitness equipment, and wondered about kettlebells and the Wii Fit. Well, since then, I've acquired both. They put the kettlebells on sale at Target, so I caved and bought two - a ten pounder and a 15 pounder. They are an awesome workout. The ones I bought said they came with a DVD, but that just turned out to be a very short demonstration of some kettlebell moves, with no indication of how you might want to string them together or how many reps you should do. The Amazon reviews favored Kettlebell Bootcamp with Angie Miller, so I got that, and soon discovered new muscles in my inner thighs. Two thumbs up for the kettlebells, although if anyone has any recommendations for other kettlebell videos, please leave them in the comments.

The Wii and Wii Fit were a surprise gift, and one that made me very happy. The Wii is so much fun! I particularly like the tennis game. The Wii Fit is not the toughest workout in the world, but I do think it is good for me, because my balance is terrible. At the beginning of the game they have you take a fitness test standing on the balance pad. You sort of wiggle around and have to keep a colored bar at a particular level. Well, I couldn't do it, to the point where the game actually asked me if I trip a lot. Which sadly, I do. I confuse the Wii though, because I'm really good at lunges and squats and the yoga poses. I have heard that the EA Active game is a harder workout, so I may try that next. If you've tried that game and have any feedback, let me know.

Let's see...I started going to a second kickboxing class each week, which really seems to be paying off. My teacher actually complimented me and said that I'm getting better. Who knew that day would ever come?! I do love kickboxing, so it is nice to hear I'm making progress.

Pilates and Pilates-inspired workouts are my other new obsession. I can't do proper pushups, and I've come to the conclusion that it is because my back and core need strengthening. Pilates seems to be the way to get there, and it has the added benefit of increasing flexibility. We'll see.

The other thing I'd like to do is get back to running. My knee still bothers me pretty regularly, so I'm not going to go do anything nuts like train for a ten miler, but it would be nice to regularly run a couple of miles. There's nothing quite like that feeling. I just have to find the time to fit it in to my schedule.

I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for fitness gadgets. It is one part magical thinking, as in, if I find the perfect fitness tool all of my problems will be solved and I'll be instantly as fit as I want to be, and one part ooh look, shiny new cool thing! I have multiple aerobic steps, including a cheapo one that is too short (Seamus likes to stand on it so he can see out the window more easily), a fancy tall wooden one that wobbled, and the one that I currently use, a double decker affair that is actually very good. I have a balance ball and a resistance band. I have dumbbells in weights ranging from five to 12, and two sets of legs weights. Lately every time I go by the fitness section at Target I catch myself eyeing the kettle bells speculatively. After all, they've been mentioned in Shape, Self and Women's Health. Hmm...maybe I have a small obsession with fitness magazines too.

I also have a whole shelf full of exercise videos and DVDs - cardio focused and weights focused, Pilates and kickboxing, and ones that target specific spots. Now, while you do need some variety in your workouts, you don't need quite that much variety. The secret to getting exercise videos to getting exercise videos to work for you is to do them on a consistent basis.

Most recently I've been wondering about the Wii. A bunch of different people have referenced using it as a fitness tool on their blogs, and it does look like fun. My former boss is a fan too. The devil on my shoulder says "Gadgety goodness! Go for it!" The angel on my shoulder says "Do you really think a video game will give you as good a workout as getting up off your ass and going to the gym?" (My shoulder angel swears a surprisingly large percentage of the time.) The devil counters with "But what about when you don't make it to the gym? They have yoga..." Then I look at the angel and wail "Yoga! I miss yoga and it doesn't fit into my schedule at all right now." The angel crosses his arms, raises a skeptical eyebrow and mutters something I don't quite catch under his breath. The devil cackles and swings his arm as if he's playing tennis on the Wii.

What say you, Internet? Have you tried the Wii? Does it actually provide a workout?

• I have just realized that two of my favorite TV shows, Life on NBC and Lost on ABC are now scheduled against each other. The horror! Thank goodness for recording/downloading technology, because it is not fair to ask me to choose between Charlie Crews and Dani Reese and Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley et al.

• I would like to state, for the record, that in IVF embryos are not implanted into the woman's uterus. They are transferred. If the doctors could implant the embryos, IVF would have a 100% success rate. I really wish the people writing articles about this octuplet lady and her very irresponsible doctors would do some basic fucking research. The next time I read an article saying they implanted eight embryos, my head may very well explode.

• My workout streak continues, although I may have undercut the effectiveness of today's workout due to eating a cupcake. This was not just any cupcake though. It was organic and gourmet and purchased at a fancy bakery for a work celebration. It was also totally delicious and completely worth the calories. I have no regrets.

• Speaking of the gym, they've just renovated the one I go to, and now all these new people are clogging up the place. They actually had to turn someone away from my weight lifting class tonight, because they were out of the weight bars. I do not care for this development. And! And! There are these annoying people who have this fancy aerobics class after our class who are complete fanatics. They show up for their class half an hour early and line up outside the classroom, glaring in at us. We've had actual showdowns with them storming into our class while we're still cooling down or getting in our way as we try to put our equipment away. It got so bad that the gym powers that be moved their class start time back 15 minutes. Tonight they barged in anyway, even though their stupid class wasn't starting for another 12 minutes. Their teacher wasn't even there yet. Those freaks need to watch their backs is all I'm sayin'. It would be tragic if a weight fell on someone's foot or something. You know, in the mad scramble to get everything put away quickly.

• Excellent customer service saves the day. I was responsible for ordering flowers for someone on my team. I ordered from ProFlowers and did not have the greatest experience, as the flowers arrived very late in the day. Not only that, but I got an email saying the flowers had been delivered when they had not yet arrived. So I sent them an email expressing my discontent, and they refunded the delivery charge and offered me free replacement flowers. I didn't need the replacement flowers since they did eventually get delivered, but I was quite pleased with their decision to refund the shipping charge. And just like that, they've earned my repeat business. That's the way to run a company.

• ...yeah, that's all I've got.

So far so good with Fitness February. I'm giving myself an A for week one. I made it to the gym for weights on Monday, cardio on Tuesday, kickboxing on Wednesday and Spinning class last night. And as I suspected would happen, there were no accidents on 270 as I was driving home last night. So I guess that is the agreement - I go to the gym, and the highways stay clear. Watch out for next Thursday, because I have plans after work and won't be able to go to the gym. But! I do plan to work out in the morning instead, so perhaps we'll get a reprieve.

Don't believe me? I got up early and did 30 Day Shred this morning because I have to run some errands after work tonight. I'm feeling very virtuous, and surprisingly energized. Morning exercise can go either way with me, because I am just not a morning person. Luckily, today went the good way, and I do not feel the urge to immediately return to bed. Facing Jillian first thing in the morning is tough though.

Overall, getting back on my workout schedule has me feeling great, if a little sore. I need to find a way to bottle this feeling and pull it out when I start getting lazy. Perhaps this note will help:

Dear Future Self,

You like everything better when you work out. Stop making excuses, get off the couch, and go exercise! It will be worth it.

Love,
February 2009 Self