dragonstar

I lost 2.5 lbs this week.  Too bad slim buddy do not allow .5 as an option.

Visit to hospital ER.  Kidney stones.  Better today.

1 lb is good!

It was the best day ever.  I ate 1450 calories.  I biked 8 miles.

There is a yoga studio opening up in my area in about two weeks.  The grand opening special is $20 per session.  Is it worth it?  I heard yoga is good for you.  Any advice?

Q. Conventional wisdom says I can’t work the same muscle group every day, so I don’t lift weights two days in a row. But how does this rule apply to cardio? Whether I run, bike, walk or use the elliptical trainer, I’m still using my legs—often quite strenuously. I change my cardio every day, but since it always uses the muscles in my legs, should I be doing cardio every other day instead of daily?

A. Good question. You’re probably not alone in wondering what the difference is between working your glutes and thighs while riding a bike or hiking a hill, and working them while doing a series of squats and lunges with a barbell. On the face of it, it may not make sense based on official exercise guidelines such as those from the American College of Sports Medicine or the USDA Dietary Guidelines. Both recommend that moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (such as walking) be performed on “most days of the week,” while resistance training is recommended to be performed less frequently (once or twice a week for beginners, two or three days per week for experienced weight lifters, and up to four days per week for the highly-trained—but only if a split routine is used—resulting in the same muscle groups only getting exercised twice a week.)

he key difference here is the intensity of the muscle contractions used in cardio versus resistance exercise, and as a result, how hard the muscles are worked and the type of muscle fibers that are stimulated.

Cardiovascular activities, aka aerobic exercises, tend to move the whole body so that many muscle groups are worked and the activity is sustained for an extended period of time. The forces acting on the body tend to be light. As a result of these conditions, muscles generally are not overly challenged. Also, slow-twitch fibers are the predominant type of muscle fibers activated. Fat is the primary type of fuel used by this type of muscle fiber. Because of the low-to-moderate intensity of the exercise, and the fuel and muscle fiber types that are activated, you can walk, run or bike for hours (assuming you’re fit enough to do so).

On the other hand, resistance exercise, or weight lifting, tends to target a select group of muscles intensely. So, the muscle fibers (fast-twitch variety) are required to produce a high level of force. If resistance training is done properly (that is, if the weight used is heavy enough to make the muscle fatigue at the end of a set of repetitions), then a greater degree of glycogen depletion will occur in those target muscles. Glycogen is a stored carbohydrate used for fuel by muscle fibers. Because of the intensity of the exercise, the fuel used, and muscle fiber types that are activated, you can only perform resistance exercises for a few minutes. The muscles poop out because they are worked extra-hard, and the fast-twitch fibers aren’t meant to endure for long periods of time.

When muscles are challenged intensely (or “overloaded”) in this way, there is microscopic breakdown in the muscle fibers. During the subsequent 48 hours, the body mends these tissues and makes them more resilient. That’s how you get stronger. The weight-lifting exercise is the stimulus; the recovery is the strengthening period.

If you don’t give your body proper recovery time between bouts of weight lifting, the rebuilding processes may be hampered. (Other factors that influence recovery are getting enough sleep, drinking water and eating healthful foods.)

So, what if your cardio workout is super intense?

Running distances of 10 miles, or hiking up very steep hills, could,  theoretically, challenge the muscles to work much harder than they would during the normal cardio workout. A fit person may be able to handle this overload without becoming overly fatigued. But, an untrained person would have intensely challenged their muscles. In some instances, the activity may be extremely intense—such as when running a marathon or running a race at full speed or biking up hills. These types of intense workouts would definitely trigger more fast-twitch muscle fibers to work and result in greater glycogen depletion, similar to a resistance workout. And because of that, a tough cardio workout is probably self-limiting: You can’t run a marathon every day, plus perform super-intense cardio sessions. This would leave most people so sore that they’d naturally want to skip their workout the following day.

But, as I described earlier, the typical cardio workout is a different mix of machinery at play compared to weights workouts, and so muscle groups don’t typically get overworked. Therefore, it’s OK to do cardio every day. And, for a variety of reasons, including increasing one’s weekly calorie burn, it’s recommended that you do. It’s a good idea to cross-train, that is, vary the activities you do to minimize over-use of any particular muscles or joints. For more tips, read my book, Cross-training for Dummies.

Being overly sensitive can rule your work or personal life. It’s time for a new mindset.

With job uncertainty affecting millions of workers in nearly every field, you may have noticed that your colleagues at the office or your husband or partner are a little more thin-skinned than usual.

Jane Maloney, a New York consultant to human resources executives, says her clients have been increasingly telling her that employees are jumping to conclusions when they get constructive criticism. The employees assume they’re getting downsized, Maloney says, and are then less able to relate well to the feedback. “It gets blown out of proportion,” she says.

In Pictures: Stop Taking Everything So Personally

How does high sensitivity differ from other emotional patterns, such as anger, shyness or, for that matter, insensitivity? For all the articles, self-help books and talk shows dedicated to confronting psychological problems, there’s a lack of real discussion about those of us who are quick to take offense. An Amazon search turns up less than five books on how not to take things too personally.

Over-sensitivity seems to be the last unexplored–but very real–social problem.

“It’s absolutely painful,” says Elayne Savage, a relationship and workplace coach who goes by the tag line “The Queen of Rejection.” “When we take something personally, it’s usually related to rejection in some way. It goes back to a time when we felt shamed as a kid.”

Feelings of rejection then segue into a sense of being judged, criticized and made fun of, says Savage. “At some time when we were growing up, we didn’t feel good about ourselves.”

I have been called “too sensitive” and “prickly.” For me, the feeling of being left out probably goes back to when my sisters and I were young. They are only a year apart and were naturally very close–I was three and four years older, respectively. They shared the same friends and slept so they could see each other at night. I often felt excluded.

Many people don’t acknowledge the problem until it affects not just their personal lives, but their jobs. It can come up after a job review, when the employee takes a boss’ observation as an attack: “You need to get your projects done more quickly” becomes “You’re a slow worker.”

Rachna Jain, a clinical psychologist in Gaithersburg, Md., had a patient who grew up poor and didn’t have money for nice, well-fitting clothes. One day, she wore an outfit to school that she was proud of. But a student picked on her, and soon the whole class had joined in. “It was embarrassing and shaming,” notes Jain.

As an adult, the woman remained sensitive to observations about her appearance. One day she wore a new ensemble to work, and a coworker observed that the shade of blue she was wearing wasn’t as flattering as another she had recently worn. “My clothes are my business,” she yelled. “Don’t comment on my clothes.”

Jain says people often have one or two areas of sensitivity. With one couple, the wife felt her husband attacked her over her cleanliness at home. Her mother was strict and had criticized her in childhood for how she cleaned house–and she had married a fastidious man. She bristled when her husband said innocuous things such as, “You left a dish in the sink.” She heard, says Jain, “You’re a horrible slob. There’s something wrong with you.”

Just about everyone has a zone of sensitivity, but the most burdened are those who have trouble moving beyond the feeling of being attacked or left out. Savage calls it “emotional flooding.” Successful executives stem the flood by moving past the feeling quickly. These people were often resilient children.

“The reality is that most of us go around hurting other people’s feelings without knowing it,” she said. “People who are sensitive about a topic, though, have a net or radar that constantly catches those comments.”

I’m slowly learning to deal with my sensitivity. I still hate feeling left out, but now if I hear coworkers chatting excitedly about something, I get up and walk over to them instead of waiting to be invited to join the conversation. Doing something is always better than sitting and stewing.

Pleasant surprise from the scale this morning.  I lost two pounds.  Two pounds never to be seen again.  Thank you for all your support.  It made a difference.

I’m always tired.  Any recommendation on mood lifters or ways of getting more energy?  Thanks.