Life of the Lintee Bean

I’ve renewed my commitment to eating healthy and improving my overall fitness. I’d lost a lot of weight in 2009, and sadly I’ve gained almost all of it back. It’s taken me a while to get started. I have a lot of trouble getting motivated – as soon as I’m faced with something particularly delicious, I tend to think “there’s always tomorrow” and put off my plans. However, I found a group of great people on Ravelry (my online community of knitters, crocheters, etc.) that were committed to overall eating healthy and fitness.  I’ve joined their group and gotten a lot of great tips and inspiration from them.

The past two weeks I’ve been improving my eating habits.  Several of the people in the group use “MyFitnessPal”, an online website and application for tracking their food choices.  I found it to be really helpful, particularly as I could put the app on my iPod  Touch and have it with me everywhere.  (I am totally addicted to my iPod Touch.)

My next step needs to be exercise.  I’m taking hockey classes weekly, and I’m walking to and from the el when I commute to work.  I want to do more. Last week I went to the gym once and just got on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes.  It was tough, but I did it.  I know one gym visit a week isn’t much, but it’s something.

One of the women in the group mentioned she was doing BodyRock.  In particular, she was doing their 30-day challenge.  It seems these are online workout videos that involve 12 minutes of exercise, in your own home, daily.  That seems really doable!  It doesn’t seem MUCH (12 minutes?) but it seems doable!  I decided I’d check it out.

Monday I watched the first “burn” video. The trainer said there were four exercises, and you repeated the set of exercises three times.  You just did as many as you could of each exercise in 50 seconds, rested 10 seconds, then proceeded to the next one. The exercises seemed pretty straight forward. There were squats – which were basically like sitting down and getting up again from a chair (minus the chair).  I’m good at sitting – I do it a lot.  There were also push-ups – something I don’t like, but I’m familiar with.  There were tricep dips – where you lowered yourself down and up using your palms behind you on a chair.  Finally, there were ab crunches – another exercise I’m familiar with.  This looked pretty simple! I loaded an “interval timer” app on to my iPod Touch. (Have I mentioned I love my iPod Touch?)  I prepared to start.

Circuit One

I started with squats.  I was booking!  I was squatting like nobody’s business!  Hmm… 50 seconds is a lot longer than I realized. I started slowing down.  My legs started to hurt.  After what seemed like ages, my 50 seconds were up.  I noted how many squats I’d done – and prepared for push-ups.

I started push-ups. Wow, I forgot I kind of hurt my right arm/shoulder/something while doing shooting drills in hockey class last week. These really hurt. I wasn’t getting very many push-ups done.  I was struggling to force myself to do ANY push-ups, in fact. After 50 seconds were up,  I was on to the new unfamiliar exercise: tricep dips.

Tricep deps are a LOT harder than they look.  Apparently, I have no triceps.  Also, I weigh a LOT and I’m pretty sure the vast majority of my poundage is located in my butt/thigh are.  Lowering and lifting this giant mass of cellulite with my non-existent triceps… not happening.  I managed to do a few.  I mostly dropped myself on to my butt.

Another minute gone, and on to abs!  I can do crunches!  I’ve done these many times!  Once again – 50 seconds seems an awfully long time when doing crunches. How is it I don’t think I can even brush my teeth in 50 seconds, but I can do this much huffing and puffing and dreading in 50 seconds?

Circuit Two

Now we’re repeating these exercises. My legs are already really sore.  I’m not very happy about attempting to do more squats.  I’m feeling the “burn”. I’m sweating – a LOT. This is NOT FUN AT ALL.

Push-ups… push-ups are not happening.  I managed a few, but mostly lay on the floor praying time would speed up.

Tricep dips – are you kidding me?  I’ll try to do a couple.

Abs – okay, I can do some crunches.  I have big ab muscles – at least I’d like to think this large protrusion in my abdominal area is at least partly muscle.

Circuit Three

Squats – my legs don’t want to do any more squats.  My legs want to know what the HECK is happening. I did some.

Push-ups… no.  At this point, I basically collapsed into a pile of sweaty goo on the floor and lay there waiting for my last three minutes to be up.  No push-ups, no tricep dips, no abs.

I hurt.  I hurt a lot.  I realized I had yet to feed the cats, and myself – and wasn’t sure I’d be able to go downstairs to the kitchen in order to feed any of us.  I did – after much rest, and using the handrail and whimpering.

The next day was rough. My legs protested any movement at all. My abs protested anything that involved them – like sneezing.  Walking to/from the el was tough. That night, I checked the “30 day challenge” calendar, thinking there was NO WAY I would be able to do anything.  Thankfully, it listed only the “flow” video – which was four yoga poses.  I could do some stretches.  I didn’t do the “full” routine, but I did manage some stretching.

Today – I think it hurt even more than yesterday.  I had a lot of difficulty walking to/from the el.  I struggled to get into or out of my chair at work. I hobbled around the office. On the way home, I was passed by someone in a wheelchair while walking. I checked the challenge, and it said to do the “burn” and “flow” videos tonight.  It’s not happening. I have no idea how I’m going to manage to go to hockey class tomorrow.

I would say the result of Monday night’s fitness test was – I am not fit.  The good news is I’m pretty confident I’ll improve in 30 days – I can’t get worse.  Unless, of course, I’m not brave enough to attempt the fitness test again in 30 days.

Edited to add:  I also joined Fitocracy (another online app).  If downloading apps contributes to fitness, I am making great strides.