Category Archives: Fitness

Feeling Positive

Posted on May 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

A positive feeling is a good thing.  Today, after an ENTIRE weekend off from work, I’m feeling very good.

This past week (2 weeks really) were bad because I was on pager patrol and putting in boocoo hours.  Even though, I tried on some Capri pants at the second hand store and realized that, when I’m in a bad mood I totally believe that I look like a hippo.  Mirrors are not your friend… especially when you are tired.  I got totally disgusted and left.  Maybe next year I will be willing to buy a couple pairs of second hand Capri pants… this year I will stick to jeans and khakis.

BUT…

I have run several times in the last week… and I did weights on Thursday.  Yesterday we walked to HEB for koolaid and jelly and chewy bars.  Today we walked to next to walmart for  small one’s orthodontist appointment.  Yesterday afternoon I swam.  This afternoon the kids and I walked down again to swim.  Swimming always makes me feel good and it always tires me out a lot.

Squirrel got a sun tan.  MPOG got a burn on his neck (he swims in his t-shirt).  I got a bit red where my tank top didn’t cover and where my swimsuit didn’t cover.

Swimming made me feel even better.  The LAST last swimming suit I bought (not the newest one… it has big blue flowers and a skirt… but the one before that) fits again and doesn’t make me look massive.  Maybe I don’t look like I used Jenny to loose lots of weight so I want to parade around in a little suit, but I feel like I don’t match shamu when I swim and my splash wouldn’t drench the first 10 rows.

Tomorrow, it is back to realiity.  I want to get up and run (and I feel like I probably will) and maybe workout at lunch time.

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Posted in Family, Fitness, Health, Journalling

Not Paying for the Same Ground Twice

Posted on May 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

We had an all hands meeting at work.  It was a pep talk… go team.  The primary theme was war movies.  Patton for the most part.   Shoot the donkies and push them off the bridge to get them out of the way…

One of the quotes that struck home with me, though was “I don’t pay for the same ground twice” (Patton quote).  One of my other favorites… Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you are right.

This morning was the first morning in about a week that I really got to work out… it was the first time I had the time to run.  Last week I tried to “do” the Gateway to 8k week 3 workout for the Podrunner Intervals.  I made about half the podcast and gave up.  It really did me in.  I thought I wasn’t going to be able to use the rest of the podcasts to work out to.  I was really depressed becuase I enjoy my workouts to this music even though it really isn’t music that I would pick out for myself.

This morning, I figured I would try one more time.  I was going to fall back to week 2 and work my way up to week 3 to see if I could ever do it, but I rememered the quote… I don’t pay for the same ground twice.  So, I turned on week 3 and set off.

I decided that I would push if I could (it was a beautiful morning for a run) and I was going to treat myself to my favorite trail (the road less traveled through the trees… gravel… hillier… creek… rabbits… trees).  By the time I made it to the creek, I realized that I was going to actually pull it off.  I was going to be able to finish at the quicker BPM pace… 1 min per interval longer.

Sweat… OH MY GOD I was sweating.  My sleeveless shirt was soaked, my bra was soaked… I drank my 10 oz water bottle… half of it half way through, half of it at the end when I was stretching.  I stretched out and felt fantastic.

Tonight… I have spent another whole satruday working on projects at work.  My eyes hurt, my head hurts but I feel way better about everything in general, and I feel better about myself.

Tonight… These little Hour… These twists and turns of fate…

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Gilad in Hawaii

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Okay, I have not revised my opinion of the guy.  He is still a schmuck.    I wish it wasn’t him on at 5 am on fittv… but at least he is there to work out with when I can’t find my mp3 player.  I didn’t get the workout this morning that I was looking forward to but I worked out.  I’m not sure I buy in to the fact that the people on his DVD commercials look a lot leaner after they use his videos but also have different color hair or hair that is a foot longer or whatever… but on TV he is free and in a pinch he helps keep me in a practice.

I have decided that I really want to go running on the beach where he runs at the end of his program…

I keep talking to people at work who want to know about working out in the gym and how I find the dedication to do this.  Yesterday the new PM lady was in the break room when I was there and she was chatting to me about how she needs to get back into going to the gym… but she just can’t find the ambition.

I guess I really started to look forward to this when I started to feel better (most of the time), breathe better and leaving for work or going back to work at lunch time in a better mood.

Sweaty first thing in the morning is great.  Now if I can just find a way to not get short tempered when I’m getting dumped on… Think anyone has that in an exercise program?  No, I don’t think so either.

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SlimQuick Cleanse and Jump Start Pack

Posted on April 22, 2009 | 2 comments

It was my early birthday present to me… I figured what can it hurt and it might help me get past this plateau that nothing seems to be helping… not adding weights, not adding reps and reps to the weights, not adding in elliptical and yoga… nothing…

Been on the Cleanse pills for starting on the 4th day.  Not sure I’m feeling a whole lot different… at least not a whole lot different than I was feeling before I started them… and I don’t think I’ve actually dropped any weight becuase of the cleanse itself yet… but I’m only at the halfway point.

I really enjoy the morning lemon water that they recommend as part of the cleanse (2T lemon juice in 8oz luke warm water).  It is a great way to wake up in the morning.  I’ve been drinking more of the jasmine green tea at work than the coffee lately and I haven’t had a regular coke or pepsi in probably a week… and I’m really not feeling the worse for wear because of it, either… less caffien hasn’t really necessarily been a bad thing.  And water… been drinking gallons and gallons of water…

I really hope something helps get me past this place where I am. I haven’t changed anything weight wise in weeks.  Still adjusting inches around, but I keep thinking about the people on Biggest Loser and thinking that if they have one week where their weight doesn’t change they are devistated and thrown off the ranch and I’ve been stuck here for what seems like ever.

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Running on a Foggy Friday Morning

Posted on March 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

It was mildly foggy this morning when I went out for my run. It wasn’t bad, but bad enough that, had I not had a baggy over my pager, I would have been in trouble for getting it wet. While that isn’t as bad as having it call 911 for me while I’m running and then having them call me back because one bounce of the fanny pack dials emergency and the next hangs up, it is bad enough. There is little difference in the humbling feeling that you get from having an operator ask you if you are sure you are just running for fun and you really don’t need a fire truck or police car and having to grovel to the management where you work for messing up their fairly expensive toys.

I took a step back today… back to First day to 5k week 1. I needed to have the reassurance that I can do it after the biggest part of a week feeling like a failure (didn’t make it to the bathroom for lunch let alone to the gym and I only ran one morning after a week of stomach aches). I did the run and actually felt like I could have kept going, which bolstered my ego just a bit.

Now, I’m sitting listening to folk music (which, when it is instrumental, is a great way to relax at the end of a day) waiting for the kids to call so I can walk over and walk them home. Since it is pager week, I will have to be careful of what I might miss during that walk, but it is such a pretty day. The walk tonight will call for a hoody since it is really chilly coming in the window, and the dog will have to stay out of the water, but it will be a good thing. I took five dollars and bought a weighted jump rope today.

The wind is strong enough that I really can’t be jumping rope outside and the dog loves the novelty of it so inside today isn’t an option… but that is my next version of cross training… jumping rope. That probably isn’t optimal becuase it uses a lot of the same muscles, but it taxes my breathing and my heart rate more than I thought it would, so this is actually a good thing.

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Taking Time to be with Family

Posted on March 17, 2009 | 1 comment

One thing that bear does a lot is to walk nearly everywhere he can.  He walks every night… but I run early every morning (or every other morning) and to walk late and run early I would make myself sick quickly.

But today (comp time day) we needed bread and eggs, so it was a walk to HEB.  I didn’t HAVE to do anything else… I didn’t have to be on the computer, I didn’t have to be on the phone.  I got to take a long walk… it was great.  When I got back, I was tired… but it was nice to be able to walk and talk and ejoy the afternoon…

6 months ago, the walk would have been way harder… I would have been much more sore… I would have been way more tired… I would have wanted to sit down when i got to the store.  Not today.  It felt really good.  Different shoes would have proably made a big difference but I still felt great at the return end.

More?

Yep.  I’ve been being able to go to the field meets to watch (and help) squirrel in her running.  I can tell her what is going to help her to recover.  I can tell her what not to stretch when she is at the end or the beginning becuase I’ve made a lot of the mistakes already that mean I hurt with the stretch (or lack of it)… what makes you feel better (and it doesn’t mean Dr Pepper).

I can spend more time with myself… and feeling good about me… but I can also spend more time with my family.

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Posted in Fitness, Health

Making Yourself Important

Posted on March 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

I relized this morning that it really is only 30 minutes (right now…).  There are twenty four whole hours in a day and with the blog that I’m listening to when I run right now, it is only 30 minutes that I’m taking out of my day to spend on just me.  Okay a couple days a week I’ve added another 30… but that is still only an hour.

But it is amazing what making myself important enough to take those precious minutes to spend on me… to spend on making myself important enough to ‘waste’ the precious time on.

It really does make a huge difference to my day when I take this time for just me.  And I make the time that I take for me matter.  Sometimes it is nothing more than a walk… the days when alergies make me feel like my head is going to explode and I know that if I ran I would probably never make it.

It really doesn’t matter what YOU do.  Walk across the back yard.  Walk your dog three times around the yard… or take him once around the block.  Listen to music while you go or listen to the world around you.  I’m lucky… I have a kingfisher that lives in one of the trees by my house.  I get to hear her every morning on my way home.  Once in a while an owl keeps her company.  The trains are always there, right on time… at about 15 min past each hour.  Dogs making conversation with each other… Flowers that will soon be blooming or that already are.

Getting healthier is the “reason” I do this, but at the same time, realizing that I’ve made myself important enough to take the time to make myself better is making me mentally healthier too… improving my outlook on my day.  Brushing away all of the schmutz that was there from yesterday and clearing out the cobwebs that settled overnight.

Taking the time for me is making all the difference.

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People Notice the Loss

Posted on March 14, 2009 | 1 comment

Okay, I’m not sure how many people notice whatever the difference is in me, but at least one person did.  Yesterday (a day I was too sore to run in the morning and lunch wsa too busy for me to even get to lunch let alone to the gym) when I managed to make time for the bathroom, I ran into Kalpna (she ran the race for the cure 5k with the team in November) in the bathroom.  I really didn’t think that my feeble attempts at getting healthy and hoping to loose weight were having any decent affect at all.  I know that I feel better… I can breathe better.  I know that I’ve lost a few inches.  I didn’t really think anything was noticible.

What am I doing now?  I’ve been running 3 – 4 days a week.  I’ve been hitting the weights in the gym twice to three times a week.  I’ve been eating smaller portions and being good with that.  I’ve been drinking water more but still drinking a pepsi every couple days… 2 percent milk every day… tea more often than coffee but black coffee too.  I’ve decided that I need to do this in a way I can really live with forever.  I can’t depend on someone else to decide what and how much I am going to eat.  I can’t rely on not eating just to meet my goal.

My goal… weighing 140 pound within the next year and maintaining that weight

I don’t care what size pants that equates to… but if I can get to 140 pounds, I should be lean enough to have my cholesterol soundly under control, I will be able to breathe well all the time without having to rely on inhalers… at least not the albuteral inhalers.  I will start to run half marathons and will be able to finish them.  I don’t know when I will be ready for the first one but the day that I realize that I’m running 3 – 5 miles a day… I will know that I will be able to finish a real race.  I don’t see that being any time very soon… but if I keep up with Podrunner Intervals the way they are supposed to be used… some day I will.

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Adding Weight to the Routine

Posted on March 4, 2009 | Leave a comment

Well, the free gym is turning out to be a good thing.  Becuase there aren’t so many people go there and it doesn’t feel like a meat market (sorry… the big gym struck me an awful lot like a place where people go to be seen at the gym, but not to actually WORK at the gym to a great extent).  Today there were 2 other women in the gym.

Today, I added strength training to the workout… and it really hurts!  I know that is a good thing to some degree, but it is making my wrist hurt and that isn’t necessarily so good.  It may actually be good in the long run… I don’t know.

I know that this work with weight machines is going to help my running in the long run.

I’m really glad the machines tell you what you are supposed to do.  If I couple that with the idea that I’m supposed to be able to do do 1 – 2 sets of 10 – 15 repetitions for each set, I think I can do this… I won’t feel like as much of a side show. That is a good thing.  If I’m not so self conscious, I will be more apt to keep this up.

How does everyone else do this?  Everyone can’t have weights at home.  How do people deal with the people who come to watch and be watched?

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Posted in Fitness, strength training

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Running Late Again

Posted on February 11, 2009

It is a work from home (with adjusted hours today) day, so I sletp in a little and went late for my run.  I left a good hour and a half after I usually do and it made for a … Continue reading →

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