9 posts tagged “exercise”
Laugh as much as you'd like but I want to learn to hoop again! A local belly dancing studio is having a hooping workshop next week and it gave me the idea. I'm tight on money so I can't afford the class but I may just have to take it up on my own time, maybe even make a hoop myself with a trip to the hardware store. How much fun would it be to spin in my yard like a kid again, put on my headphones and hoop until I'm out of breath and giddy. And after watching videos like this, the grown up part of me thinks it will be a great ab workout too. It makes me smile just thinking about it.
I'm worried about how this change in weather will affect my exercise routine. No matter how hard I try, I just can't get myself to run in 40 degree weather, so my 3 day a week jogging routine is out of the window except on the rare mild evening. I'll have to find alternate ways to exercise. I'd love to join the gym at UK, I can get a deal as the spouse of a student but I'll have to wait to sign up until the spring semester starts. In the meantime, I'll be taking those six flights of stairs at work every day and popping in an exercise video at night. I'm sure these last 11 pounds are going to be a real struggle to lose but I know I can do it, I've already lost three times that amount ( 32 lbs )!
It is absolutely gorgeous outside today, bright blue skies, 70 degree weather, and bursts of autumn color everywhere. I took Luna for a 2 mile run around the neighborhood this morning and found I could have gone for twice as long because the weather is just so refreshing.
Fall is my favorite season so maybe I'm a little biased, but in terms of geting exercise I think there is nothing better than running on a cool autumn day, foot steps on fallen leaves, dog two paces a head, and the feeling you get when you run is even more accelerated, its just perfect.
For those of you keeping track... this is just another reason I'm happy I left Florida.
A few years ago I bought an exercise ball. One of those gigantic, brightly colored, plastic bouncy things that everyone was raving about at the time. It took fifteen minutes to pump the thing up and after spending so much time in preparation I had lost all interest in actually exercising with it. Truthfully, I've only used it a hand full of times since then, but last week I pulled the deflated plastic ball out of the closet and decided to give it another go.
I had a lot less trouble with it this time around, since I'm in better shape, I was able to balance myself much easier. I started using it on my resting days, in between running.
After only one week of doing crunches on the exercise ball I'm happy to say I've lost 1" off my waist and another 1/2" off my hips. All the proof I need to stick with the exercise ball from now on.
And if your keeping count, that's a total of 5" off my waist, since starting my new healthy lifestyle 6 months ago. Just shy of half a foot off my waist! <* beams with pride *>
So I went for a run last night and I was seriously pumped to start my 3rd week in the C25K program. This would be my toughest week yet! It was perfect weather, a brisk 65 degrees, overcast and slightly breezy. About ten minutes into my run I came across a woman getting into her car, I politely waved and kept my pace, when I felt something hit my head. My first thought was a bug, so I quickly reached up and felt my head, my hand came down covered in white mush. Yes, a bird had pooped on my head, and it all happened right in front of this woman. I know she probably went home that night to tell her family the story about the girl who had been pooped on that evening. Little old me... poop head.
I turned tail and ran home, cutting my workout routine a little short. There was no way I was going to run around the neighborhood with poop on my head, no matter how dedicated I am to my weight loss program.
I'm thinking of purchasing a hat.
I've really enjoyed playing tennis with Jon every week and my game has gotten better, though I'm still a novice at best. Today we bit the bullet and upgraded our rackets from the teenage ones we had purchased over six years ago to a couple adult sized real world rackets.
All I have to say is... I love it.
Tonight I hit shots that I couldn't have dreamed of hitting before!
When Jon said he wanted to go ride the mountain bike trails at the park, I asked to go with him. I'm not a person built for mountain biking, I'm terribly awkward and not your most graceful of ladies. I would possibly survive three minutes on that trail. Instead I grabbed a bottle of water, the mp3 player, Luna with her leash and walked/jogged the paved path while Jon fought the dirt trails along the creekside. It was one of the hottest days so far and the locust were engaged in a screaming match. Though summer isn't official for another couple of weeks, I can feel its here in full force.
Months ago I never would have wanted to take a walk let alone jog in the park. I would have considered myself slightly active, because I love to hike but it wasn't for the physical activity, it was just to see the scenery and animals. Here at the park I walked along at a quick pace, Luna panting two steps ahead of me, and I realized that I'm starting to actually like to exercise. I took a break by the creek to let Luna cool off in the water and I stood under the shady bridge sweeting, red-faced and smiling. I couldn't believe it, no one had forced me to go to the park, in fact Jon was used to going by himself and seemingly shocked that I had asked to go along. Here I was enjoying exercise, just Luna and I alone on the trail.
Another step in the right direction of my life.
I justified the purchase of my HRM, telling myself that it would be an excellent motivator to exercise and the key to getting me off the couch. Since using it for the past two weeks, I've managed to find the time to exercise an average of twenty minutes, two days a week. I wasn't quite sure what kind of impact that would have on my weight loss.
I just did my two week weigh-in and measurements. The results are in:
I've lost 4 pounds and 6 inches (whoops) 8.25 inches!
That is twice as much as I was going for, my goal was 1 pound per week! I'm thrilled and so unbelievably happy to have such a great little gadget as a motivator. I can't wait for my next weigh-in and measurements, in another two weeks. At this rate I may meet my goal weight quicker then expected, I'm shooting for August.
If you could only see my beaming smile.
Today was my first work-out while using my new heart rate monitor and I just loved it. I did seventeen minutes of kick boxing and because of my handy-dandy HRM I was able to see that I had burned 224 calories! Twice as many as I had been expecting, I'm just too thrilled for words. It is such a motivator to see instant success and gratification like that, it was the very first time I walked away from doing exercise and was excited, in fact I was only going to do a ten minute session but I was just too excited so I kept going. That has never happened!
Now come on weight... get melting! :)
