Saturday, May 14, 2011

Days 7-12

So far so good. I haven't missed a workout yet this week, and I'm actually quite enjoying myself when I do work out. I usually do it at night, and I sleep better when I do.

I have a confession to make though - the first week I was doing the workouts, I didn't have the resistance band that you put under your feet to help with your arm workouts. Which made doing them incredibly easy! But, my wonderful hubby found a really cheap set of the game, the resistance band, and the leg strap that keeps the nunchuk in place while you workout online and bought them for me, so I've used them the last two times I've worked out because they came in the mail on Thursday. Wow, does that make the workout harder!!!!! I'll be surprised if I can lift up and hold my flute tomorrow during worship!

But now that I've gotten into a routine of doing this, it seems to be going much smoother. I honestly enjoy doing it; I like the fact that I can do it in my own home, I don't have to drive somewhere to go to a gym. But at the same time, I also like the fact that I have a "personal trainer" if you will, telling me how to do the exercises. Sometimes when I would go to a gym, I'd go by myself or with Chad, but I wouldn't really know proper form or position, so inevitably I would end up riding one of the stationary bicycles because that's all I knew how to do. With the game, I get specific instructions on every exercise, and someone to follow through the reps. I also don't have an entire gym of skinny-minnies staring at my "less than skinny-minnie" butt while I work out. It's quite nice!

This past week however, I have definitely confirmed my weakest area: Food. I loooooove food. I love sweet things. I have managed to cut down on my sweets at work (no crullers to supplement my lunch this whole week!), but I need to focus on the fact that more is not better. I need to learn to listen to my body when it says "I'm full!" and not that I need to necessarily clean my plate. (Mom taught us that a good plate is a clean plate, and that there were little children starving in Africa or China who would love my dinner.) But going along with that, I need to start putting less on my plate. I don't need as much food as I think I do, so I need to learn to tell myself No.

Any tips on how you have conquered that? Or encouragement to say no?

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Days 4-6

So I did have the best intentions on Friday. I came home from work and my errands completely ready to do my exercise. Chad and I had dinner, and that's the last thing I remember. I totally passed out on the couch, and the next thing I know it's two hours later and Chad is shaking me awake telling me to go to bed. Which I did. So, no exercise on Friday.

Saturday morning I woke up and did my exercise from Friday, and while looking at the calendar I discovered that if you miss a day, they simply move the calendar a day so you don't have to do two workouts in one day. Pretty nice!

Saturday Chad and I also drove down to visit my sister and brother-in-law Katie and Jon, as well as my mom and dad for a day-early Mother's Day. We were cooking out for lunch, and also going to an incredibly chic and classy restaurant for dinner, so I figured my food intake was going to go out the window. And it did. But God, it was soooooo worth it! It also didn't help that Katie knows I like these vanilla wafer thingees from Aldi's, so she bought five cans. They are so delicious!!!!! But no, I did not eat all five cans. We took two home, and I am currently working on them. They'll be gone soon, then we can get back to regularly scheduled programming.

So as for today, once my workout clothes come out of the laundry and I'm done watching Legally Blonde, I'm going to do my workout. I have a little confession to make...I don't have the band that goes under your feet that you pull on to make your upper body workouts more effective. But Chad found a used copy of the Wii Active that comes with the band and the leg strap, so once that comes in the mail I'll probably start the 30 day challenge over again with the strap and band. But in the meantime, I'll continue to do my running, lunges, side stretches, and dance steps!

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Day 3

And God rested.

No, wait, that was day 7. My bad. But according to the Wii program, I am allowed to rest today. Good thing too, because my legs are killing me! So since there isn't an update on the exercise front, I do have to say that I was so-so on the food front. I didn't overindulge today, but I did have a few sweets. It was Cinco de Mayo at our office today, so everybody brought in some taco fixings. Somehow peanut butter chocolate bars and mini cupcakes are Cindo de Mayo food, and a couple of them found their way onto my plate. But no cruller, though there was one in the cafeteria...mmmm cruller...sorry, what? I got lost there for a moment.

Anyway, not too bad for starting out, especially since I'm not going to cut out sweets entirely. We'll see how tomorrow's exercise goes.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Days 1 and 2 - The Beginning

Soooo...I don't know why I said I would blog about this, but hopefully if I make it more public, it'll give me more motivation not to give up. I've tried the whole "Let's try exercising on my own" thing before, and inevitably I end up quitting or getting lazy, just give me a week or two.

So what brought this on, you ask? Well, I'm a firm believer in avoiding the scale. It is pure evil, thought up by masochists who wanted people to be depressed. Lucky for me, I work in a doctor's office, with my actual family practice doctor, and two such scales of sheer doom. But unless I was sick and told to go on one for medical reasons, I didn't step on the dreaded steel beasts.

Until yesterday. Yesterday I thought to myself, Eh, what the heck, just see. I figured I was right around where I have been for the last five years. I stepped up, the number popped into focus, and I wanted to either punch the wall or cry. I had somehow gained another 7 pounds, turning into my heaviest yet. Don't get me wrong, lucky for me I have it in most of the right places, but still, nobody likes the number, and I also didn't like how tight my pants had been feeling. So I spent the rest of the afternoon wondering what I was going to do about it, and wondering if that was enough to finally get me off my duff.

So I posted on FB when I got home a cry for help. Does the Wii Fit thing really work? Luckily Sara answered, and was even gracious enough to lend me the Wii Fit Active DVD. Chad and I drove over to her place, picked it up, drove home, and popped it in. After getting my Wiime (Wii me? Wiimii?) made, I started with the 30 day challenge. I popped in my measurements, and off I went. Doing a combination of side lunges, running, curls, and other exercises, 20 minutes felt like 3 hours. I sweat, I smelled, I wanted to stop, but I finished it. And it felt great. Now to keep it up.

I also decided that I needed to stop listening to my teeth so much. Most people have one sweet tooth, I have at least seven. And they love all talking at once. But while sweets aren't a bad thing, I'm going to try to limit myself. It's become a habit that I go down to the hospital cafeteria and grab a cruller to supplement my lunch every day...no more. At least, no more than once per week.

I also need to learn that when I'm full, I can stop eating. I have this habit of keeping my hand moving from the plate/bag/cookie jar to my mouth, whether or not I'm paying attention to what I'm eating. We'll see how I do.

I'm blogging right now after finishing Day 2. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to walk tomorrow, I exercised muscles I didn't even know I had, but I'm going to know they exist when they're screaming at me tomorrow. But I don't care. It sucked to do it, but I'm proud of myself for completing it, especially since I didn't let my normal laziness get in the way. Yes, I worked 9 1/2 hours today. I ran to the store before I came home, I took my puppy Lumos for a walk around our apartment community, and I still did the program.

I'm tired. I'm wiped out. I'll get over it. I have a day off tomorrow according to the Wii, and while I'm looking forward to it, I'm kind of looking forward to Friday more, so that I can get into a habit.
And for those of you who are wondering?

210 pounds.

Never again.

I've got a ways to go, but I can do it, though some encouragement from time to time would be appreciated!