Really not training to become a pro competitive eater, I swear . . .

[tanrazz]

Hello--

I hate writing newbie intros. I could easily go on for pages and pages, but I'll try to just keep it to pages.

I'll start with my short-term goals. A friend is hosting a 6-week fitness competition, and we're already halfway through. The first week of June is its last week, and the objective is to be most improved (by percentage) in number of Army-style sit-ups in a minute, number of Army-style push-ups in a minute, and mile-run time. I started with 25 sit-ups and push-ups and a miserably slow 12:15 mile, but that will be an uphill battle because of chronic shin splints, Achilles tendonities, creaky knees, and asthma. I can schlog (stumble-walk-jog) for 5 miles slow, but fast is a problem. So far, I'm up to 31 sit-ups and 28 push-ups, and my mile's been coasting at 14. I'd appreciate any tips on improving. For sit-ups, I've read to just let gravity take care of the downward part, then make sure my hip flexors are strong and flexible for the upward part, since I've read they apparently do more work than abs. I strength train three times a week do my challenge numbers once, doing variations the other two days--heavy weights at low reps, which is what I did all week before this challenge. ST is all body weight, hand weights, or kettlebell. I do cardio the other three days, usually long, slow treadmill runs (the treadmill helps with all my leg ailments), incline work, or intervals. On my rest day, I enjoy long walks along Arizona's canals (when they aren't boiling because I'm in the desert) or an hour of easy yoga.

My long-term goals, as copied and pasted from my page on another fitness/weight loss site where I'm not popular and edgy enough to have many friends:

***

1. Get healthy and fit, and 2. lose weight. I sort of want to be athletic, but without being an athlete. I want to be a runner without having to win races, and I want to be able to survive in the wilderness, a la Bear Grylls, only without the "eat grubs and drink pee" part.

By the end of 2012, be able to--

*run 10 k

*run a 36-minute 5k

*do 1 pull-up

*run 1 mile under 10 minutes

*get my resting heart rate down to 60 or better

*say I'm at or below my 155-lb goal weight (I have 35 lbs to go--the same 35 I had to go from a year ago)

I want to be a body that stays in motion--walk during lunches, pace my office while editing hard copies, take family walks after dinner and on weekends, at least get up and stretch every hour when/if I have to stick close to my desk chair. And when I walk, walk faster.

***

This is where I get all crazy and emotional-weird because lunch is almost over and I have to get back to work. At the core, I have a bad emotional relationship with food. I went to culinary school for fun and have certificates in professional cooking and baking/pastry, and it's been a double-edged chef's knife. I know my diet affects my fitness and weight loss goals, especially because I want to eat myself numb when I'm stressed. I've had crazy family issues over the past year, and this spring, the local grocery had a MAD sale on peanut butter eggs--one of my favorites. When I'm "good," I get scared of food even though the plan in my head is to eat veggies, fruits, lean protein, and whole grains. I'm afraid to get off of boring salads, and I actually kinda hate lean protein (dry! bland!), but then I'll lose 30 lbs in 3 months (it's like my own personal jingle, I've done that so many times), and want to stick to it. Then I'll level off with an actually healthy and well-rounded diet and continue doing well, and then some life-screwing event will kick me face-first off the wagon (just had a text-based Oregon Trail flashback). Anyway, eating an entire package of peanut butter fudge Oreos in a single bound did nothing for my push-up number this week.

Now I'm tired of the sound of my own keyboard. Thanks for reading, and for any tips/advice/smackdowns on my roody-poo candy mass you can offer.

[Michele]

Hi,

I am an emotional eater as well. Since 80% of your results are based on your eating, it tends to be a struggle for me.

I've found that crunches help a lot with sit ups. When I was in the army, to increase our score on the PT test, they would tell us to relax our abs on the way down so our muscles wouldnt tire out. I wouldnt do that method while training, but it may help in your fitness test.

[tanrazz]

Thanks so much, Michele. I'm kind of desperate for any words of encouragement right now, so I appreciate your taking the time. I guess I just really need to buckle down and show self control. It's tough to shake the "don't give a damn" blues that I feel when I binge, though.

I've been way (too) into crunches off and on since high school, hundreds at a time of different variations (reverse, bicycle, regular, etc.). When I read that planks were better, I started planking like crazy and am up to 2-and-a-half-minute planks as well as varied crunches. It was a little maddening when I tried to do plain sit-ups and was so slow with it. I read about relaxing abs on the way down on an Army fitness forum I found, and I was able to squeak out 6 more sit-ups. It's hard to let myself just fall all the way back down, but it definitely helps.