304.7 Walking in the Rain, Harley Pasternak, and the Evils of Fructose!

I woke up this morning and put on my exercise clothes just like I've been doing every morning for the past few weeks.  I waited around while my husband got ready so I could spend as much time as possible with him and when he kissed me goodbye and opened the door, we both saw it.  Rain was saturating my neighborhood.  Rick looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said "Have fun walking in the rain!"  I knew what that meant.  He thought my plans for walking were squelched.  Well, think again, Mister!  Years ago, probably in the 2005-2006 range, I got serious about walking every day.  This was mainly thanks to my friend, Shawna.  We lived in the same apartment complex, so I would walk over to her place every morning at 6:00 and we would walk around the complex for about an hour.  I remember the first time we encountered rain on our walk.  Shawna wasn't phased, so I kept my mouth shut.  I also learned from her that if your shoes give your heals blisters, walk through the pain and it eventually goes away.  You have bloody socks to show for it, but you also have a hard, painless scab that falls off after a while.   She also taught me to keep walking in the cold.  Yes, you start out freezing, but the harder you work your body, the warmer you get.  Because of her, I gained the confidence to walk the 2 miles to my work one Saturday in 32 degree weather.  I never would have done that before.   So, when I saw the rain this morning, I did pause momentarily.  Then I opened the door and waved to my confused husband as he drove off to work.  The rain was actually cool and refreshing, and it was the best time for me to be walking today because NPR said that the humidity will rise today and cause the temp to feel like 105.  YUCK!!

Okay, I need to take this moment to give a shout out to Harley Pasternak for putting out a GREAT Wii workout.  I picked it up at KMart for $6.00.  Not too shabby!  I like Harley personally because he's just a down to earth kind of guy giving good tips while he asks you to push your limits.  There are short videos of him giving health and nutrition advice, but you work out to a (somewhat poorly done) CGI version of him and two women doing the workouts with his voice superimposed over it.   The (I don't know what to call it.  Disc? Game? Wii program?) works in this way:  He's got 28 workout segments that you can do individually, or you can chose a 10 week or a 5 week program.  I chose the 10 week program and every day, I get new workout segments to work different parts of the body.  It's like having several workout DVD's without having to switch them out all the time.  You either hold the Wii remote or put it in your pocket (I have to tuck it in my underwear bc I don't have pockets--Eww, I'm suddenly realizing how gross that sounds) and the Wii will pick up your movements and give you points while it counts your reps.  I usually have time to get more done than the program says, but sometimes it doesn't pick up what you do, so it tends to balance itself out.

 You don't do the number of reps it tells you and then stop, you do as many as you can in a set number of time.  I like that they give you a little countdown at the top so you can see how much longer this torture will go on.  Of course, just like everything else technological these there are charts so you can follow your progress.  The disc cover says there's a diet program on there, but I think it's just short videos of him giving nutrition tips after your workout.  When I bought it, I thought it might be like a calorie counter,  but no.  

He's very positive and easy to relate to in the workouts, but he will yell at you if you stop (or he thinks you stop because the remote didn't pick up your movements.) I've learned that a lot of times, the Wii doesn't want you to mirror him, it wants you to do the opposite.  I'm not proud of it, but this morning, while doing double crunches, I cheated.  I did the required amount and then some, but to keep him from yelling at me for stopping, I just laid there and pumped the Wii remote up and down over my head.  Gotta strive to not do that.  I read some reviews about this program on Amazon before I bought it (thank you, Age of the Smart Phone!) and one reviewer said the workouts were too easy.  I would say for a 300+lb woman who has worked out extensively before, it wasn't easy.  I would call it accessible.  It wasn't the extreme rubbish I came across the first time I tried to do Yoga.  Oh, and one more thing:  It's made for Wii Fit, but you don't need a board to do any of the exercises.  The board is just there to track your weight, which it won't read above 300 lbs.  I found this confusing and a bit insulting, but oh well!  Wii Fit is keeping track of my weight in the regular program.

Okay, so I totally spent an hour and a half this morning watching a video about fructose.  

He looks like George W. in this still, doesn't he?  Well, he isn't.  He's Dr. Robert H. Lustig and he's got some interesting things to say about obesity.  The video is set in a lecture hall and it is an hour and a half long, but Dr. Lustig is a great speaker.  He sucked me in and held my attention through most of his presentation.  At one point, he says if you've had biochemistry he will blow your mind, but if you haven't he will put you to sleep.  I fell asleep.  Only for a few minutes and only because he was going WAY over my head.  The rest of the lecture was completely fascinating.  There's a lot of information in there, but in its most simplistic form, it can be boiled down to this video.  Be warned, it's pretty gross:

Oh, I'm going to finish this incredibly long blog post to address some concerns I had the last time I wrote.  I was worried about not losing weight, and the nurse practitioner said it was normal and will happen a lot through the course of this program.  I asked her about working out and she said the more the better.  I guess they give really small goals in the beginning so people who aren't used to working out won't get discouraged?  I guess?  Also, I did not cheat at the wienie roast.   I stuck with my packets of food and drank my water and took everyone else's word for it that the quarter pound Hebrew National hot dogs we got were really good.    Funny how I didn't eat the food but I still had a great time. .