Friday, February 11, 2011

Yoga-tta love it!

I'm a little sick of pity parties this week. I've been throwing them for myself for two days, two weeks, two months... you get the picture.

I weighed in on Wednesday. I was actually looking forward to this weigh in, as I had worked out regularly, maxed out on fibre and veggies and colourful deliciousness and stayed within my PointsPlus. So as the instructor wrote down +.4 I couldn't keep the edge out of my voice when I said "WHAT?" That's right, in four weeks I've lost ONE pound. One! Last time, on the Points system, I never lost less than .5 (even at Christmas) or more than two pounds. I was happy with that. Anyway...

I nearly rolled my eyes at the instructor all evening (somehow it's HER fault, right? I know it's not, but I don't like her much. What's with all the WW leaders being b!tchy?), but managed instead to focus on my beautiful daughter running around making everyone laugh and giggle.

On the way home I was ticked right off. I managed to avoid emotionally eating when I got home, but spent the better part of the evening looking up "pointsplus doesn't work" on Google. Turns out, not everyone is loving the new system...that was a bit of a consolation.

But I said no pity party, right?

Yesterday, I went back to the Jillian fat blast workout and tough yoga and then today I switched it up and did Level 1 Shred (yoga tonight).

Well, well, well. I'll say this much about yoga - it sure as heck works your core and upper body. I haven't done that well at Shred (especially the push ups and ab work) in forever.

I'm taking this little victory, re-focusing my WW attempt and going to stick it out a bit longer. Because more important than the scale is strength and fitness — and that part is working.

Monday, February 7, 2011

It's not you, it's me. Or, We're just on a break (and so it's not really cheating)

I had to break up with running again.

I know, I know. At this rate, he's never going to take me back, but it had to be done. At first, the decision put me into a bit of a tailspin. For whatever reason, in the back of my mind I equated "no running" with "no weight loss." I was convinced that not running would mean not ever getting back to a healthy weight and not ever being fit again. Which is stupid, of course, but when I starting taking my health seriously, running was a huge factor in my success. It's no wonder that now, as I re-focus and re-commit, the absence of running made me feel defeated before I even started.

Enter common sense.

After finally finding an experienced, knowledgeable massage therapist who gave me my first relief from pain since August, I sat back and re-evaluated my situation. First off, the damage to my hip is not muscular it's connective tissue damage and therefore is going to take a very long time to heal. Second, the best thing I can do for the hip is to strengthen my core, butt and hamstrings. Third, running is not going to do those things or, put another way, there are better, more effective ways to build strength than running. Fourth (and here's the big one), running is the only exercise that actually hurts. Yes, the hip gives me grief if I sit too long, or drive, or sleep funny, but all in all, yoga, Shred and Jillian's Fat Blast DON'T hurt it.

And so, I broke up with running. Not forever, no, we're just on a break, I say. But for now, there are other ways to drop weight and build strength and none of them have to hurt.

Sorry, running. You're just going to have to wait.