Renovating Kaeti

I am a master of excuses. If there was an award for lame justifications, I would win (or at least come in second).* Take this week for example:

Me: I should run today. But I don’t know if I’ll have enough time.

S: Well, you have over an hour. You’ll run for, what, 30 minutes?

Me: Yeah, but then I have to shower, get ready and stuff. And by the time I leave I’ll be cutting it close.

S: If you go now, you’ll have plenty of time.

Me: I guess. But it’ll take me a while to get dressed and put on my shoes. Sigh. It is really nice out. I’ll bet tomorrow it will be really gross outside, just to spite me.

S: Actually it’s supposed to be even nicer.

Me: Ohhh, well in that case, maybe I’ll just run Wednesday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Thursday.

Cut to Wednesday, and you’ll find me preparing the “why I can’t go running today” diatribe in my head:

I don’t have time. I need to get some work done. I should probably pluck my eyebrows. The American Idol results show is on the teevee. Oh man, I love Neil Diamond. I bet Neil Diamond doesn’t have to run. He was just born svelte. …

So in an effort to hit the pause button on this repeating track of excuses, I have a few tried-and-true techniques:

• Remind myself that I probably won’t regret going, but will definitely regret it if I don’t.
• Weigh the activities that stand to replace exercise (or eating well), and evaluate what actually matches my values. In other words, which is more important: a healthy body and balanced mind or getting lost in Jason Castro’s eyes?
• Run my excuses by a trusted friend, and realize how ridiculous I sound when said excuses are vocalized.
• Put my running/yoga clothes on — it’s hard to talk myself out of an activity once I’ve put in the effort to get dressed.
• Bully myself. I’m not condoning a bunch of negative self talk, but sometimes a little cajoling is helpful. C’mon K Slice, cowboy up.**
• Think about my longterm goals instead of giving in to the temporary satisfaction of procrastination.

If you’re interested in more inspiration about how to get your butt from couch to anywhere but the couch, check out these articles. This is the segment of the program that I like to call Motivational Procrastination:

• Ready, Set, Go! (November 2006)
• All Over It: How to Eliminate Goal-Blocking Obstacles for Good (April 2008)
• What’s Stopping You From Getting Started (from Lifehack)
• Can You Sacrifice Temporary Pleasure for Longterm Goals? (from PickTheBrain)
• 31 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise (from Zen Habits)

So what are your sure-fire ways to bust through excuses? I definitely need some help in this department, because even my “tried and true” methods can falter when a Very Important Activity comes up (like the premiere of a particularly terrible reality TV show or the release of a new flavor of Fruit Gushers,*** for example).

**Yes, I refer to myself as K Slice.

***Just kidding about the Gushers. Maybe.

After taking almost a full week off of running (there was an attempted run last Wednesday, but it’s best we don’t even talk about it), I went out last night feeling recharged and ready to go.

The pros: It was my first run in over a month with no pain. I felt comfortable. Gave me a chance to clear my head after a weird week.

The cons: I was dehydrated. It was short. Right calf started hurting about an hour after the run, and is still sore today.

This is like the injury that wouldn’t leave. It has hunkered down in my calf, and just when I think it’s better, I wake up feeling like my leg is attached to my body with a bungee cord. I’ve stretched, stretched some more, done my calf raises, taken a week off running and even cried bitter, bitter tears taken time to reflect on any sloppy running habits. Still, nothing seems to help, which leaves me to conclude that I have one of these conditions:

• Some sort of flesh-eating bacteria is noshing on my leg muscles in a very localized and persistent way
• One leg has recently grown longer or shorter than the other, creating all sorts of muscle imbalances and corresponding calf strains
• Or, I have a severe sleepwalking disorder and whilst roaming at night I spend a lot of time wearing high heels.*

In the highly unlikely case that it’s actually something I didn’t mention above, I’m going to keep trucking along slowly and surely. Following Matt Fitzgerald’s advice in Back in the Game, I’m going to work diligently to rehab this nagging pain before it becomes a chronic nuisance. As he says:

Your injury is not fully healed when the pain goes away. The healing process is truly complete only when the affected muscle or joint is back to full strength, but this may never happen if you don’t actively work on strengthening it.

While I’m at it, here are some sources to check out if you’re interested in avoiding injury, recovering from injury or injuring others:

• Active Recovery by Kara Douglass Thom
• An Ounce of Prevention (Cool Running)
• Injury tips and articles at Runners Lounge
• Some riveting charts and graphs at the Virtual Sports Injury Clinic

Yes I realize that I haven’t actually completed my first 5K yet, and that this whole thing might need to be revisited if I, say, collapse into a puddle of blood, sweat and tears¹ after getting only 400 meters into the race. In that case, this training plan will be revised immediately to create a more suitable schedule involving Hostess Fruit Pies, America’s Best Dance Crew marathons and excessive wallowing.

I’ve drawn up a seven week plan (starting this Sunday) to get me ready for the Get in Gear 10k. It’s a mash-up of Hal Higdon’s program, Cool Running’s schedule and my own insanity. While I was making the chart, I realized that it was bo-ring and decided to add pictures of rewards I would get after completing a week. So I did what well-meaning high school teachers and corporate PowerPoint specialists² have been doing for decades — I spiced it up with some Clipart. Which explains why, instead of giving myself “awesome” things like a Garmin or a massage, I get to harass city employees and foster illegal pets.

In any case, here’s the plan (click to enlarge). Wish me luck.

Over the past few months, I’ve learned a lot — about myself, about fitness, and about the idiosyncrasies of putting those two together. So in honor of Runner’s Lounge “If I Knew Then What I Know Now” Take It and Run Thursday (a day late), here are some of the lessons I’ve learned:

1. Dark running tights are my friend. Aforementioned Mizuno running capris? They’re comfortable, don’t ride up anywhere they shouldn’t, keep me cool. Unfortunately, the light-gray color shows off just how much I’m sweating. Needless to say, when I finished my miles last night it might have looked like I’d peed in my pants.

2. The first mile is always hard. I read this “Natural Law of Running” at Runner’s Lounge and wholeheartedly agree. I might modify it a bit, though, to say, “Beginning is always hard.” Eating healthy? It’s tricky when you’re first starting out, but it gets easier and eventually it becomes downright fun. Just starting to exercise? Those first few weeks (and months) are tough. I think everybody can attest to this, whether you’re just starting out or getting back into peak shape after a long hiatus. But after getting past that initial hump, you start to feel the positive changes, momentum builds and it gets easier.

3. Make sure your workout clothes fit before you take them for a run/workout. I had this one pair of pants, and they fit just fine when I was walking around the house. When I ran in them, however, I was pulling them up from my ankles every five seconds (OK, I may be exaggerating a bit, but it was pretty bad). Now I test run all my clothes inside and carry a safety pin with me just in case.

4. Change your workout music/route/routine regularly. If I run the same loop over and over again, my body will start to automatically get tired at the same place I’ve gotten tired during previous runs. The same goes for music — hearing certain songs will trigger physical responses. To get around these mental blocks I need variety to keep my mind and body guessing.

5. Don’t go it alone. During the first months of my life overhaul, I felt pretty isolated. Honestly, it seemed like I was sooo far behind everyone else that I would just embarrass myself it I reached out for support or advice. I didn’t want to join a running club because I was convinced that I would be too slow/fat/inexperienced. I didn’t want to talk about the changes I was making because that would mean owning up to the, in my mind shameful, fact that I was incredibly unhealthy. Thank God I’ve gotten over that. Now, I love having the support of my running club (and friends and family and coworkers), and I talk about my successes, challenges and setbacks a lot. Incessantly, even.

6. Shin splints aren’t inevitable. Neither is pain. For a long time I thought that pain is just part of running. Turns out that the right shoes make a huge difference. So does building up your mileage and speed slowly. Now when I feel pain, I pay attention, make the necessary adjustments and take time off if I need too. I’ve also started to recognize the difference between the DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) and pain related to my running biomechanics.

7. Dieting is for chumps. Maybe it works for some people, but I definitely couldn’t maintain a restricted eating regimen for the long haul. Why diet when, instead, you can eat an abundant amount of delicious, satisfying food? When my focus was on eliminating foods from my diet, I was miserable. These days, I focus on how much I’ve added to my cooking repertoire and don’t waste time counting calories. Like I said here, your body does a perfectly good job of adjusting to your caloric intake if you’re fueling it with fresh, whole foods.

These are just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head, and I’m sure there are many more lessons to be learned down the road. When you look back at where you’ve been, what have you learned? What would you do differently?

I’d like to say that I entered into this whole world of health and fitness for entirely altruistic reasons — because it’s a better way to live, in and of itself. But honestly, weight loss was a big motivator for me.

Somehow during college I managed to accidentally gain upward of 60 pounds. Seriously, I don’t know what happened! (Er, I guess there were a few pizzas, trips to fast-food joints and sleepless nights thrown in there.) I was a classic case of denial, telling myself it wasn’t that bad and that I would get healthy after college, you know, when I had “more time.” Ha.

Well, long story short, I did make some important changes after college, and in the past nine months have been steadily losing weight and reclaiming balance in my body and life. But in the last month or so, I’ve kind of hit a wall. Blame the holidays or inertia or erratic eating, all I know is that my body has stopped shedding fat. And in talking to my friends and reading many of your blogs, I know that a lot of you have experienced the same thing.

So I did a little digging, and here’s a list of five reasons that weight loss can stall. This is by no means a comprehensive list, so be sure to comment and weigh in with your thoughts. (I didn’t even try to make that pun. I swear it was an accident.)

1. You’re not weight training. Weight training increases mitochondria, our cells’ calorie-burning powerhouses. So basically, more muscle means that your body is naturally burning more fat just by existing. Gina DeMillo Wagner explains it here. This is an area where I am oh-so guilty. Taking a cue from those of you with balanced fitness programs, I’m trying to work in some more resistance training.
2. You body has adapted to your fitness routine. Routine isn’t always bad — in fact, it can be eseential — but ruts can definitely derail your path to weight loss. Check out “Spring-Clean Your Routine” and investigate some of the resources listed. If your body has adapted to your same-old, same-old regimen, you need to mix it up to start seeing results again.
3. Inflammation. In “How Exercise Heals,” Susan Gaines writes: “Inflammation can be measured by the presence of C-reactive protein (CRP), and it flares when your immune system is in a state of chronic reaction. Messenger molecules of the immune system, called cytokines, are fired up by poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. A regular, moderate exercise program can sharply reduce CRP, according to a 2002 study published in Epidemiology.” What does all of that mean? Inflammation causes our bodies to hold onto extra weight. Experts like doctors Mark Hyman and Elson Haas attribute our chronic inflammation to a diet loaded with processed food and our increasingly stressful lifestyles. Food intolerances and allergies also play a huge role in inflammation, so if you suspect that you have food sensitivities, it may be worth it to try out a detox/elimination diet like the one described in The UltraSimple Diet.
4. You’re not eating enough. So many people are consumed by cutting calories and monitoring their food intake that they end up sabotaging their weight loss. If you’re eating less than your basal metabolic rate (i.e., the amount of calories you would burn if you spent all day in bed) your metabolism will slow down. I know y’all have heard this before, but it bears repeating. Our bodies function best when we fuel them with fresh, natural, whole foods, and worry more about the nutrient value and less about the caloric impact. Our bodies have an amazing capacity to regulate and adjust to the amount we eat if we’re eating quality food and staying active.
5. You’re working against your body, not with it. If you’re pushing yourself too hard in the gym, trying to trick your body with less-than-satisfying “diet” foods, or aiming for an ideal weight that is downright unhealthy, your weight loss will be inconsistent. And losing weight too quickly will just slow you down in the long run. The healthy, sustainable way to weight loss is not The Biggest Loser, it’s retraining your body to function as efficiently as possible. If you give your body whole foods and regular activity, it’s amazing how willing it is to work with you to get to a healthy weight.

Just writing these out has reminded me of some things I need to work on (a balanced fitness program, avoiding processed flours and sugar, accepting the speed at which my body is able to change, etc).

Here are some other great resources to check out:

Weight-Loss Rules to Rethink

The Simple Way to Slim

Maximize Your Metabolism

Spring-Clean Your Routine

Weight Loss 101

I spent way too many hours trying to find research on exercise motivation today. Specifically, how goals and a little competition can help fuel a person’s fitness endeavors. Le sigh. Sometimes, no matter how much of an Internet detective I think I am, Google just can’t give me what I need.

But, there’s a silver lining. My search-engine failure gave me the idea for today’s Friday Favorites! So without further ado, Here’s a list of some of the motivators that keep me going, and help me push past inertia:

1. New workout clothes or shoes. This normally wouldn’t be No. 1 on my list of motivators, but it’s on my mind because all the running and sporting-goods stores are clearing out last year’s clothes to make room for the new season, and we all know that means sales! Having new threads always gives me a boost, especially when I know that I only paid a small fraction of what those Mizuno running capris normally cost.
2. Putting on workout clothes. When I first started running, one of my friends gave me an invaluable piece of advice about getting my butt out the door on a daily basis. When I come home from a long day, tired and cranky and craving chocolate more than a run, the very first thing I do is put on my running clothes. Once I have my clothes and shoes on, I usually think, “Well I’m dressed, so I may as well…” Seriously, this has worked more times than I can count.
3. Community support. When my running program started ambling a bit, I jumped online and joined a running clinic through the Running Room. Having the built-in support of a running club has helped me keep my training on track. And while the real-life running partners have been amazing, I also love the help and support that comes with online running forums and blogs (see links on the right).
4. A little friendly competition. Whether it’s the person running next to me at the gym, or the person I’ve just got to pass before the finish line, a little competition will definitely give me an extra push. I especially like competing against my own times. The key here is to not get too carried away, and to make sure you’re not forgetting fitness for the fleeting pleasure of total domination. Ahem.
5. Booking an event. Once you get that race registration in, there’s no turning back (well, I guess there could be, but then you’d be a total wimp going back on an important commitment to yourself). My first event? The 100 percent Irish for a Day 5K on March 15. I hope this means there’ll be beer afterward. Which brings me to No. 6…
6. Beer. No, I’m only kidding. But it is Friday, which means I’m off to go embrace my adopted Irish heritage pursue a lifestyle of health and happiness!

In all seriousness, I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and stays motivated — even in this oh-so-dreary month of February.

If you’re new to my blog, welcome! You can read more about me here or in my first post “Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?“

It’s amazing how running inside spoils your legs. I ran outside on Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and I am definitely feeling it today.

Despite my minor soreness, though, it was great to get back to the lake. Running outside is so much more rewarding than putting in 40 minutes on the treadmill. In Minnesota, the runners who stay outside for the winter are part of a special, secret club (well, not really secret, because we’re the ones that always garner a lot of scornful comments like “Are those people crazy or something??”). We’re the proud few who trudge around the lake in ice, snow, sleet and 40-below wind chills (my eyes actually froze shut the other week). There are a lot of understanding smiles and knowing nods exchanged when crossing paths with other winter runners. It’s all very . . . heartwarming.

At least, it usually is. During my running clinic on Saturday, we were making our way around the lake and came up to a man running so slow that he was barely picking his feet off the ground. I’m no speed-demon myself, and we were clocking somewhere around a 12-minute-mile pace, so you can imagine just how slow he was going. Now all of this is fine and good, and I’m the first one to proselytize about the importance of doing everything at your individual level. So we passed him, gave him a friendly nod (which was not returned) and kept trudging along.

Then, with no warning, he comes barreling between my running partner and I, sending us scattering. And despite almost knocking us to the ground, he offers no acknowledgement whatsoever. Once he is about 10 meters ahead of us on the path, he resumes his snail’s pace forcing us to pass him again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Eventually, my friend looked over to me and said, “You know, he just doesn’t want to get passed by a couple of girls!” She was dead on. It’s like we were offending his prescribed world order: one where the girls finish last, and certainly don’t pass him — no matter how painfully slow he may be running. I believe this is what Vanilla at Half-Fast refers to as “getting chicked.” All in all, it made for an amusing (though somewhat awkward) run.

Anyway, this display of ego got me to thinking about how preconceived notions can hinder us in our many life pursuits. I talked about this idea a bit in this post — how definitions we carry around about ourselves can be awfully outdated and inaccurate (for example, thinking “I could never be an athlete,” when, in fact, you most definitely can be one). (A quick aside: There’s a great story coming up in our May issue about this exact topic.)

I think it was my preconceived notions about the fitness world and Those Who Are Fit that made me so reticent to the idea of exercise. I mean, how could there possibly be a place for my birthin’ hips in a sea of hard bodies rocking the spandex lifestyle? (Yes, apparently I based my preconceived notions on Bally commericals and my perennial favorite, Jane Fonda’s Complete Workout video.)

Right now the current preconceived notion I am fighting against is: There is no way on God’s green earth that I could ever — EVER — do a triathlon. But encouragement to sign up for my first sprint-distance tri is coming from all arenas of my life (and I mean all — even my financial planner is a triathlete). It’s got me thinking and weighing my options. And then dismissing the idea outright because it’s completely ridiculous, only to find it nagging at me again a few days later. But then I think that maybe I should focus on running this year. On the other hand, I’ve always been a multitasker, and this would give my training some much-needed variety. And round and round the indecision goes.

Any opinions or advice would be ever so appreciated!

I’ve never thought of myself as an athlete. I mean, you take one look at me and it’s obvious that I’m the “bookish” type. In addition to being a four-eyes, I spend my time doing ridiculously nerdy things: reading, the arts, (easy) crossword puzzles, attending Star Trek theme parties (just kidding about that last one).

The sports that I love (i.e., baseball, baseball and baseball) are much better when I’m observing them rather than actually playing them. While I certainly could do serious damage if someone handed me a bat, it most likely would be a result of it slipping out of my hands during a swing and knocking someone unconscious. Hypothetical situation, of course.

My point is that I’ve never identified with the jocks. They were the elite, the untouchables. Somehow I’d missed the memo (or the genes) allowing some to effortlessly join teams, squads and scrums. Even when I played basketball in junior high, I didn’t identify myself as an athlete. And I carried this outdated definition of myself around with me all the way through college.

Then, last summer, something shifted. I stumbled (literally) into running. It started with 15 seconds here and there, usually followed by about 15 minutes of recovery — trust me, it was not a pretty sight. But I reminded myself over and over again that I was already doing more than some 60 percent of Americans, and that something was better than nothing. So I kept going.

Day after day, I put on my running shoes, read everything I could get my hands on, customized a training program, and started to learn the lingo (fartlek? Seriously?).

After about three months of wheezing through intervals around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, I started to fall in love with running. If I didn’t run, it felt like something was missing from my day. I was able to run further, with a lower heart rate, than I’d ever gone before.

And I started to get annoyed when people (usually my mother) asked how “jogging” was going. Could you be more patronizing? I’d usually bite my tongue and respond “Running is great.” (John Bingham wrote a great column about the distinction in Runner’s World a few months back.) This minor (you might argue silly) irritation clued me into something, though: Somehow, mystery of all mysteries, I had become an athlete.

Now, I’m training for my first 5K, and rest assured I’ll bore you with the details as that progresses. Through this all, I’ve found that taking ownership of my sport keeps me moving toward my goals. What a huge difference it makes to declare that I am, in fact, a runner — no matter what my mom may call it (love you Mom!).

I recently started taking yoga at a studio in my neighborhood. During a class the other day, my teacher warned us about staking happiness on specific accomplishments. During one particularly difficult pose, he looked around at all of our constipated faces, and said, “You know, you can try your whole life to try to touch your foreheads to your toes … or, you could relax, smile and be happy where you are right now.”

There was a sort of communal sigh of relief (and you could hear it, what with our Ujjayi breath and all). It was such a liberating concept, especially as my heels have yet to touch the ground in downward dog, and my forward bends look more like bows compared with the limber types around me.

My teacher went on, saying that many times when we base our happiness and worth on reaching a certain goal (or pose or weight, for that matter), we achieve the goal only to realize that it doesn’t make us happy and we’re exactly where we started — dissatisfied, feeling “never good enough” and usually pretty crabby.

This isn’t to say that having goals or celebrating achievements isn’t important. It is. But I find that to truly revel in reaching my goals, I need to be coming from a place of acceptance and completeness — before I reach them. If I can’t love who I am at this weight, weighing 20 pounds less isn’t going to change that. In fact, when I start basing my progress on the numbers, it’s a struggle not to get addicted to them. Instead of focusing on feeling right in my body and being healthy, I just want that number on the scale to creep down (OK, if I’m being honest, plummet down). And when it does, I’m like a junkie: never satisfied, always looking for my next fix.

Getting trapped in this cycle exhausts me, and leaves me feeling terrible about myself. That’s exactly why, when I began to lose weight as a natural byproduct of the changes I was making (you can read about them here), I decided not to weigh myself regularly. I chose not to count calories. For some people, these measures may be important or useful, but for me they were a trap. When I started playing the numbers game — measuring every crumb I ate and viciously observing every tenth of a pound I lost — I didn’t have the energy or time to eat consciously or actually enjoy my workouts.

It’s hard not to get caught up in the “skinny is best” fervor that dominates so much of the health and fitness world. Thankfully, mainstream culture is finally starting to wrap its mind around the idea that fit does not equal thin. In fact, recent research suggests that overweight, physically active people age slower and reap more health benefits than their slimmer, couch-potato friends. So maybe by revising goals and expectations to focus on health measures rather than arbitrary numbers like weight and calories, we can find a much more sustainable and satisfying way to move forward.

This could mean anything from lowering your resting heart rate, to eating fresh, whole foods — rather than aiming for an idealistic pre-college weight or eating flavorless, low-calorie foods (Kristin Ohlson wrote a great article on why this doesn’t work, anyway). Measures like body-fat to lean-tissue ratios, VO2 max, heart rate and strength are all beneficial ways to gauge progress, but even these can become a distraction and end up sabotaging your momentum if you get too wrapped up in the numbers.

For me, a big part of this ongoing venture into health and fitness has required that I let go of my unrealistic expectations (seriously, who are these girls that run the treadmill at a six-minute mile pace??). Maybe, instead, I can take a deep breath and smile, look at how far I’ve come, and embrace who I am right now. And when I feel at ease in my life, I can find the energy I need to keep moving forward.

What do you think? Do the numbers help or hinder you? Have you ever been tempted to aim for unrealistic ideals?