<p>Trying hard not to cheat. I seem to be craving salty food.
InterestedDad- I am wearing the “pants”. They aren’t giving me much support since they are still fitting nicely and the “new” belt had to be tightened up another hole. So I guess the good news is that though I am not eating as well nor exercising I have not put back on much weight. I think at the most 2 lbs. The problem is that I see that each slip leads to another.
Might try to do a short walk later. Weather is not bad, probably mid to high 60’s. But a storm is expected and the forecast calls for lots of rain for many days.</p>
<p>You need a jar of queen sized green olives! Little salt bombs. Great snack. Lo cal.</p>
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<p>I felt like a real meathead doing those one-arm dumbbell swings with a 24 pound weight yesterday. I don’t know for sure if I was swinging the dumbbell or if it was swinging me.</p>
<p>Posting to say (and mean) that I am done eating for today. The snacking is killing me too. This week my schedule is totally unstructured–I have hundreds of exams to grade, and a few dozen papers, but I could literally stay in my pajamas all day if I wanted. Not good so far as avoiding the box of frosted mini wheats in the pantry. I have been keeping track of my food on my ipod touch and today I didn’t even enter anything for lunch–just breakfast, snacks, and dinner. And did I say I am not eating anything else today . . .</p>
<p>You can do it!</p>
<p>I must say that breakfast cereal is something that had to go on my strictly enforced “no buy” list. Those midnight snacks of corn flake or corn chex with sugar and half n’ half had to stop. That stuff just packs on the pounds. Heck, I’d even eat something nasty like Special K if I had it in the house. No cereal. No chips and salsa. No Pringles. No bags of roasted peanuts. Getting that stuff out of the diet is half the battle.</p>
<p>I had to make a sacrifice in order to make room for good dinners like poaching haddock in wine/butter sauce or my Weber roasted pork loin with homemade middle Georgia bar-b-q sauce that I gnawed on a couple nights this week.</p>
<p>Tonight was the second chicken breast that I sauteed last night for chicken caesar salad. Tonight, it got added to a Vidalia onion and a green pepper, sauteed with some ancho and chipotle chiles, and served as fajitas on one flour tortilla and a handful of shredded cheese. I skipped the quacamole and the sour cream and had a huge plate of food that probably came in under 750 calories. I was absolutely stuffed.</p>
<p>chintzy:</p>
<p>Tell your daughter that the ol’ (formerly) fat guy almost hurled during his iPod workout this evening. Third superset: alternating between lunge walking with lateral raises (lifting dumbells straight out to the sides and up to shoulder height) followed by pushups with the feet on the stability ball – lifting one leg off the ball for each pushup. I collapsed in a heap again doing the pushups.</p>
<p>I did do seven good burpees at the end of one of the supersets – my own little Burpees Everywhere World Tour!</p>
<p>Nice week of workouts. Two tough iPod nazi sessions. One Spartacus, kicked up a notch. One nice, fairly sane Airdyne interval session. And, my fastest ever 5K walk. Nice variety. Now, I’m pretty much sore all over, evenly.</p>
<p>idad, that sounds absolutely brutal! D hasn’t been back to the gym since Tuesday, so I’m afraid to mention it. I think I can get her to go back next Tuesday, since I don’t see my trainer til 9:00 (still ungodly early for her.)</p>
<p>I also had a good week of workouts. Friday I was pressed for time so ran my old 4.4 mile loop. Managed to do the whole thing in sub 10 minute pace, a first for me. </p>
<p>Anyone planning on working out Christmas morning?</p>
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Absolutely, positively … NOT! There are some days meant to be taken off, IMO. :)</p>
<p>Saturday is not my usual workout day, so No, I am not working out that day.</p>
<p>Wish me luck… I am off to hike up the Diamond Head trail!</p>
<p>Found the gym at our hotel and managed a workout yesterday. I think I was able to replicate almost everything I do at my gym, minus a couple of things like seated row and leg adduction. I know the place we’re moving to on Monday in Maui has some very cool equipment, so I’m looking forward to exploring it all.</p>
<p>Supposed to rain tomorrow, so my ‘exercise’ may be taking my credit card in and out of my purse!</p>
<p>I will work out Christmas day. We are going to Colorado and I am not skiing- a rare smart decision based on the current injury and the broken knee in 2007 last time I skied.</p>
<p>So- given the current low HR training, I will either snowshoe, walk or go to the gym. Maybe jog if I can keep the HR down, which with altitude and terrain will be difficult.</p>
<p>Today was 6.1 miles at Ave. HR 132 yielding a 13:14 average pace. No walking. Very frustrating and takes incredible discipline, but I really believe it’s what I need to be doing right now. Took me about 1:20 for a nice long workout.</p>
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<p>Wow. That sounds like a great way to get some exercise.</p>
<p>I just got back from my little 5K hilly state park walk. 35 degrees today and I was actually a little hot. Had to unzip the jacket for the second half. As my sixth day in a row exercising, I wasn’t looking for a real hard workout so I set a mellow pace and enjoyed to some really good music.</p>
<p>Will post an update after I finish my little pity party here in the hotel room.</p>
<p>^^^
Ruh-roh. That doesn’t sound good.</p>
<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>I don’t blame you on the skiing. I haven’t broken any bones, but the last time I went I did a massive face plant (literally) and knocked myself silly, blood dripping down my cheek. The whole nine yards. I looked like one of those quarterbacks saying, “put me back in coach” with their helmet on backwards.</p>
<p>I had an undetermined hip injury years ago (I now think it was probably a small fracture) and that’s when discretion set in with the skiing.</p>
<p>As much as I’d read about this hike, I guess I was prepared in some ways and not in others. I took the city bus out, which lets you out almost a mile before the trail even begins. It’s on a slight incline, so by the time you reach where you’re supposed to pay (a whole $1), I was already breathing pretty heavy and thought I was certainly doomed!</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, I wore my heart rate monitor. Probably my mistake because when it got up to 177 at one point, it almost created more panic. Typically when I get up to the 170s at the gym, that’s when I start to get nauseous and dizzy. So I was convinced they were going to have to send the medevacs up to get me. Then I noticed there were lots of other people around me making this hike who were obviously much heavier than I, and older than I, so I plugged away. There are parts of this trail that are very uneven, steep and soil-eroded, so at many points you can’t help but go slow. </p>
<p>When I eventually found out the entire trail up is only .7 miles with a climb of 560 feet (that is from the start of the trail, not where I got off the bus), I felt so inadequate. When you’re about 3/4 the way there, you hit a flight of about 74 stairs which lead into a 225 ft. long tunnel. When you come out of that tunnel, there’s a small ‘rest’ area, then another flight of 99 steep steps. I had to take about a five minute break there, but it was OK because there were plenty of photo opportunities. Let my heart rate recuperate to the low 130s, then headed up the long flight. At the end of the flight, there’s another shorter tunnel that leads to a 52-step spiral staircase. One woman at the ‘rest’ area told me she made it halfway up the spiral staircase then had to turn around and go down because she got claustrophobic. You exit a spiral staircase into a small Fire Control station, from which you have to climb up three step-ladder rungs to access the rest of the trail, but as you climb up these rungs, the ceiling is only about three feet when you’re on the top step, so you have to squat for about three steps until you get out onto the final leg of the trail. The final leg takes you along a switchback, then you reach the top observation tower, which includes another handful of steps, then a ladder-like climb for another five rungs to get to the very tippy toppy. </p>
<p>Once I got there, I stayed for almost a half hour, just looking around and taking lots of photos. The walk down was a piece of cake… just had to take it slow in some areas where the path is so uneven. </p>
<p>About halfway up the trail, I texted my trainer with ‘MY CARDIO SUCKS’, then exchanged a few other texts (one that was borderline snarky) with him until I reached the top. When I told him about my heart rate, he reminded me that I was outside, in the hot sun, and not to be so hard on myself. Also took and sent a few pictures to him with my iPhone, one that showed how much I was sweating!</p>
<p>Yes, I made it, but from some of the reviews I’d read, I thought it’d be a piece of cake. Actually my muscles handled it just fine (I’m not sore at all, and never felt muscle fatigue during the hike), it was a combination of the climbing and heat that caught up with me. And yes, there were people running, running it! Saw some dressed in flip flops, some carrying babies and one Japanese grandmother who was trying to push her probably four-year old granddaughter up in a stroller! </p>
<p>As I was on my way down, I overheard a park ranger telling someone that just a few days ago, someone collapsed up near the top and due to high winds, the helicopters couldn’t get in, so they had to send up six EMS guys to bring the guy down on a stretcher. And I think I overheard the ranger telling these people that the guy ended up dying anyway. I saw a lot of people who weighed at least twice or more than me and wondered how they’d make it. I do suspect there are many people who start this hike and turn around without completing it. </p>
<p>Came back to the hotel, sat out on the lanai for a bit, then took a nap. Am waiting for H to get back to the room to go to dinner… a dinner that I’m not going to worry about calories.</p>
<p>That sounds fantastic. And, from the pictures, no easy hike. I know that I would be stopping to pant like a dog at regular intervals on those stairs.</p>
<p>[Diamond</a> Head Hike](<a href=“http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/hikediamondhead.html]Diamond”>Diamond Head Hike)</p>
<p>OMG!! Those all look exactly like the pictures I took today! So yea, you get an idea of what it’s like. </p>
<p>I did get a little encouragement from BunsenBurner last night, though, who thought I’d have no problem making it. Yes, I made it, but there wasn’t a lot that was easy about it (except the coming down part).</p>
<p>Yay, Teriwtt! Congrats on making it. I’m not surprised your HR was high and that it was hard. Climbing in the heat…You did great. Hope dinner was wonderful.</p>
<p>Terwtt, we did Diamond Head about 11 years ago when I was 37 and many pounds thinner. It is a deceptively difficult hike. We did it in June and we thought it was just one of those little tourist things before we did it. When we got to the park and saw them selling bottled water, I suggested to my husband we should get some. Well, he really didn’t think that was necessary. Let me tell you, that was a long, unbearable hike. Our son was 9 at the time and he practically sprinted to the top while it took me forever. Not sure I could do it today. I was amazed at the variety of tourists attempting it. Many out of shape people.</p>
<p>Congrats!</p>
<p>Good for you teriwtt, that looks like an intense hike.</p>
<p>D & I went to the gym this morning. She did my strength & core stuff with me, and was appropriately impressed with the difficulty. She said it was quality over quantity, which I take to be a good thing. We did 25 min of elliptical afterwards. Now I get to work my butt off for 9 hours while everyone else stays home & has pizza :(</p>
<p>Tomorrow we will attempt a 1 mile run, if the rain stops.</p>