Winter Blahs

Unfortunately it is not that easy for us humans during the winter months.  Weather and darkness have set my momentum back some and I am trying to look on the bright side.  Here are the challenges and accomplishments of winter so far:

CON: Snow has either closed or severely prevented my ability to get to the gym for over 2 weeks.
PRO: I have made the effort on the days I could and got in efficient and productive workouts.

CON: I crave carbs and sugar almost constantly in a survivalist desire to stay warm.
PRO: Even if what I am eating isn't the healthiest it is homemade and not processed.

CON: The numbers on the scale are ticking down slower.
PRO: So far they are not ticking up.

It has been an insane couple of weeks in the Boston area and while it seems like an eternity it really has only been a couple of weeks.  Winter shows no sign of letting up though so I have to learn how to take advantage of the clear days when I can and keep the food to acceptable amounts on the days I am trapped inside.

Anyone have any good tips for getting through the winter blues?

40 Days of Giving: Boston Strong

Are you a runner?  A Bostonian? A hard working Mom? Have you or someone you love struggled through the difficulties of cancer?  Or, God forbid, have you lost someone to this terrible disease? Were you born in Jersey, but ended up a loyal Red Sox fan? Do you have a few dollars to spare?

If you answered yes to any of these questions I encourage you to make a donation to my friend Susan as she trains to run this year's Boston Marathon.  Susan, you see, can answer yes to all of them and for those reasons she is training during a cold harsh winter to make a huge difference.

Susan is running Boston for her first time as part of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute's Marathon Challenge Team.  Every dollar raised goes to research, so even if you do not live in the Boston area you can rest assured that this money is helping people struggling with cancer all over the world.  And those of you that are local know the incredible work that DF does and continues to do with funding like this.

Susan is not only my close friend, but she is a great role model for this blog.  Susan will be 41 when she runs in April and she ran her first marathon just a few years back in her 30's.  She trains hard and smart and is an inspiration to challenge what you think you can do and take that extra step to do more.

No donation is too small and if you do have the means and donate please let me know in the comments or privately as I would love to thank you personally.  Good luck Susan and thanks!

40 Days of Giving

I read War & Peace last fall (I like to bring that up whenever possible) and one of the themes we discussed in our class was the difference between being a good person and being a not bad person.  For my 20's and 30's I had been perfectly fine with being a not bad person: I worked, I paid my own bills (mostly on time), I voted, paid taxes and never was in trouble.  In my 40's I feel I can start to be more actively good, I am stable and have small amounts of the 2 things that help most -- time and money.

This week, to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, I began my 40 Days of Giving by dropping off a big bag of feminine hygiene products at the Women's Lunch Place.  The WLP is a Boston landmark that has been providing food and services to homeless women for over 30 years.  Why feminine hygiene products you might ask? This article made the rounds on Facebook last week and it really struck me how little I comprehend the plight of the homeless when I could be so shocked by such a basic need.

So I took a very small step in reaching to a friend at WLP and offering to start bringing monthly donations of these less donated items.  If you are in the Boston area and would like to help, I would be thrilled to increase my donation:

1. When you are buying your own tampons or pads, pick up an extra and give it to me whenever you see me next.  Since I will be making regular donations there is no need to make a special trip, just bring them along the next time we have drinks or book group or whatever.
2. Have a coupon for a brand you don't use? I'll take those too.
3. See a good sale (or any sale really this week there were no sales) leave a comment here on the blog or email me directly.

When I think about helping people I am always most moved by tangible things, money is awesome and necessary, but the idea of providing direct services to those who need it most is wonderful.

40 Days of Giving will also include posts on Volunteer time (I will be posting some volunteer opportunities if you want to join me for a public service date) and some Fundraising pages for friends who are raising money for important causes.  So keep an eye out!

Let's Get Personal...Training!

When I joined the Y in August one of the benefits was a free 2 hour "Getting Started" Personal Training package.  The idea was to get you familiar with the gym, learn how to use the equipment and hopefully inspire you to pay for personal training moving forward.

I tucked that benefit into the back of my mind.  There was no way I was letting a trainer see me in the shape I was in back then and I knew enough to get started on my own.  As I improved I figured I would save this free training for my 2nd big goal/post-holiday kick off.  I stuck to the plan and last night I had my first hour long session.

The session was half conversation and half work.  The trainer, a young guy named Matt who was really super friendly in a genuine way, was impressed by what I had accomplished on my own, seemed to really understand what my next goal was and was realistic about what I could do.

I then had to do an assessment which involved the following: 500M rowing (easy), 40 Squats with perfect form (harder), 20 Sit-ups (I did 10), 10 Push-ups (I did modified) and 10 Pull-ups (I did 5 assisted).  Matt assured me I was among the average of folks he sees, but it still struck me as a reality check.

I am proud of what I have done the past 5 months, I know I have made some amazing strides.  My clothes are 2 sizes smaller, airplane seats are actually roomy and my friends and family continue to tell me how great I look.  I am stronger and fitter, but I am far from strong and fit.  Matt seems confident I can get there, this is the next goal.  I will redo that assessment each month until I can do all those things in perfect form in above average time.

Make Healthy Memories

We tend to focus on bad habits, but habits can be a very very good thing.  By starting this blog and my healthier lifestyle with my 40 Day Challenges in Exercise and Veggies I really built some good habits that I have managed to maintain for over 5 months and helped get me through the holidays.

Sticking to a gym routine that has organized landmarks in it, like a regularly scheduled class or a repeated block of pool time, allows me to have healthy memories that make planning the next week very easy.  When I think, "what did I do last Tuesday night?" the answer is always the same, I went to Zumba.

Same with food, when I think back about what I ate for the past 5 months, most of it was healthy so coming up with a healthy idea for dinner isn't nearly as hard as it used to be.

You have to find a balance between routine and a rut, you don't want to make everything so predictable you get bored and stop, but a few solid habits will keep you going.  Do you have healthy habits that keep you on track?  Please share them in the comments, thanks!

Holidays 0, Me -7

OK, so technically I have 1 more holiday festivity left to get through, it is tomorrow and I am hosting it.  It involves a good deal of cheese.  For most though, the holidays are over. 

If you remember, I hit a weight loss goal on the Friday before Thanksgiving week and my next goal was to not gain any weight back over the holidays (*NIH estimates the average American gains 1 pound between Thanksgiving and New Years -- I was never average).  I am happy to report that since November 20th I have lost 7 pounds.

I monitored my weight over those 7 weeks and had some ups and downs, but the official weigh in today is 7 pounds down.  I'll take it.

Never once during the holidays did I feel deprived of anything, I ate what I wanted, took part in lots of festivities, exercised when I could and tried to slip in healthy meals whenever possible.

What was most reassuring this week was my ability to get back into a good schedule of eating healthy and working out after a 2 week vacation over Christmas.  It is so easy to fracture good habits and it takes so long to re-cultivate them that often giving up is the path of least resistance.

I don't feel that desire to slack at all right now and it is kind of amazing!

New Year's is Just Another Day

People attach a lot of significance to New Year's Day and while it is certainly a good reminder of the passage of time and an easy day to remember to change the batteries in your smoke detectors, it really is just another day.  Sure you throw out one calendar and hang another, but don't fret over those pesky resolutions.

I am not saying you don't need to have goals and such planned for the year, but you don't miss out on goal setting if you wait until after the holiday hubbub to set them.  And nowhere does it state you have to set them in blood and never adjust them as you go through the year.

I am a firm believer in achievable goals and on reassessing them as you go.  I have plenty of goals for 2015 in my little brain, but I am not going to bore you with them, some of them are silly and some private.

I did complete a goal I had set for the end of 2014 when I swam a mile on December 30th.  I was psyched about that, but I had set that goal in September.  I never would have set that goal way back last January since I didn't have a pool to swim in and I had no idea I would be swimming for fitness.

Lots of people use New Years to jump start a healthy lifestyle and if you are one of them then congratulations, but if you don't get to the gym until April (or August as I did in 2014) that doesn't mean your year is a failure.  New Year's is just another day....

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

I gave my pool workout a festive shake-up today!  My weekday swim has been 1200 yards for awhile now, the way I challenge myself is by shaving off time and doing more lengths of each stroke before switching strokes.  I started by doing 4 lengths front crawl and 4 lengths back stroke and repeating that set six times.  recently I had upped that to 8 lengths front and 8 back and repeating that set only 3 times for 48 lengths.

On my walk to the gym today I decided I was going to try to increase my lengths again and try 12 front and 12 back twice.  I also decided to use the 12 Days of Christmas to help me, as I am a total nerd.

For the 1st 12 front crawl I just tried to sort all the 12 Days out in my head, turns out I had my birds mixed up in the beginning and had no idea who did what after 8 Maids a Milking.

The second 12 on my back I sang the song in my head as the members of the Muppets, as anyone of my generation would.

The 3rd 12 length set had me remembering various illustrations of the 12 days, which really helped sort out the problem in set #1.

And finally on my 4th 12 length set I replaced all the original values with alcohol, can't wait for 12 Shots of Patron on January 7th!

In the end I did my 48 lengths in 3 minutes less than my previous best time, proved I had endurance for 300 yards of each stroke at a time and had a really enjoyable swim!

Sometimes the Plan is No Plan

No, I haven't forgotten the advantages of planning all of a sudden.  Nor have I gotten soft around the holidays, but I discovered Sunday at the gym that my plan was holding me back a little.

Lately my treadmill work out has been 30 or 45 minutes, either 2 or 3 reps of this:

1. 5 Minutes Slow
2. 5 Minutes Less Slow
3. 5 Minutes Jog (and that is a very generous term for walking faster but actually lifting both feet off the treadmill at once)


I was convinced that 5 minutes was all I could "jog" at this point and I was set in this pattern.  On Sunday I did the same 45 minutes, but I shook up the order and did 2 "jog" blocks back-to-back.  For those of you with math skills like mine, that means I "jogged" for 10 minutes straight.

By challenging my plan I learned I could do a 10 minute "jog" with relative ease.  The other day in the pool I was set on doing 1000 yards, but once in the pool I felt good enough to do 1200.

Planning is crucial for me, but I can't let my plan convince me of limitations I don't have any more.

On the Road Again

So I survived Thanksgiving!  More than survived actually, I had a great week.  I didn't feel I deprived myself of anything and balanced the delicious food with time in the gym and managed to lose a couple pounds over the past 2 weeks.

My next challenge hits on Monday when I head on a short business trip.  I used to travel a ton for work and that frequency has greatly diminished.  I hope my bad travel habits diminished as well.

If you travel for work you know what I am talking about.  Routine goes out the window, food and booze are abundant and ducking out of a gathering to work out is rude or even a bad career move.  Meals are much larger than normal too, who eats dessert with lunch? Hotel gyms are usually small and not motivating.

Add to that the fact that this trip has been touted as "jam-packed with events" and I am nervous. There is no pre-published agenda.  I don't know what I am walking in to.  The best I can do is walk in prepared.

I have already packed my gym clothes and sneakers.  I plan to stock my carry on with protein bars, fruit and almonds. I am going to stick to 1 glass of red wine at the evening events and try to set my alarm early enough to get a work out in at least 2 days.

Anyone else have any travel tips for the health conscious?  Please leave a comment below, thanks!

Dressing Room Victory Dance

Twice a year my mom takes me shopping for clothes, once for my birthday in the summer and once around now for Christmas. We wander the department and each pick up a few things for me to try on and then I trudge to the dreaded dressing room to see what I can squeeze in to.

On Black Friday I happily skipped around the department selecting items in a smaller size and when I met up with my mother I found she had items TWO sizes smaller than what we bought in July.  I was dubious.  And scared.  I didn't want to try something on that didn't fit yet.

She assured me she thought the things she picked would fit.

They did.

Seriously, I almost cried in the dressing room.  Then I danced.

Planning the Perfect Plate

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as in all eating endeavors lately I have made a plan.  I have divided my dinner into 3 categories, I am calling them The Good, The Bad and The Expendable.

The Good

1. Turkey -- I only like white meat turkey and have no interest in the skin, so the star of the show is definitely in the good column for me.

2.  Salad -- We are starting with a lovely fall salad of greens, heirloom tomatoes, pears and pomegranate with a homemade pear balsamic dressing.

3.  Veggies -- All our veggies come to the table healthy.  I have a niece with a dairy allergy so no butter or milk in the mashed potatoes, nothing but olive oil & herbs on the roasted squash and brussel sprouts and carrots.

The Bad

1.  Stuffing -- My mom makes the best stuffing in the world (said most people on Thanksgiving).  She makes half in the bird and mixes it with some made in a casserole dish giving it a nice balance of moist and not-greasy, but it is still not even close to healthy.

2.  Gravy -- Speaking of grease....and deliciousness.  I only eat gravy once or twice a year.  I'm having it (see what I'm skipping instead).

3.  Pie -- Homemade pumpkin pie with a delicious homemade crust.  Yep, not skipping it.

The Expendable

1.  Rolls -- I love bread as much as the next gal, but I would rather have a little more stuffing than a roll & butter.  Speaking of...

2.  Butter -- Mom's gravy is so good I skip the butter on my potatoes and just do gravy and pepper.

3.  Ice Cream -- A little dollop of whipped cream on my pie is fine, save the ice cream for the kids!

I figure if my plate has more of the Good and less of the Bad I will be in good shape come Friday!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ho Ho Holiday Temptations

When I started my path to a healthier lifestyle in July, I set a realistic goal for myself for that month. I knew my birthday and a cruise vacation would be too tempting to result in any significant weight loss.  My goal was not to gain any weight in July and in the end I lost 3 pounds that month.  I set some rules, especially for the vacation that I tried to stick to and in that same vein I present my goals for not gaining weight over the holidays:

1. Not Every Day is a Holiday: For me the holiday season runs from Thanksgiving through the 2nd week of January when I host a big dinner party for my friends, but not every day of those 7 weeks is a holiday.  On the normal days I need to follow normal rules about diet and exercise.

2. Not Every Meal is Special: On those days when there is a celebration or gathering there is no reason to blow the whole day.  Isolate the special meal and truly make it special by eating normally for the other meals of the day.

3.  No Treats Alone: I have blogged about living alone and I do, but during the holidays I spend a  lot of time with my family.  There is no excuse to eat treats alone.  That piece of pie, homemade cookie or box of delicious chocolates will be even sweeter with conversation and shared declarations of how truly tasty it is.  This makes you accountable for what you eat and makes it less about the food and more about the celebration.

4.  Gym 3X a Week (at least):  No excuses!

5.  Hydrate: Drinking water is the easiest of my habits to break and hydration is key for staying healthy and feeling full.

I feel confident in myself that if I stick to these 5 rules I will find the number on the scale to my satisfaction come January 13th!

GOALLLLL!!!!!

You may recall from the early days of this blog that I set a specific goal at the beginning of July as part of a long distance challenge.  I wasn't cut out for the long distance challenge really, but I did try to stick to the plan to achieve the goal.  The goal was a specific # of pounds on the scale by the Friday before Thanksgiving.

I am happy to report that with 1 week to go I have passed my goal weight by over a pound!  This was not a small amount of pounds either, as a coworker told me "this is a really big deal!"  I want to thank all of you that have been so supportive the past 4 months, who have gone on walks with me, eaten healthier in my presence and encouraged me, it has been an awesome 16 weeks.

I wish this meant I was done, but it does not, there are a lot more pounds to lose, but as we head into the holidays my goals are going to shift to maintenance until after New Years.  Tune in next week for my plan to not gain weight over the holidays!

Speed vs. Endurance

Speed v Endurance is the classic Tortoise and the Hare analogy, but does slow & steady always win the race? 

When I began swimming as exercise about 10 weeks ago I had neither speed nor endurance. I could swim 10 lengths of the pool (250 m) in a little under 30 minutes.  Pathetic.

Within a month I had built up both speed and endurance and could swim 30 lengths of the pool (750 m) in 30 minutes.  I was happy there for awhile and decided my next goal was increasing my endurance, swimming more lengths at the same pace and soon I could do 40 lengths in 40 minutes and can now do 60 lengths in 60 minutes.  While my time per length is the same I am keeping pace over a longer time span showing both cardio and muscle endurance.

My new challenge is to increase speed.  This week I shaved 2 minutes off my 40 length swim, doing 40 lengths in 38 minutes.  According to Fitbit that really upped my calorie burn, that little time savings pushed my cardio level up a notch.

This same formula can be applied to any cardio workout, but balancing speed and endurance is key to a sustainable workout plan.  I have 3 pool days a week, right now I am going to focus 2 of them on increasing speed (primarily because they are week days when I truly have less time to spend in the pool) and my weekend swim will focus on endurance when I can spend 60 minutes in the pool.

I would like to swim a mile in under an hour (I know that sounds crazy to you runners, but try it some time) by the end of November.  How do you balance speed and endurance in your cardio workout?

40 Days of Org Update

So I grossly underestimated how long 40 Days of Org was going to take.  It will certainly go long past 40 Days, but I also underestimated how fun it would be.  I have enjoyed unburdening myself and while I have become lighter, it has been a pleasure to make my surroundings lighter as well.

Here is a before and after view of a wall in my bedroom as an example.  Now like all good "before" pics, I took it at the absolute worst:

You can see 2 tall bookcases (one of which I had already unloaded the books from but instead of actually removing it, I just shoved other stuff on it...oy!).  I eventually got rid of both tall bookcases and replaced them with a wider, but shorter one from another room.  This is the result:

Same wall, but it is now much more open and clean.  I am going to hang something in the white space, but for now I am enjoying the brightness.  It also makes the space easier to clean, better access to the floor for sweeping and less to dust on the bookcase.

I am happy to report that after finally switching over my closet to winter clothes, I am officially done with the bedroom ORG.  Also done is the bathroom and living room leaving me just the hall and kitchen, both big projects but perfectly timed to go into the holidays.

Small Victories

First of all, my apologies for the lag time between posts.  This is a particularly crazy time at work and I am reading War & Peace, spare time is slim.

I needed to post today though to report something of note:  I bought NO Halloween candy this year, none.  Not a single bag.

Now before you accuse me of being some child-hating non-American, I don't get trick or treaters in my 3rd floor apartment with the security doors.  Every bag of Halloween candy I have ever bought has been for me.

Last year, as the Boston Red Sox marched towards the World Series Championship, I had lots of baseball-watching gatherings in October and for each I bought a big bag of Halloween candy.  I probably bought 10 or 12 bags last year.  This year...NONE.

40 Days of Savings

While I am wrapping up 40 Days of Organizing (you'll see some photographic evidence of that next week) I am going to launch 40 Days of Savings!

Those of you that read my previous blog will remember that I went on a diet and a budget at the same time and it is amazing how related the 2 issues can be.  They are both about planning and control.

So like the concept of 40 Days of Fitness, my hope for 40 Days of Savings is to set some good habits and put away a little money for the holidays and beyond.

Here are some of my goals:

1.  Open a Savings Account:  I know this seems simple, most small children have Savings Accounts, but I don't. If you have a good online Savings account please pass along the info in the comments.

2.  Piggy Bank the Change: I keep my change in a little milk jug on my desk, but inevitably I cave and cash it in when it is like $10.  I am going to leave it untouched for the next 40 Days and cash it in before Thanksgiving for a little extra Christmas cash.

3.Write it all down: On the back of my weekly plan I am tracking my spending.  I set a spending limit for the week based on my plan and track against it, recording my final balance each week.

I don't expect to save a ton of money in only 40 Days, but like the other 40 Day Challenges I hope this one creates healthy habits that I can hang on to.

Single Girl Rules

So I am single.  Really single.  Not in a long term relationship where we don't need to be technically married because we are so awesome together, but truly single. I have lived on my own for 15 years with no one to share the joys and burdens of day-to-day life.  Sometimes this is great and sometimes this is sad, but most of the time it is great.

Here are some general Pros and Cons of single life:

Pro:  No one else is dictating food choices in my apartment.
Con:  Sometimes my food choices are an entire bag of Oreos for dinner.

Pro:  No one is nagging me to do the dishes.
Con:  No one else EVER does the dishes.

Pro:  All the money I have is mine.
Con:  So are ALL the bills.

The three examples above will all be evident here on this blog as things I struggle with:  food, household organization and money.  I realize these are pretty normal struggles for almost everyone, but managing them alone is different.  No one shares the hardship and no one sees the small victories.

I am not whining.  I have whined about being single in the past and it gets me absolutely nowhere.  I am very good at being on my own, but unless you have lived alone for a long period of time it is tough to truly understand what it is like.  So consider this a shout out to all the single girls (and guys) out there that are getting it done, on their own.

Mixin' It Up

This past Sunday I went on a hike.  Outside.  In nature.  I have lived in a  city for 18 years, sure I went to college in Maine, but I have lived in a city for 18 years.  I don't hike.

The idea was inspired by a local newspaper piece about spooky trails to hike in New England (for those of you in MA, we went to Freetown State park in Assonet, it wasn't the least bit spooky) and I put it out there to our regular Girls' Night crowd as an alternate activity (generally our outings involve vodka and good food).

It was a blast!  Now don't go signing me up for any mountain climbs or anything, I almost fell down standing still, but I kept up with my friends (one has actually climbed some mountains and the other has run marathons) and while I was slightly startled by a dog I thought was a deer... I did pretty well.

The moral of this story is, it was a great work out -- lots of steps, some hills and uneven terrain making it a little more challenging than those same # of steps in the city.   It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of laughs.  It didn't feel like a workout, it felt like a fun day out.

I kicked off 40 Days of Fitness over 2 months ago and while the 40 days are long up I have continued with the goal of making each day more active.  Having fun outings like Sunday make that super easy.

How do you combine exercise with fun?  What do you do to avoid workout boredom?  I'd love some tips, please leave a comment.  Thanks!