Tag Archives: workout

Challenge

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I realized yesterday morning that for the past three weeks or so, I have been on a downward spiral back to my old habits. That somewhere along the line, I have lost my motivation. My willpower. My determination and drive. I realized this after eating breakfast, which under normal circumstances consists of yogurt, fruit, Fiber One cereal and a Vitatop.

But not yesterday. Yesterday’s breakfast, well, let’s just say it was anything but normal. So what did I have? I ate two cupcakes, tortilla chips and a whole container of creamy mango salsa. All before 9 o’clock in the morning. Yep, bad habits, here I come…right?

Wrong. After a day of doing nothing but non-stop eating, I got up this morning and thought to myself, “What the heck (okay, I may have used a different word) are you doing? You can’t go back. You were miserable. You were unhealthy. You were tired. You were miserable. You were – yes, I am going to use the word – FAT. You were lethargic. You were miserable. You were unhappy.

So, I decided today that I am going to challenge myself. I am going to get back to tracking – yes, I haven’t tracked anything for the past week. I am going to get back to exercise – REGULAR exercising. I have been very sporadic in my exercising habits. A run here, a workout there. Nothing meaningful, to say the least. I am going to TRY and not spend as much time on my computer. I am going to ask my family to help.

Another realization I had about a week ago is that I miss going to my Weight Watchers meetings. I know, it sounds silly, right? But here’s the deal. Now that I have become a Weight Watchers leader, I am the one who is supposed to be the inspiration for the others. I am the one who provides tips and tricks and motivation. I am the one who my members HOPEFULLY look up to. But, WHO is there for me? I don’t have a leader anymore. I don’t have a group to belong to. I don’t have to be accountable. Or, do I?

I DO have my members. I DO have their inspiring stories. I DO have the people I work with who I can count on – in more ways than one! I DO have my readers, my followers, who I have to apologize to for not being around much lately. I have my family. And I do have to be accountable. If not for the people around me, for myself. I didn’t work this hard to let it all go. Yes, I may have gained a few pounds, but that doesn’t mean I have to let it all go and gain ALL of it back.

It’s time to get my head out of the sand. It’s time to quit feeling sorry for myself. It’s time to get back to my healthy living journey. It’s time to get back to…ME!

So, who’s on board? Who’s going to join me? Who’s going to start living a healthier lifestyle? One that is going to last for the rest of our lives? Are you ready? I. AM. And I hope you are, too.

Please feel free to fill me in on your journey. What are your plans? What do you want? Who is your inspiration? Share your stories with me. I need you, as much as you might need me.

Send me an email – celbeam@gmail.com. Leave a comment on here. Send me a message on my Confessions of a [former] Fat Girl Facebook site or leave a post on that site. You can visit it by clicking here.

I want to hear from you!!!!!!! Take care and best wishes for a successful journey!

Lessons learned about running

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I have been running about a year now…give or take a few months. And since I started running, I have learned some lessons – some valuable and some, well, not so much. (Maybe humorous is a better word!)

So, my dear readers, here is some insight into the world of running – well, from my perspective, anyway!

1. Invest in a good pair of shoes. Or two. Or, maybe even three.

2. Find the right music for you. Mine, I found, is all instrumental, upbeat, up tempo music. I found it on iTunes and I think it might even be called running music/tunes or something like that. I run in tempo with the music. It’s actually quite cool.

3. If you use a GPS system, like a Garmin Forerunner, by all means, make sure you turn it on at the start of your run. It doesn’t do much good to turn it on when your run is over.

4. Make sure you have on comfortable underwear. Enough said.

5. Make sure you wear a decent, comfortable sports bra. Which reminds me, I think I need to invest in one or two of these. (Any suggestions, anyone?)

6. Running up hills is just not fun. Period.

7. Running into the wind is not any fun either.

8. Running up hill and into the wind, well, that is just plain wrong. And, yep, you guessed, REALLY not fun.

9. It really doesn’t matter that your outfit doesn’t match. Really. It matters, however, that it is comfortable and doesn’t chaf you…anywhere. Today, I had on gray capri pants with white and yellow stripes on each side. My shirt was red. Nope, didn’t match. Nope, I didn’t care. I was comfortable and I didn’t chaf.

10. Time. Speed. Distance. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are out there doing it. You are moving.

11. It also doesn’t matter if your husband can run faster. Really, it doesn’t. (Yes, I think I have finally gotten over this.)

12. Don’t give up too early. If I gave up right away, I would only get about 10 feet and then I would either stop and turn around or continue, but walk instead. The pains you think you feel will probably go away. Just find your rhythm and run/jog.

13. Perseverance matters.

14. Quitting is not an option.

15. Oh, back to the GPS. Make sure it’s fully charged. It doesn’t do any good if the battery dies half way through your run.

16. And speaking about being charged, make sure your iPod or other music device is also fully charged. For me, running without music is like trying to drive your car without any gas. It don’t work.

17. Socks. Spend the money for some good ones. Actual running socks. They DO make a difference.

18. Don’t eat a big meal and then go out and try and run five miles. Doesn’t work. At. All.

19. Make sure you go to the bathroom BEFORE you start running.

20. Be proud of yourself for actually running. Period.

If you have learned any lessons about running or any other exercise, for that matter, please feel free to add them by leaving a comment. I would love to hear about it! Thanks much. Stay safe and ALWAYS remember to stretch – before AND after!

Adjusting

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Well, I made it through my first week as a full-time Weight Watchers leader. It was a busy week and I am trying to adjust to the new schedule. I have to admit, though, I thought about the newspaper a lot this week. It was weird not having one single thing to do with it. Kind of sad, but kind of not.

My hubby now has to remember to bring the newspaper home so I can read it. Yes, I know, I can read it online, but seriously, I need the real thing. The actual paper. I need to see the lay out, the pages, the stories in print. Yep, I am one of THOSE people. I like to hold the paper in my hand while I am reading it. Although, again, it felt weird. To read the newspaper and not have anything in it. It is going to take some time, but I’ll adjust. (You know, it may have something to do with control. I might just have some control issues! No, really, I am quickly finding that out. Scary!)

So, I am finding that my new schedule is leaving me with a little bit more downtime. Meaning, there are a couple of days a week I have two to three hours between meetings and mostly, I spend that time at home. I am thinking this may be trouble. Yes, I do spend some of the time doing paperwork and such, but I am also finding I am spending TOO MUCH time on the computer and TOO MUCH time browsing through the cupboards and the refrigerator. I would love to know how many times I opened the doors to the fridge and the cupboards this week.

And then I would love to know how many times I actually pulled something out. My guess? TOO MANY times. I know I ate way more this week than I usually do. And I also know that those times when I was sitting on my arse staring at the computer screen could have been spent doing something a little more productive…as in training for the race I have coming up in about a month!

So, just like many of you out there, my motivation has flown out the window. AND I NEED TO GET IT BACK. NOW! I am giving myself a challenge next week. In my down time, I have to exercise at least 30 minutes…preferably before I even turn on the computer. By letting all of you know what my challenge is, I am hoping it will motivate me to do it. Actually, I know it will. I hope some of you who read this will ask me how things are going and if I succeeded at my challenge. I will let you know next week what type of exercising I did and how much time I spent on it. And that’s a promise.

So, there you have it. If any of you have a challenge to yourself, let me know about it. Post it here as a comment and let’s encourage each other. Let’s challenge one another. So, who’s with me? Are you in? I know I am and I hope you are, too! GOOD LUCK!

Oh, by the way, remember, you can find Confessions of a [former] Fat Girl on Facebook. Click here.

Oh-so-fun, but busy

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Hello everyone! It feels like forever since I have blogged…and I guess it has as it’s been exactly one week. Sorry about that, but I have had one extremely busy week. Crazy busy! But, like my title said, OH-SO-FUN!

The only part that wasn’t so much fun is that the exercise has still been non-existent. Kind of. But, and I say this with all honesty, I have not had time. And the part about that I dislike so much is that I cringe when my husband says that. (He tends to use the “no time” excuse quite often.) Aargh!

But really, at least for the last three days, I just simply haven’t had time. Let’s start with Tuesday…although, my dear readers, you probably don’t want to know the boring details, but I am going to share with you anyway. At least this will give you a glimpse into my life as of late!

Okay, back to Tuesday: I got up at 5 a.m. and was to work at the newspaper office by 6:30 a.m. I worked until 3 p.m. and then got in my car and drove to Morris, where I worked at a Weight Watchers meeting. I was there until 6:30 p.m. Then, I got in my car and drove home. When I got home around 7:30 p.m., I ate supper and then had to work on some projects for Wednesday. I crawled into bed around 11 p.m. Oh, I did spend some time visiting with my husband and son.

Let’s see, on Wednesday, my alarm went off at 3:45 a.m. – YES, THREE FORTY-FIVE! I was at work at Weight Watchers at 5 a.m. YES, FIVE O’CLOCK in the morning! It was our open house day and let me tell you, it was fantastic! We opened the doors at 7:30 a.m. and didn’t close them until 6:15 p.m. We had so much fun and it was crazy busy. Awesome. Simply awesome. I got home that day around 7:30 p.m. I then had some supper, talked with my husband and my son a little bit, talked to my mom and my sister on the phone and then worked on the computer a little bit. I was so shot that I crawled into bed shortly before 9:30 p.m. I think I may have been sleeping before my head hit the pillow. Maybe.

As for Thursday, my alarm went off at 5 a.m. and I was at the newspaper office shortly before 6:30 a.m. I worked there until 3:30 p.m. and then I headed to Glenwood to work a Weight Watchers meeting there. When I got done, which was at about 6:30 p.m., I headed over to visit my parents’ house since that’s the town they live in. I left their house around 8 p.m. and when I got home, I ate supper with my husband and son. It was SO NICE to actually sit down and have a meal with them. We chatted for a little while and then our neighbor came over for a just a bit and before I knew it, it was 9:30 p.m. I sat down on the couch to watch some Twins baseball with my husband and before I knew it, I was sound asleep.

So now it’s Friday and my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. I am always up that early on Fridays because I have to update the newspaper’s website. I thought I better take some time to blog since I haven’t been on here for a week. BUT as soon as I am done, I have a date with a Jillian Michael’s exercise DVD. I was going to go for a run, but I have my 7th 5K of the season tomorrow morning and thought I better save my leg strength for the run!

For as much running around and working as I did this week, my eating was surprisingly pretty dang good. I did manage to sneak in a blizzard at the Dairy Queen and let me tell you, it tasted really, really good. My weight is still pretty good. I had to weigh in on Wednesday at WW (We have to turn in our weight to our territory manage and she happened to be at our open house, which was pretty cool. I was 141 right on the nose! And, I was okay with that.)

I did get in runs last Saturday and on Monday, so that made be happy. But since Monday, my exercise has been, like I said earlier, non-existent! Next week shouldn’t be quite so busy and I can get in some more exercising! Thank goodness. Believe it or not, I am really starting to miss it. Really, I am.

If anyone has any questions for me, feel free to post them or if you don’t want to do that, feel free to send me an email at confessionsofaformerfatgirl@gmail.com. Also, you can find Confessions of a Fat Girl on Facebook. Look me up, like me and become a fan. I would love to have you!

Alrighty, look out, Jillian, here I come. It’s time to get my butt kicked!

My workout buddy

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I had a great workout with my new (well, I guess maybe she’s not that new anymore) workout buddy, Tina, this morning and last night, too. Our workouts have been awesome and the cool part, they go so fast. 

We have been trying to workout at least three times a week, but unfortunately, because life sometimes throws curve balls at you, the last couple of weeks, it has only been twice a week. But here’s the thing, those curve balls have been thrown at Tina and let me tell you, they haven’t been small little curve balls. No, they are the giant, twisting, gut-wrenching curve balls that make you want to curl up in a ball yourself and not leave your house for several days. In the past month, she’s lost two people in her life – a friend and a family member. It hasn’t been easy. 

But, and it’s a big but – she hasn’t given up. She’s trying her best and that’s what I find inspiring. We have changed our workout schedules around because of stuff happening – in both of our lives – and are making it work. Both of us have said that if we didn’t have each other to work out with, we would probably wouldn’t. Like last night, for example. Tina wasn’t feeling the best, she’s kind of got a cold coming on and she could have just called me and said she couldn’t work out. But she didn’t. I was tired from a long week and I could have called her and said I couldn’t work out. But I didn’t. We are accountable to each other and that’s what I need. That’s what she needs. We both said that if we wouldn’t have gotten together last night, we both would have just set our butts on the couch in front of our TVs and wouldn’t have given exercise a second thought. But instead, we worked out for about 45 minutes. Of course, we sat and chatted afterward for about another 45 minutes, but at least we did it. 

This morning, both of us were tired. Did we want to get up and workout at 6:30 a.m. No. But guess what, we did. And it was an awesome workout. She did the treadmill for 45 minutes and I was on the elliptical for 45 minutes. The cool and best part, it was worth 5 activity points when I entered it on my Weight Watchers log. How awesome is that? And, to top it all off, we both felt great afterward. Energized. 

If you are the type of person, like myself, who would much rather workout with a friend than by yourself, do it. Find someone that you can do this with. Make it work. Find someone who will motivate you. Inspire you. Make you accountable. Just like the Nike slogan says, "Just do it!"

My 5:30 a.m. workout…alone

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The alarm went off at 5 a.m. this morning, which really isn’t that bad. It goes off that early several times a week. But this time it was going off so I could do my workout.

I had originally planned on meeting Kristy, my student trainer, at 5:30 p.m. today, but then remembered I was going to the Twin Cities tonight. Because my schedule was kind of hectic today, I also realized that the only way I would get in a workout was to do it early this morning. I didn’t expect Kristy to meet me that early. My plan was to get up at 5 a.m., have my breakfast and just take time to wake up and then exercise at 5:30 a.m. I got up just fine…didn’t even hit the snooze button once. Like I said, 5 a.m. isn’t that early to me. I made my breakfast – yogurt, cereal, muffin top – and then meandered into the computer room (like I do every morning!). Watching the clock, I started telling myself that I had to get ready, 5:30 was approaching quickly and I was gonna do this – by myself. No trainer. Nobody. All me. No coach. Alone.

I knew I could do it, but there was just something keeping my tush sitting on that dang computer chair. I know that if I made plans to meet Kristy, I would have been off that chair in no time at all. Or, if I would have been meeting anyone else, I would have never given it a second thought and I would never, ever consider canceling or being late. Never. So what makes it so different doing it myself? What is it about working out alone? Why did it take me an extra 15 minutes to get started? Why couldn’t I just move my lazy bones down the stairs and do it….when I was suppose to. Not five, 10 or 15 minutes late, but at the time I had planned?

Well, I did eventually get my tush down the stairs to do my workout. But at 5:45 a.m. Not 5:30 a.m. like I planned. This meant that the rest of morning would have to be rushed because I had a meeting to get to at 8 a.m. But, I did everything in my program that Kristy had e-mailed me the night before. It went well. Really, it did. I may not have done everything completely correct, like the medicine ball chop and lifts. I actually looked them up online before trying to do them. Not sure why really, I did know what I was doing. But I didn’t have my motivator there telling me what to do next. She wasn’t there standing by my side. She’s kind of like my security blanket, you know? My trainer, my Kristy, wasn’t there telling me to breath or that I was doing a good job. It’s nice to have her there and I wish she could be at all my workouts. I truly do.

But as I continued through my workout, I kept repeating the words that Kristy wrote in her e-mail to me yesterday, "I believe in you." I don’t know if she realizes the impact those four little words had on me, but they did. They got me through my workout and motivated me to do the best I could…even though I was by myself.

I made it through my entire workout, all one hour and 15 minutes of it and best of all, I made it to my 8 a.m. meeting right on time!