Once upon a time, I got some form of physical exercise every day. Free weights, walking, jogging, stair-climbing machine, etc. During that phase of life, I ate a relatively healthy diet but really didn't have to think about calories. My energy output (exercise) and input (food) were in balance.
I'm striving for that ideal again. If I don't go to the gym on a given day, I bike or walk. That's the plan, in any case.
Here's something noteworthy: tonight I made chocolate-chip cookies for a friend who had a birthday last week. I'll bake and deliver them in the morning.
This is the first time in my life that I have not eaten the leftover batter that could be scraped from the sides of the bowl or the beater of the mixer. Amazing! I actually think in most cases the dough tastes as good as or better than the finished product. I just made the cookie dough, put it in a bowl in the fridge, and put the tools in the dishwasher.
Again, my 50-day "holiday challenge" proves to be highly motivating!
Had a great Thanksgiving, and today it was back to business. I worked legs and abs at the gym.
There's a big chunk of leftover cheesecake in the refrigerator, and I found it didn't tempt me at all.
It's liberating to feel that I'm in control and enjoying choosing the right things to eat. (But I do reserve the right to enjoy specific treats when I take a deliberate cheat meal!)
I am starting to get habituated to doing some form of exercise every day, or at least five or six days a week. Tomorrow morning I'll have a chance to row. Sunday I'll probably ride my bike.
We spent much of the day with good friends, Toni and Steve, and when we visit these good friends, there's always lots of fabulous food. Toni prepared a turkey, dressing, rolls, green-bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, heavenly salad, roasted asparagus, bread pudding, and three pies: pumpkin, blueberry, and cherry.
What a meal!
I brought a loaf of one of my favorite breads (recipe here), butter with fresh rosemary and garlic, a Mediterranean chopped salad, and a New York-style cheesecake with a topping made from whipping cream, sour cream, brown sugar, and bourbon. I used a different crust recipe—a graham-cracker crust that also incorporated chopped toasted pecans and some spices. Really delicious.
It was all soooooo good. But I ate like a sensible, lean person, for the most part. I had small portions of everything I wanted, skipping a few dishes I don't care about. I had a piece of blueberry pie and a piece of cheesecake for dessert, but the cheesecake was so rich that I should have skipped the pie.
I surprised myself before dinner. It's typical of me to have several slices of that incredible bread, with generous portions of rosemary and garlic butter. Today? One slice.
Today was a designated cheat day, so I have no qualms of guilt about anything. And my husband and I began the day with an hour's ride on our bikes.
Tomorrow—back to my caloric deficit. But I should have a great workout in the gym tomorrow, with all the glycogen my muscles should have produced from all those carbs.
Will you tell yourself, "It's Thanksgiving—nobody can expect me to watch what I eat!"?
Or will you focus on the healthy stuff offered to you and enjoy the fattening stuff in moderation?
The point I want to make is this: you have a choice. You're in control. You have free will. Decide what you're going to do on the approaching day of national excess. If you decide it's going to be your "cheat day," enjoy yourself, with zero guilt.
If you decide to minimize the caloric damage, know that you can do it. Eat mindfully. Eat slowly. Don't let anyone pressure you into eating anything you don't truly want.
Here's what we plan to do: go for a bike ride early on Thanksgiving day, then visit friends and enjoy what we want in moderation.
This is day 44 for me in Tom Venuto's 50-day holiday fitness challenge.
I probably won't post every day, but I thought I'd write about some of my experiences along the way.
Two months ago I was lamenting the fact that once again I had gotten out of shape and regained some of the weight that I lost several years ago. Today I'm seven pounds (of fat) lighter and have gained back about a pound and a half of muscle.
I hope this doesn't sound too schizophrenic, but there are two of me when it comes to my exercise habits. There's sedentary me, who gets no exercise at all. The other side is athletic me.
Once I get back into the groove and re-establish my gym and fitness habit, I feel like a different person. An observer might not see much difference between me at 150 pounds and me at 143, but I can tell you that I feel like a completely different person inside. And it's not because I've lost seven pounds of fat. It's because I begin feeling like—and therefore thinking like, walking like, and eating like—an athlete.
I begin feeling so much more capable and strong and fearless.
I figured out years ago that I am a person who absolutely needs strenuous exercise of some kind. When I was young, I ran. Then I fell in love with weight training. Running is not possible now because of an arthritic ankle joint, but in the gym I can work around any such disability.
This past April, I began learning to row. I found that I love it.
And just about a month ago, I bought a bike and have been riding as often as possible since then. Cycling is another activity I can love.
So here, on day 44 of my 50-day challenge, I've lost a couple more pounds and begun feeling like an athlete again.
Don't mean to sound sappy, but so close to Thanksgiving, I can't help but give thanks that I am healthy and fit—and that I have the opportunity to achieve whatever fitness goals I am willing to work toward.
I may be 53, but I ain't dead. I feel more alive with every pound I lift and every mile I ride.
Back in the 1980s I competed in two local bodybuilding contests. I didn't win either one, but both were successes for me because I was able to make the commitment to compete and show up on stage in my very best shape.
During my pre-competition fat-stripping phase (or "diet," though I don't like that word) it was not at all difficult to stick to my plan. There were plenty of days when I felt hungry, but I wasn't tempted to eat anything I shouldn't be eating. I remember going to several birthday parties at work and turning down pieces of cake. Some of my friends found that astonishing, but I honestly didn't want the cake.
But I do love food, and at other times in my life, I've eaten pretty much what I wanted and paid the consequences in fat that had to be burned off later.
What was the difference?
Commitment.
It was super-easy for me to pass up cake while preparing for a bodybuilding contest because I had a deadline. I knew I was going to step on that stage on a certain day, and it was unacceptable to me to either drop out of the competition or show up on stage in less than my best condition.
I'd made a total commitment to myself.
It wasn't about vowing to beat any other woman on that stage–it was 100 percent about honoring my commitment to myself.
Those contests were a long time ago, and it's doubtful that I'll ever compete on stage again. I certainly won't compete in women's bodybuilding, which has sold its soul to the steroid demons. "Figure" competition is a possibility, but I simply don't feel the desire to compete. At least not this year. Who knows?
This fall I've made a new commitment and am taking part in Tom Venuto's Holiday Challenge. The object, in a nutshell, is to improve one's fitness, health, and appearance by losing fat and getting stronger over the holidays rather than porking out and getting fatter.
I don't expect to "win"–but making the commitment has dramatically increased my motivation.
Last night I did a whole lot of reps on the leg-press machine at the gym. And today I went out for a nice ride on my bike. It's a beautiful day–sunny, nearly 60 degrees. I found, however, that my legs were pretty darned fatigued.
It was a great ride nonetheless, but I had to take the return trip a little easier.
I bought a bicycle about five weeks ago, after not having ridden since I was 14. The last time I rode as a teenager, I was flying down a long hill in my neighborhood when a dog ran right out into my path. I went down and broke my jaw and hadn't been on a bike since.
But I'm loving the new bike and enjoying riding again. The reason I bought it was to give myself an outdoor activity now that the rowing season is about to end. I enjoy the gym, but I found that I absolutely love rowing, and the prospect of slogging away on the treadmill and elliptical trainer this winter doesn't thrill me at all.
I don't mind cold, so as long as it's not utterly frigid, I should be able to ride regularly. We don't have that many utterly frigid days in East Tennessee anyway (well, unless you live at the top of a mountain).
Lately I’ve been using a site called dailyburn.com to track nutrition and workouts. It’s excellent, and the free version is nearly as good as the "pro" version. I encourage you to check it out.
Dailyburn offers users the opportunity to create fitness and fat-loss challenges, and I’ve recently created a couple. The first is a riff off Tom Venuto’s holiday fitness challenge. The second is a weight-lifting challenge for women.
Check out dailyburn.com and see what you think. And if you’re female and enjoy lifting, please join my Women of Iron challenge.
