Weight Training Even I Can Do

I have been really frustrated by the fact that no matter how much I hike lately, I can't seem to lose a pound.  I can hike for 6 miles in the mountains, 10 miles around the city, with or without my big fat backpack...and I won't shed even one pound.

I have even been trying to watch how much I eat and to make the healthiest choices possible.  Even as a vegan, it is incredibly simple to make bad food choices...after all, potato chips, oreos, pizza dough with faux pepperoni, spicy eggplant dishes, and many beers are vegan.  I know that I tend to eat too much even of good things...but still. It seems like all of this walking should count for something!

Spicy Garlic Eggplant

    There is no shortage of good things to eat...and I love good food.  So while I do have success at avoiding the potato chips and oreos, I usually end up having one meal like the ones in these pictures about twice a week.
   Some of them come with white rice or pasta...and go really well with a cold beer.

Ok, maybe I do understand why I don't lose weight!

A virgin Mango Margarita 

An amazing vegan burger with fries

Black bean nachos with salsa
and...a beer.

Black bean sopes that I ate in an airport in Mexico

Beans and rice with marinated carrots...oh, and
a beer. I think I see a pattern!

These were the best tacos I've ever had. A man in Puerto
Vallarta Mexico made these mushroom tacos in his little taco
stand on the side of the road.

I learned some other information that shed some light on my situation, too.  I found out that as a baby boomer...I have probably already lost 20-40% of my muscle mass just from getting older.  I read that if I don't actively try to avert the muscle loss, I can continue to lose muscle until I am just a mushy old person who can't perform simple tasks.  

I also found out that aerobic exercise, like my hiking, can get rid of some overall body fat, but it won't shape up my body the way I want it too.  It is making my calves and thigh muscles stronger...and those muscles weigh more than fat...so I am in the middle of a balancing act where my body is gaining some muscles mass which may end up weighing a little more than the small amount of fat that I'm able to make disappear when I hike.  (Does that make sense?) So while it's good that I have a bit more muscle and a bit less fat than before...I need to make some changes in my daily exercise routine if I want to see some real results.  That's where strength training comes in.

The strength training workout I've started using requires 

3 lb. weights. Well, I have 2 lb. and 1 lb. weights.  Thankfully they both

fit in one hand. A lady's got to do what a lady's got to do!  

I have always found weight lifting to be undesirable, confusing, and something that would take up too much of my time to get involved with.  I've had personal trainers work with me at a gym...but they never taught me anything that would help me work on my own.  I always still felt incredibly dependent on the trainer to know what exercises to do.  I couldn't tell which exercise machines I should go sit at...or which muscles I really should focus on.

A boomer friend recommended a book from way back in the day, back when I probably should have started strength training and didn't.  I have fallen in love with this author because she has laid out the terms, the exercises, the machines...all in really easy terms that have filled in some of the gaps that I had in understanding how to make the strength training work in my life.

These are the books my friend recommended.
The meal plan it includes isn't vegan, but it was easy to veganize.

The coolest parts are that the routines are 12 minutes a day, and I won't need more than 3 lb. weights for a few months. I can actually stay with the 3 lb. weights as long as I want. This is perfect because I thought I would have to start working on this upper body and lower body strength routines when I got home from the Camino de Santiago in November, (two months from now!) but I can use my two water bottles from my backpack as weights and just spend 12-15 minutes every morning doing my workout before I hit the trail.  This has got me so pumped, I started the workout today.

I will be making some changes to my diet...that part is inevitable.  I will eat less white rice, more greens, add chickpeas to my salads...And.Not.Drink.Beer.For.Now. I will only add whole, plant based fats, and even then, sparingly.  

According to the book, I should see some results in three weeks.  That would be great...to see some results before I leave for my big hike. I'm dreaming that I can continue to work out and really surprise my family when I get back later this year.

Having more muscles will mean that I can lose some of that nagging, tenacious fat I've been dying to get out of my way.  If I lose enough weight, my backpack will probably sit right on my back instead of my butt looking like a backpack shelf.  I believe that I will be able to bend my body more to scramble over rocks on the Appalachian Trail and fit through the narrow caves that I will have to wiggle through.  In other words, I can't wait to get rid of old weight that literally gets in the way of my hiker dreams.  I want to really live my last half without unnecessary  limits.  I dream of getting strong and becoming an athlete...a baby boomer transformed! I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, take care
and go take a hike!  

Peace!