Wednesday, March 10, 2010

WLW Week 1

How I did this week:
1. Run 3 times/week: 3/3—check!
2. Resistance training 3 times/week: 2/3—fail! But I was sick (in a manner of speaking) on Monday, so I allowed myself an extra day of rest.
3. Drink 64 oz. of water: 6/7—fail! It's so hard to drink enough on Saturdays. And Sundays, for that matter. I think it's because I don't have the endless supply of cold water at home that I have at work.
4. Stop snacking: fail! But I've gotten a bit better over the course of the week. And I went to the grocery store and didn't buy a single item of crap food. Woot!
5. Smaller portions: check-ish. I'm still working on it, but I'm getting there.
6. No eating after 8 p.m.: check for the most part.

Results:
I lost 1.5 pounds this week. Not much, I know, but hey, at least it's something! And at least the weight didn't go up. And I've successfully conquered the first week of my running program! I've never been a runner before ever in my life, so the fact that I'm even running a little bit and not passing out is a very good thing. And by the way, inhalers are life savers. Just thought I'd let you know.

Friday, March 5, 2010

This Is a First

In a really long time, anyway. Tonight marked the third night in a row that I have worked out this week. Woo hoo! I haven't done that since . . . it was so long ago that I can't even begin to formulate a guess. But I'm feelin' good right now!

First of all, I have to say that inhalers are AWESOME! Seriously. Well . . . if you have asthma, they're awesome. There was this one time in high school when my aerobics teacher made us run for a minute and walk for a minute for 10 minutes, and I almost died. Seriously. I couldn't breathe, my face was bright red, and anytime I took a breath, I would start hacking up a lung. Thankfully, those days are now in the past. Wednesday was the first day that I tried the Couch-to-5k program, which starts with jogging  for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for at least 20 minutes. I was successful on my first workout. Sure, I was tired, and by the end I was struggling a bit just to get through that one minute of jogging, but I wasn't short of breath, my face wasn't bright red, and there was no coughing. Thank you, inhaler!

Last night I did some at-home leg workouts. I wasn't sure if they were really effective, but then I did day 2 of the running program, and by the time I got off the treadmill, I could feel my muscles yelling at me. I think my at-home workout did all right.

I decided to walk for a while on the treadmill today, after my 30 minutes of jogging/walking (which I made it through just fine—again). I was on the treadmill for about an hour, and it felt good just to walk. I used to walk to and from campus, but since I graduated, walking hasn't exactly been in abundance. I wish work was close enough that I could walk, but alas, it isn't.

Apparently Friday night isn't a big night for the gym. Gold's Gym is usually packed. I have never seen the parking lot even a third empty—and it's a HUGE parking lot. But when I got there at about 8:00 tonight, it was two-thirds empty. Wow. Apparently I'm really lame for going to the gym on a Friday night. But I wasn't doing anything else, so I figured I might as well do something productive.

I hate watching other people work out. There were a couple of people on treadmills around me who would just get on and start running at full speed for 20 minutes. Man, I wish I could do that. I've realized that it's incredibly easy for me to get discouraged, but I have to remind myself that I have never been a runner, so I'm going to have to work up to it (hence the program). I'm only on day 2. It's going to take me a little while to build up to that 5k.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

WLW

I'm completely stealing this idea from Megan, but I don't think she'll mind. (I'm even stealing some of her goals—they're good ones.) As anyone who has ever read this blog knows, I have been trying to eat healthier and get in shape, with the end result being a skinnier me. As anyone who reads this blog also knows, I haven't exactly been good at this goal. So I'm going to try another tactic and post my progress with Weight-Loss Wednesdays. Hopefully these concrete, dated goals will help me stick to them better.

My weight goal: lose 30 pounds total.

How to achieve this goal:
1. Run (or some other cardio) 3 times/week
2. Resistance training 3 times/week
3. Drink 64 oz. of water a day
4. Stop snacking!!
5. Smaller portions.
6. No eating after 8 p.m.

Check-in points:
1. Every Wednesday.
2. April 28—I hope to have lost 10 pounds by this date.
3. June 23—I hope to have lost another 10 pounds, for a total of 20.
4. August 18—I hope to have lost another 10 pounds, for a total of 30.

There's no check-in this week because I started today. But I did go to the gym and ran for 30 minutes, and did a couple weights. I wanted to get this up on my blog ASAP so I had something to hold me accountable for the rest of the week. Here's to finally sticking to a weight plan!

(By the way, guess who I saw at Gold's tonight? Ryan and Ashleigh Di Lello, from the last season of So You Think You Can Dance. No, I didn't talk to them, but they were there, and it was kind of cool. Even though they are exactly the kind of people I hate at the gym because they're beautiful and make me feel like a blob.)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I'm Baaaaack...

I got a gym membership. Again. Yeah, I know that I just canceled my last membership four months ago because I never went, but it turns out that I don't have the discipline for at-home work outs. And since I am now a full-time employee, my company offers a discounted membership at Gold's Gym. It's only $5 a paycheck, $10 a month. Now that I can handle.

I went for the first time on Saturday, and I hated it. I didn't like the layout of the gym, the elliptical felt funny compared to the one I used at 24 Hour, and there were way more beautiful people there than I was comfortable with. Not to mention the fact that I could only run on the elliptical for about 15 minutes before feeling like I was going to pass out. I think I got a bit out of shape, and my asthma didn't like what I was making my body do. So I got off the machine and left, feeling worse after the work out than I would have felt if I just hadn't gone.

But I finally mustered the courage and went again tonight, and it was better. There were still way to many pretty people, looking fabulous in their skin-tight spandex and muscle shirts while I sweated away on my bike, looking frumpy in my sweat pants and T-shirt. But I guess that's the nature of the beast. At least I was there and I was sweating, right?

I hated the fact that I was on the bike, though. Riding the bike doesn't aggravate my asthma like the treadmill does or the elliptical can, and since I've gotten so out of shape lately, I know I have to start with it. But tonight reminded me why I hated it so much: it freaking KILLS my butt. Not in an "all right, I'm working my muscles" kind of way—more like in a "this is so uncomfortable that I swear my tailbone is going to snap in two" kind of way. Especially after 45 minutes.

But I went! I went to the gym and burned a substantial amount of calories, which is something I haven't done in a long time. And this Saturday I'll be picking up an inhaler, which will hopefully calm down my asthma and allow me to do something other than the bike. Here's to a better active year than last year was.