Gym

Surprise, surprise, surprise!  I found myself at the gym today and I survived cardio and weights.  Thank goodness for coworker/friend who joined me at the gym today for an evening of exercise.  I am pretty sure we looked like fish out of water; however, there were friendly folks around to help us and cheer us on hands on and silently with their smiles of enthusiasm for us.  I am also pretty sure, we were pretty entertaining as we tried to figure out how to makes things GO or how to operate a piece of machinery.  I can recall struggling with a weight and asking Cole "Weight on this?" she said, "5 lbs."  I said while struggling, "I think I need to go lower".  In her most kind hearted voice she said, "Um, it doesn't go any lower".  Sometimes we even found ourselves laughing at ourselves and each other after only two minutes into our workout and finding a rather quick level of difficulty which made us want to scramble to something less difficult.  The only problem with that is that we quickly discovered, exercise is probably not meant to be easy or less difficult.  I say with great pride, we never gave up; huffing and puffing on to the next piece of machinery, we never gave up.  Just 25 minutes, just 15 more minutes, we're almost there, just 10 more minutes.  Yet the closer we got to the marker we would even push ourselves harder the last 30 or even 60 seconds.  Push it, push it, Turbo and Boom! We would reach or time, jump off with wobbly legs and rather than quit, we would move on to the next exercise.  Initially, an hour seemed like way to long yet near the end, that hour moved much faster than I had thought it would.

I'm still not a gym rock star but I feel like I accomplished something pretty significant today.  I certainly feel better about myself then I did only 3 days ago.  This is my third day of exercise and I can honestly say I am looking forward to my walking exercise on Wed.  I've decided, M,W,F will be for video exercises at home.  Tues and Thurs will be for the gym and weight training and Sat and Su will be for yoga.  I think that should do it for now. 

If I sound excited its probably because I am.  I find it a bit puzzling since only three days ago I hated the thought of exercise getting in the way of my day.  Yet here I am only three days later and I feel pretty happy and now even have a plan in place.  That's a big wow for me and I thank my dear friend for joining me tonight.  I know every workout wont be a happy one but I do think it will always leave me with a feeling of accomplishment because I know where I started and how I felt on day one...so anything else would most likely be an improvement.

Boom!

Trying

Its day 2 and I'm off work today.  My norm would be to kinda do whatever I wanna do, but since I am still in the short term stages of my commitment to exercising, its safe to say I drug myself into the living room and turned on the DVD for about 45 minutes of exercise.  Would I have rather been doing something else?  Hecka yes!  But I knew if I tried to replace working out with something else (like eating, being lazy or watching TV), that darn monkey would soon be on my back nagging at me all darn day "When are you gonna exercise or You better exercise before it gets to late".  So I did it, and I actually picked it up a little this time around.  Do I feel like a rock star? Hardly, but I do look forward to the day I start looking forward to doing this rather than not not doing it.

Today it was Leslie Sansone Belly Blasting Walk which was 2 miles of walking.  It really was not that bad and I felt pretty accomplished until I learned that there were floor exercises after the cool down.  It felt like a cruel joke as I first attempted to get down on the floor and then attempted to carry out the waist slimming section of the video.  I lasted about 15 minutes and I was history.  My husband snapped a shot of me on my last leg before throwing in the towel (below).  I gave it my best shot, but the aches and pains of Sundays workout finally caught up with me as my body melted into a blob of "I'm done" on the floor.

Although it was not perfect, I still feel good about my attempt today, because its so much better than doing nothing at all which by the way I am a Master at when I so desire.  I don't feel like a mega fitness star or a power fitness star, but I do feel as if I accomplished something really important today, something out of my normal.   I may never be a Cross Fit person, I may never bulk up as they say but I can still encourage folks who feel like they are in the same boat as myself.  It really is about the journey but I admit I am also looking forward to the destination and fitting back into some of my old dresses. 

So again I jump on the walking-go-round Tuesday.  One thing I can say at this very moment I feel a great amount of peace after the exercise storm.  I feel like I survived it and the future on this date seems very attainable.  Pretty cool since only 30 minutes ago I was on the floor grumbling at Leslie.  Pretty cool.

Day 1

Sounds kinda cliché-ish "Day 1", especially since I have had more day 1's when it comes to health and fitness than I can probably count on a million fingers if I had a million fingers to count on.  Nevertheless, I do have this subliminal determination that seems to haunt me with every bite that goes into my mouth and every day that comes to an end and I have done absolutely nothing to better my health (not even a measly walk for 30 minutes, 15 minutes even). 

There is something about a self destructive behavior that nags at me all throughout the day, its like a monkey on my back, weighing me down and truly distracting me.  Those flashing messages of "I'm full but just one more bite" or "I hate exercising" have become repeated phrases to pacify me at the moment of weakness or just when I feel like being lazy.  I have more excuses than I probably have life left on this earth when it comes to why I shove unhealthy foods into my mouth and why I despise exercise.  But honestly, for me it just boils down to commitment.  I suck at long term commitment when it comes to my health.  I know right? That sounds terrible but it is soooo freaking true.  I am committed to my job, my spouse, family and my faith, but taking care of myself is a completely different story.

So like the massive number of folks who start a new diet and exercise plan at the start of the new year, I find I will be one of them this year.  I don't frown on folks wanting to take that jump into health and fitness at the start of a new year, but I never really saw myself jumping in too. I'm guessing the main reason why I never saw myself is simply because my clothes still fit - tah dahh.  I still could not bring myself to start up with everyone else which is why I am starting a few days earlier.  I guess I have always dared to be different and today is no exception.

So my weapon of choice is "Leslie Sansone, Walk your way to Thin." this should be interesting.  Today consisted of a 3 mile walk and lower body slimming.  I managed to get through the entire video but I love how she said near the end (3rd mile), "If you are new then you shouldn't be doing all the body slimming exercise".  Well heck, I am almost done and now you tell me?  But I am competitive with myself and decided, I am in it to win it (I've always wanted to say that).  Its now 2-hrs later and standing let alone walking is painful.  I feel like poooh and although I need to take a long hot bath, that would require me moving any other part outside of my fingers which I don't think I can do right now.

Monday I will be back at it. Why? BECAUSE LESLIE SANSONE SAYS SO.  I know I sound pretty whiny so I ask for your forgiveness right now.  I usually see the positive in life, but right now all I see is the distance from my dining room table to the shower which seems to be a million miles apart. 

Anyway, I will try this again Monday and the days thereafter.  Maybe by the  time the new year swings in, the pain will be gone and I will be screaming BRING IT LESLIE!  Maybe.