Can I play?
Have always wanted to join the thread, but just as getting started was always the next day/week/month away, so was posting here. Mrs. Devil and I actually began way back in January (I think we made the right choice between starting to post and starting to shape up), but we’re hitting a bit of the seventh-month doldrums. Not completely off track, but faltering a bit for various reasons. Oh, I should apologize ahead of time if this runs too long.
Backing up a bit …
Things went awry for us several years ago for two main reasons. First, we quit smoking (yay us!). Though it’s been about a year and a half now and we’re mostly past the cessation-related munchies and associated bad eating habits (how do you know you’re done with dinner if you’re not lighting up? Besides, there’s more food!), it took us FOUR YEARS (grrr!) to finally make it from “trying to quit” to “quit.”
Second, we moved out of the city about five or six years ago. That meant—just as we were approaching our late thirties—we went from daily baseline movement to almost nothing. I went from walking (at a quick, I’m late! I’m Late! pace) about four miles a day with a heavily-laden backpack to nothing. We work from home, so there isn’t even the walk from the parking lot to the office.
There are other factors, but those are the two main ones. I’d always been a bit roly-poly and completely unathletic, and this was disastrous. Over the past seven years I put on about 70–80 pounds. I know that everything is relative, but that was a drastic change for us.
Enter January …
So the Dudeling was several months old (Mrs. Devil gets MAJOR props for doing all this as a new mom) and we figured that if we can manage to quit smoking and get our act together enough to keep him alive, there was nothing we couldn’t do. We’d tried many times before so, like quitting smoking, were experts at what not to do. I think the key difference in our approach this time ‘round was in motivation and commitment. I’m sure the Dudeling had something to do with it.
Anyway, we approached it with three things in mind: diet, cardio, and heavy objects. We started each about a month after each other so as not to get overwhelmed. We also moved up in intensity very slowly (er, the ‘right’ amount) rather than getting gung ho and going all out.
Diet was first. Actually, this was surprisingly the easiest. It took several months to relearn portion control and trust that one bowl of pasta would satisfy or that we could split a chicken breast and still feel full. No real dieting per se, we just cut way back on pizza and other takeout and took advantage of our love of cooking to make great dinners that were low calorie but in no way diet food. Something else that helped is that we focused on dropping calories and eating wisely but not to an absurd level. Three to five hundred calories below (average) maintenance level isn’t all that hard to find.
Cardio was next. Not much to say about that except we assembled Netflix, Hulu, cable, and a DVD player in front of the treadmill so that it never got crushingly boring. We’ve been on it an hour a day every other day. Mostly. I took a month off in May for surgery and we’ve been on it in fits and starts as work heated up, but it’s still mostly there. To supplement it we’ve started playing with a hula-hoop. If that keeps up we’ll probably get a weighted one if the reviews pan out.
Lastly, there’s moving heavy objects around. In the sticks and without other reason to leave the house, joining a gym was not an agreeable option. We have some basic equipment (a curl bar with weights, a set of those dial-a-weight dumb-bells, etc.) that work great. Since we’re starting out we splurged for a personal trainer to come out to the house twice a week to put us through a routine and watch our form (we do it on our own a third day a week). She’s great and the effects have been amazing. We’ve only been doing it for about five or six months, but there has been a dramatic difference. It’s moved from the oh-my-god-this-is-ridiculous to us actually looking forward to it. It’s fun to look back on our first struggles with squats and ab exercises and see how far we’ve come.
We’re only about half way to our goal, give or take. Like I said we’ve recently had a tight time with work and a few other things, so staying motivated and on track is becoming a bit more background-ish.
Oh, stats (mine; I’m smarter than to just post her’s—but they’re proportionate):
January: ~235
July: ~188
So… so that’s it, isn’t it?
Hi everyone!
Anyone have an opinion on those weighted hoop things?
