I've missed a couple of weeks now. I have some pretty good reasons, I think. I've been working a lot of extra hours at work, and have also been spending a lot of time at church. When I'm home, I feel like my time is not my own, it belongs to my family - at least until the baby goes to bed. At that point, I have just a few minutes (it seems) to have some "me" time before I need to go to bed, if I'm going to wake up and get to work early.
Today, however, I got a bit more motivation, in the form of a doctor's appointment. The good news is that my HDL (the good cholesterol) is increased, and my triglycerides are down. My LDL (bad cholesterol) is stable, however, and my liver is still not doing terribly well. I was told that, like much of the rest of my body, my liver is fatty. Not too big of a surprise. What made things sink in, however, was when it was explained to me that fatty liver is often a precursor to liver cancer. So now, I get to fret about that, on top of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Great.
But it was just the kick in the pants I needed (at least for tonight). Ideally, I will run 3-4 times each week. I will also be taking niacin every night (which will help with my LDL), and fish oil or flaxseed oil 3 times each day. I'm also going to do some research into under-the-desk bicycling equipment (basically an exercise bike, but without the seat or the handlebars) and try to get a couple of hours of that in each day while I'm at work. Ambitious? Yep. Will I be tired? Probably. But maybe I'll be able to eke out a few extra years of "daddy time" for my kids.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Howdy
I'm taking a different approach to my weight loss, but one thing Rick and I will have in common is running. My kids school is having its annual 5K for Literacy and I would like to be able to jog the whole way, which in my current state is not possible. I would like my kids to be able to run too. Tonight we'll start by walking for half an hour and jogging every few minutes.
As for weight loss, I'd talked to some nutritionists several months ago who said I am not eating -enough- to lose weight; that I need to bring my caloric intake up by 100 calories per week until I am at 2000.. which should be 500 calories less than my body ought to be using, if I hadn't killed my metabolism. Well, I am almost there. I gained 10 pounds the first month, but I haven't gained anything since then even though I'm adding more food every week. And my kids are telling me I look thinner even though the scale says I'm weighing the same. So I'm going to keep going with it. If all else fails and I don't lose a thing, it'll at least be nice to eat like a human being again. :)
As for weight loss, I'd talked to some nutritionists several months ago who said I am not eating -enough- to lose weight; that I need to bring my caloric intake up by 100 calories per week until I am at 2000.. which should be 500 calories less than my body ought to be using, if I hadn't killed my metabolism. Well, I am almost there. I gained 10 pounds the first month, but I haven't gained anything since then even though I'm adding more food every week. And my kids are telling me I look thinner even though the scale says I'm weighing the same. So I'm going to keep going with it. If all else fails and I don't lose a thing, it'll at least be nice to eat like a human being again. :)
Monday, February 8, 2010
So Tired
I haven't run for about a week and a half, due to an evil combination of weather, long hours at work and a cold. Today I finally felt well enough to get out, but it seems I suck more than I did a mere 10 days ago.
My 32 minutes of running and walking amounted to a mere 2.25 miles tonight - max. That's almost a half mile less than last time. And I feel much more tired tonight than I did last time, too.
So, what's going on? Is it because I'm still recovering from my head cold? Is it because I took too much time off? Is it because I wasn't really doing spectacularly well to begin with, so it was much easier for me to get worse? Maybe it has something to do with the copious amounts of Diet Coke I had to make it through the day?
It might be something else, though. I did make a conscious effort to take it easy tonight, since it's my first time out in a while. I also checked my heart rate and adjusted my effort down a lot because at the end of the first segment, my heart rate said I had reached maximum effort (according to the standard VO2 Max formula), even though I didn't feel quite as exhausted as I think I would have had I actually reached my max. Maybe my max is higher than the formula suggests it should be, and that's why I didn't feel like I was working that hard. Maybe I'm just convincing myself that I'm tired because according to the formula, I had a really hard workout.
I suppose I could clear that last question up by just having my VO2 max tested. Of course, that might be the sensible thing to do, which means I probably will never get around to doing it.
My 32 minutes of running and walking amounted to a mere 2.25 miles tonight - max. That's almost a half mile less than last time. And I feel much more tired tonight than I did last time, too.
So, what's going on? Is it because I'm still recovering from my head cold? Is it because I took too much time off? Is it because I wasn't really doing spectacularly well to begin with, so it was much easier for me to get worse? Maybe it has something to do with the copious amounts of Diet Coke I had to make it through the day?
It might be something else, though. I did make a conscious effort to take it easy tonight, since it's my first time out in a while. I also checked my heart rate and adjusted my effort down a lot because at the end of the first segment, my heart rate said I had reached maximum effort (according to the standard VO2 Max formula), even though I didn't feel quite as exhausted as I think I would have had I actually reached my max. Maybe my max is higher than the formula suggests it should be, and that's why I didn't feel like I was working that hard. Maybe I'm just convincing myself that I'm tired because according to the formula, I had a really hard workout.
I suppose I could clear that last question up by just having my VO2 max tested. Of course, that might be the sensible thing to do, which means I probably will never get around to doing it.
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