DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Cardio machines. I don't like to use them most of the time, because as I've mentioned the treadmill makes me dizzy, and many of the other ones you really set your own pace on (like ellipticals: I'm in charge of moving them, so no matter how much they up the resistance, I inevitably end up slacking and just going reaallly slow and not working out).

One thing I do like to use is the stair machine; either the old-school ones that look like a staircase or the ones with two levers for your feet and varying resistance. The old-school ones obviously just keep moving, so you can only slow down if you press the button to do so, just like a treadmill. The newer ones are such that the higher the intensity, the less resistance, so you will basically just end up standing on the ground and having to do more work to get back up if you don't keep moving. I love those!

But okay, aside from my love of stair machines, there is a problem with my using any cardio machine, and that is the calorie counter. It is hard when working out on these not to glance over and get some satisfaction out of seeing it negate the donuts or pizza or beer I might've had recently. But I find it to be soooo inaccurate! The ellipticals will often tell me that at the end of a 30-minute workout I have burned close to 300 calories, and a 20 minute workout on the stairs will say something like 100 or 120. Okay, that makes sense maybe, because the stair workout was shorter. But I sweat about twice as much on the stair machine. More sweat and breathing harder probably means I'm burning more calories, right? I don't sweat much as it is, so for these stair machines to get my hairline wet is impressive. And hence I just don't believe them, but I so want to.

The problem is what they take into account: they ask for age and weight. No height, no GENDER, nothing else. I could be a 6'0" male that weighed 125 pounds (eek) or a 5'6" female that weighed 125 pounds (which I am), and there is no way the two of us would burn the same number of calories in the same workout. So I call bullshit!

Well, enough about numbers and calories and liiiiieeeesss. I went to the gym today and did 30 minutes on an elliptical-like-thing, I actually have no idea what it was haha, then my usual round of weight machines for toning and then a mile of jogging! I took one lap of walking at the half-mile mark (a lap on our track is less than 1/10th of a mile) and I felt I could've kept going at the end of the mile. That's good stuff for me. Stress is fantastic fuel for working out and I really could've stayed at the gym longer, though I might've regretted it in the morning.

I was so looking forward to my workout that I forgot to mail an important package before the post office closed, but frankly I'm quite okay with that.

I also got to break in the new spandex shorts I bought to wear under my Soffes. So now I have no fear of revealing my underwear to the dozens of basketball players below the track, or anyone when I'm stretching, or doing those ridiculously suggestive hip machines. You know what I'm talking about. They're like stripper training, for god's sake, and if you don't have tight shorts on under your loose shorts, you might as well be a stripper right there in the gym. I can feel good about buying myself running-related things. It doesn't feel like splurging. It feels purposeful. I feel pretty purposeful about this running thing.

I'm working on these scrawny legs. They will be something. They will be magnificent! Mwahaha!

With great sameness comes great lack of things to say.

HELLO, my 9 loyal readers! It's been awhile! As the title suggests, I haven't been able to think of anything to say here recently. I haven't pushed myself to much longer distances, but I have definitely retained the benefit of the previous workouts, to where the same length and intensity workouts are much easier for me now. Mike is also improving, having a much easier time running and I'm pretty sure he's losing weight. We don't have a scale so it's hard to say for sure. Maybe he just appears svelte because I've been working out alongside him so I know the exertion he's going through!

I'm also fairly certain that my runners' legs are coming along nicely. I think it might be too soon to do a second set of pictures though. Yes? No? I'm not sure if I'm just perceiving my legs as looking nicer or if the effects would actually be noticeable in a photograph. Well, if you're dying for pictures I could oblige.

My blog just turned a month old on Saturday! And Mike turned 29 on Sunday! We were going to jog then; didn't end up doing so but we did go on a bike ride! ...A bike ride to get a burger. Hey, it was his birthday. And I had a veggie burger, because I don't do the whole meat thing, although it still left me feeling gross. I don't doubt they cooked it on the same grill as the regular burgers, but they must've also injected it with lard or something. It's a Gardenburger brand Gardenburger! How can you add fat to that?! I even opted out of the "special sauce." Me and fast food just don't mix.

So at this point we haven't jogged since Friday (although that was a nice urban jog of about 1.8 miles, the first half gradually downhill and the second half gradually uphill). It is of note that that's about .4 miles longer than we've gone before (at least as a consistent run without walking or stopping). I'm hoping to go out in about a half hour. It's rainy and cold tonight. Not sure where we'll go, but where ever it is, we'll certainly look dramatic with our wet hair and beads of sweat mixed with beads of rain on our faces.

Back from Outer Space.

Okay. I'm back. I had to take a few days to retreat into my little cave of self-pity. The housing issue has been quite stressful. Where I smartly used my running to combat stress last week, I avoided it for supposedly the same reason this week. I sort of regret it, but at the same time, sanity is important, and the sidewalks and trails will always be there when I'm ready for them.

I had become so worried about the whole situation that I think I was worrying myself sick, as two days ago I started to get a scratchy throat and became unusually tired in the middle of the day. I resigned myself to bed and family comedy ("My Wife and Kids" on DVD) for the rest of the day, throwing in fresh fruit and Emergen-C for immunity. The next day the scratchy throat was gone (yay!) but the tiredness was in full force even after 10 hours of sleep (boo!), so I stayed at home all day and did absolutely nothing. That turned out to be a brilliant plan, as I feel perfect today.

I baked a vegan chocolate cake! I have a vegan friend who is always cooking and baking delicious things, and the first time I had her vegan chocolate cake I was hooked. "VINEGAR?" I sniffed, as I watched her bake. "VINEGAR cake?" "You can't taste it," she assured me. She's right. You absolutely can't. And if you're a dark chocolate maniac like I am, vegan chocolate cake is definitely the way to go. Something about eggs, or milk (is there milk in regular cake? See how much I know about baking, haha) makes conventional chocolate cakes seem milk chocolate-y, but veganize it and you will be amaaazed by how rich, moist, and black-coffee colored the cake will be. I also then made a broccoli-cheddar soup, which Mike and I both adore. I used unsweetened soymilk (but still regular butter and cheese--I'm not vegan, I just try not to eat a lot of dairy) and it still came out fantastic. All in all a good food day.

Speaking of food, I think I should address that a little bit. I'm vegetarian. I have been for nearly nine years now. It was a personal choice based on my own ethics, not diet or religion or anything else. I'm not the best vegetarian in the world, though. I don't mean that I cheat and eat meat (it completely stopped being appealing to me after a few months), but rather that I just don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. I probably don't eat a lot of protein either. Processed foods are enough of a trap for the average American, but for vegetarians, it's just so easy to eat frozen tater tots or tortilla chips all the time. Who wants to take the time to stir-fry up some tofu or make your own veggie burgers? I'd like to be a lot better about how I eat, but both Mike and I are basically poverty-level. I haven't had a job since last November. I have a job lined up on campus for the fall, FINALLY, but it's still very part-time, and I'll be a full-time student as well.

You can't deny produce is expensive. You also can't deny that anything the "average American" considers expensive is EXTREMELY expensive to me. Tofu used to be $1.00 or $1.50 for a one pound box; it's now usually double that. Those recipes that "feed a family for around $3.00 a serving" don't impress me. Bring it down to about 75 cents a serving and we'll talk!  I'm exaggerating a little bit... but there's a reason the Rice and Beans Diet or the Ramen Diet are staples of college cooking.

Ahem. Anyway, my point in going into all that is that even though I've taken "before" pictures showing my weight, it's entirely possible that I won't lose much or any weight in this venture. I simply don't have the income or the time right now to eat as well as I would in an ideal world. I'm eating broccoli-cheddar soup, for goodness sakes. It's got broccoli in it, but it's no health food. (By the way, the recipe says it takes an hour to do? I'm slow and it took me about 30 minutes. So don't believe them.) But then, as I addressed in the first post, I'm not overweight. I don't need to lose weight. I've read that the way you eat is much more impactful on weight loss than exercise. But I can at least get my body in decent working order. This is not a weight-loss goal. This is an "I can do anything if I just commit myself to it" goal. This is an "I can run past people without getting winded" goal. Any weight I lose would be merely by coincidence. I'll document it all the same.

SO, tonight I finally ran again! It'd been I think four days--maybe even five. Ugh. But we jogged about .8 miles on the sidewalk in the dark. I had an unusual new pain: the fronts of my shins. As in, my shin bone. How does THAT work? I have no idea... it was kind of bizarre. But I pushed through it and it's not bothering me anymore. I've noticed my right calf is a bit tighter than my left, but I think it's my dominant leg and I probably push off harder with it. I'll just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get any worse.

Thanks for putting up with my lull, which was followed by this extremely long and possibly boring multi-topic blog.

Uphill Battle

So, I want to run. I have always hated running, and loved the idea of running. I watched enviously as runners deftly sped past me on trails, sidewalks, campuses... They never seemed to be experiencing any stress, shortness of breath, muscle fatigue, or anything. How long have these people been running? Did they just run right out of the womb?

In gym class I watched the tiny preppy girls lap me. They would complete the dreaded mile run in 6 minutes or less. I lagged behind, wheezing, clocking in at 11, 12, 13 minutes. My muscles ached, and I felt some sadistic chef had drug a cheese grater down my esophagus and through my lungs. I hated those girls and their bouncy ponytails.

I think it's important to add here, though no offense is meant, that I am not, nor have I ever been, overweight. People don't realize that overweight and out of shape do not always go hand in hand. Just as there are "overweight" people who eat healthily and exercise, there are also "normal weight" or "underweight" people who just generally suck at all things physically strenuous.

I'm raising my hand. I'm one of them. I'm very nearly 5'6" and at my heaviest was probably 136 pounds. I am now about 127. I'm not trying to lose weight by running. I'm just trying not to lose my breath running for the bus. I want to be a runner.

I want to speed past bewildered citizens on the trails of Bellingham! I want to have the coveted runner's legs. I want them. I have skinny calves. I have friends who complain they can't wear those hot knee-high fall boots because their calves are too big. Well, they don't fit me either. They make me look like Spinelli from Recess.

I would really like to see her with her shoes off. What are those, size 15 mens?

So my fiance and I have started the journey small. Three times now we have run about 2 blocks uphill. It takes us ten minutes round-trip and we get the cheese grater-on-lungs effect hardcore. My leg muscles feel like they're going to burst through my skin, Alien-style. I feel like the weakest person, huffing and puffing, skin still warm from having just left the house. But it must be working, because today we ran flat on a trail for about 1.5 miles. And I wasn't winded. Such a feat has NEVER happened to me. Ever. I have the endurance of American Apparel underwear. (Which is to say, none. I bought a pair once and the elastic came out of the stitching on the first wash. Just stay away.)

I give you my humble introduction into my silly little venture. I want to be a runner, just to see if I can. So here's my dorky unflattering "before" pictures. I should have some of my legs probably, too. But this post is long enough already.

Oh yeah. No sucking in the gut here. Sexy.

I'm a sadface because I'm still a wuss.