My sweet sister is helping me port my blog onto a new server and into Wordpress from Movable Type — I need better ease of use and guaranteed uptime. So no entry today, but I’ll post again tomorrow. –M
Blogging, etc
January 22nd, 2009WFMW: writing down weekly exercise goals
January 20th, 2009
A new year, a new you, right? It’s said that goals written down are the ones that are reached most faithfully. I know it’s easy to say “I’ll lose 20 lbs” and get lost in the clouds of such a general goal. My specific goal for Jan 2009 and beyond? Getting to the gym 5 days a week. I’m still rehabbing the broken foot so I’m not doing serious running at all, just trying to stretch the ankle and hip and get back into the exercise habit.
Saturday: treadmill, just under half an hour. Lame, but the gym was incredibly crowded.
Monday (MLK day): treadmill, just over half an hour. A bit faster on ye olde treadmill!
Tuesday was a bust — no sleep yet again, and the kids barely napped. I’ve got to fix this. At least I didn’t eat a bunch of sugary carbs to help my fatigue. And I went to an inauguration playdate!
Today (Wed) I have no childcare since my sitter is sick, so I’ll either hit the gym tonight when my husband gets home or drop the kids off at the gym daycare for a bit later this afternoon. (Last time I went, they fed Toot’s bottle to someone else, though. It’s a nice clean daycare and the kids are only there for an hour, so I’m not sure why I don’t use this more frequently. I get a bit nervous about it.)
Plans for Thursday, Friday and Saturday: I’ll probably only make it to the gym on Fri/Sat since Thursday is such a busy day (morning and evening Bible studies, no sitter, etc).
I know — it doesn’t sound very exciting but I’m hoping to walk further each day and start ramping things up weekly. Does it count that instead of a brownie for an afternoon snack, I ate a pear and a babybel cheese? (My other goal is to substitute hot chocolate for the brownies I’ve been eating all week. I make it from scratch, so it’s much better than the little packets.)
Writing down my goals and holding myself accountable works for me! Let me know your exercise goals in the comments!
Drop The Baby Weight: National Thrift Week edition
January 19th, 2009
In honor of National Thrift Week, I bring you 12 ways to get fit without spending a lot of money.
1. Look at your company health plan. Does it cover gym or other fitness costs? At the very least, are you using your HSA plan to reduce medical/health spending?
2. Buy exercise equipment on Craigslist, Kijiji, or Ebay. Large equipment like treadmills and ellipticals go fast on Craigslist, so when you see, it, grab it. Look especially in January/Feb and around typical moving times (early and late summer).
3. Work out to DVDs – they’re cheaper than a gym membership and you can easily Netflix or borrow from the library. Or trade with friends.
4. Work out to the FIT channel. There is something for everyone there, I promise.
5. Get outside! Get outside! GET OUTSIDE!!!
6. Actually USE the gym membership you’ve been paying for about a year now. Yes, I’m talking to you.
7. Make a weekly menu plan. Stop throwing away those veggies! Pull them out of your crisper drawer and put them on an eye-level shelf. A plan keeps your spending in check, and it can help mindless eating since you know what and when you’ll eat again.
8. Improvise your own weights: water bottles, cans, etc. or buy a resistance band.
9. Look for cheaper fitness apparel – Target’s Champion line is fab — but don’t skimp on a few crucials, like shoes and sports bras.
10. Downsize your plate: split an entree when eating out, or just order an appetizer for your meal. American restaurant portions are so out of control that sometimes I literally get ill just looking at my plate.
11. Barter services with a personal trainer — any PTs out there in need of a writer? 
12. Go for low-gear fitness: running, yoga, pilates, walking. If you walk around your neighborhood you don’t even need actual workout wear — jeans and sneaks are fine.
The first day of the rest of my (fit) life
January 17th, 2009I am SO proud of myself for making it to the gym today, my first time since breaking my foot in October. It was so crowded that I had to wait ages for a treadmill, and I only had 25 minutes to do my thing, but getting there is always 99% of the battle. Yay me! (Inserting photo of my totally rocking fitness teammates below. You may now hold the awards ceremony.)
And this brings me to my list of LA Fitness peeves: Why don’t they enforce time limits on the cardio equipment, especially in Jan/Feb, when everyone and his dog is at the gym? Why do they open so ding and also dang late on the weekend? My kids don’t sleep in; ergo, I don’t sleep in. I do, however, get up at the same time I always do Monday through Friday, and yes, early morning is still the only time I have to work out. Grrrr.
Good intentions…
January 15th, 2009
Good intentions
See this picture? That’s how I’m feeling today. The baby’s been sick, which means both I and my husband have gotten even less than the 5 hours we usually clock. This is the biggest reason why it’s mid-January and I have yet to get to the gym. I’ve done some yoga and pilates at home, but putting on actual clothing and driving to the gym seem like things other people do. People who sleep.
So: my “no excuses” motto? I need to figure out just how to put it into practice without joining the cast of the Living Dead. Do zombies get exercise? I mean, I know their diet is like sweetbreads-meets-Atkins, but maybe there’s some sort of graveyard health manual I don’t know about….
WFMW: Easy veggie ideas
January 14th, 2009
It’s always easier for me to eat fruits rather than vegetables (and brownies rather than anything). But here’s an easy trick I use to improve my diet and eat more filling foods so I can stop hovering over the cookie jar: Eat 2 veggies with every meal. Some examples:
For breakfast: scrambled eggs (I use 2 egg whites and one whole egg) with a handful each of fresh spinach and chopped tomato with a little parmesan on top
For lunch: salad topped with chicken, hard-boiled egg (or another protein, like a handful of nuts) — just make sure your salad contains a dark leafy green and another colorful veg, like tomatoes, carrots, or peppers. Or spread a tortilla with hummus or cream cheese and add roasted red peppers, cucumbers and sprouts or spinach for something portable. I’m a protein hound, so I’ll add a slice of turkey with the hummus. One soup I love is carrot soup, and it’s easy: cover a bag of baby carrots (or roughly chopped larger ones) with chicken broth, and boil til soft. Add a jar of drained roasted red peppers, a sauteed onion, and a handful of tarragon leaves (or basil or prepared pesto) and blend or puree in a processor til smooth. (True confession: sometimes I add a dash of cream at this point.) Add a small turkey sandwich or grilled cheese and you’re ready to face life again.
For dinner: just add a couple of veggie sides to whatever you’re serving, and eat those first. Instead of mashed potatoes, try roasting cauliflower and pureeing it, or pureeing cooked lima beans with fresh garlic and salt (also good as a dip). With 2 kids, I don’t have time for complicated dinners, and the new Steamers frozen vegetables make meals even easier — we love the green peas as well as the brocc/cauliflower mix with cheese sauce.
If you don’t want to cook, just pass a crudite plate of raw veggies with any meal or keep them handy for snacktime. (This is especially effective if you are a mindless snacker or need that crunch to feel satisfied.)
Eating my veggies the easy way works for me! For more works for me ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!
Exercise demons: what’s holding YOU back?
January 13th, 2009
exercise demons -- what's holding you back?
Approximately 6 minutes into my yoga program this morning, the baby woke up and wouldn’t go back to sleep. Hey, at least I got 6 minutes in. But this year’s motto is “No Excuses!” So here are my personal exercise demons, with suggestions on how to overcome them:
Demon 1: Lack of sleep. Frankly, my 2nd baby hasn’t slept much since she was born. She’s almost a year old and she still wakes up at least 3 times each night. I’ve gotten about 5 hours of sleep max for a year now. Needless to say, this leaves me perpetually exhaustedzzzzzz. See?
Solutions: Put baby to bed in minivan outside Take turns with my husband to get up with the baby, on the one night on, one night off principle. Go to bed earlier. Nap when the kids nap. Sleep-train the baby (we’re doing this, but it’s slow going).
Demon 2: It’s cold outside. You know how it goes: who wants to get out of a warm, cozy bed to run in the dark or do yoga in an ice-cold living room? (Imagine that I’m saying this in a feeble voice from under my down comforter.)
Solutions: Sleep in workout clothes. Drink tea or coffee before exercising. Set small goals, like “just 10 minutes” — inevitably, I keep going once I start, but the minimal expectations lowball me into getting out of bed. (Shame! it’s the new black!)
Demon 3: No time. I have 2 kids, both in diapers, whom I love to death but who would suck everything out of me if they could. This includes exercise, recharge time (a pipe dream, but still), mealtime, and sleep. It’s the nature of the little beasts.
Solutions: Hey, you know who *also* has 24 hours in his day? Michael Phelps. So take back your day, in as small increments as you need. For me, this means getting up a minimum of an hour earlier than my kids, around 5-5:30am. My husband is still sleeping, so I can head to the gym for a quick workout. If the morning goes badly, I can exercise in the den while the kids eat lunch in the kitchen (it’s all one big room, so put down the phone). If there’s no getting away from the kids, throw them in the stroller and head outside.
Of course I have more than three exercise demons, so expect more tomorrow. What keeps you from exercising? Share, share. And if you have more solutions for me, bring ‘em on!
Floor exercises
January 12th, 2009I fell down my porch steps while carrying groceries and herniated a disk in 1999. After 2 years of HMO neglect, I got a new job with better insurance and had a diskectomy — but not before I’d put on 20 lbs.
Since I’m a writer, my job has me laptoppin’ constantly — increasingly the norm for all of us — and my back is the first thing to go when I get stressed out. Yoga is great for stretching, but hands down my fave form of bad-back rehab and prevention is Pilates. I’ve only done mat exercises, but after 2 sessions I can feel a difference. I feel…taller. Stronger. Kickassier. (At any rate, I lose that simian, knuckle-dragging walk and stand up straight like my momma likes.)
My 2 favorite basic DVDs are Karen Voight’s Pilates Core Power and Pilates Method: Perfect Mix by Jennifer Kries. Both DVDs have clear instructions and (important!) UN-ANNOYING MUSIC.
Calling all Pilates fans: what are your faves for beginners, and do you have any favorite non-basic DVDs?
Shake it, baby!
January 12th, 2009Confession: I love this show on FitTV.
The lovely boot that I had to wear for my stress fracture was about half an inch higher than the sneaker I wore on the other foot, so by the time I got the boot off, my left hip felt permanently hitched up. The Shimmy girls came to my rescue! (That is totally my husband’s dream sequence, I just know it.) Several Egyptian steps and Turkish figure eights later and I can feel my hip starting to relax into proper alignment.
Note: bellydancing is simultaneously easier and harder than you think. It’s just easy enough to be loads of fun, and hard enough to make you realize that you are getting a serious workout with even the simplest moves. Bonus: you can do it barefoot! it includes arm-waving and head-nodding! Coin belts are optional, but compared to the usual fitness gear, they rawk!
A funny thing happened on the way to my blog…
January 12th, 2009When I first bought the dropthebabyweight.com domain a few months ago, I thought: “Enough’s enough — I have GOT to lose this baby weight.” I was 9 months out from baby #2 and I hadn’t lost a pound. But what’s more American than losing weight — well, except for that 80%-of-Americans-are-overweight statistic? That’s right: BLOGGING about losing weight.
I was rarin’ to go: I signed up for a fitness bootcamp. I bought new sneakers. I bought some workout clothes. I bought copies of Shape, Fitness, Women’s Health, and more. I got up at 5am, ate a banana and drank some water, and went to the local Catholic school campus to run, do jumping jacks, bear crawls, star jumps, pushups, situps, stretches, more running, more pushups, planks, more running… you get the idea. On the 4th day I was able to button my pre-pregnancy jeans! They were my former “fat” jeans, but still. A nice jumpstart to my weight loss efforts.
Then, 3 weeks into the 4-week bootcamp, I got a stress fracture. Y’all, I died. The pain was bad, but I also had to spend November up to Christmas hobbling around in a boot or just lying on the sofa. 6 weeks of doing nothing but catching up on the last season of “Lost.” I was distressed and depressed.
But the boot came off just before Christmas. No more Frankenstein-like gait! Now I’m climbing gingerly back on the exercise wagon. Join me!