Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Whole New Thing

So what I'm doing now is I go to a beginner yoga class whenever my schedule allows and get to the gym about twice a week. I do the yoga class if it's that night then I follow it with the following (or do the following alone with no class):

A) 45 minutes elliptical machine on the "Fat Burn" program. I stay in my easy burnin' zone of 120 HBPM while watching the World Series or Chuck or music videos or political discussion or all of the above. The place has TVs growing out of the ceiling like mildew and (mostly) irritating music on everywhere, including the freaking locker room. I honestly wish it had neither so I could just listen to my magical iPod. Oh well. WPP.

B) 15 laps in the pool. I'll break it down in swim team terms:
25 free
100 breast
200 IM (50 each of fly, back, breast, free)
100 back
200 IM
100 breast
25 free

(25 = one length of the pool.) I start at the deep end and take my rests in the shallow end. Depending on how hard I push myself my heart rate gets up around 170. If I've done the yoga class that night and pool is my third exercise category - guess what? I don't push it that hard.

It's a great workout and I would do it every other day if my schedule allowed. I don't weigh myself every day (good advice, Chazz) but when I weighed myself a couple days ago just out of curiosity I was at 205 fully dressed. That is a big improvement. That's like 2 percent weight loss.

I've also been eating pretty well. I call it the "eat what you feed your children" diet. I get far more fruit than I did as a bachelor and I haven't seen the inside of a Chinese Buffet in, I believe, years. It's pretty much three squares these days as opposed to the starve-gorge-repeat on no predictable timetable. Good times for my body and its interlocking systems. Totally on track now to not run the 2009 Twin Cities Marthon in under four hours, which is, of course, the point.

(Did I even mention on this blog that I joined a gym? I hope so. I did, btw.)