Joel: What Was I Thinking?

I walked 5K tonight. No, the plan didn't start out that way. In fact, I was just going to take a nice relaxing 15-minute 3/4 mile walk and be done. 1 lap at the park and out. No problem.

Then I started thinking.

"Hey, I don't have anything else going on tonight. Why don't I go two laps like I normally do?"

Okay, that was simple enough.

Then I started thinking some more.

"If I can do two laps, I can do three."

As I came to the end of my third lap, I saw the guy who had been sprinting. He was all tired out and looked like he was finished. I asked him how far he had gone. His response was 3.1. I know that's four laps at the track (actually, four laps is 3.16 miles). I told him I was doing the same and was about to start my fourth lap.

So I committed myself then.

But ya know, I have been noticing over the past couple of weeks that the biggest difficulty with the exercise habit (as well as the eating habit) is not the physical challenge. That's big and all, but the biggest problem I have encountered he the psychological one.

It's hard to change who I am. I am a fat, lazy, out-of-shape, ugly 31-year old. Now, I'm in the process of transforming myself into a slightly overweight, athletic, ugly 32-year old. At least that's the plan.

Each time I decide to get off my butt and go work out, my mind is what wants to stop me. It's not my body being tired, but my mind telling myself that my body is tired. I have to beat it into submission. Ugh...

Carol: Can A Cat Cut Calories?

In honor of the lack of Chubby Brits who failed to rise up to the occasion and participate in this little fitness challenge, here's Yo Mum's So Fat Joke #6…"Shamu threw a Jenny Craig brochure at her at the water park."

Now for a quick update…  

Thursday… Yoga was cancelled because of the snow.

Friday… Snow Day! But I still managed take the dogs out and walked about two miles.

Saturday & Sunday… Walked two miles each day.

Monday… 

• Garage. Freezing. Scared the bejeebers out of not just one cat but two. Kickboxed.   
• No Pilates Torture Time class for me, so I didn't have to face to the Chippers. I had promised one of my students that I would attend his soccer game tonight. With temperatures in the 30s and a nippy wind blowing about, I would have preferred an evening drawing circles with my toes. I'm sure whatever calories I  burned trying to stay alive were countered by the mass quantities of hot chocolate I drank to help stay warm.

Tuesday…  

• Garage. Freezing. This time the cats met me on the front porch. Ally Cat followed me into the garage demanding to be held. Wondered if I got an extra calorie burn by holding the cat while doing my exercise pre-warm up.
• Had to let the cat go when it was time to punch. 
• Yoga tonight. 

Oh yeah, I guess I need to confess that I ate some Valentine's Day Whoppers.

Joel: I'm Alive!

The last few weeks have been pretty busy, and so I haven't updated on here. I have been slowly making my way through the Couch To 5K program doing my "low-impact running". This evening, I did Week 3 Day 2. I used a treadmill for the first time this year on Friday morning when I was in San Antonio for the Texas Music Educators Associaion Convention. It was really cool. When I got tired, I was able to hold myself up so my legs could keep working but wouldn't have to support my entire body weight. Not sure it's the best thing for the treadmill, but it was the hotel's and not mine!

This is the beginning of my eighth week of working out. A few weeks ago, I decided to only run 3 days a week and try to do Wii Fit the rest of the days. After three weeks of doing that, I am certain that this plan will not be most effective for weight-loss. So I'm going back to exploring outdoors 5-7 days a week. If it gets too bad, I'll just run around my living room for 30 minutes with Wii Fit, but I really do prefer the outdoors. Something about nature and open air.

I have been doing this now for seven weeks. It's crazy when I think that I hadn't run in over a decade as recently as January 3rd. Now I am getting my breathing under control when I run and things are starting to get easier.

Slowly.

The weight loss has slowed a bit, but I think a lot of that has to do with me not getting out of the house to exercise every day. So far in 7 weeks, I have lost at least 5 pounds. If I can maintain even this slowed rate, I am on track to lose more than 35 pounds this year.

And this is without the use of any underhanded methods such as low-carb crash dieting or even as extreme as fasting.

Speaking of extreme methods, the school weigh-in is coming up on March 8th. I need to schedule about 5-9 days of fasting between now and then. Hey, I do want to win the money since it's there for the taking!

Carol Update: The Not So Chipper Me

My goodness I forgot to begin the last post with a "Your Mum's So Fat" joke in honor of the lack of Chubby Brits who failed to rise up to the occasion and participate in this little fitness challenge. So-o-o-o here are two of them (jokes that is, still no Chubby Brits)… Yo Mum's So Fat Joke #4…"They have to put speed bumps at the all you can eat buffet." Yo Mum's So Fat Joke #5… "She laid out on the beach and Greenpeace threw her into the ocean."

OK, so now that I am caught up, Here's a brief midweek update…

Monday…

• garage. semi-cold. kickboxing. (cat OK)
• went to Pilates Torture Time. Doomsday Becky postponed her trip by one day and did attend. Dora Who's Not The Explorer was out of town, and "A," who is Dora Who's Not The Explorer's daughter was not there either.

HOWEVER… (can I get one of those movie, suspenseful duh-duh-duhs and is that how you spell that?)

Two new people who were very, very, very very chipper  showed up, and they could do EVERYTHING without even one teensy groan or complaint. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the Chippers could draw perfect circles and triangles with their legs. And, as if that isn't bad enough, let me just say that the words "lard" and "behind" never would appear in the same sentence as these two newcomers. Sadly, that is not the case in my case.


Still, I muddled through thinking not-so-happy thoughts.


Tuesday…

• Garage. Cold. Kickboxing. Pretty sure I now know all the words to the Black Eyed Peas song, "I Gotta A Feelin.'"
• Pretended all the Chippers of the world were on my punching bag.
• Doing fairly well with my standing Eagle pose.
• Tuesday night… yoga… Missy Chrissy Pretzel admitted that she was the one who told the Chippers about Pilates Torture Time class. Spent the entire class working on what Missy Chrissy Pretzel says is "letting go of all those hidden areas of stress." 
• So I tried to work on my Chipper issues.
• Worked on the Eagle Pose too, but I kept falling over.

I don't know why I can do the Eagle Pose better in my garage than in class. I keep falling over in class. 

As best as I can figure, that building must have some sort of foundation problems and the floor tilts.

Carol: And Now For The True Test…

Alrighty then… so I figure after my last appeal of "Is anyone out there?" there's probably  about two other people reading this thing besides Joel and me.

Somewhat of a disappointment, but then again, life is filled with disappointments, and we muddle through, do we not?

After watching Julie & Julia, I guess I was expecting a tad more readers. Instead, I just got hungry and wanted to whip out my Julia Child cookbook and whip up a few recipes.

But I didn't. Now before you get overly excited about my amazing exhibition of will power, I must say that frankly I was too tired and went to bed instead.

So let's have a brief recap of the week where we left off…

• Wednesday…garage, cold, kickboxing (cat OK)
• Thursday…yoga… doing better at not falling over. Thankfully, no Killer Dolphin poses.
• Friday…garage, cold, kickboxing (cat still OK)
• Saturday…walked 2 miles
• Sunday…walked 2 miles

OK, now for the real test, the real challenge… Monday is Pilates Torture Time. Doomsday Becky is out of town… Dora Who's Not The Explorer is out of town. "A," who is Dora Who's Not The Explorer's daughter, supposedly does not plan to attend without her mother…  Hmmmmmmm, who does that leave? There are two other sporadic people who randomly show up, so that really only leaves…


Oh my, that leaves only ME… ME ME ME…

So do I go? I'll get back to you on that one… 

Whine with Cookies, the Dolphin Pose & Setbacks

Yo Mum's So Fat Mum Joke #3…“She irons her clothes on the driveway” [Send me your own jokes… I’ll keep posting these until we get two chubby Brittish teachers for our fitness challenge…]

Time for the midweek update…Jeez Louise, though, I'm not sure why I'm bothering. Is anyone out there? Am I the only chubbette? Am I the only one who has Yo mum's so fat jokes? Am I the only one struggling here? I'm not feelin' the love here…

OK enough of the whineroma… Let's suck in our abs and get an update…

Saturday & Sunday… Walked both days 2 to 2.5  miles each day. Went out to eat twice (bad). Made chocolate chip/pecan cookies to give to the tech guys at work. Ate some too (bad). Ate some again (not good–not the cookies, they were great.). Ate some more later (still bad).

Monday…

• Woke up and drank lots of coffee.
• Went into the garage for kickboxing
• Didn't scare the cat.
• Did a little kickboxing & yoga
• Went to Pilates Torture Time. Got there before Doomsday Becky, grabbed a spot in the back row, made Doomsday Becky go to the front row, by the teacher. 
• Wanted to make rabbit ears for Doomsday Becky since I was sitting directly behind her and there was a mirror in front of her. It would have been hilarious, but the teacher kept watching. 
• Tried to do the roll down on the floor and roll back up thingy. Not happenin' in my life time even if pigs do fly.

Tuesday…

• Woke up, drank coffee, went into the garage for kickboxing.
• Cat not in the garage. No one to scare.
• Did a little kickboxing and yoga.
• Getting good at singing "Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night" by the Black Eyed Peas. 
• Went to work. Ate two pieces of Emergency Chocolate. 
• Went to yoga in the evening. Doomsday Becky took my spot in the back of the room.
• Missy Chrissy Pretzel made us do this dolphin thing with push ups. Who knew dolphins could be so mean?
• Missy Chrissy Pretzel semi-redeemed herself by including a Leon Russell song in her music repertoire. 
• No Eagle Pose practice this time, but did Eagle sit ups. Yeah, you try wrapping one foot around your ankle. At least I was already on the floor. No danger of falling down.

Obviously, didn't make much progress in the weight loss category probably had something to do with the eating out, the chocolate chip cookies and my lack of restraint.

I guess I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara and say, "After all, tomorrow is another day."



 

Joel: My January Facebook Status Updates

I started out with this crazy plan to run a 5K sometime this spring back on January 3rd. Then I decided to go out and walk 15 minutes that day. Here's the progression I've gone through this month.

If I tagged you, it's because I really do appreciate your comments and encouragement that you've provided through the course of this month. Any time you want to simply click "Like" on one of my status updates, it gives me a psychological boost. Comments even more. Thanks for your help!

January 3
What are you doing for the next 12 weeks?

January 5
Walk 5, Run 1, Walk 5, Run 1, Walk 5...it's cold, but I misread the chart and left out Walk 5, Run 1 yesterday, so I gotta go do it right today...

January 8
Seriously? I win $264 if I lose more weight than the rest of the teachers? I like this plan...

January 9
Me: "Time to go run" Evil Joel: "But it's 45 degrees outside!!!" Me: "The more Evil Joel loses, the more we both win"

January 10
Good morning, Facebook world...time to go workout. :) Week 2, Day 1: Walk 15 minutes, Run 1, Walk 2 Fortunately it's only 24 degrees outside right now.

I'm scared to run 3 minutes straight tomorrow...like...really scared...

January 11
I just noticed it's not going to get any warmer. Guess I better go try to run now while it's still over 50 degrees. I'll just remind myself that there's a $250+ prize at the end of this journey...

Shared link: How To Live To Be 100+

January 12
Only one minute of running this evening! How exciting. Walk 15, Run 1, Walk 2, have dinner. :)

I know the salads at Chili's are loaded with fat and carbs and all sorts of other badness, but it makes me feel like I'm eating healthy when I eat them. So, I guess those 18 minutes of exercise had the purpose of preparing my body to replenish itself...

January 13
Total time spent walking: 16 minutes. Total time spent running: 4 minutes. Broken into 1 minute chunks. Before last week, I hadn't run ANY in 10 years. Literally...

January 15
Total time spent walking: 15 minutes. Total time spent running: 6 minutes. Broken into 5 or 6 intervals. Before January 4th, I hadn't run in 10 years...literally!

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." -- Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)

January 17
Friday was payday. Walked 15 minutes and ran 6 minutes yesterday. Walked 17 minutes and ran 1 minute this morning. I seem to have misplaced 3 pounds since January 1st. Church service was wonderful. Colts won. New season of 24 begins tonight. No classes tomorrow. All in all, this is turning out to be a pretty great weekend!

January 18
Ran 3 minutes tonight. Looks like I'm still not ready to do C25K week 1 yet...

January 19
Tried to run too much yesterday. My legs are still sore from Saturday. Took today off more or less and gonna go for 4 minutes total running time tomorrow. Endurance will come. Slow and steady wins the race...last I checked, the tortoise beat the hare...

Shared link: Is Your Diet Making You Gain?

January 20
Spent 17 minutes on Wii Fit this morning. Gonna do 4 cycles of 4 minutes walking/1 minute running tonight before church. Today's off to a great start. Let's see if my clarinet and flute sectionals can be great after school as well!

Walked 19 minutes and ran 4 minutes after my clarinet and flute sectionals today. Good day overall. Now time for a quick shower and then some Bible study at DRCF...

January 21
Long day at work...didn't actually go outside and enjoy the weather much, but I did spend 34 minutes working out on Wii Fit. Lost about 4 pounds in 20 days. At this rate, I'll lose 73 pounds this year. That would take me back 12 years to my sophomore year of college...

Shared link: Diet Cheat Sheet

January 23
Shared link: Your Most Frequently Asked Running Questions

Some might call it power walking, but I call it 8 minutes of low-impact running and 23 minutes of walking. Just finished C25K Week 1 Day 1

January 24
I think I lost the battle with Pizza Hut tonight...oh well, tomorrow's a new day

January 25
10 minutes of walking and 7 minutes of running around the island on Wii Fit (actually, I ran around the couch in my living room). Now time for some rhythm boxing.

January 26
Walked 21 minutes and ran 9 minutes tonight around the DRMS football stadium (the gates were locked and I'm not about to climb or jump a fence). The Couch-to-5K Running Plan Week 1 Day 2 done.

January 28
Finished C25K Week 1. Walked 22 minutes and ran 9. Now gonna go have dinner.

January 31
Walked/ran 31 minutes on Thursday; didn't work out Friday or Saturday; awoke early this morning and gonna stretch on Wii Fit and rwalk/run.

Joel: No More Excuses

I haven't blogged on here in a week and a half, but I have definitely been working out. I started the Couch To 5K workout plan for real except that instead of actual running, I am doing my low-impact running (also called power walking). I figure the last thing I need to do is blow out a knee or ankle trying to act like I'm 20 years old. So until I can lose about 25 more pounds, I'm sticking with the low-impact running. And Wii Fit!

So what I have been doing is posting status updates on my personal Facebook account chronicling my workouts and getting encouragement from friends. As I read some of them, I find people who are in far better shape than I am giving excuses about time or schedules or whatever. It's easy to do, I did it for over a decade.

But there must come a time when excuses run out

Until that time comes, you're not going to change a thing. But once it comes, everything changes in the way you view your time. Have you had that change yet?