Being Sick Stinks

Been sick since Friday - woke up with my head full of gunk and feeling like a bus ran me over. No exercise since Thursday. I would feel happy about that if I didnt feel so yucky. Apparently the internet doesnt believe that you burn any calories when you blow your nose - I beg to differ.

Maybe by Monday we will be back to the gym and on with the weight loss.

Those count as freebies

So, last night saw my return to that wonderful small room full of sweating pedaling maniacs in the Gold's RPM class. The previously mentioned sweaty-cheeked person was there, the noses only inches from buttocks was the same, the bass thumping music was present and the energetic instructor had thankfully returned from a brief stay in hospital - not RPM related but I think they were checking insanity levels.

'Tonight', I told myself, 'was the night I would stay in time with the music, I would keep up the pace, and ultimately put myself close to some sort of cardiac event, but not to worry, tonight was the night for going all out.' I strapped on my trusted heart monitor to continue my scientific investigation of exercise alternatives (see previous post about shoveling snow) and off we went, pedal, pedal pedal.

Things started well. I was staying in time (mostly), feeling good (despite already having worked out earlier in the day) and my monitor began to report rapid calorie loss. Things were going well, and then it happened - the peppy instructor encouraged us to 'turn it up' and shouted other things like 'add in more resistance' and 'give me another gear'. Then the instruction came from the front that we were to climb the next hill. Up we stood, pedaling furiously and 'climbing' the hill. At this point my mind shifted from the burning in my legs to the reality that although I was 'climbing' I wasn't changing altitude.

I then spent the next 3-4 songs of exercise trying to calculate how high we actually did climb during these songs. Then it struck me. Every time I ride a bike outside and I encounter a hill, there is one thing that is sure to happen - what goes up must come down. Where were the downhill sections in this class? Why were we always climbing and never descending? Were we attempting to ride to the top of Everest? With all this climbing when do we reach the point where the air is so thin that we pass out and fall off the bikes.

CRASH! (- this time not literally, only mentally)

Reality snapped back in to play as I noticed that in my absent minded exertions I was still pedaling this insanely high gear and my heart was doing its best to explode out of my chest. I looked at the heart monitor on my wrist to see my heart rate was 180. I glanced over to the poster on the wall and saw that for my age group 180 was the very top of the INTENSE EXERCISE band and the shortness of breath was not from a lack of oxygen in the room due to altitude, but just a lack of oxygen in my system from being out of breath.

Finally, the beat slowed, as did the pace, and my heart rate. Fifty minutes of leg pedaling fury was complete and it was time to try to regain my land legs. Shakily I stepped off of the bike - another RPM session complete, and me still being alive.

As for my calorie count - 1026 after the class. Not bad for an hour of sweat. I decided to leave my heart monitor on for a while to see how my calorie count would change. By the time I took it off (about an hour later as I had to pick up my kids from AWANA) I had burned 1556 calories. WOW! 500 calories burned just in the hour immediately after RPM. Those count as freebies - calories burned without any exertion.

Today is the day after. I must admit that last night I was so tired I fell asleep on the sofa, went to bed before 11pm and walked around this morning like I had been kicked by a horse - but still, you got to love those freebies.

Now if only our instructor would find a song that goes downhill - is that possible?

The Journey of 1000 steps ....

should really be done on a bicycle. (Jason's proverbs)

You know, our society screams at us everyday. Most of those screams we ignore or tune out in the hope that insanity will not beset us, but there are some screams that are louder, more attractive, and packaged more prettily than others. Those screams are the numerous weight loss advertisements and pitches for the right product for you.

I wonder as I watch the latest celebrity to strut their stuff on 'Jenny Craig' why we never see them sweating their butts off (literally) in the gym. Why we don't see the camera shot cut to a sweating blob attempting to get one leg in front of the other before the treadmill ejects him (or her) off the back of it and into a wall. You know you would laugh at that, but would it sell you the idea of what weight loss and good health is? I doubt it. It is much better to think that we can write a check, wait for the mail carrier to deliver a box of food to our door that we are then rationed on until the next delivery. Didn't something like this already happen during the great wars? The only difference in these rations is that of course you need to go and buy the main ingredients for your newly acquired diet before you assemble the pieces.

Why is it so difficult to limit the amount of things we put in our mouths? Is it really more difficult than that? Isn't there a simple philosophy that is you want to lose weight then don't eat more than you are willing to burn off. Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist and explodes over their keyboard about the importance of balancing the major food groups accurately (coffee, chocolate and cake - any type of cake) I understand all that stuff - even the conflicting information which Al Gore's invention provides into our homes.

What I have noticed is that the self-discipline of restricting calorie intake seems to be too difficult for many to cope with as they abdicate responsibility to Jenny or others to package their food, prepare it and eat it. This abdication allows us to blame someone else when it doesn't work - when our results are not what we see on-screen but are much more typical. We follow someone else's plan so we can blame them for our failure. It's the American dream.

So let's flip this thought of taking responsibility to the whole point of my endeavor this year - to see children rescued from lives of poverty and given a chance to have access to food, shelter, basic healthcare and to build up and support these families as they raise these precious little children.

Have you considered sponsoring a child through Compassion International? What has stopped you? What argument have you used to abdicate your responsibility of being in the top few percent of wealthy people in the world and yet not willingly sharing some of your wealth to support a child who struggles just to eat every day? Check out Compassion International's web site and see what this group is all about. I am supporting them because they work with local organizations to support entire families as they support these precious children.

Are you willing to sponsor a child and make a difference? Are you maybe not in a position to support a child long term, but maybe could give a one time gift to support the work of Compassion? Don't listen to the arguments that will rationalize why you need to spend your money on food that your diet says you shouldn't have anyway. Take some time and make a donation. GO TO THE DONATE LINK ON THIS BLOG AND HELP THE CAUSE!

Move Over Static Bike - Hello Snow Shovel!!

So, followers of this blog will have recently read of my exploits on a bicycle in an R.P.M. class. Well, it is official. There is an easier way to burn 800 calories and, barring any tragic accident, you will not come away walking like you have been on a horse all day. Just think, exercise, calorie burn, and the ability to sit down comfortably afterward.

What can it be? Is it possible?Could there truly be such an activity?

Yes there is - shoveling snow!!

I mentioned this the other day, but I knew as soon as I posted it that there would have been some haters out there, so in true Mythbusters fashion I designed a quick test and the results are in.

Thanks to a Polar heart monitor (aptly named) I got myself ready, picked up my trusted shovel and headed to the blizzard. Click "START" on the wrist watch and begin. Steady pace, nothing fancy, no stopping for breaks until the worst thing possible happened. Driving the shovel into the icy stuff at the bottom of the driveway was all going well until that final thrust.

Thrust!

craCK!

SNAP!!

There stood I. Handle in hand, shovel buried in icy mess. NUTS! My shovel broke!! Ah well, nothing left to do but go into the house and check the results. SO here is what I found:

Time Shoveling - 57:19
Time in HR Zone - 53:18
AVG HR - 134
MAX HR - 150
CALORIES - 776

Time for a cup of tea and a cookie. I think I may have earned it.

So if you are missing the gym, get out there and shovel. If you have completely shoveled all your driveways and sidewalks yet still want that work out then come over to my house - I will let you shovel my driveway. Might even let you wear the heart monitor too. Now I know you want to come over.

Did You Know You Can Burn 800 Calories an Hour Shoveling Snow?

So for those of you who are not in the metropolitan DC area, I wanted to let you know how the weekend has gone so far. Usually I would be in the gym on Saturday morning doing my thing and trying to drop those love handles one at a time, however this weekend was a little different.

On Friday afternoon the mid-Atlantic east coast  was visited by a most unwelcome guest - Snowzilla 2010, Snowmageddon 2010, or a load of snow dumped on our area. As we sat inside eating low fat, low taste cardboard like cereal, we could see the world as we knew it transformed as a layer of some 30inches or so of snow covered the land. Wow! this was quite the storm and quite a spectacular change of view from our living room. 

So with passage to the car blocked, and passage to the street nigh impossible, there was nothing to be done but to figure out how to burn those calories without the treadmill. It didnt take long to see the solution - there beside my from door was a trusty snowshovel, and beyond that 30 inches of rather wet snow blocking me from my car, and my car from the street. 

According to this web site a 300lb man (me) could burn 800+ per hour shoveling snow. If this were true, then I spent approximately 12-15 hours this Saturday, Sunday and Monday shoveling snow - that is a lot of calories. To add to my work out I did a small re-enactment of Rocky Balboa from Rocky IV when Rocky went to Russia to train in the snow. That great scene of him running knee deep in snow was great. My re-enactment was only over a distance of 30 feet (you have to start somewhere) and was more of a rescue than a training run. My two snow angels were out the back playing when I heard a scream and looked up to see Emma (my 3 year old) sitting on top of a pile of snow with only one snow boot on. The other had apparently gone down in the hole she created when she stepped out, but never returned with her foot when she took her next step. So a run through 30 inches of snow (not graceful, trust me) and quick dig around and the boot was returned to its rightful place one her left foot.

So no chance of getting to the gym, but some strenuous shoveling and a little scamper should keep the metabolism ticking over. Maybe back to the gym tomorrow.

Who knows?

Bike vs Buttocks - Round 2

Ok, so having recently returned to a normal walking pattern after my initiation into the world of Les Mill's R.P.M (Rectal Pain Management - apparently the more you ride a bike the less your butt hurts, but I am skeptical). This evening I returned to the scene of the original crime with a a dogged determination that this time I would remain on my ride and would even be able to stand and pedal at the same time.

As we sat there awaiting our appointed muscular death sentence, I was strangely intrigued by the number of people who had already started pedaling. Were these people unaware of the reason they were strapped to these machines? Did they not realize that  moment the instructor at the front had his string pulled he would be off to the races like the energiser bunny on crystal meth leaving a wake of sweating panting roly-polies trying to figure out if the 'tension' he kept yelling about was the tension of their bikes or the tension in their chest as their hearts attempted to keep pace.

Well, the appointed time came, there was no call from the governor to reprieve the condemned and the pedaling began in earnest. This session went much better than my first session and there were moments when I thought I could actually keep up with the beat, until I realized I was listening to my own heartbeat pounding inside my head.

I did learn something vitally important this evening through all of the sweat and calorie burning activity. I learned tonight that there are appropriate RPM clothes which should be worn, or more importantly, there are clothes which should not be worn under any circumstances. The first necessity is a light colored t-shirt, or at least a t-shirt that will change color with every bead of sweat that is expelled. The reason this is important is for that moment when you walk out of the RPM room and into the main gym. With the right sweat soaked t-shirt on the avid lip-reader can clearly see people on treadmills and step machines mouthing their amazement at how much you must have been working in that darkened noisy room to the left. That just makes you feel better, as you try to put one foot in front of the other in a coordinated fashion and head to the locker room.

The second item of clothing is one that you MUST not wear. This may be a little gross for some, but it needs to be shared. Please, please, please, when you pick your outfit for Really Painful Muscles you cannot wear gray or light colored shorts. There is a simple reason for that - and it is the same reason that brought you adoration from the hamsters in the main gym - sweat shows up. In the middle of one painful 'hill climb' with everyone standing pedaling like mad, I looked up and there before me was a perfect seat shaped sweat pattern on a rider ahead of me - and where was it? Yup, right where the seat goes. The last time I saw a wet patch like that I was being told by my 3 year old how she was just too late to get to the potty and accidents happen.

So lesson from tonight - gray shirt for 'wow!' factor from other exercising hamsters in the main gym, dark colored shorts to hide any trace of sweat leakage from rectal regions. So, with another session of Rectums Producing Moistness behind me, I am going to bed in the hope that the leg fairies come and replace mine with ones that will work tomorrow.

Keep following the cause - and please continue to position yourself so you can begin to sponsor a child through Compassion International when we get our region identified.