Love Your Heart

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Coco

We celebrate Valentine’s Day with lace hearts, paper hearts, and chocolate hearts, but let’s not forget about our real hearts.

This weekend I read an interesting article in Good Housekeeping called, “How to Save Your Own Life.” It emphasized the importance of a healthy lifestyle to preventing heart disease, and outlined five key habits:

  • not smoking
  • exercising regularly
  • maintaining a healthy weight
  • eating well (including five or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables)
  • drinking moderatelty (1-7 alcoholic drinks a week)

According to the article, the more of these habits that you keep, the better your odds of staying healthy. It’s not just enough to be at a healthy weight. It’s not just enough to exercise. “It’s a whole package.”

This Valentine’s Day, commit to loving your heart. Make time for a heart-pumping workout. Enjoy some steamed vegetables with your steak dinner. Indulge in strawberries dipped in dark chocolate.  Toast your love with a glass of red wine.

I was lucky to survive a blood clot that I ignored for weeks, and promised that I would never ignore symptoms or take my health for granted again. When I lost my Dad to heart failure last year, the prevention of heart disease became even more important to me.  So I urge you to learn the warning signs of heart attack and stroke, and don’t hesitate to
call 9-1-1 at the first sign of chest pain/discomfort/tightness, shortness of breath, or sudden numbness, weakness, diziness, confusion, or other sudden symptoms.

Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer of women?

Posted in Fitness, Life | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Monday Check-In

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Coco

I’ve been frustrated by the recent return of my late-night snacking habit. I tend to blame my husband and son who often grab a 9:00 pm snack–it is so hard to fight off the munchies when others are crunching around you–but I know that I am responsible for my own choices. 

I decided to hold myself accountable with weekly weigh-ins, but I was shocked when I had to slide the marker on our doctor’s-style scale to a lower weight this morning (about 1.5 lbs below my “target” weight). Now, some of that could be a sign of dehydration. I know I didn’t drink enough water yesterday–I never do on the weekends. But I also think that it’s a sign that I need to eat more real food during the day–especially with all the extra milage I’m putting in at the other end of the leash.

In other good news, my right ITB/glute/piriformis is feeling good after that 9 mile treadmill workout yesterday.  I will continue my “rehab” program, including my weight routine that focuses on single-leg moves:

Superset #1 (3 cycles)
Single-leg dead lifts (12 reps each leg)
Military presses (12 reps)
Push-Ups (15 reps)

Superset #2 (3 cycles)
Bent-over rows (12 reps)
Single-leg squats (with the resting leg on a bench and holding on to my elliptical for balance!) (15 reps each leg)
Tricep dips (15 reps)

Superset #3 (3 cycles)
Lateral arm raises (8-12 reps)
Front arm raises (8-12 reps)
Lunges with bicep curls (15 reps each leg)

Superset #4 (3 cycles)
Chest flies on fitball (12 reps)
Crunches on fitball (20 reps)

Superset #5 (3 cycles on each side)
Glute bridges with skull crusher (15 reps) (I do these three times, not six)
Side leg-lifts (upper and lower leg) (15 reps)
Crunches (multi-directional) (20 reps)

I have cut out some upper body moves, but this still takes a solid 40 minutes with no dilly-dallying!

How did you kick-start your week?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Rejoice Always

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Coco

One of my favorite Bible passages is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Rejoice always,
Pray without ceasing,
Give thanks in all circumstances;
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I usually focus on the reminder to “give thanks in all circumstances.” It can help me put things in perspective, turn around a grouchy mood, or end a pity party.

Since this lovely lady came into our life a few weeks ago, I’ve been thinking more about the command to “rejoice always.”

She is happy from the moment the alarm goes off in the morning. She has no desire to snooze–the promise of a morning walk and a bowl of kibble has her tail wagging no matter how dark and cold it is outside. She happily greets everyone who walks in the door and literally leaps with joy whenever we get ready to take her outside–no matter that we just put her leash away from the last walk. Even when she’s being quiet, she will give a happy tail thump in response to some sweet talk. She really does rejoice always.

Can I greet the day with such hope?

Can I be that grateful for simple pleasures and every day blessings?

Can I show my friends and family that I am that happy to have them in my lives?

Posted in My Faith | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Training Log: Rock’n’Roll USA Half Marathon (Week 5)

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Coco

Yes! I finally am able to do my planned workouts for my training program for the Rock’n’Roll USA Half Marathon (March 17, 2012). Even after nudging up the intensity this week, my ITB isn’t bothering me and my glute/piriformis is almost 100% better.

rp_rnrusa-splash.jpg

This week they published the course map. They have not published the course elevation profile yet, but I am pretty sure that miles 5-8 will be a steady climb. That means I need to focus on hill work. Here’s my training log for the week:

Monday
Walking: 1 mile (morning dog walk)
Weights: 40 min full-body routine
Yoga: “standing” section of “Yoga for Runners”
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Tuesday (TM Intervals)
Running: 45 min manual program
   alternating 90 second incline (level 3) or speed (6.7 mph) intervals,
   with 60 sec recovery intervals
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Wednesday
Elliptical: 20 min forward/reverse intervals
Weights: 45 min full-body routine, adding squats for good measure

Thursday
Treadmill: 45 min Hill Interval Program (Level 4), mostly @ 6.0 mph
Walking: 1 mile (afternoon dog walk)

Friday
Walking: 1.3 miles (morning dog walk)
Yoga: Rodney Yee “Twists” program
Running: 3.7 miles after work with Tiger Lilly (avg pace 9:15 min/mile)

Saturday
Walking: 2 miles (morning dog walk)
Walking: 1.5 miles (afternoon dog walk)

Sunday (Treadmill Training Run)
Walking: 1.5 miles (morning dog walk)
Treadmill: Random Program Level 3, 9 miles @6.3/6.5 mph
When the weather forecast said 25F with 25 mph winds, my friend and I decided to meet at the gym at work to do our long run on side-by-side treadmills. As we predicted, we were the only people there, so we could chat freely–until the last 1.5 miles when we were both too tired to talk. At that point I took out my iPhone, and put my “TM Tunes” playlist on speaker to push us on to the end.
I varied my pace between 6.3 mph (incline 1-3) and 6.5 mph (incline 0-0.5) and was dripping with sweat when we finished. I don’t like doing long runs on the treadmill, but if I’ve got to do them, doing them with a friend makes the time go more quickly than watching even the most engrossing movie on my DVR.

Posted in Fitness, Training Log | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Are You This Badass?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Coco

I can’t write about being “badass” without giving a shout out to my friend Josie (@YumYucky), especially when her fitness theme for February is being badasss! Her no-excuses kick-ass workouts inspire me to take my routine to the next level, even if I have to stay a notch below badass while I nurse this mystery ITB/glute/piriformis injury. But the inspiration for this post came from my son’s wrestling meet.

Wrestling is a badass sport. You have to give it your all, or you will be crushed. You have to keep fighting when you are losing, because it’s better to lose by points then to be pinned. You have to stay smart when you are winning, because your opponent can take advantage of a moment of weakness and flip you on your back to win by a pin. You don’t have any shoulder pads to make you look bigger or a helmet to hide behind–your wrestling singlet doesn’t leave much of anything to the imagination.

As proud as I am of my son, this post isn’t about him either. It’s about–or inspired by–the girl on the other team who wrestled one of our lighter wrestlers. If you wonder whether girls should play football, you may be surprised to learn that girls are even allowed to wrestle against boys in high school. There aren’t too many girls in the leagues my son wrestles in, but there are a few. Although I do feel sorry for the boys who are matched up against them, I don’t wish the girls were excluded (and yes, my son did have to wrestle a girl once!).

Maybe it’s my strong belief in women’s rights and the principles behind Title IX, or because I enjoyed playing sports in high school (soccer and rugby), or because I wouldn’t want my daughter excluded from a sport she loved, but I find myself admiring the girls. I know that they have fought biases and prejudices to even try out for the team, and I’m sure that they are hassled and teased–it is high school after all. What could be more badass than going through all that to participate in the sport that you love?

Do you think girls should be allowed to participate in “boys'” sports?

Would you support your daughter if she wanted to wrestle or play football?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged | 5 Comments