Envy

Envy is one of the oldest documented emotions. It's what led Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. It caused Cain to kill Abel. It's the deadly sin that made Brad Pitt scream, "What's in the box?" As with most examples of envy in literature, those are all negative.

Envy does not always need to lead to murder our other disastrous ends. I believe that envy can be a healthy emotion, as long as it is properly harnessed into action and not just allowed to fester into sour grapes.

I envy Jillian Michaels' body, so I am working out for more hours every day and with a greater effort. I see people who run faster, so I train to become a better, faster runner. Envy spurs me to be a better person. I think it can do the same thing for everyone else, too

Rap

I am barely literate in rap music, but I can still appreciate when a rapper does something outside of the music industry to help others. Fat Joe has slimmed down to 360 pounds, from a high of 460. He is teaming up with Newark mayor Cory Booker to encourage kids to move more.
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“I was just a kid myself, dealing with childhood obesity,” says Joseph (Fat Joe) Cartagena, who realized his oversized persona was killing him after six friends died prematurely from obesity-related illnesses since 2000. They included fellow NYC artist Big Pun, who had a fatal heart attack at 28.

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This is part of a larger movement that is being pushed by Michelle Obama. I'm a bit jealous of these programs. I wish someone had modeled being active to me when I was a kid.

Update: Cory Booker has loaded videos of this event to Youtube.

Trainer

For Christmas, I received a Bell bike trainer. It's one of the best gifts I have ever received. So far this year, I've used it for over five hours. That doesn't even count the two hours that I used it between Christmas and New Year's. Since I unpacked it, I have burned about 4,000 calories on the trainer while watching TV, reading and checking my twitter accounts. It has also improved my aerobic capacity during the winter when I usually see a drop in all of my physical fitness. I believe the reason I'm already running 5Ks at the same pace I ran last April is because of the time I've put in on the trainer. It makes me feel better on the days that I just can't get up the motivation to go outside and run. I know that I'm not losing a day of activity, I'm cross-training. I will continue to use the trainer over the next few months and will continue to run a 5K every week or so to see if my time improves, slows down or remains the same. I really hope that it helps it to improve, because that will give me a great workout option for days when I don't want to leave the house.

Calories

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This is the simple fact. No matter how you get to the point of burning more calories than you consume, it still boils down to "Eat Less and Exercise" Even the people who have surgery to lose weight are still following the "eat less and exercise" plan. Yes, the surgery makes it impossible for them to do anything other than eat less, but that's still what's causing their weight loss.

The basic math for weight loss is a deficit of 3,500 calories equals a loss of one pound of fat. It's not exactly that amount, and there are hints that a thin person may be able to lose more weight with a smaller deficit because they're losing lean with the fat. In general, most people are trying to lose the fat, not the lean, so the 3,500 calorie figure is a good one to use. This deficit can be reached via eating fewer calories, exercising more or a combination of both. If you can find 500 calories to easily cut from your daily diet, you can lose a pound a week without much effort. That's two 20 ounce bottles of Cherry Coke.

I don't consume many empty calories. I rarely drink soda or alcohol. In fact, I don't drink many calories at all. It's something I stopped doing years ago when I was trying to lose some weight. It really worked. Drinking doesn't fill you up like solid food, so drinking calories adds to your daily caloric intake, but doesn't keep you satisfied until the next meal. Milk is the exception to this rule, and that's because of the protein. Yes, milk has sugar, but only natural sugar, not added like in soda. If you drink fat-free milk, it is not empty calories. (That link will take you to the dieting comic "Empty Calories." It's like "Cathy," only less screeching and funny.)

There are many other empty calories that we all consume. The key is to limit them to rare occasions so they're not adding up to weight gain.

Fast Food

When I was a kid, going to fast food restaurants was a treat. It was a rare occurrence and usually involved some kind of coupon. It was much cheaper for my mother to feed a family of four at home with meatloaf and tater tots than it was to take us all to Hardee's. My father wasn't worried about the cost as much as he was about the taste. He hated how crappy most fast food tasted. I was a kid, so my mom's reasons made more sense to me. I understood not having money, but couldn't understand how anyone could dislike fast food.


Once I became a teenager, I was able to buy my own fast food and the introduction of value meals seemed to coincide. A meal at McDonald's went from about $5 down to $3. I was a very active teenager, so I could indulge in all the fat and calories and not worry about gaining weight. Biking a few miles up and down hills every day will help you burn them off.



When I worked at Burger King, I would eat a Whopper with cheese and bacon, onion rings and a shake on the days I worked eight hours. The work of standing and running around was probably enough to burn that 2,000 calorie meal off, and I was still biking to work.

I'm now an adult, and rarely eat fast food. If I do, it's from a sandwich place like Subway, Potbelly or Jimmy John's. Part of that is because I don't eat meat, but even when I did, the taste and fat content of most fast food was not appealing. Even thinking about it right now kind of turns my stomach. I won't even get started on the idea of Burger King delivery.


















I heard someone complain that they spent thousands of dollars with a personal trainer, but didn't see any results. Turns out, they didn't do any cardio on their own and continued to eat fast food for most of their meals. I said that to lose weight you should avoid fast food restaurants. That's a very simplistic way of looking at it, but for most people, that's doable and understandable. Unless you're willing to put in some research time to find out what items are low calorie and heart healthy, you should just avoid fast food burger joints.

Best advice ever

While looking for articles about how women hate their thighs more than any other body part, I found an article about resolutions. I am in the minority. I don't hate my thighs at all. They're not even on my list of body parts I dislike. I wonder why that is.

The article grabbed me because of it's sub-heading:

Don't fear resolutions or dread the January fitness crunch. Just make yourself one simple promise in 2012

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Now here’s what you need to know about me. I was always chosen last in gym class. I can’t open a jar of pickles without assistance. I don’t train for marathons. I will never be on the cover of a magazine, Valerie Bertinelli-style, flaunting my abs. I have a body that’s over 40 and has birthed two children, and looks it. And many days, I don’t want to get out of bed.

Good health should not be reserved for the perky sporty types. Screw the jocks. Almost everybody, of every age and fitness level, can afford a half-hour a day. You can.
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You really should read the entire article. It's really well-written and has a great message.

My Blog

I think I need to read my own blog more often. I find that I haven't been taking it to heart. I have been working out consistently since I got off my crutches in October. I had a lot of sloth to overcome, and a little bit of weight gain, too. I have overcome the sloth. I've been able to run 5K in 32 minutes, which is only one second slower than the race I ran last April. So, actually, I'm about three months ahead of where I was last year. I'm also much stronger than I was last year. Or ever, for that matter. I am now able to do a push-up. Straight back and on my toes, not my knees. As a woman, that is a really big accomplishment. Soon, I will be able to do a pull-up.

Unfortunately, I tend to focus on the fact that the number on the scale is not moving. I know all about muscle weighing more than fat and that I'm building muscle and losing fat. I truly believe that and understand it intellectually but taking that and making it my gut reaction is difficult. I want to see the small number on the scale that I've had as an adult. The adult who achieved that small number was smoking a pack a day and couldn't run to catch a train. She was skinny-fat and horribly inactive. I am stronger and healthier than I was when I was at that small number. I need to keep reminding myself of that.

I don't think I'm alone in this negative thinking. In fact, I know I'm not alone. I've heard women who are very active complain about their bodies or their weight. I've seen tabloids make fun of women who dare have any cellulite, even if they're a size two. I've seen all the posts about Marilyn Monroe's thighs, but listened to the posters complain about their own thighs. We as women need to read and believe the Nike ad I posted yesterday. We are more than the measurements.