This is What S L O W Looks Like
I often feel like The Watcher in my life - the Observer, who watches with amusement, interest, fascination, as my daily life unfolds. I'm right now watching this get-healthy / avoid diabetes / live stronger / lose-the-spare-tire track I'm on.
Let me tell you what S L O W looks like.
I bought my $300 treadmill back in October or November. Great decision, because I can take my good intentions to move my body more and follow through on them even when the weather or my schedule doesn't cooperate.
But, oh my goodness, when one is out of shape, you can't just get on the thing and run. So, first I read all the instructions like a good girl.
I turned it on before stepping on. The LED lets you set miles per hour. It starts at 1.5. Oh, that's too slow. Let's try 2.0. Yeah, I can do this. How about 2.5? I can do this.
I think, "Let's not overdo it." I walk for 10 minutes. Next day for 20 minutes. And I try 3.0 mph. I can do this.
The next week I start at 2.0, go to 2.5 and settle in at 3.0. For 20, then 30 minutes. 'Getting good at this.
Well. Except the arms thing.
Ideally, one should swing the arms to get more of a whole body movement benefit. But, when you're new at this, you gotta practice that. I could only do 3.0 mph if I could hang on, otherwise, I would list to the side Artie Johnson-like, and envision myself stiffly tipping right off the damn thing onto the floor. At which point I would hit my head on the bed on the left, or wedge myself between the window and the treadmill on the right. Thankfully, this "vision" never materialized. I practiced "no hands" at 2.5 till I could get my balance, and went up to 3.0.
Once I got my balance and didn't tip off the side, I had to learn how to focus so I didn't slip off the back of the damn thing. There I'd be, all proud and light-hearted, with my brisk, 3.0 mph, pumping my arms, I'd let my spirits soar, only to feel the holy-shit! panic of my foot rolling off the back of the tread, visions of whipping off the back of the thing, hitting my head on the wall and crumpling into the dog bed. I would always catch myself, grab the handles and thank God I was okay. Yeah, and I'd clip that STOP thingy to my pants too.
My treadmill has a "manual" setting where I choose how many minutes and the mph. It also has some automatic routines. One is called "Weight Loss." It is only 20 minutes long. 2.0 mph for 5 minutes; 3.0 mph for 3 minutes; 4.0 mph for 2 minutes, and so on. The first time I tried it, when it flipped to 4 miles per hour I thought, "You gotta be kidding me! I'm gonna die here! WHO does this??? 'Weight Loss' my ass." ('scuse the pun)
I went back to "manual" for the foreseeable future and made 3.5 mph my "challenge" speed.
3.5 mph is not real fast, but for me, it is a jog. Also, when you're as heavy as I am, it's not about the breathing and cardiac exertion, it's about the pain in the knees and ankles from slamming that much weight on them. "I will be able to do this with much more ease once I'm not carrying so much weight," I think to myself.
So. Talk about slow. I stay in this 3.0-3.5 mph routine for months. Sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes 40, sometimes 60 minutes, depending on how many Hershey's kisses benders I've had. I do this several times a week. Gradually, the 3.5 mph I can sustain for 5 minutes, even 10 minutes at a time.
I decide to add weights to the mix. I already do some free weights 4-5 days a week for 10 minutes, but, since I am an expert at "look Ma, no hands" now, I strapped on some wrist weights. Hmm. How to use these? I could alternately punch an arm up in the air, or, out in front of me, like a boxer, while I walk. Yeah right. The coordination to do that makes walking without holding on look like a stroll in the park. I nearly killed myself. If you're going to punch with the left arm, you gotta coordinate with the left - or was it the right? - leg. It is not easy, and when I mess up, my feet kinda stutter on the tread, and it slips, and I slip, and have visions of a crash again. No. No punching. Certainly nothing of the sort at 3 mph. I gave up the weights on the treadmill as just too risky.
So now it is March, 5 months into using this contraption. I picked up 5 lb weights the other day, and I used them for a good 15 minutes, at 3.0 mph. No punching, just normal arm pumping that goes with walking. Great workout, and I didn't stutter! I went back and tried the "Weight Loss" setting on the treadmill. I figured, after so many hour-long walks, and my comfort at 3 and 3.5 mph, maybe I can handle it now. And I did! It popped up to 4.0 mph and I did it! And I didn't die, or fall off. And the Aleve cured my left knee pain.
4 mph seemed like such a pipe dream to me, and now I'm slipping it in here and there as my next level "challenge" speed. I am still way too heavy to do this for long (I have only lost 20 pounds since January) but, I see I am making progress.
I can hardly believe how long this is taking. I can hardly believe how slowly I have to build up my stamina, my abilities, my strength. Yeah, yeah, I know: I didn't get this heavy or out of shape overnight either. But, the truth is, you can get "out of shape" in a matter of a couple weeks; exercise is something you have to keep doing or things atrophy.
So, here are the blessings of going slow that I've learned so far. When you go S L O W,
You don't hurt yourself, and so you don't experience the "3 steps forward, 2 steps back" of injury.
You learn to be patient and humble.
You learn other things too, like, oh-my-god-now-I-get-it: the difference between people who can eat chocolate cake and still lose weight and those who can't is exercise. I wouldn't know that if I hadn't experienced this as a long-term commitment.
Because you're going slow, there's no reason to not keep going: I can do this.
They say that losing 1-2 pounds a week is the healthiest for the body, and has much less risk of bouncing back (quickly re-gaining what you lost and then some).
Spreading the exercise and weight-loss over such a l o n g period of time tends to actually build new habits, new expectations, new feelings that become your new comfort zone. Exercise doesn't feel so much like a punishment that I have to stick with until I reach a particular painful goal as much as it feels like a reward I give myself to increase my strength and self-esteem. This latest discovery is HUGE for me, and really different.
Going this slowly makes it feel like I'm going to be doing this forever. And, maybe, that's not such a bad thing 
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Copyright (c) 2007
Let me tell you what S L O W looks like.
I bought my $300 treadmill back in October or November. Great decision, because I can take my good intentions to move my body more and follow through on them even when the weather or my schedule doesn't cooperate.
But, oh my goodness, when one is out of shape, you can't just get on the thing and run. So, first I read all the instructions like a good girl.
I turned it on before stepping on. The LED lets you set miles per hour. It starts at 1.5. Oh, that's too slow. Let's try 2.0. Yeah, I can do this. How about 2.5? I can do this.
I think, "Let's not overdo it." I walk for 10 minutes. Next day for 20 minutes. And I try 3.0 mph. I can do this.
The next week I start at 2.0, go to 2.5 and settle in at 3.0. For 20, then 30 minutes. 'Getting good at this.
Well. Except the arms thing.
Ideally, one should swing the arms to get more of a whole body movement benefit. But, when you're new at this, you gotta practice that. I could only do 3.0 mph if I could hang on, otherwise, I would list to the side Artie Johnson-like, and envision myself stiffly tipping right off the damn thing onto the floor. At which point I would hit my head on the bed on the left, or wedge myself between the window and the treadmill on the right. Thankfully, this "vision" never materialized. I practiced "no hands" at 2.5 till I could get my balance, and went up to 3.0.
Once I got my balance and didn't tip off the side, I had to learn how to focus so I didn't slip off the back of the damn thing. There I'd be, all proud and light-hearted, with my brisk, 3.0 mph, pumping my arms, I'd let my spirits soar, only to feel the holy-shit! panic of my foot rolling off the back of the tread, visions of whipping off the back of the thing, hitting my head on the wall and crumpling into the dog bed. I would always catch myself, grab the handles and thank God I was okay. Yeah, and I'd clip that STOP thingy to my pants too.
My treadmill has a "manual" setting where I choose how many minutes and the mph. It also has some automatic routines. One is called "Weight Loss." It is only 20 minutes long. 2.0 mph for 5 minutes; 3.0 mph for 3 minutes; 4.0 mph for 2 minutes, and so on. The first time I tried it, when it flipped to 4 miles per hour I thought, "You gotta be kidding me! I'm gonna die here! WHO does this??? 'Weight Loss' my ass." ('scuse the pun)
I went back to "manual" for the foreseeable future and made 3.5 mph my "challenge" speed.
3.5 mph is not real fast, but for me, it is a jog. Also, when you're as heavy as I am, it's not about the breathing and cardiac exertion, it's about the pain in the knees and ankles from slamming that much weight on them. "I will be able to do this with much more ease once I'm not carrying so much weight," I think to myself.
So. Talk about slow. I stay in this 3.0-3.5 mph routine for months. Sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes 40, sometimes 60 minutes, depending on how many Hershey's kisses benders I've had. I do this several times a week. Gradually, the 3.5 mph I can sustain for 5 minutes, even 10 minutes at a time.
I decide to add weights to the mix. I already do some free weights 4-5 days a week for 10 minutes, but, since I am an expert at "look Ma, no hands" now, I strapped on some wrist weights. Hmm. How to use these? I could alternately punch an arm up in the air, or, out in front of me, like a boxer, while I walk. Yeah right. The coordination to do that makes walking without holding on look like a stroll in the park. I nearly killed myself. If you're going to punch with the left arm, you gotta coordinate with the left - or was it the right? - leg. It is not easy, and when I mess up, my feet kinda stutter on the tread, and it slips, and I slip, and have visions of a crash again. No. No punching. Certainly nothing of the sort at 3 mph. I gave up the weights on the treadmill as just too risky.
So now it is March, 5 months into using this contraption. I picked up 5 lb weights the other day, and I used them for a good 15 minutes, at 3.0 mph. No punching, just normal arm pumping that goes with walking. Great workout, and I didn't stutter! I went back and tried the "Weight Loss" setting on the treadmill. I figured, after so many hour-long walks, and my comfort at 3 and 3.5 mph, maybe I can handle it now. And I did! It popped up to 4.0 mph and I did it! And I didn't die, or fall off. And the Aleve cured my left knee pain.
4 mph seemed like such a pipe dream to me, and now I'm slipping it in here and there as my next level "challenge" speed. I am still way too heavy to do this for long (I have only lost 20 pounds since January) but, I see I am making progress.
I can hardly believe how long this is taking. I can hardly believe how slowly I have to build up my stamina, my abilities, my strength. Yeah, yeah, I know: I didn't get this heavy or out of shape overnight either. But, the truth is, you can get "out of shape" in a matter of a couple weeks; exercise is something you have to keep doing or things atrophy.
So, here are the blessings of going slow that I've learned so far. When you go S L O W,
.
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