2009 a year fitness review

While most of my colleagues are reflecting on their favorite bands and records of the year and decade I'm mostly thinking about where I am with my health and fitness. This year has been one of real growth in the exercise department. I started off with an injury that sort of derailed my short term fitness goals. Through work with my physical therapist to get my knee back in shape I started to examine my dependence on my personal trainer and realized I needed a new plan. While I had gained a lot of strength through my nearly three years of work with Malcolm, I had definitely plateaued in certain areas (not doing enough cardio) and wasn't using enough common sense in my training which I think led me to push it and injure myself.

In May my office brought a new gym offer to the table which gave me more flexibility with times and locations of gym going. As sad as it was for me to leave the Y, I knew it was time and a good clean break from my old habits. I started going to the gym at lunchtime starting with low impact classes like Pilates and yoga to get me back in the game and slowly working up to trying some spin classes. I had only done one spin class before which I hated, so I was reluctant to try it. Nicole had recently started spinning at her new gym and through her example I found my motivation to give it a shot. Turns out, I LOVE IT. I take classes whenever I can and from all different teachers, some of whom I really don't feel, but the workout is really good for me and I get my serious sweat on and get to hear most of the recent hit songs which confirms my lack of interest in current popular music (although I did discover one of my favorite songs "Closer" by Ne-Yo).



In August, Carlos and I ran a 5K in Harlem which was cool since I only started running mostly on the treadmill in July. I was SLOW but we did it and it was fun to see the area and do it together and eat at Silvia's afterward!

I've started to think about exercise in a way that has motivated me a lot more, mainly that my generally sedentary lifestyle (one shared my most modern humans I think) needs to be challenged if I want to live a life that has quality and energy. I think of circulating my blood as one of the most crucial ways to keep my immune system strong and keep my body functioning well. I'm also motivated to sweat as a way to detoxify my system easily and consistently so I don't have to do something radical like a long juice fast or cleanse which requires a lot more time and energy than I can really afford given my other work and life commitments. For sure sometimes the time commitment to go to the gym (and especially to shower and look decent enough to come back to work) is hard and I have learned to give my self permission to not go when I really don't feel like it. But recently the desire to go and feel good has overruled the desire to stay home and watch one more episode of house hunters international.

My goal for next year is to try to vary my workouts more so I am gaining strength and keeping up with my cardio and to just stay motivated. Thanks to all of you friends for sharing your goals and struggles. Hopefully we can continue to do this next year.

new food rules

i took a battery of tests and labs about my food tolerances, and these are the resulting new food rules particular to me:

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE:

legumes
potato
sugar
molasses
sucrose
sucralose
cane juice
saccharine
nutri-sweet
fruit vinegar
mushrooms

ALSO VIGOROUSLY AVOID:

dairy
eggs
wheat
spelt
rye
kamut
tritical
barley
canola oil
processed food

NO MORE OFTEN THAN EVERY 5 DAYS:

grapes
tuna
almonds
asparagus
shellfish
oysters

BE SPARING ABOUT:

swordfish
shark
broccoli
soft squashes
tomatoes
apricots
berries that aren't blueberries
plums
chard
green salads
kale
citrus fruits
fruit juice

GOOD STUFF:

honey
pure maple
barley malt
corn fructose
brown rice
oats
quinoa
millet
corn
artichoke
carrots
califlower
celery
olives
spinach
winter squash
apples
banana
pears
dark meat
blueberries
salmon
sardines
sole
herring
mackerel
trout
eel
pickles
sauerkraut
sunflower seeds
flaxseed
unrefined palm oil for high heat
unrefined coconut oil for high heat
unrefined olive oil for medium heat
lard
sesame oil for cold uses
walnut oil for cold uses
nut butters
tahini
pecans
brazils
sunflower seeds
cashews

very committed

so i've been successfully counting calories for six weeks and have lost 6 pounds without ever being hungry. i have lost 2 pounds per week at other times in the past by dieting but it was never sustainable for me, i always ended up giving up because i was too hungry too much. this rate is much more sustainable. all in all i have lost 17 pounds since february.

but the really cool and fun thing is that i've added a lot of muscle. i have defined abs now, not six-pack by any means, but actual ab muscles, which is remarkable because when i started working out i could not really do even one crunch - years of back pain had the consequential side effect of me never using my "core" muscles at all to do anything. i also have strengthened my legs, arms, chest, and back.

i have a knee injury that i have had since i was 13 and it has hurt most of my life. by concentrating on leg exercises i have built up the muscles around the knee enough that I am almost completely free of knee pain now, for the first time in nearly 30 years.

i have also been super good at avoiding the foods that i now know make me sick - legumes, legume oils, chocolate, and dairy products. getting better and better about asking questions at restaurants, reading labels, and cooking without these items at home.

i am also running 4 days a week in addition to the muscle-related workouts 2 days a week. all in all it is great fun and i am feeling terrific.

update 2

I feel like Feb. and March were pretty much a bust for me. I was doing physical therapy for my knee, continuing my personal training one day a week and pretty much not doing anything else. In Austin for SXSW I went swimming and tried to figure out how to swim more when I got home. That turned into a bust when the only day I managed to do it I swam so hard I threw my neck out. I started to think I was entering a chronic injury phase of life and it bummed me out. My office offered the company a new deal at the new york sports club and I decided that even though I loved the spirit of the Y and the community aspect, the only way I was going to make working out a part of my daily schedule the way I wanted it to be was to switch to a gym that gave me more flexibility with time and locations. I had to send my trainer a dear malcolm letter and it was hard but he understood. Since May, I've been going to the gym around 4 times a week, doing yoga and pilates at first (there's always a class at 12:15 at one of the two gyms withing a block from my office) and a few weeks ago I started jogging again. I started our basically jogging at a walking pace and now I've been able to increase my speed and I'm getting my heart rate up. No visible results thus far but I FEEL better and that's really all I want. In school we're doing a lot of nutrition and disease prevention classes and it's so clear that nothing works without a combination of diet AND exercise. Simple, and true.

update

well i've come a long way, not by following strict rules, but by getting sick of feeling sick. haven't had any legumes or soybean oil or chocolate or dairy in weeks, and i feel much better.

also been exercising consistently 4-5 times a week and feeling much better. but man, it takes up a lot of time.

more fun facts about soybeans

so i found out that tocopherol contains soy protein, which means several of my vitamins i was taking every day contained stuff i am allergic to. yuck.

intervals?

anybody know anything about running intervals?

follow up about caffeine

i still haven't had caffeine, and i feel good about it. i have a tooth that hurts so i'm still having headaches, but i feel good.

i have been running almost every day, because exercise is the one thing i know works for me as antidepression therapy.

Body Mass Index

Lying on the table today at the physical therapist I was reading an awesome magazine I picked up called Alternative Therapies and reading about diets based on Ayurvedic constitution and I realized I know I'm in the overweight category of BMI but I didn't know by how much. I looked it up using this handy calculator and I was able to figure out what I need to lose to get it in the healthy zone. I think this reference is going to be key for me to have a goal and a mission for health for the rest of my life.

quit caffeine

so i'm on day 4 of not doing caffeine anymore. this time around it hasn't been as hard as it has been a few other times that i did this. i really want it to be forever this time. it is bad for my blood pressure, bad for my acid reflux, bad for my sleep apnea, etc. i'm just too old and frail for what it does to my body anymore.

i've also been stepping it up in my workouts, and feeling good about it. my trainer is daring me to do a biathlon (not the skiing and shooting, just running and bicycling).

bummed

I've been dealing with a nagging knee issue for the last month and a half or so. After a session with Malcolm in January I started to feel a weakness in my right knee. The sensation was like it was going to buckle or give way, especially as I was going down stairs. It wasn't an acute pain and it was random so I didn't go straight to the doctor. It seemed to subside but two weeks ago after a day on my feet in class it came back pretty actively and I decided to go to the doctor. According to the orthopedist I have a subluxed patella which basically means my kneecap is out of alignment.

It's not too severe so I don't need surgery but I do need to modify my workouts which means my fitness goals may be affected. I'm annoyed that the whole reason I went to a trainer in the first place was not to injure myself and because I pushed it a little to hard (I think mainly because of some plyometric exercises I was doing) I ended up doing exactly that.

The goal now is to strengthen the muscles that lead to the kneecap to get it back in alignment and perhaps wear one of those braces that has the whole around the kneecap. I had signed up for two races in the next month, a 5k next Sunday and a 15k on the 22nd. The doctor said jogging isn't bad for my condition but I want to be careful so I'm going to try to swim and do strength training and pilates as I guess the elliptical and stair climber is the worst for this condition.
Sorry this is so long but I'm annoyed!

acid reflux

i have very bad acid reflux. a helpful friend who has struggled with the same problem, including vocal nodes that have affected her singing (she is a singer), gave me these helpful advices that i wanted to share:

1: create a total calm 'ceremony' feeling around every time you eat.
don't check emails, don't take phone calls, maybe even stop having
meetings over a meal. JUST eat. take all stress out of eating. only
let your mind be spending that time thinking about chewing and getting
all your digestive juices flowing. you'd be amazed how much 'mind
over matter' really works. PICTURE your food going down and staying
there, as you eat.

2. CHEW way more than you ever thought you would need to. this is an
amazingly over-looked important step in digestion. CHEW so much it's
like baby food before you swallow

3: LEMONS are the exact opposite of every other citrus fruit--it's
actually ALKaline---which means, it helps control the acids in foods,
and make them digestable. so if you HAVE to eat raw foods, or ones
that aren't as easily digestable, squeeze fresh lemon on it

4. i'll say it again---stop eating right before you go to bed.

5. supposedly you're only supposed to eat the equivalent amount of
food that could fit in the PALM of your hand each meal. eat less,
more often.

6. this is obvious, but i always have to remind myself of this
one---take 5-10 minutes after you eat to do NO physical activity.
just stay put and think about your food going down.

7. at first, i was told to only eat raw foods (i love salads) if i
accompanied them with something HOT like soup or hot tea. this has
remained to be something that feels good for me. in the winter, i try
to only eat warm food. (besides my soy ice cream binges that i'm
paying for right now)

8. sleep propped up, especially if you ate something before you went to bed

9. there are things you can buy at the health food store called "digestive enzymes"---any time you are feeling the rumble, or you ate too much, or you ate a hot dog with onions or something, TAKE SOME! it REALLY helps

a daily ritual

i have discovered that the simple act of making my lunch every morning is the secret to my eating healthy and making other positive choices. the 10 minute ritual of preparation is like signing a daily contract with myself, in which i recommit to putting my health first every single day before i go off to work.

here are favorites that have been going into my lunch bag over the last few weeks:
-oranges & apples
- celery & carrots
- sprouted grain bread with cheese and avocado
- home made soup
- whole wheat pasta
- beet salad

Omnivores Dilema

I'm in the middle of reading The Omnivore's Dilema and it's provoking me to question so many things, and make some changes that i have been thinking about for a long time in my diet. I'm reading through it slowly, since it's a lot to take in, but i've already lost 10 lbs from the changes it's motivated me to make ( over the last ~3 weeks).

The only downside to reading TOD is that it can make you feel a little hopless about the state of our world - especially when you layer on the other things going on these days. But if your looking for motivation to eat in a way that is good for you and the world, this is a great place to start.

peace. d

physical therapy

i have had a sore shoulder for about three months that has been holding back my exercise. i finally got an appointment to see a physical therapist for it!

fish and rice

so i'm gonna try again my "do it right every day for a month" concept because i failed last time but it was good while it lasted. but in the meantime, i am also going on a diet i made up that i sometimes go on - the fish and rice diet. what that means to me is i don't eat any noodles or potatoes, i just eat rice as my starch, and i don't eat beef or lamb or pork or poultry, i just eat fish. of course i eat all the vegetables and fruti i want. i invariably lose weight when i go on this diet. and i sure could use some weight losing right about now

disaster

after a period of doing really well in october, i did passable in november, then completely lost it the last 6 weeks. i am now fat and slow and having trouble getting back into it. i'm gonna try to post here more about how i'm doing and what i am learning.

Cleanse Blog

Hey gang - I'm in Norcross, Georgia this week, doing a giant cleanse and fast at this clinic run by a Ukranian naturopathic doctor and his entire family of ex-pats. It's about as crazy as it sounds, and I'm actually in a pretty bad mood today, the third day of cleanse procedures and the second full day of fasting. I've started a separate blog to show you pictures and tell you how it's been, but I'm too crabby and full of cravings tonight to really do any writing. I'll get it going for real tomorrow - so check it out, if you're interested: Fisheye Cleanse.
Here's a teaser...



Hope you're all well - happy new year!!
xo - T