Wednesday, April 28, 2010

challenging myself

Sisterhood 21-Days Challenge

I've recently been spending some time over at the 'hood and they've just started a new challenge that I'm really excited about participating in. Ok, so in a nutshell the challenge is to choose new, healthy, habits you'd like to have and commit to doing them every day for the next 21 days. I really love this because I think the key to maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle is not about what 'diet' or whatever will get you there fastest it's about making the conscious choice to make small changes and stick with them until they are second nature. I really think that if I want to be successful (and I believe I can) I have to be more aware of what I choose to put in my mouth and how active I am. Anyways, I've been pondering all day what habits I want to choose. I feel a little hindered by the fact that I'm recovering from shin splints at the moment but I just need to jump (off this computer chair) with both feet because if I'm going to make excuses there will always be something to stop me. Ok, so here I go:
    • I've been trying to up my water intake in the last couple weeks and I can already notice a difference but I want the first thing I put in my body in the morning and the last thing at night to be water. Too often I start the day with tea/coffee or nothing and wind up well into the day before drinking anything or drink nothing but tea all day.
    • I want to start stretching everyday whether it's 5 0r 10 minutes of stretching or a yoga DVD.
    • Only eat when I'm hungry. Seems simple but I'm bad for mindlessly snacking if I'm bored
      Alright there it is. I'll update to let you know how it's going.

      Friday, April 23, 2010

      Disappointment

      My run monday did not go well. At. All. My Shin pain was still pretty bad when I headed out. I did my regular 5 min. warm up walk and then I stopped and stretched a bit and then headed off into my run. Right away my calves started getting tight and I tried various things to relax them, tried just ignoring them and focusing on the music. I made it through two running intervals and then I just knew that was it. I was super dissapointed in myself and felt like I should have been able to just push through it. I had an appointment with my Dr. yesterday and I have shin splints. Yeah. Awesome. That means running is out, for as long as I'm having any pain and then I have to wean myself back into it. I'm thankful it was nothing worse but I'll admit I feel very frustrated and defeated and discouraged at the moment.

      Sunday, April 18, 2010

      What have I spent my evening doing?

      Why hula hooping of course! now you may be thinking say what!? I'm not talking about the small light hoops you can get at any toy store. I stumbled upon a link to a tutorial for making your own adult sized hoops and let me tell you it was super simple and fast to make one. Mine isn't pretty like some but I may spurge on some fancy tape one of these days, anyways back on topic. Wooo boy does it get your heart pumping! I can definitely see why this is a work out and why you would want to do it. Super FUN! Ok I'll stop with the exclamation points but I am weirdly excited about this.

      On the running front, Friday's run did go a little better and i think a was able to pace myself but man oh man my calves and shins were really unhappy. The muscles in my calves felt like they were being wound tighter and tighter. It made running really uncomfortable but still do-able. in the back of my mind I'm worrying that it's something serious but I'm trying to stay calm and tell myself it's just my muscles getting used to the new activity. The last thing I want is an injury that would put me out of commision. I move on to week 2 of the C25K training so I'll assess how I'm feeling during my run on monday and may just have to modify my intervals a bit for a while. We'll see. I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow though, sore shins and all.

      Friday, April 16, 2010

      week 1

      As I mentioned in my last post I started the Couch-to-5K training this week and feel more determined then ever to keep up with it. Monday's run I didn't watch the interval times as closely as I could have. I did my one lap warm up and then ran half a lap walked half a lap for my 20-25 min I felt strong and energized and really great considering it's been months since I last ran. Tuesday I walked to the store and back with the kids (about a 30-40 minute walk) and then went out with my sister in the evening and mostly walked but did a couple of spurts of running in there. All day Wednesday I was pumped to get out there. I followed a tutorial on how to make a playlist that would switch songs at each interval and carefully selected the songs I wanted. I was so excited I started my first few runs too fast which made pacing myself for the rest really hard but I FINISHED and ran all the running intervals. Phew. I'm still feeling it a bit two days later but I'm starting to get pumped again about my run tonight. Yesterday was basically a rest day for me, although I did walk over to my sister-in-law's for a visit in the afternoon, but I'm glad I decided to take it easy because today I have that itch to run and I'm not sure I would have if I had pushed myself to go out last night. Hopefully tonight's run will be a little easier.

      Tuesday, April 13, 2010

      coming out of hibernation

      So my 30-day-shred turned out to be more of a 90-day-slump, to say the least. The fact of the matter is I just really dislike 1.) workout videos 2.) working out indoors 3.)trying to pretend I'm coordinated when clearly I am not. The only exception to this would possibly be a Yoga DVD that I enjoy called Yoga for Wimps. I'd actually really recommend it if you are interested in giving yoga a try for the workout but aren't really interested in the meditative side of it. I thought for a while that I had misplaced my copy and was frantically searching for it in the usual and not so usual hiding places. Turns up it was on the shelf right by our tv, a clue that it may be time to declutter. Anyways, I've been getting the itch to get back to running over the last few weeks. I'm not sure if it's been the extra stresses of the past month or so or if it's just that the days are getting longer and the air is sweet and enticing with the arrival of spring but all i want to do is get out and go. ANYWHERE. I find myself looking forward to a summer full of days spent on picnics at the park and bikerides and trips to the beach.

      Last night I took the plunge and started the Couch-to-5k training. It felt really good to push myself at something and have some me time. I surprised myself actually. One, because i went out complete by myslef, two that i ran dispite the fact that there was a large group of teenage boys hanging out beside the track (something I've always found intimidating), and three that I was able run even more than i was anticipating and it felt great. I can't wait to get out again.