On balance

Here’s another thing that is quite cool. Part of my dynamic warmup (see “On stretching”) every day is a set of ten knee hugs. Simple enough... you hug one knee to your chest while standing, then drop that knee taking a step forward, and hug the other one. Funny thing is that when I first started with Fitness Together, my body was so out of balance that I often had to reach out with one hand to touch the wall, to stay straight upright.

No longer true. Now I can stand easily, because my legs are stronger and my body is re-finding its center of gravity.

It’s fun to have lost a bunch of weight, to be so close to my personal target weight and not even yet halfway through the program. But it’s these little things - like finding my balance literally and metaphorically - that are starting to add up, and make me realize that this is a life change, not just a change of pants size.

On breathing

Another part of exercise that seems obvious, but isn’t... when I started working out, I found myself often holding my breath during exertion. Heavy weight or big sprint? Somehow my body thought it logical to take a breath and hold it until the strain was over.

The trainers have taught me to breathe deeply with every exertion. Every time I push up the barbell, exhale. During a sprint on the treadmill, deep breaths. At first it felt like too much, like I was hyperventilating, but as I’ve learned to slow down during repetitions (keep your heart rate high, but don’t hurry through it), it’s become more natural.

The ‘why’ is simple: more oxygen = better for my body. No surprise there. But there’s an added benefit. The more oxygen I get flowing, the harder I can push my body. And the harder I push my body, the more calories I burn and benefit I get from each workout.

Having an in-body experience

May 15 was the 4 week anniversary of my start date...

Weight: from 191, down to 175 lbs
Waistline: down 2.5 inches
and even more importantly...
Resting heart rate: from 83, down to 75 beats per minute

Who is this person in my running shoes?

Woke up Saturday and felt drained from the long week of traveling to the Chicago trade show. So I went for a three mile run... and felt much better.

This would never, ever, ever (and my wife adds one more "ever") have happened a month ago.

Fresh Food Forever

Somewhere in the back of my mind I always figured that nutrition labels on food were just about liability. After all, litigation and the lottery have become the New American Dreams, so nutrition labels are probably written by teams of liability strategists, to cover food makers' backsides from class action lawsuits.

Although there are certainly people at the FDA worried about the flab-factor of many Americans, at the end of the day, it's pretty clear that nutrition labels are necessary because we've decided that food preparation is a chore rather than a pleasure. That the food which requires the least effort and least cost is "best" for our lives. So we outsource what we put into our mouths, to people we've never met. If we're going to do this, a food label is pretty handy, as is an ingredients list.

But lately I have been meeting more and more Chattanoogans - like Julian - who are trying to build their lives around making people healthier (and, dare I say it, happier!). Like John Sweet of Niedlovs Breadworks (his breads have 4-6 ingredients and actually taste like bread... instead of additives), and Erik Niel whose glorious fresh fish dishes are posted daily on the blackboard at Easy Seafood, and the Keeners of Sequatchie Cove Farms, whose food is part of a very natural food chain that begins with sunlight and ends with delicious eggs, produce and meat.

These days I am eating out of a can or a frozen cardboard box less than ever before in my life, and as a result, I don't have to squint to read the fine print on food labels. As an added benefit, I am also building relationships with people who make my food. And enjoying not only health benefits but also flavors that they've created... which are better than what I could get from a food processing plant halfway across the country.

Just the spring rolls, please

Was in Chicago all week at a trade show, and every evening went to great restaurants with the company and our clients. Places like Smith & Wollensky, Bin 36, and two great fusion restaurants. Most fusion cuisine is marketing fluff, but these were nice blends of spice and subtlety - Le Colonial (French/Vietnamese) and Vermillion (Indian/ Spanish).

My point? Eating the right serving-size portions was tough, because of the variety of delicious options on offer. And although I admit to having more my allotted 3 oz glass of red wine at a couple of these shindigs, I found that it really was possible to eat right - thanks to a month of good practice. If I hadn't had a solid month under my belt, I shudder to think of the overindulgence.

The trick, I found, was that I could get great flavors without bulking up on portions by ordering two appetizers only... and if I had an entree I made sure it was fish or lean meat, with lots of good green stuff to eat on the side.

On stretching

Here's another advantage that you wouldn't get at the gym... after each resistance workout and before the 15-20 min of cardio exercise, the trainer stretches me out. Five different stretches for legs and four for back and arms, to loosen up the muscles we've just put through the ringer.

Why not a full stretching before the workout? Despite what we all heard growing up in gym class, stretching cold muscles before an intense workout does not loosen them up, but actually stresses them and can even tear them, causing you to become fatigued quicker and get less benefit.

It's much better to warm up jogging and go through some dynamic stretches: at the beginning of each time at Fitness Together I start with 5 minutes on the treadmill, then go through a series of hugging my knees to my chest, forward and lateral lunges, rotating my arms at the shoulder, and sometimes jumping jacks. This gets my heart rate up and my muscles ready to be worked.

And then the big stretching-out at the end has two purposes (I asked Jonathan for the details). First, when you strain muscles, lactic acid builds up in them, which is why you get sore. The trainers stretch my body in ways that are is sure to hit each muscle group that we exercised, so the lactic acid gets released. Meaning I'm not so sore the next day. Second, it helps improve flexibility - which is important not just so you can be 'bendy' but because flexibility is related to balance. And as I get older, I want to keep as much control over my balance as possible.