Not a Day

Looking back on my former posts, all I can say is, well, that was a nice run with the gym.

Since then the gym has been closed for months, thanks to the Pandemic.  And then there was the wet and icy weather, and things finally warmed up.  I took a long break, and then I did the HASfit YouTube exercises for a while.

So I've been walking in Farewell Bend Park in the morning, tossing in Riverbend Park on occasion for twenty minutes at a time, less when I met someone I knew, like a former co-worker.

Today I went to Stone Creek park, a rocky area that the developers donated, which was a nice change of pace.

\

Not a day

I have only been to the gym on Tuesday.  Even then, there were three of us there, and I wondered if I should be there, given that it is an enclosed place and I didn't know if anyone else there had the Corona virus.  I wiped stuff down, and that was before I found out that the virus can stay for days.

Today the apartment management sent out a letter, that the front area would be open certain hours, please drop off rent checks into the slot or pay on-line, etc., etc.  The hot tub, lounge and exercise rooms will be closed.  However, since the lounge and exercise could not be locked, if you wanted to use them, it was on your head.  Be sure to wipe the equipment.

Great.  Well, I have YouTube, free weights, stretch bands,yoga mats, and I have a stair well, plus there are parks around and an empty field next door and Fred Meyer's outdoor sidewalk beyond that. 

So.  No excuse.  I do rather like doing the bike as it has set course goals and time, and the whole "Wow, I'm being an adult!  I'm at the gym!" sense of accomplishment. 

But there's a lot to be said for not getting sick.

*Sigh*

Day 40 in the year 2020

Today ends the eighth week of going to the gym and cycling.  On average, it's been 5 days a week.  Some weeks have had six, while one week had three.

The scales hasn't moved, just fluctuated.  However, I've gone down a pants size and my tee shirts are looser around my upper chest and there is a definite gap between the bottom hem of the shirt and my pants.  My go-to outfit for size change are my Sunday clothes, they are definitely looking a bit baggier.

I was cycling 45 minutes, until my knee hurt so bad that I went to the doctor.  I received a prescription for a ointment that is usually prescribed for arthritis, but after a week or so of using it, I no longer needed it.  I now cycle a 25 minute program, or 6 kilometers.  Two, sometimes three times a week I also do a free weight routine that is 15 minutes long, followed by yoga for six minutes, and when I can, there's the 10 minute calm meditation.  I am so grateful for having a smart phone as YouTube makes this bearable. 

I am making improvements in my diet.  Daily I write in my book how much I weigh in the morning, what exercises I did and jot down other health notes.  Writing down what I eat and the calories has always been a source of stress and so I've ended that.  I have taken to chewing my food twenty, thirty, forty times a bite, which makes mealtimes last forever and eating a bit boring, which is a good thing.  The candy is out of the house, and cookies are rare, usually the only time is when we have chicken pot pie from KFC, and even then I don't finish. 

So where does all this put me on the 90 day challenge for this time around?  Figuring 5 times 8, it's at 40.

Not a Day

When the bad weather hit, I chose to stop going to the swimming pool and instead return to the gym at the apartment complex.

I found that I'm more likely to get over to the gym if I've dressed in gym wear first thing in the morning, though when I go, it is usually about 10, 10:30 although some days it's been as late as 2 p.m.  I don't bother changing out afterwards.  I bought some new ebony sweatpants, so I look presentable when I go places.


I am reminded though, of the Spiderverse movie, where in Aunt Mae says, "Good Lord, Peter, are those sweatpants?"  His are the gray kind, with the old fashioned gathered ankle cuffs, like what Captain Sweatpants wears on "The Big Bang Theory."


And pin a rose on me, it's been five weeks of 5-6 days in the gym.  Cycling daily, usually 45 minutes, with some weights and stretches recently added in.  I listen to the Book of Mormon's Sunday School lessons, which include Youbube channels  Cwic, Don't Miss This, and The 29th Floor while cycling.   I've returned to a 15 minute weight set on HASfit, and for yoga, Pachelbel's canon in D major.  I've lost maybe two pounds, but my clothes are more wrinkly on parts of my body and the skirt I wear to church on Sunday is now held up on my hips at it gaps at my waist

Day 4

Today was a surprise.  Instead of the HIIT program at that time in the pool, we had water Zumba!  The class teacher was substituting, but it sounds like she'll be once or twice a week in the near future.  Her music set was all current Latin hits, with the theme song from "Zootopia" for the final set.

As I now go at a later time, there were very few of us there, no whacking the neighbor, getting splashed or having to rein it in so as not to get in the way.  Only one woman was bobbing up and down in the deep end, and I think there were eight of us in the shallow.  Hurray!

I haven't had the 90 day goal for a while.  I'm going to start it up again.  In one of the Youtube motivational videos I watched, one of the narrators told how she tried to hire a life coach or someone to help her with her fitness and weight loss, and the coach told her that if she wasn't already going to the gym six days a week, that was it.  So it gave me something to think about, to make sure that I am going even when I don't feel like it.

So I've been going to the gym and cycling 20 minutes, which is still thirty by the time I walk over, warm up, do the twenty, cool down, and walk back.  And twenty is the minimum.  I find myself going over the limit, which is good, even if it is only for a few minutes more.  My seat can only take so much.  Sometimes I add stretches into the mix afterwards, but not if there's someone else in the gym.  Maybe some future time I'll feel comfortable enough to do it regardless. 

I have complete four days in a row, and am now doing a 90 day card, doing an X on the days. (If I go Saturday, I'll skip Sunday, and visa versa.)  I did some dedicated cycling a couple of weeks and water exercise classes twice a week for more than a month before the trip to Utah, which helped me to move around better than I did on the previous visit. 

I've also been keeping a food/calorie diet, which had a hiatus for a bit during the visit.  (Did not want to worry about calories, especially when enjoying sushi!)   I think I'm done with the boatloads of pumpkin spice stuff I've had in the past couple of weeks, so I'm good to go on getting back to the food diary.  I don't think I could face another pumpkin Blizzard or a chocolate chip pumpkin cookie anyway.

One of the Youtube videos on weight loss motivation was given by this one guy who said, "There isn't any deadline, just do it.  Do it in 90 day increments, so you have goals.  Have 30 or 60, if that floats your boats.  Just don't beat yourself up if something gets in the way one day, and get back on track the next.  It's not a race, it's you and your health."  He also showed Dumbledore's Ladder, Slughorn's Downfall, and Muggles Beware, charts that illustrate how weight loss is not a simple slope from point A to point B, but more like a bouncy ball that tapers off eventually.

Another motivator said, "You aren't going to really notice anything different for at least three weeks.  No one else is going to notice for months, or until you're about half way through your weight loss goal. Don't let what you think is lack of progress stop you for continuing on."

Excelsior!

Not a day

July, really?  That's when I last post?

I've been exercising.  I was doing free weights until I got tennis elbow in my left arm.  I've walked in the parks and over to the grocery, and cycled in the gym a number of times.  Yoga's been a bit difficult, as I need to get down on the floor to get what I consider to be the "real" work-out.

I've also been going to the pool for the class for 50+, that has helped my flexibility, once, twice or thrice a week, followed by hot tub, dry sauna, and chowing down when I get home.

Recently, I've started following my Grandmother Bevan's example of writing down what I eat in a book, and figuring out the day's calorie consumption.

So, still here, still going on.

Not a day

Did yoga this morning, followed by going to the pool for water exercise class, followed by hot tub and sauna, followed by Dairy Queen.

Seriously, I got a sandwich and a milkshake for my husband, who then had me cut the sandwich in half and offered me a drink of the milkshake.  Had the sandwich, turned down the shake.  As I told one of the historical museum volunteers yesterday, when offered ice cream, "Thanks but no thanks; I' downsizing."

On a more somber note, there was a memorial sign at the reception desk, for long-time employee Vickie Dawley.  She was at Juniper when the girls were little and while Connie and I would meet there.  She was at the Parks and Rec. luncheons, and we'd say hi, and I saw her at other park employees events.  I think we even shared a table once.  Thoughts and prayers for her family and friends.

Not a day - July 4

I was about 45 minutes early to the Pet Parade today, which started at 10 a.m., which gave me enough time to take some before videos, go to Drake Park, visit with some former co-workers, check out the restroom, and return to find the staging area so packed, I only made it a few feet into the sea of people, leashes and dogs to make an after video.

Then there was the parade.  I found a place across from the Liberty Theater building on Wall Street. I have no idea how long it went.  There were four divisions:  Big dogs; little dogs; bikes; and odds and ends, which included horses, goats, and sheep.  Then I went back to the park, had a pancake breakfast for brunch, and then checked out the vendors, headed back to the car, made a side trek through the historical museum's Highway 97 exhibit, and then to the car which I had parked on Staats Street, a couple of blocks north of Colorado Ave.  The only times I sat down were the bathroom and the meal.  I made it back to the car, got a milkshake for my husband, and was home before 1 p.m.


I am amazed at my stamina today.  But now I'm going to take the rest of the day easy.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Not a day

I went to the pool for a fitness class.

Just another day in the water (the first in what, over a year?), bobbing up and down with all the other old people, when I thought I saw Connie.

And then I remembered she had died at the end of April.  I felt sad, but it for myself as I envisioned her being in the gardens of Paradise, enjoying the beauty of them, free of the fibromyalgia and the related poor health that had constantly plagued her.

--------------------

February was my last post, was it?

I decided not return to Parks.  Shannon, the fall/winter seasonal took my place.

I've still been exercising, walking in the park, doing yoga.  Some days are better than others, and some days my exercise is buying groceries and going up and down the steps with bag loads of foodstuffs or cleaning.  I do watch a lot of self-improvement Youtube videos and TED talks about diet, exercise, and weight loss.  One of the exercise videos I use is a HASfit 15 minute work out with weights that popped up on the television app, but I'm not finding on the computer's Youtube site.

Not a day

Sometime ago I read a TED talk, wherein twenty minutes a day of exercise was suggested.  Enough to get the blood going, not enough to cause injury. 

The point was made that it's what goes into the body that causes weight gain or loss, not so much what comes out by burning calories.

For whatever reason, I didn't post it here.  But I am still working on my fitness and food selection.


 

Not another day

I like the comments at the end of the article, "I lost 13 stone - now I know the truth about obesity."

He lost 182 pounds.


This comment I really like by another reader:

This is what i found in my fight against obesity. While dieting / exercising never tell anyone you know about it. No friends. No family. If you lose weight, don't mention it to anyone. If anyone says you have lost weight, change the subject. If anyone says you are looking good, say thanks and change the subject. Don't let anyone know your goal or your project or targets. Nothing. The first rule about fat club is not to talk about fat club.

And to that, another comment:

The trouble with that approach is that *spontaneous* weight loss can be a sign of serious disease. If your family and friends see you losing weight and don't know you're trying to, they may well be worried. So if anyone says you've lost weight, I think you should say (with a smile) something like 'It's nice to know that *someone* has noticed'. And change the subject.

 

Not a day

“Sometimes you get out there and your body is feeling great, and you don’t have to push it. Sometimes you get out there and your legs feel like they’re 80 pounds apiece, and you gotta do a little extra.”  P.K. Subban, National Hockey League

Not a day

I have only nine days left of my season at Parks. 

I'm starting to make the shift to off-season.

Twice this week I've gone to the gym and cycled.   5.75 miles, 178 calories, 30 minutes 65 RPM, 127 heart rate for the first day, plus I switched from Healthy Heart to the simple 3-4 and kept pedaling for almost another 15 minutes, adding on another 2.45 miles and burning off another 60 calories.  I had "Guadians/Vol.1" on the player, so I kept going until it was all done, afterwards I did a few moves with the ten pound weights.   At the apartment, I also did a full course of yoga.

Today, 5.66, 184, 30, 57, 125.  I don't know why I'm down as having burned more calories when I went a slightly short distant, and everything else was less, but I wasn't going to argue.  It seemed more strenuous today.  Other people came into the gym and there was an apartment inspection scheduled for today.  The apartments will be randomly chosen, so I don't know if ours will be, but I still want to be there should it happen.

One thing I do like about yoga and cycling is how I feel the next day.  I went to work and walked around straight and tall, and every step seemed to have more energy than usual, with the usual burnout occurring when I got out of the rig in the afternoon at Pine Nursery.  Still, my body carried through on the "Iron Giant" frame that comes the day after a full yoga practice.  I got done with my route and ended the workday washing the rig as it'd looked like it had been a target for berry-eating birds.