On Star Trek, exercise, and heat

I was lucky enough to see the new Star Trek movie at the IMAX theater near here this weekend. It's a new IMAX theater, and I'd never been to it before, but I have to say the screen seemed awfully small. I assumed it's because I was sitting a bit farther back than I was used to for an IMAX, but as it turns out, IMAX has started making movies that are MUCH smaller than the traditional IMAX format, yet promoting them in the same way. I can assure you, despite the fact that it was an awesome movie, I felt a bit ripped off. But still, it's a great movie. It's not exactly pure Star Trek (and I'm a proud Trekkie), and there were a few too many gratuitous fight and chase scenes, but definitely worth seeing at least once, if not more.

I'm finally getting back into the hang of exercise, and I'm finding that it makes me a much happier person. Despite the fact that it's been over 100 degrees recently, I managed to get outside this evening and go for a short run. A VERY short and pathetic run. I only made it 1.5 miles, and I barely ran more than half of it, but to be fair, I haven't exercised much lately, and my legs are incredibly sore from gardening on Saturday. I'd still like to get in shape and lose weight by midsummer.

In order to accomplish my lofty goals, I've finally set up an exercise plan consisting of running 3 days a week, spinning once a week, swimming once a week, and hopefully a bike ride on the weekend. Also, it would be good to fit some climbing and yoga in there, but I'm not going to push too hard just yet, especially on the yoga (since I am incredibly unflexible). I'll keep you posted, and tomorrow I should know approximately how many pounds I really need to try to lose, but I'm guessing it will be 10 to 15. I'd like to lose a pound a week, and drop 10 pounds by the end of July, but that might be asking a bit much. I'll just take it week by week and see how it goes...

Tipping the scales

On the topic of healthy living and weight control, I’d like to start out by saying that I’m not really fat. I’m in the normal weight range for my height and I have a healthy BMI, although I’m closer to obese in both of those categories than I would like. While my friends like to tell me that I’m skinny (even though most of them are even skinnier), when I can barely squeeze into my “fat jeans” and when I have a nice roll of stomach fat appear whenever I sit down, I know it’s time to do something about the condition I’m in. I’m not a huge person, but it’s possible to by skinny and fat at the same time, and I’m heading in that direction very rapidly. My goal now is to lose up to 10 pounds in the next four weeks while getting in better shape on my 10K training program that I am currently (and shamelessly) ignoring.

So this week I intend to eat bulgur-lentil soup for lunch every day and Brussels sprouts with a bit of homemade mayo for dinner. My breakfast consists of a multi-grain english muffin with flax, topped with a bit of non-hyrogenated margarine (although I'll be switching to butter soon - more about that in a later post), plus some calcium chews, a few small pieces of fruit throughout the day, and a cup of low-sodium V8 and some peanut butter for an afternoon snack.

For exercise, I’ll rock-climb tonight, run tomorrow, and hopefully fit some exercise in on Wednesday and Thursday, which may not happen because of classes. On Friday I’ll go rock-climbing and/or running depending on what I get done the rest of the week. That’s my plan for now. Next week, it will be bean soup for lunch and purple potatoes with cottage cheese for dinner. Yum!