I’ll tell ya, low-carbing and getting fit makes a gal do cRaZy things!
Things like doing yoga, walking, and even strength training. Yep, I even dug out those dumbbells from the late 80s from the attic. Do you know what kind of crud gets on yer weights after all these years?? 
And the nuttiest thing of all, I decided I would start running. Now mind you, I’ve done plenty of walking but never ran more than 20 seconds in my life. Run for 20 seconds and my lungs start to burn, my calves start to burn, my brain screams “stop the torture!” and I quit.
But there’s this great program on the Cool Running site called “Couch to 5K.” It purports to take a fluffy couch potato like moi and turn her into a 5K runner in 9 short weeks. 9 weeks? Impossible! Well…maybe not impossible, but improbable. I may, in fact, do the program in 18 weeks to stretch it out.
What does it entail? You are asked to workout 3 times a week for said 9 weeks, running for only short circuits throughout the 30 minute routine. The program can be seen here. I found a wonderful podcast by Robert Ullrey which eliminates the need to carry a stopwatch; Robert does the 30 minute program with you, telling you when to walk, when to run, and when to cool down – motivating you with his encouraging words and great electronica music. Check him out here and on iTunes.
Today I did my first C25K workout, using Robert’s Week 1 podcast. The workout consisted of 5 minutes of brisk walking for warmup, followed by alternating circuits of 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of brisk walking, ending in another 5 minute session of brisk walking for cool down. Although I was enjoying the warmup and the accompanying music, my mind was psyching me out. I kept telling myself I’d never be able to do the run, I’d embarrass myself (in front of who, some neighbor looking out their window?), I’d fail…until Robert said, “OK – are you ready? Time for your first 60 second run. Go!” Suddenly, I was jogging along and the 60 seconds flew by!
But I didn’t realize that it gets harder everytime you do another 60 seconds! By the 6th interval, I was winded and fading. Yet I kept on. By the 8th and last interval, I pushed myself to finish and I did! The 5 minute cool down was like a reward for perservering. Can I run a 5K in 9 weeks? Doubtful. But even if I never run a 5K at all, I will be increasing my aerobic capacity and burning calories every time I head out to do these podcasts.
I can’t wait to do Day 2!
I don’t know, Trish… been reading a lot of bad things about running lately (actually, ANY vigorous exercise). Strength training sounds like it could be helpful, but there’s something about pushing the body in marathon training that doesn’t seem to work for us weight-challenged folk the way we’d expect. I don’t know, it all sounds so right when either side explains the science, what’s a low carber to believe?
I Googled “exercise make you fat” and this is the first hit, it’s a pretty cool article by a personal trainer and very well written: http://www.chronodynametrics.com/Exercise%20Makes%20You%20Fat.pdf
Still, if any of us enjoy doing things other than couch-potatoing (I made that up), what’s the real harm? Life isn’t about being stagnant; life is about moving around. If I hadn’t ruined my metatarsal on the treadmill a few weeks ago (it still hurts) (my metatarsal, not the treadmill) when I was attempting to break my stall by burning more calories, I’d probably still be working out three times a week. Now I’m back to potato status (I hate using that term, can we find a different low carb word for it?)
That podcast thing sounds great. But I don’t have an iPod, wouldn’t have one. I believe in Creative products. I think they have similar things that non-Apple users can glom onto. There’s so much cool stuff out there and I feel so behind. I mean, I’ve only been on YouTube a few times since it got really big, and I JUST got my own MySpace page a few weeks ago. Not enough hours in the day…
Thanks for weighing in Mas. I’ve always had a desire to run but never thought I’d have the ability to do so. Even when I was fit (I think it was for about 2 months when I was 24
) I scared myself into believing I couldn’t do it. Whether it was because I thought it involved sprinting at top speed, or that I had poor lung capacity from smoking, or just plan lack of confidence, I never gave it more than a 20 second try. “Oop, that sucks, not gonna try THAT again!” Back to walking.
I want to make it clear I’m not doing it because I think it will speed my weight loss. I’m doing it because I think I found a method that will actually *enable* me to run – thus, satisfying a need inside of me that has lain dormant for years.
I made it through the first day, and I’m chomping at the bit to do it again. But day 2 will probably be tomorrow. My quads were way too sore yesterday to do anything more than walk briskly (another 1.5 miles), and today is a yoga day.
But I do agree with your point that too much exercise can put weight on. I don’t do a lot of weight lifting — my strength training routine consists of simple exercises including crunches, adduction and abduction lifts for my legs, bent-over rows/tricep kickbacks/bicep curls/shoulder presses holding light dumbbells to shape my arms. The flexibility work I do on other days includes yoga and pilates DVDs done on my sticky mat (which, with the dumbbells, all thankfully survived the move from place to place without ending up in the “I’ll never use this crap again” trash).
The main thing for me right now, with regard to the exercise, is that I FEEL good. And I’m still going gangbusters on my low-carb diet. I’ll post about the diet again tonight.
PS – I commented on LCC re: your experiment. I’m waiting with bated breath on the outcome!