On January 1st I declared: January diet? Nope, I bought bigger clothes.
Skipping a diet does not mean that I’m not concerned about my health or fitness. I’m just no longer fixated on being “skinny.” More specifically, I’m not interested in targeting a number on a scale that requires me to diet year-long to stay there.
I intend to CONTINUE to work out and eat right. With that, I plan to write a Fitness Friday blog post for a couple of weeks to stay in touch with you about how this new found liberation is going. I’ll rely on you to let me know if this is a series to continue or to adapt along the way.
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Scale? What scale?
For four, maybe five, years I have weighed myself daily.Yep. I would get up, drink my coffee, take care of business (if you know what I mean) and then strip down for the weigh-in before heading out for my morning workout. New in 2011? I’m not weighing in daily.
You know how it feels? AWESOME.
I have two questions for you. When you weigh yourself
1. Do you have a happier day if the scale gave you what you wanted?
2. Do you feel worse about yourself when the scale disappoints you?
I was guilty of both. I couldn’t believe how my daily weigh-in could set my mood for the day. It’s freeing to have no idea how much I weigh every. single. day.
What I really care about is maintaining my current level of health and fitness. My assertion is that with healthy eating — which includes indulgences because I am not about deprivation — and moderate exercise, I can do it.
I will weigh myself once a month, midpoint of my menstrual cycle because, folks, my body is crazy for two weeks each month. (Damn you, peri-menopause!)
Weekly Exercise
This is my last week of “down time” from training. Yep, January 10 is 12-weeks out from the More® Magazine | Fitness® Magazine Women’s Half-Marathon. My fitness goals October – December were to work out a least four times a week, targeting at least 30 minutes. Some weeks went better than others. It was a nice break after training for half-marathons January – September last year.
This week I picked things up just a bit:
Saturday: 45 minute run outside
Sunday: 30 minute circuit training*
Monday: 35 minute treadmill run
Tuesday: 35 minute circuit training
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: 40 minute run along the waterfront in San Francisco
Friday: OFF
*Circuit training, for me, usually consists of 10 minutes on the elliptical, followed by two weight training exercises, then 10 minutes of treadmill running, two more weight training exercises, etc.
So there you have it, my transitional week from down time to half-marathon training. Moderate exercise, in my book.
FITNESS FRIDAY FEEDBACK: I would love to hear your thoughts on daily weighing or scales in general. Please share!
