Carol: Fat Joke #2, Midweek Update & Oprah Where Are You

Yo Mum's So Fat Mum Joke #2…“She laid out on the beach and Greenpeace threw her into the ocean” [Send me your own jokes… I’ll keep posting these until we get two chubby Brittish teachers for our fitness challenge…]

Purchased a new fancy, schmancy scale that does BMI and has BIG numbers for weight, so I can actually SEE the results.

Here's my midweek update…

Monday…

• Woke up.
• Drank lots of coffee.
• Drank more coffee.
• Went into the garage for kickboxing
• Scared the bejeebers out of the cat.
• Did a little kickboxing & yoga and pondered why Oprah wasn't reading my book so I could cash in, hire a personal trainer, buy a Wii and get a make over.
• Decided once again that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, so went back in the house and got ready for work.
• Went to Pilates Torture Time. Grabbed a spot in the back row. Made Doomsday Becky go to the front row, by the teacher. Karma… it's a…
• Tried to do this rolly ball thing. Yeah, when pigs fly.

Tuesday…

• Woke up, drank coffee, went into the garage for kickboxing.
• This time DIDN'T scare the cat.
• Did a little kickboxing and yoga.
• Wished  Oprah would just read my book so I could cash in, hire a personal trainer, buy a Wii and get a make over.
• Decided once again that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, so went back in the house and got ready for work.
•  Went to yoga.
• Missy Chrissy Pretzel decided we would do all mat work. 
• Almost got out my phone to take a picture of her to put on my punching bag, but my arms and abs were so sore I couldn't crawl to reach my phone.
• Practiced the Eagle Pose. She taught a new way to do the arms and get set up. Actually helped. :-)

Wednesday…

• Woke up, drank cofee, went into the garage for kickboxing.
• Didn't scare the cat. Cat's getting smarter.
• Wished I had that photo of Missy Chrissy Pretzel. My arms ache.
• Punched.
• Punched some more.
• Practiced Eagle pose.
• Went about 15 seconds before I fell over.

Let's see if I survive yoga tonight.

Carol: Giving Up, Fat Mum Jokes & My Weekly Update

OK, so I’ve given up.

No, silly. Not on this dieting/exercising hoopla, but trying to find two chubby Brits who want to participate in our fitness challenge.

Yes, it’s all rather disappointing. So, as promised, I‘ve now decided to start all my posts with a “Yo mums so fat…” joke.

Juvenile and immature, I know, but hey, I teach high school.

So here’s the first one…

“Yo mums so fat when she sits around the house, she actually sits AROUND the house.”

Now, now, I never said they were going to be good jokes.

Since I’ve got lots to do, here’s a speedy synposis on my week. I think I left on Tuesday…

Tuesday…

• Did the kickboxing thing in the garage.
• Refrained from pinning Doomsday Becky's photo on punching bag as previously threatened.
  
• Practiced a few Eagle poses.
• Fell over doing said Eagle poses.
• Went to yoga and commiserated with Missy Chrissy Pretzel about my intense dislike of drawing imaginary circles on the ceiling during Pilates Torture Time.
• Tried the Eagle pose again.
• Fell over again.
  
• Promised to suck it up and keep going with both the Eagle thing and the Pilates Torture Time thing.
  

Wednesday…

• Did the kickboxing thing in the garage again.
  
• Practiced a few Eagle poses.
• Fell over doing said Eagle poses.
• Getting better at singing along with my exercise tape
• Went to work. On newspaper deadline. Ate two pieces of Emergency Chocolate.  

Thursday…

•  No kickboxing this morning. Instead, went in extra early to work for newspaper deadline.

• Only ate one piece of Emergency Chocolate, but could have, would have and probably should have eaten a bunch more to improve a really snarky disposition.
• Yelled at the newspaper staff.
• Went to yoga, but didn't yell at anyone there.
• Worked on the Eagle pose.
• Fell over.
• Liked having Beth on the mat next to me because for once someone else was falling over as much as I was.
  
• Missy Chrissy Pretzel threw down some sort of smiling/laughing cow pose, but me and Beth weren't laughing or smiling.
  
• Missy Chrissy Pretzel got a bit bold and hopeful and then threw out some sort of crazy impossible pose. Yeah, like that's going to happen. Now, I don't like being a naysayer or a negative Nancy, but I'm feelin' a bit like Clint Eastwood in the movie “Magnum Force” when he says, “A man's got to know his limitations.”

Friday…

• No nothing this morning. Had to go in early to work for stupid newspaper deadline. Stayed until 6:30 p.m. for stupid newspaper deadline. 
• Ate one piece of emergency chocolate and went out and ate Mexican food. Oh, well. 

Saturday…

• Worked at the animal shelter for two hours cleaning. Figure that has to count for something.
  

Hope your week went well. Let us know. Is anyone out there reading this thing? Or are you like those chubby Brits? Mums the word? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Joel: More Wii Fit Fun

So I took Tuesday off from any physical activity. Yesterday, I took a much more reasonable approach to the running and opted to go to my middle school's track (flat surface and all) and did four cycles of 4 minutes walking and 1 minute running. It worked out fantastically. I guess the only real problem was that I didn't drink enough water throughout the day and it was somewhat humid out, so I had to stop at the water fountain and get a quick drink about halfway through. No worries.

Today, I decided to opt out of walking or running and spend some quality time with my Wii again. on Saturday afternoon, one of my friends called me and reminded me that the new season of 24 debuted on Sunday night. He offered to let me borrow the DVD from last season to get caught up (I had a big DVR fiasco during spring break where I lost all of my unwatched episodes of 24, so I just blew it off till later knowing he would get it). So I went over and got it and have been watching that all week. As a result, I have done very little with Wii Fit except for the almost daily check-ins and maybe a little bit of stretching.

Tonight, I spent 34 minutes with it so far, am going to go have dinner with some friends, and then will come back and watch some 24 and probably do some step aerobics and walking around my house a little bit. So which exercises did I choose tonight?

• Lunges (ugh)
• Rhythm Kung Fu
• Snowboard Slalom
• Skateboard Arena
• Rhythm Boxing
• Lotus Focus (not really a workout, but more relaxation)

I also decided that it's time for me to lose the carbonation. I am replacing sodas with mostly water, and some occasional tea and/or coffee. I'll allow myself cappuccinos on the weekends if I've been good. So the journey continues...

Joel: Couch To 5K? More Like Couch To EKG

Well, yesterday I tried to do Week 1, Day 1 of the Couch To 5K program. Wow, that was intense. It was supposed to do a warm-up walk for 5 minutes and then alternate 60 seconds running and 90 seconds walking for 8 cycles, then do a warm-down walk for another 5 minutes.

What happened was that I walked for 5 minutes, did 3 60/90 cycles, then limped along for the next 6 minutes until I could crawl into my truck. I bought this cool C25K app for my iPhone and was jamming along to my music and as I was limping along at the end, I heard the guy telling me to run. Then after what seemed like an eternity, he said I could walk again. I cracked up.

But I did get about 16 minutes of exercise in, and I did actually run for three straight one-minute segments. I've come to realize that I go about 75 steps with each foot in a minute, so even if I don't have my phone or a stopwatch with me, I can still estimate how much running I've done.

Today, I boycotted physical activity in commemoration of the new semester. Tomorrow, I'll do a more reasonable approach to running, which will include better stretching beforehand and longer segments of walking between. The one that has worked best for me so far has been walking 4 minutes and running 1. If I do that four times, I can pace it out more thoroughly, and I still get 20 minutes of exercise in. Including 4 minutes of running.

Oh yeah, I have lost about 3 pounds since January 1st, so I'm pretty much on track. They say if you lose about a pound a week, it's a healthy pace. But I want to lose it all NOW!

Oh well, tomorrow's a new day!

Carol: Weighing In, Movies & Torture Time

01.17.10…Monday…While everyone else enjoyed their MLK date, we had a teacher inservice day. (Don't even get me started on teacher inservice)…

5 a.m.

• Drank lots of coffee

5:30 a.m.

• Scared the bejeebers out of the cat.
• Went into the not-so-cold-garage for some kickboxing
• Smacked the bag and sang along with my work out CD

6:00 a.m.

• Drank lots of coffee, ate some breakfast & got ready for work

7:15  a.m.

• Went to work
• Weighed in… Lost 2.5 pounds and a percentage point or two on the BMI/Fat calibrator thing. Not much, but something.
  
• Vowed not to look at chocolate or a roll. Was worried that the fumes would cause a weight gain.

11:30  a.m.

• Went out to lunch with my skinny hallbuddy friend Rhonda.
• Ate sensibly
• Bought a new tiara with a feather and a pink wand in celebration of those 2.5 pounds.
• Wanted to buy a multi-colored tutu that played the hokey pokey, but sadly, it didn't come in adult sizes.
  

12:30 p.m.

• Went to the movies in the afternoon for teacher inservice. (Ya, gotta love my principal). Saw "Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock (good movie). 
• Resisted the temptation to buy popcorn (held my breath so the fumes wouldn't cause an inadvertent weight gain). W
• Watched the movie with my bottled water (and wished I looked like Sandra Bullock and less like the character Big Mike).
  

6:30 p.m.

• Went to torture Pilates with my meany-meany-jelly-beany friend Doomsday Becky.
• Had to be in the front row. By the teacher.
• Decided to the change the name of the class from pilates to TT for Torture Time.
• Vowed to pin Doomsday Becky's face on my punching bag.
  

An Incentive To Keep Going

My sister Karen gave me another reason for Joel and me to thankful we're doing this weight loss thing. Seems a group of Swedish Weight Watchers were standing in line for a weigh in when the floor collapsed.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported, but if anyone needed an incentive to push on through and stick with their fitness challenges, this would do it.

Thankfully, like most homes in Texas, mine is built on a slab.

Joel: Week 2 Wrap-Up

Well, this was the last week of our semester as well at school, but for some reason they didn't give us a modified schedule. Everything went as normal. In fact, we had a few days with rain, and my students behaved really well in spite of that. So much so that my first period class Friday morning was eerily quiet. It was awesome!

So, in spite of setbacks early in the week and the realization that I won't be able to stick to the prescribed Week 2 regimen this week, I pushed through and tried.

Monday, I ran a total of 3 minutes. Wednesday, I ran a total of 4 minutes, and Friday, it rained. So I used that as my excuse to take the day off. Then I woke up this morning and ran a total of 6 minutes.

The coolest thing that happened this week was that this morning, I got my first running-related injury. More accurately, my left Tibialis Anterior muscle cramped some. I called a friend of mine who is a physical therapist and has been going to massage school and asked her what I should do. She suggested ice. I continued stretching it out for about 20 minutes, crawled into my truck, and went home. By the time I was home, it was feeling better, so I hobbled around a little more, took a shower, and everything was good. But even so, I got a running injury!

This week, I'm going to probably jump over to the Couch To 5K plan and do week 1, which is a 5-minute walk and then alternating 60 seconds running/90 seconds walking for the next 20 minutes. This will be a total of 8 minutes of running and 17 minutes of walking. I may ease my way into it by doing 6 reps on Monday, 7 on Wednesday, and then 8 on Friday.

I'm not exactly sticking to one specific plan or anything, but I am making forward progress, and that's what counts. I've come to the belief that the 9-week or 12-week plans were made for people who are only 40 pounds overweight in the first place.

A friend of mine tells me that the true test is when I can climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I'm still not there, but maybe next week...

Carol: Just how much do good intentions weigh?

Just how much do good intentions weigh?

That's what I would like to know. Are we talking ounces here or pounds or as the Brits like to say, “stones.” (And, speaking of those Brits, I have yet to find two Rubenesque ones who are up to the challenge, so start dusting off some of Your-Mum's-So-Fat jokes.)

Good intentions must weigh a lot because good intentions don't seem to make the needle on my scale move to the left.

I probably need to work on that because on Wednesday I didn’t do anything exercise related.  I should have. I had some good intentions there, but these 10 hour days I've been logging in for this teaching gig just wore me out and I couldn't didn't want to walk the 25 or so steps to the cold garage.

Thursday I perked up a bit and went to yoga. To help me with my fitness goal, my yoga teacher who I’ll start calling Missy Chrissy Pretzel (because it's just fun to say and because she can bend herself in ways I never thought possible) had us all work on the Eagle pose. A lot.  

Did I say a lot? I've decided my Eagle is flying through a wind tunnel because I seem to be slanted at what probably equates mathematically to a 30 degree angle. Missy Chrissy Pretzel tells me I just need to practice more. 

I fear my fellow yogis don't share her optimism or my enthusiam. In fact, if I weren't paranoid, I might even go so far as to say that I felt just a smidge of bad kharma oozing my way.

Friday I didn’t make it into the garage either. 

Again, the school gig interfered. And again, I couldn't didn't want to walk the 25 or so steps to the cold garage despite my urge to smack something. Instead, I left early, drove through Starbucks and went to work on yearbook pages, grading and end of semester stuff. At least, my latte was a nonfat one, and despite the difficulty of my week, I ate only one piece of emergency chocolate, and I kept my gingersnap addiction to a reasonable consumption level. And, even with a roaring fire, I did NOT succumb to the urge to make s'mores. Of course, Jack, my marshmallow eating German Shepherd was disappointed.
 
I did walk about two miles on Saturday and I weighed myself. Despite the heaviness of my good intentions, I was encouraged. The needle moved to the left a bit. I'll let you know how much it moved when I go Monday morning to the nurse's office for an “official” weigh in.

Let's hope my good intentions quit weighing me down.

Carol: Pilates, Midweek Update & Me

Quick, snappy update…

Monday…

• Went to Pilates with my exercise buddy (the other half of the Exercise Doomsday Duo. I’ve written about that here and here.) Ah pilates… the website description may say that "Hollywood celebrities and supermodels use it to maintain beautiful physiques," but I think it's just another way to torture an aging body into poses that it was never meant to strike. Joel thought he was a dismal failure in his running. Well, compare that to my little foray into Pilates, he'd probably look like an Olympic runner. 
• Because I am a glutton (yes, in more ways than one) for punishment, I signed up for that class, too.

Tuesday… 

• Crawled out of bed. Legs and other parts a bit sore from that pilates thing. 
• Cursed Exercise Doomsday Becky. 
• Drank three cups of coffee.
  
• Went in freezing garage for my kickboxing workout
• Did NOT scare the bejeebers out of the cat this time
  
• Exercise Doomsday Becky.
  
• Pretended to smack the daylights out of Exercise Doomsday Becky.
• Went to work
• Ate two pieces of Emergency Chocolate
• Felt guilty about the Emergency Chocolate, but went to yoga to become one with the Skinny Minnies
• Announced my two goals
• Got some dubious looks about the whole Eagle Pose thing while I was tilting over.

 Let's see how the rest of the week goes.

Joel: The Philosophy Behind Weight Loss

After yesterday's miserable failure, I'm encouraged about today. I'm excited that I only have to run for one minute. How exciting! The thing that excites and encouraged me the most is the realization that a week ago, I was dreading the thought of running for one solid minute. Now it's a challenge, but it is a surmountable challenge that I have accomplished in the recent past (yesterday) and I know that I can accomplish it again tonight before I go to bed.

Then when I got home, I was encouraged again by a post over at The Scholastic Scribe basically telling me and Carol that If George Costanza Can Do It, Wii Can Too. Essentially, Jason Alexander has signed on as an advertising spokesman with Jenny Craig. One of the comments left by a reader got me really thinking.

[H]e's probably being paid 6 figure a year to keep the weight off. i could lose weight too if they pay me!

So I wonder, is that really true? I tend to disagree. I have had a cardiologist tell me to lose 20 pounds, but it didn't change anything. This was while I was still recovering from an operation he performed on me. I don't think external motivation will cause us to make lasting change.

Sure, it may help us temporarily make some adjustments to where we can win a faculty weight-loss contest or sell millions of diet books for a while or whatever. In fact, for this reason I assume I won't win the contest this spring, because someone somewhere will go onto a low-carb or grapefruit only or some other extremely quick weight-loss method and beat me in two months. But those kinds of extreme changes aren't maintainable over a long period of time. I am looking more to see which of us is better off at the dawn of 2011. That's the real competition!

This is more than a weight-loss experiment for me, this is a starting point for a total lifestyle transformation. At least that's the goal...

So enough philosophizing for now, time for me to get out there and burn some calories!

The Game's Afoot!

Ah, my fellow portly friends, the game is, indeed, afoot. The challenge has been issued. The shot has been fired across the bow.  We are jumpin’ jack flash at the ready. We have challenged my friends across the pond to see if they have two teachers who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

My buddy, Sarah Ebner over at the SchoolGate, the London Time's education website, posted a letter I sent them challenging two of their teachers to join Joel and me in the Battle of the Bulge.

Now, if we don't get a couple of takers, we'll start lobbing our arsenal of "your mum's so fat jokes…"

So hop over there and post a comment challenging those Brits!

Ah, what have ya got to lose?

Joel: You're Kidding Me, Right?

I've been aware of this for a while, but today's assigned exercise regimen was to walk 5 minutes, run 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes, run 3 minutes, and walk 5 minutes. I knew it wouldn't be happening. There seems to be a sincere possibility that I'm going to fail week 2 and have to repeat it again next week.

Yesterday morning in 7:30am, there were no problems walking 15 minutes, running 1 minute, and walking another 3+. All good. Even in 24 degree temps.

Today. Another story altogether. So here's sort of how things went down:

5:15
Other Band Director: "Bye, I'll see you tomorrow."

Me: "If I don't call you by 8, call the hospital."

OBD: "Yeah."

Me: "Seriously, I think I'm supposed to walk 5 minutes, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes, and die"

5:30
I get home, change into my old worn out and beat up sweatpants, and post my final Facebook status update ever...also reminded myself that there's over $250 waiting at the end of this horrible miserable journey

6:00
Leave to go run

6:14
Find the most secluded track in town and get out to walk

6:15
Begin walking for 5 minutes

6:20
Begin first 3-minute run

6:21:30

Wow, it's been 90 seconds! Time to walk again.

6:21:35

Begin gasping for breath

6:24
Let's try this again...

6:25
Stop running, resume walking, resume gasping for breath

6:28
I can run some more...let's give it one last push!

6:28:20

Has it been 3 minutes yet? No...

6:28:30

Wow, that was the slowest 3 minutes of my life. Time to walk.

6:31

Collapse in my truck

On a positive note, I got 16 minutes of exercise in (plus I played a little Wii Fit later this evening) and I was quite impressed that my legs were hurting before my heart completely failed on me. Maybe there's hope for me yet!

Joel: Week 1 Wrap-Up

This year is going to be a year of discipline development for me, I assure you. As I mentioned before, our school nurse sent out an email Monday morning inviting us all to participate in this weight loss challenge thing. So the other band director told me that I need to enter since I am planning on running a 5K this spring anyway.

I went in Wednesday, paid my $10, and weighed in. I made sure to wear as heavy of a coat and boots as I possibly could for the weigh-in. Then we got an email on Friday telling us that the first place winner gets 80% of the kitty, and the second place winner gets %20. Right now, the winner's set to get $264. HELLO revolutionary life change! There may be some last-ditch, over-the-top efforts to win come the first week of March in preparation for the March 8th weigh-out. Somehow I think wearing only a t-shirt and boxers for the weigh-out that day is definitely in the plans! Maybe not. But one good side-effect of this is that I will be focusing not only on the running aspect, but also really keeping weight loss in the crosshairs. Can this be a bad thing?

So this week didn't go quite as well as I had anticipated. Here's how it panned out:

Sunday
Supposed to Walk 15 minutes (actually walked 15 minutes and did some Wii stuff)

Monday

Supposed to Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes (actually walked 5 minutes, ran 1 minute, walked 5 minutes)

Tuesday
Supposed to Walk 15 minutes (decided to make-up for yesterday and did the full walk/run/walk/run/walk routine and did some Wii stuff)

Wednesday

Supposed to Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes (actually walked 15 minutes)

Thursday

Supposed to Walk 15 minutes (woke up early to go run, walked for 3 minutes in 20+ mph winds, couldn't catch my breath, went back home...then I walked another 12 minutes including some stairs during my conference period and did some Wii stuff)

Friday
Supposed to Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes, Run 1 minute, Walk 5 minutes (actually it was too cold and windy to do much outside, and I don't have a treadmill for running...so I didn't even do the Wii)

Saturday

Supposed to rest, but I'm actually going to do some Wii stuff in a little bit and also do the walk/run/walk/run/walk routine I was supposed to do yesterday.

All in all not too bad. This week I'm supposed to do some 3-minute running sessions, but I'm just not sure if they'll happen. I'll try it on Monday and see where I end up.

Be sure to check out the latest article on So You Want To Teach? entitled Running and Reading

BMI, Floating Fatso & Goals

Ok, so I bopped into the nurse's office for my little official  weigh in, BMI check, and quite frankly, was aghast.

Let‘s just put it this way. If I were on the Titanic when it sank, well, my dears, I would still be floating. Forget the Unsinkable Molly Brown. How about the Forever Floating Fatso? OK, so I have berated myself long enough.

Here’s my recap for the last week… Went to Yoga on Tuesday & Thursday. Did the 5:30 a.m. frosty kickboxing garage workout thing on Wednesday and Friday. Scooped some poop at the animal shelter this morning (figure that’s got to count for some calorie burning).

Managed to NOT eat any emergency chocolate even though Friday was a particularly challenging day at work.

Now, Joel wanted for me to list some goals. Sheesh! He’s such a band director, ordering this, organizing that, blah, blah, blah. But I’ll humor him. Drum roll pah-leese…

My Two Goals…

Goal No. 1…Lose 30 pounds by the end of May
Goal No. 2…Be able to do the Garuda-asana - The Eagle Pose by the end of May.

Now, before you start tsk, tsk tsking about that second one, let me assure you that since I  fall over every time I attempt that pose, I will probably achieve Goal No. 1 before that Eagle thing ever happens.

Of course, I was just a smidge timid about putting Goal No. 2 down because if my yoga instructor reads this, she will decide it's her mission in life for me to achieve this goal. I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time falling over.

Carol: Setback, S'mores & Jack the diet saboteur

A setback.

At the risk of joining the ranks of those who "pointlessly babble" on twitter about eating sandwiches, let me just say it…

I ate a s'more last night

There you have it. It was cold. Fired up the fire place. Ate a s'more.

Only a small one,  but I guess small counts.

Oh, and 2 marshmallows.

Then I gave Jack a marshmallow, too, just so I wouldn't feel quilty.

He loves marshmallows and gingersnaps. I wish I could blame him for this lapse. He's such a diet saboteur.

But, well, he's Jack.

And, he's my dog.

Oh, and get ready, it's yoga tonight.

(And note to Joel… Yes, I will come up with some specific goals and will post them tomorrow. I also will go to the nurse for the my "weight in and fat thingy.")

Carol’s Day

 5 a.m.–

• Crawled out of bed. 
• Sore from that cardio-yoga mentioned in yesterday’s post. 
• Cursed yoga teacher.
• Drank coffee
• Cursed yoga teacher.
• Drank coffee
• Cursed yoga teacher.
• Drank coffee
• Cursed yoga teacher.

5:30 a.m.–

• Went in freezing garage for my kickboxing workout
• Scared the bejeebers out of the cat
• Cursed the yoga teacher
• Pretended to smack the daylights out of all the Ninnyhammers in my world
  

6 a.m.–

• Ended workout with yoga stretches
• Became one with the universe
• Quit cursing yoga teacher
• Went inside to eat breakfast and get ready for work and my meeting with my yearbook rep

6:30 a.m.–

• Decided maybe we should challenge my friends across the pond to this teacher fitness challenge.
  

7:30 a.m.–

• Got to school
• Cursed all that is yearbook
• Cursed all that is yearbook
• Cursed all that is yearbook…
  

Joel: Favorite Wii Fit Plus Workouts

So my workout schedule is here. It's not a distance thing as much as a time thing, which works well for my analytical/logic-based mind. I started on Sunday by walking 15 minutes. Then I went out yesterday to Walk 5 minutes, Run 1, Walk 5, Run 1, Walk 5. But I only glanced at the schedule quickly and forgot the "Repeat 1x" thing, so I only Walked 5, Ran 1, and Walked 5. So today I went out and did yesterday's workout right. Tomorrow and Friday, I'll Walk 15 and do today's workout again Thursday.

In addition to the walking/running, I am trying to do a little bit on the Wii Fit each day. I actually have Wii Fit Plus, which has some additional exercises that the original one didn't. So far, I really am enjoying the Rhythm Boxing and Driving Range workouts. I started playing golf this past summer (see post), so the driving range is great in that it helps me with my stroke, and also counts as exercise. The rhythm boxing is cool because it's sort of like step aerobics stuff, and it involves both arms and some somewhat involved footwork. The step aerobics thing is also kinda fun. The cool thing about these is that they don't require a whole lot of intense coordination, so they fit my style just great!

Note to Carol: Set a goal that is specific, realistic, measurable, and written. It will work wonders for your motivation. Also, tell people about it. Nothing's worse than the guilt you put on yourself. Personally, I'm more interested in telling my friends who already run about my goals. I hate running, but they motivate me. My lazy friends say stuff like, "cool!" My active friends say stuff like, "Awesome! You can do it! You'll love it!" I'll take that one any day.

So we haven't gotten any comments yet. I know people are coming here and reading...so feedback time. What are your Goals for the New Year? What are you doing to make your goal be more than a wish?

Cardio Yoga & My Avatar

Day 2–Well, I’m glad a little bit of shame worked for Joel. What I didn’t figure though was that shame is a double-edged sword. This bloggeroo challenge thing kept my paws out of the Emergency Chocolate drawer today and away from those gingersnaps this evening.

I also decided that tomorrow I would bebop down to the nurse’s office for my official weigh in and fat checker. Maybe I’ll even come up with some goals like Joel to keep me on track.

After reading Joel’s first post on our blog challenge, I’m really, really glad I coerced cajoled him to to do this. Tonight I announced to my yoga class about my new mission. My yoga teacher, who in a twisted bit of fate is one of my former yearbook editors from a gazillion years ago, got a tad bit too enthusiastic about all of this and decided that we needed to do some cardio yoga.

Who knew there was such a thing? My glutes certainly didn’t. When all was said and done, my cobra pose looked more like an inch worm, my high mountain looked more like an ant hill and my downward facing dog resembled road kill.

Tomorrow while Joel wrestles with his Wii, I will be in my cold garage smacking my kickboxing bag. At 5:30 in the morning.

And I don’t even get to have one of those cute little Wii guys. My student-turned-yoga teacher-Chris said I could come over to her house, and she would make me a Wii guy with her Wii.

But then I’d probably have to do some sort of extra special cardio yoga. I politely declined. Instead, I’m going to use my little stick figure guy from my book as my I’m-too-poor-to-have-a-Wii-guy avatar.

Hey, my stick figure guy may not be as cute as those Wii guys, but my guy is already skinny.

Joel: Shamed Into Doing This...

Well, I got this crazy idea yesterday to just do something I've long wished I could do, but also long since lost the ability to do. I wrote about it last night (I've Had It! Why I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired, and What I'm Doing About It) and then went to school this morning. Shortly after my 3rd period Beginner Band class, I got an email from one of my fellow (albeit a tad eccentric) blogging friends with the proposition to start up this blog. I have to admit, her zeal and eagerness to get it up and running has me railing to keep up, so we'll see just how well it all pans out.

A little background
When I was in 2nd grade, I was the fastest kid in class. I was running all over the place. I was happy. I was nerdy, but I just didn't care. It was great!

Over the years, that quickness has left me, as well as the happiness, and just not caring. I remain a nerd. I guess somewhere around 4th grade, I really began to struggle with my weight. I use the term struggle loosely, as I honestly didn't care much about it then. I played some sports on and off (even played football at my junior high my freshman year), but was never much of an avid workout type. Marching band was a lot of fun in high school, but not nearly as physically challenging as the sports had been. But it took up a lot of my time and sports had to go.

The summer after high school, I marched with a drum and bugle corps, touring the United States and Canada throughout the summer. By the end of the summer of 1996, I was really tan and weighed 160 pounds. That is the best shape I have been in in my life.

Fast forward

In the summer of 1997, I was in a pretty severe car wreck, which seriously reduced my physical activity. Laziness compounded, and I entered the fall of 1999 weighing in at just around 230 pounds. A few months of vegetarian low-carb dieting (don't ask why) brought me down to just under 200 pounds in early 2000. I was walking some again, and felt really good. Then low carb turned into less low-carb, turned into regular-carb, turned into high-carb, turned into freak-out-high-carb diet.

Student teaching band = NO TIME FOR ANYTHING

In the summer of 2001, I got back into the walking habit (around an hour three to five times a week), but student teaching really ate up my time. That and the tumor I had between my lung and heart which made breathing a challenge. Finally found it and had it removed in early 2002, followed by months of not lifting anything heaver than 5 pounds. That's not so good for the ol' workout.

Now in my eighth year of teaching

I've had stints of exercising followed by long droughts over the years. This summer, I began suffering from allergies pretty heavily. I also started playing golf and was again reminded of how great it is to be outside in South Texas in the summer. I have been considering getting a Wii (and Wii Fit) for a couple of years now, so when the price dropped in October, I knew it was time to act.

Time to get this whole weight thing under control again

So I have friends who run marathons and half marathons and all these things. None of them have a physique similar to mine. (ahem) So I decided this year to challenge myself and finally step up. I asked one of them who lives in the Austin area if she'll run a 5K with me in April, and she said she'd love to. So it's time to get crackin'.

On top of all this, our school nurse sent out an email today for a two-month weight loss challenge. Weigh-in is tomorrow and weigh-out is just a few days before spring break.

As many years as I've live telling myself I'll lose weight or exercise more or whatever, this time I have specific goals. In order to achieve a goal, the experts tell us, it must be specific, realistic, measurable, and written.

So two goals:

1. Run a 5K by the end of the school year
   If I end up walking in the one in April, I have a month and a half to get to where I can run one before June
2. Lose 60 pounds by the end of 2010
   5 pounds a month is definitely realistic and sustainable, and it puts me weighing under 200 pounds (185 puts me at the top of the overweight category, while 186 puts me at the bottom of the obese category) by the end of 2010

I'm going to be using Wii Fit to do the calculations and post updated numbers each Sunday. Let's see how it goes!

New Year’s Resolutions & the Fitness Challenge

At 5:30 a.m. with the temperature below freezing and frost glistening on the windows, I stood in my garage with my kickboxing gloves on wondering what in the Sam Hill I was doing.

If I weren’t the black widow of exercise, I would be inside some warm gym somewhere in some sort of organized class. But in the last year, my exercise partner and I have somehow managed to breeze through four different exercise venues. Breeze through as in they went out of business, moved away or ditched us. I’ve written about this before. You can read about it here and here.

So this frosty morning left me with no alternative if I was going to keep true to my New Year’s resolutions. At the top of my list—and apparently on the top of a lot of people’s lists—is the “let’s lose a gajillion pounds” resolution.

Of course, this is the same resolution that has topped my list year after year after year. I stuck it back up there any way.  I noticed, too, that another teacher blogger also resolved to lose weight this year except he has a Wii. Joel wrote about his plans to try and shed some pounds in 14 weeks with the goal of running his first 5k in April.

I don’t have a Wii (can’t afford one).

I don’t plan to run a 5k (running has never been my thing).

But I do plan to really, really, really try and lose some weight this year which is why I stood frozen in my garage before dawn.

Blame it on the brain freeze, but I had this brilliant idea. I thought to my chubby self, “Chubby Self, let’s issue Joel a challenge.  Let’s start a new blog. Let’s see how we do—he with his Wii and me with my sad little kickboxing bag and yoga. Let’s see if technology makes any difference.”

This could be fun.

Well, fun in a twisted sort of way.

Maybe if we have to blog about it, I thought, we might actually do it. I’ll even have the nurse at my school keep an “official” chart of my progress to keep me honest in my reporting.

Of course, that means I have to put away those gingersnaps now.

Let the games begin, and may both of us win!