Confession time.

I haven’t done any purposeful exercise (meaning, a WORKOUT, not, say, a walk with Jen after lunch) since sometime in July. I haven’t been taking my vitamins, or paying attention to how much water I drink during the day. I’ve been eating whatever the hell I want, too. Now, other than perhaps one or two pounds, I have been able to get away with this shameful behavior with little consequence. My clothes still fit, I still look the same in the mirror.

But.

I FEEL like crap. Slothful, and achy, and I haven’t been sleeping well. Aha, there lie the consequences of my actions! I knew they were around here somewhere.

Calvin got the results back from his doctor – the high blood pressure and high cholesterol haven’t done any damage to his arteries or heart, so far. All the tests and scans and whatnot came back normal. BUT, the doctor literally said, “If you don’t start getting exercise and eat much better than you have been, you’re going to die.” How’s THAT for some scare tactics?

Drastic Measures

Okay, after watching last week’s episode of Biggest Loser, I’ve been really giving some thought to my diet. In general, I don’t eat poorly. I feel like I eat healthily but I do have a tendency toward the standing snack. This is a snack that is consumed while standing at the pantry in small amounts….like 1 Oreo when I am putting the package away from the grocery store. Or a few Doritos when I am folding the bag closed after packing my daughter’s lunch. Individually these things aren’t diet killers, but collectively. Oh Boy.

I have really upped my exercise amount  in the last 6 months and still am not seeing the results I’d like to. So, I’m focusing on the diet now. And I don’t mean “watching my diet” because I clearly have been doing a lot of watching and not actively adjusting it. So, this is my plan.

For the next 2 weeks, I will institute the good old Slim Fast shakes for breakfast and mostly for lunch. (The Cappuccino Delight is actually…delightful!) I will reserve the option to substitute cottage cheese and salsa or tuna fish. For dinner, I will have a measured (eye-balled), balanced meal. I’m not kidding you or me if I say I’m going to stick to chicken breasts and lean meats and low carbs. That is really, really not going to happen. BUT, I can vow to have only 1 piece of pizza rather than 2, and keep the carbs as a small side, rather than star of the plate. I can limit my bread intake at restaurants and I can skip the English Toffee Creamer in my coffee. For 2 weeks. I can do it! I’ll let you know if I get results. As my reward, if I succeed, I will be enjoying guilt-free, buttered popcorn, when we go see “Where The Wild Things Are” which releases here Oct. 16th.

Quick Weight Loss Tip

Hey Guys!
Wanna know a neat trick to losing a quick four pounds? Go out there and find some severe cold/possible flu-like germs and lick ’em up! Yes, you will suffer through three to four days of wheezing, head-pounding, body-wracking aches from hell, but so what – those pounds will just magically float away, with no exercise – hell, no MOVEMENT needed!

I’m actually looking forward to eating again someday. I remember it fondly. I’m just going to do it in a way those four pounds won’t immediately plant themselves right back on my bod.

Just a little faster…

I have been running at a pretty regular pace for a year and a half now…my road runs stay between 8:30 and 9:00 minute miles…regardless of the pace.   I might hit a short run at about 8:00 minutes a mile, but it is rare.

My body, through my doing, has programmed itself at that pace.     I have trained for a Marathon and two 1/2 Marathons at that pace…and I run the actual races at 9:00 to 10:00 paces.   It was like I run out of gas.

The past couple of weeks have been a  little sluggish for me and my running, so we are changing things up a bit.

I am going to completely start from scratch running again.   Just like I did in April of 2008.

The only difference here that were going to crank things up a notch.

So today, I started with two miles at a sub-7:00 pace.   It felt like a comfortable pace.  Two miles in 13:47.   I used to run a timed two miles in the Army every month.  My personal best is 10:16, but I only ran that time when someone was running faster.   Until that point, I was a 11:15 guy…so motivation has a lot to do with things.

I don’t plan on ever getting to that point again.

It was fun today and I am a bit excited about running again…but the last time I did this I vowed to not run in any races.  Three races later, here I am.

I make no such promises this time.

Meh-xercise

Wanna know an easy way to set yourself up for complete failure? Announce to the world you’re going to work out to an exercise tape every day for a month.

Yeah. I am awesome-opposite.

While I have managed to squeeze in some form of exercise on average of four or five days a week, including the Shred, I have certainly NOT done it every day. I don’t know what I was thinking, except that every once in awhile my little brain gets excited about an idea and I have a hard time keeping it to myself. Not only that, but I seem to have hit the plateau wall from hell. When I started this whole thing, I managed to lose ten pounds and that is something and I’m happy about it. But since then? I’ve been dwelling in the stagnant waters of Meh.
I’ve actually had the following thoughts lately:

Well, MOST of my clothes fit now – that’s good enough.
Winter is coming anyway and I’ll soon be living in hoodies and jeans. That fit anyway.
No one is seeing me naked but Brian and he’s contractually obliged to be nice.
We’re all going to die in the end anyway, so what’s the difference?

I’m not sure what the answer is to find my motivation again, but I’d love it if I could figure it out.
Any ideas?

The Big Day

Today was the Autumn Rock and Run 5K. First off, no, I didn’t run the WHOLE thing. But I am so glad I did it. I feel exhilerated and proud that I finished strong. I think this was a pretty good starting point, and it’s kinda hard to explain but it was really nice to just be around people who were all there for a good cause and interested, on many different levels, in becoming or being fit. I think this run is always going to hold a special place in my heart for being the first and also because it was so great with the bands playing along the route. The route was through small quiet neighborhoods, and along a golf course, and the bands were just blaring, Skynard, and Aerosmith….it was great. Also I found out that my BMI is 24%, which according to their chart was Above Average. I was just happy, because I really thought the number was going to start with a 3! Anyway, I had a great time, and I totally see this as a jumping off point, and I can’t wait to see where I’m at in the next few months for the next run, The Reindeer Run in December. And yes, they do encourage the wearing of antlers!

One can o’ worms coming right up!

Okay, all you runners out there, I need some opinions. Okay, here’s my situation. I will be doing a 5K on September 12th. It was my goal to run the whole thing, but at this point with my cardio, unless something miraculous, like a cold front in Florida, happens between now and then, I don’t think it’s going to happen. But I am looking forward to doing it as I have never done one before and I am excited for the experience. Plus, it’s called the Rock and Run and they have bands playing throughout the route and the more I talk to people, the more friends I am discovering are participating in it.

So, here’s my quandry. My running pal in the hood recommends I run at a very slow pace to run longer. I have tried this and even at a very slow pace I know I won’t make the whole 3 miles.

Secondly, my husband ran with me today, and he recommends I run normally and if I need to walk at some point do so, and then run again. A run-walk approach. He believes this will strengthen my cardio quicker and in the long run (no pun intended) I will be able to run farther. He looked at my form today and said I looked like I was shuffling along like an old man….my dad in particular!

So, I’d like some opinions on what to do, what is the best way to run. I believe I enjoy it more when I run normally and just go for as long as I can, and then a little bit more, and then walk. It seems funner. So I guess I have to ask myself what my real intention is.

On top of this, there is an article in Fitness this month on how run/walking actually burns more calories than just regular running.

Okay, I welcome your valuable opinions now. Oh, and by the way, I’m doing an experiment tomorrow and am going to run/walk the 5K to check my time.

Taking it Literally

I woke up with a crazy idea this morning and it inspired me to write a little poem.

Thirty days has September
And hey, so does the Shred
Either I’ll be one hot bitch by October
Or else possibly I might be dead.

Yeah, I think I may have lost it, but I decided what better way to re-commit than start out on the first day of a brand new month with a completely insane challenge for myself. I’m not making any deals with Satan, but I am going to ATTEMPT to do the Shred every day of this month. Why not, right? Who knows what crazy shit might happen – maybe I’ll even be able to move past this ten-pounds-lost-but-not-one-ounce-more fun place I’ve been in for so long. Maybe. Maybe I’ll pull a major muscle trying. Either way it’ll be interesting (to me) to see if I can stick to something like this. Because I think if I can, I’ll be a lot more inspired to look around for the next challenge and the next and keep going with that.

We’ll see how it goes and you know I’ll be sharing my results October 1st.