It certainly sounds like a case of low blood sugar - but you’ve identified it and Shawn is right, some carbs before hand are likely a good idea.  I experinced the light headed thing today too.  I didn’t eat enough either but my problem is a bit different .. details on my thread.

Ah, Shawn and Catherine, the excuse for carbs! I normally would love that. I was doing the smaller, more frequent meal thingy and I’ve been a bit off track. Yesterday I made a nice plate up for lunch—microwave-steamed veggies, and a chicken wrap with veggies in it. Turns out when I did the calorie total that wrap (half a boneless skinless chicken breast, some onions, tomato, salad greens, and a dash of taco sauce) was quite a bit lighter than I thought, with no avocado or cheese to fatten it up. So I was running on empty. Today I am feeling a little more like myself, and have class tonight so I’ll try to do a 4pm snack (maybe some Kashi cereal) to get me through the evening. Thanks!

Glad to hear that you’re feeling more like yourself.  Think of the 4 pm snack as stoking the metabolism fire for your evening classes! 

And believe me I am always impressed with amount of time you put in - you are definetly making great progress!!

Thanks. Just got a surpise phone call from my former boss, a woman I’ve known for 12 years or so. Super fit athletic type. I only started losing weight and exercising after she left. She saw me last year and was so encouraging about my progress. She’s in town this weekend, and gave me her cell number. I’m still on the fence about going to Orlando, but would love to see her and catch up, possibly get career advice, and see what she thinks of my regimen. Maybe I can do both, stay here on Friday and then go down and see the boys for the weekend.

Thursday, July 3: 5:30pm Jazzercise class. We got out of work early so I got to do the only evening class that was on. It was kind of a screwy interval class, an experiment of sorts, but a pretty good workout. I’m tempted to go to the gym and do a little extra cardio. But I’ll probably relax and watch a few episodes of an old British miniseries instead.

Good stuff Ann, might be good to see and old friend for a new perspective.

Friday, July 4: I hadn’t checked in a while, but this would be my 198th day since I started my journal. Hmm.

Got up and went to the 9:15a Jazzercise class. It was packed, as it’s the only one the center offers all day, and most of us are off work. I saw some unfamiliar faces, who must all be weekday morning regulars, some who go to the 4:20 class, and many I do know from evenings and Saturdays. Somehow it’s extra fun to be in a crowded room once in a while, everyone sweating and striving in synchronicity.

Afterwards, I helped move stuff and clean a little (they’re reworking part of the room due to no longer splitting the space with the church next door) and decided I could treat myself to Starbucks on a non-Saturday. I was rung up at the register by a bubbly young woman. I smiled my embarrassment for going in with a sopping wet shirt on, saying I’d just come from an exercise class down the street.  She mentions she’s lost ten pounds by dieting, but knows she needs to exercise. I invite her to come down and visit some time for a free class. When I do that, I realize she’s sizing me up, and I feel momentarily like a bad representative of a fitness plan. So I confide in her that I’ve just crossed the 80-pound mark in my weight loss journey, from a combination of healthy diet and consistent exercise, and Jazzercise has been a solid part of it.

Her eyes widen. Whatever shape I’m in, it’s now hard to picture me that heavy and I am starting to own that. She congratulates me sincerely, and tells me her story. She had a baby eight months ago. I start to smile, how nice, but she tells me the baby was born with a series of congenital defects, and despite all the care and prayers, the baby didn’t survive its first few months. She’s telling me this squarely and without tears, and I marvel at her strength. She says she’s spent some time trying to get her life together (well, yeah), and has gained thirty pounds since then. I’m guessing she must have been tiny before getting pregnant, as this woman is not that overweight. But she wants to make some changes.

So, she wants to come to class. We had a good chat and exchanged numbers and I told her about an upcoming open house, nice chance to try it out. I also told her that I knew she could do it and it might be fun for her; she used to dance. I also size her up and say, “You’re in your twenties; I’m 45 and my body’s not springing back as fast, but if I can do it...” Bless her heart, she says she thought I was about 30.  I’m so easy when it comes to compliments!

So, I can’t help but attribute it to whatever spiritual providence chose to put her and me in each other’s path today. I was feeling pretty lamely sorry for myself this week, despite all that’s going right in my life, and when you get touched by someone’s very real pain and loss, something I have never had to face, and see the eagerness to get on with life, man oh man it’s a little tug on the self-indulgence leash to ‘heel.’

Oh, yeah, the workout was fun too. I may hit the treadmill a bit tonight to make up for probably skipping Sunday (in advance.)

Ann - I read this earlier today and was quite impressed with how open the two of you were with each other.  I think you gave her a gift today that hopefully she will take you up on.  It reminds me of how I got started and how appreciative I am of the woman who gave me my start on this journey to health and fitness at Christmas.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Ann, good job on extending you sphere of positive influence! It is funny how fate brings people together, it is even better when you can directly help someone out.

Thanks, Catherine and Shawn. I hope things work out for Lauren doing the class, but even if it was just an in-the-moment bonding experience with a stranger, it was really remarkable. The long talk with my former boss was (I like to mix metaphors, so bear with me) gravy on the cake.

Today (Saturday, July 5): I got up and did the 8am class. I could feel I was really running on empty (still hadn’t been eating well) and I swear, right in the middle of class I could feel my appetite return, as I got my hand weights. I didn’t stay for the second class; I grabbed a bite for breakfast and after a little rest, I gave myself a minor food splurge, a big lunch with a piece of dreamy light cake at my favorite diner. I’m logging my calories and I’ll come out fine for the day, and I don’t want to bounce back over 150, but it was good to taste food again. I’m skipping the Orlando jaunt; my other friend didn’t drive up so I’m not driving down, but will relax and read, then hit the treadmill tonight for a bit.

Ann, that was so generous of you.

Sounds like you and Lauren both got something out of your conversation.  That is great.

I am glad that your appetite is back.  You need to keep the body fueled to do all the hard work you do at Jazzersize and the gym.

Derek - 06 July 2008 01:36 AM

Ann, that was so generous of you.

Funny, that’s not at all how I saw it, Derek, it felt like life delivering a message to me.

One of the things my spiritual life has taught me is to be open, and when I listen to that precept I am really being my best self. George Fox, the founder of the Quaker faith, advised that we should “Walk cheerfully over the earth, answering that of God in everyone” How often do I fail to do that? I was reading a D.H. Lawrence essay on Whitman a few weekends ago, in which he discusses Whitman’s romantic concepts of personhood and democracy:

“The Open Road. The great home of the Soul is the open road. Not heaven, not paradise. Not ‘above’. Not even ‘within’. The soul is neither ‘above’ nor ‘within’. It is a wayfarer down the open road. [...]

“It is the American heroic message. The soul is not to pile up defences round herself. She is not to withdraw and seek her heavens inwardly, in mystical ecstasies. She is not to cry to some God beyond, for salvation. She is to go down the open road, as the road opens, into the unknown, keeping company with those whose soul draws them near to her, accomplishing nothing save the journey, and the works incident to the journey, in the long life-travel into the unknown, the soul in her subtle sympathies accomplishing herself by the way.”

It’s a point of view, and I found Lawrence somewhat overstated and comical in some of these essays, and therefore more enjoyable. But, this idea of meeting people in the most democratic way possible on the ‘open road’ has stuck with me, and perhaps inevitably related to my Quaker values.

Ann the universe is telling you something, it’s just up to you to figure it out.

That’s true, Shawn… though sometimes I like mysteries too.

Sunday, July 6: trip to the gym. The bigger gym, though it’s further. I missed it a little. 15 min of treadmill warmup. Then stretching and:

leg extensions and leg curls
chest fly machine
lower back extension
rowing
hip adductor
hip abductor

Free weights: a good extended round of pec flies on the bench, bench overhead tricep, standing overhead tricep, straight delt lifts, lateral delt lifts, even a few good ol’ bicep curls.

Then 30 minutes of elliptical, giving some interval training a bit of a try. At minute 13 I went all-out, then a minute regular moderate pace, then another minute on full tilt, then back for two to normal. Switched direction for a while, worked in one high intensity minute on the backwards, then back to front to finish. Not quite tabatas, but I really got my HR up there (160s) and it stays up for quite a while. I was dripping sweat. I usually do an hour of cardio but I didn’t follow up with stairs or treadmill, I just rested and sipped water in the locker room a bit. Felt pretty good tonight. Some GREAT tunes came on the iPod and are responsible for revving me up, including The Jam’s “A Town Called Malice.”

Good stuff Ann!

Monday, July 7: 7pm Jazzercise class. I arrived with my little bag of clothes, and didn’t discover right away that I had no sneakers. None. No backup pair in the car (long story, but I needed them last week due to rain.) And the donation box of slightly used shoes had been turned in. So I worked out in white socks, and cut a lot of the aerobic stuff that put stress on the feet. I also rolled out two foam yoga mats and used them for a bit of cushion. I still worked up a sweat, had a good laugh about it, and maybe my quads needed a light night. You can bet I double checked on the athletic shoe situation before I left the apartment this morning. Yeesh, forgetful!

LOL - we keep having this issue!! Last night I forgot a second towel for my hair after my swim - had to make do with one.  I already put a small bag of the under clothing items and a disposable water bottle in my gym bag and I am just in the process of putting together another bag of necessities for the trunk of my car - extra set of clothes for the gym (my least favourite workout outfit) and a towel.  Right now I am using my trunk to store a few extra pairs of shoes so I should be Ok in that situation.

Haha. I’ve done that too, but for me it was just for a workout, and since I live close enough to the gym, I just went home and got them.  Forgot my water once too.  Man do they ever charge a lot for bottled water there.  Gasoline is cheaper. 

it usually is!!  That is why I rarely buy bottled water - and the stuff you get from the tap is often healthier too!! 

Ann - today I forgot my iPod - but the gym plays good tunes so I didn’t really miss it.