Hi. So it's been about 10 days. I have been keeping up the exercise, but less in terms of the aerobics video, because I haven't been getting up early enough to get to the theatre before the people get there. More in terms of walking. A couple of things have inspired to walking - both books. The first is an autobiography of David Mitchell. I briefly developed an insane crush on David Mitchell when I started watching the TV show Peep Show. (By the end of the last season, though, I think I was finding Robert Webb more appealing.) Anyway, his book is a little bit about walking - how he's been walking and it's cured his back problem - so in the book, he's walking all around London. It's his gimmick for his book, I guess. Then I read a book over the past few days called Younger Next Year. I was in the book shop and looking for some help devising a plan for how to get back in shape enough to get in shape. Younger Next Year is probably written more for people older than me, 60's and up, maybe 50's, although the suggestion was actually mentioned in the book that the reader might be 40, which I am. 40 but feeling older, feeling undermined by my body after this crummy sedentary year.
So, the book is a lot about exercise. By far the bulk of the book and the best parts are about exercise. Of course, I've done a lot of exercise for exercise's sake in my adult years. Weight training in college, gym rat (of sorts) in my twenties... sort of less of it in my thirties as I focused on work and got tired, but I was doing some pretty impressive hiking in my mid-to-late thirties. Robust I have been, though obese.
So some of my favorite parts of the book were the parts that talked about the biochemistry of the decay of aging and how exercise worked against it. I wouldn't say the whole book was great, but that part was valuable for me to read. Plus there's a clear program to follow. So I've been doing my 45 minutes of low cardio (walking) every day for a while now (I'm still not back to work, so this is the one thing I have to do, and it's pretty easy if I'm not working.) A few days ago, I made the commitment and rejoined the gym. Today I'm going to up my effort a little bit, do an interval or two at a higher rate. Which I think will happen pretty easy because I want to work on the elliptical today and I think that will push my heart rate up automatically.
Today is the day I'm going to start tracking and also start eating better. I have not been eating to lose weight or manage my body chemistry, which is to say, there have been lots of the bad carbs - candy and pasta and pizza... And I haven't really liked it but when Mom makes spaghetti to try to use it up then you eat it, and I was the one who got in the mood for pizza and sweets... I'm going to study up on some glycemic meals, try to have some go-to meals in my head and just do that naturally, just naturally eat whole grains, proteins, veggies, nuts, and fruits and olive oil and so on as I feel like it for a couple weeks, track the calories and see how that goes. It's a process right now. Both my parents are out of town so if that's a hindrance, I'm in complete control right now.
So I'm going to use a hard-copy journal and an app like Lose It or Sparkpeople to track also.
I'll let you know how it goes.
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