Day One of the New Attitude

[clevermanka]

I think I'm finally over my funk. Hurray! That was really annoying. For everybody.

A monstrously gigantic thank you to mckitterick for being the best guy ever--your patience knows no bounds. Truly. You're the best. I love you!

Thanks to bestill's loan of a pattern and some sizing help, I finished my very first knitted hat on Saturday! It's a little beret for Mommy for xmas. The yarn was fuzzy and puffy, so my (numerous) mistakes aren't immediately visible. Thank gods. But wow! It actually looks like a hat! I was really pleased. And I have enough yarn left to make a matching skinny scarf.

I also learned how to do some basic chainmail designs, thanks to adammaker. I have a pair of Chinese Snowflake earrings that I made all by myself! I'm not that into the chainmail for jewelry look (very pretty, just not my thing), but I think this design lends itself very nicely for embellishment on a dance costume. Rather like palettes, only...metal. And 3-D.

Since Saturday was so very productive, Sunday was a day of sloth. I spent a lovely few hours catching up with roya_spirit. I brought along the beginning of Mom's scarf, but...eh. Tea! Biscuits! Chatting!

To facilitate the New Improved Attitude, I've started exercising, and will slowly re-integrate the Fast-5 eating plan.

This morning I pedaled for 45 minutes (10 miles) on the recumbent bike. I put no faith in those calorie readouts supplied by cardio machines, so I really don't have any idea how much I burned. My body fails at making the heart monitors on those work correctly, but I made sure to keep my energy level high. The bike was nice in that it allowed me over half an hour of uninterrupted time with Stand on Zanzibar. But eventually I want to get into doing some resistance and weight training by working with my own (considerable) body weight. adammaker's been shooting me some good links about that and I hope to get a workout based on those next week. This week I'm aiming low by just getting myself back into a habit of early morning exercise. Mindless is good for now.

Also, for this week, I'm eating lunch sometime after noon and dinner at some point, with no food after 9 p.m. (my ending time for when I'm fully on Fast-5). No snacking.

Here's to healthful eating and exercise. Here's to fitting into my fabled Red Pants of Sexiness by summer.

Comments

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Glad you're feeling better, tea/biccy therapy is mahvelous!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

So is a relaxing afternoon with you! Thanks!

[femfataleatron.livejournal.com]

Forget about the calorie counters! It's about the overall metabolic changes (recovery), and what adapting to repetitive stress does to your insulin levels. Keep it up, that's the important thing. Once you get in a routine, look into High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yes! Adjusting my insulin sensitivity is going to be a major factor in achieving a Rock Star body.

The best use I ever found for those calorie displays was treating it as a benchmark: "On day whatever, I felt I really pushed myself, and got X-hundred calories in 30 minutes. How am I doing now? Am I slacking? Am I at the same rate but feeling OK? Should I push myself harder now?" And so on.

I'll google HIIT. I don't have much weight equipment at home, though, so I'm looking for stuff I can do with minimal, or improvised, equipment.

[femfataleatron.livejournal.com]

HIIT does not require (necessarily)any equipment.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you. So glad you're feeling better and back to working on feeling physically better.