Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Temporary Gym Rat

I survived the first day of the Anytime Fitness 21-day challenge! After my disappointing stint at Curves, I swore I'd never join a gym again.  First of all, I went faithfully, 3 times a week as recommended, for the first 3 months.  I was not expecting miracles, but after three months with NO results whatsoever, it became really easy to find reasons to not go.  I am not a person who enjoys exercise for the sake of exercise;  I like to DO stuff.  So if I'm not seeing results, I find it difficult to make myself show up to do something I'm not enjoying.  I'm a total hedonist; if it's not fun, I don't want to do it even if its supposed to be good for me.  No self-discipline at all.  And second of all, the reason I don't want to join a gym, is that I know me.  I won't go.  Once I'm committed to it, it's just one more chore I have to do.  See above.

But I got this card in the mail from Anytime Fitness, and last time I got one and thought I might join in, I was too late.  I guess there's only a certain number of slots available.  But I went for it this time, and showed up for my introduction on Saturday with a certain amount of skepticism.  After the Curves thing, that is.  Told my trainer right off the bat; I hate to exercise.  The only reason I signed up for this is because it's a limited-run engagement.  We'll see what happens.  After my first session yesterday, wherein I worked my upper body, I actually surprised myself.  For someone who doesn't "work out", I'm pretty strong.  Must be lifting all those amps and speakers.  Today I introduce my lower body muscles to actual movement.  I'm pretty sure that's not going to go as well, but then I thought that about the top half as well, so you never know.

So I was going to talk about meat today.  And about this dietary thing; I'm not posting all this stuff because I'm trying to become an expert.  What I'm hoping is that someone like me who gets lost in all the information you find on the internet in the pursuit of better health, will read what works for me and maybe it will help make a small difference for you too.  All we need is something to start with and we can figure out the rest as we go.

When Preston's cholesterol became a problem, and he needed to take meds for it, I of course wanted to do whatever I could to help, as I am the one who does the cooking. I compared the fat and cholesterol contents of turkey, chicken, ham, and beef (cause he won't eat fish), and at the time the differences did not seem to be that great.  But as I am realizing now, there's no big change to make, just a lot of little changes.  With him, the best thing I can do is switch to leaner beef.  I'm not going to force feed him stuff he doesn't want to eat.  MY palate is way more adaptable.  So I have all but eliminated red meat and pork from my diet, and I don't miss it.  I eat turkey burgers, and switch chicken for whatever other meat I am cooking for him.  I'm a little concerned about not getting enough iron, but I'm looking into other sources. When PJ was here he introduced me to Bison, which didn't taste a whole lot different from beef.  It has less fat than beef, and he informed me that the government regulations for bison are very strict, and they are not allowed to use growth hormones or other stuff that goes into beef cattle.  It's also close to $10 a pound.  So I won't be buying bison on a regular basis.

No comments: