Monday, March 30, 2015

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!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Karen! I found your blog via Mr. Money Mustache's forum. Lots of good information about what the full time trucking life is like! Have you heard of Operation Roger Truckers' Pet Transport? I'm a shuttle driver and layover home, and if you and Richie would like to join the team, that would be awesome!

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