Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Pain, Struggles, and Distraction Tactics

First let's talk about the struggles...

I read this week (or sometime in the past month -time just bleeds all together) that you have to cut 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. 1 pound - people. That's 500 calories a day for 7 days straight that shouldn't be going into my mouth. Now the mystery as to why the numbers aren't plummeting in a down-ward direction is finally clear.

Have you ever fought yourself to go to the gym. Hated every minute of being there and then at the end of a programmed workout - looked down at the screen to see that you just sweat and panted and spent minutes of your life - and burned 97 calories? Maybe it says 130 calories? Is this disappointing to anyone else?

I think this MAY be why (digging into Long Term Memory Now) my review of that Fact or Crap weight loss article was suggesting that exercise simply is not the answer to LOSING weight. Unless you are a serious athlete or a marathon runner (I know there are some of you out there) you simply are NOT going to find success with this method. You HAVE TO CUT CALORIES.

I know that isn't fun. Trust me. But it also isn't fun to imagine the number of minutes I would have to commit to the treadmill in order to burn that 1 pound. I will try to remember this choice (spend my entire evening on the treadmill or don't eat the ice cream) whenever I have the urge to flirt with "unnecessary foods".

Other light bulb moments this week included the fact that 99% of calories in hot dogs are from FAT. About 80% of calories in cream cheese is from fat. I'm usually good at looking at labels - but the fact that these two had escaped my radar for this long is making me question my diligence.

Distraction Tactics

Coke Rewards thinks they will try to derail my 1 time a week soda plan by encouraging me to drink their Diet beverage in mass quantity for extra bonus points. Pure evil.


Dairy Queen is having a blizzard birthday. My son was amazed / horrified to think that I was nearly 10 years old before the idea of putting candy into ice cream was thought of. And for the record - yes, I took part in the .25 cent blizzard promotion. I pray that it is over now so that I can avoid a repeat offense.


And finally - let's talk Pain!


I had my best workout (unintentionally) in a long time. This weekend I spent some time outside planting flowers. The ground was wet, it was cold, and this led to some interesting poses (perhaps I've invented gardening yoga) in order to avoid the mud while squatting to plant flowers. Apparently while bending, reaching, digging, and balancing - I rekindled my relationship with some long-lost inner thigh and glut muscles.


The next morning I had that happy muscle burn. I was very please with myself. I suggested to Janet that this may be my new workout plan.


By afternoon - I was trying to fake a "normal walk" but I think it was more like a light hobble. I'm thinking maybe I over did it.


By evening I was wincing in pain with every step and cursing the builder of our house that thought stairs was a good idea. As I admire my happy flowers - they seem to be taunting me.


Today, I'm considering a plant sale in the driveway. I've had the realization that I have only planted one flower bed (and not even completely) and that I have about 4x more to go. Spring fever causes brain damage and should be a medical condition in the DSM. Why on earth would anyone call gardening FUN?


I'm praying for rain this weekend so that I have a valid excuse to procrastinate at putting the rest of the flowers in the ground. I'm also wondering how many dog treats I would have to offer to get my poochies to dig the rest of the wholes for me.



3 comments:

Karen M. Peterson said...

I've heard about that 3500 calories thing a few times now. Has it changed my habits? Nope. Not yet. But it's made me more aware of exactly what I'm doing to myself.

Janet said...

Oh Rudy is a very skilled digger. But he tends to dig where he wants, and not where I want.

I actually remember when Blizzards were like a new and awesome thing (as opposed to familiar and awesome, as they are now).

Hal said...

The New York Times magazine last week had an excellent article about exercise and its relationship to weight loss and what it can and can't do for you.

The bad: it won't really help you lose weight, just like you've discovered. If you're not eating right, you will not shed pounds no matter how much you exercise.

The good: it will absolutely help you maintain a weight loss. And you won't carry your weight around your midsection either, where the fat is most unhealthy.

I've also noticed, as have a few of my friends, that exercise is the best motivator to eat well, because junk doesn't fuel you the way healthy food does. So keep hitting the gym, because it will do wonderful things for you. Unfortunately, melting pounds away isn't necessarily one of them.