Friday, April 22, 2011

This Week in Being a Jock

I don't know if it's my short hair or what, but I think of myself as all sporty now. I've become one of those women who wears her workout clothes all day. No kidding. As I write this, I am swathed in various performance fabrics. In the morning I go work out in my neighbor's basement, and then I just stay spandexed. This started because, back in January when I began the 30 Day Shred again, I would get home from exercising and think that I couldn't make it to the second floor of my house to change. I was sure that halfway up the stairs, my strained quadriceps would snap loose and roll up like window shades.

I got over that feeling, but by then I'd begun to appreciate the benefits of staying in workout apparel for long periods of time. Besides the obvious benefit of advertising to anyone you see that not only are you an active and virtuous person, you are a member of the suburban leisure class, i.e., you are a person who doesn't have to work outside your home and you have time to spend improving yourself in various ways. THAT is the semiotics of the yoga-pants-in-Starbucks-at-10am situation, I'm convinced.  It is not that all of these women have just rushed in from their bikram class.

Yes, so for me, the benefit of the workout clothes all day, beyond their value in class signaling, is that it really makes me more active throughout the day. Have you heard of NEAT? Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis? Sure you have! NEAT is the idea that all of the movement and activity you engage in daily life, whether it's pacing while you're on the phone or picking up toys, adds up and makes a significant difference in your health and fitness. The latest news is that even if you are someone who goes to the gym three times a week (yay you!), all the sitting we tend to do the rest of the time is killing us. So increasing your NEAT is an antidote to this. It has a good acronym, so it must be right. When I'm still in workout clothes and Hank asks me to jump on the trampoline with him, I say yes. And I'm more likely to jog to the mailbox rather than send a child. I just feel more ready to move.

Sporty hair.

Pretty Neighbor and I were very dedicated shredders, but this week we started a new workout. It's Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30.  So being shredded wasn't enough, I guess? Now we have to get ripped? It's the new and improved shred, apparently.  We have been doing level 1 and I really like it. Even if after the first workout, I came home and my red face caused Matt to say, "Whoa."

My face gets red. I once had a spin instructor ask, "Is this normal for you?" She wanted to know whether to finish dialing the ambulance.

I also played tennis this week. We lost and I got a sunburn. But Matt came to watch me play, the food was good, we looked cute, and one of the girls I played against knows NeNe from the Real Housewives of Atlanta. (We were playing her neighborhood's team, they are right down the road.) So a good day.

I'm a little bummed because all this working out is going to come to a temporary halt next week. On Wednesday I'm having my last reconstructive surgery, to take out my temporary implant and put in a real implant. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this. It's an outpatient thing and I don't think the recovery will involve surgical drains and swearing like last year, but I know I'll have to take a couple of weeks off. I'm worried that I'll become completely unripped and unshredded during that time and have to start shredding, ripping, and tearing all over again.

I guess I should go now. Being such a jock all day long does leave time for blogging, but not much time for folding laundry or picking up clutter. Funny how that works.  We are going up to Chattanooga for the weekend and I need to get four people and a dog ready. xoxox

17 comments:

Aimee said...

Good luck with the surgery! Yeah, recovery from boob surgery doesn't sound so compatible with swinging a tennis racquet...

Yes, NEAT! The program I'm on stresses it greatly. We're supposed to get 5,000 steps a day, NOT counting any workouts. I see a huge difference in my weight loss when I get those steps in.

Becky said...

Aimee, what's your program? I'm adding you to my blogroll (shoulda done it long ago) so I can keep tabs. Yay NEAT!

Kelly said...

Happy Easter B!! See you when you get back =)

Elizabeth-FlourishInProgress said...

Hmmm....NEAT....my fingers do get a lot of movement when I'm rifling through a Russell Stover's box of chocolate trying to decipher which ones have nuts and which ones give me a caramel surprise. This counts, right?

Good luck with the surgery. I hope the recovery is smooth and easy.

Jenni said...

I often find on days that I run in the morning, I do basically no housework all day long, as though I'm say, "Look, I DID something, okay? I'm DOING more things now."

Jenni said...

Oh, and good luck with the new boob!

Allison said...

Good luck with the surgery. Love your post about NEAT. We try to fidget frequently to keep our juices flowing.

Elizabeth said...

I'm very impressed. I have long wanted to write something about the tyranny of exercise, and you've inspired me to do so. Perhaps I'll even follow your example and at least put on the clothes for NEAT. :)

Blessings and prayers sent your way for a quick and easy surgery, too!

Veronica said...

I got that Ripped in 30 too; it is HARD! I kinda started then stopped, and I need to get back to it.

Good luck with the boob! You'll get back in the swing of the exercising soon, I'm sure!

My Kids' Mom said...

How many calories do I burn taste testing candy to see if it is worthy of the Easter Bunny? Or are the kids worthy of it?

Bren said...

i totally know what you mean! For a while there, I was getting dressed in workout clothes first thing in the morning and it didn't seem right to shower or change out of them until after I'd done a workout. So I would, even if it was a quick one right before I needed to go out somewhere. And then? When I felt like I started to look okay in workout clothes? I totally started wearing them OUT places. And feeling like a jock made me act more like a jock all day. I'm totally with you.

Keely said...

Yes! I find the same thing. Not that I do have a lot of days to do that, but I'm definitely a yoga pants girl on the weekend.

Although, I have an equal likelihood of eating extra sweets because "I worked out today". So it probably all balances out.

Yay for new boobs!

Elle said...

While I think it does in awful Washington, for the NE corridor town in which I live now that yoga-pants-at-10-am thing does not have the blunt-force cachet ladies like to think. I stay in jeans + a black t-shirt & keep my lips zipped plus keep it light all around, so I hear what is said about them by the ladies who a. are managing the philanthropies funded by their grandparents' inheritances or b. have had the work of their own tireless career directly contribute to the latest Nobel in Chemistry or Green Building or Whatever. The things I hear are never kind.

If I did anything but strip naked & put my clothes right into the gym's laundry service, I would have to have a hazmat team follow me around. I am envious of yr obvious daintiness.

I am glad for yr final breast procedure. Wonderful. Don't eat too much Easter chocolate; sugar is ... I forget, I read about it the last time someone cut upon me -- it's dehydrating, I do remember that. xo

gretchen said...

Tennis and ripping? Good Lord, woman. I love the picture - that's a sport look on your face as well.

Good luck with the surgery. "Surgical drain" is a phrase I don't particularly like.

Amy said...

You're the new sporty spice!!

I find that I'm more likely to run up the stairs if I have mah runnin' shoes on.

Wish I could be there! Praying for all to go smoothly this week. If we webcam, will you show me the results?

No?

Too much?

Jen said...

I'm all for NEAT (never mind that I am sitting on my lazy rear whilst typing this...)...and good luck with the exchange, but I think you will be fine.

I had to take a total of 6 weeks off from the program I am doing (almost finished, yay!), the Couch to 5K, BUT I was walking regularly two weeks after surgery. Actually, if memory serves, I went sledding 8 days after surgery and I had both sides, er, worked on, if you will (for equality purposes and such).

Granted, it wasn't my final surgery, that will be next winter/spring, if I decide to do it, so you may have extra things done that I didn't...but either way, I think you will be up and moving very quickly!

Anonymous said...

oh, so true about not changing out of your "exercise clothes" as a status symbol! you nailed that one.