Go Big, Limp Home

I’m on day 3 of beautiful badass and today I did my first jog/run (with the aid of zombies) I find it amusing how the badass program (selected the weight loss one for starters because well that’s the first goal aside from becoming crazy strong) is a nice easy workout (easy also means low fitocracy points, oh well). Yes I am sore and it’s working, but it’s not like a pumped up hour long workout, it’s easy to finish and I feel the burn afterwards. Then there’s the C25k program, which right now has me intimidated to even start. I’m glad I signed up to do a 5k.. .that might actually force me to do it.. but in the same breath... wtf did I get myself into? It should be a fun 5k, not the Run for Your Lives obstacle 5k, this one is just run and get covered in colors and end up looking light an art class gone wrong. It’s quite possible that when I go into work the next day (or week) I will still be colored at least a little bit. Better make sure not to touch the cat before I’ve jumped in the shower for an hour or so.

Doing a crazy amount of climbing... I’m getting better and moving on to some of the more challenging climbs. Pretty good recovery given my sprained ankle in February, and I’m thinking more mental here than actual sprain recovery time. I love this sport so much, it’s like a breath of fresh air every time : ) I did manage to cut up my one hand from climbing so frequently, and during my run today I cut my ankle. Hard core or stupid, take your pick.

Been eating food, which is good. Cooking more which is also good. On other non-healthy/fitness news I’ve picked up my violin again. As of right now I’ve managed to play a scale and break my E string while tuning it. Not bad for having the violin sit in a closet untouched for 10+ years. I’m getting new strings for it and hopefully I’ll be able to re-string it and tune it up (again) and start playing more things.

Got a lot of work to do this week (at work) along with general working out. Then fly to Seattle for a party! Woot!

Turning Over a New Leaf

So I haven’t written here in a long time, but I’m turning over a new leaf and I do find that writing is a very cathartic activity so maybe I’ll actually continue and stick with this for a while. A lot of stuff on here will be semi-fitness and health related. Not because I find it so utterly fascinating to talk about but because I’m hoping that writing it out will force me to be held accountable to the unknown masses of the internet. I’ll also touch on my garden, life with foxes in the back yard, knitting, and general thoughts and wonderings that I come across. That being said, let’s start with this fitness thing....

Recently I’ve jumped back onto the fitness bandwagon. Largely thanks to Fitocracy... incredibly addicting (at least to me) and really motivates me. (I also just got ‘Zombie’s Run!’ so I might be addicted to that soon and increase my non-existent running program. Because of this I have lost about 20 lbs and have received several comments that I’m looking much better. That being said I still have a ways to go. I did get a personal trainer, who is an awesome person, but we just don’t agree on many fitness points of view. For instance, I shouldn’t lift heavy because then I’ll get big... yeah... from everything I’ve read and real people I’ve looked at, that’s not actually true. Yet I can’t argue it with her because she believes she’s right (and technically I was paying her for that kind of information) and so we clashed a bit. So now I’m doing things on my own. I’ve setup a ridiculous workout schedule in my google calendar which covers the C25k program (might not do) and one of the Beautiful Badass workouts (www.niashanks.com/beautiful-badass/) which covers the next 2 months of my life. Trying to fit in swimming in there too so I can get my scuba certification. This sounds like a lot, but one of the days is already a “fun day” with hiking or biking, several of the days are just wake up and go for a brisk walk in the morning. And unlike with the trainer, I can do these workouts over lunch and often times they only take about 30 minutes instead of 60. All kinds of pluses!

In addition I’m going to go back to my old “diet” strategy from Michael Pollan: Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not to much. It sounds simple and isn’t complicated like all the other meal plans out there that I should be able to stick with (also mentioned in the Beautiful Badass program, under a different name). I’ve got nothing against those who are interested in Paelo, or macros, or some other eating strategy...though some of the fad diets I do take offense to. I’m sure that Paelo works great for people, counting calories I’m sure works great too, but you know what? I won’t be able to sustain that kind of living for the rest of my life. I can eat food and not go out to fast food all the time. I can make sure there is a vegetable on the plate (my mom will laugh because that was always the big challenge when I was growing up) and I can not eat a huge portion followed by 2nds or 3rds. That is something I can do for the rest of my life. (Another thing my trainer and I butted heads against.... I needed to eat 1500+ calories even before working out, this is a huge amount of food for me and guess what...didn’t drop a lb working with her)

I will not go all out and constantly write about what I am eating or how much I weigh or what my measurements are. That being said I will post once a month or so my progress (as shy as I am to post such things, it is about that accountability right?) I will have it on the side bar and I'll do my best to take those measurements tomorrow morning (since morning is better ;) )

I have also eaten real food with vegetables for the past 2 days. The hot weather here has really made me eat too much fast food, mostly because I don’t want to turn on the stove or oven to cook and there’s only so many “cold’ foods I enjoy. I’m also adding to my calendar a meal plan for the week with some ingredients. The biggest problem I have is that I’m ready to leave work and I’m trying to think of what to have for dinner and I can’t think of anything, Or the things I think of I don’t have the recipe in front of me so I can’t figure out what I need to get. So I thought, what if I made a list of a few things and put the ingredients into my calendar? I’ll give it a shot. Never been a meal planner before, but lets see if this doesn’t help a bit.

That’s it for now. Turning over my new fitness leaf and trying to get back to being super awesome (physically). Lots of climbing, lifting, maybe some running or kickboxing or swimming, and getting back to my love of cooking!