rowyn

I've modified my exercise regime somewhat over the last several weeks. My original routine took a little over an hour, and was somewhat backloaded, with the most intense exercises coming in the last 15-20 minutes. The rest of the routine was mostly easy exercises interspersed with a few challenging ones.

Since then, I've started using a book on bellydance for exercises, and I've been improvising my own workout. Now I do about 15 minutes of warm-up and stretches, followed by 20-30 minutes of intense exercises (a mix of ones from various sources), followed by 10-25 minutes of assorted bellydance moves that are, presumably, good for something but not really for getting or keeping my heart rate up.

I've also started taking off one day a week from exercise, because doing it every single day was getting on my nerves.

Overall, I've gone from about eight hours a week of exercise to around six and a half, of which I'd guess 150 minutes qualify as "aerobic". I'm not really sure how much of my former routine qualified as aerobic, which is one of the reasons I gave up on it. In general, I'm a lot happier with the new version, partly because I tell myself I can quit after I get through the "hard stuff" which is now happening up front, and mostly because I now have a lot more variety in exercises to do.

Of course, none of this is making the slightest difference in my weight, which continues to hover around 135, much like it has for most of the year.

So I decided to take my measurements again:

Hips: 38.25"
Waist: 28"
Chest: 37.25"

I last did measurements back in June, three months ago. Then I was 38.5/29.25/37.5.

I'm finding it hard to credit that my waist is over an inch smaller than it was three months ago. If it's shrunk that much, how come all my clothes still fit the same? Isn't there a point in here where I'm supposed to be able to fit into clothes that didn't fit before? Maybe I should try on some of my older clothes and see if any of them fit now. There's one dress that I've regretted not being able to squeeze into, and it's the waist that I couldn't fit it around the last time I tried. Perhaps it's worth another try now.

On a measurement-related note, I measured the length of my hair, from the nape of my neck to the end: 18.5".

Unlike all the other measurements, I'm trying to get my hair to grow longer. To this end, I've been trying to (a) keep it braided when I go out and (b) cut it more frequently. (a) is supposed to help on the theory that braided hair is less prone to snags and breakage. (b) is supposed to trim off the split ends, ie, also stopping breakage.

I've been employing this strategy for four years now, with some success. My hair is around three or four inches longer now than it was four years ago. Still, I haven't been very rigorous about trimming it. I cut it just before Anthrocon, and again last night. Last night I cut the last 2-3 inches off of it, because they were really raggedy ends. I mean, two inches sounds like a lot but the whole lock of hair bundled together wouldn't even match the circumference of my pinky. It's much more even now.

I cut my own hair, because frankly when it's this long, there's not much to it. Comb it out straight, snip, done. I used to have Lut do it, but it's so easy it's not even worth the trouble of asking him to do it; simpler to snip it while I'm thinking about it.

A hairdresser once told me that hair grows about half an inch per month, and if you trim off a quarter inch every month, that'll get all the split ends and ensure it keeps growing. I don't know if this is true for me or not, but I think I'll try measuring it and trimming it again in a month. I may as well attempt to bring some rigor to my ongoing quest for long hair. :)

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From:

nkcmike.livejournal.com

It sounds like you're making good progress. Congrats!

rowyn

Thanks! I didn't know you had an LJ. :) I like your icon -- it's the Uffington Horse, isn't it?

I do, and I was happy to discover yours. But, I'll confess that I don't remember just HOW I came across it. Probably looking at friends of friends of friends.

That's the White Horse of Uffington. Good catch.