New Stuff Everywhere
Yesterday, my plan to do something new found me taking an early morning long brisk walk. I haven’t really been outside much over the winter, so this counted for me.
Today, I did a lot more cardio, and almost no weightlifting (did some shoulders, biceps, and triceps). I did jumproping for five sets of 1:30, and then headed upstairs to dare to try a machine I hate and am afraid of: the elliptical.
You’re laughing now, but when I get on it, I give the impression that the machine and I are locked in mortal combat. I usually lose one or the other handle, occasionally nearly getting it in the eyeball on the backswing. I’ve seen karate tournaments seem more organized than me on an elliptical.
But man that sucker burns calories! I threw the resistance up to 40 and then 50, and the elevation up to 5 out of 10. It’s really wild pumping my arms and legs that hard, and whoa. 10 minutes burned 200 calories? That beats the snot out of how many I burn while on the stupid hamster machine.
I jumped off after 10 sweaty minutes, and hit the bike for 10 minutes. After burning just barely 100 calories, I hopped back onto the elliptical for another 100 calories (in 5 minutes!). Thereafter, I took my jiggly legs down to the shower to get all that great sweat off me.
I’m tracking back to my lowest weight ever, after a few bumps in the road. Partially, this is due to the dramatically reduced calories thing. When I keep saying dramatically, I’ve discovered that I must be eating around 2500-3000 calories a day normally, or something, because when I cut my calories down to 1300-1500, I feel like I’m starving. For whatever reasons, I thought I was somewhere below 2000 (anecdotally) all this time.
But one thing I learned about “starving” when I did the beginning of my journey back in August of 2003: If you endure that feeling for a week, your body recalibrates, and then you feel like you’re eating enough. It’s fascinating to me, but I find it to be true.
So, how are you doing? Let me hear from you. What are you doing this week?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.
