My blood work came in. My triglycerides and cholesterol are abnormally high.


It kind of shocked me at first. I knew my mom has blood pressure problems, but now me too? I'm barely in my 20s.


I've already got a gym membership, so that's done. Been there a few times now, starting to get regular. I need to start running again. I got a heart rate monitor before coming home.


Not only will I have to be running more, but I need to cut my diet up like an emo kid on prom night. Grains are getting a major nut kick, and now I have to be active about monitoring fat intake.


Shit, guys... shit.


I can do this.


We can do this.

Go, both of you!

I spent the month with my grandpa not really working out at all other than a few pushups here and there, and I'm just not getting back in the swing of it.

I'm lifting and watching all four Die Hard movies tonight.

satyreyes wrote:

"Nemo," Nightwish

Huh, although I like their music, I can't imagine working out to it. Maybe because I'm used to listening to them while sleeping. >_>

Granted, I mostly listen to music while running.

One song I'm not exactly proud of listening to, but which is pretty effective to run to, is The Best Damn Thing by Avril Lavigne.

satyreyes wrote:

Nemo is the only Nightwish song I know, so I don't know if it's representative of their work as a whole   If it is, then you're a boss for trying to sleep to that stuff -- Nemo is not a quiet song!  Most recently, my falling-asleep music is the Indigo Girls' 1200 Curfews.

Maybe I'm just a heavy sleeper. Though for some reason I put Protect Me From What I Want by Placebo in my work out playlist. When I think about it, that seems more like a fall-asleep song than Nemo (though it's kind of noisy as well). o_O

Oh, Raspberry Heaven. Well, it is kind of fast-paced!

And yes, I've found that when picking songs to work out to, it's still important that I actually like the song. Or else I would just get bored, which is counter-productive. Although it's always tempting to listen to the songs whenever then, which means I tire of them faster. So I keep having to find new music. Well, I don't need music to work out, but it really helps.

::gets caught up::

It's a shame about your blood work and blood pressure, but it's definitely better to know what's going on than not. It's definitely the kind of thing you can bring back into line at this point, so that's great. And it's nice to have a fixed number you're at too. My last cbc/cmp was about a year ago and more or less a-ok. I still have the letter my doctor mailed to me. I think cholesterol was a /touch/ high, but just a touch. I'm still really struggling with the running though, which has me a bit frustrated and baffled. I mean, I'm not overweight... I'm 145 at 5'9". And I'm obviously not in good shape, but I feel like I should have a bit more progress at the ~6 week mark of having been doing this 3-4 days a week.

I don't know, there's obviously been /some/ progress, in that I can jog a leisurely mile. But if I try to keep up any speed at all I'm more or less broken down panting after 1/3 of a mile, like I was at the start. I bought a heart rate monitor watch/chest strap, and according to that my HR goes up to 190 after that 1/3 mile if I'm trying to move decently, which explains my feeling of brokenness.... I'm concerned that there might be something with my heart or something, and otherwise I'd have improved a bit more by this point? But then I think I'm just being crazy paranoid. I'll probably bring it up if I'm still not making much progress in a month or so, whenever I see my primary care physician again.

Food-wise I had a terrible last two weeks. Between life issues from family and having my first bunch of tests at school, I ended up stressed and waking up at 5:00am far too often, so I'd go back to picking up my morning mocha. And I started having soda again. Like... lots. Although I still have kept it out of my house. Having it out of my house isn't much of a help if I don't have the self-control to keep from guzzling it down. But the sugar and caffeine just helps a lot when you're really sleep-deprived . I've been getting really mad at myself about that too. It's funny, I don't think I drank that much more these last two weeks than I used to before the four weeks or so I managed to go without, but now I'm full of self-loathing for it. On a positive note, the tests all worked out quite nicely in the end, so there's that.

My other food isn't great either (although it's not junk food or anything). I've been having a few more vegetables though, lately, so I suppose my overall diet is slightly improving. I feel like I eat too much all the time. Not a /lot/ too much, but just a bit. Labeling is always terrible... like these pre-made Indian dinners that are listed as "two servings", always get eating as one serving, and in reality are probably like 1.5 servings. I don't think it's realistic to have me toss 1/3 of a container though. And it's not enough to save for left overs. That's just one example, there's a lot of food like that in my life, which is healthy enough on it's own, but I probably have just a bit too much of because that's how its sold.

The exercise has me feeling really good though, even if the running progress is sort of "stalled". I know it's sort of trite to talk about how exercising makes you feel better and all, but it really has, and that I've managed to keep up with 3-4 times a week (except for one week with all my tests, when I could only make it twice, since I needed to grab five or so extra hours to study). At any rate, I plan on timing a mile soon to see how it compares to my original time. I might do that next week.


Edit: Oh, and songs. I've actually found myself working out without music, except when I was in the spinning classes (which I had to quickly stop once academic classes started, since the two conflicted). I feel like earphones/earphone wires are unwieldy for running, and I don't really want them on for lifting. If I was running longer I'd probably be more interested in hooking up to some music, but just going one mile moves pretty fast. I have no idea how you can fall asleep to nightwish though.... to their loud songs, at least. But whatever works for you! Not to derail the thread or anything, but if you want to listen to any more Nightwish Satyr (or anyone) I like Ghost Love Score, Ever Dream, and Star Gazers. If you want to hear a quiet Nightwish song, just to know that it exists, there's Kuolema Tekee Taiteillijan. Each of those three is from a different album I think (the last one is on the same album as Ghost Love Score), so it's a fairly broad sample.

Last edited by Valeli (02-15-2013 03:24:18 PM)

I've almost never had trouble with my earbud wires, but to each his own!  I need music to keep moving, especially after the three-mile mark or so.  If I were running for a mile at a time instead of my usual distance-running stuff, I probably wouldn't bother with the tunes either.

I'm not a health professional of any kind, but 190 BPM sounds like it might straddle the line between excessive and scary.  The Mayo Clinic uses a benchmark of 220 minus your age to estimate your maximum heart rate -- which you don't want to be skirting during a workout, even if you're sprinting, and certainly not if you're jogging or running at a moderate tempo.  If you're getting up to 190 BPM during a normal workout that doesn't seem like it should be too strenuous, then indeed that's something it might be smart to talk to your GP about.  Maybe you'll just hear "that's too high, you need to lay off and give your body more time to adjust to the exercise."  But it's wise to be careful.

Congratulations on being able to jog a mile without trouble!    And congratulations on sticking with your routine!

Last edited by satyreyes (02-15-2013 04:38:05 PM)

I am ridiculous and don't want to get up early to go to a 6:00 race, so instead I will stay up very late.

Hahaha.

That's what I do before travel (if I'm going to travel to somewhere that involves shifting more than 2 or 3 time zones), when I have the free time available to do it. I always feel kind of weird in the process, but it typically half-works for me. I don't know if I could use that for exercising though, since I'm sort of half-tired nonetheless until I end up in the real timezone. I guess the actual act of running will perk you up though. I totally know what you mean about sunrise though. I hate getting up early, but when I do I try to make it extra early so I have some peace and quiet coffee time in the dark, and then get to see the sun come up. It's kind of nice, until the coffee wears off.

Good luck with the half-marathon and weather! Let us know how it goes.

I owned today.  The whole rundown is on my LJ (friends-locked -- PM me with your username if I haven't already friended you!), but the bottom line is that I ran the half marathon in 1:51:57, setting a new personal best by four and a half minutes and putting me in the 85th percentile of all 4421 finishers.  It was an amazing experience.  I have a medal.

Thank you all for your support

satyreyes wrote:

I have a medal.

Congrats!!!

You are awesome. I'm trying to get back on track tomorrow, I think I'm going to take you for inspiration and try and find some kind of event or goal. Dragon Boat is big here, things like that.

FUCK posted in the wrong thread sorry.

Last edited by Atropos (03-04-2013 07:01:48 PM)

Riri-kins wrote:

Congrats again, satyr!  That's a story to tell your grandkids.

I'm finally fit enough to use an elliptical for thirty minutes. My posture is improving and I feel lighter.

Congrats Satyr!

Huzzah another eliptical user! Keep up the good work Riri-kins.