Jun 18 2007
Ms. Q Is High Maintenance
I used to do nothing.
No exercise.
I could eat whatever I wanted and be trim. I figured it was genetic.
Then I began running. I ran because one day I was running for the bus and I ended up gasping for breath. I was 24 years old.
I thought: this is too young to be gasping. I gotta get in shape.
Run, Ms. Q, Run!
But Ms. Q could not outrun her 30s. Suddenly they were upon her and very sneaky those 30s were, too.
There she was enjoying her career and glad that she wasn’t figuring out who she was and what to do with her life [hahahaha!]
Yep, there she was taking for granted that running 15 miles a week and mostly watching what she ate was all it took to stay in shape.
Yeah…right.
Various biological forces and cellular switches were going on and DANG! These pants are too tight and WHY AM I ALWAYS HUNGRY??
No problem. Let’s increase the running. I had heard that your metabolism slows down as you age, so I upped the mileage.
Hmm. Running 25 miles a week doesn’t really seem to be working. My resting heart rate is great but the fact that my waistband leaves a groove in my skin … not so great.
A flurry of research ensued…books on nutrition and diet, books on exercise and weight loss, low carb was in, fat free was out!
Grim realization: strength training was needed.
Lift, Ms. Q, Lift!
Now I’m in my 40s and oooh what a lot of work it seems to take for Ms. Q to remain All That.
There’s the cleaning:
- Teeth Brushing: 2-3 times a day
- Flossing: every night
- Shower: daily
There’s the exercise:
- Running: ~ 5 times a week, 15 – 35 miles
- Strength: ~ every other day. Don’t be impressed – I only lift 10-pound dumbbells
- Core: ~ every other day I do a multitude of crunches. No 6-pack, 4-pack or 2-pack but…no pooch.
- Note to self: add some type of stretching (when? who has the time?)
Then there’s the medical stuff:
- Annual exams: physical, gynecological, eye
- Semiannual teeth cleanings
- Visits to Chiropractor
- Occasional Alexander lessons
Can’t forget the emotional/spiritual stuff:
- Meditation
- Dealing with “issues” (nail-in-the-eye-fun!)
Time consuming incidentals:
- moisturizing
- sun-screening
- plucking
- tweezing
- waxing
- clipping (didn’t I just clip my nails yesterday?)
Now I’m picky about what goes into my body!
- Nutritional supplements like CoQ10, glucosamine, calcium citrate, antioxidant this, omega-that.
- Organic foods
- Fiber-rich foods
Yes, Billy, there comes a time in life when you understand why there are so many commercials on “being regular” and guess what, you WANT TO BE A REGULAR guy.
Go, Ms. Q, Go!
I don’t polish my fingers or my toes.
I barely wear makeup and usually don’t.
I spend maybe 3 minutes blow-drying my hair.
How did I get so high maintenance?
I want to be active my entire life. I don’t want pain. I don’t want to take drugs. I want to stay out of hospitals.
Live Ms. Q, Live!
I want to laugh and smile for a good long time. I want to draw lines of happiness on my face.
If I keep up with my internal maintenance, taking care of my emotional and spiritual needs, I’ll accept those lines and embrace them.
Laugh Ms. Q, Laugh!
I think of maintenance as mere upkeep. High maintenance is the search for improvement.
How can I improve myself? What must I do to become a better person?
Love Ms. Q, Love!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I realize as time goes on we all become high maintenance. As I’ve gotten older I find myself needing to change my diet and go to the gym more often.
I’m not obsessive but close to it.
UT: Yep, that is exactly what happened to me! If we don’t up our maintenance (diet and exercise changes) we’ll end up on even higher maintenance (drugs to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.)
It does feel a bit obsessive to be carefully watching what you eat and feeling like you’re turning into pudding if you skip a workout! Well, that’s how I feel.
Ms. Q…It’s been a while!! Been busy with finishing up finals and working 10 hour shifts
It’s great to read about how you changed your habits all for a healthier, longer, and painless life
When you said you workout your core, be sure to do some lowerback and oblique exercises. Those all help support your back….so you don’t have problems in the future as well!!
I saw this good video on nutrient dense meals and how it helped with oxidants. I’ll have to find it and show you it, because it’s very educational and made me realize a lot of things.
-Gregg
Hey, Gregg: I noticed you’d been off-line for a while but knew it was finals time! I look forward to reading about what summer job you found (hint-hint).
Thanks for thinking about my lower back and obliques – yes, protecting the back is VERY important. I once had sciatic pain (could barely walk!) and never wanted to have back pain again. You can’t do anything with back pain.
I do leg raises for lower back, and crunches every which way for upper abs and obliques. Not the most fun but I notice I run better with stronger abs. Of course, my abs can’t even compare to your abs!
Which reminds me, you’ll have to tell us how your father’s fitness plan is turning out!
Look forward to the video … guess you’ll try to post it on BusinessTwins?
I think preventative maitenence is better than curative!!
I think I’ve become a bit high maitenence, as well, which is a problem because I’m just 21. I get bent out of shape if I can’t eat fresh vegetables or fruit with a meal.. it’s silly
It’s easy for me to keep my figure, but I eat almost all organic, lean meats and lots of veggies.. I do tend to gain weight very fast during finals week, when I start eating standard college crap food. >.
Flexibility is really cool. It helps to keep being able to move later on as things stiffen up.
Balance and a sense of how to move well can help too. And don’t be afraid of falling. some folks hurt themselves when they try to avoid an inevitable fall rather than giving in and going with it. When I go too far in a particular yoga asana, i’ll fall right out of it, but because i go with it, i tuck and roll through it. Sometimes, if someone is not watching, they don’t even know it happened because I don’t slam into the ground. I’m just all of a sudden standing 5 feet away from where i was.
Irisi: I know what you mean about feeling out of sorts when you can’t eat the foods you want! I like to eat a lot of grains and fresh produce, too.
It’s amazing how easily it is to gain weight when you eat “standard American fare” all the salt and simple carbs and the hidden fats and sugars! Eeek! I’ve been eating nothing but home cooking all the fiber is keeping me feeling very full. No weight problem!
ack: One more thing to add to the maintenance! I keep wanting to add flexibility and balance but…so far, I come up with every excuse to avoid it.
But I know it’s important and doing both prevents injuries.