Friday, July 15, 2011

My New Personal Trainer

I have a goal - Lookin and Feelin Great by 48. To that goal, I've lost 25 lbs. I have 15 - 25 more to go.  The thing is, I've been stuck at 25 down for about 8 months...I go up when I travel and back down when I get home. I have been eating 1,000 - 1,400 calories a day, work out 6 days a week (60 min cardio).....but I deal with Hashimotos and so my metabolism is sluggish and I simply am not going to lose a lb a week. LOL 


I've learned I have to set goals other than weight loss. I really can't control what my metabolism will do. I CAN set new goals with diet and  exercise and reach them. 


I've been told NOT to run due to my knee...but I've lost 25 lbs and I'm ready for a workout that is a bit of fun and different. I love my walks, but they don't make me sweat. High impact aerobics lead to swollen knees by evening. Enter C25k - Couch to 5 K. I figure it's light enough to start off that it may not blow out my knee....and I may slowly build up to 5 K. This may be a mid-life crisis. I want to run again. The runners in the house are great cheer leaders.  I'd love to be able to run 5K next time in Korea - for our regional conference. I may settle for brisk walking and jogging...but hey....it's something.

I finished week one today. That means I can jog for 8 minutes and do a brisk walk for 22 minutes.  I do the elliptical on the off days. I'm considering doing 30 min of elliptical after the 30 min of  "wogging" to keep my workouts at 60 min. The nutritionist and trainer from GAFB all assure me with my thyroid induced sluggish metabolism and age I need to do 45 - 60 min of cardio 6 days a week...so I'm a bit leery of  this 30 min run thing.....but we shall see.

Things I learned this week:

  • In high school you can get away with skipping the stretching. A middle aged female should stretch. 
  • My knee is NOT swollen and doesn't really hurt....just sort of feels "off"....so 
  • Don't do this every day and be prepared to stay at the wogging stage if the knee can't handle running. 
  • My knee may be able to handle this is I build up GRADUALLY (ala C25K) and now that I've lost a significant amount of weight. 
  • I may reward myself with an armband for my ipod so I can have music cues, watching for potholes, keeping my eye on the tiny second hand, and avoiding snakes is getting a bit scary. 

In addition, I've hired Zander as my Personal Trainer. He's currently obsessing about fitness. I tend to go with his obsessions....what else is an aspie mom to do? This means I'm doing bridges, planks, and all manner of strange stretches..... This a.m.

Zander: "Mom, do this...."

Me: "Why, what is it good for?"

Zander: "It's a bridge, I don't know - but it hurts. Do it."

As I do push ups  - which I would not do except for the little nazi at my side.....

Zander: "GREAT you've done 10 - I bet you can do 18 more."

Me: "You have GOT to be kidding!"

Planks.....

Me: "Why am I doing this again?"

Zander: "It hurts so it's a good one to do a lot of."

Zander: "Mom, I love you."

Oh - hearing him say that still sends me over the roof when I think of him sitting and rocking......

Me: "I love you more."

Zander: "I love you most."

I'm hoping he will see me working on something really hard and be motivated to continue working on that blasted, elusive phonics. He's smart as a whip and will get this reading thing soon. Meanwhile I continue to feed his mind with great science books which I read to him - because he LOVES science.

One last tidbit  - I'd been in the midst of a sugar/chocolate fast in March and never reported. Earthquakes and tsunamis have a way of changing one's focus. I continued for 3 months. It wasn't that tough. I began eating more refined treats when we went to the states in May.....I need to cut way back again. I'm not sure if I'll go to a fast again or just to a once a week treat. We shall see.  I need to do some praying on it.

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

9 comments:

Progonoskis said...

Sounds like you've got a great personal trainer! We just got a dog, and I've been thinking I should make him my new running partner...then I might actually go. I didn't you you have hashimoto's--two of my sisters have it, and since it runs in families I'm afraid I will develop it some day.
Have you ever tried more of a sight-words approach to reading for Zander? I know one of my younger brothers never learned to read until my mom switched from phonics to sight reading. He is a very visual-spacial learner, extremely mathematically oriented, and apparently taking in a whole word was easier for him than the sequential parsing of phonics. I think a lot of aspies are more visual-spatial, which may be part of why language in general does not come easily to them--language is very sequential. Might be worth trying...

Sarah said...

Oops, didn't realize I was signed in on the family gmail account. My husband named it progonoskis after a creature in a Madeline L'Engle book...
That last comment was by me :-)

--Sarah

berrypatch said...

I just started training for a 5K as well using the C25K principles. I'm doing a weekly group and we're using a book called Run 4 God - same concept. Not sure if you'll find this helpful or not but I'm loving it...
http://www.buriedtalentsband.com/C25K/

It's a free download of a playlist for all the various weeks in the C25K runs. It's all indie-Christian music. I love that the guy tells me to "run" and (most importantly) "walk" so I don't have to worry about tracking time. ;-)

KK said...

I'm using the app 5krunner (free) and it allows my music to play in the background and gives me the "Run/walk now" verbal cues so I don't have to watch anything. I am VERY heavy and have had bad knees in the past but am running "barefoot style" meaning on the balls of my feet so I don't have the jarring impact to my joints. Having no issues and have been doing day one of the program for 3 weeks now....just not ready to progress yet, but I'm out there moving meaning I'm working toward my goal!

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

I downloaded an ap to play behind my music...but then realized I don't HAVE an iphone or itouch and to run with an iPAD is out of the question. LOL

Lisa - I'll check out your link and the playlist. I think I listened to the first bit and thought the music would make me crazy but if you like it I should give it another chance.

I did download a c2yk playlist from itunes...but think I need to go get a little armband to make this really work.

On your toes, KK? I haven't given much thought to style...and I'm with you....I WANT to do this so regardless of the pace and speed of increase...I can do it. I mean if my knee acts up when I run 2 min intervals, I'll stick with 90 seconds. LOL

I'm looking for exercises to do to strengthen my knees...they creak and crack really bad and I was told there is nothing to be done as I've lost something. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Sarah - thanks for clearing up the mystery of progonoskis. LOL

I See Sam is the program that seems to be working now...it's phonics but not phonics progression like we've used in the past...seems to incorporate a fair bit of sight reading into the learning.

Anonymous said...

De'Etta,
As someone who had her knee replaced at the ripe old age of 43, if your knees hurt when you run, you might want to stick to walking. Sorry to be negative, just hate to see you do damage you can't undo. :-(
Blessings,
Laura

Jen said...

I keep resisting the running craze, even though several friends are incouraging me to prepare for a 5 K with them. Wanting the comradeship of it, I would love to. But with my knees so bad that they can collapse on me just standing still running just does not appeal to me!

My aspie was slow to read as well. But at some point just started reading. Despite the continued need for language therapy, she reads at a post high school level (when tested in the 8th grade) Go figure.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Laura,

Good reminder and I'm being very attentive to my knee (and hip). It didn't HURT until that last run...and I'm back on the elliptical until I find my running shoes again. LOL I figure I can run the 5K on the elliptical if need be.

Jen, thanks for the Aspie encouragement. Sometimes I start to feel that I'm out here in Japan alone. LOL