Geeks Who Are Fit

Haven't posted to fitgeeks in a while, so I wanted to give you all an update. 

I've lost 3 pounds since early August, due to diet and exercise tuneup. I know because those pants that I've owned and washed for a year that "shrunk in the wash all of a sudden" now fit at the waist correctly once more.  Since my dryer doesn't have a "unshrink" setting, it must be me that shrunk!

Here's what I did:
*  Stopped eating sugared cereals, instead focusing on ones that fill me up with lots of whole grain.  Kashi makes a pretty decent "cheerio" type cereal that works well in this regard, and is lightly sweet.
*  Less alcohol.  I am a "kill the bottle" sort, and there are better ways to get my antioxidants (homegrown tomatoes!) than the glass of red wine-- or two-- route.  I will still tie one on occasionally, but I'm reining myself in well these days and the weight's coming off.  :)
*  More fruit/whole grains.  Particularly paying attention to not being hungry when I get home from work and getting random things from the fridge-- this means having fruit/veg throughout the day, especially at 3 PM.  Even low-cal snacks later in the day stack up, so it's best to fill up earlier.
*  Stairs, stairs, stairs.
*  Tea, tea, tea.   When I think I need something in my tummy, I hydrate first, THEN see if I need to eat.  Usually I'm thirsty and my body isn't giving me the right signal. 
*  New thing: rice/complex carbs in ice-cream bowls instead of on a plate.  Really lets you see how much you're eating!
*  Finding my target heart rate during my 30 min cardio, and keeping that rate for as long as I can.  This is a lot of extra work and monitoring, but if I'm just going through the motions, it's not going to do me as much good.  Every minute should count as much as possible.

Last night, I applied to hire a student personal trainer.  I hired a personal trainer when I began working out 4 years ago, and I think it's time to get some new training and techniques.  Last time, I was merely learning correct lifting techniques since I was brand-new to weights.  This time, my specific goals are upper-body toning and 15-20 pounds weight loss. (note to self: also contact student rep about body composition test.)  I want to have something to look forward to when I go, these sessions should do the trick.  I'll pass on cool stuff I learn.

So, how much calories are expended using the stairs rather than the elevator?  I used to have excuse after excuse for punking out and taking the elevator to my fourth floor office, but lately I have been using this summer to train myself into taking the stairs every chance I get.  The fact that BOTH elevators have taken to not relinquishing anyone foolish enough to enter into them (OM NOM NOM NOM) means that I am DEFINITELY taking the stairs as much as possible!

How much more exercise is it?  A quick troll provides this handy number: 0.11 kC/step.  Given that I'm a bit heavier and taller (5'9", 190 lb, down from 194 last month) than the average woman (or, come to think of it, a lot of men) that I think this calorie-unit is based on, I'll call my expenditure 0.12 for now.  Once I lose a bit more weight, I won't be burning as much.

Steps for each floor: 28
4 floors at 28 steps times 0.12 kC per step=13.44 kC burned.

13.44 calories does not sound like a lot.  But consider that it takes me a little under a half hour of a fast uphill walk to burn 200 calories on the treadmill, and you'll see that for (+/- 1 minute)'s worth of exercise there's a lot of caloric burn for one's time, and this is exercise I can do whenever I feel like it!  Today's been a busy day, so I've taken the stairs up (and down) to the fourth floor twice, plus once down to the third floor and back. 

9 floors at 28 steps x 0.12kC=30.24kC burned before 10 am! 

Go forth with the knowledge that 1 step=0.11kC, my amazons and hoplites, and burn for all you're worth!

When I first started working out and watching my diet in 2004, I was 5'9" and weighed 230, 27 pounds over what is considered obese.

Forget about the handwaves you'll sometimes hear from people about doctors having set obesity benchmarks too stringently-- I'll TELL you what obesity is. Obesity, for me, was daily acid reflux. It was bad sleep and exhaustion and insomnia, including having to sleep in a certain way so that the fat on my chest and throat wouldn't cut off my airflow. Eric sometimes had to keep vigil during the night to make sure I was still breathing.  It was rising mobility issues-- little things-- movie theater seats being too tight, seatbelts at amusement park rides not fitting, bolted-down tables and chairs at restaurants being too snug against my stomach.  It was the insidious rise in my blood pressure-- occasional dizziness, shortness of breath.  I was on birth control pills, too.  Oh, MAN, I was sweating bullets about strokes and blood clots when my blood pressure started steadily rising.

I don't know when exactly I came to the realization that the the pieces were coming together to form a really bad picture.  But I am really glad I did, and my one regret is I didn't do it sooner.  I gained about 10 pounds back before I moved up here, and I was painfully conscious of the difference between a heavier me and a lighter me.  I'm now at 186.  I need to go further, but I also cherish the little things I DO have that obesity denied me.  Easy clothes shopping.  Restful sleep, energy.  Ambition.  Healthy, empowered choices.  My realization that I needed to lose weight wasn't about looks, it was about health-- this decision means that I won't ever say "eh, I'm older, my looks aren't so important"-- my health is and should always be a big part of my decision-making process. I read articles like the one below to remind me of what we face now in our collective health as a society, and what we'll face in the future, when things like cardiovascular disease and diabetes-related disabilities will become commonplace among younger and younger people.  (WALL-E made me simultaneously want to go to my gym and my garden!!)  We will see (possibly already are seeing) this financially in our taxpaying outlook, as more and more people require disability assistance.  I'd like to think us geeks getting together to encourage each other, be it through exercising together, going dancing, cheer-leading, advice, or a penalty bet(!), is part of taking care of that collective health and each other as friends, as well as taking responsibility for ourselves.  To me, this is a part of being a good citizen!

amywithani  and I have started a new community called fitgeeks!  We're mainly using it for daily/weekly logs of diet and physical activity, but I'd like to use it to solicit ideas for exercise/weight management, ask questions of the group, general cheerleading/boasting (Bragging about reaching a fitness goal is fantastic!), goal setting, and fitness bet/workout partner/diet buddy matchups.

Details:

• amywithani  or I will send out invites.  You can post or lurk as you see fit.
  
• I'll be posting daily intake/physical activity logs.  If you want to do the same, feel free, but please do it behind an lj-cut for brevity's sake.  I'll post once each day with my totals to keep post traffic reasonable.
  
• Weightloss bet-partner solicitation is OK, but PLEASE take any bet smack-talk to your own journal or private email. (Some of the folks I've asked to join are not locals or are not interested in the bet-penalty system of weightloss.)
• Be honest and positive on this community, please, both with yourself and others.  This isn't a forum for being self-critical (OMG I AM FATTY MCBUTTERMEATS) or harshly criticizing other people's fitness goals/decisions (o noez you do atkins? :(  enjoy your ketonuria, dood). 
  

Glad to see you on this community.  I'd like to game, and watch anime, and geek out with you guys for a long time to come, so let's be the exception to the cheeto-stained rule!