Grumpy Fit and Fat

I’m feeling grumpy. I just through a wobbly over the e-mail because my job is to stop people from being stupid and they’re being unusually stupid today. Plus I had to have one of those “difficult” conversations with someone on an HR thingy and I hate that.

I am also sore – but it’s a good sore. It’s DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness. In other words, I went to the gym yesterday and had a good hard workout on the weights. When it comes to weight training, I’m a true believer in no pain no gain. I only do it once a week (1 set per body part to muscle failure) because my body needs that long to recover between workouts. If I have a good workout, 18-36 hours later I’m feeling it.

I also go 2-3 times a week for cardio training. These are 20 minute high intensity interval sessions. It’s kind of a heart blaster. Plus it releases a bunch of happy brain chemicals which is nice as I’m pretty viceless here.

I’m not trying to build the world’s best body – I just don’t have the genes for it. Plus that would require some pretty austere dieting which I couldn’t bear. People might think that body builders can eat anything they want. Actually those guys are probably more careful than most. You can’t get a six pack with more than 8% body fat... and for that you have to really watch what you eat.

No my goal is to (a) have enough muscle mass so I can eat like a human being without my ass swelling up to the size of my sofa and (b) ensure I maintain muscle mass and bone mass as I age so I don’t turn into some decrepit old shriveled thing by the time I’m 60. I have genes on both sides of the family to go either way with scenario (a) having threatened me most this life. I’m now about 10lbs from where I’d like to be which is probably how most women would describe themselves.

As there’s not a lot to do in Singapore besides eating, it’s rather torturous to have my kind of metabolism but what can you do? I should mention I’m kind of a diet fitness guru... well at least in my own mind and to a very small circle of friends. I wrote a fairly detailed e-book on weight loss last year which I’m convinced will one day be discovered and hailed as the next Atkins... OK maybe not, but I’m pretty confident I have THE formula by which anyone can get fit... but it requires a kind of insane dedication that few have.

I was once quite fat. Now I’m relatively fit. I slipped a bit and am currently not quite as svelte as I was about a year ago. But the point is that I have a healthy routine and feel pretty good which seems to be rare around here. Everyone seems to eat crap, never workout, get sick all the time and are either fat fat or thin fat in that soft doughy kind of way.

Just for the record, I'm not a body fascist. I just think people should take care of themselves better. I'll take a healthy "fit fat" body (like Oprah) over a sickly skinny one (Lara Flynn Boyle) any day.

Anyway all this positive talk about healthy things has left me less grumpy. Perhaps next time I’m about to do a wobbly I should drop and do 10 pushups before reacting.

Labels: rants