10 Questions With Crabby of Cranky Fitness

Cranky Fitness has been a personal favorite of mine for a while, and not just because of the cupcake motif. It’s a fun blog that combines attitude with useful information. Crabby is full of facts and data but she’s also got a lot of opinions and she’s not afraid to express them. So I was really happy when she to let me interview her. I think I’m going to be doing a few more of these since I’m always interested in the opinions of my fellow bloggers.

• Question - What got you interested in health and getting healthy??
• The Crab’s Answer - Even as a teenager, I was probably more concerned about health than average. My father started having heart attacks by the time I started high school, so I was pretty aware that if you don’t take care of yourself, you can end up in big trouble.

• Question - When you first decided to get healthier, what were the first three or four things you did?
• The Crab’s Answer - Sorry, too long ago to remember! I do recall attempting to be a vegetarian for about two days, but my love of cheeseburgers pretty much squelched that self-improvement project. I was lucky in that I grew up in an active family where exercise was a given. And we had to eat our vegetables. But I definitely ate way too much junk food during my college years.

• Question - What were the most effective things you’ve done?
• The Crab’s Answer - Being consistent about exercise (including weight training as well as aerobics); writing every calorie down when I’ve needed to lose weight; cutting down on the crap in my diet and eating more healthy foods.

• Question - What were some mistakes you made along the way?
• The Crab’s Answer - I concentrated too much on my fat intake–I was one of those people who bought the idea that you could stay lean and healthy by watching every fat gram, without being careful about refined carbs. Now I eat a fair amount of healthy fat, and don’t treat refined flour, white rice, or potatoes (etc) as a staple.

• Question - Do you focus more on diet or on exercise? Or are both equally important to you?
• The Crab’s Answer - I probably focus equally on eating healthy and getting enough exercise. There are Evil Temptations in both areas–slacking off the exercise, or eating too many treats. It takes about equal mental energy to keep myself somewhat in line. By nature, I’m a Self-Indulgent Slacker.

• Question - What’s your favorite healthy snack?
• The Crab’s Answer - Hmm, depends how you define healthy. Dark chocolate covered almonds taste heavenly and have lots of nutrients, but they do have sugar too, so aren’t entirely healthy. Fruit, like grapes, I enjoy. (But not as much as chocolate!)

• Question - What’s your secret unhealthy craving and how do you deal with it?
• The Crab’s Answer - Well, my cupcake craving isn’t exactly secret (if you’ve seen my blog header). But an even more embarrassing indulgence is this: Safeway grocery store sells slices of the JUNKIEST chocolate and vanilla sheet cake ever. True foodies would find these repulsive, but I love them. The icing must be pure crisco and sugar–there’s nothing sophisticated about the taste. Sometimes I buy one of each (because you have to have both flavors), and slice off a thin slice of each kind and lay one on top of the other. The slices are humongous, so it means several days in a row of a sinful dessert. It’s only for Special Occasions. Or else it’s punishable by several extra long workouts to make up for it.

• Question - What’s your favorite method of exercise and why?
• The Crab’s Answer - I love to run to great music, but my knees are shot so I can’t do it often. Sometimes the elliptical is a blast; again, the right music is necessary. Hiking up a hill on a gorgeous hike is a favorite too. Unfortunately, race-walking I’m not all that fond of but it’s what I’m mostly doing right now. (And I’ve never much liked to swim). For non-aerobic exercise I love to just walk everywhere.

• Question - Do you exercise alone or with someone?
• The Crab’s Answer - Mostly alone, as befits a Crabby individual.

• Question - What are your fitness and health goals? What are you working towards?
• The Crab’s Answer - I’m mostly trying to maintain my weight, strength, and endurance as I navigate middle age. Every now and then I think I’m motivated enough to lose a few more pounds or get more intense about exercise, but it’s usually not long before I settle back into my regular routine. If I can just keep doing what I do now as I get older and crankier, I’ll be quite content.

You can read more about Crabby at Cranky Fitness.

If you want to read my previous Q&A session with Mark from Mark’s Daily Apple, take a look here.

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