Early!

Consider setting your resolution now and getting started early. This way when you get to Jan. 1, you will be well on your way. That date will help you get through that mid diet slump that always happens and give you the boost that you need to stay motivated. You will be quite literally, ahead of the pack by a month! I'm starting, would you like to start with me?

Confidence

I would be mortified if someone noticed me on my runs. Its true. I like to be as anonymous as possible without being so invisible that I get hit by a car. Life may annoy me sometimes and I may get tired, but I'm not quite done yet. I still have two more goals to meet first. Ok, maybe I have three goals to meet. So, I do wear bright white pants and I avoid anything remotely camouflage like. I also wear a great big sweatshirt and long tee shirt. Why is it that being visible is so scary? I do know the answer but why doesn't that just fade away with time? Doesn't time heal all wounds? If it did, I would be better than I am, wouldn't I?

Hibernation

Ever notice how you get tired and sleepy more during the winter months? As the days become shorter, the desire to sleep is hard to ignore. I do wonder if people are designed to sleep more in the winter months just like bears? Many of us are drawn to starchy, carbohydrates in the fall. I wonder if we are being driven to fatten ourselves up for a long winter's nap? Or is the lack of a nap driving us to seek sugars?

New Target Heart Rate

I'm linking back to another bloggers post on the subject of THR. I have never really found a correlation between my heart rate and how I feel. Do you remember back when we used the exertion scale? 1-10? Aiming for a level of 7-8 for aerobic exercise? I have purchased and used my Polar heart rate monitor for two years now. Its illuminating because I discovered that there are times when I feel fine at 170 beats per minute and times when I feel tired at 150 beats per minute. Go figure. Apparently, the old equation was for men, not women. Any-who-dy-hoo-hoo, according to this my heart rate zones should be as follows:

206-(.88*my age)= max.

206-28.1= about 177

70 percent= 124

80 percent= 142

85 percent= 150

I had been aiming for 185 at my top which would be 96% of max. I normally see my peaks during interval style workouts, either jog/walking or Cathe Friedrich Imax workouts. I rarely feel great when I'm in the warm up, I usually feel fine about 2/3 of my workouts.

Pomegranate!

You know its fall when the pomegranates are on sale at the grocery store. I love them! But, man are they a messy thing to eat. Be sure to wear clothing that you can throw out when you eat them. I just stand in the kitchen at the counter so that I don't have to get it on anything thats not washable. It makes a tremendously dark blue/red dye that just doesn't seem to want to come out. Its that dye which carries the anthocyanin's, the antioxidants that make the pomegranate such a power house in the health dept. There are many juices that are available on the market now, and I understand that they are a short cut, but I prefer the fresh fruit itself. My Granddad used to have a pomegranate tree in the back yard, and we had them fresh when I was little. Now, I have to pay to play just like everybody else, and its so worth the price. Don't eat the pith, its bitter.

Expense, Resources and Cost

Sandra Ahten brings up a very important concept, that you spend resources on dieting. Sometimes, its easier to just decide that you are not eating a certain food at all, for a while, or during the week. This kind of structure can give you the back bone you need in order to stay in control, rather than the food controlling you. Its just food, why should it have this much power? I've set boundaries for myself. I don't eat certain foods most of the time, including gluten, cheese, and milk chocolate. I can't eat See's in general because I tend to find myself thinking about it all the time. Ice cream has the same effect. For some reason, salmon salads and berries do not. I have made the choice to set these foods aside while I'm in weight loss mode. I'm not sure that I will re-introduce them at a later date or not. I will find out when I get there. Ask yourself this, do I really want to be thinking about this all the time? What parameters and boundaries are the most effective at recovering your power from food? If at all? Some people don't have a problem with any foods, I envy them, I want to be like them, but I'm not them.

Crosstraining

I have been using step aerobics as my primary cross training activity for about 3 years now. I have been listening to podcasters who use other activities as their secondary activity, such as biking and swimming. I'm not interested in using swimming as a secondary activity, that tends to bulk up the upper body and I'm naturally bulky anyway. However, I do have a bike. I just need to get it fixed, new tires and possibly a new chain. I would need to find a local trail where I could ride without getting hit by cars. I haven't ridden a bike in 12 years, I wonder if what they say is true, that you never forget how. I also wonder how much it would cost to get it fixed. This warrents investigation.

Skip the Sugar

Here is a novel concept, obviously used by many a dieter to success, skip all sugars over the holidays. Just eat your normal, healthy diet and don't use these holidays as an excuse to eat what is actually available all year round. Everything that you might want to eat is in actuality available all year round now. Every single morsel can be had at some other time of year. And, the question you need to ask yourself is, do I want to eat this so bad that I have to live with the self recrimination for the beginning of next year? I don't. I think that I would rather make progress than be 're-losing' my holiday pounds.

New Trails

I have gotten to the point where my own neighborhood is no longer offering the same level of a challenge. I'm ready to venture out on trails that I have not used before. Luckily, there are many beautiful places to go for a jog including the American River, Folsom Lake, and a myriad of other trails and accesses. I need to invest in one of those ID pockets for my cel ph./driver's license. I think I'm going to be ok. I won't be running in the dark and I will always let my brother know where I'm going before hand. I'm not fast enough to run with others yet. I think I would need to make a sub 12 min. mile first. I'm not there yet.

Songs to run to

a la the Two Gomers:

Track: "Test Drive,"

Album:"How to Train Your Dragon" sound track by John Powell.

Track: "One Last Message"

Album: City of Ember sound track by Andrew Lockington

Track: "I'll find my own way"

Album: X-Men Origins Wolverine sound track by Harry Gregson-Williams

Track: "Another Brick in Hadrian's Wall"

Album: King Arthur Original Score by Hans Zimmer

Track: "Opening Titles"

Album: John Adams Music from the HBO miniseries by Rob Lane & Joseph Vitarelli

Track: "Ben"

Album: National Treasure Soundtrack by Trevor Rabin

Track: Jai Ho by A.R. Rahman from the Slumdog Millionaire track

Cool down tracks:

Track: La Fiamma Sacre

Album: Amore recorded by Russell Watson

Track: Titaptawa by Gandalf on the Celtic Lounge album

I love sound tracks because they give me momentum when I'm at that 2/3s section of my workout and I need a bit of extra energy without eating a snack or taking a break.

S A D

Is an acronym for Seasonal Affect Disorder. What that means is that as the fall and winter progress, the subject experiences anxiety and depression with the shortening days. In my family, there are people who have this problem. It can pose a particular level of distress for the dieter. Often people experience an increased craving for carbohydrates and the desire to sleep. Frankly, this sounds a lot like hibernation. Are we 100 percent certain that humans don't experience a hibernative like state in the fall? Its not easy to lose weight coming into hibernation, ask your local black bear, he will tell you that as the days grow shorter he is hungry and finds himself increasingly plumped. As a dieter, our desire is to see the scale go downward, progressing towards our weight goals. It is critical that you don't give into those carbohydrate cravings. The thing with sweets, is that you can never get enough. Having just one bite can lead to eating the whole pie or cake. Its better to just walk away, reviewing in your mind your motivations for weight loss.

Sometimes, sugar is just not your friend. If sugar were your friend, it wouldn't ask you to think about it all the time. It wouldn't insist that you eat with it at every meal. It wouldn't call you up in the middle of the night, saying, "Eat me!!!!" Thats not a friend. Thats a parasite. The less you give in, the less often it will have the strength to insist on you doing what it wants. I'm not interested in some urge being the boss of me. I'm the boss of me. Do you want to be the boss of you? or does that urge get the better of you?