Monday, March 4, 2013

Mid-Life Fitness Crisis?

You're young and you can eat anything you want and no weight goes on.  You don't even know any people who are even in their twenties because those people are just old, boring grown-ups.  You go to college, graduate and get a job and start to work with people of different ages.  That "really old" age turns into those severely mature and boring people in their thirties.

As you keep working and the years drag on, you realize those thirty-something people are pretty nice and you even like hanging out with them.  They talk about how they used to be able to eat anything and never put on a pound but now they have to not only watch what they eat but exercise too.  Not me, you think.

Then you hit your thirties and for a while it's not clear why your pants are fitting tighter than they used to.  "That's strange, I must be drying them on hot or something," you think because it appears the waist band has shrunk on pretty much all your pants.  You think it could be time to get a scale, after all it's been thirty years and you've never paid attention to your weight before.  It could be time.

Hmm, it seems you've managed to add on some stomach fat through overeating and sloth-like activity levels at your comfy desk job.  It should be easy to get rid of, you assure yourself.  You've never dieted before, but how hard can it be.  "I'm sure I can drop this weight in a week or two" you think.  And suddenly you encounter hunger that taunts you.  Hunger that insists you must eat now and eat far more than you need to eat, just because you told yourself you had to eat less.  That's when you realize weight-loss is a long, slow and difficult journey with a high rate of failure.

Time goes by and suddenly you're pregnant.  Hooray, you can eat everything you want because you're suppose to be gaining weight now.  Two babies in a row and the fun food fest doesn't stop for two years.  And then, oh my, you weigh more than you've ever weighed and it's just got to go.  And this time, you're serious about it.

Weight lost, body back to it's original adult size and as it turns out, you're liking this exercise thing.  You do more running, even train for a race and succeed.  And you still keep running.  "What do I do next?  How can I look better and feel better?", you ask yourself.  Is this, wait a minute, hold on, is this a ladies-version of a mid-life crisis you suddenly think?

In my teens and twenties I never even thought about fitness.  Boring stuff those older people did.  Now, I'm one of those older people and I suppose, if I think it through, that I'd like to regain some of my youthfulness and one way of doing that that's also healthy, is through exercise.  I think I'd prefer that route over plastic surgery at any rate.

My neighbor heard about a personal trainer that works at a gym close to use during early morning hours.  Today was our first day with him.  He ran us through some exercises for a half hour to see what our level of fitness was and I hope we did fairly well.  He said to come back and he'd be glad to work with us.

I don't know if I'm excited or scared, because he had us doing some hard things already today.  But it was good fun so we'll see.  When it gets tough my neighbor and I think about our summer bathing suits and how we want to do our best so we can look good in them.  Teenage-me never thought about that.  Bah, age. 

The Big Boy Update:  Environmental control.  He's in that trying two's age where he needs to have control over his environment, and if you let him have his way, he will run right over you.  We know he's frustrated but it comes out as anger at anything and everything.  That's not the food he wanted.  You're taking the food he didn't want away so it is now the only thing in the whole world he wants.  You moved his apple slice to the other side of the tray.  What were you thinking, momma?  That is the only place in the whole universe where that slice of apple can be and there is a major tantrum about to happen if that slice of apple isn't returned stat to it's original, random location.  There is a lot of ignoring on our part so that he can work through it himself (which is more helpful to him than any actual help we might offer.) 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  No!  I've written about this before, but it's even more distinct now.  When she doesn't want something she has a three-way attack she goes for.  First, she would shove the item (bottle of milk, for instance) away.  Second, she says "No noooo noo" very clearly and quite emphatically.  And now, she's started shaking her head in an exaggerated no gesture.  If you don't get her message, you are seriously not paying attention.

Fitness Update:  New personal trainer try-out with thirty minutes of him evaluating us and seeing how well we performed his fitness tests.  Thirty minutes on a treadmill because we didn't think to bring running clothes. 

Someone Once Said:   Force is an argument to use when nothing else will do and the issue is that important. Instead, I’m going to go limp on them.

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