Things that I Think About

I've been doing some thinking lately. People always worry when I start thinking. You may have noticed that my Getting Back to Fit posts fizzled out after the third post. There's a reason for that. I didn't get past three days of exercising. How pathetic is that? I know it takes time to build a routine, but why can't I stay motivated long enough to build a routine?

"Going" vegan wasn't as hard as it is for me to exercise. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of being vegan in a couple of weeks. And while I may not be strict on things like desserts and chocolate, I didn't really feel the need to "cheat". I craved cheese for a bit, but ice cream doesn't even appeal to me any more and I loved ice cream. I wouldn't say that I'm eating ideally. I need to look at getting rid of white flour and some other over-processed foods and I'd really like to use more organic foods.

So I guess what I'm wondering is why has it been easier to change my lifestyle to include a vegan diet than it is to add exercise to my day? Exercise could help me to manage my depression and anxiety better. It could help me to sleep better too, but I resist doing it. I've kind of been toying with the idea of taking up running. It's something I've thought of before, but I keep pushing it away. Then I saw that one of my friends has joined a running clinic and after only a few runs, she's talking about runner's euphoria and how much she loves it. Is it time for me to take a step out of my comfort zone and give it a try? Considering how much I hate the idea of going to a gym (who wants to hang out with a bunch of fit people when you are so obviously not?), I kind of feel the same way about joining a running clinic. Maybe it's time for me to look into it though. It doesn't cost anything to see when they are offered and how much they are, right? Maybe? Well, I'll check out their web site this week and give it some more thought. You know, if I put as much effort into actually exercising as I do to putting it off and feeling guilty for it, I'd probably be in excellent shape by now. Things that make you go hmmm.




I just saw this book--it sounds exactly like what I need!

Gooood Morning! Morning Workout and I Feel So Good :)

In my last post, I mentioned that I am NOT a morning person.  Yet today, I found myself awake at about 4:30 and I was restless, so I finally got up and went down and exercised.  (I know, crazy!).  Jillian and I had a date for a run and some of her Total Body 2 Workout.  I completed the first 7 exercises in that set.  I didn't get them all right, but I made the attempt.  And I got all sweaty and my heart is pumping still, so I figure I did pretty well.  Plus I feel pretty good which is always a plus, especially in the mornings.

Of course, the real challenge will be this evening because I have to work until midnight!  Yikes!  I'll probably catch a nap this afternoon before I have to go in though.  I'm not completely crazy (yet).

I've been kicking around a couple of ideas lately.  The first is re-joining Weight Watchers which I've probably mentioned before.  It's the only way in which I have had real success in losing weight in the past and to be honest, it wasn't that difficult.  Keeping track of points was pretty easy since it was all done online.  My mom mentioned last night that she was considering joining and asked me if I wanted to join with her.  I'm not sure if she's looking at the meetings or the online option, so I'll take a look at the program they are offering now and make a decision soon.

Now the other thing I am thinking about is a little crazier.  I'm thinking of starting running.  I really hate running, but I think it would be good physically for me and the other reason is that I can join Team Diabetes and get training through them.  I'd have to fundraise, but that would be OK too.  Since diabetes is so prevelant in my family, I would be making a difference that way too.  I know when I did the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, making the walk about more than myself and having a real purpose to my walk helped me to focus and not just quit early in. 

I don't know...of the two, Weight Watchers is by far the more likely option.  Now on to more important decisions, like get cracking on the laundry or go back to bed?  Bed is looking pretty good!  Tee hee....

Have a great day!

Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum Wii, Resolution 1, Day 1

I'm proud of myself! I completed today's resolution after lunch today. Since my shift at work is changing next month and I won't be finished until midnight, I thought I'd try getting my workout in during the day instead.

So far, I really like Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010. It's tough, for sure, but I think this just might be the kick in the ass I needed.

Today I did 5 laps of running. Had to talk myself through that one! It was starting to get hard around the third lap, but I made it! Then Squat Jumping Jacks--those are tricky! I'm going to need some more practice before I get those right. Then I did swing kicks with the Wii Fit board, but those I think I scored 0 on. From what I saw her doing, I thought I had it right, but since she gave me some of her biting comments ("I didn't come to you, you came to me" and "Stop wasting my time!"), it appears I have some ways to go there. My fourth exercise was some sort of lunge on the Wii Fit board, and I did OK on that.

For my first month, I didn't want to over do it, so I think I put the circuits in on the weekends when I'd have more of a chance to do them. I really like that it's only four workout days a month in the resolution. I'd like to find an outdoor activity to do on my "off" days. We're also looking at getting a YMCA membership for the family so that we can all go and take some classes and get some exercise together.

Making Some Resolutions with Jillian Micheals Wii Fit

Today, I got a great gift from my husband and kids. Bless him, but my husband always struggles with buying me gifts. I usually try to give him some ideas of what I might be interested in, and sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't. Well, this year he listened and he didn't listen. Yup. My list contained just a few items, but most of them were things that I thought might help me get more active. He didn't get me any of those items though. Oh now. He bought me this:



The poor man was worried that I'd be mad that he got me something to do with weight loss. I wasn't though, because I had another of those moments this week where I realized that my weight was creeping up again. It's one thing when it stays the same, but when it goes up? That's really frustrating. I've said it before, but I don't want to be skinny. I want to be healthy and right now I'm not. I can be healthy and curvy though and that is my goal.

Hubby told me he didn't think the Wii Fit on it's own was doing me much good because it's pretty easy. The truth is, it would do me more good if I would actually do it! He hadn't heard of Jillian Micheals before, but he thought this program looked like it would be a real workout. Ha. I told him that Michaels was one of the trainers from Biggest Loser and that she was mean. He told me that maybe mean was what I needed. Yeah. That's what he said until he did a workout on it and he didn't do so well and heard the comments. He looked at me with his jaw on his chest, "She's so mean!" Yup. I did it--"I told you so!".

I started pretty "easy" today just trying out a couple of single exercises. I did the sledge swing, running (and I think I've mentioned before how much I love running--sarcasm intended!!!), and jumping jacks. I'm sorry, but I don't think that 90 reps of the jumping jacks should be the easy level. That's crazy! Anyway, it felt good to get my body moving again. I set up my first resolution for one month and chose my own excercises to start off. When I set up my profile, I found out that my weight is higher than it's ever been. Now, I don't know what my highest pregnancy weight was, so it may not be my highest weight ever, but definitely excluding pregnancy, my highest weight. And it's time for it to come down, baby.

The funny thing is that I was starting to think about signing up for Weight Watchers Online again, so this comes at a really good time for me. I like making resolutions on my birthday anyway (rather than New Years'--I'm weird like that). And I've made hubby sign up for a month long resolution as well because he is supposed to be getting more exercise. So hopefully we will be getting healthy together.

I'll let you know how it's going.

30 Minutes for 30 Days, Day 3

Wii Fit box
Originally uploaded by camy west

You didn't think I'd get this far, did you? Actually, I'm pretty impressed with myself just because it's been so long since I was doing this every day. 3 days in, I'm not feeling any difference yet, except when the Wii board displays my BMI as having increased over the last three days. How is that possible? Ugh! And do they really need to show my Mii as underweight and then take it all the way up to obese? I get it, I'm obese. Just show me the Mii in all its obese glory rather than making her blimp up every session. It's not very conducive to building morale.

I skipped the Rythymic Boxing today and instead did a run. And I didn't just do an easy run--oh no, I did the Island Lap. What was I thinking? I haven't done any running in a long time and I go for the longest distance available to me? At least I worked up a good sweat, but I still think that was crazy.

I'm loving how the Yoga poses are so hard for me to do, but my score comes up as being a Yoga Expert. Ha ha ha ha! I do not think so!

Well, I'm 3 days down 27 to go. Hopefully I can get my time in tomorrow because I have a guest coming from out of province and I haven't seen her for 9 years. We're going to be talking all day and night!

Fun Run

I have mentioned before that I don't like to run unless there is an emergency of some sort (think toddler escaping and heading towards traffic). So I surprised myself by doing two of the runs on the Wii Fit. I found a way to have some fun. You see, you're supposed to run at a pace that keeps you behind your guide. I like to mess with my guide and try to overtake them. First they wave you back, then they start to run faster and then you get the message that you passed your guide. At that point, I'll slow down and let them lead again only to overtake them again. I even tripped another runner on the path today. I don't know how I did that, but it might be fun to randomly start tripping passersby. LOL. I'm not really evil, I just need to be motivated to exercise. ;)