Sunday, August 18, 2013

Balancing act.

How do you balance social etiquette, socializing and diet restrictions. With some things, like food intolerances, it is very straight forward: eat this, feel like crap. But keeping track of every item I eat (which I do) and being able to plan ahead for every social occasion is frustrating. I find myself being very reasonable in each setting, except that the frequency of each dalliance is the problem. How do you limit the social interactions? How do you build the bridges to have people want to support you instead of get frustrated by your constant refusals? I've cut way back on my calorie intake. I've tracked what a "normal" day was like before I started hitting the gym hardcore and using MyFitnessPal and I feel like I should be seeing an improvement faster than I am. I know that it is normal to make a sort of exchange of fat and muscle as you begin "losing weight" but I don't see it in my clothes. This is super frustrating. So, I look at the possible areas where I am still slipping up and thus, the paragraph above. What do you do? Who could I partner with to better understand the effect of my intake and output? Ultimately, I know that I am getting fitter. My skin texture is better. I feel my muscle tone improving. My energy is better. But I want it all. I want to be a better shape for my height. I want to have a healthy height/weight ratio. I want to wear smaller pants and feel even better nekkid. What to do!??!?!

Monday, August 5, 2013

More on swimsuit shopping.

I promised before that I would share more about my swimsuit adventure and here are a few oddball things I learned:

-If it is on the sale rack, there is a reason.
I tried on a few different suits from the sale rack and these were some of the worst suits I have EVER encountered. I am chubby, I get it. I don't expect to look like a supermodel in a swimsuit but I am also shapely. I have big hips and a big chest and suits that make me look like the Hanes Fruit of the Loom Apple man are pure atrocities of swim design.

-Every full-price suit with a hope was black.
This is not so bad, but patterns are better for masking flaws. It's just true. Not to mention it's hard to see the differences between one suit and another when they are all black black black. Cut, dimension, etc are helpful to understand before trying to pour yourself into one of these spandex chambers.

-Looking at the framed racing suit on the wall in the dressing room.
Made my head spin. It was so tiny I really could not imagine ever having been such a size myself. It's not like looking at a kid's suit and knowing that at some point in my life I fit into kid's clothing. This suit was worn by a grown woman. A tiny, grown, insanely athletic woman, yes. But it puts my head in a less than awesome space looking at that, and then my chubby butt trying to fit into these tubes without mercy.

-How we are performing now.
Once I got out of the suits I actually felt better. I landed with a TYR fitness suit that has some crossed/twisted/rushing on the chest that is a little more flattering but the whole thing stays on, covers well and is COMFORTABLE! I marched across the street and huffed my way through about 6 laps. And it felt good. I get like I was getting the burn I wanted. And I actually think it helps my foot. I am curious and will need to ask my podiatrist about it this afternoon. The best part is really that I feel empowered. I feel like I can still make this shit happen. That I won't just focus on what I can't do. That I am still making progress and kicking ass.

Walk a mile in my shoes.

More than a mile. With my FitBit I've set a personal gial of walking 12k steps a day. Well, last week I blew the cieling of that piece while attending a trade show for work. On the days we walked the show I cleared 20k steps a day, easy. I even had a day where I hit 26k+! Since I have learned that my heel pain is real pain I know that that much walking is kinda a no-no. I did what I could to mitigate the pain: rolled my ball, changed shoes daily, wore my sleeping boot but by the time we were ready to come home I knew I'd pushed too far. However, at the trade show I met a man named Eric from Icebug shoes and he was better than cake and ice cream. I swear I learned more from him that I did in my whole diagnosis adventure. I went to their booth since they were giving out free sample insoles and that sounded like a good idea to me! While chatting with him he dropped a few reality bombs on me like: -I should always wear shoes, not go barefoot (even at home) -keep using my ball -my boot's effectiveness is debatable -I need a shoe guru to lay the truth on my closet.

 I came away from the meeting with some great insoles and feeling more determined than ever to kick this pain. I took his advice and got some house shoes (so not sexy, but as the Dude said repeatedly, this will be GOOD for you). Like some sort of god-sent sign my trainer called to tell me he was not going to be able to make our 6am this morning, could I call the gym to reschedule? Yes! After days of foot abuse it was what I needed to hear. It's a swimming day. And hopefully by week's end I will have a better handle on how to work with my trainer to keep kicking my butt! While also healing my foot. Rock on!