After being shamed by Danielle, I went back to Body Pump yesterday (I'm sorry Danielle! I'll think of you and how well you have dealt with your boot every time I want to skip it!)
Although I feel obligated to tell you, I decided my new plan is Body Pump once a week, and swimming once a week, because avoiding death by drowning took precedence in my mind over Michelle Obama arms. Sorry biceps.
I started this morning with a 6.5 mile run that sort of transformed into a tempo run in my head last night, made official by me updating my tempo run playlist. I do have that half marathon coming up April 30 that I would like to run decently fast at. I was happy to discover I didn't leave whatever "speed" I may have had on the streets of Virginia Beach last month. My splits:
9:44 (warm up)
8:30
8:53
8:54
8:49
9:04 (started as a cooldown, then I changed my mind halfway through)
last .5 mile average pace 8:16
Not amazing but not bad for having done NO speedwork for almost a month.
When I was warming up, I heard on the news that we've discovered how to prevent obesity. It's just eat tangerines. It was discovered to prevent weight gain in lab rats.
Um, not be a negative Nancy, since who doesn't love a nice juice tangerine, but didn't we already known how to prevent obesity? Isn't it just eating less?
Now, I named my blog chocolate is my life, so obviously I know it's not as easy as all that. Food tastes good, and can be somewhat addictive, and healthy eating requires time, money, equipment, access to a kitchen, etc - resources not all of us are lucky enough to have. But that doesn't mean we don't know what we should be doing to prevent obesity.
I know if my husband and I get McFlurries at midnight, that leads to obesity. Will that cause obesity in and of itself? No. That's why we don't do it daily, weekly, or even monthly. But I don't appreciate these crazy studies on the news telling me to go ahead and hit the drive through at 11:30pm every night, as long as I eat a tangerine first.
I'll admit I read a decent amount of magazines (the elliptical can get boring!) and it's rare to find one that doesn't have some magic formula for how to get skinny. <b></b></b>
Kara wrote an interesting post on this a few weeks ago and I commented that I wanted to write an article for a magazine titled “A REVOLUTIONARY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT” 1. Put down fork 2. Put on sneakers 3. Move.
I know this is easy for me to say because I have time, I don't have kids, etc etc and I don't want to sound insensitive to the struggles people face on this journey, but my point is just lets stop looking for a miracle cure or quick fix and focus on helping people get healthy using the method that we all already know.
Thoughts?
I totally agree. Why is everyone looking for a quick fix? Why do people want to cut corners?
ReplyDeletePeople are willing to drop $40 on Hydroxycut at a drug store, or pay a crazy price per month for Jenny Craig pre-packaged meals, but won't invest in lean meat and fresh produce at the grocery store? And go outside and run a few times a week?
Eating tangerines alone won't make anyone lose weight. And even if there were magic ones that did did, they are not a replacement for exercise.
Not drowning is a really good plan!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the obesity. I mean I understand it's hard to lose weight and food is delicious, but fad diets are just terrifying. Why not eat healthy and move?
Yes, the magazines drive me nuts with their weight loss claims and their "get fit in ten minutes". Really? I'm pretty sure if that's all there is to it, there'd be no obesity in this world.
ReplyDeleteI'd just make a change to your weight loss plan, since we don't want to advocate eating disorders: "Put down the fatty foods, put on sneakers, move." Or even just, "Stop shopping in the potato chips aisle. Go for a run instead." :)
This reminds of a hilarious MadTV skit where they had this awesome way to lose weight and they put the information on a flyer. On the front it said: Eat less. On the back, it said: Move more.
ReplyDeleteThe girl thought it was too complicated and asked if there was some kind of pill she could take instead. ;-)
I think you don't have to be worried about not keeping up, that was an awesome run!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I just don't think many really obese people are reading health magazines, so those kind of things just mind f*ck with girls who are like 15lbs overweight (or over what they WANT to weigh). "Oh, I should be eating tangerines, no wonder I can't fit into those size 2 jeans!" Most obese people are willfully or woefully ignorant of what is healthy.
People don't want to exercise. It's hard. Eating is easy. I'm going to buy some tangerines and screw this whole running business. :)
ahhhh. I hope you know I was totally messing with you! You bust your butt with all of your running and working out! I was being soo sarcastic!
ReplyDeleteI try those 3 steps all the time, but if I put my fork down I usually end up picking somethign up with my fingers. I think I would have to adjust mine to STEP AWAY FROM THE PLATE!!!
You already know my thoughts on this one!!!
ReplyDeletegosh, you always make me smile!
ReplyDeleteI "LOL'ed" at "It's just eat tangerines." So simple. Newsflash! Oh wait no -- grapefruits. Oh wait no -- blueberries. Salmon. FLAX SEED. ACAI. AHHHHGHGHGHG!!!
I am proud to say I've never tried a fad diet. We runners know what's up. Just exercise, your heart will do the rest. I haven't really figured out the portion control element, but I do happily choose a hearty salad over a ginormous cheeseburger.
(p.s. you're rad for already fixing the word verification thing...and I hope that didn't seem rude, at least 60% of the blogs I have commented on have the verification).
Oh, Americans. We are always looking for a quick fix. I just have to shake my head at these diet pills that claim you can shed weight super fast - because honestly, if it were true? They'd be flying off the shelves.
ReplyDelete