That Dirty 8-Letter Word -Part 3 of 3

I considered the possibility of leaving the job. Goodbye early retirement (we were planning to be retired by the time I'm 48 - i.e. 9 and a half more years). Goodbye nice weekly paychecks! Goodbye to the easiest job I've ever had! Goodbye free  accommodation!  But I'd have my health, right? After all, if I didn't have my health, what good is early retirement if I couldn't enjoy it fully? Some things are just more important than money and you can't put a price on your health.

Yes, it was making more and more sense. I was left with no choice. We would have to leave this job and get off the...

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THIS JOB! I WANT TO STAY!"

Where did that voice come from?!

"Listen, I don't want to leave trucking. I want to give ourselves that chance at early retirement. I don't want to go back into an office with cliques and office politics.  I can make this job work! There must be a way and I'm going to find it! I can be a healthy truck driver! We're staying right here!
             I'm. Not. Leaving."

Well! The decision was made, wasn't it? I now had to find a way in which movement and exercise became a daily thing, not just an "if I can be bothered" thing.  I had to find it and find it fast!

As this post is going to be really long as it is, I'm going to skip the part describing how I found what I did. Instead, I'll jump right into telling you what I found and how this has forever changed the way I now approach exercise.

I bought a heart rate monitor!

"OK..." you're probably thinking, "What's the big deal?"

First, for those who aren't quite sure what  a heart rate monitor is, I'll explain a bit. It consists of a strap that goes around your chest and has electrodes that sensor your heart beat. The piece in the middle measures your heart rate as beats per minute (bpm).

The readings are then sent to this watch which displays the readings.

Along with displaying heart rate, the watch can, as well as tell time of course, record exercise sessions and calories burnt. Before you use the watch for the very first time, you need to input data such as your age, gender, height and weight. Therefore, the calories burnt are specifically meant for you and no one else.

My heart rate monitor is made by Polar  and costs around $50 from Amazon. Don't worry though, there are loads of watch colors to choose from, not just pink!

Now, I'm going to explain how to use it but I am only going to give you a very general, non-specific overview. If you want more information, the internet will give you way more than anyone can handle and I personally find it all overwhelming! But my explanations below will give you an understanding of how the monitor can be used and it's a very good place to start. This is what I'm using at any rate.

1. Figure out your general maximum heart rate. To do this, take the number 220 and subtract your age. Mine would be 220-39 (my age) = 181 bpm. That is my general maximum heart rate.

2. Now determine your exercise zones. Here they are:

Zone 1- The Healthy Heart Zone. This is done at 50%-60% of your maximum heart rate and moving in this zone has loads of health benefits.  My target heart rate would be 91 bpm - 107 bpm.

Zone 2- Fat Burning Zone. The target heart rate for this zone is 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate. In this zone, fat is the primary fuel burned. My target zone is 107 bpm - 127 bpm.

Zone 3- Aerobic Zone. This is 70% -80% of your maximum heart rate. This zone increases cardiovascular fitness. My target zone here is 127 bpm - 145 bpm.

Zone 4- Anaerobic Zone. This is where the muscles start to burn and strengthen and you really start to sweat. This is 80%-90% of your maximum heart rate. My target zone is 145 bpm - 163 bpm.

There you are in a nutshell.

You may recall in Part 1 that I promised you something spectacular and I seriously doubt that you've read this far and thought that I have indeed delivered. I've simply given you a gadget recommendation and some nice numbers. But bear with me! From here on in, the amazing, life changing stuff begins!

***************

Like a whole lot of people, I have always equated "exercise" and "unpleasantness" together. As far as I was concerned, "exercise" WAS a dirty word! When I did it, my body hurt, my lungs hurt, and all I could think about was when this torture session would end.

So, when I strapped on the heart rate monitor, I told myself that I would try to at least maintain a heart rate in Zone 1 (50%-60%). Do you know what I had to do? I had to stand up and sort of shuffle my feet about. That's it! That was the Healthy Heart Zone!

I then began lightly marching in place and slowly, my heart rate began creeping up: 110, 117, 121, 127. Suddenly, without even realizing it, I was on the brink of Zones 2 and 3! And what's more is that it didn't even feel like I was exercising. That first day, 40 minutes flew by, 280 calories said goodbye and I was over the moon.

First thing I learned was just how little I had to do to keep my body and mind healthy. I simply had to do it for a length of time and it was proving to be really pleasant and easy. I'd put on music and march away.

Pretty great huh? Well hang on, it only gets better from here.

One day I tried incorporating push ups and squats with my marching. The push ups were simply my feet on the ground and hands on the bed in plank position - extremely modified in other words.

After 10 push ups which were pretty hard and which I only moved my arms a tiny bit, I stood back up and checked my heart rate - 151bpm! It had been around 125. Then after letting my heart rate go back down, I did 10 squats (which I always find hard). Again, checking the heart rate, I saw that it was 153 bpm! I also found that I did not wish to do push ups or squats at that point in time as they were unpleasant.

This was very interesting indeed! I then decided to do an experiment. I wanted to see how long it would take doing nothing but marching (no jogging, running or jumping) to get my heart rate from about 125 bpm to 163 bpm (90% of my maximum).

Can you guess how long it took? I was able to do it (by really lifting up my knees towards the end) and it took a total of 13 minutes.

This, dear friends, is the spectacular stuff I have promised you all along! This has forever changed the way I exercise and is the reason I have been able to keep it up every day since. No more excuses for me.

Huh?  But what does this 13 minutes mean exactly?

Remember the push ups and squats and how unpleasant I found them? Recall that in the time it took to do them (about 15 seconds), my heart rate rose by 26 and 28 bpm respectively.

When I took 13 minutes to raise my heart rate 38 bpm to 163, I was shocked by how I felt. Sweaty, breathing harder, but FINE! I felt no unpleasantness, no burning lungs or muscles. I found that the slower I increased my heart rate, I would naturally find myself at that higher heart rate with no unpleasantness whatsoever. I was giving myself time to get used to the increase by allowing my body and muscles to sufficiently warm up.

Now, I would like you to go back to Part 2 and reread all of the exercises I tried. Can you see what they all have in common? They go from nothing to everything in an extremely short space of time - mere seconds. Imagine starting from standing to then jumping rope intensely. Well, no wonder I found it akin to torture! I was probably increasing my heart rate by over 40 bpm in a matter of seconds!

This was a revelation for me. I had been torturing myself for my whole life without even realizing I was doing it. I thought "Oh well, that's just how exercise is" without ever believing that it could be different.

Sometimes I keep my heart rate in a lower zone and sometimes I'll dip my toe into a higher zone but the beauty is that now, my exercises are just that - MY exercises! I'm only going by how my body feels and by my own heart rate. I'm no longer doing the exercises that other people say I "should"do. I'm now enjoying what I do.

I think it would make a nice ending if I gave you a list of the benefits I've been experiencing since using my heart rate monitor and exercising every day:

Weight loss

No more muscle cramping from lack of use

I feel so much better about myself.

I have lots more energy.

I don't crave junk foods.

I don't spend mental energy making excuses.

My stress and anxiety levels have gone down .

The swelling in my ankles has disappeared.

I'm burning about 2,000 calories per week.

I have lots more energy.

I feel really healthy now and believe that it is 100% possible to be a happy, healthy trucker!

That Dirty 8-Letter Word - Part 2 of 3

Let's travel back in time to 2013, when I first started the job. Fresh faced and eager, I was optimistic that I would start a jogging regime, using truck stop lots and going up and down the sidewalks of rest areas. Nothing would stop me. Come rain or shine, I would be out there pounding the pavement!

Only, that never seemed to happen. Not only did I not go out in rain, I just never went out. Truck stops were loud, dangerous places. Once, when Richie jogged around a Flying J lot, a wise guy trucker leaned out of his window and yelled"RUN FORREST!"

Rest areas were too busy and I'd be stared at too much. I'd need another plan.

"Anyone fancy a jog out here?"

Next, I tried jumping rope. It can be done close to the truck and is therefore pretty inconspicuous. Perfect! I'll channel my 8-year old self.  Let's go! I'll be super fit in no time.

STRAW-BERRY SHORT-CAKE
CREAM ON TOP
TELL ME THE NAME OF YOUR SWEET-ugh...heart

Um, OK, help, I can't breathe. My lungs are on fire. My legs are burning. Am I dying? Is this what death feels like? Is the jump rope supposed to end up wrapped around my neck like this?

(Sorry! I just added that last sentence for  dramatic effect.)

So my 8- year old self didn't remember jumping rope being this...excruciating. How could I keep something up that felt like a fate worse than death?

Next, we obtained a mini stepper. We could use it in or out of the truck! I found it really painful on my calves though and could not do it quickly like Richie could. This period became the Making Excuses Phase as to why I simply couldn't exercise today. For some bizarre reason, looking at the stepper made me crave McDonalds. Go figure!

Moving a bit forward in time, the stepper broke and good riddance too!  Now the real exercise can begin: calisthenics, weights and jogging and sprinting in place. I could do most of this inside the truck.

However, I could go outside too to do those exercises that require more space - like push ups, mountain climbers and burpees. (you know those exercises they made you do in gym class where you squat down, jump into push up position, jump back into a squat and then jump into the air?)

Push ups first. Well, I got down but I don't think I'm supposed to end up sprawled on my belly with no hope of pushing myself up.

Mountain climbers now. Burning lungs, shirt's riding up, people are starting to stare - not nice! Next!

Burpees? Oh, who am I kidding?  I think I deserve some pizza after all that hard work.

I had a little more success with jogging in place in the truck and doing exercises like squats and lunges. I would do interval training: sprint for 20 seconds with 40 seconds marching.

Sometimes I'd do a routine 4 times a week, sometimes 1 or 2 or not at all. I never looked forward to exercise and in fact had an active dislike of it! It was a chore, I was unmotivated and judged myself as lazy because I never wanted to exercise, though in the back of my mind I knew I should do it. But it'd just be so much easier if I wasn't living on a truck! Why did I have to struggle so much when normal people had sidewalks, parks and gyms at their disposal? Why, if I had these things too, I'd be set! But no, I'm stuck in a truck. Doesn't anyone understand just how hard it is?

Guess what? We have now arrived at the end of 2014, pretty much up to the present day. Pretty much, but not quite!

Around the beginning of December, I suddenly had a pretty big realization and so many things came to make sense in my head. I am doing one of the most sedentary jobs on the planet and there are days where I may not get more than two minutes of movement. For more days than I care to admit, walking to and from the truck stop or rest area became all of the movement I would give my body that day.

Now, the human body is meant to move. Its very design by nature is made for movement. Yet, here I was depriving my body of its basic human need. I wouldn't treat a pet dog the way I had been treating myself. To do so would surely have constituted animal cruelty. I was thoroughly ashamed of myself and suddenly, my amusing excuses no longer seemed funny in the slightest.

One thing became crystal clear for me. First of all, I decided that I no longer had the right to continue making excuses and deprive my body of basic movement.

I had a choice - get off the truck and return to normal life or stay on the truck, stop making excuses and actually find something that works. After all, no one was forcing me to live on this truck! I was no prisoner or victim. So why was I acting and thinking like one?

If I decided to stay, I would have to accept the following:

1. This job is unnaturally sedentary.
2. To compensate for the nature of the job, to keep my body and mind stable and healthy, I would have to move every single day. No excuses.

So, here was the deal: being here on the truck would no be longer a right but a privilege. If I was not willing to pay the price for this privilege, Richie and I would have to get off the truck for good and find something else to do.

See you in Part 3 where I let you know the choices I made.

That Dirty 8-Letter Word - Part 1 of 3

Dare I say it? OK, I'll whisper it.

exercise

Oh, why not, I'll just shout it.

EXERCISE!!!

It's that dreaded thing we're all told we should do but how often have you seen a truck driver exercising at a truck stop? (in my 2 years, the answer would be 3 times - all men.) In the Covenant terminal in Chattanooga, they provide a fantastic gym for staff and drivers but I reckon that 95% of its users are office staff.

Why is that? We're doing one of the most sedentary jobs in the world. We're told by governments and the Jillian Michaels of the world to exercise moderately for 30 minutes, 5 times per week. There's even a whole system of resistance bands and various hoo-ha's that can be used on the truck. Why is it that we drivers don't fight tooth and nail for use of the treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bikes when we're in Chattanooga, preferring instead to vary our routines by...um...sitting down?

Yes, I put myself in this category too! Don't think I'm doing that whole 'holier than thou' thing! But I can see that there's a problem and one that's definitely worth addressing and addressing properly and realistically! After all, I want me and you and everyone, truckers and non-truckers alike to feel happy in ourselves, and feel as if WE'RE in control of our lives rather than our lives being in control of us.

"Me being sedentary with the best of 'em!"

When I don't exercise, I feel the following effects:

Weight gain

Increased lethargy. The less I move, the less I want to move.

Fatigue. At the end of my shift, all I want to do is sleep.

Increased anxiety and generally low moods.

Increase in appetite and cravings for fatty, sugary, unhealthy comfort foods

Muscle cramping (from deterioration due to lack of use)

Low self esteem

Increased sense of boredom, decreased sense of purpose in life.

Constant underlying worries about my health, especially given the fact that heart disease is the number one cause of death for truckers

My hair and skin feel yucky.

By now you must be thinking "Thanks Karen, you sure know how to bring on the doom and gloom!"

How about I make it up to you by amusing you with some of my excuses as to why I can't exercise today. You may even recognize a few of these classics.

I would but I'm so hungry!

I've just driven 600 miles. I'm so tired!

Don't feel like it today. I'll do it tomorrow.

I don't enjoy exercising. It's too hard!

No one else is doing it.

I don't know what exercises to do that I could keep up.

And who can forget this next gem:

I'd do it if...
1. I wasn't living on a $%@&$# truck!
2. There were sidewalks to walk/jog on.
3.  I could go to the park
4. I could have a shower right after so I'm not so dirty
5. I had time
6. I was fitter

You know what I find to be just a little irritating? When super fit people who have probably never been on a truck, let alone have ever even done the job, proclaim themselves to be authorities over us and proceed to tell us what we should all be doing.

"You should be exercising moderately for 30 minutes at least 5 times per week! Come on, how hard can that be?"

Yeah, buddy, YOU try living with someone in a truck, driving 6,000 miles per week and see how you go!

I'm wrapping this up now, but I don't want to end this post on a downer and have you go away feeling hopeless and dejected after reading this so here's what I promise you for the next post in Part 2:

We're going to take a journey together where I share all of my struggles with exercise. We'll start in 2013 when we started the job and end with the present day.

You'll learn that I'm no authority on anything, especially exercise. You'll learn that I'm a million miles away from being any sort of fitness guru.

What I do have, however, is my experience living on the truck and a desire to share the few things I've discovered over time here. Therefore, Part 3 is the "light at the end of the tunnel" where I give hope to all of us (me included!) by showing in detail that exercise in the trucking world does not have to be an excruciating uphill battle any more.

At the end of Part 3, 'exercise' will no longer be that dirty 8-letter word! I promise!

See you in Part 2!

10 Reasons Why Trucking is Cool!

I'll be the first to admit - getting used to this trucking lifestyle hasn't been easy. During my first year especially, I longed for the normality of, well, NORMAL life - with a home that stayed in one place, a 9-5 job, weekends, shopping, restaurant choices other than Denny's and Country Pride, friends, family, nature walks, and lazy Saturday mornings involving pancakes and pots of tea. When I was feeling down, I could think of practically a billion things I missed about my old life.

"Trying without success to fit in!"

Slowly, however, over the past year, my mindset began to change, almost without me even realizing what was going on. I would find myself thinking less and less about my old life and focusing more and more on making this life as good and pleasant as possible for ourselves.

That is not to say I no longer miss normal life and that this life is a bed of roses. We're just like any other truck drivers and sometimes things happen which can be incredibly frustrating (how about being sent 100 miles each way out of your way for an empty trailer at 2am?). At times like that, I think to myself (and say loudly to Richie) "Are we insane for putting ourselves through this?"

For better or for worse though, that's just the nature of the job of trucking. It's a kind of "take it or leave it" deal we're in.

I have no doubt that if you do a quick internet search, you'll find a gazillion reasons why this job is tough and unpleasant and for those reasons, people tend to respond to us when they find out what we do with "Ugh, I could never do that job or live in a truck!"

So I'm going to turn things around a little bit here and give you 10 of my reasons why trucking can be pretty cool in comparison to the regular 9-5 life that most of us lead.

1. We're able to save WAY more money than probably everybody who's not in trucking. After just 2 years, we've saved enough to buy a house outright if we so choose. We're paid well but mostly, we have no cost of living other than our food and phone. I read somewhere that Americans spend up to 60% of their salaries just to keep a roof over their heads. When you think that we've got a free roof over our heads, well, living in a truck doesn't seem so bad! 

"I would SO love this adorable tiny house!"

2. Most normal people have to deal with a boss on a daily basis. Bosses can be controlling, demanding, moody, unfair, and unappreciative. I have certainly had my fair share of these! But in trucking, there are no bosses like that. As long as we get the loads to the customer safely and on time and communicate, no one cares when we take our breaks or how we choose to work our schedules. If someone in the Covenant office is in a bad mood, we'll never know about it.

3. In a normal job, people have to always look busy, even if there's not enough work to do. In my old job, I found times like that stressful and exhausting. Here, if you're not working, you just chill out! If you're at a customer's getting loaded, it's their job to load you. You, as the driver, in the meantime, can have a nap, eat some food, chat, whatever.

4. For most people, during work time, you have to look and act a certain way to conform to the accepted norm. Where I used to work, eating breakfast at one's desk during working hours was frowned upon and I would be harshly judged if I were to do so. In trucking though, you look and do as you like. I eat my breakfast while driving and don't care how I look if I happen to shove a huge piece of food into my mouth in unladylike fashion. I can chat to my heart's content or even have an animated conversation with myself without fear of how others will perceive me.

5. Lunch in normal working life is often quite restrictive. Where I worked, there was a small kitchen with a few tables. If the weather was decent, I could take my lunch into the park and hope to find a free bench. However, there was no place for privacy and proper relaxation. Here, I have my freshly cooked lunch in the comfort of my truck. I always have my breaks at a rest area so I get views of greenery. After lunch, I often hop into bed for a snooze. Who in normal life can do that?

"Lunchtime!"

6. When there's standstill traffic for whatever reason and traffic is stopped for ages, I always feel bad for non truckers because it must be pretty uncomfortable for them as all they want is to just get where they're going.  They have few, if any, amenities with them. We truck drivers tend to have all we need in the truck. Whether we're in a rest area or stuck on the interstate, we're home!

7. I seriously don't know of any other job where I can do this: drive along, drink my coffee or bottled water, snack on almonds (wasabi and soy sauce are my new favorite!), not have to speak to anyone or please anybody and listen to whatever audio book I happen to be listening to at the time (Gone With the Wind, in case you're wondering). Before I know it, hours have gone by and Scarlett is still angry with Rhett. That's my working day.

8. When normal people go to fuel up, they pay for gas and that's what they get. As company drivers, we don't pay to fuel. However, we have a rewards card which entitles us to free showers. We also get points for each gallon we fuel which we use like money, either in the truck stop or at the restaurant. Also, because we fuel so much, we are entitled to a free soda or coffee of any size if we fuel 75 gallons (an easy thing to do) which means we never ever need to pay for coffee or soda!

9. In most jobs, people work for 35-40 years before retiring. In this job, if you save well and invest sensibly, you only need to work for about 10 years or so before retiring. A sensible young couple could get into trucking at age 25, do it for 10 years, and retire at 35. They can settle down, start a family if they wish and never have to work again. We came into the job later than that, but we'll still be forever finished with work in our late 40's!

10. In most jobs, people can struggle with their coworkers. Cliques exist, there's the whole "fitting in" thing to deal with, it's impossible to like everyone you have to work with. In this job, my only coworker is Richie - my husband and best friend!

I hope you enjoyed my list of reasons why trucking is cool. I enjoyed writing it and it helps to remind me that whatever we choose in life will have its own set of ups and downs. I think people tend to focus on the negatives of trucking and neglect the positives and so I hope I have started to redress that balance, even if just a bit.