Cheryl Katz

I recently discovered a phenomenon that is sweeping the nation, and I think it really works for me!  It’s called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and I’ve added it into my rotation of cardio workouts this week.

The idea of it is that three times a week or so, I do workouts that push my capacity with short repeating circuits of intense cardio work followed by a period of recovery time.

The way I executed this on Monday was I jogged for 5 minutes at a light pace, to get warmed up.  Then I ran as hard and fast as I physically could, until I was on the verge of asthma attack and/or no longer maintaining that level of exertion, but only for about 30 seconds.  Then I jogged an extremely light recovery for 90 seconds (in reality, the recovery started with walking, because that was all I could muster for a few seconds after all-out exertion.)

Rinse, repeat.  I managed 4 reps total before I had to take it down to a light jog and then cool down.  I got a total of 20 minute workout, which my heart rate monitor reported to me thusly:

Max HR: 181 (95% of “max heart rate”)
Avg. HR: 141

Calories burned: 178

That’s not as many calories as I’d have burned if I’d been jogging the whole time.  However, according to HIIT science, the short bursts of crazy intense activity throw my body into a tizzy burning fat in an attempt to recover, and the elevated metabolism last as long as 24 hours.  (My resting heart rate did not return to 58 as it usually does in the hour after a workout; this time it got back down to about 62 or 63, and I retained the hot feeling long after I’d showered and gone to bed.

I’m no scientist, and I realize I’m not writing especially empirically on this matter.  So if you want more clinical or experienced information about this, google “high intensity interval training,” or look at the following links:

www.hiitsource.com – a pleasant read about HIIT
http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp – a little body-building centric, but this site offers a plan that starts with a 4-min a day workout.  Awesome!
http://www.exrx.net/FatLoss/HIITvsET.html – if you like science and clinical studies, this is the page for you.

So here’s my current fitness “plan” such as it were:

Monday: high intensity intervals run, possibly followed by a pilates or yoga session or a low intensity workout (I just enjoy the feeling of an extended workout!)

Tuesday: extended endurance run

Wednesday: other HIIT activity (tonight I’m going to try jumping rope.) followed by a strength training session

Thursday: whatever I feel like, or day off

Friday: HIIT of some sort.

Saturday and Sundays I like to do extended runs on these days just because time is so much more plentiful.  I always always squeeze in a second fitness activity on each day of the weekend, sometimes even a third.

I’ve already noticed a difference in the way my arms look – less fatty.  I imagine after a few weeks of this, I may just look awesome (trying to keep my expectations reasonable, k?)

A few notes to self (and readers!) here:  I think the time of gauging fitness level by the numbers on the scale is coming to an end.  As I burn fat, I am also building muscle, and these are likely to be at odds with, if not negate altogether, each other.  I’m writing this because putting it out there in the world and in my own public thoughts means that I must acknowledge that this has crossed my mind.

Second, I must resist the urge to think “Suckahzzzzz” every time I see people busting out two hours of cardio drudgery in the name of weight loss***.  I feel like I have been let in on a huge, fortunate secret, even if it’s one that many people have known for a very long time, according to the internets. Nothing I’ve ever done had burned fat off my body in two days the way HIIT has already done.  Plus, it’s improving my base speed and endurance.  I did a standard endurance run yesterday and it was much, much easier than before I’d done the high intensity workout.  I don’t know if it’s that my body responds to training exceptionally quickly or if it’s just that my expectations have shifted.  I just thought that an hour long run would have been much harder than it wound up to be.  I found it easy to run through my fatigue because it just wasn’t as hard work as the high intensity intervals had been.

I’m so excited that my coworker Jeremy mentioned this to me; I’d been complaining that my running improved too quickly and I wasn’t getting the same challenging workout on similar routes as I had been a week or two ago.  He mentioned this as a way to change up my routine and shake off the plateau.  I will certainly report back with more info as I have it (possibly even some pictures!)

***I know that time spent exercising is better than not doing it at all, and I can hardly knock anyone for putting in the effort. But why waste one’s time when such a short workout even only once a week can make such a huge difference?

I’ve been into running lately, but my running schedule is dependent on two things.

First, my jogging stroller’s operating condition.  The only real variable is the inflation level of the tires.  On Wednesday I pumped my tires, but my pump had some kind of malfunction between the second and third tire.  While I tried not to let this stop me, and went with the front tire and one rear tire inflated, the truth is that this was a tedious workout because the stroller listed leftward.  The. Whole. Time.  I corrected for this by occasionally switching sides of the street so that sometimes the tilt of the sidewalkcountered the list of the wheels.  (I have to switch sides of the street at intervals to keep my knees and ankles happy anyway.)  But it was a big challenge and distraction that I hope to avoid.

Second, Ben’s availability.  If the stroller is out of commission, as it was on Thursday due to bike pump malfunction, then the other option is for Ben to be home with Sami so that I can go out and run solo, sans-stroller.  I actually prefer this, but Ben’s work schedule gets more hectic as the September primary and then the November general elections approach.  So I can’t always depend on Ben’s availability unless we plan well, and in advance.

On Thursday Ben had an onslaught of work, and so he couldn’t come home according to our plan.  I couldn’t get the bike pump to give me any love, and I was about to be really bummed.  I was ready to throw the whole workout day and just slump into self pity for the evening.

After Sami went to bed, I pulled out my last scrap of willpower and said, f*ckit, if I can’t go running I’ll do a workout video.  It’s better than nothing, right?

Well, it was better than better than nothing.  I did Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. I don’t think much of cardio videos as a replacement for running, but this video worked me out in ways I don’t typically do – lunges, squats, repetitive strength exercises using light weights, abdominal work using better than just basic crunches, and easy yet effective cardio moves. (Jumping jacks get the heart rate up faster than almost anything! Who knew?)

The workout is a series of three circuits, each containing 3 minutes of strength, two minutes of cardio and one minute of abs. There’s a warmup and cooldown. And it’s the most effective 22 minutes I’ve probably ever spent working out.

I did this video on the intro level.  I presumed I’d have to do it twice, or do the first and second levels, to get a good workout, but I was wrong.  I sweat buckets and feel like I did get a significantly effective workout.  The next day I was sore in pleasant and productive ways (not like the hip abductor experiment of 7/19.)

I think I have a lot left to gain even from Level 1 of this video, not to mention the rest of it.

I highly recommend it to anyone, whether fitness buffs in a time crunch or a beginner looking for an all around comprehensive introductory workout.  20 minutes is such an easy committment for health and fitness!

I watched the opening ceremonies with Jen last night, and I actually spent most of the time with my mouth gaping open.  The first hour was just one impressive feat of technological showmanship after another (hello, unscrolling Largest LED Screen In The World, As Long As A Football Field And With People Dancing On It!  or the costumes that lit up on and off during the piece with the bird and the birds’ nest?)

I’d had it recording on our DVR and paused for about an hour and a half before we started watching, so we were able to watch about the first 3 hours without having to see commercials.  Eventually we got tired of the Parade of Nations and I just fastforwarded until we were watching live TV.  Some time around this point, we cut to a shot of the Bushes, in their holy non-priority seating, batman – they were seated like average joes at a baseball game, and boy did W look like he wanted a beer.  And the prez was more-than-glancing at his watch.  International goodwill events are sooooooo boring and time consuming.  Yup.

Well, despite my criticism of the US president, I did actually skip a lot of the parade of nations.  Until I couldn’t fast forward any more, and then we admired outfits and rooted for the little guys.  And THEN Yao Ming and a 9 year old boy who looked like a toddler next to him led the Chinese olympians into the arena.  And it was just a huge time.

The little boy had been a hall monitor, and when his school was destroyed in the earthquakes in Szechuan province a few months ago, after he freed himself from the rubble he WENT BACK to help his teachers and classmates.  He was quoted saying that he felt it was his responsibility, as he was a class leader.

I admit that I’m prone to cry any time the national anthem is played.  Epic events really get to me.  But live news coverage of the earthquakes really touched me at the time, and this boy’s story just pushed me over.  Real tears, people, not the kind that come from anthems.

I can’t bring myself to delete the DVR event just yet.

I don’t know what made me do it, but last week, I got home from work, strapped Sami into the stroller with a good sippy and a book, and went running.

Actually, I do know what made me do it.  I wanted to make some use of my heart rate monitor. I’ve decided that since my weight loss results through diet modification alone are not only tapering off but leaving me a little jigglier than I am comfortable with.  The time is right for me to step into this fitness thing, whole hog, and make it work.

Well, I went running four times last week, went to one kickboxing class, did a few pilates videos… and I started this week much stronger than last week.  By a long shot, actually.  I went for an hour long run on Saturday, a half hour run yesterday, and today I did a slightly longer run than on Saturday, adding a few more twists and turns into my route, but I did it in ten minutes less time.  I ran all but two blocks of the run.

My conclusion is: it’s much easier to get into better performance shape when carrying around less body mass.  It just is.  I made a few feeble attempts at jogging back in the winter and never had this kind of success.

I did something on this run that I would never have done even up to a month ago.  I wore spandex capri yoga pants, yo.  All my regular workout clothes are, predictably, in the laundry, since I’ve been doing a lot of exercising.  Instead of doing the Old Cheryl thing of just saying, F it, I don’t have optimal shorts, I’ll just veg instead, I made do and got my butt out there.  Also, my butt just doesn’t look THAT bad in these pants.  I wouldn’t necessarily wear them to the office or to the supermarket, but it’s fine to get me through the run I desperately needed to NOT blow off.

I feel so good about running right now that I replaced my old shoes (had ‘em since late ’05) and bought myself proper running shorts that won’t itch or chafe.  Maybe I’ll enter a 3k in the near future!

I am feeling quite chuffed with myself at the moment.

I’ve noticed that my weight loss slows down or stops completely when I have diet soda in my diet.  (I drank 1-2 sodas per day this week, and despite no other changes in what I was eating, I did not lose any weight.)

This could be why:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm

If my body’s internal temp doesn’t rise for artificial sweeteners the way it does for whole foods, then it makes sense that I’d gain small amounts of weight over time of exposure.  Fascinating.

I’ll just stick to water and coffee, since that always works.

Snapshot of future study?

Originally uploaded by cinediva

I took a bunch of pictures of Sami reading this Beatrix Potter book last weekend, and to be honest I can’t decide which is my favorite. I chose to post this one because I love her studious expression.

I’ll report back in 13 years (hopefully with pictures!) to let you know if this is what she looks like when she’s working hard on her homework.

I dragged my butt to the gym today for the first time since, oh, March.  I came prepared – Sami down for her nap this afternoon, I had time to dig out my heart rate monitor and strap, charge up my iPod, and find the manual for my HRM (ha, I had used it very basically to get real-time checks on my heart rate, but it can do so much more.   Today I learned to program it with my basic vital stats, so that it can guide me mathematically, and I am going to learn how to use the workout information it records to track my fitness progress.

Of course, having programmed my weight, height and resting heart rate into the thing helped it to recommend a range for me, but that didn’t make me stay in it.  I hopped on a treadmill and was shocked at how much easier it is to run without the extra 38 pounds.  I can run now at 5.3 mph at approximately the same effort I felt at 4.8 a few months ago.  And this with minimal hard cardio work, just moderate and frequent daily activity.

I found my experience quite encouraging.  Also encouraging:  my heart rate monitor said I burned way more calories than the treadmill thought I had.  I attribute this in part to the HRM knowing my weight, height and age and the treadmill NOT knowing these things, but I just think the HRM’s algorithm is probably more sophisticated.  This was heartening however.  I’ll be interested to see the discrepancy on an elliptical, as I always feel that the calories burned estimate on an elliptical is disproportionately high.

Anyway.

I was so encouraged that I did an upper and lower body weight circuit.  I was surprised to learn that I haven’t lost much strength over the last two years (the last time I really knew what I could move, I was working with a trainer who really pushed me, so my recollection is those numbers.)

In sum, I hope to be visiting the gym more often in the future.  I came home feeling really awesome (and both exhausted and energetic!)

I haven’t had much time or energy for blogging lately, which is making me feel a little frustrated and sad.  There are things I just won’t remember if I don’t put them here.

Today was really a lovely day.  Sami charmed me by playing peek-a-boo over the back of my dining room chair, and then patting her hand on my chest and saying, matter-of-factly, “Mama!”  Then she’d go over and declare Ben, “Dad-dee,” in similar fashion.

We went to dinner at Kazumi, and Sami hung monkeylike from the back of a high chair containing an 11 month old girl.  (I held the seat so it wouldn’t topple – both kids were, sadly, loving this.)  She was playing the peekaboo game with the little girl, and tickling her toes, and pointing out body parts helpfully.  “Elbow” is one of her newest ones.  She even gave nose-noses and kisses.  I was quite impressed.

On the way home, she repeated over and over, “Embee, embee,” as if I could forget that her sippy was empty.  It would be filled at home.

Days like today it’s not hard to remember why I love Sami, and forget all the ways that toddlers are frustrating.

ConquerClub.com: most addicting game of all time.

Come play with me?

When I picked Sami up yesterday, I had a raging stomach ache. I just was not feeling myself.

She was behaving a little waywardly, and on the way to the car decided she wanted to push buttons on the front door of the building, and wouldn’t follow me toward the parking lot.

I went over and picked her up, and explained to her, “Momma has a tummy ache.” I pointed at my belly and made a sad face. “Hurts. I need you to be nice to me.”

And so Sami pet me on the arm and the shoulder saying, “Niiiiiiiice. Niiiiiiiice,” and made a sad, serious, concerned and caring face.

I think I almost died just then. Luckily she was sweet and cuddly at home in between her raging tantrums. She kept me comfortable *and* grounded in reality.

In other news – Sami is saying things, and saying numbers of words together, that she wasn’t doing on Friday. It really does all change overnight.

Also, in case you’re missing pictures, well I’d post some, but every time I take out the camera I am greeted with a fat tantrum and grab for the camera. So it gets put away pretty quickly. And the picture I typically get to take is not a cute one. Though I may post it soon, anyway, just to share the proof.

That’s all for today. Life is good.