Nicer Weather is Coming

While it's been a long time coming, nice weather IS on its way to my little corner of the world. That's a good thing for me for a number of reasons, both mental and physical. I tend to have a harder time being active and productive when the weather is cold and gloomy. I wouldn't say that I get depressed when the winter comes along but I definitely have the urge to hibernate and do the bare minimum I need to do to get through the day.

It's also good because I can get out and be more active outside. I love being outside. I have dogs that need walking, a kayak that needs paddling and a bike that needs riding. While I know that hopping in my kayak at this point in the year would likely mean hypothermia all the ice is off the river now and the water is calling me.

I plan to start running outside as well as using my elliptical. I do love the elliptical but I know that it doesn't translate into functional fitness the way a treadmill would. I want to be out on the road chugging up hills and trekking along paths. It's going to feel good and I know that I will enjoy seeing the results.

Going to and from work means traveling about 5km a day. I had started walking it last spring instead of driving and it is a nice walk. It doesn't take a massive amount of time and when the weather is nice and dry it's a great way to relieve stress before diving into the fun world of retail. I plan to start that up again in the very near future.

As for my dogs, they've been pining for the open road. One is large and really strong which makes walking him on icy roads a super bad idea if I don't have a broken leg fetish (which I don't). My other dog couldn't pull a mouse in a cart but she doesn't do well with cold. Or snow. Or wetness. She IS happy to chug along behind the big dog if we hike trails and she is capable of walking long distances without seeming sore or unhappy about it but winter walks are NOT a thing she loves.

My weight has bounced around a little. I've been trying to eat better but I do tend to love comfort food and am an emotional eater. I also have kids that love to bake cookies which wrecks havoc on my midsection. Now, though, I'm down to 180 and am looking forward to being down in the 170s for the first time in probably 6 months.

Signs of Progress

So, I recently saw an image online that kind of made me rethink how I have been approaching things. It was basically a picture of P!nk and the caption said that she, by conventional medical standards, would be considered obese. She is 5'3" and weighs 160 pounds but is definitely NOT obese by any stretch of the imagination.

It got me to thinking. I know that I tend to obsess over the numbers that show up on the scale but is that really doing me any good? Is the fact that the numbers are going down slowly or see-sawing back and forth something I should be getting upset about? It has in the past. In the past, I have found it incredibly upsetting that my weight fluctuates as much as it does. It seems like the instant I take a day off of the elliptical or eat something that is less than completely healthy that my weight pops right back up again.

So, I've decided to start tracking things a different way. Yeah, I'm still going to keep an eye on my weight because I do have a goal in mind but I'm going to try and put less importance on it. I AM choosing to focus more on how far I can go on an elliptical in a certain time frame. Right now I am capable of doing about 15 laps of 400m each in juuuuuust under half an hour. That's about 6km or like three and some odd miles.

My goal is to be able to go further in that time frame. I've been tracking my weight lifting and the length of time I am doing things like planks and want to see those numbers improving as well. All of these things are real, measurable, and impacted less by my choosing to eat a slice of pizza or an extra cookie once in a while. I DO need to keep weighing in just to make sure I'm decreasing my body mass but I am also planning to focus on other things as well.

Numb Toes

In my last post, I talked about the fact that using the elliptical ended up leading to numb toes on my left foot. I was hoping that by getting new shoes that I would be able to feel every one of my toes when I was done. Well, apparently that's not a thing I get to enjoy. The last couple of times that I have gone on the machine I have ended up temporarily losing feeling in parts of my feet.

It's not as bad, mind you, and the numbness goes away pretty quickly after I get off the machine. I do think the new shoes have made a big difference and now am going to try and pay more attention to where my feet are on the foot beds in case that's making a difference.

I've also found a new way to track what I am doing exercise-wise. I ended up getting a bullet journal which is basically a cool way of saying a book that has nothing but dots on each of the pages. What I like about it is that I can customize pages to record the things I want to keep track of. It makes the analog-lover in me sing with joy.

I have a weight loss tracking page.

I had a bit of a run in with some pizza and emotional eating so sadly, I have to wait a bit before I get back down to my start weight. But when I do I'm going to start using the weight loss tracker.

I also have a way to track my elliptical use, since at this point that seems to be the main component of my exercise strategy.

In each of the boxes, I am writing how many laps I did, when I did the workout and how long it took me to do it. This should make it easy for me to look back at what I'm doing and see my progress. And, of course, I've added in rewards at the end of 5 workouts.

I'm planning to increase my distance slowly over time. I learned from my sudden urge to go 8kms that I need to take it easy.

I'll show what the pages look like as I fill them in or if I add in any other workout type pages which I am planning to do. As it is, it's kind of neat to be able to have it recorded this way. I think that the positive reinforcement will help keep me in a fit frame of mind.

New Shoes

For the past few weeks, I've been experiencing pain in my left ankle. It's not all the time, just sometimes when I take a step or turn my foot a particular way. At first, I thought it was due to a fall I had when skiing but after a while it didn't seem like it could be that any more. I know that as I age and settle more into my potato-ness that it's going to take me longer to recover from things but this seemed a little excessive.

Then I realized. It was the shoes.

Back in August of last year, I bought a really comfortable pair of runners. In the past, I haven't spent much on athletic shoes and they have lasted for years because I didn't use them that often. That's changed. I bought some good quality running shoes and wore them constantly. Since I work in retail and have dogs that need walking, I was putting close to ten miles a day on my shoes every. single. day.

Those are the old shoes. On the right, you see them in all of their beautiful newness. On the left, they sit. Defeated. Worn out. There are holes in the toes and the back of the right shoe is broken so it tends to slide down when I put them on. It's not comfortable.

Then, we got the elliptical and I started putting more miles on my shoes almost every day. It's no wonder that I ended up with no padding or support left. It was definitely time for a change. So, when my income tax return came in (thank you, Revenue Canada) I decided to shell out and get two pairs of shoes.

Both pairs have a lot of what I need. Cushioning. They cradle my feet like supportive clouds and I am in love for sure.  I'm still getting used to how bright they are but since they're so comfortable I'm willing to deal with it.

I got a pair of Sauconys again and my other pair is made by ASICS. I've always wanted to try ASICS but I couldn't justify the price tag at the time. Now, though, I feel like I can. It's important to have comfortable shoes when I run or work out. Here's hoping these pairs do me proud just like their predecessor did.

Taking it Easy

I took it a bit easier than I normally would have last week. I fell skiing a little while back and hurt my leg. It wasn't really serious. If anything, it felt like I strained something in my left knee and ankle and when I would turn or move in a certain way I would end up with pain radiating out of my knee and down the outside of my left leg to my ankle. While it wasn't overly uncomfortable, it was irritating and I wanted to let things heal up a bit.

I tend to have to deal with knee issues on a regular basis. I have actually had surgery on my left knee but that was about 20 years ago. My kneecaps don't sit on straight and as a result I had horrible knee pain back in my late teens. The surgeon ended up severing all of the ligaments, moving my kneecap into the right position and then stitching everything up. It healed well and I only end up with pain when I don't exercise and my leg muscles become weak. Since that is something I want to avoid, working out isn't really an option. It's a necessity. 

I went on the elliptical a few days early in the week and then on Thursday it was delivery day. I ended up  moving heavy bags of pet food etc and my leg wasn't happy as a result. So, I skipped yoga and took it easy for a couple of days.

That hasn't really seemed to improve things so this week I am back at it again. I am being a bit more careful and am doing things in a less strenuous way. This has mainly meant keeping the resistance and incline low on my elliptical and not pushing myself to go at top speed. I've been feeling good after my workouts so I think I'm handling things correctly.

I did 8km yesterday and 10km today. In the past, I have set the incline as high as 10" and my resistance level as high as 12 or 13 and that definitely ended up with me pushing myself a lot. Today and yesterday, however, I only got to about 4" incline and level 7 resistance. It may mean that I didn't burn as many calories but it also meant that I am not injuring myself further which is more important in the end.

I've also been adding in other activities as well on days that I am doing cardio. Yesterday, I added in crunches, burpees, squat jumps and back kicks. I'm not super used to these actions so I am starting out low and trying to build up the number of reps that I can do without hurting myself.

Progress is continuing. I haven't updated my weight because it hasn't changed much over the past few weeks. I do notice, however, that I am able to workout longer at a higher intensity without praying for death and that I have more energy so I am using those as guidelines that my fitness level is increasing even if my weight isn't going down as quickly as I would like it to.

Inactive Weekend

This weekend was a lot less active than normal. I was taking a first aid/CPR course for work and it went from 8am to 4:00pm both days. As well, my husband had a work function Saturday evening so we had that to go to. It was a lot of fun but it did mean that there was no chance to work out Saturday evening either.

It also meant that my food intake was a lot less healthy than normal. I did try and snack on vegetables and low-cal stuff during the course and my lunch on Saturday wasn't overly unhealthy but it was eaten at a restaurant and that usually means high sodium in everything. Saturday was a different story, however. It was a buffet and both the main courses and the desserts were amazing (especially the desserts).

Sunday was less good as far as eating. Again, I tried snacking on veggies during the day but lunch was just awful. I tried eating a steak panini at Tim Hortons and it was terrible. I ended up just having a tea and donut for lunch. Then, I made supper at home. This is what I made:

It's hard to tell from the photo but my Sunday dinner was a crepe stuffed with mushrooms, garlic and a little bit of bacon. There was some white wine involved and a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese and some cream. On top, I added a four cheese blend. It's rich and fresh and definitely not low-cal. I know that it, at least, is part of the reason why I didn't end up losing weight this week.

Today, though, I'm back on track again. Back to eating more veggies and trying to cook using as many fresh ingredients as possible. I'm back to portion control when I eat and counting calories. I know that all the exercise in the world can't make up for a bad diet and that if I want to see results that I need to be more careful with what I eat but in reality, there are a number of things I don't eat often or at all:

• Breaded food. I hate breading. I think it's a texture thing, really but in the end, I'm further ahead by not eating food like this
• Fried food. We don't have a deep fryer at the house. I also am not a huge fan of KFC or eating fried chicken as most of it is breaded (see above)
• Pop. I actually physically CANNOT consume pop. I end up with migraines. I don't know if it's just cola or if it is anything carbonated (other than beer) but to be honest, why bother trying to find out. It's a bit like shooting myself in the foot repeatedly to see which type of bullet is least painful
• Sugary candy. While chocolate is something that I crave almost constantly, sugary candies like jujubes, gummies etc are not something that I chow down on. I'd actually rather have a piece of fruit or some popcorn instead

I know that my food choices are not always the best but I do believe they are nowhere near as bad as they could be.

What this Blog is NOT

I just wanted to take some time at this point to tell you what this blog is, and what it is NOT. There are a ton of fitness related and exercise related blogs and websites on the internet. A lot of them are written by personal trainers or dieticians and are aimed at helping people lose weight or get in shape. Others are written by people who are giving advice whether or not they have the training and/or experience to do so.

I am not one of those people. What I am is a middle-aged potato. I am not trying to tell other people how to exercise or how to eat in order to lose weight. I don't have the training or the background to do that. What I am doing is telling my personal journey. I am going to have setbacks. I am going to make mistakes and I am going to keep going. I am not going to give up until I have achieved the kind of body and the fitness level that I am going for.

If you're looking for some sort of solution here, you're going to be disappointed. What you'll see is my personal and candid experiences with working out. I'm not someone who loves exercise (as a general thing). If you asked me three or four years ago whether I would be someone who went to the gym and drank protein shakes and chose to be active voluntarily and for fun, I would have thought that perhaps you were mistaking me for someone else.

And yet, here I am.

If you're someone who is on this same journey, I'd love it if you came along with me. I'd love it if you share your experiences with me and what has worked for you.

Work Parties and Cheat "Days"

So this weekend I didn't put in my best effort when it came to eating properly. Usually I try and make sure that I am careful about what I eat during the day and then, assuming I am not working, I make a home-cooked meal for supper that doesn't use a lot of pre-made ingredients. I also try and avoid alcohol. This weekend that plan sort of went off track. In kind of a major way.

All weekend.

Friday night, my husband and I went out for a late Valentine's Day dinner. We went to a local restaurant that has crepes on the menu. Mine was filled with asparagus (good) and bacon (not as good) and then topped with shrimp (healthy), Mornay sauce (ahem) and lots of melted cheese (double ahem). I had a salad and a glass of wine and dessert. I guess when it comes RIGHT down to it, there are worse things we could have had. We could have gone to a burger joint and had something that wasn't fresh or which didn't contain veggies.

Saturday we went skiing and I burned off a chunk of the calories that I ate the night before. Probably not all of them, mind you. I have a feeling that there were lots of them living in the sauce and cheese. Some of them, though, were left broken and bloodied on the ski trails. I ended up eating reasonably well for the rest of the day and dinner wasn't that bad. I made salmon, asparagus and potatoes for supper. I did put a bit of cheese on the salmon and I do use butter when I cook asparagus but overall it was pretty good.

Sunday, though.... well that was a different kettle of fish. My work was having a party and there were appies. Plus I was bushed from skiing again and I hurt all over so we chowed down on pizza. Delicious as all get out but really fattening.  When we got to the party I had a couple slices of cheesy garlic bread and a lot of carrots and celery. I let my hubby sample all of the chicken wings, pulled pork spring rolls and other treats that were laid out. Ah, but the alcohol. The beer wouldn't have been too bad, I don't think, but I can't see the shooters as being super good for me on any level.

In the end, I think I probably undid some of the hard work I've been doing which is regrettable. Hopefully it won't take me long to get back on track and focused once again.

Fun in the Snow

Where I live we can get quite a bit of snow in the winter. This year, that has been especially true. When you add in the fact that this year the temperatures have been pretty warm (for winter) it means that not doing winter sports would just be silly. One nice thing about where I live is that the area is surrounded by a lot of undeveloped land. Even where land is developed they have also made it possible for people to ski or snowboard without having to travel a long distance to do so.

Yesterday it was super warm. I have wanted to cross country ski for years. I used to do it when I was a kid and I really remember it being a lot of fun. We decided that since temperatures were actually going to be above 0 Celsius that yesterday would be a good day to go. We had a blast. Because my husband is military we were able to borrow boots, skis and poles for free and go skiing on the military base. There are trails all through the campground that are groomed for just that purpose.

It was super sunny yesterday. The trail goes along by the river for a little while before it goes back into the woods and there was a bit of a chilly breeze coming off the water but other than that it was beautiful.

The gentleman skiing away from me in the top left-hand picture is my husband. He's had more practice lately than I have thanks to the fact that he goes skiing for PT. It's not hard to have had more practice than me lately. In fact, anyone who had been skiing once in the last 28 years would have had more recent practice than I did. But, really, that's neither here nor there.

Flat trails are great. I'm super good with flat trails. Problem is, this area is really, really.... not flat. There are one or two significant hills along this trail. I'm proud to say that I didn't fall (the first day) nor did I take out the small child who was skiing with their mother. I had to wait for them to pass because really, I have 0 steering ability at this point and I'm tall enough and heavy enough that I would have done them serious injury had I smacked into them.

We were out for about an hour and went a couple of kilometers. Don't ask me how far, I forgot to turn on my tracking watch thing and it felt like we went a really REALLY far distance. Adjusting for me being a middle-aged potato and all, I'd say we did between 2 and 3 kms.

Did I mention I'm a glutton for punishment? I am. It's not my best personality trait but it would explain why I ended up going skiing again today. Except that today we tried a DIFFERENT ski trail. The trail yesterday was (mostly) flat. The one today was hills. All hills (it felt like). Hills BOTH ways. Yesterday, I didn't fall. Today, the only reason I only fell ONCE was that I took my skiis off and walked for part of it. Yesterday the snow was soft and fluffy and nice. Today the snow was nasty and icy and angry.

There are no pictures of today, you say. Nope. I was too busy swearing and worrying about death and broken bones to take pictures today. My husband wiped out about four times. Neither one of us hit any large trees but I will say that its a bit of a miracle. Whoever broke this trail felt that a nice feature would be steep downhill stretches that ended in sharp curves. Add in large trees right where the curves were and you have a recipe for disaster.

I had enough fun Saturday that I know skiing will be one of my regular winter fitness activities. Who doesn't like long screaming streams of swear words and a fear of death, right? All kidding aside, I know that once I get more practice in that I'm going to have a blast out on the trails. I just need to figure out how not to break anything important in the meantime.

Aerial Yoga

For the past two weeks I've been taking an aerial yoga class. It's been really awesome. I love doing inversions but when I'm on my own all I can really manage is a shoulder stand or a really sad sort of handstand against a wall:

As you can see, I'm not good at it and I need a spotter to make sure that I don't go tilting off to the side or come crashing down and break things (like me). But aerial yoga, now THAT is something else.

Aerial yoga uses a silk (think giant hammock) that hangs from the ceiling and lets you do all sorts of really cool stuff. Like the stuff in the picture above. We did that tonight. Or, something really, really a lot like it. Now, that's not me in that class but I was hanging out like that tonight.

I was a bit nervous about going to class. Not because of the class itself but more because I hurt my back yesterday trying to shovel snow. Shoveling isn't something well-tolerated by my back and this snow was heavy and wet. I tried to move a small shovel full and ended up yanking something. I babied it but wasn't sure how class was going to go. I was a bit nervous and then we went upside down. 

After tilting upside down, I feel about three inches taller, nicely stretched out spine-wise, and a lot dizzier. In fact, I tend to enjoy being upside down enough that I stay like that for too long and end up with a head rush. Its a great feeling after but I ended up feeling a bit queasy tonight.

I'm halfway through a four week session and I'm planning on continuing if the class is still available next month (its a temporary location that the classes are being held in). I'm already looking forward to next week.

New Tech

I have to admit, I love gadgets and one of my favorites was my activity monitor. I had been wearing the Garmin Forerunner for about a year and a half and I quite liked it. I was quite sad when the band broke and I could no longer wear it. It's an older model and I think that it has been replaced with newer versions so of course the band (which can be replaced) is really hard to find and has to be ordered online. That's frustrating as hell.

When it first started to wear out I started thinking about what I wanted to get to replace it when it eventually became unwearable. I had thought about replacing it with an Apple watch. I will admit, I love Apple products. I have a few different i-things and felt that the watch would be a good addition. Unfortunately they are pretty pricey and I have heard that they can be a little on the pricey side. I also didn't really need some of the features that the watch includes.

Then, I heard about the FitBit Blaze. I liked that it sat closer to my wrist than the Garmin did and I also liked the fact that you could swap out the bands to change the look of the watch (what can I say, I like trying to coordinate things lol). Unfortunately, it was still expensive enough that I couldn't justify making the purchase. My Garmin was still trucking along and working quite well and I was used to the features.

Then, it happened. The part of the band that adjusts the size tore. It still sort of fit so I powered on. Then, I lost the part that holds the free end of the band in place. It broke and fell off the watch and it would no longer stay on. A fitness monitor is doing nobody any good if it falls off and so after losing it a few times I ended up biting the bullet and buying my Blaze.

I think it looks darn good on my wrist. I'm still getting used to the different functions but I like the fact that I can register specific exercises so that it tracks my calories accurately. Getting used to everything else will just come in time.

Adding in New Things

This week, I've tried to make sure that I added in some weights along with using the elliptical. I've used weights in the past and always hurt after I do but this time I'm determined not to stop just because I am achy afterwards. One frustrating thing is that I tend to hurt more the second day after a workout rather than the next day. It's always a little ominous when I am sore one day after because I never know how much worse its' going to be on day two.

I know that many women worry about getting too big when they lift and because of that they tend to stick to lower weights and just do quite a few reps instead. I know that since I am tall I'm going to need to really push myself and there is likely very little chance I will end up getting too bulky.  I'm also working on adding in a wider range of exercises when I am working each body part. I figure starting slow and working up is going to be a better idea in the long run and will end up with less of a chance that I will end up hurting myself.

I've been pretty good about eating clean over the past week. I've been cooking a lot of fish and lean meat such as chicken breast and pork tenderloin and making sure that I eat a lot of veggies and not a lot of sweet stuff. I've had one or two alcoholic drinks but have kept it to a minimum. My boss invited me out Friday night and in the past that has meant drinking quite a few beverages but I was careful this time and only had one while we were out.

I haven't lost a massive amount this week but have been telling myself that slow and steady wins the race. Its also that point in the month when I seem to retain a lot of water and end up weighing more than I would normally. Here are my stats:

Previous weight as of January 27th: 182.2 lbs
Weight as of Feb 1st: 181.4 lbs (a loss of 0.8 lbs).

As you can see, it's less than a pound and has been bouncing around a bit (which is normal when I retain water). I've been trying to reduce my salt intake and work out more. I've been averaging about 3.5 miles on the elliptical every day and have been noticing a bit of a change in my body shape which is more important to me than the numbers on the dial.

In the end, I'm trying not to feel too badly about the fact that I haven't lost much. Here's hoping that I can get back on track and start losing again.

Weekly update

I started getting back in the swing of things earlier this month and, for the most part, it's been going pretty well. That's not to say that there haven't been some hiccups, mind you, but in general, it's been going well. I had committed to reducing the amount of junk food and fast food that I was eating, reducing the amount of alcohol that I was drinking, and increasing the amount of activity that I got every day.

In the summer, I had tried to do this by walking more. I was walking really long distances every day (we're talking 5k or more outside of walking at work) but it really didn't seem like it was doing much to reduce my weight. Now that the weather is cold, snowy and slippery, I've started using my elliptical more. I've found that because it's more intense than walking, I'm burning more calories and this is really helping things. I'm hoping that when the weather gets nice, the work I have done on my machine will translate to being able to run more easily and I can start jogging again.

I have a love-hate relationship with jogging. In the past, my knees were unable to handle the stress and although I wanted to jog I never was able to. Then, a couple of years ago, I started running. I started out slow and gentle and found that I was able to handle the wear and tear without my joints hurting me nearly as much as they had in the past. Then, I stopped making time to run and it kind of fell by the wayside.

I was using the elliptical pretty much daily for about a week and a half and then I ended up getting sick. I took a couple of days off but am back into the swing of things again (I think). I've been trying to do about three miles each session when I work out and then when I am able to, I am planning to up the distance. I'm also doing crunches and abdominal exercises to try and tone my stomach.

Previous weight as of January 22nd: 183.3 lbs
Weight as of January 27th: 182.2 lbs (a loss of 1.1 lbs)

Back into the Swing of Things

Now that the holidays have passed, I've been working on re-establishing some healthy habits. I weighed myself after the holidays and was quite sad to see that all of the weight that I had managed to lose had found me again. It had also brought along a few friends for good measure and, as a result, I was heavier than I had been in some time.

I was only heavier by a couple of pounds, mind you, but the fact of the matter remains. I am heavier. My clothes don't fit the way I want them to, and I don't like how I feel physically. I find that when I don't work out, I end up getting tired and have trouble staying up past about 9:30 at night. That's just not fun, especially on the nights when I am working til 9.

So, since this ISN'T the way I want to feel permanently, I've had to make some changes. I know that the way to do this properly is to gradually make small changes so that things don't feel so radical or difficult to achieve. I've started doing the following:

• Committing to eating healthy. Instead of hitting up the (delicious and oh-so-convenient) food court at lunch, I've been packing nutritious, filling, and lower calorie meals
• Getting more active. I've started using the elliptical that my amazing husband bought me. I've been trying out different programs and averaging about three miles a day
• Cutting out alcohol. This has been a hard one for me, to be honest. While I'm not a problem drinker, I do like to have a glass of wine (or two) when I cook. So far, I've been only having a drink one or two days a week and, when I do, it tends to be less than I have drank in the past

 I know that the three changes are kind of big but I have found that they don't FEEL that big. I LIKE healthy food, for example, I just needed to get off my butt and pack it for lunch. I LIKE using the elliptical, I just need to stop making excuses for not using it. The alcohol thing has been harder than expected but it's a work in progress.

Previous weight as of January 15th: 187.2 lbs
Weight as of January 22nd: 183.8 lbs (a loss of 3.2 lbs)