Posts Tagged "exercise"

Run, run as fast as you can

Posted by talda on May 4, 2010 in health | 1 comment

Okay, I’ve been trying to get this post written for a whole day now, though I’ve been trying to get a post written in general since like, last week. so I am determined to get this up today. TODAY. For real this time.

So since the last time I wrote about my jogging exploits, I was only a couple of weeks into the Couch to 5k program. Well, it’s been a month or so since then and I am still chugging along. While I did take some time off here and there as other things popped up along the way, I am quite pleased with my progress so far.

I have stalled a bit on week 5 but I am really excited about my potential. I really wish I had found this program a lot sooner [like, that first time I attempted a jogging program] but better late than never they always say. I love being outside and seeing the sights. It’s so much better than working out in a room, especially when it’s sunny. Plus, I have built in focus motivators when I’m starting to slow.

Just.make.it.to.that.second.trash.can.

The incremental increase has been a major ego boast along the way. I’ve found myself congratulating myself on meeting my daily goal and experiencing that ridiculously amazing “runner’s high.” The adrenaline just rushes through and suddenly you feel like you can do anything. That 2 foot ditch? Watch me as I fly over it. That phone book? I’ll rip it in half. Stuck underneath a flaming car? OMG! I CAN TOTALLY LIFT IT!

This week I was able to top my personal best and let me tell you, it was exhilarating. I didn’t run last week so I was resigned to the idea of simply running 8 minute sets in preparation of busting out my first 20 minute run later this week [that's week 5 craziness right there. Go check that program schedule]. Well, while I was well on my way to 8 minutes and decided to push it to 10 minutes because I felt pretty good. Next thing I know, I decide to just keep jogging and maybe try to make it to 20 minutes.

I didn’t make it to 20 but I did get to 15 minutes.

That’s 14 more minutes than I started out at [that had me huffing and puffing]. That’s more than I have ever ran for a consecutively extended period of time. I AM JOGGER. HEAR ME ROAR! Or as Lindsey experienced when I came home after climbing my personal Everest, I AM JOGGER. WATCH ME AS I SPAZZ OUT!

This excites me to keep working towards completing this program [and possibly move on to the 8k version]. There’s a 5k coming up in June that I would really love to run and am hoping I’ll be ready to participate. I’ve decided to use that as my goal to push me through the final few weeks of my C25k program. What a way to celebrate my new runner status.

Can’t keep running away…

Posted by talda on Mar 6, 2010 in health | Comments Off

I’m getting ready to start my tenth week of working out and I’m pleased to say that I’m still going pretty strong. Granted, I have wavered a bit in my pursuit of P90X domination but, to be honest, I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did following that program.

While I love the fact that I haven’t mastered the routines yet and there is still a lot of room left to grow into the program [which is a common complaint of mine for practically every other workout DVD I've tried, including Tae Bo. Go ahead and laugh if you must], I just got tired of working out in my house. Here I am, jumping and stretching and cursing Tony Horton while looking outside the window and seeing the sun. The beautiful sun! Oh the photosynthesizing I could be doing! My bones need the vitamin D to stave away those evil rickets!

Something inside started to stir and suddenly I was having thoughts of jogging. Jogging? Excuse me what now? I mean, I am not a fan of the jog. I am well on the record of expressing my dislike of running, often joking how I don’t even run after the ice cream truck. And if I’m going to run after something, it’s definitely going to be ice cream.

So why did I want to jog? No clue so I thought I’d ignore it for a while, test to see if it was a passing phase or something serious. But as I began to grow disinterested in Tony and “the kids,” the call to jogging just grew stronger. So I did what anyone would do: I researched the mess out of it.

I tried jogging before and failed miserably. I was woefully unprepared and just went out and jogged. “What is there to know?” I thought, “Just throw on some sneakers, plug in the iPod and run, right?” Oh, so wrong. So incredibly wrong. I was miserable and after a week, I was a jogging drop out. Jogging is boring. Jogging is not for me. Jogging gives me shin splints. WAH WAH WAH!

Well, did you know its possible to reduce these issues with a little research? I found a jogging program that’s has the potential to having me ready to tackle a 5K in about 2 months. At the moment, it’s more of a jog/walk program but its perfect. Every week I add on a few more seconds to the jogging portion and just go at my own pace. I can repeat a level for another week if I want and I’m actually motivated to go out and jog. And I’m jogging! I even dug out one of my [many] pairs of Nikes that are actually, and ironically, running shoes, and they’ve helped eliminate any pain I usually feel when jogging. I even found a few different places to run depending on how I feel and the weather.

And, I look forward to my jogging days. And another thing, I get bummed when I can’t jog. Who knew THAT would ever happen. But I’m glad it has and I’m completely motivated to keep going. I still plan on playing along with Tony and “the kids” a couple days a week, though just the abs and weight training programs. Jogging will be my main source of cardio.

Maybe next year I’ll jog the Bay to Breakers!

The X stands for “you’re gonna die”

Posted by talda on Feb 3, 2010 in health | 4 comments

So for the past four weeks [I'm currently on my fifth week], I’ve been working out regularly with one Mr. Tony “Call me crazy” Horton and his evil invention, P90X.

I have been eyeing this program since I first saw the infomercial one Saturday morning, and as with most infomercials, I watched the whole thing. Partly out of fascination of the the before and after pictures but also because I wondered if this was a real deal. I mean, it’s not the easiest workout  and it’s kind of intimidating because, hey! These routines are all almost an hour long! Who has that kind of time?!

A quick aside: I love watching infomercials. Especially the ones that involve cooking equipment. I don’t know why but I watch them like it’s SportsCenter in the morning: over and over and over again. Anyone else remember the Red Devil Grill? I know I don’t have to bring up the RonCo products. And another thing, the couple from the Magic Bullet commercials? How annoying would it be to be their friends. You know, if they were real. I mean, I’d find every excuse NOT to go over to their house lest I get stuck listening to another hard press pitch for the newest kitchen gadget. They’re worse than a timeshare presentation! But I digress…

The length of time for each workout actually scared me because I don’t have the best attention span when it comes to video routines but then I realized that I don’t have to do the entire thing. Just do what I can. One day I’ll complete a full yoga x routine. That thing is 90 minutes long. My yoga class was only 75 minutes tops. I still haven’t been able to do more than 40 minutes of yoga [because Tony hates me and wants me to die from yoga] but maybe one day I’ll be able to do the whole thing and then shove it down his head. This yoga routine is coming close to becoming “Catcher in the Rye” part two. That helped take the edge out of it and so far it’s been working!

Remember, I’m fasting and essentially eating only one meal a day so I have vastly modified the routine. There is a set calendar of phases and programs to do but I don’t follow that. I’m not eating enough to support that strenuous a workout. I’m already convinced Tony’s trying to kill me as is; if I did the full thing I’d be dead for real! Anywho, I’m currently working out three days a week, doing abs twice a week along with a concentrated workout (back, chest, biceps, shoulders and so forth) along with one cardio based work out. So far I have not missed a day! That’s exciting news because I usually don’t last this long with video programs since I get bored very quickly, but with several different routines that I can mix and match, I’m still interested.

At the moment I’m down 4 pounds [yay!] though it’ll be interesting what happens when the bf comes to town tomorrow. I’ll be modifying my fast so I’ll be eating more so I’m expecting a bit of an increase when I weigh in next week. We’ll see.

Once I complete the fast, I plan on adding a fourth workout day and doing a second cardio routine so that should even things out a bit. I can’t believe how excited I am about doing this program. I’m not looking for a miracle body transformation like the ones on the website but I’m hoping for a small one that I can be happy about.

The heavy truth

Posted by talda on Jan 11, 2010 in Everyday | Comments Off

I like to think that I’m a fairly healthy person. I wouldn’t say I’m in the best shape in my life but I do okay. That said, my relationship with my weight and general weight management has been pretty apathetic at best. Yes I care about how I look in my clothing and I really do like being active, I just can’t seem to motivate myself to actually get up and do it most days.

My weight has always fluctuated throughout my life as is pretty normal. I wouldn’t say that I struggled to keep it in check. I’d let it go and be happy, then look down and notice that my pants don’t fit exactly right or that hey, I really don’t like the fact that my tummy pokes out a lot more than usual. From there I’d make some mediocre attempt at exercising because I never really want to diet. Who wants to go through life NOT eating cake? Or even feeling guilty for eating cake? I prescribe to the “eat smaller portions of everything and move a little bit more” philosophy.

At my heaviest I weighed 160 pounds by my senior year of college, to which no one believes me. Thankfully I carry my weight well but that doesn’t change the fact that I know what I look like underneath all those layers of clothes and I wasn’t happy. I tried to watch what I ate my junior year, going as far as sucking down my fair share of Slim Fast drinks and trying to count calories in the dining hall but to no avail. By my senior year, I was finally motivated [read: FED UP] enough to sign up for an aerobics class and lost 20 pounds that first semester. What helped was that I was no longer in the dorms and responsible for making my own meals which largely consisted of variations of pasta and chicken and didn’t indulge in my weekly large pepperoni pizza with butter flavored crust from Hungry Howie’s [oh so yummy].

Yes I know that eating large pepperoni pizzas with butter flavored crusts BY MYSELF was not the best idea but man, I felt like a champ when I finished it. It’s like feeling empowered when you finish a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in one sitting but feeling quite piggish when you only eat half. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m saying.

Anywho, my sisters have managed to lose weight and look great, however, I started to feel kind of frumpy when I stand anywhere within sight of them and since I stopped going to yoga once school started and am now not working, I’m not as active as I used to be and wouldn’t you know, my weight has slowly inched up towards my threshold. So it’s time for me to do something.

I made a real deal resolution in hopes of combating this: work out at least twice a week. I know it seems like a really low number but I need to create attainable goals to motivate and encourage myself to continue. Baby steps people. I plan on writing down my progress in a notebook and maybe doing a monthly check-in here on the good old blog in hopes of keeping me honest and motivated to continue. But, and this is a big but, take any weight loss within the first two months with a grain of salt. I’ll be participating in my church’s annual consecration fast so I’ll only be eating one meal a day with more fruit and stuff as snacks so obviously that will affect the results. That said, I’ll be tailoring my workouts to more stretch/yoga/pilates routines and only doing a cardio workout once a week. I’m not going to be eating enough to support a more strenuous workout program so I’m not even going to try. I want to do this right.

I’m hoping that by putting this out there into the world I’ll be able to stick to it. I’m optimistic that I will and am looking forward to beginning. Though I think I’m anticipating being able to eat breakfast and bacon again more. But aside from that, being able to work on myself both spiritually and physically? That’s worth more than eating bacon.