updated stats

STATS	17-Oct 2006	22-Nov 2006	23-Dec 2006
Weight	166 lbs.	166 lbs.	162 lbs.
Body Fat	34.5%	33.5%	31%
Fat Mass / Lean Mass	57 lbs. / 109 lbs.	55.5 lbs. / 110.5 lbs.	50 lbs / 112 lbs.
TESTS	17-Oct 2006	22-Nov 2006	23-Dec 2006
Sit & Reach	9”	1’2”	1'3”
Sit-ups	20	28	32
Push-ups	15	26	33
Pull-ups	15	29	23
T-test	14.97 seconds	14.22 seconds	13.62 seconds
Plank	59 seconds	1 min. 22 sec.	1 min. 45 sec.

Hooray me! Everything was improved ... EXCEPT for the pull-ups. Why was that number worse than last month? I don't know. I'm going to arbitrarily blame it on the socks I was wearing.

New guidelines for me this month:
=>Only one "sweet" every 3rd day (which equals = any empty calorie treat, not necessarily only sweets).
=>At least 64 oz. of water every day.
=>When I drink alcohol, only consume 1 drink per evening. (Who's got the best pour in the city? I'll start going there.)
=>Cardio 3x/week. (This I'm already doing most weeks.)
=>Cheese only once a day. (How did he talk me into that?!)
=>Greater general body awareness.

I'm pretty friggin' pleased. Lost 7 lbs. of fat since I started, which is a net loss of 4 lbs. I do not think I'll make my goal weight of 156 by the end of January, but I'll get as close as I can.

cody vs. wallace & gromit

Here's the deal --- Cody doesn't want me to eat cheese. WTF?! I know, right? It's the most impossible thing he asks of me, and he asks a lot of impossible things. Like, "Do 75 crunches," or "Don't cry or throw up on the mat." But to not eat cheese. Excuse me, my head just exploded.

Here's how I currently incorporate this into my life ... I kind of ignore him and eat it anyway. Isn't that horrible? I suppose I have cut back just so I don't have to lie as often. I am totally kidding, of course - I never lie. (To Cody.) But so that I don't have to feel guilty about it. Well, that's not even true. I don't actually even feel guilty; but I feel awkward about not feeling guilty, so that's something.

Here's what I'm going to do: I've decided that I'm going to lure him over to the dark side of cheese. That way he'll encourage cheese-eating to the point that I'll have to say to him, "Whoa, dude, settle down on the cheese."

it's my party! i'll cry if i want to!

Sample # 1 ...
Cody: Okay, next you're going to do [fill in the blank].
Me (with extreme dubiousness): You're kidding. Seriously?

Sample #2 ...
Me: Oh my god. I don't think I can do this, Cody.
Cody: You say that everytime; c'mon!
Me: Yeah, but this time I really mean it.
(This repeats about 3-4x/session, and I'm completely serious every single time. For some reason, he doesn't believe me.)

My sessions are filled with cussing and groaning and strange pterodactyl-like noises that somehow make me feel better. And humming. Humming fools me into thinking I'm calm and in control. I swear, I must seem like some CrAzY cAt LaDy*. Luckily I have lost all regard and self-consciousness for how I appear to others while in the gym.

Finally ...
Me: Does anyone complain as much as me?
Cody: I'm not going to answer that.
(HA! This cracks me up the most.)

*This makes me remember that I told Cody that I used let my cat eat of my mouth. (I know - gross; whatever.) I mean it's true, but why in the world would I say it? It's freakin' hilarious how my defenses drop when I'm at the gym. Working out apparently makes me giddy. And crazy. Oh, and totally hot.

you are what you eat

If you have any odd desire -- well, any desire at all, odd or not -- to see what I eat (!), then go here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p8-uxsjKu6ueK4FYKCRGWOg

I've made my food diary public. It feels weird. Now you know far more intimate things about me than I'll probably ever know about you, whoever you are. Unless you want to share a secret with me in the comments section. C'mon, seriously, I won't tell anyone.

my head, pt. 2

What I think while I'm stationary biking for 30 minutes:

¹/₃₀
¹/₁₅
¹/₁₀
¹/₆
¹/₅
¹/₄
³/₁₀
¹/₃
²/₅
¹/₂
³/₅
²/₃
³/₄
⁷/₁₀
⁴/₅
⁵/₆
⁹/₁₀
2 minutes
1 minute
45 seconds
30 seconds
15 seconds
DONE!

That's a little weird, right? Also kind of obsessive.

At least my elementray school teachers might be proud of me.

welcome to my head

What I think while I'm working out with Cody:

"Why the hell do I pay for this misery? This is horrible!!"

What I think right after I'm done:

"That wasn't so bad; maybe I'll come back."

What I think inbetween sessions:

"I can't wait to go back!"

Rinse, repeat.

get thee behind me

Oh, Cody - how can I lie to you? I ate a brownie this afternoon. It was delicious, but it was not worth it.

UPDATE:
I made up for the brownie by not eating dinner, so that's good! And then I drank too much, and that really worked out really great for me. (For those of you who don't know me, you may notice my sarcastic tendencies.)

I really only truly regret the 2nd whiskey. Oh, and the not eating dinner. Oops, and the smoking.

Boy, I sure fell off the wagon, didn't I? And then it ran over me.

these boots are made for walkin'

I found this great site that uses Google maps and turns it into a mileage calculator for walking (or running, I suppose, but I sincerely doubt you'll catch me secretly tabulating the miles I plan to jog). Enter your location, double-click your starting point, and double-click your way through the map, marking your journey. It makes you want to walk places! (Kinda.)

it's practically medieval

I realized that my monthly eval stats don't mean anything unless you know exactly what I am put through

• Sit & Reach: This tests, what? Flexibility, I guess. Sitting with legs straight out in front of you, heels on the ground about a foot apart. You lean down in between and stretch your hands as far down the measuring tape as you can.
• Sit-ups: # sit-ups in 1 minute
• Push-ups: # push-ups in 1 minute (on the knee push-ups, but still …)
• Pull-ups: # pull-ups in 1 minute (assisted pull-ups, meaning I’m under the bar, leaning at a 45% angle with my feet on the ground)
• T-test: Best time out of three. A sprinting thing between cones set up in a T-formation; reminds me of football practice. (Ya know, back when I played ball before my knee injury.)
• The Plank: A truly hateful Pilates-ish ab exercise; horrifyingly deceptive.

And there you have it; my monthly torture test.

i may be vain, but i'm not proud

Here's the workout I went through last Saturday. Before you watch it, you just have to know this --- every single thing you see is way harder than it appears. That's how Cody tricks me into doing things.

http://www.survivalseattle.com/Peggys_workout_dec.html

Full disclosure: Cody had videoed a workout once before but he said we couldn't use it, because "You weren't smiling." Yeah, no shit. Wonder why - in between the agony, the lack of breath, and my pleas to simply kill me quickly - who's got time to smile? (Naw - I'm joking! I kid because I love.)

may the force be with you

The are always several complicated and often contrary motivations hanging out inside my psyche at any given time. I suppose we're all like that, right? I mean, human beings are a complicated species. Well, screw celebrity deathmatch - getting in shape pits two longtime archrivals in the fight of the century; two sides of the force fighting to gain control of my soul ... my innate love of comfort against my vanity. Currently, vanity is trumping laziness. Yay me. Yes, Carly Simon, I do think that song is about me.

At the first session, Cody talked to me about my goals. I was all like, "I wanna be able to kick ass. And also, HOT." I mean, duh. But he forced me to get specific. Which I absolutely recommend for others, but which I don't love to do myself. I know it works; it's old school time-tested. Again and again, you see the people who succeed are the ones who are specific about what they want to achieve and who draft up a mission statement of sorts for themselves. Well, la-di-dah, good for them, but dude! it's just awkward. There are all sorts of things that I want and that I believe, but I don't say it OUT LOUD. C'mon! It's embarrassing. But the last photo I saw of myself was embarrassing, too; so! I sucked it up and did it. Besides, I'm too old and determined to be shy about that shit anymore.

MY PERSONAL TRAINING MISSION STATEMENT:
=>In 3 months (*basically by the end of Jan 07), I will weigh 156 lbs, and my body fat will be at 30%. My target body parts are my waist, thighs, and ass (*Cody translated that into "glutes," the cutie-pie, but I know I said ass). I will wake up in the morning and not feel achy and weak.
=>I will be able to accomplish these things by working out 3x/week (with Cody), swimming 2x/week, going to bed earlier, eating out less, decreasing drinking, and quitting smoking. (*He claims I said I was going to give up eating out & drinking, but if I did, I was drunk when I said it.)
=>By acheiving these goals, I will be able to control my body in a way that will improve my acting. My patience will improve. I will be able to do any activity I wish.
=>I am ready to change, for good.

Then there's a whole evaluation circuit, to set a baseline and chart the (hopefully) improvement. I did the same thing approximately a month later.

Here are my stats when I started and at my first month re-eval:

STATS	17-Oct 2006	22-Nov 2006
Weight	166 lbs.	166 lbs.
Body Fat	34.5%	33.5%
Fat Mass / Lean Mass	57 lbs. / 109 lbs.	55.5 lbs. / 110.5 lbs.
TESTS	17-Oct 2006	22-Nov 2006
Sit & Reach	9”	1’2”
Sit-ups	20	28
Push-ups	15	26
Pull-ups	15	29
T-test	14.97 seconds	14.22 seconds
Plank	59 seconds	1 min. 22 sec.

Everything greatly improved except my weight. And that's because I freakin' love food. LOVE. IT. Can't get enough. Guess what my goal is for this month.

Seriously, though. It was only a bit over a month, and I was shocked at the improvement. I was really proud. Enough for now, but I tell you later how this all affects my day-to-day world.

Oh, also, I'm 36 years old, and a stage actress. See ya later!

just you wait

I adore my personal trainer; he kicks my ass. And just as soon as I can catch him, I will kick his.

when you read you begin with ABC

In the beginning there was me, and there was too much of me. Too much weight, yes; but that's symptomatic of the systemic issue ... too much noise; too much "other." I've been promising for years that I will get in better shape, that I will lose weight, that I will set goals and stick to them. I'm too broke, I'm too poor, it's too hard. Blah blah blah, I was freakin' sick of hearing myself, and I'm me. Yeah sure, Peg; but what have you done for me lately?

I'm not sure what the tipping point was. I was a bit weary of not succeeding. Well, it turns out I wasn't trying very hard, so my lack of success is not, in retrospect, incredibly shocking. I have to say, though -- it's not so much that I didn't want to try, but that I didn't know where to begin to know how to try. I read a lot; that's how I begin solving almost all my internal, and even external, dilemmas. I read books on organizing, on diets, on exercising, on detoxing, on philosophies of weight loss, on meditation. I did everything I could to get my body & mind into shape without actually having to do anything hard: chiropractic, naturopathic, massage therapy, acupuncture. I got a hot haircut, I bought good-looking clothes & cute shoes, I stopped biting my nails, I started waxing & getting manicures & pedicures. I loved it all. It's good 'n' good for you. But at the end of the day, I was forced to admit out loud that it was me. I'd fixed everything else, so I was obviously the culprit. Hmmmmm. Go figure.

One thing about me, though, is that once I commit - boy howdy! I know how to push my own buttons. I know intimately all the white lies I tell myself, and exactly how I trick myself. So I tricked myself and hired a personal trainer.