Here Yesterday, Gone Today - Exercise

China 2003

Today, I realized something.  It is remarkable. Only to me, but that's ok.  Ten years ago, I moved from Montana to North Dakota to go to school.  After my first year of school drew to a close and spring had officially sprung I was walking to my dorm when I realized that my, *gasp* thighs were touching as I walked!  Well, it was only downhill after that and slowly but surely I put on 40 lbs since high school.  Honestly, while I didn't like my thighs touching, I didn't think much about it.  I was a pretty scrawny, spine and ribcage jutting out kind of girl.  While I would have preferred the weight to be muscle, it wasn't something I was willing to obsess about.  Fast forward ten years.  

High School 2001

My hubby and I have decided that eventually, not right now mind you, but, eventually we'd like to try and have children.  I occasionally will check out books from the library about the subject in order to be more prepared and informed for when we start trying.  One I read said that you should be your ideal weight before you have kids or it will be much more difficult to lose the baby weight and your other extra weight.  I'm not sure why this is what motivates me but it could be a super creepy documentary I saw years ago about a mom who had octuplets that looked normal, but half way through the show lifted up her shirt pulled down her "band" and literally folded out multiple layers of stomach skin for all to see.  *cringe* 

A couple months ago I read The Four Hour Body and decided it was time to start watching my sugar intake.  I also decided to give his diet recommendations a try.  I made it about a couple weeks before I started tweaking it to be something that I could do the rest of my life.  For one thing,  I need fruit! I don't need it in massive quantities though. I'll post more about the diet later but the essentials are no dairy, no gluten (along with my husband), no sugar, try to have legumes, protein and vegetables for every meal.  As much as I like his recommendations,  I don't follow all of them because I try to make small changes at a time so that I'll continue without giving up.  I also shoot for meat and fish once a week.  I do have a cheat day once a week but I don't necessarily double my calories and I still avoid dairy, gluten and sugar for the most part because if I don't I'll be doubling over with a stomachache.  It is crazy to look back now and think about how much sugar I was ingesting each day, when now, if I have only little, I notice a dramatic difference.  

So, the bottom line?  The amazing news?  My thighs no longer touch and I have lost 20lbs.  This is without  hardly any exercise.  Normally I do try to exercise regularly but the long winter, starting a business and intensity of work has drawn my attentions elsewhere. Ideally I wouldn't mind losing another 10lbs, but I also wouldn't mind being this weight if, of course, I had a lot more muscle.  The silly weight calculators which I think are usually incorrect suggest my ideal weight is 160 with a range of 143-173.  I'm shooting for a muscle 145 which means 5 more lbs to go.  And about the muscley part?  Well, I started tonight by doing the daily exercises from bodyrock.tv.  While her outfits aren't necessarily what I would choose, she is incredibly kind and her workouts are incredibly butt-kicking and most of them can be done without any accessories.  Today, she used a sandbag.  I substituted with a duffel back filled with workouts partners like an unabridged dictionary, the complete Lord of the Rings serious and a giant NKJV Bible.  With as many books as I could fit in it,  it was definitely heavy enough for me!  

Here are my scores for today's workout.  Tomorrow?  Free yoga at the Presbyterian church and biking to work!  Going to try Body Rock?  Let me know! 

1. 20 sets in 9:10 

2. 3 sets 1 pike, 2 sets 3 pikes, 2 sets 3 pies, 2 sets, 2 sets 3 pikes, 2 sets

3. 50 in 2:26