In-Service Day

Yesterday, work put on an In-Service Day. Basically a day at work that involved no work.

To start my day though I was up again at 5:15 and did 45 minutes worth of Zumba. The ride to work was a little slow, because we were victim to the snow that hit all of New England. When I got to work, I was thinking and parked in our normal parking lot and forced myself to go up three flights of stairs to where everything was being held. The morning was a little slow, sitting in the Student Campus Center aka Cafeteria, listening to a man talk about diversity and awareness. Overall not bad...but a little repetitive.

Lunch was a potluck of things that people brought in (I brought nothing...). But after lunch was what I was really looking forward to for the day. We had the opportunity to pick two activities that were sponsored by different people around the campus. I spent the first hour over in the library looking at old books and photographs. I know sounds boring...but I was a history major, so it was a little exciting for me.

After that I trudged across campus (literally to the opposite end) and changed into gym clothes for a real Zumba class. The class was a lot of fun and I felt good that I knew what I was doing. Most of the people felt a little awkward, but at least everyone had fun.

In total I walked 16447 steps or 7.19 miles and burned 558 calories more than I ate.

Lets just say I only made it through 20 minutes of Zumba this morning...

Week 2

Well I successfully got up every morning last week and this weekend and used my Zumba game :) I'm also up to 45 minutes instead of just 20. And that extra 15 minutes early that I got up this morning almost did me in...who would have thought that 15 minutes can be that enjoyable when you're still asleep...

So other than sticking to my goal of getting through one week of working out, I've slowly been increasing the amount of water that I drink every day. I used to be lucky to finish a bottle (16 oz) of water a day. Lately though I'm up to a bottle during Zumba and then 3 and a half during work. I know not great, but still a huge improvement for me. I do plan to purchase a new re-useable water bottle and a brita water pitcher to keep on my desk to help me with drinking more water.

I think my goal for this week, starting tomorrow during Lunch....is to get out and walk at least a mile every day. I don't think that it will be too difficult for me to walk after I eat my lunch and I'm sure that I can find one or two other people that I can drag along with me.

Here's to another successful week!

7461 Steps

7461 Steps. The number of steps I took yesterday between when I got up at 5:30 and went to bed at 9:15.

It's a number that I can improve on, and need to improve on.

So I survived getting up and working out two mornings in a row and I have to say that today I'm feeling much better this time of the afternoon than I did yesterday.

Wednesdays are always my longest days. It might be that it's "hump day" or the fact that I don't have the luxury of going straight home afterwork. Instead I spend my Wednesday evenings bowling. Now you're probably thinking that bowling can't possibly work any muscles, but trust me it does. I know if I take a week off, I feel it from my shoulder to my wrist (obviously) but also from the middle of my back down my butt to my calves as well. And after 3 games, I was wiped out last night. And to my surprise I even bowled well.

It's going to be a long day...

I was good when I got home last night and remembered to change right into my gym clothes. I played the Kinect Adventures for XBox for about 30 minutes before dinner and felt pretty good.

Andy made stir-fry with shrimp and rice which tasted amazing. I unfortunately didn't do too well with the portion control and had seconds...which is why today the only left overs in the fridge for lunch and dinner was Chicken Noodle Soup. Still sounds good to me!

I remembered to move my alarm clock and when it went off at 5:30 I was a little unstable on my feet, but managed to make it out the door of the bedroom and over to where I had left my gym clothes.I did the 20 minute beginner 1 Class for Zumba on XBox. And man did I sweat! For a cool down I played a game of Bowling on the Wii. If only my real bowling average (117) were nearly as high as the bowling average on Wii.(200)...

Tonight is bowling, so I won't get in a workout before dinner, but so far I'm still feeling good from my workout...we'll see how I feel around 3 this afternoon when it all catches back up to me.

New Year, New Start

So Weight Watchers is working for me. But I continue to struggle with getting out and exercising. I tend to use the excuse of the temperature here in Vermont, but I know that it's a horrible excuse.

Here is why it is a horrible excuse:

1. I can go to the gym at work for free.
2. There are 2 indoor tracks at work
3. I own a Nintendo Wii (with Wii Fit and Your Shape)
4. I recently bought an XBox 360 with Kinect

So I clearly have zero excuse not to get some exercise in. Yet here I sit counting down the minutes until work is over...Today's current excuse...I have no gym clothes at work. Knowing this I should go home and take some time to use my Kinect and get a workout in before dinner. But I seem to get into a slump and decide that I'm ready to relax when I get home.

So the other thought that comes to my mind is why not actually get out of bed at 5:30 when I automatically wake up and exercise then?! I know that I don't fall back to sleep between then and when I get up at 6:30...instead I usually roll over and over and over...exercise right? Wrong.

So I am setting some small goals to achieve. First being that when I get home tonight that I change into my gym clothes instead of my PJ's. I also will move my alarm clock (which happens to be my cell phone) away from the night table and instead to the bookcase at the end of the bed. That way I need to actually get up when the alarm goes off. Which means I need to make sure my gym clothes end up in an easy to relocate place so I can get up and work out in the morning...I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Recap on the last 6 months of my Journey

Last summer I realized that I had reached a point where I was no longer comfortable with myself and knew that the best way to improve my self esteem was to start loosing weight, again. I, like everyone else have looked into other diets and hate that they want me to read a book or only eat from their daily menu. Obviously the worst part about just about every diet that I have tried is that I get into a slump when I realize how much it is going to cost and give up after about a week or overeat and end up gaining not loosing....

So I decided to talk to my Mom. She suggested a diet that she did when she was younger to loose weight. I tried it...my menu consisted of Chicken, Rice and a Vegetable.Needless to say there are only so many spices that you can add to chicken and rice and so many different vegetables that you can eat without butter...I lasted about 2 and a half weeks on this diet and surprisingly lost 6 lbs.So I decided to use this as a jump start and looked into other options...

I spoke with a woman I work with who has been on Weight Watchers for as long as I have known her about whether or not it was a program that I should start or look into. She highly recommended the program and suggested that instead of waiting that I start that day.

So I decided to start that afternoon. I signed up for Weight Watchers and have to say that I am impressed.  With Weight Watchers, I eat what I want, just in proportion. And there are a ton of recipes on their website that are usually written out to proportion. I immediately saw the weight start to fall off. And after 13 weeks I can say that I have lost 13 lbs.

So in total I have somehow managed not only to stick with a diet for more than 2 weeks, but I've also lost a total of 19 lbs. Yes I have had my weeks of no loss and of course the holidays did yield a few days where I gained weight, but overall, I'm impressed not only with my progress but also the program.