skinnification

7.30 Recap

Steps: 11659

Yesterday was the first day I actually felt fatigued by bedtime. Before dinner Jason and I went to Sam's Club so I could get the aforementioned sugar-free chewing gum (spearmint-flavored Extra), and we stocked up on the things we use a lot of, or at least planned to use a lot of. We bought two dozen English muffins, since I have one for breakfast about every day (hooray for toaster oven!), and a bulk package of the trail mix bars I love (they get a nice mention in this article for having no trans fats). We also got two huge cans of fruit (pineapple chunks, which I love, and peaches, which Jason loves), although we need to figure out how we're going to store them one we open them up. I got some Molly McButter for my baked potatoes, and we also found a huge box of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches that bested the Target price by about a third. But with all the walking around, my ankle felt sore by the time we left.

I actually considered not going for my workout this morning. But I know myself too well; if I give myself an excuse to miss a day, then I'll keep missing days until I'm not working out at all. It's happened before, and I don't want it to happen again. So, I put on my ankle brace and hoped for the best. I also skipped working on the treadmill, opting for 30 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, plus some upper-body weight machine work. When I got back, i was pooped and starting to feel nauseous. So, I took a short nap. And I feel much better.

Last night, I was telling Jason how good this exercise has made me feel. Since we moved to Colorado from Texas, I've struggled with finding my place here. No job, no way to get around, no close friends... it's been a difficult transition. But since I began working out, my attitude has gone through a complete change. I'm still frustrated about all those things, but I'm not letting them get me down the way they did before. I find myself wanting to be more proactive about everything, instead of waiting for things to come to me. And I feel like I have the energy to accomplish my goals that I didn't have before. I feel more... alive.

Last week, as my job interview was drawing to a close, the interviewer asked if I had anything else I wanted to add. Since I had been in there for an hour and felt rather comfortable with the woman, I said, "Well, I haven't had a Coke in over a week." She laughed, and from there we started talking about diet soda. She told me about a friend who decided Nutrasweet was addictive after trying to quit drinking Diet Coke. She got headaches, but she assumed they came from the caffeine withdrawal, so she started drinking tea to compensate. But the headaches didn't go away; the only thing she could think of was the artificial sweetener.

Nutrasweet, also know as aspartame, happens to be in the fiber dietary supplement I'm taking (my generic metamucil). Thanks to my college journalism professors, who stoked my inquisitive mind, I went hunting for some more info on aspartame. If I'm going to be ingesting the stuff, I want to know exactly what it is. Here's what I found:

• Aspartame (Nutrasweet) Toxicity Info Center -- The toxicity reaction samples are letters from former users citing the problems they had during and after their ingestion of aspartame.
• Aspartame.org -- the official aspartame information outlet. And on the flipside...
• AspartameKills.com -- Donald Rumsfeld, former head of the company that got the FDA to approve aspartame, has his picture right alongside Hitler's. Grain of salt, much?
• The Bitter Truth About Artificial Sweeteners -- "According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame: Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes."
• Aspartame Dangers, from 321recipes.com -- Over 100 articles, many authored by doctors and nutritionists, on the effects of aspartame.
• Aspartame, from a natural health website, Mercola.com -- Among the interesting information on this site is a timeline of aspartame's development ("1971 - Dr. John Olney, a research psychiatrist, told Searle that aspartic acid caused 'holes in the brains of mice.'" And later, "1975 - Many of the test animals fed ASP developed large TUMORS. These were NOT reported to the FDA.") and an article explaining why this sweetener used in low-fat, low-sugar foods might actually encourage weight gain.
• Brain Tumors -- This reprint of a 1996 Minneapolis Star-Tribune article reports the results of a study that blamed an upsurge in the number of deadly brain tumors in the U.S. on aspartame.
• Examining the Safety of Aspartame -- an FAQ from the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
• NutraSweet.com Information Center -- all about the branded version of aspartame, including a news article titled "Aspartame will not turn you into a toad."
• Aspartame Fact Sheet -- SafeFood.org says aspartame is safe, citing studies from a number of respected medical organizations as well as the FDA.
• Aspartame Fact Sheet -- from the International Sweeteners Association.
• Study reaffirms safety of aspartame -- From the MIT news office. "Despite the high consumption of aspartame, the 48 normal subjects showed no changes in mood, memory, behavior, electroencephalograms (which record the electrical signals of the brain) or physiology that could be tied to aspartame, Dr. Spiers found. Although some subjects reported headaches, fatigue, nausea and acne, the same number of incidences were reported by subjects taking placebo and sugar as those taking aspartame."

All of that is to say that... I have no clue whether or not I should be taking any sort of aspartame. There were many more anti-aspartame sites, but they all seemed to be affiliated. And the pro-aspartame sites, well, who knows who is putting money in whose pockets for whose best interests? (I don't expect you to follow that sentence.) But at least I'm informed. Right?

7.29 Recap

Steps: 14830

I'm still coming down from the high of yesterday's workout. My quads were a tiny bit sore when I went to bed last night, and it felt great. I like my body telling me that it did some hard work; my body needs to do some hard work.

I'm anxious for my new shoes to arrive, because the faster tiring of my right calf is getting annoying. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill this morning, then switched to the elliptical and did 30 minutes. Because I'm not actually picking up and putting down my foot on the elliptical machine, I think the force is distributed equally between my legs; the right one doesn't have to work harder to protect my bum ankle, so both calves feel the burn. I just hope, months from now, I don't look down and see a right calf that's grotesquely larger than my left.

My favorite article of the day: 35 One-Minute Weight Loss Secrets. I'm going to start eating tuna on all my salads, and Jason has promised a trip to Sam's Club to pick up some bulk packages of sugar-free gum. My metabolism could use a little kickstart; the scale has held steady for almost a week.

Since my inner thighs are a problem for me, I decided to take matters into my own hands and search for some stretches and exercises to reduce the thigh-slapping jiggle. Here's what Google gave me:

• Ladies' Home Journal has a great section of their site devoted to exercise, complete with animations to acocmpany each move. Their section on thigh exercises includes all the old favorites.
• e-weightloss-fitness.com bills itself as "the internet's most comprehensive and completely FREE resource for weight loss and fitness exercises." Scroll to the bottom of their leg exercises page for some thigh exercises. Several need special gym equipment, but most of them you can do at home with some weights and a balance ball.
• The leg exercises at ActiveKarma.com are divided into four categories: simple exercises, free weight exercises, exercises for the gym, and stretches.
• WorkoutsForWomen.com has some stretches to keep your tinner thigh muscles limbered up before and after workouts.
• Also using a balance ball and free weights is the Pyramid Lower Body Workout. (At the bottom of the page is a link to the companion upper body workout.)
• Pageantry Magazine may not be on most of our coffee tables, but check out the sidebar on this article about getting rid of saddlebags for the proper way to do a squat.
• The web site for the Department of Kinesiology and Health at Georgia State University features a page on lower body strength training exercises.
• Make way -- it's the lower-body blast!

While surfing around at About.com, I came across the Five Exercises You Must Do. Hey, they said so, not me.

7.28 Recap

Steps: 10742

I was sure I was going to be short on steps yesterday because of my slower pace on the treadmill. But Jason came to my rescue, asking me out on a "hot date." The plan was to have dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, where I don't feel guilty getting seconds (even though I'm usually too full to have any), and then play some Adventure Golf. But we got to the golf course and didn't have enough cash. So, we went to a nearby CompUSA to look at Macs (unfortunately, they didn't have a display model of my Holy Grail, the 15" PowerBook with SuperDrive), and by the time we left we had forgotten all about getting cash and playing golf. We drove around Westminster, looking at more neighborhoods, and found a great new subdivision in neighboring Arvada called the Village of Five Parks. The houses were all new, but they were painted and finished to look like houses built in the 30s and 40s. And they all looked different, which amazed us completely. Most new neighborhoods are easy to get lost in because all the houses look the same. And the whole community is planned around New Urbanism, which puts everything -- recreation, commerce, you name it -- within walking distance of 95 percent of the homes. I really like it. Really. A lot.

After looking around the neighborhood, we drove to a hill near our apartment and watched a huge thunderstorm roll in. Then, just as the rain started, we drove down the hill to Super Target to get some more Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. Jason and I are both addicted to them, although he mentioned getting the cheaper, fatty ones for himself since, technically, I'm the only one trying to lose weight and they aren't exactly cheap. Anyway, we had intended just to go in for the ice cream, but we wandered around the store and ended up puchasing a random assortment of things -- four notebooks, two pens, a pillow, four cheap picture frames, new headphones for my CD player -- in addition to our frozen snacks. The headphones I sorely needed; I had been using stereo headphones, the heavily padded kind that cover your whole ear, and at the end of my workout my ears were covered in sweat. The new headphones are extremely light and poke into my ears instead of surrounding them. Very comfortable. Target had their generic thigh master selling for $9.99. I wanted to get one -- there's no machine in the fitness center to work inner thighs, one of my main trouble spots -- but seeing as how it would have been spending Jason's money and not my own, I waved goodbye and we moved along down the aisle. Maybe next time.

My workout this morning kicked ass. I'm calling it my "Countdown Workout" because, well, I counted down: 30 minutes on the elliptical (which, I finally figured out, is the EFX Trish is always talking about), 25 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, and then 15 minutes of weights. I felt so good, and so thoroughly worked, afterwards that I think I'm going to start doing the Countdown every other day, alternating with my 65 minutes on the treadmill. I also think I'm going to change my minimum step count for each day to 12000; I'm hitting 10K with regularity and I'm ready to challenge myself. Speaking of challenge, when I woke up this morning, I never thought I could have done 30 minutes on the EFX. My attempt last week left me tired after 10 minutes. But I made it my goal to do 15 minutes today, and when I got to 15 minutes, I was tired, but I had some strength left in me. I said to myself, "See if you can do five minutes more." So I did. And then I did five more after that. And then five more. Breaking the time down into mini-goals made me feel a sense of accomplishment through the workout and helped me keep going.

7.27 Recap

Weight: 189.5
Steps: 10246

My weight is nothing if not constant. I didn't expect to lose much, though, with a fatty dinner on Friday and second helpings of Jason's cranberry casserole last night. I'm still checking the scale four times a day, but I'll probably only post it weekly from now on and instead focus on what I'm eating.

I did 55 minutes on the treadmill this morning, changing my speed and incline every few minutes for some variety and finishing off with a short jog. I would have worked a little longer -- my feet and ankle were actually feeling good -- but there was a woman obviously waiting to use the treadmill and making me more than a little uncomfortable. So I handed the treadmill off to her with a smile and did some strength training for about 30 minutes while I watched the Today show.

Word from The Mother is the shoes are in the mail!

Sometime in the near future, I hope to invest in a digital scale. We got an analog one at Target for $5.99, the cheapest one they had. But it doesn't always seem accurate, and I can't really get good fractions of a pound beyond the half-pound mark. I'd like something a little more precise. Any recommendations?

7.26 Recap

Weight: 189.5
Steps: 12604

After a decent workout in the morning and a lazy midday around the apartment, Jason and I spent the afternoon and early evening driving around looking at neighborhoods. One neighborhood in particular -- Louisville. Jason told me he decided that, as much as he loved living in Boulder in college, there are all kinds of memories of a different life -- namely, one with his ex-girlfriend -- there. So we want to start fresh in a community that has the same feeling that Boulder gave him but with an opportunity for us to make new memories instead of trying to replace old ones. We both love the town and all the houses that don't look like they came from the same cookie cutter. It's tempting to tour houses and look around right now, but we really won't be in the market for several more months at least. So, I'm keeping the search for four-bedroom, two-bath multi-level houses in check. For now.

This morning I was feeling the workout vibe. There was no one else in the fitness center when I got there, which automatically puts me at ease. I did 65 minutes on the treadmill -- I didn't push my pace much so I only went about 3.75 miles -- and then a short circuit of some strength training on the machines. Since I did multiple sets and reps yesterday, I didn't want to get any kind of fatigue. And speaking of fatigue, I am definitely looking forward to my new shoes. After 15 minutes on the treadmill, I can feel my right calf getting more tired than my left. The only thing I can attribute this to is my bad right ankle and the unconcious effort of holding it in alignment when I walk.

The first fifteen minutes of my workout are always the hardest. I'm still warming up, so everything is a little tight and sore-feeling. And the treadmill isn't exactly exciting in terms of scenery; I spend most of my workouts staring at the sky or the complex pool. I've tried watching TV, reading a magazine, counting in my head... but nothing works as well as my Workout Mix. I just put on a CD of fast-paced music that I like, and I'm off and running. Er, walking. This morning, since no one else was around, I felt much less inhibited than usual and actually began singing aloud and doing dance moves. On the treadmill! Double-time steps, waving my arms... I was a madwoman. I also set the computer on the treadmill to just show me distance instead of the time I had left; the time is always discouraging and seems to go slower the more you watch it. Before I knew it, the workout was over.

And now, my Workout Mix:

• Adam Ant -- "Goody Two Shoes"
• Apollo 440 -- "Stop the Rock"
• Bloodhound Gang -- "Bad Touch"
• Chicago soundtrack -- "Cell Block Tango"
• Daft Punk -- "One More Time"
• Destiny's Child -- "Jumpin' Jumpin'"
• Duran Duran -- "Notorious"
• Eminem -- "Without Me"
• John Mayer -- "No Such Thing"
• Justin Timberlake -- "Rock Your Body"
• Matchbox Twenty -- "Unwell"
• Missy Elliot -- "Work It"
• Robbie Williams -- "Rock DJ"
• Santana feat. Rob Thomas -- "Smooth"
• Thicke -- "When I Get You Alone"
• Vanilla Ice -- "Ice Ice Baby" (yes, really.)
• Westlife -- "Flying Without Wings" (the cool-down song)

The CD player I use is on its last legs, though. It eats up batteries for lunch, inserts static randomly into songs and the play button barely works; I have to press it ten times at just the right angle for it to even come on. In fact, I just spent a good five minutes trying to get it to turn on, and it refused. So it might be dead already. In a perfect world, I could get a Nike PSA or, even better, an iPod. But this world is imperfect, so I can't even afford to replace the barely functioning CD player. Egads.

Weight Lifting to Lose Weight:

If you're dieting, weight lifting can help you lose fat instead of muscle and bone. Most people don't realize it, but when they diet, only about 60 to 75 percent of the weight they lose is actually fat. So if you shed 20 pounds, five or six of those pounds are from nonfat tissue, including muscle, bone, and water -- leaving your body weaker. But exercise, particularly the iron-pumping kind, can preserve muscle and bone, so that up to 85 percent of what you trim is fat, says Dale Schoeller, a nutrition researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

7.25 Recap

Weight: 189.5
Steps: 9552

I was a good girl for most of the day yesterday, although we did go out to eat at Chili's and I insisted on getting chips and salsa. But we didn't come close to finishing the chips, which is practically unheard of when you eat out with me, and I've got a styrofoam box in the fridge with two-thirds of my meal in it, along with most of Jason's french fries. Not terribly bad, but not terribly good either.

Who knew apartment complex fitness centers were so crowded on Saturday mornings? When I got there, both of the treadmills and one of the elliptical machines was in use, and there was also a guy working on the weight machines and a girl supervising everything (after coyly watching her for a while, I figured out she was a personal trainer for the weights guy and one of the girls on a treadmill). So, I camped out on the bike and did four miles, then did a mile of alternating walking and jogging on a treadmill that was freed up. My ankle started to bother me, so I tried some of the weight machines. Back at the YMCA in Dallas, I was required to take a training session on all the machines, and they were very hi-tech. They used a system called FitLinxx to record your reps and weight on each machine, calories burned, etc. You could also enter any aerobic activity manually in the system. At the fitness center here, there are only three or four machines, and no fancy computers to figure things out for you. With all the people in there I felt silly trying to figure out how to adjust the seats. But I did it, and got some good weight lifting in. I'll be a seasoned pro by the time Jason joins me next week.

Last night, after dinner, we picked up some movies at Blockbuster and then drove around, exploring the small towns near ours. We've decided to spend a little bit of time each weekend exploring like that and looking for a place we'd like to live. That really has nothing to do with me getting in shape and losing weight, except that both things -- being healthy and looking for a home -- are planning for our future. I want to be as active and healthy and live as long as possible with Jason and our children. And we want to have a safe, nurturing community to do it in. So... hooray for the future!

I researched my insoles a bit more online and discovered that it probably wasn't a good buy for me. They're more for everyday shoe use, not to put into my rugged shoes that already have some arch support built in. Putting the insoles in on top of built-in support could cause even more discomfort. So, I researched shoes. And I decided on Saucony Women's Grid Stabil MC running shoes. I was just going to get walking shoes, but then I read that better technology goes into running shoes, and I need all the help I can get. I don't believe in magic bullets, but these are pretty close. Correcting the pronation of my walking stance could get rid of my shin splints, my back pain, my heel pain, the pain in my foot muscles and calves, all the while conserving energy since the correct pronation requires less exertion than over-pronation. Best of all, The Mother is buying them for me since I am unemployed and only able to pay my credit card bill by selling some of my books on Amazon.com.