How Math Cost Me 2km

by E3 on July 14, 2011 · 4 comments

Written on March 24

**This was originally posted at my personal blog, Everything Comes From Now**

My knee has been thwarting my attempts to run for many moons now, which sucks because I am one of those freaky people that is addicted to running. I heart it fiercely. I used to think that “runner’s high” was a sick joke played on people who didn’t run, but now I catch myself making excuses in the gym: It’s just five minutes, I need to warm up for my weight workout anyway, I CAN STOP ANYTIME I WANT TO!!!

A lot of people who do enjoy running hate the treadmill for a variety of reasons I can appreciate, like the frustration of running for an hour and staying in the exact same spot. I happen to love that. I can people-watch without judgment, I can watch TV while running (amazing), or I can completely zone out until suddenly half an hour has gone by. My, my, it’s like I wasn’t working at all! Plus the numbers! I love knowing exactly how far I went, how fast I was going, and how many calories I burned.

However, my knee hates the treadmill as much as I love it, so I took the plunge and tried out an indoor track. It wasn’t as great as my beloved treadmill, but it was a lot less painful, so I guess you win this round, knee. The lack of numbers means I have to count laps and guess about the track length. I kept time with my iPod. Numbers and I don’t really get along, so after the run I was trying to figure out how far I went and how fast I was going. It took many more minutes than it should have, and a lot of Google Calculator-ing, but I came up with 3km in 45 minutes, or 15 minutes per km. I squinted at that number for a long time because it seems awfully slow, but the treadmill measures your speed in miles per hour, so that means I have to convert (hold me) miles to kms, carry over the unicorn, make it a percentage, ow my brain…

In the end, after a corrected number for the track length (I was off by, shall we say, a lot), and some laughter at my expensive from my number-inclined partner, I found out I actually ran 5km in 45 minutes. So apparently I win at running, but lose horribly at math.

UPDATE: Yesterday, I ran that same 5km in 34:57 minutes. Then I found the distance posting on the track, so I actually ran 5.56km. STOP MESSING WITH ME, MATH.

{ 4 comments }

On getting complacent.

by Probably Tabitha on July 7, 2011 · 5 comments

*Written on March 4, 2011*

In the past nine weeks of this year, SIX of my weigh-ins have shown me a GAIN on the scale. Not cool, people. Granted, I’m only up one pound from where I was on January 5th, but I’ve been jumping all around in this five-pound range since LAST SUMMER. (Oh, and in my last post? I said, “I’m kind of hoping I can manage not to gain all the way back up to 155 again.” And as of yesterday I’m 156.)

I haven’t been beating myself up over it when I have a “gain” week, because I’m still fitting into my smallest jeans EVER (size 4! ridiculous!) and I’m still fairly active, running at least once a week and hitting the gym a time or two for classes. Last week, I ran FIVE MILES. Which, for me, is insanity. I never thought I’d be able to run TWO miles, much less five. But I tell ya, training for a 10K (6.2 miles) is pretty awesome motivation to push myself during a run.

But I digress. So I’m not beating myself up over making basically ZERO progress on the scale in the past seven months. But maybe I SHOULD be beating myself up a little? What I mean is, I haven’t been so careful about what (or how much) I eat. Last night I ate like six homemade ginger cookies at our small group meeting. I’ve consumed an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers in one sitting, more than once in the past few weeks. I mean, come on: running makes me hungry!

And yet, back when I started seriously trying to lose weight and be healthier (almost a year ago), I was working out even harder than I am now, and I still managed to keep my eating in check. And I know exactly how I did it: I counted calories. It’s just that — gah — I am so sick of counting calories!

The thing is, it felt so GOOD to see the numbers dropping little by little, week after week, when I was on track with everything. I know I’ve come to a place where I don’t necessarily “need” to worry about losing weight. I’m in the right BMI range, I feel good (most of the time) in my clothes, and people are still commenting on how great I look. But this whole thing I started last April isn’t just about losing 15 pounds and patting myself on the back for a job well done. It’s a lifestyle change. And if I’m seeing those old patterns of poor eating choices creeping up again and I just ignore it? It’s only a matter of time before I’m back to 170 pounds or more, feeling miserable and digging out my “chubby” clothes.

So I guess I need to hop back on the stupid calorie-counting wagon, huh?

(She says after eating a sugar-covered jelly donut….)

****

*Update: July 6, 2011*

So it’s been a few months since I wrote the original post above, and the good news is, I’m back on track. The bad news is, it didn’t really START happening until two weeks ago. But you can read the latest update on my blog here!

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Bringing Your Spouse to the Gym

by Diana Antholis on July 6, 2011 · 7 comments

My lovely, sarcastic boyfriend sent me this article about a month ago: Don’t Bring Her to the Gym.

In this article by James Fell of Askmen.com, he gives “six damn good reasons why working out should either be done solo or with a friend who also stands up to pee.”  Classy.

  1. You Can’t Check Out the Babes
  2. She’ll Check Out the Babes and Ask How She Compares
  3. She’ll Distract You
  4. She Won’t Listen to You Anyway
  5. You’ll See Her at Her Worst
  6. You Need Guy Time

(And then he adds this in at the end: “She’s (his wife) got an internationally-recognized black belt in karate, and could quite likely kick my ass.”)

Now, I have to be honest with you, I agree with some of his points.  I do check out other women at the gym (as well as other places) as I am curious to know what I look like compared to them.  And if you are shaking your head at me saying you don’t do that – shame on you!  I know you do!  I totally believe that women dress for other women.  But that is a whole new argument.

But I also think some of these points are rubbish.  See me at my worst?  Seriously?  If we are talking spouses, we do live together, don’t we?  The gym is not my worst.

In a few of my past relationships, I would go to the gym with my boyfriends specifically because we had an agreement that we would work out together and train one another.  It helped us push each other harder.  This didn’t happen all of the time, but it did happen.  So the first time I went to the gym with my current boyfriend, he thought I was insane for thinking we would actually work out together.  Both of our faults for not communicating our expectations before hand!

So IITGI community – what do you think?  Do you work out with your significant other?  Do you think the article by James Fell is correct or ridiculous?

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Maybe Overtraining IS Possible

March 7, 2011

About a month ago, I was in a car crash. What that means for my workout regimen is that I can do low impact work (swimming, recumbent bike, walking on the treadmill) and I can still play soccer once a week (the sprint-rest format of indoor seems to be ok), but I can’t do much [...]

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eating disorder?

February 8, 2011

i posted this to my personal blog last month, and have recently thought it could be beneficial to the IITGI crew. i’m still plugging away on weight watchers with a few pounds left to go, and there are definitely moments i feel like an outsider. we always talk about portion control and making healthier options. [...]

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The Wagon: Stay on it

February 3, 2011

I arrived at a friend’s house for a party.  I was hungry.  People were buzzing around, drinking cocktails, and hovering over the food.  I took a look around the table of deliciously crafted hors d’oeuvres, but quickly realized I couldn’t eat anything.  The hunger pain in my stomach rose to my throat.  I felt shaky [...]

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Diet AND Exercise, or Diet VS. Exercise?

January 28, 2011

I was in my doctor’s office recently, and like a complete tool, he mentioned the five (ten) pounds I’ve gained over the last year. Which, you know, I guess is his JOB or whatever, but seriously? Anyhoo, my explanation was something along the lines of “Yeah, I know, I’m really trying to get to the [...]

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Does falling in love make you gain weight?

January 27, 2011

My boyfriend and I were pumped to enter into cohabitation.  This wasn’t only living together for us, it was actually spending time together.  He had just come back from an eight month deployment to Iraq, where he served as a Marine Corps officer.  Prior to Iraq, we had an opposite coasts relationship.  I moved to [...]

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On gaining weight over the holidays, and how I unintentionally lost it all already (and more).

January 24, 2011

During the Christmas break, I gained a few pounds (not surprisingly), and I figured I would have to slowly work my way back down to where I was at the end of November (151.8). I was totally realistic about the fact that I would gain weight over the holidays, but it was still a bit [...]

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Perfect Timing!

January 20, 2011

I know that I just posted, and honestly it’s not really like me to be on top of posting like this, but I have something to be excited about concerning the gym, so I thought that warranted sharing! I mentioned in my first post that I wanted to get more into the weight room at [...]

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