The people who have issued the challenge haven't worded it as a challenge, but believe me, if I choose to accept this challenge, that's EXACTLY what it's going to be.
Challenge # 1: Don't keep track of my mileage when riding my bike or running this next year.
I have kept track of how many miles I've ran this year & how many miles I've biked this year. I have it on an Excel spreadsheet and everything. I even have weather I ran on a treadmill or if I biked outside or on a spinning bike, etc.
If you haven't guessed it yet, I have OCD! Now, I don't have OCD where you have to flip a light switch 7 times before leaving a room, but I do catch myself washing my hands alot, etc. But, we could go off on that on another post. Lol.
One of my friends on Twitter who has done many Ironman's says that you should really ride or run for your heart rate and intensity and not necessarily mileage. I mean, go ahead & keep track of your mileage for that particular ride or run, but don't add up your mileage. In the long run (no pun intended), do those miles really matter?
It honestly gives me a little bit of anxiety thinking about not keeping track of my mileage. I look at how many miles & calories I've burned this year and to me it's an achievement, you know?
I did ride my bike on the bike trainer last night for 1 hour without knowiing mileage. I didn't know the mileage because my bike computer wasn't working & I don't have a heart rate monitor right now. Yes, it does kind of bug me that I don't know how many miles I went or how many calories I burned.
Challenge # 2: Throw out my bathroom scale.
This week has been a VERY rough week. I started out the week being sick. I felt like I had a cold, so I took a couple of days off from working out & started with the cold meds. When I don't workout I seem to lose all sense of self control. Then take in to consideration, I've been having major anxiety with my job lately. When I have major anxiety, the one thing I want to do is eat. All I've done all week is eat, eat, eat!!! I've eaten everything in site!!! It hasn't been good.
I can tell I've gained weight. I usually step on the scale every Saturday morning after my workout & morning shower & weigh myself. I've been doing this for 3 years. After I weigh in, I put that number on an Excel spreadsheet & calculate how much weight I've lost to date, etc.
I posted on Twitter today something to the effect that I'd gained ALOT of weight this week from eating crap because of anxiety and other factors and I'm gonna have to work hard next week and jump back on the band wagon and get this weight off. BananaBuzzbomb replied saying "Don't let that crap get to you. You're better than that!" Then she told me to throw out my scale. I need to stop looking at myself as a number.
Now, here's the difficult part. When I first started my weight loss and triathlon journey, I set a goal weight of 150 lbs. As I continue to workout, I've learned that is not a realistic goal. Why? Because I'm gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. So, size wise, I could be the same size as someone else who weighs 150 lbs, but I don't think I'll EVER see that # on the scale. I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with, is seeing the # in the 170's. To me, that is just not good enough.
I'm scared to death of being 280 lbs again. It scares the bejesus out of me. Even when I gain 2 or 3 lbs, I feel like I'm 280 lbs again. Another friend on Twitter joined the conversation and when I told them that I'm scared of being overweight again, they told me "You will never be that size again. Ever. Weight will fluctuate at time. Focus on training, performance, not a number." THAT is my goal.
Honestly though, it scares the shit outta me to throw out my scale. I honestly don't know if I can do it. I haven't decided if I will weigh myself tomorrow or not to see how much weight I've gained this week. If I do decide to weigh myself, I need to promise myself not to get upset about it. I know that on Monday I will jump back on the band wagon and I will be working out twice a day.
Do you wanna try & join me in these challenges?
3 comments:
Interesting about the mileage. I guess I never really keep track of my total mileage. However, this year I will be tracking my total running mileage because I am participating in a run challenge for 2012. As far as the scale, I have gotten out of the habit of weighing myself much except when I feel like positive changes are happening. I usually go my how my clothese fit and measurements anymore. I am trying to focus more on eating for performance now too instead of weight loss. Restricting definitely doesn't work for me. Good luck!
I vote for number 2... no way I could stop tracking mileage.. That is just crazy talk! :) though I don't track my yearly milege. I remember my first tri season I used the same polar watch all season... I felt pretty damn awesome when at the end of the season I had burned somewhere around 45000 calories... I'm a dork...
The scale.. I don't get on it very often and could easily chuck it.... I go by pants feel too. Like right now... they feel a bit tight for my liking. ha ha
I disagree with these "challenges" but disagree with the second more than the first. Let me explain.
Weighing in once a week is like a canary in the coal mine type of deal. It gets real easy to rationalize why this piece of clothing doesn't fit as well as it may have before, etc. You cannot argue with the number on a scale and it lets you get back in control before it gets overwelming. Daily is too much but weekly, I think, is the right interval. Weight Watchers, among others, recommends that interval of a week.
WRT mileage, many athletes do not track mileage as not all miles are created equal. What I mean by that, for example, is that hill work or speed work does not equal active recovery. I'm not even going to get in the variability of trainer miles. Because of that, many track time instead and design workout plans around time and intensity. Almost all, though, track.
The biggest challenge of a workout plan is that most athletes do the easy workouts too hard and the hard workouts too easy but that is a topic for a different day.
Email me if you want to go deeper into this.
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