Ha. The Bronze Age is part of what I study, and also because I don't yet qualify for "Silver" or "Golden Age". I did indeed used to get rather bronzed doing fieldwork in my feckless youth, so I would love to have Beyonce's nice smooth skin, at the very least. There would have to be a lot of airbrushing in the porno.
Sept 9
15 minutes walking on the treadmill
8 minutes on the bike OMG why is it so hard
15 minutes on the elliptical
kicked my legs in the pool a little to cool off
{Ooops gotta do my physio still... } Did it, yay
My knees are very creaky and poppy from lack of exercise. For one of my physio things I have to go backwards up stairs, and it's so embarrassing I did it on my apartment building stairs instead of the bleachers at my sport club.
Last edited by bronzeager; 09-09-2011 at 12:08 PM.
[QUOTE=saef;4026129]Charin, you weren't here at my mother's house yesterday, hearing me be nasty and sarcastic with her out of stress because she'd called the FiOS guy from Verizon to take down our DSL & install our new high-speed Internet connection just as I dealt with an as-soon-as-possible project at work, a contentious new assignment and two corrections of previously published work, all hitting me consecutively within 10 minutes of each other. I thought I would scream, and then the insurance adjuster informed me the damage on my apartment is considered flood damage, not hurricane damage, and therefore I am not covered. Shortly after that, I went for my noon-hour run.QUOTE]
well, you still went on your run I would have seriously considered hiding under the covers and not coming out for a while.
since I no longer drown my feelings in food, I tend to feel more emotional about the simplest things, or start to withdraw. right now I think i am going through a mid-life crisis (I am 36 and thought that would happen later in life) but I think achieving this weight loss has me now thinking in terms of what is really important in life and am I doing what is really important in life, you know? i have a good well paying job as a director of marketing, lead a team of 8, etc. but all of a sudden my heart is not in it. i spend 55 hours a week either working or commuting and quite frankly would prefer a job closer to home even if it paid less, allowing me to be less stressed and closer to the kids (10 and 7). but i am the primary breadwinner and have to think long and hard about leaving my stable well paying job for a new (thus less stable because i would be new?) and with less pay but closer to home job. my husband has plans to start his own business (he is a chef) in the next couple of years and that may change things (not sure in which way) but in the meantime I feel like i am dying inside a bit. my priorities right now are God (my relationship with him), my family (DH/kids), health (maintaining the 64 pounds loss and lose a few more as I continue to eat healthy and exercise), and work. but it feels the way i spend my time doesnt reflect this. and i know I need to work, i am not shying away from that, it is just not fulfilling anymore... this is the longest I have stayed at a particular job so maybe taht is why. also i just started supervising this team a year ago as a result of a promotion, maybe i just dont like to supervise people... i am not sure what it is but i need to figure this out soon....sorry for the long vent....right now i feel at peace with everything else in my life, just not with my j.o.b.
Okay, I got off my butt and went to the gym today.
9/9:
- 23 min interval ride on stationary bike (5 min warmup, 14 mins intervals, 4 min cooldown); easy level 8, hard level 15, 5.3 miles total
- 15 mins pilates leg exercises
to you Charin.
Not sure what I can add but I know that losing weight is a big mental shift and it takes some time to get used to it. I have found that I've actually changed a great deal-- much more interested in health and fitness, etc-- which seems obvious but it has changed much of what I do each day-- planning meals, exercise, avoidance of certain places or situations, et.
This morning, I was badly missing my usual Saturday morning at my gym, with spin class and Pilates back-to-back. Instead:
60 minutes stationary bike, resistance at 10 and then at nine, hill intervals
30 minutes walking with my friend and her two Chow dogs in a wooded game management area
45 minutes lawn-mowing in my mother's yard
Such is life out here, where one drives down roads called Dinglehole Road and East Mud Lake Road and Whiskey Hollow Road, or else named for families who lived on them or the village crossings -- some no longer in existence -- that they led to.
15 minutes Stairmaster, resistance at eight
60 minutes arm & shoulders routine
45 minutes Nautilus elliptical, resistance at nine & hill intervals
On the Stairmaster, the digital readout kept telling me how many floors I'd climbed, and so inevitably, on 9/11, I thought of people in the World Trade Center, who had to climb steps & steps & steps -- the firemen going up while the people came down.
When I left the gym, to my surprise, there was a young Peregrine Falcon in the parking lot around the corner from the gym, eating up a pigeon it had probably killed not long before. I eased the car up close & sat watching for about 20 minutes. My view was very clear: It was just a few feet away from me. What a beautiful sight, even though gory -- but not gratuitously. The bird has to eat to live; it was just being a falcon.
A 20 minute trundle up and down the very blowy road turned into 45 minutes of autumnal dawdling. The hips and haws and sloes are in abundance this year. In fact, all members of the plum family are having a gala. ETA that I know hips and haws are not fruit of the plum family.
So glad you saw that peregrine close up, saef. Are there high, rocky cliffs nearby where it lives or could it be a skyscraper bird?
Last edited by silverbirch; 09-11-2011 at 12:31 PM.
Neither, Birchie, since the small Upstate NY town where I'm staying is on fairly flat land. It rolls only a little, as a result of a glacier shaving over it aeons ago, leaving behind little hills called drumlins. But the town has an old center (what we in America consider "old" anyway) composed mostly of Victorian brick buildings, and a river running through it with a steel girder bridge. The old term for peregrine is a "duck hawk" so they also seem to have an affinity with water. And peregrines have been nesting in tall buildings in nearby Syracuse, with a Webcam following them. I'd like to think the one I saw had been raised in Syracuse and was establishing itself elsewhere.
Always fascinating to see a bird so close that I can tally up the markings from the field guide. The legs were bright yellow. The eyes were enormous and seemed black through. The bird never stopped scanning while eating. At times its head made an odd nodding movement, making it look as though it were shrugging. The "helmet" those birds wear was distinct, particularly the "sideburns." And all the streaks and bars and speckles. (Like Hopkins, I love dappled and speckled things -- and of course he'd love seeing a falcon like that, too.)
Stairmaster, of the "stepper" or "climber" variety rather than an actual escalator-like staircase, resistance at eight, then at six, for 48 minutes
Whew, this thing wore me out.
I am trying a hot yoga class tonight, and will be thinking of Michele before I get to it. Or rather a warm bathwater yoga class, since when I called the place to inquire further, the woman who teaches it said it would be maybe 80 degrees or 85 degrees and would be geared toward people who've never taken this kind of class before. Yep, that would be me.
I also signed up for a 5K race that runs through our village this coming Saturday afternoon. I have not done a 5K in like, forever, but having out for two runs on our local roads over the past week, I think this might be fun and doable. And it's a goal to work toward in the immediate future, to keep me moving when I'd rather not get out of bed in the morning.
90 minute yoga class, vinyasa with the room's temperature in the 80s
Once a month, on the second Monday of the month, a tiny yoga studio in a small town just to the north of the other small town where I grew up hosts a "hot yoga" class with a visiting teacher. I happened upon it while Googling resources in this area. It was so close that I had to try it, for a $12 drop-in fee.
So I was there tonight, with four other students and the regular teacher. It's a nice space, a smooth hardwood floor and curtains, inside a 19th century brick storefront that looks a little like the Edward Hopper painting "Sunday Morning," only turned funky, with a cafe and tattoo parlor nearby. The class was great. I kept up with the vinyasa flow. I always learn things about my body in these classes, humbling things, mostly about what is tight and what won't stretch. I sweat a lot. My mat got wet. At the end, it felt good to just lie there. And the teacher massaged our temples with lavender oil, which smelled heavenly.
My class is 108 degrees and humid! Talk about sweating! I had a friend try it with me yesterday for the first time. She brought her daughter even though I suggested she try it herself first because she didn't really know what to expect. Her daughter is 12 I think. The instructor says to just stay in the room and lay down if you are too exhausted. She and her daughter laid down for 90 percent of the class. She couldn't believe how hard it is. A lady afterward described it as doing 90 minutes of yoga in a sauna. I think that's a good description! Surprisingly she and her daughter both said they'll try it again.
saef Gald to hear you're channeling things into positive areas, rather than curling up in a corner with your hand in the chips bag ( that would be me ). I'm going to think of what you're doing and what you're going through whenever I head towards the chips.
Thank you and continue to take care of yourself.
Both you and michele have convinced me to give hot yoga a try and to revisit my Sunday afternoon yoga class (which is moving into a new location next month - exciting!)
I would have seriously considered hiding under the covers and not coming out for a while. 
to you Charin.
that would be me 
