May 5th 2006 Exersize

Today's weigh in - 232 lbs. I know from everything I read that I am loosing weight this week quickly because I'm loosing water. I've cut salt back, and my body is enjoying the change! This is when physiologically I feel good - because I can see the pounds drop off the scale each day. The next phase is for my body to adjust and that will slow down the scale. That's when I get frustrated! But I know about the mechanics of weight loss - so I'm prepared!

One of my internal dialogues is around exercise. Here is what I know about exercise

1. Calories in minus Calories out - is the equation to loose weight

2. Aerobic exercise where you have an elevated heart beat for 30-60 minutes a day helps burn fat

3. Lifting weights (weight baring exercise) increases ones metabolism and keeps the pounds off and helps the body become an efficient calorie burner.

Great - I have the knowledge - I know the mechanics! My challenge is how to do it!

Here is my first confession - I dislike the gym - and "dislike" is understating it. I've had a gym membership for the past 7 years straight - I go for a while, I get myself a coach to make it an appointment to get to, I look for a buddy to join me - but the honest to god truth is, I find the gym unsatisfying emotionally. It's boring, and to be frank I have yet to figure out how to have "fun" at the gym. It also sucks time from my friends and family, fitting it in to my schedule feels like a chore. Now I still have a gym membership - but I can find every excuse in the world not to go!

My current gym membership is at Good Life fitness. I choose Good Life because they have a location in the Town I work at and the City I live in. Therefore opportunity is there. It takes me one hour and 15 minutes to do a 25 minute work out at the gym over lunch (driving time from work to the gym is 12-15 minutes each way due to traffic). I did a good job of getting to there when my work load was slow. Not so good now that I have a high work load and meetings cutting into my lunch time.

For a while I was doing the gym after work - getting home from the gym at 10:00 at night exhausted. My day went like this... Hear Chris get up at 5:20am - wake up myself at 5:58am - get up get to work - get home 6-7pm - eat - gym - sleep. Repeat.

One more thing to put into the pot... I have a REM sleep disorder - nothing serious - but biologically my body wakes up every 20 minutes during the night. For me to get equivalent to 8 hours sleep - I need to sleep 10 hours. The sleep clinic said I had two options - First take sleeping pills but they are addictive and eventually don't work (So they didn't recommend this option) Second - sleep more! When I look at others around me - I see they fit more into their day by cutting into their sleep time. I've discovered that my biology says "nope, don't think so" to that idea - I end up over tired cranky and down right bitchy with more illnesses! Body says - "you need to sleep" sleep deprevation is not a good choice.

So there are the excuse lines above - the circle in my head... (and I can hear some of you saying stop making excuses)

So lets look at what has worked for me in the past!

1. Walking - I love to walk - Last summer I walked every lunch hour - I can fit walking in at lunch because it doesn't matter if I have a 20 minute lunch or an hour lunch - I can get some sort of walk in. If it is raining/snowy/cold - walk at the mall - if it is sunny walk in the park. I can do this! In the evenings, Chris and I get out for walks too on occasion. And I love walking with him, talking - its good time together. Lately I've been working through an injury from a car accident I had in Dec 2004 that is lingering - but that's getting better with treatment - so my walking will increase as the pain decreases! Every day it feels a bit better, and I feel more active.

2. Home exercise - years ago I had a tred mill - and I wore the thing out - I had no problems jumping onto the tred mill in-between everything - I watched TV on the tred mill - It didn't take travel time to get to. I didn't pay $45 per month for a membership. I didn't have get a locker, change, exercise, shower, change, drive home. I didn't loose time with my family, and I could get to bed by 9:00 - 9:30pm for my sleep disorder. It fit into my life.

Here comes the "excuse" - our house is too small for a tred mill or other piece of equipment - I have no idea where we could actually physically fit one in - but I think I need to investigate how to make it work for me! I also think I'll get one of the Eclypic machines (no idea how to spell that) -as they raise your heart rate, use both your arms and your legs, and can create a bit more resistance.

This leaves the "weight lifting" part - now I do have a set of weights in the garage - I would just need a bench to use. I have a book "body for life" that gives a 20 minute weight routine that I can do. So I do have solutions here! Buy one bench and one piece of arobic equipment and I can fit everything into my schedule and get the sleep I need too.

Now it's working with Chris to get the solutions in place!

B.