15 minutes

I remember once before I had kids telling a mom who did have kids that I didn't know how to get anything done if I didn't have a 2 hour block of time. And she just kind of looked at me. And I looked at her back.

I am just not a very fast person. One of the reasons why I woke up early in the morning as a teenager is that I needed about 2 hrs to be ready to roll out the door for school. It was the getting dressed, thinking, eating breakfast, thinking, packing my backpack, thinking, fighting with my brothers, thinking. It was very slow and very comforting. Waking up and rushing out has always been unpleasant to me.

So I had kids. At the beginning, any two hour stretch I had was for sleeping. To get 2 hrs to myself, I have to pay for childcare. And I did that sometimes, but generally since I didn't usually have 2 hrs for anything, I didn't get anything done. Or I got things done just barely.

So, dear world, I have finally learned what everyone probably already knows, the power of 15 minutes. I used to fritter away 15 minutes as if nothing of consequence could be accomplished in 15 minutes. But the past 2 months, I've learned a lot about what I can get done in 15 minutes.

Every morning (just about) for the past 2 months, I've written 750 words of whatever. That takes me 15-20 minutes. So I've now accumulated 35-40 THOUSAND words. I've used this space to process thoughts in general but also for my research and other parts of life that need some planning. The practice of writing has made it a bit easier to write my current research project because I'm simply more accustomed to sitting at my computer and spewing words. Writing articles used to be very laborious because I labored over every word. Now I put them down with the expectation that I'll go back through and edit.

Also, I've been lifting weights in my garage for 15 minutes every weekday. After being accustomed to hour-long workouts in the gym, I wasn't sure that 15 minutes would be very useful, but I figured it would be more than nothing. Well, after six weeks of lifting every day using less-than-maximal weights, I tested my maxes. I set personal records on all the lifts I had been doing beating even pre-surgery records.

Obviosuly, there are actually two things going on. First is that 15 minutes is small enough to squeeze around my kids' lives. I write before they wake up. I lift while they are safely tucked in their rooms for quiet time.  Secondly, I'm doing these frequently, basically daily. And 15 minutes a day adds up. 750 words a day is 5250 words a week. 20 squats a day is 100 squats a week.

Vacuuming and mopping used to be huge mental hurdles until I timed them and realized they were 10-15 minute tasks. Now I think, it's not that hard to squeeze that in.

I'm still not a very fast person. I still like a lot of thinking breaks. I certainly don't string together 15 minute tasks into an HOUR OF PRODUCTIVITY!! But I think I've at least learned to value 15 minutes, actually treasure them as little bubbles of awesome. Better late than never.

Little habits

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all!

I haven't been writing here because one of my new habits has been doing some daily personal writing and that kind of wipes out my writing tank.

A couple big changes are in store for 2014. Last year, I really took a hiatus from something that had become routine in my life. Two big things were 1) leading a women's Bible study and 2) writing a paper with my old research group. I've picked both of those back up for this upcoming year and that in order to accomplish those I've had to re-order a few things.

First, for the past 17 days, when I wake up I write 750 words. It takes about 15-20 minutes to do during which my kids are usually downstairs playing with or screaming at each other. I write about anything I want. For the first week, I used 750words.com, but I realized I could do the same thing using WriteMonkey which is a program I usually use to write papers with.

 In the past, writing has been a slow process for me and I've tended to turn things in late. Right now, my goal is to have a draft together by March. That is exceedingly fast turn around for me (because I am slow), so I thought this little habit would at the least prime the pump for writing for real. I usually do a bit of stream of conscious about stuff that happened the previous day, maybe some thinking about stuff I need to do that day, and if I've read some research articles, I summarize what I thought were the important findings and my thoughts on the issues raised. I've found the little habit useful so far, but the jury is still out on whether it will help me write this research paper.

Second, I cancelled my gym membership. Last year was my first year of gym membership, and it was great but devoting 90 minute blocks of time to travel to the gym and workout is a luxury. In order to take back on writing and leading, I gave up long gym sessions. Instead of 90 minutes 2-3 times a week, I aim for 15 min of weightlifting in the garage 5 days a week and two sessions of of loaded carries (take a heavy weight and walk around with it.) 15 minutes a day is very doable. I do it during the kids' quiet times. Even if the kids aren't being quiet, we all can live with me being unavailable for 15 minutes. There is, of course, a limited amount of work that I get done in 15 minutes, but for now, it's a compromise I can live with. And notice, there's no cardio. That's bliss.

The first two habits are well on their way to being established. The third is something that I've been a lot more hit or miss on. I'm trying to read two research articles a day. I was doing well for a week and then I kind of fell off the horse. It is a very productive speed to read at.

Weightlifting retrospective

So I've been to the gym lifting weights every week this year since I signed up in January except a few weeks around my shoulder surgery. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts about the experience.

I took weighlifting a couple times in college. That was always machine work and nothing much ever came of it. This was very different. I followed the barbell exercises as described in Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and the routine laid out in the back of the book, called "programming".

• Shortly after starting barbell training, carrying my toddler became much less onerous and painful and thus more willing to carry him. That was a plus. 
• Eating is part of the program. As a woman with all the cultural stuff about food and appearance, eating is the hardest part of the program. It's both difficult to eat enough calories and enough protein within those calories. I aim for 2000cal and 200 g of protein a day. Left to my own devices, I eat about 1600-1700 calories of mostly carbs and fat with 70-90 g of protein.
• Progressing in weights is extremely motivating. In the six weeks since I got out of the sling, I started my deadlift at 35lbs and today lifted 195lbs 5 times. Before surgery, I went from a 25lb overhead press to 80lbs. A 45lb squat to 175. 
• This summer before surgery, I had to do a bunch of outdoor work, turning over the garden, fixing a deck. I had a lot more stamina and ability to do that kind of work and very little soreness afterwards. I liked that a lot.
• Body image is very tricky. I weigh more than I ever have while not pregnant. My adult weight has been a steady 140. This year I've been about 155. My jeans are the same size, but I did recently get a different cut that is a bit fuller in the thighs. I have a more hourglass figure now, but I can't say I really know what to do with it.
• Recovery after shoulder surgery was supposed to be quicker for having spent so much time in the gym before hand. Today is 3 months post-op and the shoulder is just about unnoticeable. So I certainly think the training before and after have sped up a process I expected would take much longer. I'm sleeping through the night. I have the flexibility to back squat. I am pressing over 45 lbs which was my 6 month goal. 
• I don't like that my gym is far enough away to add 20-30 min to my "gym time". But it is inexpensive and that includes childcare. That is one reason why I don't think I'll keep this up long term. I just don't want to devote this much time in these blocks of time to "exercise". Workouts are usually 50-70 min long. So another 20-30 minutes of travel really becomes a significant chunk.
• Cardio endurance is rarely necessary in my ordinary life. I have trained for a 5 and 10K in the past couple years. And that's nice. It was a social thing. But there was no carry over to regular life. Strength training has improved my quality of life: better toddler holding, more able to schlepp other stuff around safely, better posture etc. 
• Being able to move around weights greater than my own body weight feels GREAT! and totally assuages any issues I have about my weight being higher than "normal".

All in all, I'm super happy about finding Starting Strength and being able to do it. My mom made exercise my Christmas present by sending me money for it. And I think this year will impact the choices I make in the years to come. 

Close

I deadlifted 150lbs today. A deadlift is where you pick the bar up off the floor until you're standing straight up with the weight hanging at the ends of your arms.

That would have been lifting my body weight, but I've gained weight since I started. So I should get to lifting body weight next week. Meh. I guess my next goal is 1.5 X bodyweight or ~225-235 lbs.

At the other end of the spectrum, my squat and press are at 37 lbs. I'm not even at the 45 lbs that makes up the standard empty bar. As far as the press goes, I'm not surprised since 1) it's an upper body movement and 2) I have a tear in my left shoulder socket.

The squat, however, is a total disappointment, especially since my deadlift is triple the squat. Well, it turns out that the hip flexors in my post-surgical hip are super weak, but I don't use them in everyday life so I never noticed. The hip flexors help bring the knee up toward the chest. Not a huge set of muscles but clearly the limiting factor in squating.

This kind of makes me wonder what other niggling little weaknesses I have in my life that preventing me from doing what I should be able to do.

Lifting weights

So sometime in December, I was trying to get my daughter in and out of shopping carts and realized I was having a rough time. And then I realized she was only 30 lbs -- maybe 32 lbs. And I thought to myself When did I become such a weakling?

Then my mother noted that I had not been exercising and sent us some money for Christmas to rectify that problem.

I've been lifting weights for 2 weeks now. I saw a couple recommendations for Starting Strength and decided to try that program.

To sum up the program, all I do is lift weights. Squats, presses, and deadlifts. Here are things I'm enjoying in no particular order.

• It's very simple
• No cardio
• I'm focused on moving weights and not how terrible I feel
• Currently, I can finish everything up in 30-40 minutes, and I'm sweating hard within 10 min
• It kicks in enough endorphins to help with the depression
• There's daycare for my kids
• Since I'm shooting for strength (low reps) vs endurance (high reps) there's not a lot of lactic acid and I'm not cripplingly sore
• In 2 weeks, my posture is already better
• Since I keep a log, improvement is easy to see (I deadlifted 118 today!)
• I have been going at a time where there's no competition for the equipment and no traffic on the way
• In the 5 minutes I spend warming up on the elliptical, I've been reviewing a memory verse, currently I Thess 5:23-24