Category: exercise

Duty Calls

I have a confession to make: I did not work out last night.  Not one second.  I thought about it, if that counts for anything.  But I get so little free time anymore that I just wanted to hoard my evening with my husband and stepson, and I simply wasn’t willing to give up a second of it.

This morning I had to meet someone at the house, so I didn’t have to be at work until after lunchtime.  I decided to make up for the skipped workout last night, and I took my stepson’s dog for an extra-long walk.  We even jogged here and there, trying to burn off some of his energy!  We played with a large stick he discovered and instantly claimed.  When I picked it up and spun in a circle with it, he eagerly raced in circles with me.  Anything to tire him out!  He’s like a toddler on crack and energy drinks.

The weather was perfect this morning, chilly but not cold, with a crispness in the air that felt so good.  It would have been a perfect day to head to the trails and just get lost in the woods for a while.

Alas, work called, and I knew I had a meeting at my office coming up.  So the hyper dog, now panting and at least a bit less wound up, and I headed back home so I could get ready for work.

I met up with my husband for lunch before heading to work, which made it even harder to leave.   Lunch flew by, just chatting and having fun.  I didn’t want to leave.   My bad-influence husband tried to persuade me to play hooky and just escape back to the house with him, which was incredibly tempting, but I had to give him a few kisses and then head to the office.

So…I didn’t work out as promised last night, but it worked out pretty well for the dog today!

And now, duty calls, and I am wanted in a meeting.  Hope everyone is having a great day!

Feeling It

It’s so quiet in blogland lately!  You would think there was a major holiday coming up or something 🙂

Yesterday I gave myself an early gift: I signed up for a 7-day free trial of LoseIt Premium.  I decided that since I have so little free time, I need to make my workouts count when I have time for them, and I need to really focus on what I am eating.  Like it or not, I need to get back to serious calorie-tracking.  I want to see what other features are offered with Premium and whether they are worth paying the fee for an annual membership.

I went to the gym yesterday, and I ran on the treadmill for a bit, then switched over to the elliptical.  I won’t have time for much today, but I will make sure I fit in at least 15 minutes of walking during my lunch.

After my workout last night, I pampered myself with a face mask, a long, hot shower with a body scrub, then painted my nails in Christmas colors.  I guess it doesn’t sound like much, but just taking that time for myself and focusing on me for just a little while was luxurious.

This morning, I opened my calendar, then signed up for a Spinning class later this week. I was tempted to sign up for an early morning class, but I figured, hey, let’s not get carried away and all overly-ambitious, shall we?  Maybe someday I will feel up to morning workouts.  Hell, it would make sense on my jam-packed, long days to work out before work, then have my lunch break all to myself.  But it’s so hard to get out of bed when I know it’s my only time that day to snuggle with my husband, and that I won’t see him again until that night.

For now, I have my workouts scheduled for the week, and I am back to logging my food.  Maybe the week of Christmas wasn’t the most ideal time to decide to get back to it, but if I am feeling it, then I am going to run with it!

I leave you with this important, research-based diet tip:diet-tip-bacon-is-healthier-than-cocaine-sarcasm-only-⠀-3456832

You’re welcome!

Beast Mode March

How is it possibly the last day of February already?  That means it is officially the last day of our 30-day exercise challenge.  How did everyone do?  And don’t forget…we have one more day to add just a few more minutes!

I didn’t take into account how long some of my runs are, so I ended up easily reaching and passing my goal of 1100 minutes.  If I start up any more fitness challenges, I will focus on miles, not minutes.

Last night, to make up for not hitting the treadmill in the morning, I doubled up and tried two more Peloton treadmill workouts: a 30 minute hills run and a 30 minute 80s music fun run.  Both of them were great.  The Peloton workouts push me to run faster and on higher inclines than I ever do on my own.  I’ll never be in love with treadmill running, but the Peloton workouts help the time go by faster and give me a better workout.

I’ve joined a few challenges on LoseIt that begin tomorrow, and I’m excited to see how much I can accomplish in March.  I stumbled around a bit in February and held myself back, but only temporarily.  I’ve lost the weight I had gained back, and a little more…and now I am ready for BEAST MODE!

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New Fitness Challenge!

Did you know that 80% of people fail at their New Year’s resolutions by the second week of February?  Or that losing weight is the #1 resolution that people make?

I’m not sharing this with you to depress you on this fine Friday morning, or to wow you with my random facts and impressive statistics-spitting.  Just trying to convince you to join me in a challenge to keep our momentum and motivation going well into this new year!

I have struggled this past week, between the funeral and then worrying about the kids.  I sure could use an extra dose of motivation.  I searched online for a weight loss challenge, but nothing stood out to me as particularly interesting, so I figured: why not start my own?

I don’t have the time (or patience) for a lot of tracking and logging on top of what I am already doing, and I already know that if I have to count points or do a bunch of math every night, I won’t do it very long.  So I want to keep it simple and something that can work for all of us.

How’s this?  Starting on Sunday, January 27, we will set a goal of how many exercise minutes we will accomplish over the next 30 days (until February 28…okay, that’s more than 30 days, but I didn’t want to end a few days before the end of the month!)  So, for example, if you want to work out for 30 minutes a day, four days a week, your goal would be 480 minutes by February 28.

Let’s see…I want to aim for 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week.  That would be about 1080 minutes by February 28.

This way, the challenge is personalized to what you can do, what you want to accomplish, how much you want to challenge yourself.

Anyone want to join me?  A fellow blogger had the idea of joining the challenge by writing on her blog about it, but I also thought we might want a central place to virtually meet up, like a Facebook group.  I can create the group if anyone is interested, and I will post a link for anyone who would like to meet up there for accountability, tracking, questions, motivation, griping, whatever you need over the next thirty-ish days!

Time to Beast

c7e13d4e4175bd10836cf53c5472f5aeI prefer to work out in the evenings, right after work.  (Well, if I am 100% honest, I prefer to not work out at all, but I was trying to sound all exercise-positive here, rah rah!)  But sometimes, life gets in the way, and working out after work is impossible.

This evening, for example, we will be heading out right away for my stepson’s football game.  It’s an hour drive each way to Hickville (a/k/a the Inbred Capital of the World), so we won’t be home until much too late to even think of exercise.

Oh well, so sad.  Just skip the workout, right?

That’s what I used to do.  And, admittedly, it’s what I was very much tempted to do today.  Instead, I set the alarm for an hour earlier than usual (ouch).  I got up and worked out this morning so it’s all done for the day, checked off, complete!  Boo-yah!

I can’t say I enjoy morning workouts, or getting up so early, but I am proud that I did it, and happy that my workout is done for the day.  Hopefully it all pays off at weigh-in tomorrow morning!

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