Miracles, and Freakin' Sore Armpits

I did the first day of the 100 pushup challenge today. O.U.C.H. I didn't expect it to be that hard. I did 20 on the initial test, so I saw the instructions for the first day and thought "Tchuh! 10, then 10, then 8 then 6?! That's going to be a cakewalk!"

Um, it wasn't a cakewalk. It was bloody difficult, and I can tell you right now I will be amazed if I can EVER do 100 consecutive pushups. BUT I WILL SOLDIER ON. No quitting for me. I'm taking tomorrow off then I'm doing it all again on Friday. I think I may do Day One again because I had to do the last two pushups of the third set (the set of 8) on my knees. But I managed 10 for the last, maximum-rep set, anyway.

And now for something really extraordinary: I got an email from a reader yesterday. This woman reads my blog but doesn't comment, and lives in Chicago. The email is as follows:

When I first read about the theft of your bike, I thought, "Hey, I wonder
if she'd like Sam's old bike." Then I dropped it, because, well, because. I have a nice quality mountain/hybrid bike in my basement, about 3 years old. It is sturdy and well-made.... Contingent upon not-outlandish shipping costs, would you like it?

And that, my friends, is what is known as "God closing a door and opening a window".

Back on Four Wheels

Early Monday morning, my bike got stolen. It was in the shed in our back yard, with a proper door and everything...although the deadbolt was not locked. We got careless.

I posted about it on my regular blog, but I think people were mostly sympathetic about the cost involved...the real issue for me actually is that my bike was my main way of staying in shape. I got a lot of exercise on that bike...early in the summer I was riding four or five times a week. That changed later, when things got busy, but at least the bike was always there and I knew I could hop on at any time and get my heart going.

I would classify this event as devastating. I feel almost panicked about it. I can't afford to buy another bike. I can't even afford a mid-range bike like the one I had - it was $500 ten years ago. In fact, now that we are knee-deep in mortgage and kids and credit-card debt, we can't even afford a crappy bike. The only way I will be able to get one is to use the dregs of my (small) ICBC settlement from 3 years ago, but I was saving that $500 for something else - my mom is planning to take me and my sisters on a trip to NYC next year and we have to provide our own spending money. $500 isn't much but at least it would have got me some, I don't know, fabric or something.

It's embarrassing to admit that we're so poor I can't buy a bike...but that's how things are.

Actually I feel like I might cry now so I'm going to stop talking about the bike.

Belly dance starts up next week, and although I don't think we can technically afford it (see "Poor", above), I'm going to take the lessons anyway. If I am really dedicated and practice every single day, it will be worth the $45 a month. What I'm going to do this time is, I'm going to measure my waist now, and then measure it every month during the winter, when I'm dancing. Should be interesting...and probably more relevant than my weight.

Tonight I went to visit a friend of mine who has just moved back to town. She has a Wii Fit. She offered to set me up on it, and I hopped up on the platform. It was good to see that my weight is just above 184, still, even though I have been extremely careless about my eating lately. And the Wii assesses your balance and "Wii Age" based on your weight, height, and balance (which it uses as an indication of fitness). My balance was excellent - probably because of the belly dance - and my Wii age was assessed at 35...which I will be on October 16. I think this is okay - I am not sure how it all works, but it seems to me that if you are in poor shape your Wii age is higher than your actual age, and if you are in great shape your Wii age is lower. So I am happy with Exactly The Same.

My friend said I can come back and play with her Wii Fit anytime - so I am going to go to her place on the weekend, I think, and see if I can't work up a sweat. It should be fun.

I had a good time tonight, and my friend told me "You look fantastic", (I think she meant "thinner") but really I feel very down. I haven't got over the loss of the bike...I seem to be sinking into a depression about it. Hopefully once dance starts up, I will feel more optimistic about everything...and maybe God has a plan for a bike for me, which won't cost too much and will be even better than my old one.

But I still wish it hadn't been stolen.


Take care guys.
Shannon

It just goes to show you.

Last night I made what I would consider to be a classic fitness rookie mistake.

At 7.00 I decided to go for an hour's ride. I didn't really feel like it, for some reason, and three minutes into the ride the thought popped into my head, "I shouldn't be doing this". It was surprising how un-able I felt for the exercise. I thought it was just a weak moment, so persevered anyway.

The thing about my bike rides, which I've mentioned before, is that I've got literally one block before the sharp descent begins. Once I've made the descent, I'm committed to going back UP at some point. So I've got one block to change my mind about the whole thing.

I got down to sea level and started the fat-burn portion of the workout. This is an 8-kilometer ride, round-trip, before I start the climb back up to my house. The climb is 1.7 kilometers straight up - I zig zag, however. I end up going a good bit further than 1.7 kilometers, but at least my heart doesn't explode.

Weirdly, I found I was going uncharacteristically slowly. I couldn't seem to get my speed up. I felt heavy and slow and breathless. What's more, walkers and roller-bladers kept straying into my lane, forcing me to slow way down, or stop, many times. After each stop, I had more and more trouble getting my speed back up.

On the way home I mentally chided myself for laziness, and forced myself to step it up. It felt awkward and laborious, though.

I got within sight of the beginning of the end-of-ride climb and realised there was no way I was making it up that first hill with no momentum. I kicked it way up for a couple of hundred meters, figuring I'd get my speed up and hit the hill flying.

Instead, I hit the wall. Just about at the base of the hill, I ran OUT OF GAS. This hasn't happened to me in ages...years, even. I was totally winded, exhausted, and done. I gave it the old college try, but two-thirds of the way up the hill I had to actually get off my bike and walk the rest of the hill.

It was only when I got off and started walking, gasping for breath, sweating, and feeling incredibly faint, that I realised what my problem was.

I had not eaten enough that day.

I had a muffin at 9.30 AM, a few crackers and cheese at 2.30, and a few tablespoons of black bean dip with a handful of baked tortillas at 4.30. I didn't do it on purpose, it was just a busy day full of unexpected guests and untimely phone calls.

I had trouble making it home, my friends. Between the faintness, the muscle tremors, the nausea, and the dehydration, I felt terrible for the entire evening.

Once I got home, I threw some stuff into a blender and gulped it down in an attempt to normalise my blood sugar and get some protein going to repair the damage I might have done. Banana, cottage cheese, yogurt, frozen berries. I would have added some honey or tofu but was out of both.

I think the moral of the story is, if you're running your body hot, you've got to have good fuel going in. All too often we slimmers tend to slash calories relentlessly, while stepping up our output in the form of exercise. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that, when it comes to food, less is better.

When I was 19, 20, 21 years old, rowing for the UVic women's team, I made this mistake: only that time I did it on purpose. I thought "Wow, I am exercising a minimum of four hours a day.....I bet if I eat almost NOTHING, I will get really thin!" Well, yes - I did get really thin, but pretty soon my place on the team was in danger because my performance fell so dramatically. I couldn't keep up the exercise while dieting. I jacked up my calorie intake, gained back all the weight, and earned my "5-seat" back.

I'm beginning to wonder whether my tactics should change. I've stated before, on this blog, that I want to lose 15 pounds by my birthday in October. I think I'm realising that my priorities may need reordering...my weight may not be negotiable. It's possible that I would be better off setting TIME goals - for example, three hours per week of riding, three hours per week of belly dance, three hours per week of heavy gardening or housework. There's no way a person getting that much exercise, and eating healthy food, will be unhealthy.....no matter what the doctor says about my weight.

In any event, next time I feel like I really shouldn't be doing a workout, I think I'll listen to my body and skip it. There's always tomorrow.

Eat, girls, eat!!

My hands are all greasy now.

Whew! It's been a while!

As far as weight goes, I am not sure where I'm at. Last time I weighed myself I was about 185, give or take a pound, but that was some time ago. I just hopped on now (at 11.30 PM) and I was 187, so I suppose, all things being equal, I am more or less the same now.

I have been using the bike a lot lately - taking a few trips per week. I haven't quite worked up to five per week, but that will come after Guides and belly dance wrap up for the year.

I was doing well with the running, but that will have to be put off for a while - I broke my toe yesterday.

It hurt.

I broke the little one several months ago, but now I've broken the middle one (this is on the same foot, too) and it's a bit more problematic. It just happened yesterday so it's still early, but in my experience (this is my third broken toe) it generally takes about 4 weeks for healing, and 6 weeks for the soreness to disappear. My running will be put on hold for about that amount of time, but it's okay since the bike has all my lovin' these days.

I went for a lovely ride tonight. The beginning was nice and easy (mostly downhill), the middle was nice enough - all on the flat, winding through town (so lots of stopping and starting, at lights and intersections) - but the end was CRUEL. A thousand feet up, to the top of Mount Crumpit. I was pretty winded halfway through - especially since it was 30 degrees today - but I only had to get off the bike once, and that was to manually change gears (my bike isn't very nice and isn't very well maintained).

I'm proud of myself whenever I ride my bike. This is because I live almost at the tippy-top of the town, so no matter where I go, I have to go WAY UP to get home. A lesser woman would avoid the bike altogether, knowing this. But not me!

I choose a different route almost every time, and some are harder than others, but every one of them is hard going for the last 20 or so minutes. I always wonder if this will be the time when I have to get off and walk, but so far I've managed to stay seated. On Thursday I came up the Hard Way, and that night I did have to stand on the pedals to get it done. But still.

Last year I had quite a dramatic body change from biking. This year, now that I'm aware how effective it is, I hope to be able to use my diet changes, clever scheduling, and the motivation I've got from my online friends to really work at it. I'd like to drop 15 pounds during the summer, accelerating my weight loss a bit. I've been doing okay, but it's just okay - not great. I've kind of plateaued at 185 and need to make some hard choices to get my momentum back.

I might have to think about dropping white bread of all kinds. I don't make white bread or use it for toast or anything, but I do get french bread a few times a month, garlic bread, that sort of thing...plus I eat muffins which I make with white bread. Sigh.

Anyway, now I'm rambling so I'll sign off and say Good Luck to you all for the next week or two - I'll weigh myself properly for next post!