You Sit on a Throne of Lies!

As I may or may not have mentioned before (I can't remember and I'm too lazy to go back and look), one time when I was renewing my training sessions with Trainer when it was through the gym, they offered me some free sessions with a nutritionist.

Now you know how I love to eat almonds, but I have a penchant for any nut, really.  This nutritionist said that it was bad to mix different types of nuts in the same day, but in my defensiveness over the changes she wanted to make to my meals (which was my stubborness more than her being too far in left field), I forgot to ask her why.

I tried to look for a reason on the interwebs, but I didn't really see anything that answered my question.  It was mostly "nuts are good for you", "eat nuts in moderation because they're high in calories," and a litany of reasons WHY they're good for you.

I let it go, since I usually only had almonds anyway, but the other day I saw that the Canadian Diabetes Association would be having Joanne Lewis, a registered dietician, on their Twitter feed today, answering questions on diabetes and food.  I thought that this would be my perfect opportunity to get that nagging nut question straightened out.

At first she told me the same thing, that nuts are good for you but they're high in calories, and to eat them in moderation.  I replied that I knew that part, but I was just curious if there was another reason for a taboo on mixing types.  She replied again that there was no research supporting this!  All this time that I've been feeling guilty that I let a peanut slip into an almond day was unwarranted!  It is a relief.

Still, I can't say it's something that particularly worrisome because, although I do love my almonds, I have been pretty disciplined with them lately.  I'll only have one of those 100-calorie packs of them a day.  It shows too, because I've dropped to the lowest weight I have been in a long time, 124 lbs!

Beep Test!

Every so often, Trainer changes my cardio routine around to give a renewed shock to the system.  It works for resistance training, so of course it should work for cardio too.

What I have now is something called the "beep test".  To do this, one must run between two points (20 meters is the standard, according to Wikipedia), while listening to a series of pre-recorded beeps.  The idea is to start when you hear the first beep, and to make it to the other point before the next beep.  There are 21 levels, and these levels are broken down further into shuttles (7 in Level 1 to 16 in Level 21), so you can imagine that it starts off slowly, then increases in speed.

Trainer introduced me to the beep test on Thursday evening.  We had played a little squash and had done some of a new workout, so I was already a little bit tired, and I didn't do very well, getting to level 6, shuttle 5 (if I am remembering right). 

When I was preparing to do it on my own Friday night, I was worried I wasn't going to get a place with enough space, since the first time was in the group class studio at a different place, which is much bigger than the one at my gym.  There, we could set the points 22 of my steps apart from each other easily, and there is not enough room for that at my gym unless I use the training studio, and that isn't always feasible.

Anyhow, I thought I'd test out the group fitness studio at my gym, just in case, and I found that from one end to the other, long ways, it's 20 of my steps.  Not too far off!  I decided to go with it, and to stick with it in the future to keep it consistent, since I always do cardio on my own anyway.  I just hope that I won't have to fight for the space too often.  Friday nights are usually dead at my gym so I wasn't surprised the room was empty.  A couple of kids came in and did a mat drag for a few minutes and then left, but they weren't in my way.

I was also worried I wasn't going to be able to find a good beep track to use.  Trainer downloaded an app for his Android phone, but I couldn't find one in the Blackberry App world, so I went the You Tube to mp3 route, and saved this full version to my phone.  All set!

It's not an easy workout.  Sure, it starts out slowly and you get a few seconds of rest before the next beep goes off, but 6 or 7 levels in it starts to pick up and you're pretty out of breath.  In the end, I made it to Level 12, Shuttle 1 when the beep went off before I made it to the opposite side.  I considered doing another one after I did a little steady-state low intensity cardio to calm myself, but decided not to, and just did more bike and elliptical instead.  At that point my blood sugar felt a little low and I just didn't see myself going through another one.

I think I'll like it because it doesn't last as long as my interval workout, and I see it being relatively easier to measure progress, since all I have to do is try to get to higher levels.  Wish me luck!

Moment of bliss...aaaaaand it's gone.

Today I went to do a little shirt-shopping, as I have a fancy-pants work lunch and a meeting with a high-powered executive coming up this week, and I wanted something new to wear.

Now, anyone that knows me well knows that there is really nothing girly-girl about me, and that includes getting excited about shopping for clothes.  That's partly because nothing ever really fit well, and the "twins" kind of make trying on shirts a little difficult.  Now that I've shed my weight and the twins have "shrunk" a bit, I AM finding it a joy to bring smaller sizes into a fitting room and have them look like they're supposed to.

That being said, I tried on a nice shirt, but found it a little baggy.  In my mind, I thought I was wearing a size small, since that's what I'm buying most of my shirts in now.  I left the fitting room to look for an extra small, and was a little miffed not to find one.  Then it hit me:  I was fitting into extra-small!  Granted, it wasn't a skin-tight number, but the glee was still there.  I figured I could live with the size small I was wearing, and bought it.

Imagine my dismay when I inspected the shirt again and found that I bought a medium!  So not only did they not have it in extra-small, they didn't even have it in small!  Oh, I was crushed, and not even so much because I probably wouldn't have fit in the extra-small after all, but because I spent money on a shirt that really WAS too big.  Final sale too.

Moral of the story:  don't count your chickens before they hatch, or always check the size of the clothes you're buying.  Something like that.

Another Yummy Tea Alert!

Well, here we go with another "Yummy Tea Alert" post.  As you know I've taken to herbal teas, since there is caffeine in black, green, and white teas, and I try to stay away from it as much as possible.

Sometimes when I need a new box of tea for the office, I branch out and try something different.  Celestial Seasonings has a few teas that I've tried in the past, so I know that they're pretty dependable in the flavour department.  This one struck my fancy:



It's warm and spicy, since it has a little black pepper in it, along with cinnamon, chicory, carob, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  It's supposed to be their caffeine-free version of chai, and they say to drink it with milk and sugar.  I throw some Stevia in there and it's just lovely.

Downer Turned Upside-Down...er. And Squash!

Remember how I was worried that Trainer was going to leave the gym?  Well, it didn't end up being that way.  We still train together (thank goodness, because I partly keep him since I don't really have many other friends) and he still works through the same gym, but it's a sort of side arrangement.  Don't want to get into details, but it's mutually beneficial. 

On a side-note, he's teaching me how to play squash, which has been fun so far.  The only racquet sport I've played before this was badminton, and it's definitely different!  I even went so far as to go buy my own racquet (which I got at a very good price, since they were all half-price when I went) and a ball.  There are different balls that bounce at different speeds apparently, depending on how good you are at the game, but I bought a blue dot, which is good for beginners.  You're also better off wearing safety glasses when you're playing too, since the ball is kind of small, and I suppose I could see it flying in someone's face and doing a lot of damage.

I'm still figuring out the rules and the motions, but I'd like to stick with it and get more practice.  Only trouble is I don't have ready access to a court.  Trainer does, and he invites me when he has time, but it's not often.  I can rent a court at the community center in my city for pretty cheap, but I don't know anyone else who plays.  I should think about getting the squash membership the city offers, because I'll have access to leagues, lessons, and the courts whenever I want.

Something to think about! 

I have to be the laziest mofo ever! (Tower Climb Results)

Hey.

You'd think after posting and fretting about that United Way Toronto CN Tower stair climb back in August, that I'd be super excited to come back to say how I did!  But noooo, I had to be a lazy-ass and come back six months later!  I honestly don't know why I don't come to this blog more often, because I do enjoy updating it!  I figured instead of leaving it hanging out of shame over how long it has been, that instead I'd cop about about my procrastination, and then carry on!

Anyhow, I'm sure you're just clamouring to know my result from the climb.  My time was twenty-two minutes, seventeen seconds (00:22:17)!!  I hoped to be closer to twenty minutes even, but I was still happy about my time.  My cousin went the day after I did, and made it in forty-six minutes, but she had less preparation than I did.

I woke up at 4:00 in the morning (almost ready to scrap the whole thing!) so I could get there early, but by the time I got through the check-in line at the convention center and the line where they make you wait because they only let so many people in at a time, it was close to 7:30.  The climb itself was relatively easy on me.  My legs and back didn't hurt at all, even though I heard from people that those were their main complaints.  The only thing was that I was winded, which isn't surprising.  I still managed to have enough energy to run up a few flights here and there near the end, and to run on my way back from the tower to the convention center to check my time!  Once I got to the top, they were handing out Gatorade and water, and they let you stay at the top as long as you liked, so I got some water and took a walk around the observation deck to see the nicest sunrise.  It really was beautiful to be practically on top of the world, but it was also a little cold, and still being winded I found it hard to catch my breath.

I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything, and it's probably what I'm most proud of, even on top of losing my weight and toning up.  I'm definitely going to do it again this October!