It's been a while. Nearly a month, actually. What's been going on? Well, I haven't been gaining. I've been losing, but glacially slowly. Today I weighed in at 74kg, which is 8 kilograms away from goal. My eating has been okayish. What that means is that I haven't been having blowouts big enough to gain, but I haven't been eating "properly". Exercise stopped about 2-3 weeks ago.
Why?
I've known for years now that the human mind has a mental energy generator. Mental energy is the thing that allows you to do things day in, day out. I don't know what the scientific name for it is. Anyway, your brain generates it, and your environment and mental state use it up. When I started exercising with the Kinect things were going well. Suddenly that stopped. I don't enjoy exercise, which is probably the main reason why I have trouble doing it. I think that my mental energy levels dropped to low enough levels so that I just stopped and didn't have it in me to carry on. I stopped posting on the blog too. Fortunately, I continued to eat well enough that I continued to lose weight. In the last 2 weeks I've lost just under a kilogram.
Tonight on a whim, I was going through a Kmart (yes, we have this chain store in New Zealand) and I was going through their online catalogue and came across a exercycle for NZ$79. That's good value. Checked other websites and found prices that were in some cases 3-4 times the amount. Decided to buy it. Why not? I can sell it for $50 on Trademe (the NZ equivalent of ebay) when I'm at goal. I'm not after anything special. I've decided to watch television while exercising with it.
One of the problems with exercise is that it's boring for me. If anyone reading this doesn't find it boring, then I'm envious of you. Exercise has three components that I have trouble with:
1. It's tiring. This depends a lot on whether you're fit or not (my definition of being fit is being able to run for 30 minutes). But even if I'm fit, I'm at a point of partial-exhaustion when I'm doing it. That's just the way it is, and I accept that.
2. I need a rest/sleep afterwards. I know that a lot of people don't have this problem, but I do. My energy levels are low. If I have two exercise sessions a day, I might have to have two sleeps, or drag myself around after the second session before I go to bed for the night.
3. Exercise is boring. Yes, you can listen to music. But that is not totally distracting. What I need is something better, watching television.
So from now on, I'll be exercising whenever I am watching television. And watching television whenever I'm exercising. I haven't tried this before so fingers crossed it goes to plan. It also means that I don't have to rearrange the furniture in my living room (the Xbox Kinect requires a large distance between you and the TV, and my living room is simply not wide enough, but it is long enough).
I'm only eight kilograms from goal weight! Lowest weight since 4th December 2004. I have to admit to being a bit worried about the whole body size issue. You see, because the last time I was at my goal weight (66kg) was in 1997. 15 years ago. I've simply forgotten what my body looked like back then. I know that it's not a lot for a man. Currently, there would be roughly 4-5 litres of fat on my chest and stomach (that is a rough estimate based on the jiggle factor). When I was doing star jumps on the Kinect game (star jumps involve jumping up, and spreading your arms and legs, jumping again and closing them - extremely energy intensive) the thing I noticed most was the discomfort of all of my fat in my torso pulling down when I landed on the floor. I don't think that should happen. My thighs also rub together still. So I know that I could still lose 5 kilograms of fat and not feel as though I'm underweight or have issues when I look in the mirror.
At work I've decided to ditch the low carb and eat fruit. The reason is that some people there know that I'm losing weight, and I don't want them to comment about how I'm getting "too thin". I want them to quietly forget that I lost all of that weight.
The highlight of the post though is that I'm aiming to reach goal weight in July. It is theoretically possible. I'm not sure when in July I'll reach goal weight. Plus of course it requires diet, exercise and lots of mental energy. No issues coming up that could derail my progress. I've placed a widget on my blog counting down the days until I reach goal weigh. Currently I've set that to the 15th of July, each new post I'll probably update it a little bit. Just having a widget on my blog doesn't mean I'll reach goal weight at the date stated, of course. But I'll try. That's all I can do.
I have to agree with you on exercise. I find it pretty boring too. I like things like Zumba and Jazzercise but I don't want to pay for more than one class a week usually. So, then I'm left with walking and exercise DVDs (boring).
ReplyDeleteI've occasionally had access to walking on a treadmill but the only way I can do it is if I can watch TV while walking. I hope the bike works for you. :)
I can pretty much say I could have written this myself. I have always felt that way about exercise. Basically I had to start out doing it for 30 seconds at a time b/c that was all I could mentally or physically tolerate. But mentally is the worst part b/c I deal with boredom too. I think your idea is a good one. If you can watch tv while you're exercising then it is far less boring!!!
ReplyDeleteExercise was my main impediment to losing weight. We finally got a recumbent bike and it's set up in our room so I get on it first thing in the morning. I can't watch TV while I ride because I get bored during the commercials. I need something to keep me busy the whole time, so I read. It's fantastic. While I'm pedaling away, I'm absorbed in a book. It works great for me.
ReplyDeleteAs for your energy, I had the same problem until I started increasing my protein intake. It has made all the difference in the world. I had no idea my body needed that much protein just to keep me going. If I don't get enough, I end up having to take a nap - my brain just gets fried.
I think you'll make your goal. You sound motivated! I'll keep coming by to check on your progress!
Exercise can be boring to me too, but I just do it even when I don't feel like it because I know it has helped me maintain all these years. I think your idea of exercising in front of the television is brilliant - it will help the time go by quickly!
ReplyDeleteStay strong - you are almost to your goal weight.
I actually love working out. BUT I think you have to find an activity you like. I have tried a lot of things and found some things really boring. then I branched out and bought some groupons for things like boxing and kettlebells. Both I love. I no longer spend hours on the elliptical but am finding that I can't wait to do kettlebell class after work.
ReplyDeletei agree with the comment about increasing your protein intake to get more energy.