Well ladies. Some of you may remember my determined battle cry of “drop a bra size or bust”. (Mindi—how ya like that pun?) Café sitting across Paris and pub hopping across Ireland and Scotland was not a good start to weight loss. But the first two weeks home, it was back to the diet and at least I got back to where I was before the two vacations. Then after the NY meetup, DH gave me the worst cold I have ever had in my life. I have been pathetically weak and ravenously hungry. I am afraid to get on the scale. But I can feel my energy returning and the hunger subsiding. All this talk about no good clothes in a size 16 is motivating me to get disciplined. Diet and exercise—here I come.
We bought a home gym and exercise bicycle about a month ago. It is sort of like adopting a puppy. We have to get to know it and make friends with it. My first forays into using it were hilarious.
Have you ever heard the description of a Texan who is all hat and no cows? Well I was all big dreams and no stamina. I had fantasies of burning 400 calories a day after I got into it. My first time on the exercise bicycle I burned…… wait for it…… a total of 12 calories. To do that, you have to cycle a mile at an incredibly slooooow speed. I bet there is not another person on the forum who could burn so few calories covering a mile. After a week, I had worked myself up to a 25 calorie mile. Eager to make progress, I would do a mile two or three times in the evening. It was a big day when I burned 75 calories on the exercise bicycle AND took a walk. But sadly, I was pushing myself too hard and the tendon on the outside of my knee started to complain. So I had to back off and start pounding the glucosamine drinks.
DH is one of those people who really loves having muscles and is able to get really really strong. Like bench press 400# strong. He will go to the gym every day for a year and then just stop for no known reason. His current dreams are based on what he did formerly. I have to hand it to him. He is pushing himself. He clanks the weights every morning. And then he is cranky all day from being so tired. It is Friday night and he fell asleep in his chair at 7:30. That was 4 hours ago. But having been through this with him before, I know the next phase will be him admiring his muscles in the mirror and measuring them with a tape measure. I guess that is the difference between men and women. Women say “does this dress make me look fat?” Men say “Look at my arms—do my muscles look big?”
I am sharing these sad fitness stories because I always like it when I hear that there is someone who is worse off than me. So I thought I would make all of your days, because all of you have to be more fit than I am. There is also the factor of admitting my pathetic-ness so sort like hitting bottom. This is my version of “My name is Bill and I am an alcoholic.” My name is Cordie and I am a couch potato.
Tomorrow I will amuse you with a few pictures of the exercise room.
We bought a home gym and exercise bicycle about a month ago. It is sort of like adopting a puppy. We have to get to know it and make friends with it. My first forays into using it were hilarious.
Have you ever heard the description of a Texan who is all hat and no cows? Well I was all big dreams and no stamina. I had fantasies of burning 400 calories a day after I got into it. My first time on the exercise bicycle I burned…… wait for it…… a total of 12 calories. To do that, you have to cycle a mile at an incredibly slooooow speed. I bet there is not another person on the forum who could burn so few calories covering a mile. After a week, I had worked myself up to a 25 calorie mile. Eager to make progress, I would do a mile two or three times in the evening. It was a big day when I burned 75 calories on the exercise bicycle AND took a walk. But sadly, I was pushing myself too hard and the tendon on the outside of my knee started to complain. So I had to back off and start pounding the glucosamine drinks.
DH is one of those people who really loves having muscles and is able to get really really strong. Like bench press 400# strong. He will go to the gym every day for a year and then just stop for no known reason. His current dreams are based on what he did formerly. I have to hand it to him. He is pushing himself. He clanks the weights every morning. And then he is cranky all day from being so tired. It is Friday night and he fell asleep in his chair at 7:30. That was 4 hours ago. But having been through this with him before, I know the next phase will be him admiring his muscles in the mirror and measuring them with a tape measure. I guess that is the difference between men and women. Women say “does this dress make me look fat?” Men say “Look at my arms—do my muscles look big?”
I am sharing these sad fitness stories because I always like it when I hear that there is someone who is worse off than me. So I thought I would make all of your days, because all of you have to be more fit than I am. There is also the factor of admitting my pathetic-ness so sort like hitting bottom. This is my version of “My name is Bill and I am an alcoholic.” My name is Cordie and I am a couch potato.
Tomorrow I will amuse you with a few pictures of the exercise room.
First off, my DH also just shared such a horrendous cold with me (mine took hold on my birthday, last Mon, and I'm just starting to feel human again, today). If yours was anything like mine, you're likely still depleted and exhausted! And then I'm wondering if you might like interval training, better. It's supposed to be more effective, and takes less time. You exert for very short spurts (for example 60 seconds or 30 seconds) and then you back off for another short amount of time. You continue cycling between high exertion, and backing off for a total of 20-30 min. But you could start with a much shorter total time. It's often called HIIT (high intensity interval training) if you want to look into it. You could easily use your exercise bike for this. I've done it on an elliptical trainer, and really like it. My body has always been better suited to short spurts of energy versus long endurance type sports. Long distance running always felt like torture to me! After what's seemed like one thing after another this past year, I haven't been able to keep up with my regular exercise plan, as much as I'd have liked to, and have lost strength. I'm going to start back slowly, so I don't get too discouraged. I'm thinking of getting a Pelotan bike, to use at home. Looking forward to seeing your exercise room pics! Wish we had a spare room, for a proper set-up! We have such things scattered around the house.
) seems in part still grounded in the fact of her designing for, and being, more than sample size. And truly, I don't think she was devious. It's nervy of me to diagnosis her based on a heavily edited, televised view of her. but I think she was damaged. Growing up as a physically larger person--especially a woman--in this culture has a way of doing that. Her purple hair and somewhat over-the-top, girly style were her way of saying, "You may not want to look at me, world, but I am here anyway." IMO, anyhow.
