#93 - Overdeveloped Calf Muscles

So I've been away for the past week on a business trip in San Francisco. Every day I find myself trudging around the massive convention center here, so much so that by the end of the day my poor legs and feet are aching. It takes a lot of work to carry around all this excess weight, doesn't it? All this work leads to excess muscle from carry such a heavy load. With summer upon us now I've been dipping into my shorts collection - yes I sometimes dare to bare my legs, though mostly at home for fear that little children will run screaming, shocked by my thunder thighs (of course it's not that bad - just my imagination). Part of the reason I'm so shy to show off my stems is overdeveloped calf muscles. From years of lugging around all this heavy fat, I've gained a ton of calf muscles. I'm sure skinny guys out there are jealous of my Popeye-like bulging calves, but to a woman, they are hideous! And as I lose weight I find that the muscles aren't going away. At least not fast enough. I suppose the one good thing about extra muscles is that muscle burns a lot more calories than fat. So I guess I'm happy I have muscular legs as opposed to fatty legs, but still. I'd prefer less Hulk-like muscles peaking out from under my capris. I know with time as the load of my fat diminishes, I'll lose that excess muscle. But in the mean time, I suppose all I can do is bitch about it.

So I'm getting to this point again, as I always do, where I stop losing weight but think I'm eating the right things. Sometimes I don't get it. I can have a really light eating day, but the weight won't budge. And deep down, I know why. If you've been following my blog you'll know I abhor exercise. I know, I know. It's the best thing for me, it will make me feel great, it will boost my metabolism, and it will help kick this plateau. Yeah sounds great... or not. My activation energy for starting an exercise program is SO high. It's like pulling teeth. I can think of every excuse in the book to avoid exercise. Why do we run from exercise (no pun intended)? I think for me it's the pain. I mean honestly, I feel like total shit when I start working out. Why would I choose to put myself through that? At least that's my usual excuse. I'm sure part of the problem is that I start out too hard. Don't we all? We think we need to work out everyday for like an hour, cause that's what the guidelines say you need to do to lose weight. And for some reason I think working out means you need to be breathless and red-faced (clearly NOT true, but somehow I've come to think this). You don't need to work out so hard that you give yourself a heart attack. Very light exercise can be incredibly beneficial at the start. And sometimes I think that I don't want my muscles to get ANY bigger, like I need more calf muscle!!! But cardio won't make you gain muscle, it's just going to help you burn calories and increase your metabolism.

But how can you ask a completely sedentary person that is 200, 250, 300, 350, 400+ pounds... to start working out 60 min a day? I know they say you should start out slow. But how slow is too slow? Can you gain benefit from 10 minutes of exercise a day? Experts say yes. Even starting that slow will help you over time. If nothing, it will help you build your endurance so that over time (and I mean a long time - like months/years) you may be able to work up to an hour a day. But I don't know why I get it stuck in my head that 10 min a day is worthless. I guess just another excuse to avoid exercise. Really though I suppose exercise doesn't need to be this painful thing we need to avoid. I mean can you walk around your house for 10 min? Can you walk to the mailbox? Do you walk through the mall? This is all exercise. We just need to do 10 min more than we normally do each day to see the benefits begin. Maybe after a week, 10 min will seem to easy. So up the walk to 15 min, then 20, then 30, then 45 or more. If you don't have that much time, is that your excuse, then up your pace instead. Were you walking turtle slow for 10 min? Try walking a little faster next time, but still for only 10 min. There are so many ways to incorporate exercise into our lives. We just don't do it.

I guess our default is to be lazy. But in all truth, exercise will give you more energy. I speak from experience. When I exercise, I'm more perky and energetic and the choice to exercise more seems so easy. It's just the starting. That's the hardest part. I'll be honest, I'm right there with you right now. I am not exercising right now. I'm tired all the time. I'm lethargic. Frankly, I'm lazy. And I KNOW, if I was exercising all of that will go away. But why oh why is it so hard to get over that first hurdle to choose to exercise. This conference I'm at right now has actually helped me see the light. I've been walking a TON everyday, way more than I ever do in my normal daily life. Sure at the end of the day I'm beat, but I've been sleeping better, I've actually felt more energy during the day, and it's making me think twice about grabbing for junk food (I always seem to crave healthy food when I exercise). I should really use this experience as a jumping off point for starting to exercise regularly again. I've already started walking more than I usually do, now I just need to keep it up. I really have no excuse either. I live right on the water, I have a great place to walk along the beach, I have a great boyfriend that loves to exercise, I have NO EXCUSE. OK you heard it here, I will start walking again. Wednesday when I get back from this trip, I will go for a walk. I'm making the pledge, will you? Can you get up and walk just 10 minutes today? At some point we just need to stop listening to that little voice inside our heads feeding us all those excuses and just do it. Get up and get those overdeveloped calf muscles working!