10.25.07
Back to the gym
It’s been a while – over a week in fact. Work has been a pig lately and I haven’t been able to get to the gym or pool at all.
Today I gave myself a good 75 minutes to do everything. The rowing is no problem at all, except I have never yet made it to 819m the way I did when Aaron was sitting there watching. That was in the morning; I’m glad if I get over 800m in the evenings. The cycling is still hard work, I went back to level 10 tonight and just about achieved it. My neck started to throb a little bit but I got through it and was glad to do the whole 10 minutes. The walking is OK, but I’m still holding onto the heart monitor handles for most of it and I think I really should be walking with my hands free (this is more difficult) so will work on that.
I haven’t had time to do all the exercises for weeks, and somehow the squats and lunges were always cut, so this time I resolved to do them. They were fine, and although my knees are occasionally stiff now, I haven’t noticed any clicking or grinding for a week or two. The clean and jerks are good and even fun.
The pull-down lats still need a lot of concentration – I went back to 15kg which is OK except I was sitting too straight (I think) and hurt my shoulder again. But leaning back so that I’m slightly diagonal was better, and I was able to complete the three sets without any more pain. If I let myself be distracted for a second, I’ll get it wrong, so I really must concentrate on that. The bicep curls/tricep kickbacks are hard work but OK
The core exercises are a good winddown – the pelvic tilts and abdominal crunches are fine. My back really enjoys the massage you get with the abdominal crunches – I try to curl each vertebra round one at a time – so I rarely cut this one. The hamstring curls are difficult but I can reliably do a set of 10 without a break, both times. I’m ready to move the core exercises up to three sets, perhaps I should do that.
Targets:
Move up a level each week on the bike – I’m still not at level 12 which is where I was supposed to start! and it’s been a month
When walking, let go of the handles for 30-second bursts next week, 1 minute bursts in the following week
Move up to 17.5 kg next time on the pull-down lats, do that for a week, and move to 20 kg after that
Start doing 3 sets of the core exercises from next week
My next assessment is due in a couple of weeks, but I think I’ll delay it to give me a chance to catch up.
07.17.07
Not doing so well
It’s been a difficult week. Not much time available due to a lot going on with various work commitments, so I’ve missed sessions completely, and the ones I have been able to fit in have been curtailed by something or other so that I can’t do the full set.
My knees are getting better but slowly. My left knee is practically completely recovered – I’d say it’s at about 90%. My right knee is more of a problem, I’d put it at about 75-80%. The main handicap right now is going down stairs, which still hurts both legs.
I’ve also been feeling pretty low on the weight front. I have not lost any weight at all in three months, which is dispiriting. Yes I feel better, and I can look medicos in the face and say “yes I exercise for over an hour a day, three days a week minimum, and on two or three of the remaining days I exercise for 40 mins or more.” Yes I think my insulin resistance is improving. But still my body is not releasing any of its stores and it seems the less I eat, the more I weigh.
I do understand that last part – if you don’t eat enough, your body panics and stores everything you eat, at the expense of your energy. It isn’t a very intelligent mechanism as it doesn’t seem to take account of the (for some of us considerable) stores you already have. But boosting my calorific intake is a challenge. Half of me isn’t sure I should. The other half doesn’t know whether to increase carb (bad for diabetes), fat (just plain bad), or protein (just how much lean steak can a girl eat?) So I’ll see what Sarah says at my assessment, but I’m looking at getting some diatetic advice.
I’m not sure whether to go through the diabetes route, through which I should get access to a nutritionist courtesy of the state system, or through the gym, which I would have to pay for, although that’s no problem. The trouble with the diabetes clinic is, the dietician there seems to rattle off the boring old food pyramid, by rote it seems. I’ve seen three different ones and it’s clear that usually their job is an education one, not needed in my case, as indeed they acknowledge as they ruefully remark that there’s nothing left for them to tell me.
As an aside, I did a food diary on a day when I had a not inconsiderable fry up from the local chip shop (yes, I did) and the total calories that day was 1284. Admittedly I’d had an abstemious ham sandwich for lunch and just fruit for breakfast, but even when I eat the very very worst things, I can’t get that calorie intake up. NB I am not saying that arranging the food into nothing, nothing then a huge hit is a great idea – normally I have small portions spread over the whole day, having about five meals/snacks altogether – but even with that fryup I got less than 1400 calories. If I’d had my normal evening meal I would have had less than 1200 calories. And still gained weight.
What I need is a dietician who understands the combined biochemistry of carb, glycogen, insulin (my own and ze stuff from ze pigs), insulin resistance, Metformin, and how they interact. I think I’ll start with the gym people and see what happens.
06.06.07
That’s better
Readers of my other blog will know I’ve had a cold for the last few days, so I haven’t been to the gym or pool since Friday. It was pretty bad but today I was well enough to go back to work, and I was determined to go to the gym as it’s been such a long time.
On my way to work today I was rushing from the car park to the client’s office and I had a bit of a coughing fit when I got there (the cold has gone to my chest) so when I got to the gym today I decided rowing might be a bit much, I always breathe hard when I’m doing it and I didn’t want to cough myself into apoplexy. So I decided to go on the arc trainer and test out how I did compared to when I started.
Well! I did the whole 10 minutes without thinking about it much for the first 8 minutes 
after that I must confess I was feeling it a bit. BUT I was not out of breath at all. I looked at my heart rate at about 4 minutes into it – 132 – and again at about 8 minutes – 146 – so I was really pleased with that. And the best thing of all is that my neck thing did not happen, and did not even threaten to happen, so I am really really pleased with that. I burned 123 calories which has got to be a good thing. Whether the arc-trainer works me harder/better or whether it’s just more accurate because it knows my weight, I’m not sure.
Getting on to the weights routine was good too. The lunges and squats are now the hardest thing and the exercises I dread the most. I still do them first, I wonder if I should do them last instead? It’s true my legs are tired after the warmup. I’m seeing Sarah in a week so there’s probably not a lot of point moving the exercises around at this stage as it’ll probably all change anyway, I’ll see how I feel. Mind you, if the gym is anything like today, I might change the order just because of traffic jams – it was very very crowded this evening even though I didn’t get there till after 6pm.
The dumbbells-when-sitting-on-a-ball thing is now Easy. Easy I tell you. Compare that to when I started.
The chest presses are easy right up to the last two of the second set. The abdominal crunches are no problem at all. The pulldown lats are still the easiest of everything and a nice warm-down after the horrid squats and lunges.
My weight is now 134.4. At least I’m showing a loss.
The very very best thing of all is, while driving home I felt like I’d had a full body massage, like someone had been walking up and down my spine – really energised and bouncy and springy. This is all worth it just for that feeling.
05.25.07
End of week 4
The session at Johnston St went well today.
The rowing was hard because I was already tired I think. Anyway I did 1802 metres in 10 minutes, burning 90 calories and averaging 32 strokes/minute, which is OK. All the weights exercises went well. My upper arms must be a bit stronger than when I started as I can now do the dumbbell thing and chest presses, they are still hard work but they don’t flake me out.
I am very disappointed that I have gained weight though. It’s now a month since I started, ie the same point in my cycle so that knocks that out as a factor, and I am 2kg heavier. And yet I am eating around 1700 calories/day, if that.
I’ll press on to my next assessment and discuss it with Sarah. We’ll see if the body fat percentage has improved – I suspect not though.
04.30.07
Initial Assessment
I’m back from my initial assessment, with Sarah, and the reality of what I am proposing to do is starting to bite.
I explained my goals:
- lose 10 kg in 6 months
- lose 10 kg in the 12 months following that
- lose my above-the-waist roll
- burn off some glycogen to improve my insulin resistance
This last goal made her say “Right. Weight training” So weight training it is
We discussed my plan of Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the gym, Tuesday and Thursday in the pool. She heartily approved, you can’t do weights two days in a row, but doing something every day for five days is a good thing.
Then she took me through the exercises she wants me to do. I feel so pathetic, even one round of reps (see how I’m getting the jargon) nearly killed me. I had been for a swim beforehand, but even so.
I’ll be doing ten minutes of the air walker or the rowing machine, then my routine of weight training, including lunges, squats, stuff for my back muscles, stuff for my abdomen… – I’ll write it up later.
The hardest exercise was sitting on the swiss ball with a 3kg barbell in each hand and raising them above my head. I almost thought I wouldn’t be able to the eleventh and twelfth reps. One thing’s for sure, if I keep up with that routine, even if I don’t lose weight I’ll be a lot stronger.
My weight this morning was 135.2, and in Habit at 6.45 this evening was 135.4, so we put it down as 136. I have 52% body fat. We then agreed I wouldn’t weigh myself again until the next assessment, ie in six weeks’ time.
Oh and the neck thing didn’t happen, so we’ll keep an eye on that.
04.23.07
I’ve finally faced up to it
My BMI is 43 and I am morbidly obese.
But I am doing something about it.
I weighed myself today and I am 135 kg exactly.
I joined a fitness club today – Habit in Wellington. It’s costing $28.50 a week. I’ve gone for Platinum membership which means I can use the Johnston Street AND the Majestic Centre gyms. The Majestic Centre one has a 33.3m pool which I am really looking forward to using.
I thought I’d only use the pool but now that I’ve signed up I quite like the idea of using some of the treadmills and air walkers, and I would be open to a discussion about weight training too.
My assessment is Monday 30th. Tomorrow I shall go for a swim. Yay.
