Friday, July 26, 2013

Fitness Friday–Week 4

Week 3… umm… ran away… :)

 

My goals from week 3 were not exactly met. I have done a few yoga and pilates videos at home. I made a massive playlist of zumba videos on youtube. I have been keeping track of my calories on My Fitness Pal. I am getting a bit closer and closer week to staying on track with my calories. I realize how many calories are in everything!

My Goals for this next week:

1. Zumba

2. Yoga for flexibility

3. Find a breakfast that is under 300 calories that keeps me full but also wakes me up.

 

I’ll let you know how that goes. And what recipes I try!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Fitness Friday–Week 2

I can’t believe it’s Friday already! Ahh.

Okay so my goals from last week:

1. Do 2 yoga videos from youtube ((yeah… ummm didn’t happen….))

2. Go to zumba with mom on Thursday and Saturday. ((I did go with mom thursday, and it’s not saturday yet))

3. Take the dog(s) for a walk 2 times ((fail))

Mom and I did go to Zumba at the Jacksonville Community Center with Kim on Thursday (yesterday). It was a bit scary. The instructor, who rocks, was sick so she didn’t talk at all – I don’t know if this is normal or not… It was hard to follow along with some things because I don’t know how to dance. at. all. The time went by fairly quickly…. except… those last 10 minutes. Oh man, those last 10 minutes. They’ll get you! My knee started to burn a little. My throat was so dry from breathing heavy.

I definitely plan on going tomorrow and again next Thursday. With two bottles of water this time… or just a bigger cup. And I also will not stand directly in front of the door, with a window, to the basketball court, full of people. That was embarrassing.

This week I also redownloaded My Fitness Pal app on my phone. There have been a lot of updates since I last used it! I like it a lot. My favorite part so far: I can set up a reminder after each meal to log my calories. I have a bad habit of not thinking about what I am eating. Seeing the calories there on the screen, adding up really fast… it’s an eye opener!

 

Goals for this week:

1. Zumba: Saturday and Thursday

2. Log every meal with MFP. Drink only water during the day at work/lunch. Eat better breakfasts. Only one non water drink at dinner. (I love my sweet tea and I know trying to cut out all soda/tea is too hard for me right now, I’ll try to cut it all out in a few weeks maybe).

3. Take Uno for a walk. A nice mile. Last time we did more than a mile I had to pick the poor pup up and put him in the car and he didn’t move the whole way home. So just a mile for me and Uno-buno.

Bonus: do a yoga video for flexibility.

 

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Friday, July 5, 2013

Five minute Friday : Beautiful

To find out more about five minute friday visit: Lisa Jo Baker.

 

This weeks prompt was Beautiful. Which I think goes really well with the fitness friday post I posted earlier. I talk about self image and there is a bit that I didn’t have a chance to talk about. My now-husband once asked me when we were first dating where my confidence came from. And I honestly don’t know. I had amazing friends when I was growing up through my “awkward” phase. And then we were noticed for the weird things we did, but those weird things made us happy. So I’m quirky and weird and those things make me happy.

I also look it this way. Today, this is what I am going to look like right now, nothing will make me lose 80 pounds in one minute. I can work towards a goal, I can try to make myself better. I do not want to hate myself today for what I cannot change today. If that makes any sense what-so-ever! This is me for the day and this is how I will live the day. Why beat myself up over it because I didn’t wake up this morning as a supermodel?

I also think there is a difference between self-hate and wanting to be better. And I think most people, especially young girls do not see the difference.

 

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Fitness Friday–Week 1

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In an effort to put more of myself out there in the world and to encourage more honesty in blogging and in body image I am posting my first Fit Friday blog.

For this foray into this I wanted to be honest about my fitness level. Which is 0… or -5. 

Growing up nobody I knew EVER exercised. Every once in a while my Uncle would have small bursts of crazy strict regimines but they never lasted long, usually a summer. I remember one summer when we lived about 5 miles apart that he just showed up at our house one day and he had rode his bike the whole way, and we are talking out in the country where the roads are NOT flat. I remember being really impressed. We had a pool at our house when I was in Jr High and High School and I would swim out there all the time. I never thought about fitness or the fact that swimming was exercise- I was just having fun. 

Jr High was when I first heard about diets. Anorexia, bulimia, water and crackers only. . . None of the girls I was friends with ever mentioned exercise only diets. I was on the chubby side back then but I never really got teased for it, luckily (especially considering the superficial school setting we were in). 

Sophomore year of High School- I joined the marching band. Which is a lot more work than I think anybody not in it realizes. It's marching, in a very specific way (i.e. moving your muscles in abnormal ways) over and over and over, in the heat (sweat) and holding your instrument in a static position. But again, I didn't see it as work or even exercise. I just saw it as fun. Can we also note the ridiculous amount of energy you have at this age? Especially considering I was having skittles and a Dr Pepper for lunch, and that was it! 

At the end of the year my friend Jacklyn convinced me that I should join the Flag line the next year and taught me the basics so I could try out. Swinging a 5.5' fiberglass pole with a yard of polyester on the end took more strength than I thought. But again... again... it wasn't exercise - it was fun! 

Junior Year - I made the flag team and between the flag camp the summer before and the routines we did that fall for halftime my arms became buff. At this point I realize a little more that I am bigger than most of my friends and actually most of my school. I started eating real lunches served in the cafeteria with all my new group of band geek friends. No more sugar for lunch. 

Senior Year - Between another year of flag and then the work I was doing with the theatre department I was always on the go. Even outside of class and rehearsals I was doing things with my friends. This was also the year that I realized that looks were very important at my school, not so much with my friends, but I did notice weird looks when I'd only wear marching band tshirts for a week straight (I still to this day have a whole tub of them). 

freshman year of college - much more rigorous marching band, three square meals a day, 30 minutes a day/ 3 days a week at the gym with Amb because she had to for her class. We would go and watch Newlyweds on the TVs above the elliptical. Some of my friends got more into fitness, but these were guys trying to actually gain weight in muscle. Ever heard of the Freshman 15? That didn't happen to me or my bestie/roomie, we both lost 20 lbs. Oh to be 18 again. 

Then I transferred to a school with no marching band... I joined in the theatre group more but sitting at a sewing machine or even building flats for sets is nothing compared to marching band practice. I gained a bit of weight. Add on that I had moved home and was now eating without really paying for it, I ate a lot more food than I should have, and bad food.

Then I started Birth Control. . . Oh how I hate it. Side effects include weight gain. Nothing noticeable at first... then over one year I had gained 20 lbs. Then another 20 the next year, and another 20 the next. This is where my downward spiral in to hating my body came in. I tried limiting my food, I tried cutting out sodas (mainly because I couldn't afford them anymore either). I bought home fitness DVDs which I could barely make through the warm-up without feeling like I was going to pass out. I transferred schools again and joined the marching band there, marching band has always kept me sane. But not at this school. It was torture every single day, and not because of the physical aspect but the mental. I wasn't a little freshie looking to impress everyone. I had upper level classes, a job, bills, and had just been dumped. I needed friends and what I got were enemies. I didn't lose any weight that semester; I did notice an increase in the tone of my arms. But it did nothing to help my overall weight.

After graduating and getting a job where I was up moving around all day I did lose a bit, like only 10 lbs a bit. Then I got a much better job that was more suited to my degree, which landed me sitting in a chair in front of a computer 8 hours a day. Then I went home and spent another 4-6 in front of the computer or watching TV. I still didn't do anything; I had no money for a gym or even good shoes. I was lost as to where to start.

Today. I am at my biggest and most unhealthy. I weigh 235 pounds. I am 5'-6" tall. I lead a 95% sedentary lifestyle. I have chronic back pain, no strength to move or open things, no stamina, no energy, and very little self-esteem. I have doubled the number of stretch marks on my hips in the last year alone. I barely fit into my wedding dress. I am addicted to sugar, and not in the joking way, in the all I can think about are cookies or a milkshake all afternoon and can literally get nothing done because it feels like my brain is screaming at me

When I started my Pinterest addiction one of the first boards I made was Fitspiration. I pinned nutritional facts on all the bad stuff. Beginner workout routines. Couch to 5k. Inspirational photos and quotes. The one big thing that I've come across (from a friend of a friend who is a nutritionist) is a pin that says "Food can either be the most powerful medicine or the slowest form of poison." 

I know I don't eat the right things.

I know I make bad decisions.

I know I need to get up and move.

I know that doing so will help my life become more satisfying, help my sex life, give me energy to do more things, and make my body better equipped to handle when I become pregnant. 

yet... here I am... barely fitting into my size 18 shorts I bought for the honeymoon. 

I have no self discipline. Nobody to keep me motivated but  myself. No body will do this for me. I'm truly afraid of trying and failing. But I have realized I am more afraid of not trying and dying. 

Something has to change, and that something is me.

So on friday's I will post, as a way of accountability. I hope you enjoy the brutal truth of what it will be like going from a couch rock (potatoes are too nice of a word) to a healthy (healthier) individual. 

Goals for this week:

1. Do 2 yoga videos from youtube

2. Go to zumba with mom on Thursday and Saturday.

3. Take the dog(s) for a walk 2 times

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PS. Honesty moment: I uploaded this and put the finishing touches on it while drinking Sweet Tea and eating chips. I have a long way to go.