Creative Ways to Get Your Cardio

February 4, 2010 @ 02:00 pm

The treadmill, elliptical, rowing machine, stair climber. All basic forms of getting your cardio. But also really boring after a while. My gym has TVs at each machine to help ease the dull roar, but there are plenty of other ways to get a great cardio workout. Here's a couple of sample videos. The first is boxing - I'd really love to learn how to do this stuff some day. Something about the sheer force and raw power of hitting a bag combined with the need to dodge and weave. I'm not particularly combative but boxing has always interested me as a sport I'd like to try.

0 comments | Topics: boxing, gym, rock-climbing, sports, workout

How I Choose a Gym

January 23, 2010 @ 01:00 pm

I first tried losing weight in college, where I had free access to a weight room and cardio equipment ... and never ever went. I was scared. I hated the idea of being in a space where I was the fattest in the room. I thought I would feel like I looked the desperate blob haplessly struggling against the weight, like a cartoon or a joke. I sabotaged myself before I even started. So instead I tried to run laps around a darkened parking lot after the sun went down (it was California ... never got cold).

Fast forward to New York and I found myself ridiculous. I had to bite the bullet and sign up with a real gym. So I weighed my options and ended up at an Equinox near my office.  Ultimately, though, The Beau and I moved into a nice apartment building that had it's own very-well-equipped fitness center and I didn't have to go to a public gym anymore. But then we moved again and it was time to sign up for a new place to work out.

Finding a place to work out is a tricky thing for someone like me. For starters, the gym still makes me nervous. I feel exposed, I feel vulnerable, and there are a lot of fit people about while I'm waddling from the locker room to an elliptical (I dont' really waddle, but I feel like it sometimes).  So here's the kinds of things I look for when I join a gym.

Variety of Cardio Equipment

Treadmills are about the most boring piece of equipment on the planet. Plus they're hard on the knees and shins. I actually don't use them very often so I prefer to see what other equipment the gym has. Having plenty of elliptical machines is key, plus other stranger equipment that works the body in other ways. I haven't explored all the options at my gym, but I will.

Weight-Floors vs. Assisted Strength Training Machines

There are two basic kinds of strength training set-ups. One is the kind of equipment that involves weight-plates and a lot of clanging and banging and muscleheads change around the equipment. These things are usually all grouped together on a weight-floor and populated by fitter people than I. They make me self conscious, but I need strength training. So I look for a gym that has a complement of assisted strength training machines preferably somewhere else in the gym. These machines are the ones where the weights are built into the machine and you can change the resistance by moving a pin. My gym has two sets of these away from the main weight-floor, which makes it a little more comfortable for me to strength train.

Crazy Amounts of Mirrors

If I ever meet someone who designs gym interiors (yeah, that's a gay-guy's way of saying it) ... I'm going to smack them in the head.  And I'm going to do it in front of a mirror. Because they freaking love mirrors. It's one thing to have a mirror where one strength trains supposedly to check for good form while weight-lifting (and pure vanity, don't kid yourselves). But there is no reason to line every square inch of a gym with a mirror. No 300+lb obese person wants to watch themselves waddle on a treadmill when they already know what they look like. Mirrors like those are superfluous. So I try to find a gym that doesn't have too many mirrors. My current one totally fails this, by the way. They even have mirrors on the stairwell. What the hell?

Cardio Distractions

Because there are so many damn mirrors I need a good distraction while I'm working out on the cardio machines. So I look for a gym with televisions and head-phone jacks on the machines. And not just those TV's that hang above everyone so you have to watch Days of Our Lives, or whatever. Now a lot of gyms have individual "CardioTheatre" setups where each machine gets it's own little TV and tuner. Perfect! And a must-have.

Locker Room Layout

So as if being out on the gym equipment didn't make me feel vulnerable enough, the locker room cinches the deal. So I look for a gym who's locker room at least offers the illusion of privacy while I'm changing with nooks and crannies to hide in. And private shower stalls. And a decently-sized steam room (which has nothing to do with privacy but at least is something nice to have).

Price

You'll have a budget of some sort, probably, but be aware you get what you pay for. When I was a member of Equinox one of the things that sold me on the chain was that each specific club tries to cap the number of members they have, to keep it from getting crazy-crowded and unpleasant. That, of course, meant a higher price. On the other side of things the discount gyms that you see on TV most often make money in the volume of members, and they're equipment might not be as good or might be old. So I went with a medium-grade gym this time, and have been happy with it so far.

Others' Reviews

This is the Internet-era where everyone comments about everything online. So don't pick a gym without seeing what other people have to say about it. There are reviews on Google Maps or Yelp - or just search for the name and location of your gym with the words "reviews." When I moved to Manhattan I had the options of about 4 gyms. The closest had terrible reviews online so I skipped it. Another was a very nice gym, but the reviews made it sound like a trainers' gym - or one that die hard fitness pro's went to - and said it had small locker rooms, so I skipped it. The gym I chose - NY Sports Clubs - is a chain, but when I searched for my specific location the reviews were great, saying its one of the best NYSC in the city. Bingo.


So those are some the various things that I think about when I go gym-shopping as a self-conscious, private worker-outter. I'd love to hear what you look for, or what kinds of things you've found when you're trying out a new place to get fit.

0 comments | Topics: gym, tips

The Fourth Great Attempt: Week 1

January 16, 2010 @ 08:05 pm

So it wasn't a full week, since I really only started on Wednesday. But I was working on this blog before that, and that kind of counts. How many calories do typing and clicking burn, anyway?

I think the most remarkable thing about this week is that I started at only 307 lbs.  Heh, "only." But every other time I've started it's been more like 315, 320, or so heavy I didn't bother moving my then-rickety knees all the way over to the scale. 307 feels like the 200s are just around the corner, like they're attainable once and for all, like I don't have to spend the first 3 or 4 or 6 weeks just getting out of the threes. So I was pleasantly surprised with 307.

And not to give spoilers, but a mid-week check in was lower than that (yay!) so things is okays.

I started in on the gym again. I thought it would be rough those first couple of days but really, the first day back was like hanging out with an old friend. I stuck to the same benchmarks I had before I stopped going last Fall, and got a full half hour in on the first day. And again on the second day, and the third day. Each day I thought I wouldn't be able to go because of work or maybe I should ease myself more slowly into it, but I went anyway. Today was a mac-daddy workout: 10 minutes warm-up on the elliptical, 20 minutes or so of strength training (ouch, been a while), 30 minutes on an elliptical-like thingy that makes you feel like a gazelle.

I'm taking tomorrow off. Because I'm probably going to hurt. Also, it's good to take a break from the gym and I don't really want to push too hard too fast or I'll just burn out. I can feel myself needing a little break, from stiff muscles to near-chafing issues, Sunday is a good day to rest. Plus I have a small cut on my heel from dry, cracked skin and it's taking a while to heal, so I'm going to try to minimize the stress I put it through for a day to get it all put right again.

Other than that, I feel pretty okay. The Beau decided today that he would join his brother and sister in running the Hood To Coast - the mother of all relays at nearly 200 miles from Mt Hood to Seaside, Oregon. The race is in August. He thought he couldn't do it (his 2 miles today was a bit rough, apparently) but I convinced him that there's more than enough time to train and get prepared for running 4-8 mile stints every few hours. His svelte, trim, highly metabolic body will do just fine. Maybe I'll join him in 2011.

But for now I press forward trying to lose weight. Day by day.   

0 comments | Topics: The Beau, gym, progress

The Lost Year

January 13, 2010 @ 07:24 am

I knew it had been a while since I'd blogged about my weight loss; but I was shocked when I came back to blog again and saw that it had been over a year since my last post in September of 2008. What in the world happened to 2009? Had I really done so little for losing weight for a whole year? I looked to my old gym journal and found the same thing - all written record of my journey between 9/2008 and now just ... isn't. Never was.

Here's what's been happening:

• In October of 2008 I lost my job for redundancy.  The firm (which was making me ill anyway and I hated it there) acquired a new company to do what I was doing, so we parted ways. To make up for it, I decided to finally branch out on my own and started my own business.  That's what I've been doing ever since - which takes a lot of time away from blogging - and alas, from fitness as well.
• I did not give up on fitness entirely. It was just in drastic fits and spurts. Even though I stopped recording it all, I still went to the gym and tried to eat okay ... some of the time.
• We moved from our super-fine apartment and the great fitness center in the building to a better apartment in the city. It's cheaper, has a home office, and we like it a lot more. No downstairs gym, though. I still kinda miss it.
• We joined New York Sports Clubs.  Long ago I was a member of Equinox and part of me really enjoys going to a gym. I got into going for a while, though of course I allowed my life to get unbalanced and stopped going for weeks at a time, and ultimately my winter project took all my time. 
• We started a second business this past fall, which culminated in a two-month pop-up store here in NYC. It was a great experience (I'm still kind of decompressing), but it literally took all my time and energy. For the first two weeks I was dead on my feet every day. My shoes were crap. I didn't have time for gumption for the gym but I did have to walk over a mile and a half almost every day - sometimes a lot more. I wasn't eating so well, but I was definitely burning those calories working. 

The one thing from the last year that disappoints me most is that I failed to lose any weight by the second annual family vacation. In 2008, my extended family went on vacation together for the first time and had fun, but it was marred at the very last moment by some rather cruel offhanded thoughtless comments from my Grandfather. That moment sent me reeling and inspiring a hard push at the end of that year, which fizzled with the pressures of life. And though I'd resolved to lose significant weight by 2009's vacation, I didn't. I was just as fat.

Oh and the vacation was to the shore. Awesome! 315+ lbs on the beach. Beached whale more like it. Le sigh.

Here's where I'm at now:

307 lbs.  Which basically means no net change in weight. I know I've definitely gone higher than than and when we were opening our pop-up store I'm pretty sure I went under that, but for whatever reason my body pretty much holds steady at just over 300 pounds. 

My house is clean, my life is more or less back in order and I'm re-establishing a routine.  That will be good for getting fit. I can cook again, I can get to the gym again, I don't have to worry about the phone ringing. I need to get back in the groove of many more healthy behavours, but I'm getting there.

I'm working on instituting better work behaviours. Frankly, life was insane for a long time. I was checking email constantly - literally every minute. I was on-call, overworked, over-scheduled. I've since turned off the email auto-checks so that I only check it a few times a day. I'm trying to focus on one thing at a time and not overworking myself.  Right now I have a lot of my plate but I'm sorting through it.

I'm not following any one particular plan or diet.  I dropped Weight Watchers - only because I wasn't using its tools. But the principles are all very useful. I've picked up on the Gabriel Method, but I'm no groupie or die-hard fan. There are certain universal principles to weight loss and every plan highlights different aspects of them - so I find myself learning from many different sources. I'll talk more about my current plans later.

And frankly, I'm not feeling so well emotionally. My relationship with my partner is fantastic - no qualms there and we're actually stronger than we've ever been. But over the last couple weeks I've been rather down about things because of my weight and obesity. I'll blog through those soon.

I'm returning to blogging.  And twittering! This is cathartic for me. It gives me an outlet. And I want to connect with others along the journey.  I'm really shy and ashamed and so I'm keeping this anonymous (for now), but I still want to record this and stay accountable at least to myself by putting it all out there. And with a sexy new look for the blog and some drastically improved technology to power it I'm hoping the whole process of managing this will be easier to maintain.

And so here go again. 

307 pounds and counting.

2 comments | Topics: depression, gym, shame, vacation, work