Post-Apocalyptic Workouts

Hello from the Urban Tundra! Are you dug out yet? Yeah? Me either.

Today marks Day 4 of our snow-induced house arrest.  The last time I left my house in a vehicle was Friday morning…to get to the gym. High fives for determination. Now, as a Vermonter, I’m not afraid of a little snow. Heck, I’m not even afraid of a LOT of snow. But I’m having a really hard time dealing with the Cabin Fever that is setting in, and I’m feeling anxious about losing momentum on my recent gym spree.

Until Nemo came and destroyed my streak, I had been getting to the gym 6 out of 7 days for the past three weeks. I can feel my strength and endurance rebounding from the holidays, and I am even noticing some definition returning to Olge and Inge (my bicep twins). I braved the onset of the storm Friday morning to get my cardio in, and was anticipating being all dug out by late Saturday afternoon in order to return to the gym to get my strength Card in. WRONG. So I did the next best thing—logging a workout via the soon-to-be-next-proposed-Olympic-sport: turbo shoveling. Strapping on my trusty heart rate monitor, I opened the door to welcome this little aerobic challenge:

Why yes, this would be 31 inches of snow. And those two mounds would be cars.

Two and a half hours and 1100 calories later, we finally found our cars AND the ground!

Oh, there are cars in this driveway!

Now we were only waiting on the plow to come clear the street, and thus, our path to freedom. WRONG AGAIN.

Enter Sunday, or as I like to call it, “Owwwwwww, Dear God Why day.” For the record, shoveling doles out more full-body hurt than a lengthy session on a Concept 2 rowing machine—but I considered it to be a nice exercise in cross-training. We had yet to see a plow on our streets, but I was okay with that.  I definitely needed a day of rest to recuperate from the insane workout that was lifting and throwing wet, heavy snow. In any case, I had worked out 6 days in a row and surely the roads would be clear Monday to get back into my workout routine…

WRONG AGAIN. It’s now late afternoon, and we still have yet to see a plow on our street. Normally, I wouldn’t mind being cooped up at home, but I am going a little stir crazy. My body is buzzing with kinetic energy, and I’m getting antsy without a real outlet—like the gym. So, to say I have cabin fever would be a gross understatement. I am finding myself completing banal chores today just as a way to keep my body in motion and off the couch.

So this afternoon, Bubs and I decided to do something about our cramped, swollen bodies that have been quarantined to our apartment for far too long. It was clear via the post-apocalyptic urban tundra outside our driveway that we would not be driving anywhere. So, we broke out my hiking backpack and got walking……..to Subway. You can laugh, it’s okay.

Diet management during the Apocalypse definitely poses its challenges. Shelf-stable foods are generally high-sodium, high-carb foods, and I am definitely paying the price in terms of my physical comfort and energy level. But in this case, I didn’t really have much choice. I have to eat what is available, and as long as I don’t overdo it, I am hoping that it won’t pose too much threat in terms of punishment on the scale or my body metrics. I can say, however, that by this morning, I was literally craving vegetables. Now while Subway can still be a sodium trap for dieters, I decided to cut my losses, because at that point, I would have done just about anything for some cucumbers and green peppers…

So on went the backpack and off we went. It turns out that just trying to get around these streets is quite difficult in itself. By midway, we realized this was less of a leisurely walk and more like urban hiking. The whole way, we were switchbacking through and climbing over heavy, wet snow. Opportunity for a workout? I’ll take it. The total trip was only about two miles, but it took us about 80 minutes to get there and back due to the lack of sidewalks and safe, walkable roads. It was pretty cool though—I felt like a modern Paleo woman or something:  Kelsey hungry. Kelsey no food. Kelsey go hunt and gather for food (stretch). Kelsey get home, eat yummy food, feel good ‘bout self. Pretty decent cost/payoff if you ask me.

In all fairness though, I am realizing that while workouts can come in a variety of forms, I feel less “worked out” when I am not following my set routine. There is something psychologically comforting about the gym for me. I can keep track of exactly how hard I’m working, measure the speed and distance of my cardio, and develop targeted strength workouts for specific areas of my body. This “free for all” brought on by the snow is definitely rocking me a little. Even though I know I’ve been moving and active, I don’t feel that same level of tiredness and satisfaction that I do when I come home from a session at the gym. While I love being outside in the fresh air, I am feeling limited in my workout range. Perhaps this is just a side effect from being cooped up, but I am willing to bet it has more to do with the sense of comfort I derive from compartmentalizing: gym for workouts, home for relaxing, driveway for cars, etc. When everything has its place, I feel more organized, orderly, and in control—and I feel more capable of accomplishing my goals.

Speaking of, here’s Friday’s data:

As of 2/8/13:

Percent body fat:   27.7%

Total percent body water:   50.8%

Percent muscle mass:   37.0%

Bone mass:   4.6 lbs

So, I’ve been making some progress since last week! Down 0.3% in body fat and a 0.6% jump in muscle mass. True to last week’s post, I have made a big effort to cut out on “junk” during the week, focusing more on open meals on the weekend to go a little carb crazy. It looks like it’s paying off, but I am starting to suspect inaccurate readings from my scale—especially due to the rapid increase in my muscle and bone mass numbers. My bone mass has yet to shift since the beginning of this process, and from what I am reading from a variety of sources, tends to stay pretty stable over time. I know the scale has a margin of error, as with any measurement tool, but I am left with two questions:  either what brought such increases, or can I really assign much value to the numbers I am logging each week?

I guess we’ll see if there’s any continuity with next week’s data…provided I can get out of this house and off to the gym! Cross your fingers for a plow for us!