Fit Bride, Part III: The daily grind

I'm checking in again, and trying not to be too boring or repetitive about the whole business... but it's true, we sort of are in the daily grind portion of the fitness program.

Yoga continues. Besides increasing my strength and flexibility, it's getting more fun too, probably because I'm not suffering the whole time!

In order to keep things interesting, I just got the class schedule for the downtown branch of my gym. It's two blocks from work, which is great, but unfortunately, the really good classes seem to be right in the middle of the work day.

Yeah, I haven't actually done it yet, but at least I'm in the contemplative phase. They seem to love spin classes there, which don't sound fun to me. In fact, the class description used the word pain--which doesn't seem like an enticing way to get people into your class. Also, I googled spin class images, and in all the pics (exhibit A above), people look pretty miserable. So if you've got a great reason to try it, I'm willing to listen. Otherwise, forget the spin class!

I've also learned that completely avoiding Kit Kats and other sweets completely is impossible. I'm allowing small amounts and trying not to over restrict. Otherwise, despite the holiday, the diet is on track. I'm super strict on weekdays, and then on weekends am much more flexible. (Fried chicken last Friday- yum). Still rocking the whole grains too. Popcorn is also a hero food!

Here are the results in graph format. (Thanks, FitDay.com) I should be super-pleased, since I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, but I guess I had this vision that once I got my act together, the weight would magically disappear. Well, this is the real world and things are working exactly how they should. And for that, I am grateful.

Fit Bride, Part II: It's all about the yoga!

I planned to hold myself accountable for fitness progress and pitfalls weekly. Because of the holiday, I didn't quite make it... but I'm checking in now.

So far, I've been sticking to the plan pretty well. I've been doing yoga about 3 times a week and doing cardio, well, not enough, but some!

I swear yoga is the best exercise for me. It changes my metabolism so that I burn more calories all the time, and my flexibility and mental health are improving too. The last time I did a big healthy push was in my second year of residency. I tried everything with very little success. I was working out and eating smaller portions, but I just seemed to bulk up muscle-wise. I added yoga, and dropped down to my pre-residency weight. So, I knew yoga worked for me, but it seemed too expensive for me to do sustainably-- until I joined a gym that had classes. Yay!

Here is a snippet from a review article (science geek alert) that I read,
"There is a need to have yoga better recognized by the health care community as a complement to conventional medical care. Over the last 10 years, a growing number of research studies have shown that the practice of Hatha Yoga can improve strength and flexibility, and may help control such physiological variables as blood pressure, respiration and heart rate, and metabolic rate to improve overall exercise capacity."

J Altern Complement Med. 2002 Dec;8(6):797-812.

Psychophysiologic effects of Hatha Yoga on musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary function: a literature review.

Raub JA.

In addition to the yoga, I've cut out simple carbs. It was hard to do initially, but you start to get used to it after a while. Whole grains can actually taste good, and I've learned to love Wheat Germ! I've increased my fiber from next to nothing to nearly 30 grams a day... no easy feat...

I've also cut down my processed sugar intake. This is so hard for me to do... Sometimes I just crave something sweet. I can't help it. So, I haven't been perfect on this, but I'm not binging on Kit Kats either ;) and hopefully I'll get there with baby steps.

I'm also using www.fitday.com where I can track every single thing I put in my mouth (if I wanted to) and all of my activity. It's a bit obsessive, and it sends me into a slightly anorexic freakout mode, so I use it sparingly...

The net effect is that I've dropped 4 lbs, in 2 weeks, healthily. I know it's better to only drop a half pound a week, but I'm just going with what happens and not depriving myself, so I feel ok with it. That's great, right? Well, in just the course of me changing my dietary habits and going to yoga, Mr. Chris managed to drop 10 lbs!!!

First of all, I'm jealous (and a little frustrated), but secondly, he doesn't need to lose any weight-- at all. So now I have to figure out a way to shrink myself while keeping the boy adequately fed. Sigh.