Walking (in the rain)

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Fridays are early work days for me, which means it's harder to get up and get any kind of a workout in before heading out the door (I'm definitely NOT a morning person!). Today was no exception; other than a few minutes of yoga for warmup and stretching, I didn't get a workout done in the morning.

No worries, I'll walk at lunch; WRONG, too many other interesting things going on at that time to make it out to do a quick mile. I did a little running in place when no one was around on a break, but that was the extent of my exercise during the work day--basically nothing.


Okay, when I first get home, it's early enough then. Wrong again--I realized I needed to get the state B&O taxes at least started for our tiny website design business because those are due by February 1st. By the time I got done, it was time for dinner, and, well, it's Friday and we like to eat out on Fridays, so it was off to Applebee's. Whoops, never mind, the line is a mile long and I'm hungry NOW. Okay, we need to go to Costco to pick up a few necessities, so maybe we can get a chicken bake to share--not exactly gourmet dining, but tasty enough.

We got to Costco and lo and behold, they were OUT of chicken bakes right then, another 10 minutes or so for them. Fine, just fine; let's do our shopping quickly and decide what to do about eating then. We got in and out and only bought a few extras beyond what we had gone in for, and hurray, they have chicken bakes ready now! I whip out my handy smart phone with Internet access, log on to the SparkPeople mobile site, and voila! there's the Costco chicken bake in the food list, my food diary is up to date and I know where I'm at so I'm not tempted by the frozen yogurt or anything else.



Being able to log food and exercise on my phone while I'm out and about is enormously helpful, thank you, SparkPeople, for developing that mobile app for my Google Android phone; now please add everything you have for the iPhone, okay? pretty please?


Now it's dark, and oh, look, it's starting to sprinkle. What about that walk I promised myself that I'd get in? After just a little self-talk to encourage myself, I DID IT--I took the dog and did just under a mile in the rain. Maybe for all the old-timers who RUN several miles a day, rain or shine, that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it's huge for me. I am the queen of excuses for why I can't get exercise in; rain, even a light sprinkle like we had tonight, would definitely be an excuse to bag it for the day, much less walking in the DARK and in the rain. My husband again joined us (hurray!), ostensibly because he didn't like the idea of me going walking after dark, but I think he also knows he needs to be moving, too. Even though he's not registered with SparkPeople yet, I sort of think he's starting to catch the spark himself; he did get on the site and look around some, and he's talking about getting a bodybugg, too.

Speaking of bodybuggs, when I loaded my data tonight after walking, I saw that I hadn't burned enough calories for the day, at least not what I'd like to burn over what I've eaten, so I hopped on the exercise bike for an additional half hour and 'danced' to some music on the bike. That sure helped me enjoy my time on the bike more, and it was good for another couple hundred calories, making my calorie deficit for the day and overall activity a bit more respectable. I have to say, without the bodybugg to keep me honest, I might not be so diligent about getting in a good block of exercise each day.

More small steps in the right direction, even if some of them were in the rain tonight. The dog is baffled by all this sudden exercise for her, but she's loving it and so am I.

  

A quick update

Friday, January 29, 2010

This will need to be a quick entry as I'm wiped out and need to be up early. I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep until about 4:30 a.m. I don't think it was worry, more a matter of a lot on my mind (and maybe taking my vitamins too late in the day!). Didn't get in much of a workout in the morning, but my husband and I did take the dog for another long (for her and me) walk, about a mile and a quarter; all three of us pretty much had our tongues hanging out by the end since I tend to walk FAST. Oh, and did I mention our neighborhood is somewhat hilly? So far walking in the neighborhood has burned the most calories of anything I've done, at least according to my bodybugg. Go figure: the cheapest and easiest form of exercise is the most effective for me at this point.

I knew I hadn't been as active today because of being tired (no walk at lunch time), but when I uploaded the data from the day, it was worse than I expected. So I pulled out my balance board and Wii Fit and did another 20 minutes of free step at the fastest pace I could manage; that added at least a lot more steps to the day and made me feel like the calorie burn was more reasonable. Now we'll see if I can move in the morning!

Off to bed I go; glad it's Friday tomorrow and a day to get off early. Maybe I'll come home and take a nap after work . . . nah, maybe an even longer walk if the dog is willing to come along. She is going to regret being excited when I pull out the leash if I keep stretching the distance when we walk. Either that, or we're both going to end up in better shape!

  

Making the choice

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Well, I had my first big hurdle of this journey today. I got a call from my husband about the car that we have had in the shop. They put things back together after working on it, and when they started it up, it didn't sound right. Upon further checking, they discovered a crack in the block. Ack! What is THAT going to cost us--on top of what we already owe them?! (We're still waiting for the verdict on what they could find in the way of engines, but it's mostly likely at least two or three times as much as we were thinking).

The 'old' way for me to deal with that kind of news would be to self-medicate with food. I was upset, to be sure, and I did not want to talk to anyone at work (one co-worker couldn't help but overheard the conversation and wanted to 'help,' but there really is nothing he could do). Instead of running to the freezer for the ice cream I knew was there, though, I clocked out and went for a walk, a nice, brisk, one-mile walk. I walked and talked to God about the situation, trying to work through the feelings and get perspective on the problem at hand. You see, my husband is on his last extension of unemployment, and at almost 60, his prospects are not looking great for finding anything soon. Thankfully we have a little money in the bank, but this will take us down much lower than we were hoping at this point.

By the time I had finished my mile, I was feeling much better and able to think more clearly and talk about it. We have some decisions to make now; there's no use in whining and complaining, it is what it is and we have to deal with it, making the best choices we can with the information we have. God has always taken care of us and provided what we need before; we have gone through long rough patches financially before and survived, in some cases coming through better in the end.

I'm a bit surprised at myself, truthfully, for being able to choose exercise over food when under stress. I am definitely a stress eater, whether it's happy stress or unhappy stress. This is a big step for me (literally--I've already walked over 4 miles this week!), and it encourages me to believe that I CAN make the real lifestyle changes I know are needed.

While I'm not where I want to be yet, I am making progress and making the choice to keep moving the right direction, taking it one day, one step at a time.

  

Get a move on!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Well, here it is, the end of the day, and I plugged in my bodybugg, fully expecting that my exercise this morning combined with a brisk mile walk with the dog (plus a couple of hours learning CPR--that's more work than you realize!) would show up on my calories burned as one of my best days so far. NOT!

Fortunately I decided to load the data earlier than usual, so it was early enough to pull out my Wii and get in some additional exercise doing step aerobics. That bumped it up to a more reasonable number and an acceptable number of steps, at least for this point in my journey. Amazing just how FEW steps I take in a day unless I'm very deliberately adding a whole bunch more movement. I knew I was living a pretty sedentary life, I just didn't know how sedentary or how much it would take to make a change. Guess it's time to start seriously bumping it up and get a move on--my dog isn't going to know what to think about all this new activity, but it sure will be good for both of us!

  

Cleaning house

Monday, January 25, 2010

It occurred to me today that losing weight is a lot like getting rid of cleaning house spiritually. You can do a great job of cleaning out the old unwanted stuff, but if you aren't careful to refill that empty space with good stuff, the old will come back with more to boot. Maybe that's why something like only 5% of people who lose weight keep it off. My focus is to not just clean out the old (the excess weight) but to make sure I'm replacing the old attitudes, habits, and general mindset that led me to put on so much weight with new, healthy ones. If I don't, all this effort to watch what I eat and exercise will be fruitless--I'll just end up gaining the weight back with even more.

Something does seem to be changing on the inside. I continue to be surprised by how much energy I have now that I'm eating better and getting exercise. Today was supposed to be a 'rest' day from exercise, and I found myself missing the workout. I did do a little yoga and danced around some to make sure I'd have a calorie deficit when I uploaded my bodybugg info, but no real workouts today. Strange, I never thought that I'd enjoy working out quite so much or miss it. I was able to go to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant and not devour the chips that they were so quick to bring--I think I had two and I was satisfied. I'm just not craving a ton of junk food right now, which is nice. I keep thinking it's going to hit any time now, that hunger for chips, cookies, cake, candy, and so on, but it hasn't so far.

I'll keep working on getting my mental and physical 'house' (body) cleaned and filled with the good stuff. Here's to a healthy lifestyle!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

BUTTERFLYMINDY 1/25/2010 10:58PM

Great post. I liked reading your thoughts about this. Keep up the good work! Report Inappropriate Comment

CARRIE1948 1/25/2010 9:10AM

A sane sensible approach Report Inappropriate Comment