Couple of minor milestones with today’s workout. I did the Fitness Bender Hot Definition Workout that I mentioned yesterday, which I did as intermediate instead of beginner (whoo, am I actually starting to progress past “beginner?”) and I actually did the burpees, which I don’t think I have done in forever. And by “forever” I mean like years. Before I start my rant, I stopped my time at 23:49 though I got a little slow, especially on the last plank circuit - probably could have pushed harder, but oh well.

I have a particular dislike of burpees, not because I just think they’re tough, but because in one of my high school sports teams, we got a different coach my sophomore year who I did not “mesh well” with. In any case, he loved having us do burpees and I could not figure out how to do them/push ups properly so I would balk. Rather than try to show me how, he wrote me off as being difficult and blew me off. He played horrible favorites and ignored anyone who wasn’t on his A-team (which I could have been but whatever, I’m no team player). Anyway, I’m being bitter, but I dislike burpees because I remember standing in the park trying to figure them out, failing and getting no support. Thanks, coach.

Anyway, off the negative streak.

Followed that with POP Pilates: Stretching for Flexibility since I liked it on Tuesday.

Oh, wait, I do have more negativity… I was puttering around Leigh Peele’s site looking for posts that had content and weren’t $120/year members-only content after I saw her post on defining bulkiness making the rounds. So I stumbled across her 5 Ways to a Fatter You article and of course, point 4 especially is stressing me out (well and point 3, but that’s a slightly different situation):

4. Assuming 25 minutes of high intensity interval training erases the 12 hours you don’t move.

Here is a quick sobering fact.

140 pound 5’5 female burns 60 calories an hour while seated.
170 pound 5’10 male burns 70 calories an hour while seated.

A little muscle and EPOC will barely makes a dent in those stats. So if you want to increase the burn and fat loss you are going to have to do a lot better than that.

Which, frankly, is stupid of me and makes me mad at her. 25 minutes of HIIT is a bazillion times better than nothing and better than 25 minutes of calling it in on the elliptical if that’s all you’re going to do (don’t get me wrong, I love low-level cardio… I personally use it to get places, but I do think it’s very good for you). 25 minutes of HIIT won’t “erase” 12 hours of sitting on your ass if you also are drinking Mountain Dew and noshing on Little Debbie cakes (or even handful after handful or nuts to her point 3) but it’s a pretty damn good addition to an otherwise healthy lifestyle. Of course, I’m mostly defending myself.

But, like I said, it eats at me. I always cite Charlotte’s Field Notes From An Orthorexic because reading that kind of stuff always makes me try to fit everyone’s widely varying opinions/science/anecdotal evidence/pseudoscience into a magical logical rule book because IT MUST BE TRUE and it all conflicts, oh god oh god oh god. Which means eventually you’re going to be eating nothing but organic spinach raspberry smoothies with whey protein (oh wait, I forgot green smoothies are bad too*wheeze* (side note: I guess that post got taken down and there was a bunch of drama. I’m not alone…))

Anyway, I just have to ignore that stuff, because frankly, I cannot (mentally) deal with counting calories. I can’t deal with them being inaccurate, and if that is the case, I either have to figure out a way to count calories perfectly (which would also involve not letting my husband cook for my anymore or going out to eat anywhere other than chain restaurants with the calories on file) or just not worry about it. I have to do some exercise and feel good and see progress in my body (such as being able to do push-ups or in photos/the mirror/fit of my clothes) and not stress about whether I should be doing Tabata intervals on a Concept2 rower in combination with lifting heavy and 19 different kids of cardio and bodyweight exercises and kundalini yoga.

Okay, I’m done. Bathtime.