Blown Away

The wind is blowing at about 25 mph outside, and my crazy ass still went for a walk. I think I have enough dirt in my eyes to grow seeds!! It was, however, nice when I got the tailwind, it sure made me move faster... heh! I will surely be paying for this tomorrow in the form of swollen eyes, but it's all in the name of fitness.

I got a pamphlet last week from my UNLV Alumni Association that says I get a discount at 24 Hour Fitness in the form of extremely low monthly dues. I pondered it for a few minutes, because wouldn't it be great to work out indoors? No wind, no farmer's tan, no freckles on my nose. So why didn't I go running to the nearest location and sign up? If I have to get in a car to go work out, I won't go. It takes too much time out of my day to drive somewhere, when I can just walk out the front door from my house or the office and get right to it. Besides, I go to the gym to sweat, not to look cute - and the last time I had a gym membership, I was the minority.

The Dreaded Scale

I had a doctor appointment today, so of course before every appointment you have to do what? Yes, that's right kids... get on a scale. Now I'd actually gotten on a scale this past Saturday because I couldn't resist. But before that, I hadn't been on a scale since last May. It was confirmed today I've lost 39 pounds since my last weigh-in. It's not really a lot, 39 pounds... that's only about 4 pounds per month. However, I'm telling myself that's a healthy way to lose weight, and I've been exercising just about every single day this entire time, so some of it had to go to muscle weight. That story works for me, so I'm sticking to it. :) I have another 15 or so to lose to get back to my ideal weight, and by insurance charts I'll still be about 10 pounds heavy. What do insurance charts know?! heh

I found a pedometer that Amy had given me some time ago, and wore it all day today. I'd read somewhere that to maintain ultimate heart health, an average adult should strive to take at least 10,000 steps per day. I kept that pedometer on from the time I got dressed until I just took a shower, and I'd taken 13,387 steps today. Mind you I worked out for a total of about 75 minutes between two walks today... and thank goodness, because I'm on my butt most of the work day. I remember in my 20's exercise wasn't so vital for me to lose any weight fairly quickly... I exercised but I didn't have to do it but 3 times per week to be healthy. I can tell that by now, in my late 30's, I need to stay pretty damn active for any results.

I'm Definitely a Desert Rat

It's not even technically cold yet here in the desert, but I'm already longing for the days of 100+ degrees. Do I need my head checked? Quite possibly... but let me explain.

I enjoy the outdoors - even in the middle of the city with all the noise and the smells. I am very visual and when I take my nightly walks through the neighborhood, there's never a shortage of stimuli. Once the nighttime temperature gets below say 78 and daylight savings hits... I tend to move my exercise indoors. Call me prissy, but I don't enjoy being chilly at all, and even worse - sweating in the cold. Mind you, I've still got stimuli indoors, having set up a portable DVD player in front of the treadmill. I'm doing a whole lot of movie catch-up (and currently I'm rewatching my favorite Barneyisms with HIMYM Season 1). But it's not the same. The treadmill is not as challenging a workout for me, even with the incline features. I'm not smelling that familiar laundry soap one of my neighbors uses, not hearing the ankle-biters barking in the neighborhood over, and hey, I'm not dodging spiders anymore.

I'm already looking forward to April.

Movies and Movement

I started watching movies while walking on the treadmill. If it's a good movie, 45 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye. Of course movies are longer than 45 minutes, so it can take two or three days to finish one movie. I'd started a movie I'd never seen before tonight, "Must Love Dogs". It was really hard to stop watching it, and now I have to wait until tomorrow night to watch more!

A Picture, A Tattoo and a Marathon Over

Madison's classroom is asking for recent family photos. They want them like, yesterday... I don't keep actual photos laying around, it's all digital. Believe it or not, I don't have one of those handy-dandy photo printers, either. The more photos I have, the more I have to organize! So in a few minutes I'll be visiting Flickr and trying to get photos mailed to me, yesterday. :P Do you develop film still? Do you order prints or print your digital photos yourself?

I have something that's actually making the healing of this tattoo a little easier. It's called Doctor Burt's Res-Q Ointment, made by Burt's Bees. It has olive oil in it so I'm smelling a little like a salad right now, but it feels good. I'm very conscious of any body/beauty products that test on animals and I'm moving toward environmentally friendly, more natural products. If you've never used any of their products, check them out sometime. I know a lot of local drug stores carry some of it, but the website (link above) has more to offer.

My marathon running has come to a screeching halt. My body is just saying NO! to the running part - my shins are feeling like someone slashed my muscles. So I'm still walking but the jogging will cease, for now anyway - I have some other options and will be finding other ways to change up the workout.

Okay, off to sift through and order photos!

Owwwww!

I've been considering for awhile how I can change up my exercise a little bit. I've missed only two nights of walking a little over 2.25 miles since June 15. I could go a little further every once in awhile to jolt my body and metabolism, but do I want to end up at a two hour walk in about a year? I do want to have time to do other things besides my exercise after Madison gets to bed. When would I have time to blog? :)

So last night I started jogging for a little while... not the whole 2.25+ miles. Oh no, I'm not crazy. Okay, just a little crazy. :P I started with about a quarter mile. Downhill. It wasn't bad... but today I was sore. The muscles on the front of my legs (I believe the quadriceps) were quite sore. I know when you start a new exercise and you feel sore and stiff, you should work the soreness out by doing the activity again... so that's what I did tonight. I actually ran more tonight, without overdoing it. But tonight I ran uphill as well as downhill. WTF was I thinking? So now, not only are my quadriceps very sore, but so are my hamstrings as well as the muscles in my butt!

What is amazing here is I didn't hate it. I have always been a superb walker, it's an activity I know I can maintain and be consistent with for the long term. I haven't actually run at all since high school, and then it was only because the PE teacher was screaming at us to hurry up. So I am pretty impressed with myself. Let's just hope I keep it up...

Ahhhhhh. To Another Weekend

My office was so hot this afternoon... by the time I left for the day, I was convinced the air conditioning was out. It was one of those days I wished I had a pool to jump into when I got home. :)

For the first time in years, I took an evening walk tonight. That 45 minutes felt so good! Nothing like a brisk walk and your IPod to relieve any stress or frustration. Besides, my muscles (and my skin) are thanking me. I'll be doing that a lot more!

I'm going to try to post regularly something I call "What's In My IPod". A top 5 list (in tribute to High Fidelity) of what I loved most in my shuffle today. I love it when others share what they're listening to with me, so it's my way to share.

These are in no particular order, and click on the song title to view the video at YouTube:

1. Missy Elliot - "I'm Really Hot"

2. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch - "Good Vibrations" (Don't laugh. Ladies - he's got no shirt on for half the video!)

3. Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You Out of My Head"

4. Third Eye Blind - "Blinded"

5. Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - "Head to Toe"

Hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start!