The Next Step

After about six months of working out with my trainer, two days a week, I felt much better psychologically. Stress seemed to be less and my sleeping patterns were improved. I have never really had much trouble with sleep, but I was going to bed a bit earlier and feeling more refreshed than usual in the mornings. I think the exercise made me tired at bedtime. And I wasn't really experiencing any pain. After that first day, it seemed to be the right amount of the "good hurt" and none of the scary hurting. I was feeling good.

I was also stronger. It was subtle, but I was. And I know my abilities were better in the cardio realm. For example, my daughter takes ballet in town and the studio is in an old building, up this steep set of stairs that I would refer to as "The Steps of Doom."

Here they are! The dreaded "Steps of Doom."

A few years ago, when my daughter started ballet, these things were bad, but I had gotten to the point where I'd look upon these with shear dread. And, as my son, who is two years older than his sister, grew to the age where I could send him up to get her, you can better believe I sat in the car whenever possible.

But, within two months, those steps were not even a thought to me. I go up and down them twice a week now and I don't even think about it and the other day, I actually trotted up. A TROT.

It's a big deal.

So there was that. Kara, bless her heart, took my measurements in June and even she seemed disappointed and shocked that there was no change. Nada. I thought, well, I'll go to my doctor and have my labs done. During this time, my blood pressure started creeping up and this was like the last straw! I thought that would be the one thing that would change and it got WORSE! The HELL???

I went to my doctor and got labs and the results were nothing. No change.

I joked that she'd say, "Hmmm, I think I need to recommend the bacon and cigarette diet for you."

It was then that I realized that all the bullshit people write in articles are probably meant to be motivating, but the changes that everyone said I'd see IMMEDIATELY: weight loss, losing inches (because you're gaining MUSCLE), lower bp, lower everything. It was not going to happen seeing a trainer twice a week. I know I had made some gains, but without seeing the data, I ain't gonna lie, I was pretty discouraged. My doctor, who had lowered one of my meds, made me go back up. Kara looked at my labs and her reaction was, "It's not that bad." And, "These numbers tell me you need to do more cardio."

So, I stepped it up.

I started going to the gym on the other days and focused on cardio. I even started running/walking on the treadmill. I wear a heart monitor and went from burning about 1,000 calories a week with my training sessions to about 2200-2500 a week.

We are NOT talking about running marathons here. I still don't like running all that much. I still can't run out in NATURE for more than a minute or two. Things hurt. We are not talking about anything remotely what other people see as "normal cardio" or whatever. I don't even know if I can get there. But I made that cardio happen.

And things started to change. SLOWLY and to regular people, not enough to say, I NEED TO DO WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Not in terms of "fat just melting off" or like that. But to me, needing to celebrate ANYTHING...Pretty significantly, in my opinion.

So...

Blood pressure has dropped (with still taking the upped medication). But, I like those numbers and my doctor says that if I keep it up, I could go down to one medication for that.

And, my weight shifted. Without changing the eating, I dropped about five pounds.

Ok, so nothing that will get me a book deal, but OH MY GOD, after all that, it was a triumph to see a shift.

Let's face it, I'm not shooting for model status here. I'm simply trying to figure out what I can do to improve my health and this little tiny sliver of change was a big deal to me.

Now, I've consistently set time to exercise (not just a leisure walk) 4-5 times a week for the past two months and counting. This is unprecedented in my life. UNPRECEDENTED. I am not kidding.

And now, Kara and I are talking about the next step...DIET.