Accidental and Incidental “exercise”

I recently returned from a 5 day trip to Lake Tahoe.  Each summer I am lucky enough to borrow a friend’s cabin and head up to my favorite place in the world with my wonderful son.  My husband doesn’t love it as much as I do, so he’s tolerant when we leave (I think he likes the bachelor life for a few days). Luckily, my 20 year old still thinks a few days at the lake with Mom is a good thing…for me it is a treasured time.

Lake Tahoe, in case you’ve never been there, is beautiful. It’s at about 6200 feet and the air is crisp and clean.  The lake is blue, bright green, clear, and cold.  I love it.  Jumping in the cold water is exhilarating (once you realize you chose to jump in – no one forced you and no, you are not having a heart attack), and once you acclimate, it’s magnificent to paddle around aimlessly. I spent a total of 11 hours in the lake from Monday to Thursday. Do you know how many calories you burn just treading water? 300 an hour.  If you add a little swimming it’s well into the 440+ range.  Needless to say, I accidentally got plenty of exercise last week while I was playing around in the lake.  I kept account of my food intake and we chose to cook rather than eat at restaurants. It was the best possible week and when I came home the scale rewarded me further with an additional 4 pounds down!     

Home was a welcome sight, but there was plenty on the home improvement list to complete.  I decided that I felt really good so I would tackle the front garden (again).  Somehow, even though I am pretty sure I got all the weeds the last time, there seemed to be an overwhelming number of new weeds.  ;-) Sneaky little things. Anyway, with my body feeling really strong from all of the time in the lake I was much more flexible while gardening.  I think I pointed out in another blog how gardening makes you move in bizarre ways…well it also burns 354 calories an hour!  (I burn more at my current weight, but I always log calories burned at the lowest calculation.) Wahoo!  Incidentally , I was working out while I did a necessary chore.  Nearly 5 hours after I started I pulled the last weed (that I was going to pull) and crawled inside to shower.  Every part of my body ached, but the yard looks great and I burned a crapload of calories to boot.  Today I did some more weeding (I’m stopping, really) and planted the final plants for the summer.  Put some new soil in the driveway patch and now my front garden makes me smile. I have to say that I am going to think of the garden as my exercise buddy from now on.  Silent and always there.  My favorite. I also put the Tiki masks up in the back yard so, after I garden I can sip my tropical beverage here:

 

Today I considered what life is going to be like once I make more significant progress toward my weight loss goal.  I have lost nearly 20 pounds in 2 months. Just a little over two pounds per week. My goal is to lose 90 more. However, I don’t focus on that number…I just wonder what I will choose to do as an energy burner for my calorie bank as the calorie intake number decreases and my output necessarily increases to compensate for the food I must eat. I love swimming, but only in lakes, so that will continue when I am near one. Bicycling is fun.  Yoga is challenging and I like it.  Pilates – ah, my favorite.  But the gym?  Not so much. I think I will walk.  More often. Faster. Smiling at strangers. In my smaller, more comfortable body.  Join me?

It happened!

I knew it was just a waiting game.  You cannot possibly eat less, exercise more, and stay the same weight.  Not possible.  Except, for anyone who has dieted and is reading this blog, you know that your body can panic and hold onto weight like it’s never going to be fed again. ARGH!

My body – which has been abused by yo-yo dieting for so very long – is a professional when it comes to hanging onto weight.  “OH NO!  You’re not doing that again!” it screams.  But I just ignored the scale and went along my merry way drinking water, banking my calories in and exercise out.  10 days, 11 days…12 days, not a single ounce down.  Then I woke up a couple of days ago and BOOM! 2.5 pounds gone!  That’s a total of 15.5 in 8 weeks.  Roughly 2 pounds per week, exactly as I planned.  No suffering, no misery, just responsibility and determination.

I can’t explain why suddenly this has all come together for me.  I like fast results which is why I have tried Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Cambridge, the Mayo Clinic Diet (grapefruit and eggs…yum),cabbage soup diet, and the Stewardess Diet (yes, a diet so old it is politically incorrect to name it).  EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE DIETS WORKED FOR ME. Fast results, smaller size, increased energy.  But once I got the results I stopped.  I have nothing against all of the plans listed about – they work.  But you must be responsible for the aftercare of your body.

I’m no idiot.  I have a good education and a sharp mind.  But you know the saying, “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results?” I was doing the same thing over and over and over and over.  Ridiculous.  This time something clicked.  I realized that whether I do a prescribed diet or my own thing, I still lose about 2 pounds per week.  The big difference is that when I am on a prescribed diet I crave all the things that I am denied. The way I am doing this now – with loseit.com, healthstatus.com, etc. – I eat whatever I want as long as I pay for it with exercise FIRST.  There is no more thinking that vigorous exercise on Monday pays for food overload on Tuesday.  Every day is a new day.  Every day I start from zero.  Every day I write it all down and calculate what I eat and what I owe for it. 

I am sticking to this plan.  It’s working, it’s simple, it’s the way I can live the rest of my life.  This time next year I will – almost literally – be half the woman I am today.  Whee!

Moving in unexpected ways.

My weight loss is stuck.  I have been at 12 pounds lost for about 10-12 days now.  It’s frustrating. Some mornings I wake up and think, “Today is the day the scale will go down!”  But no.  That day was not today.  Not to be discouraged, though, I decided to finish the floor part of my home improvement project.  There is no part of any project I have dreaded more, as scrubbing things on my hands and knees is definitely NOT something I enjoy. But it had to be done and, oddly, no one else was volunteering for this job. Hmmm.

Being down on your hands and knees scrubbing is a real chore.  Especially if you have been avoiding it for…well…years.  I decided that taking the dirt out of the wood floors and making them look lovely again would be satisfying.  It is.  I reached, bent, and otherwise moved in ways I normally don’t, so it was very good exercise and it took a few hours to do.  Here’s the big deal.  After doing this today I still have enough energy to go dancing!  And I can wear my jeans straight out of the dryer! And the cool shirt I like fits again!

This is why moving - regardless of what the scale says is happening - is important and why I am having an easier time now with the slow weight loss. I know my body is changing and I know the results are starting to show (mostly in my face, but hey, I’ll take it!)

My message to everyone today is: don’t get discouraged by the scale. See and feel the other subtle changes – increased energy, better fitting clothes, and the ability to move more easily.  If you and I stick to plan – banking calories in and out each day – the scale will go down.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Papa!  I miss you. (The photo is of my wonderful and fun parents at my Halloween party one year.  Momma came as "Endora" from "Bewitched" and Papa came as "Uncle Sam."  They were amazingly awesome parents and I miss them every day!) 

One thing leads to another...

Do you ever start the day with a project in mind and at the end of the day wonder, “what the heck just happened?”  Well, that’s been my month of August…and yes, this blog has to do with weight loss.

 It all started with a joke about friends coming to visit.  The last time these friends came from Italy we had a wonderful time and had dinner together at our house.  When they had gone I came to the conclusion that our countertops had to be replaced because it was a)mortifying to have the world’s grossest counters, b) they were a health hazard, and c) I really wanted granite because it’s cleaner, prettier, and more sensible than wood.  That decision meant that I practically overhauled the entire kitchen the following month. 

These same friends are visiting again in September.  Although they (an no other friends) could not care less about things and more about company, my husband and I started joking about how this thing or that thing wasn’t good enough for their visit. As we laughed out loud we started thinking about changes we had waited on…one being a comfortable chair in the living room.  So I found a chair we both liked and ordered it for my husband’s birthday present (early). Then one night I was up late and saw an infomercial about this product called, “Rejuvenate.” Supposedly, it restored wood and linoleum to its original beauty…sold at Home Depot…so I resolved to try that.  (Product endorsement here:  LOVE IT.) Then I realized the carpets needed shampooing.  Which meant the furniture needed polishing.  Which meant everything had to be moved to get underneath.  Imagine the calories I am burning here.  Thousands each day.  I am keeping to my allowed calories intake per day. But not adding in the extra I am working off.  Unfortunately, I am working so strenuously that my body is retaining water like crazy and although I am getting smaller, the scale is staying the same. My body is in crisis-panic mode.

Anyway, out to the back yard where the beautiful overhanging maple is in dire need of pruning of the deadwood.  As we look around we realize that we have tolerated this hideous, invasive butterfly bush for years and we both want to chainsaw it.  Down it comes.  To our dismay the garage wall it was hiding is peeling, discolored, and desperate for attention. Scraping, sanding, repainting ensue.  New ceramic pots, plants, soil, and rearranging backyard seating happens.  Calories burning in all directions.  Weight not budging.  Clothing getting looser.

Am I frustrated by the scale?  You bet I am. But here’s the thing I know:  I have stuck to my new system of calories banking.  Calories out, calories in.  There has been a change in my size.  My belly is decreasing.  My clothes are looser.  My skin is shrinking with my decrease in size.  If I were newer to the game of weight loss I would be depressed right now because of the scale.  Instead, I am delighting in the changes because I know one day I will wake up and be 5 pounds lighter all of a sudden.  And to top it all off, we now have this to enjoy while I wait for the scale to catch up:

So.Very.Sore. YAY!

I love to garden.  You might not guess this from the weeds peeking out of my front beds, but I do.  The thing is, I tend to garden in marathon spurts.  It starts with noticing a few more errant weeds than usual…I pull one or two…and five hours later I can’t stand up and the huge green waste can is overflowing.  It happened again today. 

I went outside this morning to decide which dead branches I would remove from the huge maple hanging over our deck from the neighbors’ yard (we love it and them!) when my husband came out and said he’d be happy to chainsaw down the bush I’ve been longing to kill remove from our yard.  Everyone in our neighborhood has one of these stupid ugly invasive big bushes because they attract birds.  However, we have lots of plants that attract birds and offer nesting areas, so I was ready to destroy that sucker get busy chopping it into the bin.

With the ridiculous boyish joy that only a full-grown man with a power tool in his hand can exhibit, my husband attacked the butterfly bush. He managed to dislodge the chain from the chainsaw and had to do a quick internet tutorial to reassemble it for the final cuts.  (He’s really good with tools!) Anyway, cut away from the base, this bush took on a life of its own.  It was huge. So I started cutting.  And cutting.  I filled out huge bin, the next-door neighbors’ bin, the bin from the neighbors across the street, and after 5 hours of cutting, was still left with a pile of denuded branches that I will happily have my son cut up at his leisure (and by leisure I mean ASAP in case you are reading this).  ;-)

You all know I am “banking” my calories each day.  Energy in, energy out.  I had breakfast before I started the project and had a little meal in the middle of it, but, by the most conservative estimate, I burned over 1,400 calories today.  It was with absolutely no guilt that I ate fish and chips with the family tonight and I am having dessert.  In the old days I might have considered today’s burn to be sufficient for the week, but what has changed in my mind is that each day is a brand new banking day.  There is no carryover.  Use it or lose it as they say.

So, I am freakin’ sore.  And it feels fanfreakintastic.