Monthly Exercise Tally

I decided to track the exercise I did during the month of July. I went ahead and added everything up since I'm done exercising for the day and here it is:

• 79 sets of stairs (up to the 3rd floor and down) for a grand total of 6,478 steps...and that's just counting the ones going UP. I didn't do stairs much after the 14th since it's just been too hot in the building to do so without being a sweaty mess afterwards. And given that I do them while at work, well, it's kinda gross to go back to my desk all wet! lol....
• 103 laps around the inside of the building I work in. That's the equivalent of approximately 25.75 miles. Hmm....I almost walked a marathon!
• 15 trips to the gym, usually for an hour each time. I will complete week 3 of the C25K tomorrow morning.
• 26 miles (approximate) of walking the dog. We've been slacking this week walking her...just too hot to do so. It's still in the upper 80s and humid at 9 p.m. and she can't handle the heat well. She flops down a lot in the heat.

I'm weighing in a day early tomorrow morning since we're heading out of town after lunch for the wedding in Iowa. I hopped on the scale this morning and I'm down 1 pound from last Saturday's weigh-in, so hopefully that holds till tomorrow. I doubt that I'll take time to blog before we leave...I have lots to do in the morning after weigh-in. Go to the gym, get my nails done, get my eyebrows waxed, and find a black shirt to go with my new neon red capris (size 12, by the way!). And, I will also need to pack. I think we're planning on heading out after lunch.

Hopefully I'll have pics to post when I get back. Oh, and I ended up returning the brown and orange accessories and getting RED instead. I fell in LOVE with a funky red handbag at JC Penney and couldn't pass it up. Plus, it was on sale! I found an equally funky red necklace and earrings (also on sale!) to match the bag and they look great with the dress. I'm excited for Saturday to get here so I can wear everything.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

A Little This & A Little That

Lots of stuff to touch on this week!

• I finished my second week of the C25K. I still have to really concentrate on breathing deeply so that I don't get side stitches, but it's going well. As long as I'm thinking about that, I don't notice other discomforts as much.
• We went to the Neil Diamond concert in Omaha a couple of nights ago. My husband's parents bought us the tickets and we went with them and 4 other family members. I only knew his mainstream songs like Sweet Caroline (bomp bomp bommpp), Forever in Blue Jeans, and America...but it was quite a bit of fun. I was surprised at the varied crowd...we saw people in their 20s and people in their 80s. Elderly people using walkers and drunk people who could've benefited from having a walker themselves! Oh, and we even saw one guy get taken to the ground outside and handcuffed by the police....BEFORE the show even started! Who would've thought...at a Neil Diamond concert??!! lol...
• I picked out new eyeglasses yesterday. After wearing contacts for 21 years, I'm going to give them up and go back to glasses full-time (or at least 90% anyway). I'm looking forward to my eyes not being bloodshot and dry all the time.
• I had an hour-long hot stone massage this afternoon as my 60-pound reward. It was AWESOME! When I got home I took a 90-minute nap. =) I have just enough left on the gift certificate for another one, so I will save it for when I make goal. I had a facial with it a few months ago, too, so I've gotten some nice pampering out of it. Thanks, honey! =)
• And last but not least, I lost 1 pound at weigh-in this morning bringing me to 61 pounds even. Fourteen to go...

Busy Weekend

This weekend flew by and I feel like I need another day off to rest from the last two days.

Yesterday morning I went to my WW meeting. I lost just enough to reach 60 pounds and get another star for my book. =) Just 15 more for my WW goal...20 for my personal goal. It's hard to believe that I am *this* close to being there.

In the afternoon I went to Omaha in search of a little sweater to wear over my dress, new shoes, and jewelry. I found everything I was looking for so I'm now ready for the wedding. Well, sort of. I decided that my dress does need some altering, so I'll get that done this week. It's a little big through the chest, so you can see through the arm hole and right in at my bra. I hadn't noticed it till my sis-in-law pointed it out yesterday. The necklace and earrings I bought are a chocolate brown and burnt orange combo. Very pretty, though a little reminiscent of The Brady Bunch. lol.... Then I bought a new handbag that is brown and orange. I'm not sure if I'll wear the sweater with it or not. My husband likes it better without it, and I tend to agree. Plus, it's going to be outdoors...in August...in Iowa...so I really won't need it. I just felt like I should cover my flabby arms, but I decided I'm going to wear my wings like a badge of honor and say "screw it" and just go without it. So I'll likely be returning it.

On the workout front, I got up and went to the gym at 7:45 this morning and started Week 2 of the C25K. It was 6 intervals of 90 second runs and 2 minute walks. All went well with only a tad bit of shin pain towards the very end of the last run. After I got done with that, I did the eliptical for 30 minutes. I was pretty pooped by the time I left.

We took Wrigley for an hour-long walk this evening on one of the trails. Bill wore his camelback so we had fresh, cold water for us and for her, too. Towards the end she was really hot so we poured water all over her back and her head and it seemed to pep her up a bit. She's currently laying on arm of the couch sleeping. Hopefully she'll sleep good tonight....she was a complete pain in the you know what last night! Who needs a baby in the house when we have a dog that gets up every few hours?! ; )

Perfect Fit

The dress I ordered online from Talbots finally came yesterday. The 14P fit perfectly so now all I need to find is a new pair of shoes and maybe some accessories. I'm going to Omaha tomorrow to go shopping with my sister-in-law, so it should be a good time.

I called my mother-in-law to tell her about the dress. You see, Talbots is her favorite store and she's promised me a shopping trip there once I'm at goal. Actually, she's been wanting to take me there for the last few months...it's me who wants to wait for the last 15 to come off. So anyway, I told her that I found a dress to wear to Kristen's wedding and to guess where it came from. "Talbots?" I said yes and then she went on "Oh that's great! I can't wait to see it!" She also told me she would make sure it wasn't my last Talbots purchase. lol....

Here's a picture. I've also added it as my "now" picture on the right.

C25K Week One -- Complete!

I've made it through the first week! The first day, as reported earlier, went well. The second day....not so much. My shins were killing me! I made it through but was in some serious pain. On a positive note though, I didn't experience any side aches! Thanks for suggesting I work on my breathing....I did and it worked!

Tonight I did day three. I did some reading on shin splints and found some warm-up exercises to try. I'm proud to report that I had an awesome run/walk tonight...no shin pain or side aches! AND, I did it at the gym! The two previous sessions were done in my neighborhood at 6 a.m. when no one was out and about. I conquered my fear and did it! I found the treadmill to be more comfortable to run on, too, so I will continue my training there. Now I can sleep in till my normal time in the morning and not have to get up before the sun does! ; )

I'm ready to move on to week two, which I will start this Sunday. Thanks again for helping me!

I'm a Runner...

My little 2-minute run a couple of weeks ago had me itching to try something new. I had done some reseach on the Couch to 5K running program and running podcasts. I have an iPod shuffle, but without erasing everything on it and only having the running podcasts on it, I didn't know how I'd ever find them since there's no menu or display. Or maybe I am just dumb and there is a way, but to make things easier, we went and bought me a new iPod nano last night. My plan is to leave the shuffle at work and use it only for my exercise there and use the nano at the gym and to run with.

So we (okay, my husband) transferred my shuffle's playlist to the nano, as well as downloaded all 9 of Robert Ullrey's C25K podcasts. They are available free on iTunes.

I woke up this morning at 6:15 and couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I might as well give this whole running thing a shot when it was still cool out (60 degrees, no wind...absolutely beautiful!).

I put on one of my new workout shirts that I bought yesterday at Gordman's and strapped on my iPod. I at least looked like I had the potential to be a runner! lol.... And out into the neighborhood I went.

I really like the podcast...it tells you when to run and when to walk. And the music is upbeat, too. There are 8 intervals of 60-second run and 90-second walks. The whole thing is about 28 minutes, including warm up and cool downs of 5 minutes each.

It went surpisingly well, and I didn't feel any pain till the 6th run when I had a little pain in my right side. I had a flashback to middle school and junior high....whenever we had to run more than a few laps around the gym, my side would hurt. Apparently I haven't outgrown that! Maybe as the weeks go on and I get more used to running it won't bother me anymore. I was out of breath at the end of the 8th run but it was a good out of breath, not a "Good Lord I'm gonna die" type out of breath. lol....

It was a good workout but it didn't completely kick my ass. I think it showed me that I'm actually in much better shape than I thought I was and that I need to give myself a little more credit. I could never have done this with my old 220-pound body so I see how far I've come.

It Paid Off

My efforts at the gym and at work paid off at weigh-in this morning. I had a 2 pound loss, which is technically over the last 2 weeks since I didn't go last Saturday. This brings my total to 59.6 which means I am oh so close to losing another point worth of food. It's always bittersweet to get to a new decade...it's a good thing but I hate giving up a treasured point! I'm sure you can all relate.

I ordered a dress online from Talbots a couple of days ago for the upcoming wedding (3 weeks from today). I got a great deal on it....the original price was $158 and I got it on sale for $44! I actually ordered two, in different sizes, since I'm not sure how their sizes run. It should be here by Wednesday, if not earlier, and I am SO excited to see how it fits. I will post a picture if all goes well!

I wanted to share with you a recipe for onion rings, if you don't have it already. We've made these twice now and I love them! Take an onion and slice it up into rings. Grind up 1/2 cup Fiber One Original cereal in a food processor and season with salt and pepper (optional). Transfer to a ziplock bag. Dip onions into 1/4 cup eggbeaters and then put them, one at a time, into the ziplock bag of ground up Fiber One and shake to coat. We put the rings on non-stick aluminum foil and grill on each side for a few minutes. You can also bake them, though we haven't done them that way since we do 90% of our summer cooking on the grill. They are really good...I think I actually prefer them to fried onion rings because you taste more of the sweet onion flavor instead of the fried grease flavor. Oh, and the whole serving is 2 pts. It makes enough to share with another person, too.

Enjoy!

My First Gain...Unofficially

I am extremely late in posting this, but my home computer has been locking up left and right so I didn't want to start a blog only to have it act up and lose it....and well, it's been a busy week at work so I haven't had a chance to do it until now.

So let's pretend it's last weekend when I'm writing this! I didn't actually go to my weigh-in....I sort of slept right through it! I did weigh myself on my scale though and I was up .6 from my "naked" weight the previous Saturday. Not a huge gain, but frustrating nonetheless.

Last week I started exercising religiously here at work and am proud to say that since July 1, I've been to the gym six times! And, one night I even RAN (gasp!) for 2 minutes straight! That was the first time I'd ever really ran as an adult so that made me proud. I was the only one there that night so that's why I decided to try it. I don't think I'd be comfortable doing it when others are there....it's that whole "I'm afraid of looking stupid" thing. But maybe some night when it isn't ridiculously hot and humid I'll try jogging a bit around our neighborhood.

I also decided to start tracking the exercise I do here at work. Since July 1st I've done 51 sets of stairs (4,182 total steps) and 47 laps around the inside of the building (equal to 11.75 miles). That's 6 days' worth. I can't wait to do a monthly tally!

That's all for now...hopefully I won't be so late in posting this week's weigh-in!