Category Archives: workouts

Day 55 of 101: Health stats and my workouts

It’s been a solid week since I switched from Weight Watchers to Calorie Count.

Guess what happened? I lost three pounds. I suppose all those points-free fruit and vegetable portions were adding up, because other than eating a little bit less of everything, I haven’t changed my general eating habits.

I started the week around 127 and ended it a little above 123. I like that trend line -- it keeps things real on days I gain a little or lose more than usual, and it's probably what I'll pay closer attention to until it falls more in line with my daily weight figures.

Beyond the scale, I’m physically feeling good, if “suffering” the side effects of eating (appropriately) fewer calories than I burn each day — I’ve spent most of my days feeling faintly hungry.

It’s a bit like an unscratchable itch … annoying. It annoyed me when I first lost weight several years ago, and it was often what made me feel (mentally) miserable — “Why can’t I eat more? It’s so unfair!”

But I found myself questioning that feeling this week. I wondered if this isn’t hunger so much as a different kind of equilibrium. I mean, my stomach doesn’t hurt. I don’t have a headache. I have plenty of energy. The foods I’m eating are nutritious. Maybe this new feeling is simply what it is to be less full.

Because you know what funny thing happened this weekend? Twice I stopped short of cleaning the plate in front of me because I was getting too full.

Notable, folks. Notable.

For one thing, neither meal was terribly large (a sweet potato with greek yogurt for the one; the other, a crab cake sandwich with small sides of coleslaw and broccoli). For another thing — I rarely stop eating when there’s food left on the plate, even when I’m past being satisfied.

But I was feeling full, and I used that as my cue. “I’ll feel miserable if I finish this (delicious, wonderful, I-wanna-eat-it) sandwich. I better stop!” Of any change I could hope for, this is the most encouraging: me, listening to my body instead of to what I “want” to eat.

What about you? Do you find it hard to listen to your body when you’re eating? Have you started listening? How does it feel different? I want to know!

Now for some numbers

Decidedly different numbers, but good ones. These are the charts/graphs I get through analysis on Calorie Count …

Calories in, calories out
I spent most days eating fewer calories (blue) than I burned (purple).

Eating fewer calories than I burn. It works!

What is it about those line graphs that motivates me? I love seeing that I’ve worked hard and eaten well. Maybe this is the measure that stands in until I can fully appreciate how good those things feel in my life.

Nutrition breakdown

Calorie Count recommends food values based on the National Academy of Science’s Dietary Reference Intakes, and this is the information that will send me to the books more than any other. I’m curious how to best meet my daily nutritional needs; how to keep my meals diverse; how to satisfy my sweet tooth and fat tooth without (consistently) pushing the bad numbers over the edge.

Damn you, calcium and potassium! Damn you!

Same info, straight numbers:

I want to see more green. (Click the image to make it better)

So far the calcium, fiber, and potassium are the hardest numbers for me to hit. I need to create an action plan to tackle them; I hope to write about that tomorrow.

My workouts

I feel like I did less working out this week, though my calories burned come to more than 2,400 (yay!). Maybe it felt like less work because I didn’t do any weight classes …

Hey look! I did exercises!

Highlights
» My three-mile runs were hard, but I felt good finishing each one. My times ranged wide. My Tuesday run came in at about an 11:45-minute pace. Thursday was an indoor run, and I pushed it hard to get a 9:30-minute pace. Sunday was another outdoor run and I brought it down to a 10:30-minute pace. The goal is a ten-minute mile in the out-of-doors by Thanksgiving Day, and I feel like I can do it!

» My hike Wednesday was swift — I think I cut about five minutes off the initial climb (from 37 minutes to about 32 minutes). I’m headed out with Miss Dawgface again today and I’m wondering if we can shave even more time.

» Saturday’s Body Flow class did two things: It kicked my ass (I’m still sore); and it made me feel like a rock star. It was the first class I was able to do every track in full (even abs!), and my form was excellent (the instructor even called me out for it during one of our poses!). I felt so strong during that class. So of course I’m looking forward to more this week. Maybe I can finally drag that husband o’ mine to class with me …

I officially love starting out my weeks this way — celebrating what good things I did in the week past. Happy Monday, all!

Day 41 of 101: Health stats & my workouts

Good Monday, muh friends! I had great week, and a great weekend. Husbandman got third place in a pretty grueling cyclocross race in Tennessee — go husbandman! When we got back in town it was time to get groceries, including tons of items to restock the pantry. That’s my favorite: a cabinet full of dried fruit, nuts, flour, huge bags of yeast. I feel ready for it all.

I also shared some links with you, and wrote about how awesome I was at meeting most of my three-week goals. And then there was my plan for this week (I think that’s gonna be a new thing; it’s just so nice for this list-making freak).

So annway, what made this week so good? It was the running. Two-and-a-half miles each training day! I averaged a 10-minute mile on day 2!

I’ve gone into each week of this training with the attitude that if the training says I should be running X amount, then obviously it’s what I can do — I’m not mentally preparing to give up. Not one inch.

And I’m already letting my brain wander to … a 10K challenge. As if the 5K is inevitable.

The rest of my food and do week was good — more good workouts (I had to take it easy a couple of day after a nice big hike that winded me); more good-tasting, good-for-me food (tons of quinoa! roasted root vegetables!).

I’m coming to expect that my weeks will just be good, and that some weeks will prove to be great. In other words, no bad weeks. Or if there’s any bad in them, it’ll be very manageable.

This is possibly the best side-effect of eating well and exercising regularly.

Water intake

Light blue area: daily goal of sixty-four ounces
Darker blue area: daily water consumed

Slow and steady wins the race. Saturday was Patrick’s race, when I spent a lot of time in the cold and far away from a bathroom. Drinking lots of water was the last thing on my mind.

Weekly points

Light blue area: extra+activity points
Darker blue area: points consumed each day
Maroon area: daily allotment of twenty-nine points

I repeat, slow and steady wins the race. I didn’t really have an oops-I-ate-too-much day this week. I also didn’t, though, keep to the 32 points a day I’d set out to eat. Maybe this week I’ll do it.

Calories burned

Light blue area: goal of 2,000 calories
Darker blue area: total calories actually burned (increasing with each workout)
Green area: daily calories burned

Yay yay yay! More than 2,000 calories burned! I burned an average of more than 300 calories for each run this week, which is nearly twice what I was burning during my training just a few weeks ago. The runs are longer, obviously, but I think I’m also able to push harder for longer. Go fitness go!

Weight

Opposite land: When the line goes up, I lost weight; when it goes down, I gained.

Starting Monday: 126.2
Ending Sunday: 127.4

If I’d had a bad food/workout week, I’d probably be annoyed that I didn’t lose this week. But as it is, I feel so good about my week that this number is inconsequential. For now.

My workouts

It feels pretty good to have surpassed my 2,000-calorie burn goal. I think in two weeks I’ll be ready to notch it up to a 2,500 goal. So far, I’ve felt good that I’ve been pushing my body just about as hard as I should before I get into the realm of push too hard. I say I’ll be ready to go harder pretty soon, though.

Monday
CYCLE 43 min / 373 calories

Tuesday
RUN 35 min / 283 calories
PUMP 47 min / 186 calories
FLOW 54 min / 206 calories

Wednesday
HIKE 99 min / 529 calories

Thursday
rest

Friday
RUN 35 min / 315 calories

Saturday
rest

Sunday
RUN 35 min / 327 calories

I was happy to get a hike back in the mix, but I forgot how much it tires me out the next day. As I inch toward my new 2,500-calories-burned goal, I think I might try to get the hike in and get a second Body Flow back in my schedule (I only attended on this week! I missed it).

Day 37 of 101: What I’ve learned in group exercise

Since when am I group exercise girl?

Used to be I felt self-conscious in the group setting, even when I found a spot in the back. And I would often measure how well I did in a class by how well I matched my classmates — usually by the end of class I felt I should have done better.

But now my fitness routine is pegged on my training runs and group exercise classes: Body Pump, cycle, Body Flow. In the many weeks since I began the 101 Days Project, I’ve missed only a handful of classes.

In that time I’ve grown to like seeing the same faces day in and day out (they hold me accountable without even trying — I wouldn’t want to have to explain a prolonged absence to the nice folks who say hi and ask how I’m doing). I’ve gotten in better shape; I’ve gained confidence in that group setting; and I’ve learned some things that help me perform better in and out of class.

May I write a little ode to group exercise?

It’s OK to go at your own pace

A couple of months in classes have cured me of my instinct to compare what I can do against what other folks can do.

There is almost always someone in class using less weight, going more slowly, who takes breaks; and the instructors usually give lower-impact options and make it clear everyone should find the pace/weight/position that works for them.

What a load off the shoulders, to be OK with whatever pace works for me. I’ve spun through high-intensity hill climbs during cycle class; I’ve taken a few extra moments to complete reps in Body Pump. On the flip side, I’ve felt more comfortable settling into some of the yoga/pilates positions during Body Flow — I’ll hold some of those poses long after everyone else moved into the next position, simply because it felt good and I wanted to take advantage of it.

Overall, it’s a comfort level with myself that’s changed, and I feel like I get so much more out of class when I’m not using brainpower worrying about how I look or how “well” I’m doing.

On the other hand: push push push!

My cycle instructor — at 5:45 in the morning — has this wonderfully calm way of getting us motivated. He starts most classes saying something like “OK. Let’s start this.” Like, the way someone else my say “Aaaalright! Let’s staaart this!” He means it the same way. But he delivers it: “OK. Let’s start this.”

I love it.

Anyway, his directions during class are exquisite. He breaks down our cycle routine into a handful of intense intervals and lets us know about changes coming up. He uses gearing numbers to suggest our intensity and the RPM numbers to suggest our speed — that makes it really clear what I should be aiming for, and of course he offers lower-intensity options.

What he also does, and what I’ve gotten the most out of, is that he throws out “this should be an 8 on a scale of 10 difficulty. This should hurt. You can do it.”

I’d let these little words of encouragement slip past me the first few weeks. That’s alright — I was focused on keeping up with those easier alternatives he offered.

As I’ve gotten a little more fit, though, I’ve listened more to his cheers to “Push. Push. Push.”

Class hasn’t gotten easier, ever. But the idea of pushing, and hard, has. It’s not enough to break a sweat — I want to explore my boundaries. My approach before had been to work hard enough to meet my boundaries.

The thing about my boundaries is, when I meet one it’s simply the first — the mental boundary I have regarding how much I think I can do. To meet it and not question it doesn’t do justice to what my body is actually capable of.

Some of my most self-satisfied moments have been in that cycle class when I’ve chosen to take it to a level 8 even though I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off. Usually I do. When I don’t … well, I never regret having tried.

The “push push push” follows me on my training runs, in my Body Pump class. I’m running two-and-a-half miles continuously. I never would have thought!

Form is function

I love when instructors explain the fine points of say, a squat or downward-facing dog. Obviously I’ve seen down-dog — hands and feet on the ground, butt in the air, legs and back as straight as you can get them. But to hear “move your shoulders away from your ears” creates that moment: “Oh right! Shoulders away from ears! I get it!”, and my back got a little straighter, my spine a little more elongated, and the pose felt more settled.

Classes are peppered with these little notes. I become increasingly likely to hear them as I get more fit — the less I have to concentrate on just barely completing the lift/pose, the more I can tune into the fine points.

“Brace your abs to protect your back.” I get this logistically, but my body registered it one day in Body Pump class when, I guess, my abs were strong enough to do the job properly. Bracing my abs fully makes my whole torso feel like a single working part.

“If you don’t feel this stretch in your quads, tilt your pelvis forward.” And that’s the day I felt, for the first time, this stretch running down the front of my leg. I use the tip during my static lunges, too, keeping my upper body more vertical by checking that my butt is tucked and my pelvis tilted forward.

In fact, I use all of these tips (and I’m sure there’re more) across all exercises, and throughout my day.

If I’m feeling a little lazy, I shake things up with a strong shoulder roll — up, back, then down to get my shoulders further from my ears and my back straighter. When I think of it, I engage my abs — standing, walking, sitting.

Overall I feel more engaged during even simple movements. Like I’m really awake to how I move through my little world.

So, thank you group exercise. I think you helped me do this!

Day 34 of 101: Health stats & my workouts

I was loving my workouts last week. My training runs are getting increasingly demanding, but I wouldn’t say hard or overwhelming. I ran I pushed my hardest yet in cycle class Friday — I got to that point where I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the circuit the instructor laid out but I forced myself to at least try; and I finished it.

Food was good this week, too. I ate a little too much on Saturday (and the scale was up a little Sunday morning as a result), but not enough to feel a wreck over. I’m loving roasted sweet potatoes this fall (in a leftovers lunch, for example); and I want to pump up my veg-for-breakfast egg dish a few times this week (for energy!).

Overall, a really, really good week.

Water intake

Light blue area: daily goal of sixty-four ounces
Darker blue area: daily water consumed

I was sub-goal only one day this week! Whee!

Points consumed

Light blue area: extra+activity points
Darker blue area: points consumed each day
Maroon area: daily allotment of twenty-nine points

I gotta say, I keep leaving my activity points unused by the end of the week, but at the end of each week I feel well-fed. In fact, I could have done to eat a little less Saturday and still been happy. Maybe this week I’ll try keeping my daily intake to around 32 points and see how I do. Of course, I have two-and-a-half-mile runs scheduled three times this week for my training and I might find myself in need. In which case I will eat eat eat, good good food.

Calories burned

Light blue area: goal of 2,000 calories
Darker blue area: total calories actually burned (increasing with each workout)
Green area: daily calories burned

Again with the busted heart-rate monitor (so I borrowed numbers from past weeks). I think I actually burned more than this, and I’m pretty sure I actually busted past that 2,000 calorie goal.

Weight

Opposite land: When the line goes up, I lost weight; when it goes down, I gained.

Starting Monday: 128.6
Ending Sunday: 127.8

Overall loss, yay! And after a week of good workouts my body feels strong. I have a feeling that over the next few weeks of increasingly intense runs, more rigorous pushing from me in my weight classes, and good eating habits, my body is going to turn into a calorie-burning machine. I dare to predict a sudden weight dip sometime next month.

My workouts

My heart-rate monitor is still acting funny, so instead of leaving this-here area blank I decided to borrow workout numbers from previous weeks for an idea of what I accomplished. I think my numbers were higher (my running was more intense, I could feel myself pushing harder in cycle and even body flow classes). You know, for the record.

Monday
CYCLE 46 min / 370 calories

Tuesday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 182 calories
BODY PUMP 46 min / 99 calories
BODY FLOW 55 min / 187 calories

Wednesday
rest

Thursday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 213 calories
BODY PUMP 45 min / 150 calories

Friday
CYCLE 49 min / 392 calories

Saturday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 224 calories (2.25 miles of continuous running yay!)
BODY FLOW 55 min / 194 calories

Sunday
rest

The only thing I missed this week was my (now) regular hike with Miss Dawg. I was in need of each of my rest days this week, though, so I took them in place of a hike. I gotta get out on a trail this week, though. Maybe Wednesday. The dawg demands it …

Day 27 of 101: Health stats + my workouts

I’ll pardon this week as one of those that was just … off. And for what reason, I’m not sure.

We headed to Tennessee Thursday, but even before then I was finding excuses to skip out on exercise.

It ended up being a week of minimal activity, minimal attention to good eating and water-drinking. But there was still plenty to feel good about: I did complete my couch-to-5k training for the week (running a solid two miles!); I enjoyed all of my food (a tasty Thai chicken salad at Cootie Brown’s in Johnson City, a bacon/apple/cheese grilled sandwich at Farmhouse Gallery in Unicoi, where Patrick competed in this weekend’s cyclocross races); the weather was gorgeous when it wasn’t pouring down rain.

So, an “ehh” kind of week, but I can’t feel too much hate for it.

Water intake

Light blue area: daily goal of sixty-four ounces
Darker blue area: daily water consumed

My best water-drinking days are those that start with workouts … I almost always drink about forty ounces by the time I get home from the gym, and that kickstart is a great way to ensure I’ll keep drinking water throughout the day. So one of the unintended consequences of getting off my workout schedule is that I miss that kickstart and spend the day trying to play catch-up.

Points consumed

Light blue area: extra+activity points
Darker blue area: points consumed each day
Maroon area: daily allotment of twenty-nine points

I liked my meals this week, but I could tell this was a little too much food for my needs, especially since I’d pulled back on activity. I’m looking forward to a week of more thoughtful eating; more fruits and vegetables; fewer points.

Calories burned

Light blue area: goal of 2,000 calories
Darker blue area: total calories actually burned (increasing with each workout)
Green area: daily calories burned

It’s not quite as bad as it looks. My heart rate monitor punked out on me halfway through the week, so I wasn’t able to capture data for my later-in-the-week activities. Even if I could have, I suspect I wouldn’t have come close to my 2,000-calorie goal.

Weight

Opposite land: When the line goes up, I lost weight; when it goes down, I gained.

Starting Monday: 127.6
Ending Sunday: 129

Yeah, I can’t be too surprised by this. Moving on …

My workouts

My hike Monday was so good, and I’m looking forward to another one this week.

But I shaved way too many workouts out of my week. Patrick and I traveled to Tennessee for a long weekend and that shook me out of my normal routine for nearly half my planned workouts. I’ve got to create some on-the-road exercise backups to keep me going during trips (we’re the travelin’ kind).

By the end of the week, I was feeling sluggish and low energy, and I was seriously looking forward to getting back to my regular schedule.

Monday
HIKE 103 min / 585 calories

Tuesday
TRAINING RUN 30 min / 208 calories

Wednesday
BODY FLOW 48 min / 122 calories

Thursday
I skipped out on my workout. Booooo.

Friday
I used travel as a “reason” not to do … anything. Boo & boo some more.

Saturday
TRAINING RUN broke-down heart rate monitor

Sunday
TRAINING RUN broke-down heart rate monitor

Day 20 of 101: Health stats & workouts

Well good Monday, good folks. How about we start with a little weekend digest? I made some last-resort coffee (paper towels!). Eight of my fifty recipes: done. And this 101 Days Project thing? I like it.

I totally skipped out on my cycle class this morning. Consequence: I was super crabby at breakfast (I might have lost it when Patrick pointed out that my toast was burnt. “My toast is NOT burnt!” … “But it set off the fire alarm.” … “The fire alarm is wrong!”).

But it’s OK. I’ll fix that when I take Miss Dawg out for a hike.

In other news: last week’s numbers are making me happy. And I’m gonna break down my workout schedule, with times and calories burned. Good? Yeah?

Water intake

Light blue area: daily goal of sixty-four ounces
Darker blue area: daily water consumed

That new rule I set for myself — no afternoon coffee until I’ve had my 64 ounces — I think it worked. I was only slightly short a couple of days.

Points consumed

Light blue area: extra+activity points (I left a ton unused)
Darker blue area: points consumed each day
Maroon area: daily allotment of twenty-nine points

I was on point this week, and it was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. My new strategy going into the week was to keep my daily points use consistent; I also wanted to use only a few of my extra points every day.

Done and done.

On my highest-consumption days, I ate 35 points and it felt like plenty. And come the weekend, I didn’t feel deprived (it had been on the weekends that I dipped deep into my extra points).

I kept my sugar low-ish (I made a kind of excellent chocolate cake that I’ll write about this week); I kept my dairy low-ish; I ate bread on the regular.

This coming week I’ll continue to aim low for the dairy (no cheese?) and sugar (no sweet dessert?), and maybe replace some of my egg-and-toast breakfasts with egg-and-veg. I’m still in pursuit of a food life that makes me feel good.

Calories burned

Light blue area: goal of 2,000 calories Darker blue area: total calories actually burned (increasing with each workout) Green area: daily calories burned

Goal: 2,000
Burned: 2,030

I did it! I met my goal!

One difference this week: I counted the calories I burn in my Body Flow class. And would you know it? I burn more in that class than during my training runs. I was pretty surprised.

I’m going to keep my calorie goal at around 2,000 for a few weeks, then I think I’ll increase it by a few hundred calories. The idea: that as I get in better shape, my body will be capable of more and I should raise my expectations to meet what it can do.

Weight

Opposite land: When the line goes up, I lost weight; when it goes down, I gained.

Starting Monday: 129
Ending Sunday: 126.8
Difference: -2.2

More yays! I have to give it up for the new points strategy. Throughout the week my weight seemed sensitive to even a few extra points — on the days I ate that “high” 35 points, I gained a little. When I pulled it back to 31-32 points, my weight floated back down.

I’ll repeat my points strategy this week and see if it plays out again.

Last week’s workouts

I’ve been keeping track of a ton of workout numbers: exercise type, duration, calories burned, tons of heart rate numbers (max, average, zone times). I eventually plan to crunch those numbers by workout type (example: over time, how does my maximum heart rate change for cycle class workouts?).

In the meantime, I can at least list the workouts I did, for how long, and how many calories I burned.

Let’s, shall we?

Monday
CYCLE 46 min / 370 calories

Tuesday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 182 calories
BODY PUMP 46 min / 99 calories
BODY FLOW 55 min / 187 calories

Wednesday
rest

Thursday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 213 calories
BODY PUMP 45 min / 150 calories
PILATES 55 min / 23 calories

Friday
CYCLE 49 min / 392 calories

Saturday
rest

Sunday
TRAINING RUN 29 min / 224 calories
BODY FLOW 55 min / 194 calories

Notes: So isn’t it interesting how many more calories I burned in my Thursday Body Pump class than in Tuesday’s? The Thursday instructor is a little more fast-paced, and I was also more in the “push it push it!” mindset that day.

Another point of pride: That Sunday run? I’d downed way too much water just before I started. With my first step to run I could feel a huge pain in my stomach. I’m pretty sure that was the water sloshing around, trying to rip out my guts. But hell if I was going to fall short of my training goal, so I pushed through. It hurt, but 1) I learned my lesson — be careful with food and drink just before a run — and 2) I learned a lesson about myself — I can push past discomfort. Discomfort doesn’t have to be a wall, it can be an obstacle.

It’s these kinds of observations that are so valuable. I can use them to, say, push harder in my Body Pump classes this week …