On Lenten promises and activity stickers

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the pre-Easter season. It is tradition for Christians who observe Lent to choose a Lenten sacrifice, most often manifested as giving up chocolate, soda, sugar, coffee, etc.

When I was going to Catholic grade school, they encouraged us to be more proactive about our Lenten sacrifices, instead calling them "Lenten promises." That's been my MO in recent years - choosing to be more patient with friends, more hard-working, etc. This year, however, I waited until the last possible minute to choose a Lenten sacrifice - yet another side-effect of my crisis in faith over the last six or seven months. Yesterday, I tentatively decided to give up diet coke, one of my happy treats.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I'm attempting to embark on a healthier lifestyle - 8.6 lbs lost in five weeks, by the way! My better half has lost 33 pounds since November by working out and following a somewhat strict diet plan. I promised Jordan I would go work out with him last night - something I've been planning to do for weeks. I got out of going on Tuesday because I had killer stomach pains, likely a lingering symptom from over-indulging on Saturday evening. As I waffled and pouted over going to work out, I was reminded of feelings I've had earlier in this process. Rather than pouting and feeling sorry for myself, I needed to really examine the reasons for continuing this process and to make a concrete commitment.

I decided to return to the premise of Lenten promises rather than trivial Lenten sacrifices. Motivated by the biblical principle of the body as a temple (a philosophy that fits well for all belief systems), I decided to love my body and to do something nice for it - I've made a commitment to work out on a regular basis. I'm not sure what form this will take - right now, my goal is working out enough to legitimately earn the activity bonus stickers at my Weight Watchers meetings. I made it through my first round with Weight Watchers (reference post linked above) without setting foot in a gym once. I can't help but feel like, if I had cultivated the habit of working out, I would have had a better time sustaining my weight loss. Since starting WW this time, I've made small, more-active changes in my schedule, such as only taking the stairs at work in the library, walking across campus instead of driving, and parking further away. I feel like these, while healthy habits, are cop-out activities. I've never raised my hand in a WW meeting this time for an activity sticker. If these middle-aged women in my meetings can join Zumba classes, hike around their neighborhood, or schedule sessions with a personal trainer, why can't I take advantage of my own gym-aficionado fiance (who is totally addicted to working out at this point)?

We started on the elliptical. I asked Jordan how I should program it - after a short consultation, we decided on 22 minutes, level three, calorie burner setting. I plugged in headphones borrowed from him, scoured the on-machine television guide for a workout-appropriate television show, and finally decided on Throwdown (Boston Cream Pie edition) with Bobby Flay. About six minutes in, I felt like I was in trouble - my heart rate was at 170 (a quick glance at Jordan's machine showed his HR in the 115-range), my chest felt tight, and I was terrified of a heart attack or stroke. I teared up some, and glanced at Jordan, who looked alarmed. I pulled off my headphones. "Is my heart rate normal? What's up with this?" He glanced down at my machine, looked at me with a bit of surprise, and said "well, maybe a bit..." I teared up some more and said "well, maybe I'll just go to fifteen minutes instead of twenty-two."

I decreased my pace - a couple of times, the machine told me to speed up - and powered through. My heart rate went into the 150s and I felt more in charge of the elliptical. Ten or fifteen minutes later, I had finished the complete 22 minute session. Jordan and I hightailed it to the target heart rate range posters across the gym - my HR was, as I suspected, in the high range of the target zone (hello, I'm significantly overweight and haven't been on the elliptical in about four years). I asked Jordan about his 115-heart rate. His reply? "Oh yeah, I don't know what's up with that. I think that machine's broken - my HR is usually in the 150s." I've had a lot of health-motivated freak-outs recently - last semester, I convinced myself I was having a heart attack every night and made the doctors at MTSU give me an EKG and run a full health panel. I'm filing this experience away as more of the same.

We continued with weights - I specifically wanted to focus on training my arms. I pulled Jordan away from his own workouts to show me the ropes - we couldn't decide what would work my arms better, so I did some preacher curls on a Nautilus (part of a circuit system), some free weights, and a rowing machine. At the last minute, I added some sit-ups (they are much easier to do on one of those sit-up bench thingies) and waited for Jordan to finish his weight-lifting regime. Seasoned work out vets, if you have any insight on best routine elements for me, let me know in the comments or through a private message via facebook!

I felt energized and accomplished afterward. While my body felt physically exhausted, my mind was alert. I went home and, craving veggies and protein, ate some low-fat cottage cheese on a bed of lettuce. I also had a small piece of pizza left over from the Sloans' dinner, but that's not really germane to this story.....

After the workout last night, I have no problem raising my hand for an activity sticker at meeting this week. I earned that little footprint.