Seeking Centeredness

2-Week Total Body Turnaround.  As modified by Anne.  This is SOOOOO boring!!

So far so good.  The eating part is going just as I outlined yesterday, and I’ve completed the exercise component for Day One.  When I purchased the book, I was given the opportunity to additionally purchase a companion strength training DVD.  I thought this was a good idea – wanted to make sure I did the exercises correctly.  I am somewhat disappointed to discover that the DVD does not follow the same sequence as the book!  What’s with that????  Might turn some folks away from the program, but you know I’m gonna see it through.

As mentioned in the previous post, author and personal trainer Chris Freytag preaches 30 minutes daily of both cardio and strength training.  Day One’s assignment for cardio is called Speed Bursts.  After a 4 minute warm up (walking briskly to the point of slight breathlessness) you alternate one minute bursts of walking very very fast (puff! can’t! talk! much!) with two minute recovery intervals.  Finish up with a four minute cool down.  I chose to combine my Speed Burst Cardio with Walking Lucy (the golden retriever).  I used the stopwatch on my cell phone to time the intervals which ended up being somewhat awkward.  But manageable.  And I chose to run for the one minute intervals.  Overall, it went well.  I was sweating by the end of it, but not exhausted or hurting.  The necessity of timing the intervals makes me feel that this would be so much easier on a treadmill.  Oh well.

When I returned home, I popped in the DVD expecting to run through the Day One strength training program which is called “Upper Body + Core” in the book.  My only choices on the DVD however were “Upper & Lower Body + Core” or “Total Body + Core.”  Furthermore, both options were only 15 minute segments.  Dang! I thought.  The main reason  I bought a canned program is so I wouldn’t have to think so much!.  Slightly irritated, I ran through both programs to meet the 30 minute requirement.

Freytag’s philosophy toward weight lifting is to slow down the movements to eliminate momentum.  This makes moves with even low weights more challenging.  She offers variations of each move to provide greater or lesser challenge, and incorporates “balance” moves. which are supposed to help core strength, increase brain power (hunh?) and make you rich or something.  I used two 10 pound weights, but would have preferred to use lighter ones.  I think I’ll buy a couple of five pounders for tomorrow.  In general, I found many of the exercises to be awkward.  I think I’m really unbalanced.  Perhaps they will become easier as my strength, balance and familiarity with the moves increase.

Tomorrow’s cardio is called Hills and I’m supposed to alternate running up and down hills at different time intervals.  Again, this might be easier to do on a treadmill, but I reckon I’ll just be a damn fool running up and down the same hill in my neighborhood.  Give the neighbors something to watch and talk about.

And now, a photo!

This is a computer-generated photo of my living room with an expensive Persian rug that I cannot afford.  Do you like it?

Warning:  This is a very boring blog entry.  Writing and reading about dieting is almost as exciting as hearing about someone else’s dreams.  Proceed with caution!

From the editors of Prevention magazine, the 2-Week Total Body Turnaround by Chris Freytag promises weight loss of up to 12 pounds and trimming of up to 22 inches in just 14 days!  Sounds awesome, hunh?  And it is a good book and a good plan.  Jump starting weight loss with quick results may be just the ticket to encourage the mental focus required to continue weight loss and make lifestyle changes.  Here’s the SparkNotes version of the plan:

1. Make a list of your fitness and dieting goals.  Are you trying to slim down for a class reunion?  For health reasons?  Do you want to lose 15 pounds?  Twenty?  Make an on-paper statement of your goals.
2. Take some pre-plan measurements of your body.  Measure your waist, thighs, upper arms and butt.  Write those numbers down.
3. Take a pre-plan fitness test.  How long does it take you to walk a mile at your fastest pace?  What’s your flexibility level?  Climb stairs, do push ups, “plank” for as long as you can.  Write down all the results.
4. Starting on a Monday, eat three 400 calories balanced meals with two 200 calorie snacks for a total of 1,600 calories daily.  Pick your plans following a nutritional meal template.  Example:  BREAKFAST – Two grains or starchy veggies, one dairy, one protein, one fruit, one fat.
5. Exercise six out of seven days with 30 minutes of cardio (walking) and 30 minutes of strength training.  The cardio focuses on intervals – walk really fast for 2 minutes, recover for a minute,  repeat seven times.  The strength training alternates daily between upper and lower body with a core (abdominal) and stretching workout daily.  The method of weight lifting is geared to maximize the results by requiring that you “straighten” the weight twice as slowly as you bend it.  For example, a bicep curl with be lifted with a count of one, and lowered slowly with a count of one-two.

Are your eyes glazed over?  Drool slowly pooling at the corner of your mouth? I found it tedious to even summarize this.  While I fully believe this to be an excellent plan, I cannot reconcile this much attention to detail with the concept of balanced centeredness.  Especially the food plan part.  If I have to think about what I eat this much, I am doomed.

I’m not doing this diet.  Sorry.  Here’s what I know about dieting.

1. Most humans are programmed to eat a lot when food is readily available and food is always readily available in America.
2. Naturally skinny people are weird.  When confronted with a full plate of bacon-cheeseburger and fries, they get “full” after about half the burger and half the fries.  WTF????
3. To avoid the natural tendency to eat a lot, we have to limit our choices.  I know, I know, that’s the opposite of what all the diet plans say!  But I believe it’s true!

So what now, Annie B?

I’m just going to do part of this diet:

1. My diet goal:  Stop mindlessly overeating!  Focus on eating correctly every day, so that when I go to a party (or come across a slaughtered woolly mammoth) I can gorge until my belly is fully distended and my face is slick with grease.
2. Pre-plan measurement:  That’s right.  Measurement.  One.  I’m not weighing myself or checking the thighs and arms.  I’m just going to measure my belly, right around the belly button.  Here it is:  33″!  Yikes!  That was really, really scary!
3. Pre-plan fitness test:  Not doing it.
4. Eating plan, starting tomorrow:  My eating plan will be almost the same every day.  The foods I eat will become a stagnant habit that I can easily control.  I will eat a 400 calorie breakfast, lunch and dinner, and save the other 400 calories for wine.  If Tony and I split a bottle of chardonnay, that’s approximately 360 calories.  If I feel like I need to snack, no wine.
5. Exercise:  Cardio will be taken care of by tennis and walking the dog.  I will follow the recommended weight-lifting routine.  Tomorrow:  Upper body.

Daily Eating Plan

Every day the same: Predictable. Maybe I’ll change the meals with each season.

(BTW, I have no idea how these quotation marks are appearing.  It must be a part of this template.  I may need to select another one.  They’re getting on my nerves!)

Breakfast:

• One glass of Metamucil (prevents me from being gassy and fills me up so I don’t get hungry too early)
• One Balance Original Nutrition Bar.  200 calories, 15g protein
• One piece of fruit, usually a banana
• Three cups of coffee with full fat half-and-half

Lunch:

• One apple
• If at home:  One can of soup, either Progresso Savory Beef Barley (260 calories) or Campbell’s Chicken Mushroom Barley (140 calories).  If I have the lower calorie Campbell’s soup, I can additionally have 7 Triscuit crackers.  If I have to grab something out:  Grilled Chicken Sandwich from Wendy’s (350 calories) or Turkey Breast Sub from Subway (380 calories with cheese).

Dinner:

• Meat, starch and vegetable on a 9″ plate.  Half the plate will be veggies, 1/6 of the plate will be protein, 1/3 will be grain or starchy veggie.
• One handful of nuts while I cook – and a handful means I can see no nuts whatsoever.  They have to totally fit in the closed fist.  (Why oh why do I love to split infinitives so much?  Is that still really taboo?)
• Wine for dessert!

If I get hungry between meals, I will drink big glasses of Crystal Light.

Dieting is boring.  But finding a mindless solution to mindless overeating will clear my mind for more interesting activities.  Just you wait and see!

And now, another picture!

Nope.  Not me.  This is my great-grandmother whom we all called Miss Betty.  She loved food, and like Julia Child, learned to cook in Paris.

Seeking Centeredness.  Seeking Centeredness??? What the hell was I thinking?  I mean it’s true that I would like to become more centered, more focused on important issues.  Separate the wheat from the chaff.  Cut the crap. Start acting; stop REacting.  But Seeking Centeredness?  Really, Anne, that’s the best you could do?

Yesterday I started exploring new blog names – came up with some awesome ones!  Like www.BlahBlahBlog.com.  Brilliant!  But taken.  Another cute chick blogsite with a pink cupcake or cookie on the main page.  “Change the spelling!” I decided:  www.BlahBlahBlahg.com.  Not as brilliant but pretty clever.  Also taken.  By some redheaded chick who calls herself “ragmanx.”  I now call her a bad name.  Moving on….

Then I came up with www.BlogitoErgoSum.com.  Get it?  It’s like Cogito, ergo sum!  That’s Latin!  Descartes, man!  I think, therefore I am.  Only mine would be I blog, therefore I am.  Not as cool as BlahBlahBlog, maybe a little stuffy, pseudo-intellectual, but kinda groovy nonetheless.  But guess what?  It’s taken, purchased, and owned by someone who has yet to create the website.  LOSER!!

How about www.AGirlandHerBlog.com?  Taken.  Getting pissy now.  www.MindBloggling.com.  Taken.  www.JustBlogIt.com.  Taken.  And then I found a few that weren’t taken, but I’m not so taken with them.  Here are some other choices:

• www.WinkinBlinkinandBlog.com.  This references the nursery rhyme Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod.  It’s about falling asleep and dreaming.  I guess it might work.  This blog could be pretty boring.
• www.itblogglesthemind.com.  Similar to MindBloggling, but kinda long, don’tcha think?
• www.AnnieBloginSC.com.  This is a variation of the screen name that I use for just about everything:  AnnieBinSC.

Anybody have any suggestions out there?  Holler if you do!

And now, a diet update!  The two-week Prevention diet starts on Monday, January 18th.  The book actually specifies that you start on a Monday.  Over the next couple of days, I will share the required pre-diet activities which include fitness tests and body measurements.  Fortunately the book does not require a starting weight.  I am unwilling to weigh myself right now, and am hoping that the two weeks will give me the courage to step onto the scale to face that gruesome reality.  Tomorrow I will post the diet philosophy and an outline of the program.  Everyone!  Sing along!

I’m going to experiment with inserting a photo.  Been unsuccessful so far, but made a couple of changes.  Here goes:

Are you gasping?  Do you think this is a photo of me?  Well, it’s not.  It’s a great picture of my Granny who died several years ago.  Pure and good, kind and true, and the only person on Earth who thought I was beautiful.  She never dieted.