Exercise For You

As you can see from my previous article “My YMCA Experience”, I love racquetball. I have never been a great exerciser. I have tried many classes over the years in an attempt to try and be healthy and exercise. When I  started really playing racquetball at the ripe old age of 36, I knew I had finally found the answer to exercise for me.  I have been playing for 15 years now and still enjoying it as much as I can. It is a very addicting game once you have been bit by the bug, but it does take it’s toll on your body over the years. I have had many bumps, bruises, sprains, cuts, black eyes, etc. but I keep coming back for more. I have laid off playing for 6 months at a time in order to recover from injuries. When I started this journey to weightloss back in February I was doing the Activtrax workout as well as playing racquetball. Around the end of March, I tore my meniscus in my knee and had to stop playing.. I wasn’t quite sure what I would be able to do with this type of an injury but I was determined to continue exercising anyway I could. Walking was always an option, and I would continue that everyday. The weather was starting to get  nicer and I started playing golf again. I learned how to play golf last summer and I really love it. It is such a challenge learning all the different shots, and which club to use when.   As long as it was nice outside I could play 2-3 times a week. If I could walk 9 holes I would, but I did enjoy riding in the cart, especially after working all day. I played in a ladies league on Wednesday nights and looked forward to it every week. I was seeing an Orthopaedic doctor for my knee and started doing physical therapy twice a week. I did this for about 2 weeks at the hospital and decided that I could continue at the gym doing the same routine. I could ride the bike for 10 minutes and go 2 miles. I never realized that I could do this but my PT guy loved challenging me and I was always up for it since I was in major exercise mode. I decided to make this part of my weekly exercise routine, a couple of times a week. So now I had golf 2-3 times a week, walking the dog, and going to the gym a couple of times a week, and don’t forget my trusty ab workout every morning. It’s amazing how much exercise you can get in your normal daily routine.

The most important thing is finding activities that you enjoy.  If you don’t think of it as exercise, or a necessity, and just make it a fun, positive part of your life, you will look forward to it, and actually want to exercise.  Take a walk after dinner, or a big meal. Park further away from your destinations to get a few more steps in. Find that sport that you used to love and try it out again. You will be amazed how motivating it is, participating in something you look forward to, and seeing/feeling real benefits. It’s all a state of mind.

Living to Exercise

To Eat Or Not To Eat

So I have decided to log my food into the activtrax online system.  Now the questions are;  what do I eat, how much, and how often.  I am continuously reading articles and books about food, and what benefits are derived from eating certain foods.  I’ve read diet books such as “The Abs Diet for Women”,  “Harnessing the Healing Power of Fruit”, “The South Beach Diet”, and various articles that I find online and in health magazines.  As I said in  “The Weight Gain Dilemma”; I thought I was eating healthy.  I was just not as disciplined as I needed to be.  I knew this needed to change. I really had to get serious and apply more of this knowledge to my everyday eating habits.  As I logged in my food everyday and noticed how much fat was in everything, I focused on eating basically no fat.  That’s pretty much what you have to do in order to fit into the 20% a day category. Let me backtrack on that.  I was set up on activtrax to eat 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein.  I have always tried to eat balanced at every meal; protein, carbs, and veggies. I read that half of your plate should be filled with vegetables.  Also you need at least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day; maybe 9 to 13 by now.  My goal was to eat my 3 meals a day with a morning and afternoon snack.  I was careful to keep all  my food intake to one serving size of everything. That included sauces, condiments (butter, mayo, dressings, etc. ), EVERYTHING.  I would also concentrate on drinking as much water as possible to get to the 64 oz a day.  This is not the first time I have tried to lose weight, and I know how my body will react to drinking more water, and eating less at each sitting, but more times a day.  At first you feel hungry because you’re stomach is used to having more, and it has to shrink.  You also don’t feel like eating every time you should. You have to give your body time to adjust to this new way of eating and drinking. After a couple of weeks, I started feeling hungry when it was time to eat, and I was eating or drinking all the time.  I brought healthy snacks with me to work; fruit, nuts, hummus and crackers, or celery, protein bars, etc. I made sure that I ate enough protein before going to exercise.  My body was changing quickly due to the change in what I ate, when I ate, and how much I ate. The exercising everyday was really making a difference in how I felt, as well as reducing the inches around my hips, legs, and belly.  I ventured into my closet to see how my old clothes would fit.  The results were amazing.  I was only losing about 1 to 2 lbs a week, which is what I was told when I was setup, but where I really noticed a difference quickly was how trim I was looking and feeling.  This was my incentive and motivation to keep on going.  IT WAS WORKING!!!  

Please read on to the next article “Getting Over The Plateau”.

The Weight Gain Dilemma

So now that my hormones were somewhat on track it was time to get rid of this extra 30 pounds or so.  I really thought I was doing everything right; playing racquetball 2-3 times a week, and eating what I considered to be healthy. I had heard a couple of people talking at the Y about a new computerized system called Activtrax. Apparently you could log your food in and it would calculate how many calories, fat, carbs, and protein grams you ate. You could also get set up on the computer based on your goals for weightloss, and exercise. I had been searching for something to help me lose this god awful extra weight. I was getting ready to go up another size and I was not willing to let that happen. It was enough!!

I decided to take the plunge. What did I have to lose? Some weight, maybe? I got setup on Activtrax with a goal of exercising at least 30 minutes a day, and losing at least 30 pounds. My workout included all the weight machines, a few exercises on the mat with the ball, and the other exercise bars, belts, etc. I also warmed up on the treadmill and finished on the eliptical.  I decided that I would go to the gym on the nights that I was not playing racquetball. The computer spit out my workout everytime I came. It was great. I also started doing the 8 minute Ab workout every morning. I have been using this for many years off and on. I have to be really motivated. Anyway, there are about 12 different ab positions and with 20 reps each that comes to about 240 total crunches. I also do 20 leg lifts on each side, as well as some knee and lower back stretches. I know this sounds like alot but you can knock it out in 15 minutes or less. I do breath in between, so I am not doing the crunches continuously. Believe me, I am no great exerciser, so if I can do this, I know you can. I was really challenged by the logging in of the food. They have alot of choices with breakdowns of each item. I had my breakdown of 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein. It was very interesting seeing what I thought would fit into these categories and what I actually ended up with. This taught me alot about looking at the labels for these breakdowns. I also found out that it takes about 3-5 times more protein to get to 30%. In the beginning I measured everything to make sure I was only eating a serving size. Its important to do this. You think you are only eating a certain amount of butter, or mayo, or peanut butter until you start to measure. I became very aware of how much fat was in everything. I starting buying lite and lowfat dressings that I thought I would like as well as some bags of frozen fish, shrimp, and chicken breasts.  I like fresh vegetables, so I only bought what I thought I would eat for about a week at a time so as not to waste the food and have to throw it away. I hate throwing away food because it went bad. I was on my way and it felt good to start this new journey. I was very motivated and determined. Please continue to “The Weight Loss Success”.