Well, I hit the treadmill again tonight. For the last couple weeks I have been working on the Couch to 5K program. According to the program:
“The nine-week program enables you to transform your sedentary lifestyle into an active one where you can run for 30 minutes or 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). The plan’s structure prevents new runners from giving up and at the same time challenges them to continue moving forward.”
When I found the program on the internet it claimed even the biggest couch would be able to complete it. Well I proved them wrong!
Week one you are supposed to have a five minute warm-up, then alternate jogging 60 seconds and walking 90 seconds for eight cycles, then you do a five minute cool-down. “How hard could that be?” I thought to myself while sitting on my couch.
The first time I tried the program the five minute warm up was a breeze, the first minute jogging wasn’t completely miserable, but I was glad when my phone gave me the cue to start walking again. The second minute of jogging was no fun at all. I was still winded from the first minute and my shins started to kill me.
In the past I would have thrown my arms up in disgust and given up. This time I decided that doing something was better than nothing. Instead of jogging the rest of the running cycles, I increased the speed on the treadmill to a faster walk. I’ve done this several times over the last could weeks trying to add in an extra running segment each time.
Today was the first day I was able to complete all of the program for day 1 running all the segments you’re supposed to run.
I guess I have been upgraded to couch potato status where before, it would have been more accurate to describe me as the couch!
As my friend Matt was famous among his friends, regardless of how bad things get, it is important to keep your head up and “Just keep swimming.”
I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I didn’t want to go to work, to see anyone, let alone go to the gym. I felt horribly depressed. I wanted to pull my blinds closed and sleep the day away. I did for a while. I slept till 11 and went to work late. (Sometimes it’s good to be the boss). Even when I eventually made my way into the office, I had a hard time concentrating on anything, so I spent some time playing around on Facebook and WordPress.
I got several messages from friends, family and even people I had never met encouraging me to keep going. Messages telling me that I can’t give up because I have inspired them to make changes in their own lives. It is strange to be told you inspire people. I am so far from my goal, I just don’t see myself that way.
You inspired me to go home and grab my gym stuff — I went back to the gym for the first time in a while today. I didn’t stay long. After 2 miles on the treadmill I felt so emotionally and mentally exhausted I had to go home. I wasn’t physically exhausted though, so that was a nice change.
I still feel really depressed. I’m sad. I’m fed up with my job. Most of all, I’m lonely. I miss my friends and family who all live about 1,200 miles away. I just need to try to not let the depression stop me from achieving my goals.
After going on a bit of a binge over the last could days, I put about two pounds back on (impressive, I know).
Now I need to work harder and harder every day until I am back to the good diet and exercise regimen I was on a week ago.
That’s where I have gone wrong with my weight loss programs in the past. I would fall off the wagon, be bad on my diet and not work out for a day, which would turn into a weekend, then a week, and before I knew it, I would be back to square one.
Thank you for helping me keep that from happening to me again. Hopefully the positive reinforcement will keep it from happening next time too.
For as happy as I felt during my last couple posts, I feel equally as sad making this one — if not more so.
I had a horrible day at work yesterday. It was one of those days where everything that could possibly go wrong, did. I had to deal with some of the most ignorant, moronic, racist, feeble-minded people this town has to offer. I was miserable all day. I went to bed in tears, praying that today would be better.
It was worse.
Before I even got out of bed this morning I got terrible news. A friend from high school lost his battle with cancer. I spent all day thinking about his wife and young son he left behind — it’s heartbreaking. It was all I could do to keep from crying. Several times over the course of the day I couldn’t keep the tears from flowing.
As I always have done in the past, I turned to food to drown my sorrows. For the last two days I’ve been eating pretty much everything in sight and I haven’t worked out since Saturday.
I have lost all motivation to continue along this process, and honestly, I don’t how to go about getting it back.
A few fireworks were set off before the start of Saturday evening’s 5K in St. James, Mo.
I successfully walked my first 5K last night – other than the cramping toes, it felt pretty good! I was definitely tired by the time it was over, and the last mile was kind of miserable (my headphones chose to die 2 miles in) but the satisfaction of having finished the race cancelled all that out.
I by no means set any kind of speed records, but I did have plenty of energy left to run the last 100 yards to the finish line. I am still waiting on my official time, but I think I finished somewhere around 52 minutes. I’m happy with that because, A. I finished. B. I wasn’t last. C. There’s LOTS of room for improvement for next time.
Not gonna lie, I was SUPER nervous going into it. While I have been working out all year, I have never attempted this distance. I thought about bailing several times throughout the day, through the drive to the neighboring town, and even after I registered. I had to prove to myself that I could to it.
I’m not quite sure I’d say that this first 5K makes me want to go out and do more, but I hope as I get more and more fit, the races will get easier to do and THAT will make me want to do more and more. The next one I am signed up for is at the end of April. My goal originally was to be able to run that entire race. I am going to have to re-evaluate that goal a little bit.
I think it is more realistic to set a goal for running the first mile f that race maybe, and go from there. I would rather set smaller goals and be able to meet them than be disappointed because I failed.
Off to the store to buy myself a reward for finishing the race — new headphones!
I got word late last night (well, really 2 in the morning today) that by best friend had her second baby today.
I got another huge reason to smile this morning when I woke up and stepped on the scale — I lost just over 7 pounds this week! It was so unexpected, I couldn’t believe it!I know those big numbers aren’t going to come every week, but it is so nice to see them when they do show up.
That brings my total weight loss for the year to 28.4 pounds!
I’ll make an update later tonight AFTER I complete my first 5K — EVER.
I know I have a long way to go to be fit and healthy, but I’m pretty proud of how far I have come in a relatively short amount of time.
As excited as I was last time I weighed in to see I had lost more weight last week than normal without spending much time in the gym, it took away some of my motivation. After all, why kick my own ass for 10+ hours in the gym if I am not going to see more weight loss than with diet alone?
The thing is, I don’t just want to be thin, I want to be fit. So I need to go to the gym too.
I have promised myself I am going to start going again tomorrow. (I’m writing it on here so people will hold me accountable).
Anyway, I was talking to a friend tonight and she mentioned she was doing a weight loss challenge with a bunch of our friends, so I told her I wanted in! We are going to start Feb. 24 and go till May 29. So that will give me another mini goal to work towards and more people to keep me accountable. (Every little bit helps.)
Not there’s money and bragging rights involved. I’d love to earn both!
My first mini goal is right around the corner — I’m participating (walking in) my first 5K Saturday.
I wasn’t very good with my diet or exercising this week. It wasn’t a horrible week, but it wasn’t a good one.
I have been super stressed out all week. I’ve been trying to find a job in the Boston area so I can move to be closer to my family. All week I have felt pressure from my landlord to sign another lease which would keep me stuck in Missouri for another year. Then toward the end of the week my boss said she needed an answer as to what my plans were ASAP.
I just laid awake in bed for hours every night trying to figure out what I am going to do with my life. The only thing that accomplished was making me exhausted and grumpy all week. I didn’t make it to the gym, all week, but I did do cardio housecleaning several times.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I stepped on the scale, but as long as I didn’t gain, I was going to be happy. I somehow managed to lose 2 more pounds, bringing my total for the year to 21.
Today I am going to go out and walk. I am participating in my first 5K a week from today, so I want to make sure I can walk the distance. I’m not too worried about it, but better to be safe than sorry.
I’ve told myself I need to be better at everything next week. Hopefully this weekend off from work will recharge my battery.
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the annual Cancer Gala. It was a black-tie event that raised money to make life easier for area cancer patients.
This was the second year I went and both years were a blast. The ballroom of the local university was beautifully decorated in an Arabian Nights theme, and about 600 people put on their finest evening wear for a silent auction, a night of dancing and and fabulous food and drink.
I set a goal of losing 20 pounds by the gala, if I met my goal, I was going to but myself a new dress for the night. Unfortunately I came up around four pounds short, so it was into my closet I went, looking for something to wear. Eventually I decided on a tea-length black dress (think Marilyn Monroe’s famous white dress, but in black) a pair of maroon stilettos and some “blingy” jewelry to match the theme of the night.
As I was getting ready, I was kind of dreading my favorite part of last year’s event — the dessert bar. I saved my calories for the day so I could enjoy the meal without having to worry too much about the dreaded calories.
The meal turned out to be on my diet! broiled fish, steak you could literally cut with a butter knife, and green beans. The dessert bar however, was everything I was dreading and more. Cake bites, pastries, tarts, and everything you can imagine to dip in chocolate. In the end, I chose to eat two cake bites drizzled with just a bit of chocolate. Everyone at my table was coming back with plates heaping full of goodies.
My two little cake bites ended up being more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself, and I didn’t completely blow my diet.
Later in the night I ran into a woman who I knew lost 150 pounds — she writes a column for the local paper and has recently penned a book: The Skinny Budget Diet: Weigh less, save money, look great. Let me tell you, she looks fantastic. You would NEVER have guessed she was ever overweight. Here are her before and after photos:
I had never met Linda Goff before, but had spoken to her several times on the phone for work, so I introduced myself and told her about my weight loss project. She was very supportive and told me to contact her if I needed advice. She also seemed surprised with the amount of weight I had lost so far in a short amount of time. That was very encouraging since I didn’t make the goal I wanted by that night.
She is truly inspiration for those of us who have big changes to make in our lives. You can read her weekly newspaper columns here for a weekly dose of inspiration.
If you want to check out her story, here is the link: http://theskinnybudgetdiet.com/ The site also has low-calorie recipes I will definitely be trying in the near future!
The day after the gala I weighed myself to see how much damage I did between the meal, dessert bar and a few glasses of wine. I lost three pounds last week! My total for the year is 19.2 pounds.
Later that day, I changed my Facebook profile photo to one I took right before the Cancer Gala. I have gotten TONS of positive feedback on it. I haven’t visibly noticed much of a weight loss yet, so I compared it to a photo of myself at my heaviest. That was all the proof I needed to know I was moving in the right direction. Even if you can’t tell I am losing weight in the rest of my body, I could tell in my face. There isn’t a huge difference, but right now I will take every little bit of motivation I can get.
If I can see that much progress in 20(ish) pounds, I can’t wait to see what 100 pounds looks like!
I’m not going to try to run this race, at all. I’m just going to walk. It should be a fun time, it is a night race through the picturesque village of St. James, Missouri. (A town famous locally for it’s wine and Maramec Spring Park.)
Anywho, I’m clearly not going for any land-speed records, I just want to finish the race (preferably not dead last). One of these days before the race, I want to try walking it to prove to myself that I can do it (before I publicly embarrass myself) and see how long it takes me. Then, during the race, I would like to beat that time.
If you’re in the area and would like to join me, the more the merrier!
I had another good day on my diet yesterday and a decent day at the gym. I started feeling like I was coming down with some kind of bug when I got home from working out and I fell asleep before I had a change to blog, so I will try to do two today.
For some reason there were a TON of people at the gym yesterday. Normally from 7-9 p.m. there are the same five or six people there working out, last night there were about 20 people there so it felt pretty crowded.
Whenever I started going to the gym in the past — whether it was a new gym, I was starting yet ANOTHER diet cycle — I always felt like a bit of an outsider. I clearly don’t look like someone who spends upwards of two hours in the gym six days a week (yet), so I always felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was self conscious. I felt like people were judging me, wondering in their heads ‘what’s this fat girl think she’s doing in my gym?’
It took me a long time to realize that the odds of that being true were probably pretty slim, and so what if that’s what they were thinking? That’s their problem, not mine. My mindset when I first started going to the gym again was that I pay just the same amount to belong to the gym, so I have every right to be there.
I can feel myself getting stronger, and my endurance is definitely improving.
I no longer get the feeling that I am an outsider. I am starting to feel like I fit in with the people that I share my gym time with. It’s a good feeling!
That said, I have to take the day off from the gym today. I battled a killer migraine all morning and ever since my headache went away, I’ve been really nauseous. The stomach bug has been working its way around my office, it’s feeling like it’s my turn.
Time for a change 