Rounding out the fitness plan

Ellyn Ritterskamp

It's not always fun to do stuff we're not good at. But if we only stick with the activities we're great at, we don't grow so much.

That's what a friend told me a few years ago when I started a fitness journey. I like to lift weights, and she said that's great, but I can't only do that, or my body will get used to it, and plateau.

I have to swim and run and play basketball and do stuff like that, that I'm not so good at. Like in school, where we have to take classes in some subjects we may not be so good at. That's how we get to be well-rounded people.

And though rounding is hardly the goal in fitness, in the larger view, it still fits.

So, today I will swim. Tomorrow, shoot some hoops.

Onward.

Soup

Lawrence Toppman

One of the few predictable things about weight loss is soup. It's nutritional (unless you melt ice cream and pour in a little chocolate sauce and call that "consomme"). It warms you on a cold day, but you can also eat it in summer. And unless it's loaded with butter and cream, it fills you without packing on the calories.

Soup has been my fallback, as it was on Thanksgiving Day this year. My main course was squash and potato soup (with a whole-milk base, a luxury at my house) and an apple cut up in yogurt on the side. We didn't go overboard with side dishes this year, and of course turkey-slaying is a thing of the distant past for us vegetarians. For dessert, I had a piece of zucchini bread.

To my surprise, I didn't miss either the bulk or the hoopla. Why should holidays -- a time for sharing love, plans, memories and dreams -- have turned into a time for sharing gluttonous behavior? Are we expressing our fondness for the cook by stuffing ourselves? Are we "giving thanks" for prosperity by cramming our maws with food?

That doesn't make sense to me. So I think future Thanksgivings may be marked more by meditation than munching, if my wife goes along with this. It's actually easier to think about things that matter to you on a not-quite-full stomach.

The antidote to Black Friday

Ellyn Ritterskamp:

There is not much like bicep curls to make you feel powerful. Those, and some shoulder lifts and then squats.

The warmup: vacuuming the house.

The payoff: not going outside into the Black Friday madness. I hate this day anyway because the nickname comes from people jumping out of their office windows. So staying inside is about mental health, and lifting weights is about physical health.

Onward.

Turkey Trots are the other Thanksgiving tradition

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

This year I'm planning on fully enjoying my family's big Thanksgiving Day meal.

But I'm also starting a new tradition.

I am going to join 8,000 other runners and walkers in Charlotte for this year's Turkey Trot in SouthPark.

I'm planning on running the 8K tomorrow morning, and I've recruited some of my family members to walk the 5K. I'm looking forward to running another race and to getting a little exercise on one of the most indulgent days of the year.

I also hope this becomes a family tradition. I am thankful for my loved ones and would like to look out for their health as well as mine.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope I see you out there.

Slow and steady wins the race

Ellyn Ritterskamp:

I had cause recently to check in on my goals - someone asked what my weight-loss goal had been for this year of blogging, and I said I have a long-term goal, but had not made a short-term target.

I started the year at 257, and my end goal is 190.

I am at 247 now, so it's been a pound a month. Slower than it could be, certainly, but I like the steadiness of it. They always say it took a long time to add the weight so it should take a while to come off, to not do it all at once and freak out your body.

Seems like 3-4 pounds a month would be OK, though. Will work on this.

Onward.

Pre-Thanksgiving thoughts

Lawrence Toppman

To be honest, my first thought is that one of America's biggest eating holidays won't be much fun with a UTI. I didn't think men were supposed to get those, but this appears to be my second in three years: Same appetite drop, same other symptoms I'm too polite to discuss here, same ingestion of pure cranberry juice (which, on the "I don't like it, so it must be healthy" scale, rates about a 5 out of 10).

And, of course, my SECOND thought as a weight-loss blogger is, I bet this helps me got closer to my goal. Yay! I needed a boost!

But what I've really meant to say is that the Thanksgiving season makes me grateful I'm in pretty good shape; I can afford to focus on knocking off another eight or 10 pounds, rather than on one of the health catastrophes that often affect men approaching 60.

That ranks pretty high on the list of things I'm grateful for, behind my remarkable wife and my funky but loving family and the opportunity to do the job I was destined to have. My blessings are many, right down to the fact that I can afford to buy nutritious food to stay on my weight-loss kick. So many people can't, you know, and the holiday season is especially tough on them. That's always worth keeping in mind.

Muscling up

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I saw a school friend I hadn't seen in a year or so, and he said "You look like you've lost weight!" I said I'd lost some, but some of it was acting like it was going to creep back. He said, "Well, then, you must be muscling up!"

I had totally forgotten about that, about how we can gain muscle and have that be better for us even though we are not technically losing weight.

It is all about how the pants fit, and they still fit better, so there it is.

Onward.

Occupying the Gym

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I love how Occupying is the new verb.

It started with Occupying Wall Street, to express frustration at a small few having control of much of the nation's money.

Then other cities got folks Occupying city hall property.

Down the street from my house is a church with a sign out front saying OCCUPY CHURCH, which is awesome.

Just now, I read a recap of last night's Dancing With the Stars results show, in which the writer said if JR Martinez was to be eliminated, she was going to Occupy her living room. He was safe, so we don't have to clean up a tent city in her house.

So I'm going to see about Occupying the Gym for a few days.

Not really. But I have written down OCCUPY GYM on the calendar for several days, which I haven't been doing too well. It's fun, and when we make stuff fun, we're more likely to do it.

Onward.

Breakdown (Slight Return)

Lawrence Toppman

Once a year, a friend named Katya Lezin throws a dessert party, filling her dining room and kitchen with handmade goodies that would make a supermodel behave like the winner of a pie-eating contest. And, as anyone who reads our South Mecklenburg News section might know, she's recovering from cancer this year and has reason to celebrate. (All signs are positive, I'm told.)

Now, how was I gonna NOT attend that fat-inducing function?

I ate lightly during the day. That had a positive effect, because I ingested fewer calories, and a negative effect: It's always a bad idea to be hungry when you creep toward a table laden with desserts.

Final tally: One mint chocolate grasshopper brownie. Two bites each of apricot cheesecake, bundt cake and pear/walnut tart. Two cookies of small to medium girth. And -- in a moment I'm still regretting -- I refused to take a dessert plate home! (Katya, if you read this: Send something via Tupperware.)

So I got through the year's biggest temptation with minimal damage. Thanksgiving and Christmas loom but now hold no terrors for Mr. Moderation.

Success by half

Ellyn Ritterskamp

As someone who does not really run (breathing issues), I enjoy walking, but stuff takes longer.

Today I completed the Thunder Road half marathon, in 4 hours and 35 minutes. That was the last time on the list, and I am surprised it made the results, since the race has a three-hour time limit. The organizers were also very kind to give me a medal, which I did not expect after 3 hours. I guess they knew nobody would cheat on the course with such a time.

My parents helped me a great deal with supplies, and with Mom riding her bike ahead of me to give me a goal every block or mile, to catch up to her.

I am in awe of the runners who went so fast on all three of the races. Congrats to them, and to all of you who ran or walked, and especially to those who cheered from yards and down the finishing stretch. There was always enough cowbell.

Make some noise Saturday

Ellyn Ritterskamp

The sun'll come out tomorrow. No rain in the forecast for the Thunder Road Marathon, half-Marathon and 5K.

Maps and info are here so you can avoid intersections with delays, or if you are free to cheer, figure out where you can root for runners: http://www.runcharlotte.com/. There is also a story and map on page 4 of Friday's Local section of The Charlotte Observer.

I cheered for a friend in last year's New York City marathon, and she said the encouragement of strangers along the route made it possible for her to finish. NYC has a lot more runners than we do, and a lot more fans, but still. If you live on the route and are free to stand in your front yard and clap for a few minutes on Saturday, you will make it easier for someone to keep going.

Maybe me, but I will be coming through much later than the pack. I still haven't learned how to run for very long before I have to mouth-breath and then I get a headache from locking my jaw open. But doing 13 miles and change is just about willpower when you are walking or running very slowly. My folks will be walking some with me. So if you see old people out there on the course after they have cleaned it up, that'll be us. I just want to finish, even if the time is outrageous.

Thanks for tolerating some street closings tomorrow. The police will let you through the intersections as soon as they can. Just maybe check out that map, and go another way if you can. Or stay home and make some noise for the runners who could use your support.

Onward.

One must eat a free lunch, yes?

Lawrence Toppman

I'm going to speak to high school students about journalism this afternoon, and my reward (aside from their rapt attention) is the free box lunch from Jimmy John's that I'm eating right now: a veggie sub, a pickle, a bag of potato chips and a dilemma.

The last item is a chocolate chunk cookie. A big cookie. A cookie whose chips -- I am not making this up -- seem to be formed in the arc of a smile aimed at me. My lips say no, no, but my pleasure centers say yes, yes.

Now, like most kids raised in the late '50s and early '60s, I was taught never to throw food away. Kids were starving in Asia and would be glad to get the food at which I turned up my nose, etc., etc. (I never understood how my failure to eat lima beans would affect them.)

I suppose I could give this to a co-worker, but I earned it, dammit! Or I'm about to. Why aren't THEY making speeches to high school kids if they want giant cookies? And...er...wouldn't I be doing evil if they happened to be on diets and were tempted to eat this wagon wheel of sugar and chocolate? As I said, it's a dilemma. I'll let this sit on my desk for a while....

Cars, please stop before the crosswalk

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I know that everyone reading this is considerate, and careful when they drive, to watch out for legitimate walkers who follow the rules.

But just in case it finds its way to someone who isn't sure of the rules, here's the deal: the zebra crossing is for walkers. When the light is red, the cars need to not be in that area. Those extra couple of feet edging forward won't help when the light turns green, toward getting anyone to their destination faster, and they can hinder those of us who are trying to cross the street in the only safe place we have.

In North Carolina (and I presume most states), many intersections have a wide solid line indicating where cars should stop, then a gap, then the zebra crossing, which is the striped area designated for walkers and wheelchairs. It's unsafe when cars creep up into that area, because then we have to work around them, and it slows us down, and then we can't get out of the intersection on time.

The line is there for a reason. There is nothing for motorists up there beyond it. Nothing to be gained, and much to be lost.

I've had to walk behind cars that were so far forward that it was safer to go behind them than in front. And for no reason except a driver's impatience. I suggest leaving a minute earlier, to get that time back.

I get it when a driver is trying to edge forward to be able to see if a right turn on red is available. I am willing to grant right-of-way there most times. But in the straight-ahead and left-turn lanes, there is no reason to be forward of the solid line.

There are two kinds of rules in the world: the kind that benefit the rule-maker, and the kind that are about safety. This one is about safety, yours and mine. Thanks for setting a good example.

I'm working on getting back into shape

Elizabeth Templin McCamic

The last few weeks have not gone as planned. I was doing really well with my new routine (running plus extra DVD workouts). Then I caught a cold. And then a second cold. And I'm still working on bouncing back.

I've been surprised how long it's taken to get my energy back. I'm young and, thankfully, not sick very often, so when I am sick I never know how much to rest in order to shorten my recovery time. These colds hit me hard, so I feel like I'm starting over in some ways.

I know I can run; I just need my legs to catch up.

I'm on vacation this week, which does not help in terms of re-establishing a routine, but I'm hopeful it won't be long before running gets easier.

Clueless

Lawrence Toppman: So I weighed myself today for the first time in almost three weeks, doing that balancing thing where you try to be enough on the scale to satisfy your conscience but hang off a little in hopes that a pound or two won't be counted. (Does that even work?) And I weighed exactly 181 pounds, the lowest on this quest and just 1.5 pounds from my original goal.



Then I did that other kind of weighing, where you clomp on the scale confidently and lead-footedly and confirm the first reading with a light heart. It fuddled around 182 for a while but decided 181 had been correct after all.

But why? I'm exercising steadily but not maniacally. I'm eating rationally but remembering to go downstairs before bed for a consolatory cookie or two. My happy Monday baffles me as much as all the Mondays where I weighed MORE than I thought I would and got cranky.

My mom used to tell me not to look gift horses in the mouths. But gift horses also have a way of throwing you once you think you're comfortable in the saddle, so I'm not cocky. I could just as easily turn into a puffer fish on short notice.

Couch to 5K program

Ellyn Ritterskamp

I had heard about this Couch to 5K program before, but just recently ran across it again. It is meant to be, for me to start it. After next weekend's half-marathon.

The goal is to turn non-runners into 5K runners in about nine weeks. They are very insistent on not getting ahead of the program, and letting your body ease into running. If you aren't ready to move on, you just repeat that week.

I read about one woman who weighed over 300 lbs., and she started the program, and just stuck with it, repeating weeks until she could do the goals, and then moving on.

It's 20-30 minutes, 3 times a week, a very reasonable goal.

I have in the past few long walks, felt like I was getting into an actual running rhythm, not fast at all, but it was running. I will need to do this for hours next Saturday, to finish anywhere near the time limit on the race.

But then after this event, the only next event is next summer's triathlon with Mom. I did 2 miles in 37 minutes our first time, and I want to get that down to 30 minutes, anyway. Learning how to run/jog efficiently should shave some time off that.

Really, the most inspiring thing about this is the vision of the 300-lb. lady (not so much larger than me at my most) chipping away at it and succeeding. Good for her, and good for all of us for trying.

Onward.

The tuxedo, part 2

Lawrence Toppman

My father owns two tuxedos, a fat one and a skinnier one. (This is not uncommon for folks whose weight has gone up and down since Truman was president.) He realized that, at 83, he didn't need both of them and mailed me the skinnier one. And I am so close to fitting into both halves.

The shoulders don't cling; the jacket waist doesn't pinch. My butt doesn't emerge from the split back like a manta ray cleaving the waters of a Hawaiian lagoon. (Though it's snugger than I'd like back there.)

The pants? Well, the pants "fit" in the sense of "closing without the prospect of losing snaps or buttons, as long as the wearer doesn't insist on drawing a normal breath." So I'm going to have to drop poundage to get into those.

I know millions of people losing weight do so to climb into unworn clothes, and I have happily spent four decades as an adult with minimal need for a tuxedo. But it's cool to know I could wear it if I felt James Bondish, and I'm determined to fit into it someday. Someday soon.

Time to say goodbye (to capri pants, for a few months)

Ellyn Ritterskamp

Rewards confuse me. I am not big on rewards for weight loss, but this experience was simply about having enough clothes that fit and looked good.

I treated myself to a new pair of jeans and a new sweater, partly because they had a big sale at my favorite big-girls store, but also because I was short on pants that fit. I have lots of capri-style pansts for summer, but they have to go away for a few months now. I've also saved a bunch of size 16 and 18 jeans for down the road, but we're not there yet.

I tried on three pairs of jeans at the store, and somehow, the most expensive one looked and fit the best. Maybe this is one of those products where you get what you pay for, to a point.

Those size 18s will down from the closet shelf by next fall.

Onward.