Fitness

For those of you who know me, you know that I have been vaguely winning the Battle of the Bulge since I have lived in Seattle. Since moving here in January of 2006, I've lost roughly 25 lb. I have changed my diet (first, no dairy, now it has morphed to no grains or potatoes, and the dairy is back). My severe acne has cleared up. I started working out 5 days a week, between pilates classes, kickboxing (or my current temporary stand-in of pole-dancing class), spinning (indoor cycling, not yarn!), and the occasional outdoor activity (e.g. hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, etcetera...). I used to bike a lot more outside (especially last summer), but the weather has been so off this year, that I haven't been outside but once or twice.

Anyway, I got kind of pissed at myself after seeing pictures from our camping trip to the yurt last weekend. You see, my face is a remarkably accurate gauge as to how overweight I am. The instant it turns round(er), I know the jig is up! Action must be taken.

"But", you ask, "You work out 5 days a week?" ... Yes. I am fairly certain that my body has just equilibrated itself to this new level. So, my new plan is the Amazing Time-Tested Duet of... Diet and Exercise! (Ta-da!) See, nothing fancy up my sleeves! :)

My diet will aim towards a lower fat concentration in general, and less red meat. I will tend more towards fish and white meats like chickens and pork. I already eat a lot of fresh produce, so that won't change. I also will try to lower most of my dairy fat content. For example, I used to use whole cream in my coffee (good lord, my lips would get greasy), and I would also whip it and freeze it for a low-sugar frozen snack-o. Those days are gone for now. I've moved to half-and-half for the coffee (I drink one cup a day, if that...probably a more accurate count is between 2-4 cups of coffee a week), and I intend to move towards whole milk, then eventually low-fat, if I can stand it. I bought some uber-tasty raw whole milk (raw, that is - unpasteurized! Victory!) from Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it's creamy raw goodness... I just bought some (pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized- that stuff is the devil!) whole milk on Sunday evening to fill in when my half and half is gone.

My exercise will shift to less pilates (2x / week in the summer), plus a program called CrossFit, if I can take it. CrossFit was originally designed for first responders (firefighters, EMT's, etc.) to make them more wholly fit and able to tackle their jobs with ease and agility. It has now extended to the general public. I just want a better level of fitness overall. While I can bike about 30 miles with no ill effects, I want to be just More Fit. I know my cardio is not up to snuff - I am scared to run because I don't want to injure my knees any more, and while kickboxing is great and I huff and puff in there, one hour a week ain't cuttin' it! Plus, they work with weights. It's basically a circuit training course. And, while expensive, it's actually cheaper than my pilates regimen has been. I spoke about it with my pilates teacher, Joanna, and she was enthusiastic, even if it meant she was getting less money from me. :) She was one of the people who recommended CrossFit to me, along with an old spinning instructor, and my (and my sister's) old gymnastics coach.

My only beef is that my current gym, AllStar Fitness, is a piece of crap and I already pre-paid for it. I'm going to try getting out of my plan. The gym location I went to cancelled about half their classes when "attendance was down", and now their make-it-up-to-you is that you can go to other gyms. Well, what if I don't have time to visit other gyms?! I figure they owe me about $266 or so. I wonder how much yelling I'll have to do to get that money back.

I intend to keep the blog updated with my progress as I go forth into the world of CrossFit.

Right now, since my face is round and my pants are tighter (ugh), I am guessing I'm hovering around 153-155 lb. My goal weight is 135 lb, which I figure is "good enough", and still probably 10 lb more than my sister weighs (an interesting thing is that we're almost exactly the same body build, but I suspect my frame is slightly larger than hers...but as far as height and legs and stuff go, we're the same. Heck, our voices on the phone sound the same!) As far as cardio goes, I probably suck. My muscles are relatively strong, though. My legs are strong, and my arms are getting there, and my abs are strong, except they are obscured by a layer of fat. I am going to try out CrossFit for a few months and see how it goes. I figure I have nothing to lose, and a healthy (and hot) new figure to gain!