The one where caffeine made her forget what she wrote...

Good morning! I'm not feeling very well today and I'm not entirely sure what it is. I had a chai tea which may have had too much caffeine for me. I'm kinda flying high. Then again, it could be the green monster I had today, or the chia seeds I added to it. Who knows, really.

I've been blogging my foods in another blog. It's been really fun taking pictures and talking about food! I also like keeping this blog here more about weightloss and life in general. I think eventually the two will merge, but I'm not ready for that yet.

I woke up this morning NOT ready for my day. I could have slept until noon. I don't like this feeling. I really need to start heading back to the gym in the morning. I miss the energy I had from it and need to be less sluggish in the a.m.

The wedding is 2 weeks away and the booked weekends are already starting. I have a bridal shower Saturday, then my mom has asked that she get me for the day on Sunday. I have this feeling that it's more for manual labor than fun wedding stuff, but who knows! Next weekend is supposed to be my bachelorette party.. which is looking more like Anthony and I going out to eat and then getting drunk. If we're able to get more people, then YAY! But honestly, if it's just the two of us.. that would be great, too.

Well, I should get to work. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

The one where she feels overwhelmed...

Ugh.. I overslept again this morning. I *really* thought it was 5:45.. but no.. it was 6:45. I have to plug in a loud alarm. I'm going to have to ease back in to my c25k!

Yesterday, J and I met up with L for a "hike". It was more of a long walk- 2 hours or so. Unfortunately, I was running on 2 and a half hours of sleep, so I was just about as miserable as I could be.

Also, I picked up a heart rate monitor this weekend. I'm curious to try it out. I'll fiddle with it tonight and do a workout. I really need to get a workout in. And I WILL wake up on time tomorrow! I have to!

J and I set a date for the wedding- April 30,2011. Now, I still have my goal set for November 3,2011.. but I'm really going to have to kick it up a notch to make sure I have as much weight lost as I can by the wedding date. That gives me a year. If I could lose 50 pounds, I'd be happy! Of course... to keep on track with my November goal, I need to lose 61 pounds by then (average of 1.1 pounds per week. EEEK!). Oh well... I wouldn't mind losing 61 pounds instead of 50.

So that's that. I'm feeling very boring lately. For this, I apologize.
M

The one where he proposes... twice.

I haven't been tracking food since Friday. I haven't exercised since who knows when! I've been a bit under the weather and, well, distracted. Now, I'm back on the wagon. I feel tons better today, though I didn't make it to the gym this a.m. to be on the safe side.

So, when I originally started this blog, it was going to be about my road to 30.. it still is. Instead of just diet, weight loss, and freaking out about my age... it's going to include something I wasn't exactly expecting- freaking out about getting married.

This weekend, in a series of blunders, J proposed. I knew it would happen some day.. I even knew it would be within the year.. but on Sunday, he did it.. accidentally, though it may have been.

Sunday was my father's 79th birthday. He died about 4 years ago, so having it done on his birthday made me very happy.

Anyway, so now I have another reason to get in shape- I don't want to look like a cow in my wedding pictures.

Well, I don't really have anything else to say. I find when I'm not working out.. my content is lacking. At least it's Wednesday!!

The one in which she rambles about exercise

I feel lucky to enjoy my gym routine. Granted, there is the occasional day where dragging myself out of bed is the last thing I want to go. Usually, that goes away once I'm up. Every once in a while, I have a day like yesterday. I did not want to go to the gym. I did not want to get out of my car once I was there. I did not want to get on the treadmill. I did not want to lift weights. This very much hindered my work out, but I still did it. By the end, I was ecstatic.

This morning was different. I had a goal: c25k week 3 day 1 and 40+ minutes of the bike. So, I walked into the gym and hopped on the tread mill. 5 minute warm up, then 90 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking. Easy. Now for the new thing- 3 minutes of running followed by 3 minutes of walking. Yikes! But I've been building up to this.. no biggie. 90 seconds of running- 90 seconds of walking. Not as easy as the first time.. but better than the 3 minutes! Then, my last burst: 3 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking. This was harder. Once the first minute came down, I was very much "I CAN DO THIS!".. then the first second after the first minute and I thought, "well, I did skip the last day of week 2.. maybe I should just stop after 90 seconds." Needless to say, I did not. I have to tell you.. it felt great! I was breathing harder and sweating.. but at the end, I wasn't panting and I felt accomplished!

Next, I moved onto the bike. Almost the same story.. at 10 minutes, I told myself I'd stop at 15. At 15- 20. At 20- 30. Once I got to 30 minutes, I knew I had to finish the last 12-13 minutes I had left of the show I was watching. I popped off (covered in sweat), cleaned up, then off i went to work.

I did over an hour of cardio today. This is big for me. I didn't push myself as hard on the bike as I usually do.. but it was level 7 or 8 (I don't remember) and when I would notice myself slacking.. I would pick it up!

Boring boring exercise talk.. I know.. but I read an article today that totally made sense and I figured I'd share. It's about learning to love exercise as a way to a lifestyle change. i really do think that if you're going to go from sedentary to active, you need to start with something you very much enjoy.

Back when I first started exercise, I just popped on the treadmill for 20 minutes and called it a day. I like to walk- always have.. and this was a good segue for me. We got a personal trainer and he showed me the machines that had intimidated me. Well, once I realized how great THAT was, my warm up was the treadmill followed by trying to beat my previous score on weights. It works for me. I'm taking the same approach to running. Being able to see my improvement does amazing things for me. Being able to push myself just a little harder when I don't think I can.. and then succeeding... well.. it's just amazing.

I created a list of goals that I want to post here. I'm pretty open with my weight and it will be up here, but I'm scared that J will start reading this that day.. and I'm just not ready to share the number with him. Though I don't think he would care... part of me just isn't sure. =/

Anyway.. that's all I really wanted to talk about today. Hope I didn't ramble too much...

M

Priorities

More often than not, my blogs are starting out with me describing how I had to convince myself to get up and go to the gym. Mind you, it's not that I really have to convince myself to go to the gym.. it's really convincing myself to wake up for the day. I find I have the same problem even when I don't intend to go to the gym.

That being said, I had a hard time getting up today. I've been skipping Wednesdays because I'm up so late watching Lost and the weather sucks and I wanna sleep. Today, I managed to convince myself that I'll probably skip tomorrow because of weather/tired and I should get up and go. So I did. Day 2 of c25k and it was easier than last time.. almost enjoyable!

When I got home, the following exchange took place on twitter:
psykochatter: Work is optional, right? Need.sleep.
iTwon: @psykochatter no, but the gym is
psykochatter: @iTwon no! The gym is NOT optional! Once I make the gym optional, I might as well order a few pizzas with a side of chinese and watch tv!

Admittedly, that sounds wonderful. Mmm, I could go for Chinese right now. *ahem* Not the point, Megan. Focus. This exchange got me thinking about how exercise has to be non negotiable. This is a hard thing to get your head around if you're going from a pretty sedentary lifestyle.. believe me, I know! But look at the things that we make non negotiable in our life: eating, sleeping, brushing our teeth, showering. These are all things we do for our health, to live, and to keep our sanity. Then there are the things we think are non negotiable.. but really aren't: watching Lost, dessert, going online, speeding. Finally, we have those things that should be non negotiable, but all too often they are skipped or forgotten: exercise, vegetables, quiet time, enough sleep.

It's when we start moving things around that our lives and our health really start falling into place. I have goals- weight goals and physical goals. The only way I'm going to reach these is by making sure I give exercise the importance it deserves. Now, I am fortunate enough to really enjoy exercise, so once I'm out of bed and out the door, the rest is easy. But what about people that don't like to exercise?

Well, I didn't get in the predicament I'm in by exercising. I know what it's like to rather sit and watch TV... to want to relax.. to want to hang out with friends. I think it's a matter of finding something that you want to accomplish. Like, I've always wanted to be a runner. I've wanted to be one of those people that can just take off to clear my head. Be able to exercise any time, anywhere. The problem was always that I hated being bad at things.. and I was bad at being in shape. Sure, I could walk the sh*t out of anything, but there's something about people that run that I've always admired. I wanted to go from lazy to marathon with no effort. Let me tell you- that didn't work.

The other thing is to find something you enjoy- be it a DVD, Wii, the gym, walking, skating, etc. SOMETHING! There are ladies I know that love love love the elliptical. I hate it. I can't stand it. I can't control my speed, I get bored, it's just not for me. The treadmill, however, I like. I can adjust the speed if necessary, I can convert walking or running on it to the real world, they're not always full (*bonus!), and I just find I have more options with it.

I don't know. I just think there is *something* for everyone... it's just a matter of finding it. This is just what was on my mind today, and a change in attitude me thinks. I suppose we'll see.

My knees ache. Remind me to take some aleve tonight.

Until next time..
M

Successful weekend! Successful Monday!

3 days I went without even a lick of exercise (aside from the 3.5 pushups and 10 or so sit ups J challenged me to do yesterday). I could feel it! I was itching for some action! I tried some pilates yesterday, but my bum bum was hurting! [A little over a year ago I was snow blowing and slipped on a patch of ice right on my bum. Everything went white and I screamed. I fell. I cracked my tail bone and was in pain for months. Even now, if I sit too long at the movies or a sporting event it hurts. So, going forward, calling my bum bum is not me being cute.. it's bum (like broken) bum (like bottom).] So, this morning, I planned on restarting my c25k (the coolrunnings.com version) but did not want to get out of bed! Knowing this would happen, I enlisted J in helping me get up! It worked and I got to the gym (thank god!).

I promised myself I would finish it- no matter how hard. So, per the instructions, I did a 10 (ok, 6) minute warm up walk, then ran for 60 seconds followed by a walk for 90 seconds.. continuing for 20 minutes. There were bursts where I wanted to stop. I thought "I have the hang of this, I can go to the machines now." But the bitchy controlling side of me said, "NO! You promised you'd finish this. You have no problem running in 1 minute bursts. Stop being a p*ssy and RUN!" And when I finished my last burst of running, I had a huge smile on my face!

My face was red and I was sweaty, but I wasn't panting and I had finished! It was also the most cardio I've done at the gym. I just hate cardio so much! I need to change that mindset. But that's for another day.

Yoga tonight!!

I have officially fallen off the Red Bull wagon. I just like the taste! I'll work on it, though. On Saturday night, T walked in and saw a can of red bull and made fun of me for it. I then showed him the other can.. which he had not seen. Good times.

The good news is that I ate SO FREAKIN' WELL this weekend! That was a hurdle I really wanted to make sure I leaped over and I did! I'm really glad I didn't binge. It makes me feel very good!

And I think that's about it. I want to write about my strange sense of age. Maybe I'll do that later *shrug*.

Until next time...
M

Me again..

Confession: I don't work hard enough when I exercise. My morning exercise routine consists of 10-15 minutes of cardio at best. I want to get to the point where I'm doing 30-60 minutes of cardio. I know that sounds like a lot, but I want to run, so 60 minutes once or twice a week wouldn't be too bad. Now, even though I do the mini cardio, I do weight training. That generally lasts 20-30 minutes. Ideally, I should be circuit training and doing some cardio in between machines and at the end.

See? I know what I'm supposed to do.. i'm just not doing it! I'm going to formulate a plan this weekend and tackle it head on starting Monday! I know the machines, so I can make a check list. They also have a 30 minute circuit training area I could utilize. We'll see. I'm also thinking that instead of random music on the iPod, I could do a TV show or podcast while I'm on the treadmill or bike to pass the time. I think this is a fantastic idea, but it might end up costing me some $$, so maybe I'll have J rip some shows onto the puter for me.

So, that's what we have. This weekend, I'm going to figure it all out then DO IT all next week. I'll let you know how it's going!

Ok, I promise no more posts today.

Until next time..
M

I woke up this morning not wanting to go to the gym. I wanted to curl up and sleep for another hour and a half! However, with the impending rain/snow that is sure to plague the remainder of the week, I figured I should get up and do it in case I choose to "call out" later in the week.

I really wanted to rock it out at the gym today. I wanted to run/walk then really work my arms hard. Unfortunately, I left my iPod at home and.. well, hate cardio. So, I walked for 7 minutes and ran for a minute and a half. Pretty terrible, right? I did work my arms, but I felt like I didn't work them hard enough. I'll have to make up for that tomorrow.

It's not all bad- I did 2 hours of exercise yesterday which was nice. I went to my first yoga class and it felt wonderful! Even though I can't bend that way, I think I'm hooked!

Speaking of hooked, I've decided to break-up with Sugar Free Red Bull. It's too expensive and I've been drinking WAY too much of it. I'm not hooked on caffeine (says the girl that has had 56 oz of tea.. what can I say? I LOVE tea!) and I haven't even really needed it.

My ultimate goal is to get away from most processed food. My first step (which I'm taking baby steps with) is to step away from aspartame. I want to do some research and find out why so many people think it's so bad. In my quick search yesterday, I didn't find much negative. Admittedly, I only looked at wikipedia.

So that's about it. A break-up took place, a new love affair started, and I sucked it up at the gym this morning.

Until next time...
M