Fondue for you? ... No, all for me!

Ate like a cow tonight... basically I drank a whole pot of fondue... it was delicious.

Okay, that was an exaggeration (the drinking the whole pot, not the deliciousness... it really was yummy), but you get the point.

So I ate a lot... more than my fair share of points for the day and was "dragged" out to the gym tonight afterwards. I'm glad I went, but now my butt is sore. Not because I worked out my butt, but because of sitting on the bike seat! Ouchies!

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. I haven't lost anything I'm sure. Like I said before, I ate poorly. I need to get my mind in gear when it comes to making more healthy decisions.

Oh, and looks like Jen and her bf Kris are going to be doing the Warrior Dash... sounds kind've fun, but also I'm terrified. I haven't signed up... but I'm kind've sort've maybe thinking about it. We'll see.

Also, I won $10 tonight playing Bunco. Yippee!

And... hello? disjointed thoughts, mindless rambling, and improper grammar galore in this post! I'm sorry you had to see such atrocities.

It's 76 degrees outside and...

I literally* just got back from a "run" around The Lake (no geese encounters to post about). I use the term "run" loosely as it was more of a walk/jog (maybe 1 stretch of running). I am still working on my cardio clearly. I improved my time from the last time I went out though. I was there and back within 30 minutes. Last time it took me about 35 I think. The reason I completed it quicker? 1. I have been regularly going to the gym and working on my cardio, abs, and arms. 2. It was super sunny and I forgot to wear sunblock. My why-am-i-so-white-when-i-am-half-mexican skin sunburns fairly easily. Thus, I walked/jogged quicker to get out of the sun and back to my shady home. :) (shady as in there is shade here, not as in sketchy)

While I was out there, I passed a man with his 2 kids and dog. I overheard the son ask his dad if they were close to being home because his legs hurt. I thought to myself, "Keep going kid. Your adult self with thank you for pushing yourself and staying in shape instead of quitting at the slightest inconvenience". I hope that kid continues walking with his dad into the future. (Oh, for the record the kid wasn't that young, maybe 8? The lake isn't that long, I don't think his legs really hurt, he was probably just getting tired)

I know I could/should push myself harder. I recovered quickly and my feet/legs don't hurt; however, it's the 4th of July and I have plans tonight. I can't be hobbling around all evening. Excuses, excuses. Whatever. At least I went out and moved. Now I'm off to "lift weights" (re: move heavy boxes restocking/selling) at the fireworks booths.

See, you don't always have to go to the gym to get in your exercise. I like to call this creative exercising.



*As I type this, I am sitting in front of my fan cooling off with some ice.

Fair vs. Gym

I went to the Alameda County Fair with my friends Jennifer and Andrea on Monday. It was so much fun. It was Food Fair Day which meant that admission was free if we brought in 4 non-perishable food items.... which of course we each did! And as an added bonus, all rides were 99 cents. (You paid a dollar and they "donated" your extra 1 cent to the Food Bank) We had a blast! We rode some rides, watched some acts (Alaskan Pig Races!, hypnotist, etc) and ate some delicious food. Oh man, did we eat some delicious food! Which brings me to my next item...

OH MY GOD I ATE SO MANY CALORIES ON MONDAY!! When I entered everything I ate for the day (including breakfast before the fair) into my food tracker with WW, it added up to 108 points!! 108!! That is... that... well that is a LOT. More than 3 days worth of points. But my God it was delicious. At the fair I ate:

A Kangaroo Sausage on a bun with onions
A bite of Python on a stick
French Fries with ketchup
Pink Lemonade
Most of a GIANT Funnel Cake with strawberries
1 Wine & Cheese Sausage Popper (small, about 1-2 bites)
A Corn Dog with ketchup
Cotton Candy
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Butter and salt

See? A LOT of food. As such, it was a MUST that I work out today at the gym. I had planned to go this afternoon, but was just too tired and ended up sleeping after setting up the fireworks booth. What I did instead was attempt to talk myself out of going when I woke up from my nap. Thankfully, and I truly mean thankfully, Jennifer texted me and said she was going to the gym. This was sort've my... well... I should go to. Thus, I went. And I decided to go 60 minutes at it on the eliptical. Non stop, baby! And I did. And I almost died in the middle of it.* But, I pulled through and never stopped. Stopping would have let myself down and I wasn't going to do that. I then did a 5 minute cool down and an additional 5 minuts on the ab workout machine. Then it was closing time. All in all, I didn't work off everything that I ate at the fair, but at least I worked out some. I got some exercise in and I feel good now. I did have to drive home with the windows down to help cool myself off, but it was great. I have a good sweat stain on my lower back that I'm super proud off too. Normally I hate sweating and I HATE having it show, but I'm proud of this one. 1. because it came from the gym and 2. because I needed to work off that food. I had my dad take a picture of it when I got home. Not a huge fan of the photo because I still look fat in it... hell, I still AM fat, but check out that stain. LOL





















*I often over exaggerate "death." For instance, at the fair I trip/stumbled. I recovered in 1 step. I don't even think anyone really noticed, but as I recovered I stated to my friends "Ohp, almost just died." Clearly, I did not almost die. So I use this term loosely. I am very aware of when it is safe to exercise and when it is not. I am aware of stopping excerise if you feel faint, neaseaus, dizzy, etc.

Who is that girl on the treadmill? Is that...? No way... YES! It's me!

I forgot to log my weight for the week. I normally weigh-in Tuesday night, but didn't since I had weighed myself on Monday. Apparently, I never entered this into my weight tracker though because it wasn't there... so instead I entered my weight as of today (confirmed both on the scale at the gym I joined... Hi! I joined a gym! More on this later... and on my home scale, which I'm happy to learn is accurate). I'm now at 209. According to the blog, I've lost 3 pounds. According to WW I've lost 6. I entered my start weight as 215 on WW since my weight usually fluctuated between 216-212 any given week, so I settled on 215, even though technically I was 212 that night. Regardless, this is my first week that I'm considering a victory since I've lost weight.

I have not been good on the eating front. I basically still eat whatever the hell I feel like instead of taking into account my points. My bad! I'm working on this though and am proud to say that today was a huge success. Maybe it was that I was eating more filling foods. Maybe it was that I worked out last night. I don't know, but today I ate well (only went 1 point over my daily allowed) and wasn't hungry and I didn't over eat! I consider that a NSV! (non scale victory)

Okay, for the gym. Jennifer told me about a Planet Fitness groupon and after a little research (read: asking Jen a bunch of questions), I decided to buy it. I now have a 2 month black pass to PF. There is one not far from me, so it's convenient! So far I've gone Wednesday night and tonight (Thursday night) and have worked out for about 45 minutes each night. I didn't want to push myself too hard in these first couple gym excursions since... holy hell I'm out of shape I don't want to hurt myself. I hadn't been to the gym since moving back to the bay, so this feels good. Also having Jennifer as a motivator/gym buddy helps a TON! In fact some co-workers were going out after work tonight to grab pizza and beer. Ordinarily I would have gone with, but no, not tonight. I declined because I had a gym date at 9 with Jen. :) Best decision I've made all week.

Like I tweeted earlier, "I hope this becomes a habit."

Day ... uh, I'm not sure what day this is?

Should I classify this as day 3, even though I already had a day 3 post, since technically this is day 3 of exercising? Or should I classify this as day 5 since it's 5 days into the 30-day challenge? I don't know if the program counts 30 days of working out or just 30 continuous days. I should look into that. Maybe I'm thinking too much into this.

As you know, Saturday was my rest day. I fully intended to workout Sunday as the program stated, but as you well know, things happen. I came home from Jen's house and had a snack. It was between football games and I was going to work-out then, but my dad didn't really want to relinquish the TV. That coupled with having just eaten, I decided to postpone the workout and use it as another rest day... and rest I did. I think the antihistamine I took early wasn't fully out of my system. I basically slept from 5-8pm. It was glorious! :)

Anyway, I'm back on the wagon now. I worked out today while my parents were at the store looking for new fencing. Today was mostly an upper body workout--not very much cardio so it was so much easier. I got a little winded during the side jumps and inline skating exercises, but I was fine. We did bicep curls, shoulder presses, and other arm/back/shoulder exercises that I can't remember names of. Some of them really made me burn. What I mean is there were a couple times were by the end of the reps I could feel the lactic acid in my muscles and it was increasingly difficult to do each rep as smoothly as the first. It was great. I'm excited for tomorrow's work out. I really can't remember the last time I was excited about working out. I know I've been excited before, but it's never lasted a whole week! haha. Since today was so cardio-light, the program says I only burned 110 calories. But I'm optimistic and know that every little bit counts! The point is that I'm getting my body moving and using my muscles.

Afterward, I helped my dad a tiny bit with the fence. I say I only helped a tiny bit because he was mostly done by the time I got dressed and found my gloves. We're going to build the fence this week and weekend. Whenever he's not working. Should be fun. I've never built a fence before, so I'm excited. I just hope my dad still has some work to do on it by the time I come home from my cousin's baby shower, so I can help!

Day 1- check!

So, after my surge of motivation, I decided to buy the Wii Active. I set up my fitness profile last night and decided to start it today. It allows you to do individual work-outs or select the "30-day challenge" which is basically a 30-day structured workout plan (including rest days). I opted to start the 30-day challenge today because I didn't know what work-outs I would want to do at first. I chose the medium intensity because I wanted a good work out... and boy did I get one.

The exercises themselves were easy, but I miscalculated just how out of shape I am. Omg! I also apparently have weaker knees than I thought. During the first set of squats I thought I was going to seriously hurt my knees, but during the next set later on, I felt fine. I guess they just needed to get back into the swing of things. During the side lunges, I realized that I SUCK AT SIDE LUNGES! I swear the chick on screen kept telling me to "try again," "watch me," and "hold it a little longer" and here I am talking back to my tv going "I'm trying!" and "well, how about you not hold it as long?" I'll admit, I may have half-assed the second set of side lunges that we did... hee hee hee... I'll try harder later.

Sadly I had to sit down and cool down a little in the middle of the exercises. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, drank a little and turned the living room fan on before I got back into the program.

...

okay, I didn't want to admit it, but I really should hold myself accountable. There was 1 exercise left. It was a cool down run/walk.... but I just struggled through the exercise before because I was so hot/tired/just not feeling good... that I walked away from the TV. Yeah, I went and lied down on my bed with the fan on me for 10 minutes, then I went back in the living room and finished the "cool down" after my own personal cool down. I know that's not the proper way to do things, but I also know that if I'm going to work out on my own, I'm not going to push myself harder than I think I should. I seriously felt nauseous for a moment there and lying down helped. After the last run/walk, I felt good.

I feel good now, I feel like my thighs, primarily my left thigh will be a little sore tomorrow, but I feel good. I actually feel more energetic than I did earlier today (whether that's just because of the time of day it or or because of the work-out, I don't know). The program says I burned 169 calories during the work-outs. That doesn't sound like very much, but hey it's something, right?

I feel good about this 30-day workout and so far about the active in general. I'll be keeping up with this, but I think tomorrow I'll change it to a low intensity work out! :)