Cardio survival strategies

Over the past year I’ve made some major shifts in my approach to working out. Incorporating a weight lifting routine into my workouts has been eye opening – turns out I love barbells. Who knew?! I’m also seeing major changes in my body composition, which is super exciting.

But here’s what I’ve figured out: no matter how great the weights are treating me, I still need to keep cardio in my routine if I want to see the scale move in the right direction. And I hate cardio. So much. I love SoulCycle classes, but I’m already investing a hefty chunk of cash in my gym and Crossfit memberships, so it’s really hard to also swing SC on the regular. I try to save it for a treat class when I really feel like I need that particular brand of cardio catharsis.

So instead, I end up spending a LOT of time on stationary bikes and treadmills at my gym. Which is kind of the worst, to be honest. I have a very no-frills gym these days and there aren’t TVs at every machine, but I’m not really much of a TV person in the first place, so I wouldn’t use them even if they were there. I also can’t manage to flip pages on a magazine, no matter how many tempting copies of People and Us stare at me from the communal magazine rack. Instead, I’ve been trying to find some alternate ways to pass the time, and I figured I’d share the wealth with all three of you who regularly read this ole blog (thanks, guys. sorry I’m so boring.)

I wasn’t kidding about the magazine thing… flipping pages while on the treadmill inevitably ends up with me tripping over my own feet because I am just not coordinated enough to walk and move my arms at the same time. Texture solves that problem for me. This subscription service comes with a TON of magazines that you can download to your tablet to read, and flipping the page is as easy as tapping the screen (aka about all I can handle most days). The magazine selection is amazing and includes a lot of great content that I’m way too cheap to actually subscribe to (looking at you, New Yorker). I also love that it’s super easy to screen shot pages — I do this a lot when I’m reading food or cooking magazines, so that I have a quick reference to recipes for future kitchen experimentation. That link above will take you to a 14 day free trial, and from there it’s either $10 or $15 per month, depending on which level you choose (the more expensive level includes more magazine options). Honestly, this is my second most treasured monthly subscription service, after Spotify – I get a ton of use out of it and definitely feel like I’m getting a great value.

I also like to use my cardio time to indulge my love of trashy romance novels. Secret shame time – I will DEVOUR these horribly embarrassing books like it ain’t no thang. Thank you, Kindle, for making it possible to do this without any judgment from the people around me – for all they know I’m reading about Dickens instead of, well, dicks. (I’m not even sorry about that last one, I couldn’t help myself.) I never pay for these books – I rely on Bookbub to help me find free Kindle downloads so I can comfort myself in the knowledge that at least I didn’t spend any money on the trashy novels. Through Bookbub, you choose your favorite genre(s) for reading material and your preferred e-reader platform, and they send you a daily digest of free or deeply discounted books (think $3 or less). I mostly use it to stock up on free romance or detective novels, but I’ve also scored some bestsellers or less popular works by popular novelists for awesome prices.

There are definitely still days where reading on a treadmill is just more than I can handle, and on those days I turn to either audiobooks or podcasts. For Audiobooks, I use Audible; my favorites are memoirs that are read by the author, because it really just feels like they’re telling you a story. Rob Lowe’s first memoir is shockingly good, and it’s great to hear him tell stories about making The Outsiders or his time in the Brat Pack. I also downloaded Holly Madison’s autobiography and marathoned it during one recent drive to New York, though, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt – I will devour any and all pop culture.

Lately, though, I’ve been listening to podcasts nonstop, both during my cardio sessions and when I’m driving. I’m getting all of my election updates through podcasts because I can carefully filter out the crazy. Keepin’ it 1600, the political podcast produced by the Ringer network, is hosted by former Obama staffers and is my current favorite option, but I also highly recommend the FiveThirtyEight Elections Podcast for information on polling and generally intelligent, higher-level info on the current state of politics. Intelligent commentary shouldn’t be that hard to find, but, well, it’s 2016 and Donald Trump is running for president, so that’s our new reality.

My two other favorite podcasts fly directly in the face of what kicked off this post in the first place – namely, that I can’t just zone out to TV while I’m cranking out the cardio. I’m completely obsessed with The West Wing Weekly and Buffering the Vampire Slayer, two podcasts that delve deep into two of my favorite TV shows, episode by episode. I’m terrible at keeping current with what’s on TV now, but if you want to have an in depth discussion about an episode of TV that first aired in 2002 and is now on Netflix for your binging pleasure, WELL, I am your girl. I am LOVING revisiting two of my favorite shows through the podcast lens, and these totally distract me from how much the stationary bike makes me want to die.

So that’s what’s getting me through the cardio grind lately – what are your survival strategies? Any podcasts I should be listening to? Hidden gem trashy romance novels that I should add to my reading list? I love suggestions 🙂

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I wanted to share a recommendation for a book I just finished – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver. I love Kingsolver as a fiction writer; The Poisonwood Bible is a great read, and definitely worth checking out. However, this particular book slipped past me. I saw it on my Goodreads recommended list recently and decided to check it out – and boy, am I glad I did.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is Kingsolver’s account of her family’s attempts to end their reliance on industrial farming. They committed to eat only food that they had grown themselves or acquired from a local source for a span of one year. The book draws on that year, spanning April to March, for its structure; each month represents a chapter in the text, so as you progress through the book, you follow the natural growing season. Accompanying Kingsolver’s masterful prose are additional sections written by her husband, Steven, providing additional context and information about certain topics, and by her daughter, Camille, including recipes and meal plans.

Now, I live in a city just outside of Boston. Between our challenging climate and my pitiful backyard, I certainly don’t think that I could replicate this experiment any time soon. However, reading this book did make me more conscious about the foods I consume. Kingsolver repeatedly stresses how much better food tastes when it’s eaten in season, from a local source. She provides a lot of information about heirloom varieties of produce, and educates her readers on the importance of understanding where your meat comes from, as well. Kingsolver’s family raises turkeys and chickens (which are used both for eggs and for meat) in addition to their produce farming.

I loved this book because it didn’t read like a promotional treatise on eating locally; Kingsolver and her family were engaging characters and I enjoyed learning about their experience of changing their eating habits over the course of the year-long experiment. That said, it also made me think about my own eating habits, and what I could do differently. After reading the book, I spent some time looking into my own options for eating locally and purchasing meat from small farms instead of from large grocery chains. My city unfortunately doesn’t have a farmers market, and those are tough to come by in New England during the winter season, but I found some great home delivery options that I’m excited to try.

I registered for a biweekly Dogma Box delivery through Boston Organics. The Dogma box, also known as the Local Box, is priced at $29. It features produce that is grown as close to Boston as possible, making it closer to a true CSA box. Boston Organics offers a variety of other home delivery options, but it was important to me that I choose the option that kept things as local as possible. My first delivery is due this weekend; normally I’ll receive my boxes on Fridays, but the snowstorm threw everything off. I can’t wait to review the service! The website lets you see what’s coming in the weekly box, which I love, as it gives me time to research recipes before the delivery. As expected for this time of year, my local box will have a variety of root veggies, which keep better in the winter (beets, carrots, celeriac, turnips, and potatoes will all be landing on my doorstop). I’m also getting some sunchokes, which I’ve never tried before, so bring on the experimentation! One great feature of the Boston Organics service is that they offer grocery add-ons from local suppliers. I’ll be getting whole grain bread baked fresh that day, local farm fresh eggs, and a few cheese varieties to try out. You can customize your grocery add-ons to be a standing order that ships with your regular box, or as a one-time add-on.

In addition to produce delivery, I also signed up for monthly meat delivery from Walden Local Meat Co. This company is committed to partnering with local farms that produce sustainable, pasture-raised meat, free from hormones or antibiotics. They offer several different options for delivery; I opted for the $79 6-7 pound full share, which includes a variety of beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. When ordering, you can specify preferences – ground meat, roasts, chops, etc – and also exclude certain meats if they aren’t your favorite options. As with Boston Organics, Walden allows you to add on to your monthly order; they send an email out prior to the monthly shipment and let you choose from their monthly featured additions. I haven’t gotten my first email yet so I don’t know what they tend to feature, but I have heard amazing things about their pasture-raised fresh eggs! My first delivery will come in February and I’ll be sure to review it then. If you’re interested in trying them out, there’s a space on the order form to indicate where you heard about them. Mention my name (Colleen Myers) and receive $10 off your first order. 

 

Disclaimer: I did not receive sponsorship from any of the products featured here. The Amazon links to the book are affiliate links. All opinions are my own, and I pay for my deliveries from Boston Organics and Walden Local Meat Co.