Thursday, September 28, 2006

two-week experiment

Joby came into work and told us how Megan had him run a mile at his fastest pace. He was out of breath afterwards, but he did a 7-minute mile!

I was very impressed. Later that day, as I was warming up on the treadmill, I asked Megan if I could do the exercise too.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

I stupidly opened my mouth and uttered these words of naiveté , "Yeah, it'll be fun."

Two minutes later, at a 8mph pace, my breath came in clouds and I felt my throat constricting. We slowed to 7.2mph. Another two minutes later, I felt my stomach turn.

I knew I needed to stop before I vomited all over the treadmill. My finger hovered over the red "emergency stop" button, but I decided that using the emergency stop is more pathetic than going ahead and vomiting. I used the regular "slow" and "stop" buttons to cool down the treadmill, over Megan's protests.

Then I insisted on going over to the couch and sitting down with my head tilted back onto the headrest.

Another person might find this humiliating, at 5:40pm in front of a whole gym of coworkers and acquaintances. Luckily I maxed out on exercise-related embarrassment in elementary school.

The rest of the workout was tempered by pauses, as I became lightheaded at easy dumbbell lift exercises.

"Niniane, you can't take shortcuts," Megan said. She gestured to the weight machine and around the gym. "This doesn't come easy."

So I decided, fuck it. I am going to do a two-week trial of proper exercise and following Megan's nutrition advice.

I committed to doing cardio three times a week (in addition to seeing Megan twice for strength training), and eating three meals and two snacks of protein and vegetables and NO DESSERTS. Technically Megan said I can eat a "dessert" per day of sugar-free jello, but I rejected that travesty.

I went back to my desk and threw away the pizza, chicken salad, and pear tart I saved from lunch. Instead I ate swordfish and broccoli, which turned out to be surprisingly good.

My biggest concern is that I'm supposed to eat even if I'm not hungry. This goes against my eating philosophy to no end. But it's only a 14-day experiment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Luckily I maxed out on exercise-related embarrassment in elementary school."

Spill spill spill, please. =)

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea. I think I will do this experiment too.

Anonymous said...

LOL. good luck on the no-desserts thing.

If you really want to lose weight, just jog 3 miles a day at whatever pace you can do it at without walking. Eventually you will get faster and you will lose weight.

Anonymous said...

Don't exercise! Keep going to those parties and posting pictures of your 2 girlfriends!

Anonymous said...

Well, good luck with the experiment :) and hopefully you don't gain 10 lbs after the experiment is over.

I've tried this sort of experiment before for 2 weeks, and yes I did get better and fitter, but at the end of it I miss so much of the things I used to have.
I know that you are supposed to adopt this kind of lifestyle for the rest of your life and not just doing it as on a 2 week basis. But at the end I ask myself, do I really want to eat protein shakes every 3 or so hours? Do I want to force myself eating when I'm not hungry?
The true answer is no for me, I mis s the tiramisu, chocolate fondant and even my beloved Gummi bears.
And believe me life is way much sweeter ... ;b!
Too bad that when I switched back, my body no longer used to this kind of food and ends up storing them instead....so I gain much more although I ate the exact same thing.
But that's my experience, hopefully yours works well!!

Anonymous said...

Getting all the tail you can handle when you are fit is sweeter than all the tiramisu in the world, my anonymous friend.