Halfway through the 30-day push

Quote du Jour:
As a real person, he wouldn't last a minute, would he? But drama is about imperfection. And we've moved away from the aspirational hero. We got tired of it, it was dull. If I was House's friend, I would hate it. How he so resolutely refuses to be happy or take the kind-hearted road. But we don't always like morally good people, do we?
- Hugh Laurie

That quote isn't especially relevant to anything. I just liked it.

I'm still pushing through on this 30-days of 3-hours-a-day exercise, even though I'm dead tired from lack of sleep. I'm halfway through now. I haven't noticed much weight loss -- a few pounds, but my weight fluctuates so much that's negligible.

What I have noticed is a change in the way the body feels. This may sound like an odd statement for a sedentary, overweight, middle-aged female to make, but I'm starting to feel like an athlete. It feels good to move, to use my muscles. I feel like I'm getting stronger. I can bend Damn Knee back almost as far as Good Knee now, and it's no longer buckling under me at odd moments. (Hope I didn't just jinx something by typing that.) I'm starting to feel like I enjoy exercise again. Not the getting up out of bed to exercise part, nor the getting started part of exercise, but the actually pushing of the body to go a little farther each time part. Damn Knee isn't quite up to the point of doing something that involves impact, such as running; I can't use the elliptical without following up with the ice pack and ibuprofen. Even so, the exercise that I am doing feels good. Satisfying.

P.S. Not that I'm becoming one of them Math people or anything hung up on numbers (much), but as of today I will have done over 40 hours of exercise this month. Unless my mad Math skillz are leading me astray, that's one friggin' work week's worth of exercise. Me. Hard to believe. (Now, if only I could figure out a way to get paid for this...)

Exercise du jour: I'm falling into a pattern of alternating one day of mostly using the elliptical, the next mostly doing core muscle DVDs. What I should be doing is including more gardening, but for some reason that seems a lot more work than the other two. Probably that's why I should be doing it. Even after all this working out, the inner slug is still trying to call the shots.

Morning: Elliptical
Done.



Noon: Elliptical Walking, gently
Done. Turns out that I kinda sorta pulled a muscle in my hip during last night's core rhythm DVD. That's always the problem -- you start feeling good, you go a little further, then you find out that you went a bit too far. Exercise is educational, at least.



Night: Gardening, damn it.
Done! Well, the 'damn it' part, anyway. The omens look good toward the prospect of my getting another job. Which concept has thrust me into a) the heights of exultation b) the depths of despair and c)the middle ground of "oh, well, it could work out okay."

Binary Gods and stray comets

Quote du jour, from the I Hope He's Kidding department:
Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.
- Bill Gates

The Toastmasters thing went okay. It wasn't a typical meeting. They were holding a contest where people had to get up and make impromptu speeches and get judged on their performance. I didn't see any evidence of ritual human sacrifice; everyone looked ordinary and friendly. Could all be an act, I suppose. I'll need to attend a meeting during ordinary time to make sure.

It was odd, but I felt nervous for the people who'd been put on the spot to get up and give speeches, even though they'd volunteered to do it. The idea of doing this myself feels like trying bungee jumping when I'm not too sure about the bungee cord.

Another interview today. This time, I'm going to leave extra extra early, in case of traffic/earthquake/tsunami/tornado/stray comet falling out of the sky.

Exercise du jour: Um... I might cut this a bit short. I don't want to show up at the interview hot and sweaty, so I might only get in a couple hours of exercise in in the afternoon and evening. (Yes, I did say "only a couple hours of exercise" and yes, I know how that sounds.)
Done. 2 hours of light walking and DVDs to work the arms & core muscles. Might have enjoyed it if I weren't so tired. Been tired all day. The interview was quite pleasant, and there was a complete absence of Unlikely Occurrences to delay me.

Random thoughts, not to be confused with whining

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Quote du jour: Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.
- Charles F. Kettering

Site du jour: I take back every sneer I ever sneered at eHow. If this works, I'll be a happy (or at least alimony-happy) woman: How to marry a millionaire.

Day 13 of the 30-day push. Not feeling enthused about this month's goal of 3 hours daily exercise. I don't think it's the exercise itself that's causing this feeling; I think it's the fact that it's been too damn hot to sleep at night. Miss enough sleep and nothing looks good to me.

Maybe I should put Sleep on my To Do list. Have another interview tomorrow. Need to look alert, or something approximating alert.

Argh.

Exercise du jour:
Morning - 1 hour split between walking & elliptical. Gotta get that blood flowing somehow.
Done. The elliptical is better than coffee for kicking me into gear.





Noon - 1 hour elliptical. Got a new (to me) DVD that I'd like to watch. Pretty much the only time I watch TV/Videos now is when I'm on the elliptical.
Done. Not a quick & peppy pace, but done. This lack of sleep is kicking me back out of gear again.


Night - 1 hour gardening. I suppose it's a good thing that my weed-rich yard affords me so many opportunities for exercise. I suppose.
Well, sorta kinda done. I cheated and ellipticalled for half an hour. It's mindless, I can listen to music and watch TV (yes, simultaneously) and time goes by faster. I still have to find time for another half hour of exercise, but I'm going to take a break to study for my interview tomorrow too.
Update du 8:42 pm: finished. 3 hours, all elliptical. Hey, I go with what works. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Confidence (or, How I Learned to Love Aplomb)

Torture device or feeding utensil? You decide.

Quote du jour: A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.
- Sydney Smith

As part of the Learn To Sell Myself^TM campaign, I've decided I need to work on being less introverted. (Less introverted in "real" life, as opposed to the fool who's always blabbing on her blog about her most recent exercise obsession.) In real life, I don't talk so much. A few years after high school, one of the guys who'd been on the staff of the high school yearbook told me that the only reason I didn't win "Shyest" in my senior year was that more people knew the other girl. Background, that's always been my strategy. Not so much a wallflower as wallpaper.

Turns out that approach isn't the best one to adopt when job hunting. Who knew?

So I decided to Do Something About it. I am gulp going to go down and investigate a Toastmasters club. Given my past experience with clubs (e.g. Weight Watchers), this might be a horrible less-than-useful thing to do. On the other hand, it might not. Only one way to find out.

Exercise du jour: I'm still feeling tired & fed up & not in the mood to exercise, but I've decided to ignore that. Well, half-ignore -- I'm still going to exercise 3 hours today, but my definition of exercise will include stretching, gentle walking, maybe even gardening if the wasps are amenable.

The schedule will probably go something like this:

Morning -- walking
Done. Got the muscles warmed up, even if it wasn't a heart-pumping knock-down drag-out workout.



Noon -- exercise DVD
Done. 90 minutes of stretching and belly dancing. I kept the curtains drawn, didn't want to frighten the neighbors.



Night -- gardening
Done.


Toaster courtesy of imago.

A sweet sufferin' succotash of a (3 hour) sauna

Quote du jour: Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Tired.
Bored with exercise.
Bored with blogging about exercise.
Really tired with not being able to sleep through the night because it's so hot, which is probably why I'm so fed up with everything else. Not up to doing a proper post with an appropriate picture.

Morning - 1 hour elliptical
Noon - another hour elliptical
Night - yet a third friggin' hour on the elliptical




Done, done, done. On the plus side, since it's 89 degrees in my bedroom, where the elliptical resides, I also got some good sauna time in as well.

A whole day of nothing but exercise!

Quote du jour: Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.
- Ambrose Bierce

I am now on my 10th day of my 30 day push of 3 hours of exercise a day. For those of you out there who are, like me, computationally impaired, the numbers work out something like this:

So far -- not counting today -- I've done 25 hours of exercise this month. That means (I realize that some of you are, like me, English majors) that over one full day, more than 24 hours, has been spent exercising in this month so far. Is that wild, or what?

Okay, maybe you smart-alec Math majors are out there right now yawning, but that made me think. It seems incredible that I have devoted 1 full day of the past 10 to 100% exercising. Even if some parts of the exercise was going-through-the-motions, other parts were not. And I can never tell if the body (especially Damn Knee) is going to feel like limbering up and working out until I have, in fact, been working out for at least 10 minutes. So it's worth exercising at least 15 minutes just to find out what shape (not mood, never mood) my body is in.

Exercise du jour:
Morning - 1 hour elliptical
Done!



Noon - 1/2 hour elliptical, 1/2 hour gardening... under the blazing hot sun... whimper...




Night - 1/2 hour gardening, 1/2 hour DVD. That's the plan.
Done. Not according to plan, however. It's too friggin' @#!%!%!@#!%% hot outside. Let the weeds fight the wasps for control of the yard. I stayed inside and did T'ai Chi and a Core Rhythms DVD.

In a rut or in the groove?

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Quote du jour: People are crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet.
- Sa'Di

Funny du jour: Evening classes for men, sponsored by WICOE (Women In Charge Of Everything) from the blog DD's Diary.

Exercise du jour: Yeah, yeah, the usual.

Morning - 1 hour elliptical
Done!



Noon - 1 hour raking, weeding
Done! Very hot outside, so I had to break it up a bit. But still, done :)




Night - 1 hour core strengthening
Done. Well, to be technical, I did another hour on the elliptical. That way, I could watch television, which distracts me from the fact that I am doing yet another @#% hour of exercise.



I know, I know. I'm in a rut. The thing is, if I can make exercising so intrinsic a habit that I'll do it automatically, then I'll be in a good rut.

It was a 2 out of 3 day

Quote du jour: You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London

The good part about having a goal to do 3 hours of exercise a day for 30 days is this: when you get hit with a nasty headache and spend most of the day lying down in a dark (and hot and stuffy) room, doing only (sic) 2 hours of exercise seems like you're getting off easy. Am I crazy? No, don't answer that. No, really. I think I already know the answer.

Exercise du jour: 1 hour elliptical, 1 hour gentle walking/stretching.

Exercise early, exercise often

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Quote du jour: With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
- Thomas Foxwell Buxton

Okay, finished week 1 of the 30 day push. No body parts fell off.

It takes a lot of discipline to do three hours of exercise a day. (Yeah, brilliant thought, Merry. Any more gems to share?) Specifically, it takes the discipline to exercise early and exercise often.

I am good at getting things done by the end of the day, but that doesn't work with this challenge. I have to get up and exercise first thing in the ... shudder morning. It's too early for that kind of thing, but there's no way I will be able to wait to the last minute and then do three hours on the elliptical. Posting the exercise up here does seem to be helping to make me follow through. Knowing that there are thousands some people who might check the blog to make sure I get it done does encourage me.

Exercise du jour:
Morning -- call me traditional, but it works. Going for that hour on the elliptical before it gets too hot.
Done!




Noon -- walking, preferably somewhere reallllllllly shady. I probably could get a workout trying to find parts in Home Depot to fix my air conditioner.


Done. Eventually. I mean, we're talking 20 minutes elliptical, 20 minutes walking, then 40 minutes elliptical, hey wait a minute aren't we into the evening exercise? Oh, shut up, conscience. There were the requisite number of minutes spent walking, even if they were accompanied by stress and angst. Don't ask me about the completely simple and ordinary small part for the air conditioner that I couldn't get for love or money or begging... unless I wanted to wait for three weeks' shipping time.


Night -- stretching, core-strengthening exercises.

Done. Finally. Eventually. Not according to the script, but done. We're talking 20 minutes walking, 20 minutes ellipticalling, more minutes walking, more ellipticalling. I have no idea how I'm supposed to figure this out on my internal calorie counter sheet, but I can vouch for the fact that the body was moved for the requisite 180 minutes du jour.

Maybe I should've gotten that Ph.D after all...

Quote du jour: Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Study du jour: Don't Get Too Excited About Job-Creation Plans.

The good news: For workers over 25 years old with a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate stands at 4.3% down from 5.0% a year ago.
The bad news: For those over 25 without a high school diploma, unemployment stands at a staggering 14.3%, up from 13.3% in August 2010.
Moral: Get that degree.

Or not? This guy has a different take on it:

...if we take the average earnings of a high school graduate and college graduate, account for cost of college and the opportunity cost of going to college (time not spent earning money) and assume a 5% savings rate for each, the college grad has a net worth of $400,000 when he retires. The high school grad: $1.3 million. Revenge of the jocks.
- Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Or, you can compromise -- you don't actually need a degree if you can merely convince people that you have one instead of going out there and doing your homework. One woman wrote a memoir, Phony! Or, how I faked my way through life, about how she built a successful career by lying about having a college degree. Apparently, she worked her way up to a six-figure salary with several people working under her. Her main skill seemed to be picking the right people to do the work that she herself didn't have a clue how to do. That, and the fact that she mastered the art of confident lying.

I'm not sure how much credence you can give to this story-teller. I mean, she admits first off that she's a liar, and a good one. And then you're supposed to believe this memoir?

Oh wait. This is an exercise blog. I suppose that means I should get back to actually doing some of it. I was going to go bicycling, but it's going to be too hot for that today. Luckily, all the trees have left me with lots and lots of raking that I can do in the shade.


Exercise du jour:
Morning -- 1 hour elliptical
Done. Well, by 'done' I mean I turned the resistance down to nothing and went through the motions in super slo-mo. I pretended to work out for an hour. I'm going to pretend that counts.



Noon -- 1 hour gardening
Done. Gardening is riskier than I'd thought. Simply because I destroyed his web while I was raking the lawn, a spider climbed up the inside of my trouser leg and bit me on the ... well, let's just say I'm sitting a bit funny right now. The things I do in pursuit of fitness...



Evening -- gentle walking, ellipticalling
Done. Decided not to rake the part of the lawn that was occupied by a wasp's nest. The elliptical doesn't sting, at least.

That's what Knee said

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Quote du jour: I'm fine, and my hips are fine. My false knee is fine. My false hips are fine. Everything's cooking.
- Liza Minnelli

Recap: I keep bitching about Damn Knee. If you missed the saga, here's the 10-second recap:

• Two months ago, a vicious garden hose leapt up and caught my right ankle, causing me to land with all my considerable weight on my left knee and left hand.


• My left elbow (Damn Elbow) was so swollen I couldn't bend it more than 90 degrees for a week.


• Damn Knee was swollen, and a lot of pretty colors, but I could walk on it, so I didn't worry.


• Until a month went by, and I still couldn't walk without pain, or kneel down without agony, or...


• Anyway, the doctor said things like "Bone bruise" and "patience" and "exercise anyway."


• So I did, in a limited fashion, for another month.


• Which brings us up to now.

What's really weird is that it is much, much easier to spend an hour on the elliptical working up a sweat than it is to spend ten minutes doing yoga. Downward facing dog? I last maybe 90 seconds. I can't fully straighten Damn Elbow, and it can't take the weight. Child's pose? Damn Knee throws a tantrum.

A saner woman would say "screw yoga" and stick to the elliptical, but I want to stretch myself in both senses of the word. So I'm compromising by aiming for 10-minute yoga sessions and lots of pilates or belly dancing DVDs mixed in with the ellipticalling.

Exercise du jour:
Morning - 1 hour elliptical




Noon - 1 hour core-strengthening drills
Done... well, if you call 1/2 hour elliptical and 1/2 hour raking exercise.




Night - 1/2 hour elliptical, 1/2 hour mixture of what yoga poses I can manage and pilates.
Done. Except for the yoga and pilates part. 1 hour elliptical. However, I reduced the resistance to make it much less of a workout.

There's always a flaw, no matter how cunning the plan

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Quote du jour: I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
- Blackadder

There's always a catch. The trouble with doing a 30-day push of exercise is that to make myself actually get out there and do the exercise, I have to blog about it. Even if I don't have anything to say. This makes me start to write in fragmented sentences. Which is annoying.

Exercise du jour:
Morning - 1 hour elliptical.
Done!




Noon - ? Mystery exercise. I'll see how I feel and post up the star when I've done it, whatever 'it' is.
Done. 1 hour core-strengthening drills.




Evening - ? Ditto. So long as I move for an hour, I'll count it as exercise.
1/2 raking the lawn, 1/2 ellipticalling. I'm glad that I don't have to move any more tonight. I've had enough for a while.

TDS syndrome

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Quote du jour: Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
- Thomas Edison

Okay, yesterday started out great, finished up terrible. I suppose it's one of the benefits from suffering from Too Damn Stubborn syndrome, but I don't care. Day 3 of the 12.5% solution. New day, new chance to make the goal. Still not feeling great, but I am feeling a lot better. I can do this.

Morning: 1 hour elliptical
Done!





Noon: 1 hour DVD
Done!




Evening: 1 hour yoga elliptical
Pardon me while I indulge in a moment of smugness here. Damn, I'm good.

Day 2 of the 12-1/2% solution

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Quote du jour: I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down.
- Allen H. Neuharth

Okay, I survived Day 1 of the 12-1/2% solution. No body parts fell off.

I'm thinking today I should stick to the elliptical and try some yoga. Low impact stuff, in other words. The hour of cycling was a bit much for Damn Knee.

It's kinda sad to be scheduling my life around the whims and demands of one particular joint in my body. I'm glad the rest of me isn't so fussy. (Yes, I know that's unfair. It's healing as fast as it can.)

Hero du jour: Man trains to do an 80-mile bike ride in 8 hours... for his 80th birthday. I especially love the part where he mentions that the little voices in his head stopped helping and started to hinder him, so he had to learn to ignore them.

Site du jour: Thanks to Lou, I found a problem-solving flowchart.

Exercise du jour: Again, I'm going to break down the exercise so I don't break down the knee.

Morning: 1 hour elliptical
Done!




Noon: 1 hour exercise DVD or more elliptical, depending on what the knee thinks
update: Actually, the knee thought slow gentle walking would be better. It's getting a bit huffy.
Semi-done. Did 1/2 hour.




Night: 1 hour stretching, yoga
Fail. Picked the wrong time to get ill

The Twelve and a Half Percent Solution

Quote du jour: Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.

Something about a month filled with exactly 30 days makes me think in terms of challenges.

For instance, the internal dialogue yesterday went something like this:

Inner Self: Hmmn... did another hour on the elliptical today. Maybe I should stretch myself a bit more on the exercise front.

Damn Knee: Excuse me? What do you mean "a bit more"? Remember me?

Inner Self: Maybe I could do two hours on the elliptical. Or why stop there? Three hours sounds even better.

Damn Knee: The hell you say.

Inner Self: With ice and ibuprofen, it wouldn't be so bad.

Damn Knee: What do you mean by "not so bad", Kemosabe?


Um... to be truthful, the dialogue went on for a lot longer, with a bit more vituperation on the part of the knee joint, but in the end we argued negotiated a trial period of exercising three hours a day, in three separate segments.

Morning: 1 hour elliptical, or 1/2 hour elliptical and 1/2 hour yoga.
Noon: 1 hour running/walking (mostly walking) or 1 hour cycling.
Evening: 1 hour exercise DVD or weightlifting.

I don't actually know what the limits are with Damn Knee, so I'm trying to throw in some flexibility on the options. I'd like to alternate run/walk and cycling, but if the knee complains I'll switch to more core muscle exercises instead. The point is that for the next 30 days I want to move the body three hours a day.

If you figure that's there are 720 hours in September, and I'm only planning to exercise 90 of them (12.5%), then it doesn't sound too extreme. And I'm betting that it will get things moving. I've been laid up pampering Damn Knee for almost two full months, without stopping eating. It's time for one of those total body makeover months.

Exercise du jour:
1 hour on the elliptical
Done!




1 hour cycling
Done!



1 hour DVDing
Update du 10:20 pm: don't give up on me yet. Yes, I had to spend an hour or so on the phone with my mater explaining that MS Word masquerades as a Word Processing application but is in reality a software application designed to increase the sales of Prozac and Tequila is a non-intuitive piece of software.

Did 20 minutes, still aiming to finish that last hour. I want that star.
Update du 11:17 pm: okay, so we're not talking quality time here, right? I mean, the main thing is that the exercise was done. No matter how non-pretty, or the fact that I ended up doing a slo-mo version of the elliptical for 40 minutes. It was done. I gets my gold star.
Done!