<p>5.2 mile treadmill run, inverted rows, & work on chin-up</p>
<p>Nuts. I did something to a small muscle in my back, maybe doing chinups? It only hurts (slightly) when I breathe deeply and when I try to sleep on my right side (then it’s a pretty significantly pointed pain.)</p>
<p>So I’ll lay off the things that may aggravate it for a while. Oh bother. Ever feel like your body is a collection of tissues that have to be exercised, fed, and coddled just the right amount? :D</p>
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<p>Wow. That is just awesome. A husband/wife enjoying that much success losing weight. It’s really spectacular…</p>
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<p>Yeah, the cumulative effect over time is pretty staggering when you look back at where you started. Just for kicks, you should pick up a couple of 20 lb DBs or boxes of cat litter or something and walk around with those for old times sake!</p>
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<p>I hear ya… :)</p>
<p>4.5 pretty miles after work yesterday. Didn’t want to do it, but liked it once I got going. This morning I actually got myself out the door for 3- cold, gloomy, windy, 44 degrees.
I really don’t feel great. There are so many reasons this could be that I don’t know where to start- the exhaustion from travel, emotional toll of my mother’s death, eating crap food too much… Back on a plane in the am to head up to PA for the weekend and memorial service. When I get back I’m going to try to clean up my eating and regroup a little. (still doing my ValSlides) </p>
<p>mommusic- hope your back is OK!</p>
<p>MOWC, years ago I used to go visit an elderly mentor of mine (late 80s) at a physical rehabilitation facility. It was a melancholy place. I’d be just fine until I got to the parking lot, and then sometimes I’d find myself overwhelmed and have to sit there and compose myself for a while before I went in to visit. Emotional stuff can be more draining than we realize. Take good care of yourself. Rest and make the effort to eat if your appetite is off and leaving you low on sustenance.</p>
<p>Thanks, Deborah. I know it’s hard to realize sometimes how much of an impact emotional things can make- both good and bad. I’m eating plenty- just not the right foods. Airport food, beer, snacks (except for my healthy and beloved Picky Bars), business meals- yesterday’s lunch was 3 sections of a not-very-good sub left over from business meetings that someone left out in the break room and 2 pieces of grocery store cake for someone’s birthday.</p>
<p>Got it. Re the sub, I’d probably have picked the meat off and chowed on that because I’m not much of a sandwich person and soggy bread, yech, but I’d have had no problem downing the cake… I’m bad about cake for sure…</p>
<p>Clarification:
No problem downing the <em>two pieces of</em> cake, that is.</p>
<p>Yes to what Deborah said. Emotions and stress can be very, very draining. Maybe that’s why you have not gained any weight despite eating junk, but that’s not a good way to maintain weight. Take care of yourself, listen to your body. Eat cake if it makes you feel better! 
Then pause, regroup, take a deep breath after you get back from PA and start “clean”.</p>
<p>Heck, I’ll eat 2 pieces of cake, but I’m picky about my cakes. :)</p>
<p>Finally, ran 4 miles on the squeaky hotel treadmill! Yay. In some ways, even though this trip is work, it feels somewhat relaxing, because I do not have to “babysit” my project for 14 hours a day.</p>
<p>Hang in there MOWC. It’s no wonder you are feeling a little rundown, both physically and emotionally. You’ve had a lot on your plate the last month. The death of a parent takes a while. My wife kept putting pictures of my dad around the house, after he passed away. I couldn’t take it. Every time I saw one, it made me feel sad. I didn’t need the extra jolt several times a day.</p>
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<p>I’ve been fending off the strangest thing. I don’t feel sick at all so I don’t think it’s a cold, but I’ve been congested for the last week. Maybe just a super-mild cold?</p>
<p>The whole issue of diet and exercise can get murky. You can lose weight exercising, as long as you are burning more calories then you take in, you will lose weight. Likewise, you can lose a lot of weight by dieting, when I was 17 I lost 47 pounds in 6 weeks with a thousand calorie diet (I was also 17!) without any special exercise. </p>
<p>The problem is that there also is fitness. There are people who work very physically demanding jobs, like construction, who burn a lot of calories, eat McD’s for lunch, eat heavy meals, and who are at a proper weight, but who aren’t healthy or fit. There are models who live on junk food and potato chips who don’t exercise and are wafer-thin, but that isn’t healthy either. I think what they mean when the say you don’t get fit by exercise alone is based on the same idea, it is about fitness.</p>
<p>One of the big battles has been about the type of exercise. For years, there have been claims that low intensity long duration exercise is as good for you as shorter interval, more intense interval training, but recently the Lancet published a study that said that simply isn’t true, that that brisk after dinner stroll is not the same thing as 20 minutes of intense training, either cardio or strength. So studies that say you cannot lose weight by exercise alone may be wrong because they assumed that that brisk walk for an hour is the same as more intense exercise, and when they look at the person not dieting who walks briskly, they are making a false assumption ,because if the person did 20 minutes of intense training, they might well lose weight just exercising…</p>
<p>Obviously, people can only do what they can, and a brisk walk is better than nothing. The real key I am finding isn’t a shocker, it is both. I always assumed I was eating well but wasn’t exercising (which really sucks, when I have a job that demands a lot of hours, I work 10 hours at the office, commute 3 hours a day total most days, then often work when I get home for several hours), but what I found was the exercise wasn’t the only issue. You don’t have to be eating junk food or takeout (which we lived on a lot for many years, because of our S’s crazy schedules), or you can eat what you think is ‘healthier’ takeout, but it gets to you, it wasn’t until we really started looking at what we eat that it hit home…</p>
<p>And before anyone thinks I am getting high and mighty, forget it. I work with some guys who are seriously into fitness and working out, the kind of guys whose muscles are bigger than my flab, and who do Spartan Races where they jump over fire, crawl under electric wire (I kid you not!) for 13 miles, and when I see them compared to my paunchy, 50 year old self, well, very humbling, indeed <em>lol</em>.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, stress, like having a kid in college, a job that has grown increasingly stressful and difficult to know what the future is with, having full financial burden of the family (and said tuition), and so forth…</p>
<p>Stress it the ultimate oxymoron when it comes to staying in shape and being fit, etc. Exercise can help with stress, it is a natural anti depressant and can help people deal with stress…but when people are stressed out, they are tired, lethargic, depressed, and don’t really want to exercise. </p>
<p>And when we are stressed, comfort food calls, cakes are a lot more tempting that fruit, fried chicken a lot more than grilled chicken breast, a steak sandwich with french fries over a wrap with chicken, and so forth…when eating well would probably help boost our strength. </p>
<p>It is a quandary, and basically the only way to break it is grit our teeth and not listen to our body groaning it is too tired to exercise, too wasted, and when passing 5 guys burger joints or a deli with great pastrami, we kind of have to tell ourselves that isn’t going to cut it:).</p>
<p>From the “I am not worthy…” department:</p>
<p>I came across these while looking for good Mt. Monadnock YouTubes. Now, for perspective, it took me 2 hours 40 minutes to do the 2 mile climb on Monday and it took me 1 hour 50 for the downhill leg (incredibly slow downhill, but I was moving the whole time. It’s just steep and rocky).</p>
<p>Every once in a while, I see young guns running on these mountains. Here’s a guy who put of up a YouTube of his downhill leg on the trail I climbed. He made from top to bottom in 21 minutes:</p>
<p>[Speed</a> hiking Mount Monadnock’s White Dot Trail, 21 Sep 2012 (summit-to-base in 21:03) - YouTube](<a href=“Speed hiking Mount Monadnock's White Dot Trail, 21 Sep 2012 (summit-to-base in 21:03) - YouTube”>Speed hiking Mount Monadnock's White Dot Trail, 21 Sep 2012 (summit-to-base in 21:03) - YouTube)</p>
<p>I thought that was impressive, but this guy filmed the same route, top to bottom in 13:26 seconds. That’s under a 7 minute a mile pace. IN THE SNOW AND ICE! Yikes…</p>
<p>[Mt</a>. Monadnock - Trailrunning down White Dot Trail - March 2012 - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>Like I say, I am not worthy… Or insane! I’m just happy to pick my way down the rocks without doing a faceplant…</p>
<p>Glad to hear you were able to get in running time, BB – yay! I don’t know how you do it all. You need a clone or an extra 10 hours a day.</p>
<p>MOWC, so sorry to hear about your mother’s death. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.</p>
<p>DadII:</p>
<p>Yeah. It’s an emotional drain, even when you are prepared for it. </p>
<p>Hope you are doing well!</p>
<p>Kettlebell circuit in the basement for me. 20 minutes of huffin’ and puffin’ and slingin’ a 35lb KB around. This little workout kicks my butt. Each set is a little over 3 minutes and 3 minutes is a long set for this kind of stuff. Definitely “metabolic conditioning”…</p>
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<p>I’m pleased with the progress. The fourth and last exercise on each side is a push press, which gasses me about as much as any exercise I’ve done. When I first started, I could barely press the 35 lb weight overhead at all after three prior exercises. Now, I can generally press it solidly, but actually hold it stable overhead for a moment before lowering it. At my age, I’ve gotta take the little victories wherever I can find them!</p>
<p>Apple, salami, parmegianno salad for dinner. I think I eat more salad than any man alive. Had salmon in green curry last night. For the scale watchers, coconut milk for dinner spikes my weight 1 pound the next morning, every single time. Hopefully, I’ll bounce back tomorrow!</p>
<p>Thanks, DadII. Glad you are back! How are you doing?</p>
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This is just crazy, if he falls he could kill himself.
For some reason, flying does this to me. I gained 5 pounds on a 3 day business trip I just had, and didn’t think I ate all that badly.</p>
<p>Bodies are weird. My knees have been achy this week for no reason.</p>
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<p>The snow runner did take one pretty good fall on the way down. Running on the bare rocks scares the dickens out of me. I’m fallen a couple times just walking and gotten scraped up pretty good. The runners are jumping off rocks and ledges. Ahhh, to have 20 year old knees and ankles!</p>