Dialing It Back

You all know I work out regularly and that it's a vital part of my life. In addition to keeping my weight down and allowing me to eat with relative freedom, it keeps me sane, which might be even more important.

However, since I started my job, a little over a year ago, I've managed to gain about seven pounds. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's enough to make my pants feel tight and I can't afford to be buying a whole new set of clothes. More significantly, I won't. I will not allow myself to gain back the weight I worked so hard to lose. Hence I can't let up on the exercise.

Anyway, when I work out, I often (always?) feel like I need to go faster, harder--shave time off my mile or up the calories burned or increase the resistance. I'm very driven when it comes to exercising. The trouble is, I'm at a plateau. I could keep pushing myself but it doesn't seem to be making any difference either with my stamina or my weight.

Well, a friend of mine told me something rather liberating the other day. She said she heard a report that a longer, lower intensity workout may cause you to lose weight more easily. You don't need to kill yourself with a high intensity, in fact, a more intense workout mimics stress and releases some kind of hormone (cortisol) that counteracts the exercise and may even prevent you from losing weight by telling your body it needs to store fat.

So I'm going to try a new exercise tactic. I'm going to work out for longer periods but at a lower intensity and see what happens. I've done it a couple of times and to tell you the truth, I feel better when I'm done--not nearly as exhausted--so even if it doesn't jump start a little weight loss, I might keep it up anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here are a few tunes I find to have good tempos for my dialed-back workout. Now get out there and exercise!

Sam Sparro --"Black and Gold" mp3 off Sam Sparro (buy )

Moonbabies --"Ghost of Love" mp3 off War on Sound (buy )

Underwater Getdown --"Hey" mp3 off Supersymmetry (buy )

image by Carey Sookocheff

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