Last night I rowed during "Last Comic Standing." One thing I like about the rowing "computer" is that it strictly measures actual time rowing, so even though I was on the rowing machine for the entire hour-long show, there were commercials when I took breaks. I try to do six seconds of HIT when the commercials arrive. I decided that I would row for 30 minutes in August at the first level of resistance and then raise the resistance by one level every month. Once I hit 10, I will start increasing the time.
Got a solid eight hours of sleep, possibly due to the cooler weather. Didn't have any dreaded wide-awakes, where I wake up and don't feel sleepy at all. I read an important tip from a sleep expert: when you wake in the middle of the night, never look at the clock... Guess what I do?
Rain and clouds kept it cooler today. Humidity at 69 which is high as it gets in my apartment. Put the SmartHealth watch pedometer on first thing in the morning, trying to re-establish that as a habit. I was previously tracking steps by writing entries on a calendar, but I'm going to be doing it online from now on.
Body fat at 28.0 which I believe is the lowest I've gone.
Today is a down day: 500 calories. With Heart Healthy Nuts and protein shake, I'm halfway there. Guess I'm going to be drinking a lot of half and half: water and fruit juice. The great thing about FatSecret is that you input the calories and your intake shows up at the top of the page.
One symptom of my loss of muscle mass is lack of strength when it comes to opening jars. I'm doing wrist curls with ten-pound hexagonal dumbbells to counteract that. In the mean time, I've experimented with various jar openers. My first attempt was the Oxo Good Grips opener, an exercise in frustration as the teeth that grip the lid keep slipping. A good way to skin the knuckles and harder than it should be. I've thrown in the towel and it's getting Freecycled. My next experiment was the Kuhn Rikon The Gripper Jar Opener, which looked promising. Tried it on the Special K protein shake. The plastic wrapper around the bottle kept slipping, but that's not the Gripper's fault. It worked a lot better than the Oxo.
Ten minutes of stretches in bed. More strength training today. Twenty-five minutes of leg exercises around the chair with 1 1/2 pound ankle weights: hip abductions, leg and knee lifts, toe raises, two sets each of ten reps. Another 30 minutes of leg exercises with dumbbells, ankle weights, and resistance bands, two sets each of ten reps. Sumo squats, two sets of 20 reps with 23 pound dumbbell; wrist curls with ten-pounds, two sets of ten reps.
The HealthSmart watch and pedometer wouldn't register steps today, even set on high sensitivity. The last time I entered my weight on the watch was back in January so I've lost a lot since then. One Amazon reviewer suggested swinging your arms back and forth. I tried that while standing and it gave me a hundred additional steps. When I bought the watch, I also bought an Omron tri-axis pedometer which I didn't use because the watch seemed more convenient than having to clip on a pedometer and I didn't want to futz with calculating the length of my stride. Accuracy trumps convenience.
How to motivate yourself into an exercise routine you'll stick to - Lifehacker