NSHZL

So, HZL (horrible zumba lady) was the instructor today, even though I thought it was going to be AZL (awesome zumba lady). Sigh. I was bummed. I even thought about leaving, because I had been so excited about zumba today and figured I was going to be annoyed. But, I stuck it out. HZL ended up being NSHZL (not so horrible zumba lady) today. She did more than just 4 moves, but the music still sounded like she recorded it from the radio.

My feet are killing me. I'm also extremely tired. :( Blah.

Weighed myself before the class. 156. pthbhtbhthbtht. Not that I have anyone to blame by myself.

still lazy

i had to talk ben into going to the gym last night. can't go today, i have a training. :(

i did 45 min on the elliptical. I ran 3.5 miles and burnt 385 calories or so.

here's hoping i can get back into the habit of going to the gym. maybe i can tag along with a friend tomorrow evening...assuming she's going.

weighed myself. 155.5 blech.

eep

i know i haven't posted on here in over two weeks. it's because i've been a lazy fat ass. i'm not going to make excuses. it is what it is, so i'm getting past it.

we hit the gym after hemming and hawing for two weeks about "i don't feel like going" or "it's too late" or whatever. i asked ben if he would mind if we did a longer workout than usual. we ended up doing an hour. i hope to keep it that way, but we'll see.

i did 35 minutes on the elliptical (a bit shy of 3 miles) and then some reps on the machines. i did 25 reps (2 10's and a 5) with 25 lbs on a bicep machine, 45 reps (2 10's with 35 lbs and 2 10's and a 5 with 45 lbs when i realized 35 lbs was too light) with a pectoral machine, and 15 reps straight with 45 lbs on a tricep machine. i have resigned myself to the fact that i need to start doing weights. *grumble, grumble*

i told ben that i will probably do about 10-15 minutes of weights if i run on the elliptical and maybe when i do zumba, but probably not when i swim.

i also weighed myself before the workout. 152. not bad...less than it's been, so that's a good sign. i was talking to ben about food choices and have decided to take some lettuce and salad fixins to work and have a salad each day for lunch. yeah, we'll see how long that lasts. it's a nice idea and i'm willing to give it a shot.

I <3 AZL

Went to zumba tonight and was glad to see that AZL was there. :D I couldn't stay the whole time, but I did do about 45 minutes, which is pretty good for me. My foot is a little sore, but good for the most part.

I got to do one of my favorite routines where you open your arms one at a time across your body, raise both over your head and then straight out to the sides again while you swivel your hips for 4 counts. AZL uses catch phrases to cue us to the moves that are coming up and she calls that one "take it off." The *really* funny thing this time is that she was lamenting that she had worn a long sleeved shirt under a short sleeved shirt and was getting hot earlier in the class. She started taking off the top layer during the "take it off" part and got stuck, so she was trying to lead the class while the shirt was halfway over her head. lol One of the participants went up and helped her the rest of the way, but it was hilarious.

The last routine we did before I left was the squat routine. All squats. It is my least favorite. :( I can't wait to go back!

HZL's long-lost cousin CZL

Crappy zumba lady is horrible zumba lady's long lost cousin and she runs the zumba class on Fridays at the gym. I had gone to one of her classes a while back (apparently all the way back in July according to my blog entry). She was injured the first time when I went, so I wasn't sure what kind of instructor she would be.

It was seriously worse than the other zumba class that I don't like. There were three other people and none of them could follow the instructor who was watering down the routines. I told Ben that I think he doesn't give himself enough credit as to how well he'd be able to do zumba because they couldn't even follow a step/turn, step/turn, rock side to side. Sigh.

Luckily, the advertised time was incorrect and I only had to suffer through a half hour of it. Please, please let AZL be there this Wednesday!!!

And Triumph was this past weekend. There were some trails I went on, but after a while I couldn't keep going because of my feet. :( I will have to keep building my endurance.

AZL FTW!!!

Awesome zumba lady is awesome. :D

I went to zumba last night and she was there. I was instantly energized just walking in the room. She is so upbeat and friendly and provides fun and challenging, but at the same time accommodating for those less skilled/able, workouts. It is a fine line to walk and she does it with ease.

I only made it through about 35-40 minutes. :( My right foot was killing me and I couldn't risk hurting it more. I was really bummed, but just as I was leaving, they started the squats routine, so I was a little less bummed. lol.

Ben and I are going back tomorrow before the Halloween party we're going to, so that will make 3 times this week. We are trying to get there more often, and this is as good of a start as any.

nothing exciting

I ran on the elliptical today. 2.75 miles, 300 calories, a little over 30 minutes. It's not a good time by any stretch of the imagination, and it's on an elliptical, which does not reflect true running conditions.

But, it's better on my feet and it gets the job done. I weighed myself before we ran and I was 155. Phhhthththth. :b It may have had something to do with the peach rings I was craving this morning with my coffee. *sheepish*

I will try to do better tomorrow, when I am sure I will have to get coffee in the morning again, since I've got an early morning drive to Columbus for a work training. Seriously...we don't have technology for nothing...why not have a conference call or webinar?

as the geeks say: DING!

Ben and I went to the gym today. We have been really, really bad about going regularly. Things have been coming up recently: grocery shopping, oil change, training, etc. It's really no excuse, but it still happened. Anyway, we went swimming again.

We got in the pool around 8:53 or so. The clock was on the other side of the pool and I couldn't see it exactly, but it was definitely after 8:50 and before 8:55, closer to 8:50. The pool closed at 9:30, so I figured I'd try to get as much done as I could. At about 9:10, I had swum 800 meters and decided I could get done by 9:30 with a mile if I pushed myself a little. (Granted, that first 800 was with a couple times stopping to talk to Ben and give a couple smooches.) It was cutting it really close. I got done basically right at 9:30, which put my mile at 37 minutes, plus or minus a minute or two (more likely toward the minus, which makes me even happier).

Even better, I weighed myself before I went swimming. 153 lbs, which is the best it's been in a month. I'm going to measure the circumference of my tummy/thighs, since I haven't done that in a while. Give me a sec. It was 37 inches on my tummy and 22 inches on my thighs. I don't remember how that compares to previous measurements, so give me another sec. The stomach...eh, could be better. It HAS been better, but it also has been worse. The thighs are better than they were. Gotta keep truckin'.

just keep swimming...just keep swimming.......

I swam today with Ben. Yay!

I ended up doing 1000 meters. I'm not sure how much he did, but it was less. We're guessing probably about 600 or 700.

I love the feeling I get after a good swim: tired, but somehow energized, too. :)

Nooooo! AZL fails!!!

Sigh. I was all excited that it might be AZL's week. It wasn't.

I ended up doing 3.25 miles on the elliptical (37 minutes...not great, but not bad).

I weighed myself before starting...granted it was after dinner...156. :(

I have been doing...um...terribly on portion control. I need to get back on the wagon. Consider the fire lit!

Maybe I can convince Ben to go swimming tomorrow.

mowing the lawn

I mowed the lawn. Easy exercise! 387 calories for the hour I spent, according to http://www.eddieoneverything.com/sports/how-many-calories-does-activity-x-burn.php

Also, my training was canceled on Wednesday, so here's hoping that it's a AZL week!

Another day, another hotel

I was in Columbus again Friday/Saturday of this week. It was a different hotel, so they didn't have the pool that the one I usually stay at has. They did have a fitness center, so I grabbed my tennis shoes and hopped on an elliptical. It was an interesting machine. You could adjust the stride length, which I'm sure Ben would like. He always says that the thing he doesn't like about our gym's ellipticals is that he doesn't feel like he's getting his full stride. Anyway, I had every intention of doing at least a 1/2 hour, possible 60 minutes. After 10, though, I was beat. I don't know exactly why, but I just couldn't do any more. I pushed myself to 15 and that was all I could muster. Sigh.

So, I went back to the hotel room and did 100 sit ups. Ben and I have been talking recently about needing to do more muscle-toning exercises, so I bit the bullet and did it. My abs are still a little sore and it's two days later. Eh, no pain, no gain.

Oh! My feetz!

I talked Ben into going into another gym than we usually go to so that I could do zumba today. The one we usually go to doesn't have zumba on Tuesdays, and this other place does. Ben worked out on the machines (he said that he thought the ceiling was too low and he felt boxed in while on the elliptical...I doubt we'll go back there very often) and I did zumba. The first couple songs were heavy in the footwork, and they were a lot of pointy-toe stuff, which made it worse. It was 20 minutes in and my feet were hurting very badly. I decided to stick it out for ten more minutes and then I left. Ben had gotten done with his workout, so we headed home. I felt crappy for having to leave early, but I truly could not finish the workout. :(

I think if I don't do zumba tomorrow the next thing I'm going to do is swim again. Hopefully Ben will swim with me. He's been talking a lot lately about wanting to start swimming, so we'll see.

crummy pool experience

Ben was doing stuff on WoW until about 8:45, so we weren't able to go to the gym until 9 or so. I had decided that I was going to swim. I didn't have my tennis shoes or anything. I had put on my suit and was walking into the pool when the lifeguard told me that he was closing the pool. Mind you, I had told Ben before we left that we needed to hurry because the pool closed at 9:30. I was there a little after 9 and he was supposedly closing the pool. I responded, "I thought it closed at 9:30." He huffed and puffed and grabbed the tube off the guard chair, threw it to the ground and unraveled the strap, saying, "Ok, go ahead."

I felt very off-put. I swam an aggressive 100 because he had frustrated me. It was also frustrating when I saw him talking/texting on his phone as I'm swimming. I got the impression that I was inconveniencing him. So, I decided not to be a bitch (I could have been...I could have stayed in until 9:30 on the dot) and got out of the pool. I was going to tersely say that he could go home, that I was done (which, I considered may also have been bitchy: making him go up for me to swim 100 meters...but i figured he would get over it because he would be able to go home) and a man came in as I was getting out. So much for that. But, I had already gotten out and was still feeling annoyed, so I went and asked the people at the front desk what time the pool was supposed to close. They said 9:30. I told them the lifeguard had said that he was going to close the pool when I was about to get in. They were not very happy about that and said that it would be rectified and I should go back and swim if I wanted.

So, I did. I swam another 500 meters. In the time it took me to do so, I saw him on his cell phone (either texting or playing tetris or something) six more times. Mind you, I got out of the pool around 9:20 or 9:25, so I was probably in there for 20 minutes total. Seven times he was on his cell phone in twenty minutes. I went to the front desk again and said that while I didn't want to be a rat, I also felt as though he was not adequately doing his job when he was on his cell phone so much. I explained that I had been a lifeguard before, so I understood a) how boring it can be and b) how frustrating it is when no one has been swimming and suddenly someone shows up. I get it. It sucks. But, you do your job. Seriously, when no one was in the pool, you are getting PAID to do NOTHING.

The person at the front desk said that they're not even supposed to have their phone on the deck. She asked me to fill out a comment card, which I did happily and anonymously. I don't think that there is any hope for the quality of lifeguards at the gym's pool. Oh, how I long to find a place that employs ellis guards year round locally.

zumba, I miss you, so!

I have yet another training this Wednesday, so I won't make it to zumba yet again. :(

Ben and I went and worked out on the ellipticals on Friday. It was Friday at 9 and I would say there was probably three people in the weight room TOTAL. At first we thought they closed at 9 because there were so few cars in the parking lot, but then we saw that they were open until 10. So, we worked out for 1/2 hour and headed home. I guess everyone had better things to do at 9pm on a Friday than go to the gym. :)

I weighed myself when I was there. 153.5 I wish I could say it was 153 even, but that .5 is in there. Sigh. I need to start going to exercise more often.

Salsa and Triumph

I went to salsa dancing on Friday with a friend. It was actually kind of sucky. I think I'm going to try to go somewhere else that has more people and I don't have to dance with my (female) friend any time I want to dance...especially since I ended up having to be the male, since she didn't know how to salsa dance.

I also did Triumph over the weekend. I'm sure that it helped a little, but I didn't do much in the way of combat. Ben and I are thinking about going to the gym tonight, so hopefully I'll have something more substantial to write tonight or tomorrow.

Darn you horrible zumba lady!

So, this week was supposed to be the week with the good zumba instructor. I went a few minutes early (like, 20) and did the elliptical a little. I burned 100 calories...don't know how far I went, I was paying attention to the calorie burner screen. As I'm on the machine, a lady gets on to the one next to me and starts talking to someone about how the horrible zumba lady was doing the class today, except she actually likes her. Sigh. I was hoping that she was wrong, and that the HZL was just going to be taking the class with us rather than leading it. No such luck.

Apparently, the awesome zumba lady had something she had to do with her son and could not make it. I decided I would stay for at least part of the class. I almost left once. I had my water and keys in hand and went to weigh myself. 152, btw. I was walking out of the bathroom and talked myself into going back in and finishing the class. The one good thing about the class is that she had to end it early because she had to go take care of her own kids. Maybe I'm being too hard on her. She's really not a bad person, she just is not a very good instructor. My friend that goes to zumba at another gym doesn't like her, either. We just figured out the other day that the instructors we both didn't like were the same person. So, I can't be too far off...

Looking forward to next week when AZL will be back. It makes me wonder if she'll do it 2 weeks in a row. Oh, crap! Next week I have a training. Grrr. Aaaand sure enough, I've got another training on the Wednesday after that. Darn.

Headbanging guy strikes again

This time Ben saw him. It's funny that he knew exactly who it was just from my description. Lol.

Anyway, in case you haven't guessed, Ben and I went to the gym today. I don't remember how much I walked/ran...The ellipticals were all taken so we had to use the treadmills. It sucked. Ben thinks he did a little less that 2 miles; I probably did a little less than that, so I'd guess 1.5 miles. My legs were starting to strain because of the impact of the treadmill. Eh.

I plan to go back tomorrow and do zumba with the instructor I like. :D

Gym again

Ben and I went to the gym last night. We ran 2.5 miles on the elliptical. It was ok. It's not my favorite, but it's tolerable. I weighed myself before we started. 153. Eh. At least I'm not gaining, right?

I think next time we go (or I go by myself) I'm going to swim.

OMG!! IT IS SEPTEMBER...sheesh

Sooooo...yeah. I did not lose 10 pounds like I wanted to. I think I'm hovering at 3 right now. Ben and I talked today, though, and we want to start going to exercise more often. Currently, we're going about once or twice a week, and we want to increase it to three or four. Already I've gone twice this week, and we're going to go again tomorrow. Yay!

So, I went to do zumba today. I had a feeling the horrible zumba instructor would be there. I was right. But, I told myself, Janine...suck it up!! So, I gritted my teeth and did it anyway. I almost left 3/4 of the way through, but I talked myself out of it. I went home and put on the calendar a mark every other Wednesday that the other instructor would be there. They shall be my zumba days, unless I go to another gym another day. I haven't been swimming as much as I used to, so that might be something to start doing again.

Anyway, here's hoping that Ben and I will be hot tamales for my 10 year reunion next year. :)

running, biking and headbanging--the new triathalon

I went to the gym today alone while Ben went to "boot camp" with friends of ours. "Boot camp" is not my cup of tea, by any stretch of the imagination, so I didn't go with him because I knew I would get talked into going. I ran on the indoor track for 11 laps before my legs gave out on me. That's a little more than a half mile. Poop.

Then, I went down to the exercise bike which was a pain in the ass...literally. With my cyst on my tailbone, I was constantly readjusting my seated position. It was very uncomfortable. But, I did 4.6 miles on the exercise bike.

The dude next to me had his headphones in listening to what I can only imagine was some kind of System of A Down, Rage Against the Machine, Seether or Disturbed because he started headbanging along with it...complete with angsty-emo-hardcore-wannabe facial expressions. It was all I could do not to stare.



Or maybe he was listening to Bohemian Rhapsody. Who knows...

I LOVE ZUMBA!!!!

I went to zumba last night. My favorite instructor was teaching and I had a fantastic time. The last song (before the cool down) was my most favorite zumba song ever, so it was a good class. :D

My back

Well, my back locked up yesterday. It is still really painful today. When Ben went to rub it to help loosen it up, he could only do it very lightly or it was excruciating. Heat has been applied, but no socializing for me today. :(

backfired!!

1. Presented at a conference on Wednesday. One of the workshops I did was "Let's Get Healthy," during which I gave the child care providers ideas on how to use action songs to get the children in their programs active without seeming like exercise. We did Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes; Yogi Bear; Tony Chestnut. I think it worked a little too well, because my hamstrings are KILLING me. I woke up this morning and was getting dressed and wondered why my hamstrings hurt so much. It took me several minutes to remember the bending over and touching my toes I did during the first and last songs mentioned above.

2. Didn't go to zumba Wednesday. I got roped into tabletopping with the housemates. So, I thought I would ease my sorrows with the hip-hop class I've been meaning to go to on Thursdays.

3. Went to hip-hop class tonight. It was a big letdown. It was like Hip-Hop Lite (R). It reminded me a lot of the zumba class that I don't like, because she used the same 4 moves the whole time in every dance. I was telling Ben, it should have been a clue to me that it wasn't going to be very good when I saw the instructor of the zumba class I don't like as a participant in the hip-hop class. So, in keeping with my reaction to exercise classes that disappoint me, I left early. I got a good 30 minutes done, but I really couldn't stay any longer. I meant to weigh myself afterward, but I just wanted to leave. So, I don't know if I've lost weight. I doubt it, though. I gave into temptation at work during a forum we hosted and had two cookies. Look, I'm not proud of it! I tried to counteract it by eating a lot of veggies...that counts for something, right? Right?

Sigh.

Zumba. Next Wednesday. It is decided. No tabletopping will deter me this time!

Run, Forrest, Run

I ran on the elliptical today. I forgot to see how far I ran. Ben was right next to me and I just asked him how far he ran and he said 2.5 miles. I assume I was somewhere in that ballpark. We cooled down on the indoor track.

Zumba tomorrow after the conference I'm presenting at in Columbus. Yay! Thursday I'm going to see about making it in for a hip-hop class. We'll see how that goes.

GenCon=Exercise???

Ben and I went to GenCon over the weekend. We did a lot of walking. A LOT of walking. That counts as exercise, right?

I weighed myself at Dad's while we were there. 153...it's not great, but not terrible. I just have to keep going to the gym. We were going to go last night, but between me having a migraine and eating dinner late because neither one of us could decide what to eat for dinner, it didn't happen. We decided to go tonight. My poison ivy has gotten a lot better, so I think it's safe to wear athletic shoes again. I don't know what I'm going to do...probably the exercise machines, since they don't have zumba at the gym we'll probably go to on Tuesdays. Eh. Hopefully this time, I'll remember my headphones and I can watch TV while on the machine.

Excitement!!!

Ben and I went to the gym last night. I have poison ivy on my toe pretty badly and have had to resort to wearing flip flops most of the time so as to not spread the oil. As a result, wearing socks and athletic shoes was not really an option. So, I swam. This took care of the socks and shoes problem, as well has having the chlorine do its work on the poison ivy.

Anyway, I swam a mile in a little less than 40 minutes. Sometimes I lose count of my laps, so I'm not 100% sure that it was a mile, but it very well could have been more than a mile just the same. I was pushing myself fairly hard for the last 100 yards and in my last 25...as in the VERY LAST LENGTH...a brat in the next lane who was not swimming laps splashed water in my mouth as I took a breath.

I went through the scenario in my head. What are the odds of it being an accident, that she *happened* to be splashing at the exact moment and at just the right place and in just the right direction that I was taking a breath. It's pretty darn slim. Now, the odds that she *happened* to be splashing at the exact moment and at just the right place and doing it purposefully into my mouth is pretty slim, too. However, I think the odds are more in favor of it being on purpose. I think what really happened is that she meant to just splash me as I swam past, but she was unlucky and I actually took a breath as she went to splash me. I think she was mad because I started swimming in the lane that she was, again, not swimming laps in, because as soon as I got out after my 50 meter cool down, she immediately switched into the lane again. I think she also may have been mad that as I was swimming, water was being propelled by my arms moving and may have been getting on her as I swam in MY lane and she was in the lane next to me. It also may have been a little worse when I was pushing myself. Anyway, I was a little angry about getting water splashed into my mouth, but fairly satisfied with the swim overall.

I weighed myself before I swam and I am at 151 1/2!!!! That 1/2 pound is important, because 152 was weighted too low and 151 was weighted too high. I put it in between and it was perfect. I was happy with it and hope to make more progress.

I also measured my stomach this morning. I'm officially down to 36"!!!! I wasn't sucking in and did the same measurement as always. I even measured twice because I didn't believe it the first time. I am glad to be seeing results. Yay!!

Triumph nyah

So Triumph this month was a true overnighter. We ran from 6pm to 8am. ALL FRIGGIN NIGHT. I am just now recovering my regular sleep. I did almost 100% combat, which is different from what I've done recently. Different, but good. I was starting to feel badly about not contributing combat-wise. I just downed two fraps and some chocolate bars throughout the night to keep me going.

All in all, it was pretty exhausting, and I think part of that was physically as opposed to mentally. I'm not quite sure what to equate it to in terms of exercise, but it was a decent amount of running around, swinging and hitting.

I feel better and feel like I'm losing inches at the very least. I will check circumference in a second. I haven't been to the gym since last Wednesday, and hopefully Ben and I can go tomorrow sometime...maybe not, though, because I have the Triumph debrief and we may have to pick up the Alero from the car repair shop. We'll see. As a result, I don't know what my weight is at. Although, now that I think about it, I never reported Wednesday. I went with Ben and found out that my FAVORITE zumba instructor was teaching, so I was excited to say the least. I had a blast and loved every minute of it. I weighed myself afterward and I think I was at 153. I don't really remember.

Ok, I've stalled enough...circumference time. It's still 37", so at least I'm not getting bigger, right? I can lie to myself and pretend it's 36.5", but I know that all it means is that I'm sucking in. Ah, well. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I.........

tummy measurement again

I decided to do another circumference check. I'm at 37". Not awesome by any stretch of the imagination (2" bigger than last time I measured...but I did it over my dress this time, not that it made that much of a difference, but I'm sure it did a little), but better than before (1" less than the first measurement).

Runner's world

Ben and I went to the gym last night. I started on the treadmill, but that lasted a whopping 5 minutes. I just truly can't do the treadmill. I switched to the elliptical, but decided I wasn't feeling into it, so I switched to the exercise bike. As I was going to get on the bike with a couple of Reader's Digests, Ben asked me if I wanted to go to the indoor track with him. Sounded good, so I did. I did 16 laps on the track, which equated a mile. I felt like I kept a good pace, but I didn't time myself. Actually, I sprinted lap 8 and got a drink, started running lap 9and realized I had to go to the bathroom, so I went and came back. I finished lap 9 and ran the rest of the 16, sprinting even faster on lap 16.

Next time I think I might time myself, assuming there is a next time. The outsides of my calves hurt. I think it was because I was trying not to over-pronate and as a result was running on the outside edge of my feet. My feet are ok today. I don't think it's something I can do on a regular basis, but it's become an occasional option.

We're going tonight and I think I might swim. I'm not sure, though. I might see if he will go to the other gym that has zumba on Tuesday nights.

Oh, I weighed myself, too. 153. I'm down a pound from three weeks ago.

Zumba and Triumph

I went to zumba on Friday. The instructor had injured her back earlier in the day and so she lead the class (all two of us for the first 15 minutes or so, then another person came, too) from a chair. It was ok. I would like to see how it is when she is fully functioning.

Triumph was today. It was only a one day. I didn't do a lot of combat-y stuff. I take that back. I did NO combat-y stuff. I've found that I'm doing that more and more lately. I don't know if that's good or bad. It just seems like when I go out on thread I get wiped pretty quickly, mostly my feet. I am going to try to do at least one combat thread per game from now on. Not that I sat around with my thumb up my butt just because I didn't do combat. I did several RP things and had to walk back and forth to logistics (many times in the pouring rain) each time. They had people that were doing a large bulk of the combat stuff and it seemed like they had a good handle on it, so I opted to do the more RP based things they needed done. It just means that I wasn't as exercise-y this Triumph game. It's fine. I can't rely on it to be.

Some things from lack of internet

So, I didn't have internet at home and was trying to limit the amount of extraneous stuff I was doing at work, so I'm sorry I haven't posted recently.

First, I went to the gym on Monday. I was thinking about doing zumba, but once I got there, I realized that Monday zumba is taught by the person that I'm not crazy about. So, I ran on the elliptical and watched Golden Girls. I only did it for 1/2 hour, but I ran 2.5 miles. I peeked in after I was done on the elliptical and saw the zumba class and was glad that I skipped it. They were doing dumb stuff and the music was terrible again.

I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday. Well, I had two doctor appointments on Wednesday, but one of them was for girly stuff. Anyway, at the first doctor appointment they measured my height and weighed me. 5'3/4" and 154 respectively. That means that I've shrunk an inch since I was measured about 10 years ago. It also means that I am still below the weight I started at, but above the weight I was at when I had lost those 3 lbs. More exercise! I will try to do so tomorrow evening. There's a zumba class I haven't made it to that I want to try out. Triumph is this weekend, too, so that will help. I will update when stuff happens, now that I have internet again.

just a quick bit of good news

I was getting dressed yesterday and thought I had extra room in my pants. When I got to work, I realized I had my measuring tape with me from the move. I measured my tummy and I'm at 35"!! That's 3" smaller than the last time I measured. Yay!

Moving and moving

I moved over the weekend. I moved the ENTIRE weekend. My legs started hurting Saturday as I walked up and down the stairs to my room carrying boxes of junk about eighty billion times. They just stopped screaming at me today. Finally. On Sunday, I was trying to go to sleep and the dog (a whopping 19 lbs) was situating herself on the bed and stepped on my calf. I couldn't decide if it hurt or felt good.

Monday I went to the gym with a coworker. She had an errand to run first, so I did 25 minutes on the elliptical. Then, she got there and we did 30 minutes on the elliptical together. Not too bad, especially since my legs were angry.

I plan on doing zumba tonight. I might see if the coworker wants to go with me. We'll see.

zumba, etc

I went in an hour early again. I was able to get on one of the ellipticals with a built in TV, so I watched "What Not to Wear" while I worked out. It made it go much faster. I did that for 45 minutes and then went to zumba.

I like the instructor on Tuesdays...not as much as the one on Wednesdays/Monday AM (which, btw, I did not go to...I know, I know, but I stayed up too late the night before and I would have only had about 5 hours of sleep if I went), but enough. It was not to the point where I walked out halfway through. In fact, she extended the class 15 extra minutes because none of us (the 3 people who showed up for class) wanted to leave. My foot was starting to bother me, but I pushed through it. It was fun. At one point, they were about to do a routine that the two people knew and the instructor was about to go over some of the key moves of the routine. I told her, "really, you don't have to. I'll pick it up as we do it." She looked at me strangely and said, "Ooook." Well, I did. Zumba is not that intense that I can't pick it up within a couple eight counts.

Ok, onto the rant part of the post. I will put it behind the cut for those who do not wish to hear it. It's kind of long.


I saw a sign that had several promises the gym was making in terms of their lifeguards. Some of the promises:
*We will continuously scan the water to be able to recognize a swimmer in distress within 10 seconds and be able to respond within another 10 seconds.
*We will either be seated in an elevated chair or walking along the side of the pool to be able to see all parts of the pool.
*We will always have a rescue tube, mask and gloves for emergency situations.
*We will have regular trainings on our skills to keep them current and practiced.
*We are dedicated to safety, and for this reason please understand why we can not talk with you.

(I'm paraphrasing a bit, because I don't remember the exact wording. The paraphrasing, however, does not change the meaning of what was said.)

When I read the sign, I was very impressed. These are many of the values and standards, almost verbatim, that my lifeguard training had. Then I watched the lifeguard. And I got angry. The lifeguard was NOT continuously scanning the water. In fact, when I first started watching, she was helping the aqua aerobic instructor move lane lines out of the pool. Granted, she did have her rescue tube, mask and gloves (I will give her the benefit of the doubt that the mask and gloves were in her pack) while she was moving the lane lines, but she was not scanning. She was NOT seated in the chair NOR walking along the side of the pool. She was leaned up against the platform of the chair, and she WAS talking with one of the ladies from the class. Again, NOT scanning, fixating on the lady she was talking to. I don't know if they actually do hold the regular trainings or not, but my guess would be no. See as most of the other "promises" were not being kept, I wouldn't expect them to keep that one as well.

When I was working for the parks dept., our lifeguard training company required 4 hours of inservice per month. The parks dept. made us do 8.

The lifeguard company would come once per summer to do an audit. The audit would consist of a secret videotaping of a guard in the chair (or walking along the edge of the pool...which we actually DID) to make sure they were ACTUALLY continuously scanning the water. They also timed our scans. You had to look under your feet every 10 seconds. That started and ended your scan of your area. Then, after the videotaping, they would come into the facility and do a scenario. Sometimes it would be an "active" scenario (You always prayed for those. It was your basic stereotypical drowning person.) and sometimes it would be an "unconscious" or "spinal" scenario, which required backboards, extra lifeguards and possibly special precautions. They videotaped that as well. The parks dept. had people on staff who would go around and do this internally. You got one every month or possibly more often depending on how well (or not) you did on the previous one.

We also did Vigilance Awareness Tests where we put baby dolls on the bottom of the pool to make sure that the lifeguards were scanning correctly and could see/find it within the 10 seconds required.

So, you can see why I get more than a little peeved when I see lifeguards who are not doing so or promises that are not being kept.

news of all varieties

So, Triumph went pretty well. My feet didn't stage a rebellion and crap out on me, which is good.

I had every intention of going to zumba last week. But, you know what the road to hell is paved with. It was kind of a crazy week with a lot of commitments and late nights. I missed it Monday and was mad at myself. I thought about going to the one on Tuesday, but didn't because I wanted to go to the one on Wednesday instead, with the instructor I liked. I forgot that I had a training on Wednesday that overlapped with the zumba class completely. Damn. So, did not exercise last week. :(

I have been trying to watch my portion sizes. It is going ok most of the time. There are instances where I forget or...well...don't forget.

This past weekend I went to a party on Friday, a wedding on Saturday and helped a friend move on Sunday. Somewhere in all that craziness I lost three pounds!!! I was getting dressed this morning and realized that my skirt was noticeably loose. I got on the scale and sure enough I was down 3 lbs. Yay!

I was so happy about it that I decided to go to the gym an hour before zumba started and do extra exercising on the machines. I'm glad that I did because zumba S.U.C.K.E.D. It wasn't even because of my feet, either. It was not the same instructor from last time. I think she may have been a sub. The instructor tonight was not very good, the sound was terrible -it sounded like a bad dubbing or the speakers had been blown, it was the same four moves the entire routine (and sometimes used over again in another routine), and it was all-around not a challenge, which bugged me. I barely broke a sweat and it was continually frustrating. I left after a half hour, because if I had stayed, I would have just gotten more and more irritated.

The only point of interest from this class was there was a song she was using for a routine and I thought that the beat had strong "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire" undertones to it. I actually started singing it to myself as we danced, which I thought was kind of funny. Then, I realized the words were very similar. I haven't been able to find the song on the internet, so I don't know what song it was, but I think it went "the club, the club, the club is on fire." I don't think they dropped the MF bomb, because once I realized it was actually similar, I listened for it.

I did a little research and found out that the one who was there last time teaches at another gym on Mondays from 6-7 AY. EM. Sigh. It's doable, but I don't know if it's worth it. We'll find out next Monday when it comes time for me to drag my ass out of bed to get there on time. She also alternates Wednesdays with the one who was there today at the gym I usually go to. Grr. I might make the hike down to one that my friend goes to, so that at least I will have a companion.

oh, feets! don't fail me nows!

my foot is KILLING ME. i can't find my body warmer i usually use when it gets this bad, so i'm contemplating making a run to a 24 hour pharmacy. i made it all the way through zumba, unless you count the 3 minute or so break i took in between songs to sit down. i would have sat out for the next song, but i had done the song before and i LOVE it. i couldn't keep sitting, even if it meant cringing through the dance.

i don't think i'm going to make zumba tomorrow. i might swim some day this week, though i don't know with my wart thingy. we'll see.

oh! p.s. i weighed myself yesterday and down another 1/2 lb!

one more thing! p.p.s. the zumba instructor today paid me a compliment on my "snakes." she said that she was having so much fun watching me "snake" because i was so good at it she almost messed up leading the class! yay me!

Bachelorette

I went out for a Bachelorette party this past weekend. It was fun. We danced a lot. Yay, dancing! I am going to try very hard to zumba today and also tomorrow, since I now remember that it is on Tuesdays and not Thursdays. We'll see how long I last at zumba tonight. :(

Something frustrating, something two, something exciting, something shoe!

Something frustrating:

This morning, I was determined to go to zumba today. I grabbed my shorts/tshirt when I left the house, as well as a pair of socks and my tennis shoes, to make sure I had them with me. When I got to the office, I happened to look at the schedule I had written on my wall of when/where zumba is. Dagnabit, I had done it again! I thought zumba was Thursday rather than Tuesday, when it really is. I also had a list of when volleyball was, and there was a volleyball time on Thursdays. So, I decided to go to volleyball instead. That meant that I had to get my kneepads from home, but I was ok with that.

Something two:
Apparently, I had written the time wrong on my list and got there an hour before volleyball was supposedly starting. (I'll explain that later.) So, I did the stationary bike for about 35 minutes and read the newspaper for a few minutes until 7 when it was supposed to start. I went into the gym and there were some middle school kids in there stretching. I talked to their coach and found out that people hadn't been showing up to the volleyball time, so the gym had said that they could use the time for their practice. She said that she could use an extra hand with their practice, so I stayed and helped her out. I also did something the drills she was having the kids do, which kicked my butt. At the end of the practice, one of the staff came in and was talking to the coach. She asked the coach about me and then told me that they really didn't have volleyball on their gym schedule. I said that I had seen it on their schedule from the website. She was positive that it wasn't on the schedule, so I went out to the car and found the printed schedule I had and showed her what it said. She told me the thing I had seen was for a league that was starting at the end of June. Whatever. All in all, I exercised two hours today. So, that's the two.

Something exciting:

I weighed myself today and I am 1.5 lb less than I have been recently. I know weight fluctuates, but I'll take it!

Something shoe:

This is really funny. The last time I was at the gym I went to today was the 7th of this month when I went swimming. I got there today still wearing my work clothes and had to change into my shorts/shirt. I opened locker #12 (which I always try to use, because it's my favorite number) and someone's shoes were in there. I started to close the door and then realized they were MY shoes!! They had been there since the last time I was there, which was THREE WEEKS AGO!!! Three weeks my shoes have been there, and no one took them! :D

motivation

I AM going to go to zumba tomorrow. I AM!!

portion control update

So, I think that I've been doing pretty well with my portion control attempt. There are times when I have trouble, but I guess that's to be expected.

Some successes:

1. I have twice gotten Chipotle since starting the portion control, and put half away in the fridge at work for the next day. I only eat half for lunch and am not hungry afterward. Yay!

2. Ben and I went to a buffet last week and I thought about a tip I had read about using smaller plates. I searched all over the place for a smaller plate and while I know they had some, because they had pieces of pie out on the smaller plates, they were not out for general use. Rather than shrugging my shoulders and giving up, I decided if I couldn't use a smaller plate, I would use half of a regular plate. I had three half-plates and was satisfied. Usually I have three full-plates, so I cut what I ate by 50%.

3. I have been using ziploc baggies and counting my cherries/chips/crackers into 1-2 servings worth for snacking rather than eating out of the bag. I think it has helped with how much I snack upon. I know the bag of "Hint of Lime" chips usually doesn't last very long, and it's still got a lot of chips left in it after almost 2 weeks.

4. I only had two bowls of pasta last night. I know that sounds like a lot, and maybe it is, but I had made too much pasta. I had enough for three bowls and usually if I overcook by that much, I suck it up and eat the last of it because I don't want food to go to waste. However, I did not eat the last bowl of pasta. While I'm disappointed that food was wasted, I am more proud of the fact that I did not eat food that I was not hungry for or did not need.

5. I have been trying to wait at least 15 minutes before getting seconds. Sometimes I am more successful than others, but I think that it's good to try to get into the habit of waiting in between.

6. I have been trying to chew my food better as well. I have been counting how many times I'm chewing on food and trying to extend that by 5-10 chews.

I have not seen a change in weight yet, but I feel better about myself and my ability to control myself and my portion sizes.

I usually don't freak out about health stuff

But I almost fainted three times when I was at zumba today. I had forgotten water, so in between songs I snuck out to get a drink from the water fountain. I was doing ok, not too hot, not too tired. I hopped back in since they had started a new song. At some point during that song, I realized I was feeling lightheaded. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that I was a little pale. I finished the song and went to get another drink.

As I was walking down the hall, I started seeing spots in front of my face and had muffled sound and still felt lightheaded. I got my drink and went to the front desk. I told the lady there: "I'm very close to passing out. I'm going to sit over there (right in front of the desk) and if you could keep an eye on me, that would be great." I sat down, took some deep breaths to try to cool down and started feeling a bit better. Not a whole lot, but I didn't feel like I was going to fall over any second. I started running through lifeguarding stuff in my head and decided to ask the front desk lady for an icepack. I put the icepack on all my pressure points: at the back of my neck, under my armpits and in my groin. It did help, but I still wasn't feeling 100%.

I decided the icepack wasn't cooling me off enough fast enough, so I went to the locker room to take a cold shower. Mind you, I hadn't planned on taking a shower, so I had no towel and only one set of clothes. As I was going to the locker room, I saw spots, had muffled sound and lightheadedness again. I stopped and got another drink. When I went into the locker room, I felt like I was going to vomit. I scooted into a stall, but nothing happened. I finally got into a shower and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the shower to have cold water. It seemed no matter which way I turned it, it was always warm. I eventually got it to be cold and stood under it.

At that point, I saw spots again and started having labored breathing. I had to lean against the wall, whereas each other time I was able to walk and support myself upright. That was the closest I actually came to passing out. I was none too happy about it, either. Here I am naked in the shower at the gym. I could just imagine some unlucky person finding me/reviving me. Luckily my lifeguarding was still running through my head and I had one more thing to try. I balanced myself on the foot and a half wide bench in the shower and elevated my legs. Literally within seconds I felt better. I stayed that way for about five minutes to make sure it had passed and tried to get up. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall, watching me try to get off the very narrow, very wet bench without falling over. I did it, somehow, and put my clothes back on without being able to dry off. Have I mentioned that I HATE WET CLOTHES????

Anyway, I saw my friends that had been at zumba with me when I left the locker room. I hadn't told them what was going on when I left because I didn't want them to worry. They told me they would have helped me if they had known. Maybe I should have told them. It may have eased the potential naked shower revival.

I am going to go to the doctor to hopefully find out what is going on. This has only happened four times before: once when I missed a step going to class in high school and landed sideways on my ankle, once in high school again when I gave blood, once when I was teaching and hadn't had a well-balanced breakfast (I don't need commentary about this, Ben), and once when I was actually at the house of the friends who were at zumba when I hadn't eaten breakfast and had some honey to relieve a cough from the night before. I did have breakfast today, though. I think I was just dehydrated. I still feel a little out of it. Don't worry, like I said, I'm going to go to the doctor. I had them do a blood sugar fast test back in January and keep forgetting to reschedule a follow-up. I am going to go, I promise.

Needless to say, I didn't do the extra exercising I was going to do today and really only got through about forty minutes of zumba. :(

scale and zumba

So, I weighed myself yesterday. I was right. Nothing has changed.

I was planning on going to zumba yesterday, but in the middle of writing an email the internet kaputed and I spent four hours trying to figure out how to get it back. About a half hour in, I forgot that I hadn't been watching the time and when I looked, it was already after when zumba was supposed to start. Darn. :( I could have gone to the gym anyway and done something else, but I didn't. I'm bad. I decided to exercise extra today. Zumba at 11:30-12:30 at another gym (the Saturday zumba at the gyms I usually go to is the beginner Zumba and that would just frustrate me) and then maybe some handbikes or stationary bikes.

Goals Update

From Feb. 17:

Goal: swim a mile in at most an hour at the gym.
Deadline? Hmmm. How about by June.

I have done this twice! I don't plan to stop. In fact, I think I need to start swimming more, possibly 2000 yards, which is a mile and a quarter, give or take.

From Feb. 19:

Anyway, here is what I decided will happen:

1. Replacing the pasta I eat with rice. I can have pasta on occasion, but for the most part, I'm making the switch to rice. Essentially the same amount of prep/cook time and can be eaten with most of the same things as the pasta can.

I think I have done fairly well with this. I used to buy 2-4 lbs of pasta every two weeks. Now I have 2-4 lbs of pasta sitting on my counter because I didn't eat it all from the last time I went grocery shopping and bought more thinking I was out. That will probably last me a month or two, at least. Rice is also more cost-effective, I think. You get more servings of rice for the same amount of money.

2. Look into getting a GF grill. When I cook chicken now, it has to be done in a skillet, so I end up using butter. Now, the butter I use is pretty much the best butter you could possibly get in terms of healthiness. It's a diet butter with omega 3 and made with olive oil. But, still, if I get the GF grill, I can cook it with no butter and no butter is better than even the best, healthiest butter.

Technically, I didn't buy the GF, I used my credit card rewards points to get it. I have it, nonetheless, and have used it! Yay!

3. Try out some new recipes that Ben and I talked about. He wants to eat more veggies, so we talked about which ones he likes. I like vegetables for the most part, with a few exceptions. We came up with tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans and edamame. I decided I could take some of the ingredients of my sauce (the tomatoes and tomato sauce), dilute it and add the above mentioned foods to make sort of a vegetable soup. We even discussed putting in some rice with it, rather than noodles. Talking about the rice got me thinking about another way we could prepare almost the same ingredients. We both love the Mongolian Barbecues and I thought if we cook the foods we talked about and put it over rice, it could be like a vegetarian entree.

I did this. It came out pretty well, though I did need to add some chili meat. It was too bland and wasn't very well put together without it. I think if I ever make a vegetarian version of it, I'll use beans instead to help give it the same consistency.

4. Start a food journal. I am really not looking forward to it, because I know it will take a lot of work to remember to write down what I eat, but I think it will be important. A couple that we are close friends with are participating in a saving contest through their bank and one of the things the savings coaches had them do at the beginning was make a spending log. That way, they could track the money they were spending and identify areas where they were spending money frivolously and where they could cut their spending without making huge sacrifices. I think of this as something similar. I think that if I write down what I eat each day, I will be able to identify where I can change what I eat, how much I eat or cut out certain types of food without making huge sacrifices.

I guess, technically, I did do this, but then I stopped. That's why I didn't cross it out, because I'm not sticking to it. Maybe once things have settled with the other strategies I'm trying, I'll pick it up again if necessary.

From March 1:

Considering I've lost about a pound in three weeks, let's say ten pounds by the end of the summer. That gives me until September 1, my brother's birthday. (I'm not going by school calendars or by seasonal calendars. I consider the summer over at the end of August.) That is exactly six months. Twenty four weeks. Hopefully it is a reasonable goal.

Since I haven't weighed myself, I don't know how well this is going, but I'd be willing to bet not very well. It is possible, though. However, I am now down to thirteen or fourteen weeks to have it done by Sep. 1. Like I said, it is possible.

Portion Control Update

I have been doing pretty well with my portion control attempts. There have been a couple times that I didn't wait the 15 minutes between servings, but I have been watching how much I am eating in each serving, packing up half at the beginning and also choosing healthy foods to snack upon.

The ziploc bags are working pretty well, I think. I have used them to control the portions of chips and cherries and I haven't been raiding the chip bag or cherry bag when I'm done with my ziploc portion, so that's good.

I haven't weighed myself. To be honest, I didn't weigh myself before I decided to watch my portions, either. My scale was a victim to the move and while I know exactly where it is, I haven't recalibrated it since it was jostled around. Thus, I haven't weighed myself since I moved. I shall do that today.

I also haven't exercised since I last posted. :( It's been a weird week. Monday and Wednesday were both late days at work, Thursday was a birthday party for a friend and Tuesday...well, Tuesday is my fault for not going. I have started trying to make a wart fall off with those medicated bandages, so I'm wary of swimming with it or even without it right now. I don't want to mess up the progress that has been made through the bandage if I get into a pool. So, no swimming until the wart is gone, it looks like. That doesn't mean no exercising, but it does reduce my options.

Dancing Queen!

I went out dancing with some friends on a spur-of-the-moment thing last night. Lord, I love dancing. When I was in my late-teen/early twenty years, I loved the bump-and-grind kind of dancing. Not that I don't like it now, but last night when I was out at the club, bumping and grinding, I longed for dance classes. I need to get back into salsa classes, into tango or swing or foxtrot or SOMETHING.

My participation in the dance team in college is a point of pride for me. I had seen fliers for it my freshman and sophomore year, but I guess I was tainted with the memory of musical auditions in high school, where only those who had dance training were cast as the "dancers" (no matter how uncoordinated they may be, as long as they had received the formal training). Seeing as I had none, I didn't try out. My junior year of college, I saw another flier. Nothing was different, nothing changed...until I saw another flier a week later that stated, very plainly, "IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO TRY OUT FOR DANCE TEAM!!" I felt it was an omen for me.

So, I contacted a friend of mine that I knew was on the dance team and told her I was interested. I showed up to the try-out practice four days before the audition. Everyone else had been practicing the audition routines for ten days at this point (two weeks of practice total, including the four days that I joined them). I did what I had to do, illustrating the moves, writing the descriptions and notating them with the counts much like I did with color guard when I created a routine. I practiced so very hard for those four days, and when auditions came, I wasn't perfect, but I think I impressed the judges. Regardless, I made the team.

I was never very close to anyone on the team, which I had a hard time with. I didn't have many friends to begin with in college and while I joined the dance team because I liked to dance, I had hoped to come out of it with a friendship or two. But, I tried out for the dance team my senior year of college and again made it. You have no idea how good I felt about the fact that two years in a row, I made the dance team with no formal dance training and very little dance experience. My dance experience was summed up in the chorus dances from the musicals in high school and the limited dancing we did in color guard. But, I had a knack for it, knew I had rhythm (even for a white girl) and picked up on things quickly.

Senior year wasn't much different from junior year in terms of making friends, but one girl was more friendly to me than the others. She's the only one that I have as a Facebook friend from the dance team and one of only two friends on Facebook from college. But, nothing of substance by any stretch of the imagination. On the flip side, when bad stuff happened with student teaching and I talked to the captain/coach, they were unwavering in their efforts to make certain things happen. (I'm sorry I can't be more specific. This is a public blog and I don't know what could happen if I talk openly about it. If you want to know, email me at princessj900@yahoo.com and I will fill you in.)

Fast forward a year and a half to when I was going through my separation/divorce. I started taking salsa dancing classes through the parks and rec department and LOVED it. Sadly, the instructor could not go at the pace I would have preferred, because others did not catch on to things as quickly as I did (geez, I sound arrogant...), but I still liked it. I haven't taken classes since then and want to so badly. Ben has said that 1. he will take dance classes with me because he wants to and 2. he will take dance classes with me so that he can, and I quote, "spin me around the dance floor like a princess" when we get married. I would love nothing more, to be perfectly honest. That would make me so incredibly happy, on top of being so incredibly happy to be marrying him. :)

Anyway, that's my dancing story. The whole point was to say that I danced for a good two and a half hours off and on, so it probably ended up being an hour fifteen with the sitting/resting/drinking that occurred.

Another mile!

Gah! I was mixed up and thought that there was no Zumba on Thursdays, rather than Tuesdays. Oh, well. I had a really icky day at work and was a little frustrated heading home. I had planned on going to the gym, but was going to go home first and take care of the dog. But, then I changed my mind so that I could work off some of my frustration and I had my stuff with me.

I'm glad I did. I feel much better now and I fear that if I had gone home first, I may have excuse-ed myself out of going. I didn't have my shower stuff, but decided I would swim and take a shower at home. I wasn't sure what time I got into the pool, but when I decided I needed to know, I had swum 325 yards already. So, I looked at the clock and kept time from then until 650 yards. 10 minutes had gone by. So, I backtracked and figured out I had started swimming at 6:15. It was 6:40 when I got to a half mile. If I had kept up that pace, I would have done a mile in 50 minutes. I decided I would try to shave five minutes off and hopefully get a mile done in 45 minutes.

I started doing 50 hard, 50 easy. I did this until 1300 when I decided I would try 75 hard, 75 easy for the last 300 yards. I did it and was able to finish within 45 minutes! Yay!

portion control

Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh portion contro-ol, oooohhhhh-hhhhhhh!

Anyway, now that that's out of my system, I looked up some tips on portion control and I'm going to try very hard to stick to them. I listed them below:

When eating out, you can...
*Put half of your order in a "to go" container RIGHT AWAY.
-I hope to try this. It is going to be difficult not to eat it anyway.

*Order an appetizer rather than an entree.
-That's not too bad. I think I can do that.


When eating at home, you can...
*Snack on healthy foods if you are hungry between meals.
-I already do this, but I need to watch my snack portions, too. Thirty cherries or fifty tortilla chips probably isn't much better than a chocolate chip cookie.

*Put your snacks into small (serving-size) containers rather than eating from the bag/box.
-What do you know: a snack portion tip! lol. Anyway, I made sure I got some ziplock bags today so that I can do this. I also needed some for my sandwiches I take for work. I've been wrapping them in paper towels and it just isn't as effective. I am hoping this will help reduce the amount of stuff I snack upon.

*Wait 10-15 minutes before going back for seconds.
-I am doing this right now. I had finished off the chili mac from a couple days ago (one bowl's worth). It's been a half hour and it's not working. I'm still hungry. I'm going to fix myself a bowl of spaghetti o's and no more after that.

I finally got my butt to the gym...

Did you hear that, Dad?? You can stop siccing your lackeys on me.

I did the elliptical/stair stepper for 30 minutes and the hand bike for 20 minutes. I wanted to swim instead, and had my suit with me, but I forgot my goggles, so I will be doing it another day. I also didn't have stuff to take a shower. I really didn't plan very well it seems.

I found a schedule online for the classes and volleyball times for the two close gyms (I figured I could alternate, at least for right now, because they each have different scheduled days of what I am interested in). One of them has Zumba Monday, Wednesday, Friday evenings and the other has Zumba Thursday evening and Saturday morning. Yay Zumba six days a week! Mondays won't work, though, at least until House is over. Wednesdays may be a problem also with my trainings. We'll see. Worst comes to worst, I'll Zumba Thursday and Friday at least and swim and do the machines other days. Saturdays are beginner Zumba, so I might be able to get Ben to go.

One has open net on Thursdays and the other has it on Fridays. So, some options. :)

a gym closeby...

I checked today to see what the closest gym was. There were two. Now that I look again at the map, I will probably go to the one I hadn't planned to go to before. I have been to one of them for my job, so I'm somewhat familiar with it, and that's the one I had decided to go to. However, I forgot about the fact that I'm going to be moving soon. So, I check to see if there was one that was kind of centrally located between here and where I'll be moving to. The other gym that was pretty much the same distance away is centrally located, about ten minutes from each location. I'm going to see if they have zumba (PLEASE, PLEASE SAY THEY HAVE ZUMBA!!) and what their pool hours are. Keep your fingers crossed. I am going to check it out tomorrow and hopefully do some working out.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about why I couldn't lose weight when I was exercising regularly before. I have come to terms with a fact that I was already aware of: I need to work on my portion control. I am going to try very, very hard to do so. I don't really know how to start, but I'm going to do some research on the internet to see how I can manage how much I'm eating. I'm just worried about still being hungry if I don't eat as much. I have pretty much eliminated the frozen lunches from my diet because of the sodium and preservatives. I think I'm also going to start eating breakfast. I've heard eating breakfast can help. Sigh. Hopefully something will help.

Moving and Triumph

Thursday and Friday I moved. Lots of lifting and carrying and junk. I heard on the radio the other day that chores such as doing laundry (I'm assuming that includes folding and putting away), vacuuming and doing dishes are the exercise equivalent of going for a walk. So, with that in mind, what would be the exercise equivalent of moving? Food for thought.

Triumph was Saturday and Sunday. My feet were hurting me from the get-go on Saturday. I felt badly that it was keeping me from combat, but I did a lot of RP at the Tavern and had a semi-large role as the cleric of Fryja in the wedding, anyway, so it worked out. I did a dungeon that night and got to actually hit people. Yay! Then, I went out on a thread Sunday that ended up being longer/farther than was expected. So, instead of being able to do a couple short threads like I had hoped, that one thread wiped me because my feet were screaming afterward. Sometimes I feel like people think I am making up my foot problem or blowing it out of proportion. I wish they could feel what it feels like. It is not your normal, run-of-the-mill foot pain as if you were on your feet too long. Yes, I get that, too, but the pain that takes me out is the shooting, burning and stabbing pain on the top of my feet. As a result, I did a lot of RP Sunday as well. I know they have been asking for more non-com RP at the Tavern, but I still feel like I didn't contribute as much because I couldn't help beef up the numbers in the fights. Sigh.

I am sore today, and was very sore yesterday. I suppose that is a good sign. :) I have to find out where the closest gym is to my new house and start going again. Now that April is over and my life is slowing down a bit, that should be easier to do.

Exercise in the poor excuse for a pool

So, I was in Columbus for the last three days. The first night I decided I would go swim. I saw that the pool was rectangular and was excited! No wacky laps! Then, I tested the water and it was on the cool side. I actually liked that because it had been pretty hot that day and also laps are better swum in colder water. So, I get in and start swimming. There are no lines on the bottom of the pool and I couldn't tell if I was going in a straight line, when I was going to get to the edge, etc. The water was cloudy and there was dirt and debris at the bottom of the pool. Yuck. It also didn't smell very chlorine-y, so all those and the water temperature made me doubt whether they maintained their pool.

After about four laps, I couldn't do it anymore. Rather than stop exercising altogether, I started doing aqua-aerobic type stuff. Another problem with the pool is that there was barely any traction on the bottom and my feet kept slipping out from under me. It was not pleasant.

Anyway, I exercised the best that I could in the situation. I didn't exercise again last night because I had a few errands/tasks to do. Tonight I have a training. Tomorrow and possibly Friday I will be moving, though, and that will be like weight lifting, right? Then Saturday and Sunday are Triumph again. We'll see if my feet do better. Keep your fingers crossed!

Something to share

I don't know if this is known, but you can comment on my blogs anonymously. I will see the comments first, though, so I won't put things through that are obviously spam. However, for those who are reading what I write and want to say something about it, you can do so. If you want to let me know who you are, just sign the comment. Or, if you think I will hate you forever and ever if I knew what you said/thought (I won't), you can stay anonymous. Just thought I would let you know.

FEET! NOOOOOO!!

Sigh. So, I wasn't exactly smart today. I have been looking forward to today for several weeks, because I had a training this evening, which meant that I could go to the Wednesday morning zumba class, and it is my favorite.

Never mind that I had aggravated my feet at Triumph to the point where I am favoring my right foot sometimes when I walk. I was doing zumba, darn it!

Yeah, I only lasted a half hour before I honestly had to just leave. I have been heat-packing it all day and resigned myself to sitting through most of the training I provided tonight. I felt like such a wuss, and apologized for sitting, since it is not my usual modus operandum and I didn't want them to think I was being lazy or anything.

I think it may be time to visit the doctor again. I just hate the thought of having to pay $75 for a cortisone injection that may or may not work.

Sigh again.

SO sore!

Triumph kicked my butt. My legs and feet and back and shoulders are incredibly sore. I couldn't even last the entire night because my feet crapped out on me. Lots of heat today, it seems. I got a workout, though. :)

:( and :)

I really, really need to get back on the wagon. I haven't been exercising since I swam that day. Life has been getting in the way like nobody's business. Though, I do have a Columbus trip coming up and I can exercise/swim while I'm there. Ben and I have Triumph this weekend, so that is a lot of walking/running/melee that will have us huffing, puffing and carousing.

On another note, I got the startings of ingredients for the olive juice stew. I got tomatoes, corn, potatoes and I will get olives, edamame and green beans another day. I will make it some time when Ben is here and we will have to give it a try. Yay!

Goal!

I know it's been a while since I posted. I have been bad: I haven't exercised since I posted last that I did. I meant to go to zumba on Monday, but didn't get home in time. It's just been crazy busy every other day and haven't had a chance. Yesterday, we had a chance!

I decided that I had not swum in a long time, so swimming it was! My plan was to swim for an hour and see how far I could get. Remember, I had a goal to swim a mile in under an hour. I stopped swimming after forty-five minutes. Before you start yelling at me, I SWAM A MILE!!!! :D

I seriously thought that the clock was wrong because it didn't seem like it was taking me any time at all. I probably could have done it faster...at 1000 meters, I swam a fast 100, then a normal 100 and kept that up until 1600 meters. At 1300 meters, I was feeling quite tired, so I did my normal 100 breaststroke. I did the next normal at breaststroke, too. If I had kept up with freestyle, I probably could have done it in less than 45 minutes, but I needed a breather.

I was/am so proud of myself! One goal down!

exercise did not happen

My intention was to go exercise today after my six hours of training. But, I was exhausted from the long, early day and took a nap. I was bad.

My back is killing me

I don't know what it is. I exercised on the machines today: elliptical 35 minutes, hand bike 15 minutes. When I was on the elliptical, my back was tensing up. It has been achy all day, but it was more so when I was on the machine. I probably could have done more on the elliptical, but I just couldn't handle my back hurting so much. Ben was on the hand bike at the time, and about 15 minutes before I was done, I asked him if he would switch with me when I finished. So, we did. I was so glad to be sitting down where my back wasn't locking up. It was the muscles, too. Usually my back pain is spine related.

Sigh, I don't know. Could be from sleeping cockeyed on the bus or it could be from Triumph. Eh, whatever. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Reflections from the Boston trip

So, we had limited access to the internet and the gym down the street did not honor our Ohio membership, so our exercise consisted of walking almost everywhere we went. I wasn't able to keep my food journal, but I tried to eat as healthily as possible whenever I could.

Anyway, on to the reflections I mentioned. I have been thinking. I think I'm trying to do too much at once. I am going to stop doing the food journal, but I went grocery shopping today and did not buy ANY frozen dinners. I have decided it is salads for me for a while. So, I bought green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms and I can use olives I already had for a nice salad each day for lunch. I'm still going to do my yogurt and pickle, but I also got some apples and bananas that I can add as well. I'm hoping that changing my diet will help me lose some of the weight that I haven't been able to lose throughout this whole process.

I am going to continue exercising, of course. I went to zumba last night and did 45 minutes, because I was 15 minutes late. Next Wednesday I can finally go to the morning one again. I really liked that one. Ben and I are meeting a friend at the gym tonight. I haven't decided if I am going to just do machines or if I'm going to do some laps in the pool. I think I will save the laps for Friday, since I want to talk to our friend.

I am going to go measure my stomach and thighs now. I don't remember what it was before, but I will check it once I post this. Stomach is 38" and thighs are 23.75"

I doubt there was any progress, but it's been two weeks and it needed to be updated.

**Edit: I just read the post where I had originally measured. Great. Friggin wonderful. You know, sometimes I feel like nothing I do is working. It seems like the more I do to try to lose weight, the more weight I gain and the bigger I get, meanwhile Ben drops the L.B.'s like a little league outfielder. Why is nothing helping?

Food in Boston

So, Ben and I are headed to Boston for a week. I don't know if I'll have internet access, but I plan on taking my laptop with me. We'll see.

Anyway, to cut costs for food, I am taking a bunch of stuff that will keep on the road and for lunch, so we can splurge a little at dinner. I am taking rice cakes (white chedder, carmel corn and salted), cashew butter (like peanut butter), strawberry jelly, muffins (blueberry and banana nut), triscuits (parmesan garlic for Ben and sun dried tomato for me), apples, sausages, olives and ho-ho's. Hopefully I will be able to keep myself from eating too many of the ho-ho's. I can live with myself eating one, maybe two.

There's a lot of stuff to do in Boston that is within walking distance and we hope that the weather will not be too bad that will allow us to do that. I don't think they have a fitness room or indoor pool, so we will have to find somewhere, somehow to exercise.

**Edit: I just looked and found out that there is a gym right down the street from the hotel! Yay!

We hope to have a good time! Wish us luck!

Food Journal 3/7/2009

Lunch-
2 bowls of pasta with homemade marinara sauce
Simply Apple juice
Orange juice
1 Marshmallow Egg

ExerciseS and Food Journal 3/6/2009

So, I got up semi-early and went to swim a little in the pool. I did diagonals again, which would have been better if they hadn't put plexiglass in between the indoor and outdoor pool access. Every time I've been there, even when the outdoor pool was closed, the access under the water was open. Now, I'm not saying that's safe. It's not, in fact, when the outdoor pool is closed. But when you are trying your very best to do laps in an oddly-shaped pool and the pool is not very large to begin with and the water is hitting the sides of the pool and coming back at you, it's like swimming in your own personal ocean. I only did 400 meters. I counted my strokes again. This time it was much closer. One diagonal was about 12 strokes, and a 25 meter is about 24 or 25. So, eight diagonals was 100 meters. BUT, after I was done with the 400 meters, I did some aqua aerobics.

Then, in the evening, I went to pick up the dog from the friends who were watching her. They were headed to zumba. Did someone say zumba? I'm in! I didn't sit down once, though I did have to take my foot out of my shoe several times and I took a small break to the water fountain once. But I was really proud of myself.

Food journal behind the cut.




Breakfast-
Strawberry/Banana Yogurt...I don't know if it was fat free...I forgot to check
Granola (The hotel's room service granola was THE BEST granola I have ever had in my entire life. It had the oats and raisins you would expect, but it also had cashews and dried cranberries. I think it had honey in it, but I was able to get past it because it was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD.)
1 Strawberry
4 Pineapple slices
4 Cantaloupe slices
1 Honeydew slice
Tomato Juice

Lunch-
Baked Potato with cheese and butter
Some kind of Stew type thing...it was good. It had stewed tomatoes, zucchini, Mushrooms and Beans
Salad (Lettuce, Almonds, Oranges with a vinaigrette maybe?)
Pomegranate/Cherry flavored water
Pineapple flavored Lifesaver

Dinner-
Two bowls of pasta with steak sauce (yes, you read that right...I'm a freak)
Calcium Enriched V8

Exercise

I did 35 minutes on the exercise bike here at the hotel. I was doing "random hill" setting, so there were varied resistant levels. I so wanted to exercise more, but my legs were burning and there were no arm machines other than weights. I am going to swim tomorrow morning, and possibly tomorrow night if I get back in time to go with Ben to the gym. We'll see. :)



Saturday is a party. I am really looking forward to it, as is Ben, but it will be a test of willpower because I don't know what kind of foodage they will have. I think I may just eat before we go.

Food journal 3/5/2009

Breakfast-
1/3 slice Banana Walnut loaf
English Toffee Cappicino

Lunch-
Chicken Wrap
5 Celery sticks
3 Broccoli pieces
3 Cauliflower pieces
Ranch dip
Raspberry Lemonade flavored water

Dinner-
2/3 of a small Gnocchi al Telefono from Buca di Bepo's
1 1/2 slices of bread
Raspberry flavored Italian Soda

exercise (lack thereof) and food journal 3/4/2009

So, I wanted to go to zumba so much today...and then didn't watch the time. It was 10:45 by the time I remembered, and it started at 10. Grrr.

I will have to exercise extra, extra at the hotel.


Lunch-
1 bowl leftover pasta with homemade marinara sauce
Chicken Margherita cafe steamer
Orange juice
2 Marshamallow Eggs

Dinner- (I <3 Indian food!)
Chicken Tikki Masala with rice
Mango Lassi

weight

I weighed myself again today. 154.6

I'm not a happy camper, to say the least.



**Edit: So, I was a little upset when I wrote that earlier. I am still not happy, but I think I've calmed down to where I can rationally talk about it.

I just want to see some kind of result. Something. Something that lets me know that the exercise and the blogging and the food journaling have meant something.

I decided that in addition to watching the scale, I would measure my tummy and thighs (since that's the two areas I feel the worst about).

As of right now, my tummy is at 37 inches and my thighs are 23 1/2 inches.

Ben tried to help by telling me he thought I looked more toned. I told him to stop. It sounded gratuitous. I know it's because he loves me and he doesn't want me to be upset, but it was just the wrong time to bring it up. So, with his opinion in mind, I will be checking my circumference as well as my gravitational pull. :)

Exercise update and food journal 3/3/2009

Ben exercised today while I was at work. Then, he met me there after he had class. I got there about 10 minutes before he did, so I got straight to work. I ended up doing 45 minutes on the elliptical. I was so proud of myself! For the first ten minutes, I went at an easy pace. Then, I kicked it up a notch for the next 10 minutes. For the third set of 10 minutes, I did five one-minute wind sprint intervals (1 minute sprint, 1 minute "kicked up" pace). Then, I went back to the easy pace for the last 10 minutes and then had a 5 minute cool down.

Food journal behind the cut.


Breakfast-
Banana
2/3 Sausage/Egg/Cheese Biscuit
English Toffee Cappicino

Lunch-
Sweet and Sour Chicken meal
1/2 Pickle
Peach Fruit on the Bottom yogurt
CranGrape flavored water

Dinner-
2 bowls of pasta with homemade marinara sauce
Orange juice

hunger

For whatever reason, I'm still hungry. If you looked at my food journal, you'll see that I didn't skimp on the eatin' for dinner. I don't know what it is. I actually feel pretty much as hungry as I would if I hadn't eaten anything. It is really, really hard not to eat anything, because I know that I already did eat a decent amount...and yet my tummy is telling me differently.

I think I might swing by the store and grab some tortilla chips and take the leftover hummus with me to watch House with Ben.

I didn't go to zumba today (me=sad) because I didn't get home from work in time to take care of the dog, fix dinner and get to the gym. I have been wondering if I need to start exercising more on the days when I do exercise. I have been reading about other people's exercise schedules, and it has them exercising about two hours per exercise day. Mine's about one hour. Maybe I need to double it. I don't know. We'll see.


**Edit: I ended up stopping at Chipotle and getting a bag of their chips. I figured, that way I would not overeat, which was something I was worried I would do if I got an entire bag of tortilla chips. It definitely helped and it wasn't too terrible of a snack. :)**

Food Journal 3/2/2009

I have not been able to resist temptation very well today at work. :(


Lunch-
Garlic Tuscan Inspired Chicken Meal
Raspberry Cheesecake yogurt
1/2 Pickle
CranGrape flavored water
1 Mini Twix
1 Werthers hard candy
2 Hershey's Mini Nuggets w/Toffee and Almonds
1 Milky Way Mini
1 Marshmallow Egg

Dinner-
2 bowls of pasta with homemade marinara sauce
5 Peanut Butter Dibs
2 Marshmallow Eggs
Orange Juice

Goals and Food journal 3/1/2009

Is it seriously March already? Good grief. Didn't I have a goal set on here? What was it? Give me a sec and I'll look back...I did have a goal, but it was about swimming a mile. I'm good. I guess I should set a weight loss goal, huh?

Ummmmmmm...

Considering I've lost about a pound in three weeks, let's say ten pounds by the end of the summer. That gives me until September 1, my brother's birthday. (I'm not going by school calendars or by seasonal calendars. I consider the summer over at the end of August.) That is exactly six months. Twenty four weeks. Hopefully it is a reasonable goal.

Food journal behind cut. Food eating was unique today because we played in a tabletop game. I think I did pretty well for gaming eating, but in essence I was grazing all day, so there really wasn't a "lunch" and "dinner."


Roast Beef/Turkey Sandwich with Mayo and Mozzarella
5 Celery Sticks
13 Cherry Tomatoes
Ranch Dip
Multigrain Chips
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
1 Venison Sausage slice
3 Cheese wedges
2 Gummi Bears
Bowl of Cheese Curls
5 Beef Jerky pieces
4 Chocolate Carmel candies
2 Chocolate candies
11 oz Blueberry Lemonade soda
11 oz Lime Cranberry soda
11 oz Blood Orange soda

Food journal 2/28/2009

Lunch-
1/2 Chipotle Burrito Bowl (Barbacoa, lettuce, rice, fresh tomato/green chili salsa)
Orange Juice
2 bites Macaroni and Cheese (Ben's poison check. lol)
3 Marshmallow Eggs

Dinner-
2 slices of pizza (one pepperoni & mushroom, one ham & pineapple)
3 pieces of cheese bread

Bad Janine!

Ok, so we didn't go to exercise yesterday. :( Ben had family commitments he had to uphold. We planned on going today, but considering we have a meeting this afternoon and I need to do laundry desperately and he is still in bed, it may not happen.



Possibly kick it up a notch next week? Monday is good, shouldn't be a problem (yay, zumba!)...Tuesday looks fine, too...As does Wednesday morning (yay, zumba again!)...Thursday and Friday I'm in Columbus again, so working out in the hotel is definitely an option; I probably won't go swimming, but the fitness room is available; and I should be back on Friday with enough time to go with Ben...Then Saturday we've got a party, so probably won't happen that day...Sunday we're going to be preparing for a week in Boston! There is definite potential for increasing the workout schedule next week.

**Edit: I was right. We didn't go to the gym. Laundry and studying trumped it. We did discuss doing more working out next week, so it will most likely happen, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Food Journal 2/27/2009

Exercise post to come later today.


Lunch-
Chicken Marinara Cafe Steamer
Cherry Fat Free Yogurt
Pomegranate Berry Fat Free Yogurt
2 Pickle halves...I guess that would make a pickle whole, wouldn't it...
CranGrape flavored water
Mini Twix
Root Beer Barrel candy

Dinner-
Beef Ramen Noodles
1/2 Chipotle Burrito Bol (Barbacoa, lettuce, fresh tomato/green chili salsa, rice)
Blackberry Izze
Chipotle Chips

Food journal 2/26/2009

I was pretty good today. I indulged at lunch and told myself I would not indulge at all for the rest of the day. I SO VERY MUCH wanted to steal a root beer barrel candy from the training candy dishes, but I didn't. It was very tempting, but I overcame!


Lunch-
Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings
Cracker Barrel Fried Apples
Pretzel Bites from place in mall
Milk Chocolate Lindor Truffle
CranGrape flavored water

Dinner-
Beef Ramen Noodles
A few forkfuls of sliced olives
CranApple Juice
3 pieces Peanut Butter Dibs

Volleyball and food journal 2/25/2009

So, the gym had their open net tonight. That explains why I never make it. I am usually training on Wednesday evenings. Not this week, though. I am training tomorrow evening instead.

Ben and I went and he worked out on the fitness equipment while I played volleyball. I played for about 75 minutes. Granted, it was not a very intense workout. The league Ben and I played with in Indy was more exertion. Eh, it was volleyball nonetheless. Ben came to play for about 20 minutes or so and then went back to work on the weights. I joined him a little while later and did some leg presses. 2 sets of 12 at 180 lbs. I was pretty proud of myself.

Food journal behind the cut.


Dinner-
Chili Mac from Steak n Shake
6 oz Raspberry Frozen Yogurt Milkshake
12 pieces Peanut Butter Dibs
Milk Chocolate Lindor Truffle

Food journal behind the cut

I figured it out. I thought it would not take very long, but I thought I had found out how to do it, and then it applied it to all of my posts! That just wouldn't do. So, I found another place that showed me how to enter the code so that it would only do it on the ones where I wanted it to go. I know I would never be able to WRITE code, but I am sure as hell a lot better at READING it. :)


Food Journal: 2/23/2009
Breakfast-
10 oz English Toffee Cappicino
Strawberry and Cream Danish

Lunch-
Chicken/Tomato/Rice/Refried Bean/Lettuce Taco

Dinner-
1 small plate German Potato Salad
2 Garlic Knockwurst chunks
2 serving spoonfuls Rice
1 serving spoonful Macaroni and Cheese
1 serving spoonful Mashed Potatoes
1 cup Sausage Stew
1 Cherry and Cheese Tart
Lemonade


Food Journal 2/24/2009
Lunch-
16 oz Raspberry Mocha Cappicino
Lasagna
Side Salad (with Lite Italian Dressing)
2 Rolls
Orange Juice

Dinner-
1 Grilled Chicken Tenderloin
2 serving spoonfuls Rice
2 Perogies
Cran Apple Juice

Food Journal 2/25/2009
Breakfast-
Raspberry Muffin

Lunch-
2 serving spoonfuls General Tso's Chicken
3 serving spoonfuls Rice
1 serving spoonful Pepper Chicken
2 serving spoonfuls Mushrooms
1 serving spoonful Lo Mein
1/2 Crab Rangoon
2 Sushi slices
1 Cup of Ice Cream with Strawberry topping
2 1/2 cups Chocolate milk

Food journal

I was talking with someone the other day about this blog and they suggested that I post my food journal. As in, everything I've been eating. I didn't think people would want to read every food I ate. I will see what I can do about possibly putting things behind links or something, so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

We'll see. I do want to be accountable for what I eat and if I'm the only one looking at the food journal, to whom am I being accountable?

The scale

I just weighed myself. I'm trying really hard not to overdo it, because I know weight can fluctuate at different times of the day, especially if I've just eaten. The number on the scale read 153.8. I know it's not much to get excited about, mostly due to the fluctuating weight thing I just talked about, but that's almost a full pound less than when I started this blog...what, a week ago? I hope it continues to go down. :)

Feet, don't fail me now!

I know I've mentioned my foot problem. Today it hurt a little more than usual. Well, let me take that back. It did not hurt as much as when I do zumba, but it hurt more than other times I've worked out in the fitness room.

I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the handbike. Even after 15 minutes on the handbike, my right foot was still bothering me a lot, so I went and read a magazine in the lobby while Ben finished his workout. It is still a little tingly.

Ben was talking with his fitness advisor guy about me. (I could hear them talking while I was on the elliptical and Ben was on a machine behind me.) Then, after I was done, I went to stand with him and he was talking to the guy about Triumph and how he hoped that working out will improve his stamina in the game. When I got there, Ben asked me how my feet were doing and I said not good. The fitness advisor guy tried to diagnose me with a disorder that I knew I didn't have. Nice try, dude. Plantar Fasciitis is in the bottom of the feet and mine's in the tops. E for effort, though.



Fitness advisors and personal trainers kind of bug me. I have several friends/relatives who are personal trainers, so I have nothing against the people themselves, just the profession. I do not really want someone telling me how to exercise. I know how to exercise. I just don't do it...often. Though, this is in the process of being rectified. When I joined the gym in Indy, the guy who showed me around was trying to sell me on the weight machines, telling me that I "needed" to use them if I was going to be losing weight so that I wouldn't be droopy and have extra skin. Thank you very much, but I will exercise the way I want to exercise. Weight machines are not my thing. Aerobic exercise is much more enjoyable for me and if I do enough aerobic exercise, it will develop the exact same muscles that the weight machines develop and burn fat in the process. In contrast, the weight machines only build muscle and don't really help with the burning fat part, since they are anaerobic exercises.

**DISCLAIMER** Obviously, I did not get a degree in fitness. I am fully aware that my views may not be entirely correct. However, I still don't like someone telling me "This is how you should exercise." I would not enjoy it and would grow to hate exercise, which would be counterproductive.



I will do exercises that I enjoy, or at least can tolerate, so that I am somewhat motivated to do the exercise in the first place. I love to dance, which is why I do zumba. I love to swim, and do so for exercise. Honestly, I enjoy swimming laps a whole hell of a lot more than I like aqua aerobics. I love volleyball. Ben and I were in a co-ed league in Indy for a couple seasons, and even for one season after I moved here...but it became too much of a hassle to drive there every Friday. I want to get started with it again here, but Ben and I keep missing the open net time at the gym. I can tolerate running on the elliptical, working on the stationary bike or doing the handbike, as long as my feet don't bug me too much. Ben enjoys doing the fitness equipment and so when we go together, most of the time I do the machines so that we can spend that time together. If I don't enjoy the exercise I'm doing or grow to resent it, it will be that much more difficult for me to be motivated to exercise, plain and simple.

Peculiar Early Morning Swim

I got up this morning to swim, since I didn't get to yesterday. When I have swum in that pool before, I have done laps in a diagonal across a very strangely shaped pool. This time, I decided to do "perimeters." Essentially, I swam around the edges of the pool. It was not enjoyable. I kept having to make 60 degree turns, which was annoying. I doubt I will do that again. I counted my strokes and a perimeter took 45 strokes, whereas a 25 meter swim takes about 25 strokes. I decided that two perimeters would be about 75 meters, though I know it was closer to 100, but I was underestimating to make it easier. I ended up swimming 525 before I got fed up, based on my 75 meter estimation.

Ben and I are exercising tonight. I will update when we do it.

Food journal is going ok. I need to start an actual notebook rather than trying to cram it in my planner. :)

**Edit** I just remembered a thought that I had while swimming that I intended to put here, and it is too funny not to share. So, like I said, I had to keep making 60 degree turns because the pool was so oddly shaped. Some of the turns were acute angles (angled toward me) and some of them were obtuse angles (angled away from me). When I would get to a bend, I would contort my body in the process of swimming to get around the angle and sometimes would need to push off from the wall I was just swimming parallel to in order to swim in the new direction. The thought I had was "I feel like a roomba." Or, I guess more appropriately in this case (for those of you who are familiar with aquatic vacuum devices), a "dolphin."

Today, Today

Ok, I was able to post today. It will be short because I am using the hotel's computer. I did not exercise this evening like I wanted. I haven't quite gotten the scoring done for tomorrow's debrief. I will finish it tonight and exercise some tomorrow morning.

That is all!

Oh, P.S. I started the food journal today. I think it is really going to help. At lunch, there were two bags of chocolates being passed around and cookies at lunch that I completely passed on, because I didn't want to write down that I had eaten them! Yay me! Though, I did have a cream cheese dessert at dinner. Hey, we were at a German restaurant. You can't go to a German restaurant and NOT get a German dessert. It would be like going to a Chinese restaurant and not getting a fortune cookie.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

I will most likely not get to post tomorrow. I will be in Columbus for a meeting, then an evaluation check. (I have to be basically verified that I am still able to reliably evaluate with the scale.) We are debriefing on Tuesday morning, so I have to stay overnight. Blah. Anyway, that means I can't go to the gym, but the hotel they're having us stay in has a pool. Granted, it is not a very large pool and is shaped very weirdly, but a pool nonetheless. I am considering swimming some tomorrow night to make up for the fact that I can't go to zumba. Or, they also have a fitness room, but I am less enthused about that one. We'll see. I will update on Tuesday night instead, since I will most likely not have access to a computer until then.

Change of routine

I know I usually swim in Fridays, but we have a party to go to tonight! There just wasn't enough time for me to get home, let the dog out, feed her, go up and get Ben and get back down to the gym with enough time to do anything. So, we talked about what the options were. We also have plans during the day on Saturday and Saturday evening. We decided to come back on Sunday and workout then. Yay! I really didn't want to skip a day.


So, it looks like you'll be getting an update on Sunday rather than tonight. :)

*EDIT*: I forgot that we had made a commitment for Sunday as well. I also forgot that I've already exercised three days this week. Monday (zumba), Wednesday (zumba/fitness machines), Thursday (fitness machines). So, it's all good.

Jellyfish legs

That's what I have right now. Jellyfish legs. :)

Ben thought he may have to watch his cousins tonight and we almost postponed the workout, but then plans changed and we were able to go!

We started out on ellipticals next to each other and were able to talk a bit about our days, which was nice. We did 15 min on the ellipticals.



Then, because the new machine he wanted me to try wasn't available when we first got there, we switched to the new machine when it freed up. It was interesting. I felt very zero gravity using the machine. Almost like running on one of those bounce houses. (COMPLETELY off topic, but has anyone heard of AirBall? When I was in college, they rented it a couple years for the school spirit week and it was a blast! It was a huge bounce-house type thing and you played it like volleyball except there were 9 people to a team. Each side was set up like a tic-tac-toe board and that was your "zone." You could hit the ball -which was a huge rubber ball, btw- with any part of your body and the same person could hit it more than once. You also had as many hits as you wanted to take in order to get it over the net. Points were scored when the ball hit the ground. You could play it off the "walls," but they were the mesh stuff, so it wasn't very easy to do. OMG, it was such a workout and you were so sore afterward.) Anyway, we worked on that machine side by side again for 15 minutes.



Then, I did 15 minutes on the handbike while Ben did a cool down walk in the hallways. That machine is rough on him and gets his heartrate really high, so he always takes a little extra cool down off the machine. I was almost done on the handbike when he got back from his cool down. We switched off and he went 20 minutes on the handbike while I read a magazine about people who had lost a lot of weight.

I kind of had mixed feelings about the people they spotlighted. Some of them were very close to my height and very close to my weight and they were being celebrated. Now, granted, they started out in the 200+ or 300+ pound range, but here I am trying really hard to lose weight and they get a magazine article written about them. It was a little discouraging.

There was something that I got enouragement from. It was about their diets. Not the yo-yo or crash diets they had tried, but their eating habits. At first, I looked at what they used to eat: fast food several times a day, foods high in fats and lots of soda. I thought to myself, I hardly ever eat anything like that. I do indulge in fast food probably more than I should, but it ends up being about once or twice a week, so not like a regular part of my diet by any means. I was starting to wonder, despairingly, what can I improve upon in MY diet?

I already eat pretty well. My lunches 90% of the time are a microwaveable meal, a pickle, water with a flavor packet and a cup of yogurt (almost always fat free...I'm a little OCD about my fat free yogurt. Even if it's 99% fat free, I rarely buy it and when I do it's begrudgingly). Sometimes I switch the yogurt out for applesauce. Now, I know that the microwaveable meal isn't the best, but what can I replace it with? Seriously. There isn't much to choose from. I hate for things to go bad and when I'm grocery shopping for just me, buying things like bread, deli meat, salad fixings, etc are not cost effective because they usually just go bad. So, I get things that will keep. I don't mind eating salad. In fact, this morning I forgot to grab food to eat for lunch and so I ran to a sub shop to buy lunch. They have AMAZING chili...like chunky tomato soup with meat and beans. Ohhhh, so good. So, I got a bowl of their chili and a salad. Yesterday, I trained in the evening and wasn't able to bring something from home, so I went to a bread place and got a tomato/mozzarella sandwich and a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup. I don't feel like I eat badly, even when I do get it from a restaurant.

I forgot to mention what I usually eat for dinner. Most nights, it's pasta. I make a marinara sauce out of tomato sauce, diced Italian-style tomatoes, green olives and some spices and I eat the pasta with that. I know pasta is a lot of carbs and stuff, but I love it so much. So, the article in the magazine spotlighted a guy who lost weight by cutting the amount of flour he had in his diet, namely pasta. I know I can get the whole-grain stuff, but it just doesn't taste good to me. I'm making an icky face right now that you can't see. Just imagine it.



Anyway, here is what I decided will happen:

1. Replacing the pasta I eat with rice. I can have pasta on occasion, but for the most part, I'm making the switch to rice. Essentially the same amount of prep/cook time and can be eaten with most of the same things as the pasta can.

2. Look into getting a GF grill. When I cook chicken now, it has to be done in a skillet, so I end up using butter. Now, the butter I use is pretty much the best butter you could possibly get in terms of healthiness. It's a diet butter with omega 3 and made with olive oil. But, still, if I get the GF grill, I can cook it with no butter and no butter is better than even the best, healthiest butter.

3. Try out some new recipes that Ben and I talked about. He wants to eat more veggies, so we talked about which ones he likes. I like vegetables for the most part, with a few exceptions. We came up with tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans and edamame. I decided I could take some of the ingredients of my sauce (the tomatoes and tomato sauce), dilute it and add the above mentioned foods to make sort of a vegetable soup. We even discussed putting in some rice with it, rather than noodles. Talking about the rice got me thinking about another way we could prepare almost the same ingredients. We both love the Mongolian Barbecues and I thought if we cook the foods we talked about and put it over rice, it could be like a vegetarian entree.

4. Start a food journal. I am really not looking forward to it, because I know it will take a lot of work to remember to write down what I eat, but I think it will be important. A couple that we are close friends with are participating in a saving contest through their bank and one of the things the savings coaches had them do at the beginning was make a spending log. That way, they could track the money they were spending and identify areas where they were spending money frivolously and where they could cut their spending without making huge sacrifices. I think of this as something similar. I think that if I write down what I eat each day, I will be able to identify where I can change what I eat, how much I eat or cut out certain types of food without making huge sacrifices.



We'll see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed!




*EDIT*: So, I got curious about the AirBall game I had gone on about. I tried to look it up on the internet. After spending about 10 minutes trying everything from "Airball inflatable" to "Inflatable volleyball game" to "Adult bounce house" (which, the last one only got me a bunch of disclaimers for adult supervision), I FINALLY found something that was close enough to what I remembered. It's called Ultra Volleyball. I encourage you to look it up. It was so much fun!