I know, it's weird that I should be considering anything health related, but I'm thinking it might be time. I've, well, let myself go for some time and it's high time I sucked it up and did something about it.
(that last paragraph used "it's" and "time" altogether too many...times. I promise it won't happen again)
So, what brought this on? Simply put, I'm trying to lose my baby weight. Yes, I know that's not how it works, but hear me out. When Lisa was pregnant with Chi she would routinely eat about half of her meal and then realize that she was full. Full to the point of being uncomfortable around food. She'd then offer me the rest of her plate and, like the glutton I am, I'd eat it. I picked up a good 10-15 pounds before I realized this was a bad idea.
And, if I want to be totally honest, I'm going to have to admit that, really, I wasn't in the best shape beforehand, either. Lisa and I had been going to the gym a bit before she got pregnant and the summer before Chi was born I rode my bike to and from work pretty regularly, but I was still a good 10 or so pounds over where I want to be. Sure, I was heading in the right direction and my cardio was pretty good, but I still needed to get down a bit.
So lately I've been working on that "portion management" thing we're supposed to be doing. Smaller servings, avoiding seconds when I can. Overall logical stuff. And, honestly, I haven't been perfect, but I've managed to drop a few pounds. But in order to actually get back to skinny and loose the gut I need some help. But there are problems...
The first problem, most logically, is time. I'd love to say I could spend an hour a day running the bike trail right by our house but, really, I don't have an hour a day. Really, a half hour would be pushing it. But a good half hour a day, if well managed and consistent, could get the dial on the scale turning the right way.
The second problem is the cutest: Chi. I love him to death but he does make it hard to run or bike or whatever. My first thought here was to just head out every morning before he got up and then I had the wake up call that, guess what, he's still in the house. I can't go running and leave my one year old home alone. Even if I'm running just in my neighborhood I think child services would frown upon such things. Although I do wonder what the range on our baby monitor would be...and if that doesn't work, could I hook up an iPhone app to stream video/audio of Chi's room to my phone while I run? Actually that could work...wait. No. Not practical. Need another solution.
And as a corollary to the first two problems, Lisa leaves the house at 6:30 every morning. That's dang early. Especially since some days I'm working until 11:00. The majority of the days I work until 11 I have to be at work at 8 after dropping Chi off, which means just the logistics of my morning means I'm up at 6:00 already and, frankly, it's not easy just to walk out the door. Forget exercise. Also, as I mentioned, some days I'm working evenings, which means I'm not able to work out then either. And the days I don't work evenings I try to be around to help Lisa as much as possible since she's been with Chi all day. One advantage is that the days I work until 11 I do get to go to work at 10:00. This would be a good opportunity except that Chi's usually up well in advance of this and I still can't leave the house to do something. Also, every week I'm either off Monday, Friday or the first half of Thursday, which is also a great opportunity if it weren't for the fact that I'm providing childcare to Chi at that time.
And the third problem is probably also more universal: motivation. The thought had occurred to me that I could just run laps in my basement. It's about 50x40 and the run would net me about 180 feet a lap. 28 1/2 laps per mile. 750 laps would be a marathon, if you're keeping score. That sounds boring. And if I get bored, I'm going to quit. And if I quit, I'm going to stay fat and it's going to be even harder for me to talk myself into starting up again next time. It's a vicious cycle.
So, what do I do? There are three basic options:
1. Suck it up, wake up at 5:45, go run for 30 minutes and then come back in and sleep/shower/get ready. Do this every day, even the days I'm off.
2. Run in the basement in the mornings when I work late and outside on the evenings I don't (try doing this after Chi's in bed). The days I'm off just pick a time that works (Chi's morning nap comes to mind) and run in the basement. Suck up the lack of entertainment.
3. Stay fat. Admittedly the easiest option. Takes pretty much no work but gives pretty much no reward.
But each of those has pros and cons.
1. Like I said, some nights I work until 11. 5:45 is really early after 11:00. Also, it's early. Did I mention the lack of sleep? I know I'd miss one and then I'd be mad. Then I'd miss 2 and be resigned to failure. It also doesn't give me much room to lengthen my workout if I decide I want to (unlikely, but you never know).
2. The days I work late tend to follow the days I don't. This means that I'd run in the evening on a Monday, in the morning on a Tuesday, on an evening on Wednesday and in the morning on Thursday. That's stacked up in a way most physical trainers would frown upon. One logical solution to this would to be to run only in the evenings when I work a normal shift, but my evenings tend to not be that empty, so that's it's own problem. Mornings tend to be clear, but see the discussion above about the logistics of that.
3. Admittedly, it sounds tempting.
So, as I'm writing this, I'm at a loss. Maybe I just don't have time for it. Maybe we just don't have time for it. Sad.
Any other ideas from out there? Anyone? Anyone with child, job and life figure out how not to end up a little chunky? Well, anyone that doesn't have a metabolism that would shame a chipmunk?
Oh, but I have decided on some tools to help me get there once I do decide on a method. I'm looking at the Nike+ system. It'll work with my iPod and log my runs/gasping staggers for me. Then I sync the system and I can get reports about how I'm doing or how badly I'm doing or how many times I've skipped. That's tempting. I'm a firm believer that what cannot be measured cannot be improved, so this is a good way to measure and improve. But I've got to get the time to use it, first, and that's the problem.
0 comments:
Post a Comment