August 3, 2012: Day 2 of 30 - updated on 8/4/12

Today started out well with a vigorous workout with Jeremy.  It really helps that he reads my blog, because he knew that I was very concerned about this transition and that I was taking extra measures to stay on track for this next month.  In response to that, he was thoughtful about recommending changes to my routine on cardio days.  I'll still run one day a week, one day a week I will ride my bike (which I have not been on for a year, yet he knows how much I enjoy cycling), and one day a week I will do a combination of rowing, stationary cycling, and stair machine, with 10 minutes of ab work thrown in for good measure.  Ruth has also advised switching up the types of exercise on cardio days, so I feel good about these changes.  After my workout yesterday morning and with my new exercise plan in hand for the month, I felt strong, invigorated, and ready to attack my day with Gusto.

All was well until I got to work.  The hard part of telling everyone that I am leaving is over, so that's good, but now my job is a lot like being in a lame duck session in congress.  I have thoughts, ideas, and concerns with regards to how things should be done, but those thoughts are not particularly important to anyone anymore.  Hmmm...I wonder why?  I also don't have a lot of tasks that need to be completed before I leave.  There are definitely things to do, but it is not like I am going to actually be busy.  Add to the idleness the awkward conversations I am having with fellow VPs that are a little disappointed in my decision to leave and my anxiousness about my new job, and you have the perfect formula for me wanting to comfort myself with food.  In fact, I had an almost desperate desire to eat all day, or at least all afternoon. Many, many times I wanted to pick up a handful of this or a handful of that (there was snack mix in the break room...and at one point someone left a couple of candy bars on the break room table that I could hear screaming my name all the way from my office) and just stuff it in my mouth.  But then I would think, "Ugh, I'd have to calculate the calories for that.  No, don't do it.  It's not worth it.  You have a 30 day plan, just stick to it.  Come on, Roberta, you know that you can do anything you put your mind to for 30 days.  It's only 30 days.  You're fine.  You don't need that food.  Just keep on walking."  And, sure enough, I kept on walking.  I did not absentmindedly eat anything yesterday.  That would have been my normal behavior on a day like yesterday, to absentmindedly munch my way through the day.

Having my 30 day plan helped me stay focused on my health goals and not let the stress (or boredom) of the situation override my determination to stay on track. There is no doubt in my mind that I needed the extra discipline of this plan and the extra support of my "Special Ops Team," as Jack put it, to stay the course today. I can do anything for 30 days. I can follow this plan for 28 more days. This is completely and totally doable. I will do it. I am doing it! Go team!!!!

Here are the details from day 2 of the 30 day plan:

8/3/2012: Day 2 of 30
Weight: 182.4
"Younger Next Year" pages read: 22

Notes from book:
The science about health is rapidly changing because it is a much newer field of study than the science of disease. It turns out that health is much more biologically complicated than disease. In disease, the train has gone off the tracks and the laws of physics take over. The crash is destructive, but the science is simple. Health is the reverse. It has a carefully designed control mechanism to keep the train on the tracks. But while the science of health is complex, the controls to operate it are simple.

The basic premise in the book is that our bodies are an amazingly complex combination of cells that continuously communicate with one another. Millions of messages are sent from cell to cell throughout our bodies, constantly. And we have control over the messages that our cells are sending to one another.

Our bodies are well designed to do what humans did for tens of thousands of years, hunt and forage for food in the spring and summer (when our bodies would get lean and strong because food was plentiful and we did not need to store extra fat), start storing food in our bodies in the fall when food became more scarce, then shut down into a seasonal depression in the winter as food sources disappeared. During the winter our bodies' systems would shut down and slowly decay, so that scarce resources weren't used to maintain systems that weren't essential to life.

Our bodies are perfect for their natural purposes, but they are not designed for the modern life of fast food, TV, or retirement. They were designed for a life in nature. Left to their own devices, our bodies and brains will consistently and without fail misinterpret the signals of the twenty-first century and start to decay. It is possible to change the signals that we send to our cells and override the message of decay. There are four keys to overriding the decay code: daily exercise, emotional commitment, reasonable nutrition, and a real engagement with living. But it all starts with exercise.

Our bodies are constructed to grow and build in good times and decay in bad times. Good times, thousands of years ago, meant game and edible vegetation were plentiful. During those times humans would travel many miles a day hunting and foraging. That exercise - the physical work of hunting and foraging in the spring - has always been the single most powerful signal we can send that life is good; that it is spring and it is time to live and grow. Exercise is the first key to sending a message of growth and rejuvenation to every cell in our bodies.

The first step to being younger next year, therefore, is to do some sort of strenuous exercise at least 6 days a week. 

Calorie count: 1509

Exercise: Strength training in the morning as follows:

Set 1 - Repeat the following set of exercises 3 times
---- 24 Walking lunges with side arm raises while in lunge position with 10lb dumbbells in each hand
---- Step to balance onto knee high stool with 10lb dumbbells in each hand, 12 each foot
---- 12 Dips (triceps)

Set 2 - Repeat the following set of exercises 3 times
---- 16 Squats with 15 pound dumbbells in each hand
---- Run up and down flight of stairs
---- Throw 8 pound ball above head, bouncing off pole, keeping arms above head, for 30 seconds

Set 3 - Repeat twice
---- Carry 35lb plate, walking briskly, approximately 10 yards, put it down and run back to pile of plates. Pick up second 35lb plate and walk it briskly to new pile, run back. Repeat until all four plates are on new pile. Then, using same procedure, return all four plates to original pile.

Evening exercise: 15 minute jog

Alcohol consumption: None

Day 2 - A success.


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