Day 220 (day 3 / week 32)

There many different ways to measure exercise. You can measure with distance, intensity, duration, RPE (ratings of perceived exertion) with caloric expenditure (and others). I have done all of these at some time in my life. Currently I am doing the later, because the others remind me that exercise is work (ironically--b/c the expenditure shows the work done! lol). My brain is strange, and I understand that, so it's all good. I know what works. I always have my RPEs in the back of my mind though, because I use those as a red flag for doing to much.

That being said, my weekly caloric expenditure goal is 5700 calories. As of yesterday I needed only 200 more calories for the week (starts over on Sunday) and I did more. Today was supposed to be kind of a non rest day because I only needed to burn 200 calories. I walked for 50 minutes (3 miles including my warm up and cool down) and burned 545. When you burn more calories than you are set up for (to eat) on sparkpeople, you get this "warning" at the bottom of your fitness page.

*You've gone over your weekly calories burned goal by a significant amount. Your calories eaten goal will not adjust automatically. If you have increased the amount of exercise you are doing, you should update your fitness settings here to make sure you are consuming enough calories to support the additional activity.

I find this "warning" very refreshing, because if someone didn't know they were doing to much for the amount of food that they are eating, how would they know if they didn't have any background on fitness/nutrition.

Another reason why I heart sparkpeople.

I am not going to adjust it just yet, because this is the last day in the week, and next week I don't know what's going to happen as I start working. If I do less than 5700, then I will adjust it, just as if I do more, I will do the same.

Boring blog post, I know. Just one of the many things that I think about with this 365 daily challenge!

Hope you all have a great day! I'm not really sure how I can fix my blog so that people can see the text. Some people can only see the banners, and not the meat of my blog at all. *shrug* not sure how to fix it and keep my pretty backgrounds. I am (on a side note) probably going to create another blog this weekend, so I can participate in all of the fun stuff you guys have on your blogs (friday flashback, 5 for 5 and such). I have been trying to make this an "exercise journal" only and not post other stuff, but some of it is just so much fun, and I want to do it too.

Make today count! :)

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 214 (day 4 / week 31)

Today I got up pretty early and went for a walk. After I got home, we left and now I am at my in-laws house typing this.

During my walk, I thought I walked far. I walked and walked and went a different route than I normally do, so I thought I had walked much further. It took me 90 minutes (including a 10 min cool down) to complete and I assumed it was closer to 5 miles, if not 5 miles. I was wrong lol.

About 10 minutes ago I finally had the chance to map my new route, and it was 4.7 miles. That's .10 miles shorter than my walk yesterday, and I completed it faster then. *shrugs*. I didn't do the C25K training, because it is a break day, so tomorrow or Wed I will start up again, since on Tuesday I have to be at the hospital to sign paper work and get a chest xray for TB so I can start working right away (I will be doing the 2 parter TB test after I start since I will have had the xray).

I don't think I really have anything else to say. Yesterday was such an emotional day that I pulled out my guitar and played for about an hour or two and now my fingertips are sore, becuase my callouses have long disappeared.

OH! Wait! I do have something to share! I got on the scale this morning and it said 190.0. point zero! not point six or point 8, but point zero! Woo hoo! This is a big scale victory for me and i have been looking forward to 190 for 7 months. I knew that yesterday I would weigh a little more becuase it was my down day on the calorie cycling (another blog entry/goal). It makes sense.

I have a picture of the scale, but it's dark and you can barely see the 190. I'll take a new one next week when I weigh myself for the week (sparkpeople has me do it once a week).

Hope you have a good weekend.

Make it count. You never know what's around the corner.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 210 (day 7 / week 30)

Today I got out early to walk and decided to walk for 60 minutes since that was all the time I had before my hubby had to leave for work. I don't have any routes that take 60 minutes, and I didn't want him to be late, so I just walked for 30 minutes and turned around (assuming it would also take 30 minutes to walk back).

Well during my walk, a young lady ran passed me and I immediately thought to myself, "I can do that" so I did. I ran like the wind. If my hubby was behind me, he would have yelled, "Run Forest! Run!" (No wait...that would have been me, if I didn't look like a crazy person yelling it at myself lol). I started off pretty slowly and clumsily but then decided to pick up my feet (always a good thing) and I felt like I was flying! I cut 20 minutes off of my time, because I got back to my neighborhood with a little over 20 minutes to spare.

My heart rate monitor was being wonky...it said my HR was jumping from 112 to 165 so whatever. That was frustrating, but I was flying so I couldn't be bothered with the nonsense numbers. lol.

I rapped around and came in through a different part of our neighborhood just to kill some more time and I got back after 55 minutes (3 miles).

Do you ever have a feeling, like when you are talking to your spouse/friend/someone, where you didn't get an answer from that person, but then God answers it for you, sometime later? Well last night I was thinking about this clothes box/pile that we have in the corner of our room. It's clothes that the Monkey Boy and myself have grown out of (in my case shrunk out of lol). I asked my husband, "do you know where I can take those clothes tomorrow? I'm tired of looking at them." He said, "I think there is a drop off station by Albertson's or Smith's somewhere." I'm a little anal and don't care too much for wild goose chases so I asked, "which one, the one on Buffalo?" he says, "sure," which is his way of saying, "I don't know." I shrugged and kind of wished to myself that I knew exactly where to take the clothes.

Well today when I got back from my walk/flying session, I was saying my good-bye's to my hubby and noticed this little yellow bag pushed up against the house, where our garage would be, if we had one (it was converted into a room that we called the wasted space room). I grabbed it and it was from the vietnam veterans, and they were looking for clothing donations--pick up time is THIS MORNING. Isn't that funny? In the last few months that we have lived here, I have never gotten anything for a donation pickup so that just warms my heart, that He was listening and He answered my question. God really does answer prayers. :)

Off to take a shower.

Make today count. Go flying! Run like Phoebe on Friends. If you haven't seen that episode here is a snipit from youtube. It's broken up so you only get the running part of it. So funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfaztVg4kaA

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star!

Day 208 (day 5 / week 30)

For the last 3-4 days, I have been working pretty hard, and I'm finally starting to feel it. Today (yesterday even, but I ignored it) my calves and shins were pretty tight when I went walking, despite stretching and such. Yesterday I just assumed that it was because I started out with too much intensity (burst of energy) so I slowed down and after about 20 minutes I sped up again. I was fine but I paid for it all yesterday (my lower legs were tight and somewhat sore).

Today I felt the same but the tightness was a little more intense and I had to stop twice. I only went for my 2 mile walk today, but it took me 40 minutes--cool down included. It was a painful walk. Because of this, I am deciding to just take it easy for the rest of the day and start things back up tomorrow, if I feel better. Mid week, last week, I thought I was going to be behind on my weekly goal, and it turned out that I made up for it and then some during those 4 mile walks (burning 2000+ calories OVER my weekly goal). SP increased my food intake because of this and I just don't feel comfortable eating around 2000 calories a day (I can't get anywhere near this, even with a buffet!), so I am going to slow down a little.

If I feel better this afternoon I may do some Turbo Jam (the 20 minute workout) but if I start to feel pain, I am going to stop (that's always a good idea, right? lol). I'll update here if I do anything more. I don't even think I am going to check out what the Quickfire Challenges are for today.

It's Monday! A new breath, for a new week...the month is almost over and before we know it, this week will be too!

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 207 (day 4 / week 30)

I just got back from the same 4.16 walk that I have been doing for the past few days. My numbers are almost identical to yesterday. 4.16 miles, 80 minutes 1095 calories. This makes me feel a little more confident that my HRM isn't giving me wonky numbers. If it is, at least it's consistent to itself.

Last night I went to a buffet with my hubby's family and I didn't enter my food until this morning. I knew before hand that we were going to go out with the in-laws so I saved up some of my calories throughout the day so that I didn't go over during dinner.

I was a little worried, because buffets are scary, but sparkpeople has trained me good! I didn't go over my calorie budget, in fact I actually had 300 more to go to meet my minimum for the day! I didn't leave feeling icky, guilty or full (it's funny how I used to love that full feeling--not it makes me feel not that great). First, I ALWAYS fill up my plate with mixed salad greens (not the premade salads--those are full of sodium and surprisingly a lot of calories!) and eat tomatoes, mushrooms and a few TBs of carrots and a very small drizzle of ranch (less than 1 TB) and get fresh shrimp. Usually after my salad, I'm not as starving, so I am more clear of the danger zone than when I walked in there.

After that the 2nd thing I do is I ALWAYS scope out the buffet, instead of diving right in. I also grab a smaller plate and use that instead of the larger plates (I use the larger plate for salad). I make note of all of the veggies and come back and grab the ones that aren't bathed in some sort of cream sauce or butter. Nothing in any kind of creamy looking sauce is going to be healthy--especially at a buffet. The buffet we went to last night was huge, so there was a big selection.

I grab only a very small serving (few 2TBs) of things that I haven't tried before, and want to try, and even of my favorites, that are easy to over endulge with (like mashed potatoes) I only get a very small serving of as well--like 1/4c-1/2c. I go back only if I really want more. This strategy for the buffet works really well for me. With the little servings, I am able to fit a ton of variety on my plate, and if I don't *really* like it, I don't eat it all, because what is worse than filling up on calories of stuff that isn't worth it? Unfortunately one of my favorites is buffet pizza. I know, so gross, but for some reason I like cheap tasting pizza lol. I grabbed a slice and ate maybe 1/2 of it, if that. This was a HUGE victory for me, becuase I am estimating that each tiny slice is about 300 calories and I used to easily put away 2 or 3 of these little slices of yummy goodness. I had about 2 cups of mixed salad greens and the salad stuff I mentioned previously (tiny bit of ranch, 3 large tom slices, 1/2c mushrooms and 2 or so TB of shredded carrots, 1.5c of fresh shrimp), 1/4c mashed potatoes, 1/2c lime cilantro shrimp rice, 1-2 bites of shrimp fajitas, maybe 2 ozs of grilled salmon, 1/2c green beans (my favs), 1/2 of a small slice of mushroom pizza, and for the end, a reduced sugar banana creame pie. I didn't finish everything on my plate and got a great variety.

I know I don't normally post about these types of things, but I wanted to share my tips for having a successful night at a buffet, without breaking your calorie bank and feeling guilty. It's about a lifestyle change, and lets face it, not everyone in our lives cares what they eat or how much, so we can't avoid restaurants and buffets (especially here in Vegas). If you know that you are going to go to a restaurant/buffet before hand, and are worried that you wont find healthy choices, save up calories throughout the day so that you don't break the bank during dinner. Fill up on salad (not premade ones!) and don't drown your salad with death in a bottle (as my old professor used to refer to salad dressing). Remember that not everything in the salad area is healthy! Use a smaller plate instead of the large one for your 2nd trip (unless you are eating salad), scope out the buffet looking for veggie entres and grab SMALL portions of everything. Stay away from creamy stuff! If there is something you must have a lot of, grab a SMALL portion, and go back for another SMALL portion. I promise these tips will help you. Take tiny steps, just like you do with exercise, and it will soon be apart of your healthy lifestyle.

Hope you all have a great day! Make each day count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 206 (day 3 / week 30)

You would think after 206 consecutive days of blogging that I wouldn't forget, right? Well I did, and that's why this post is going out after 10PM! lol.

I had a fairly busy day today, and I think that's why I didn't post. We haven't been home in over 13 hours and I posted my minutes on sparkpeople, but just forgot to blog.

I'm tired so it's gonna be short and sweet. Today I walked 4.16 miles in 75-80 minutes and burned 1090 calories. Same route as yesterday, but did it early this morning, so I wasn't fighting through the heat (it was a nice 82-83F when I left).

Be back in la manana to do this all over again!

Have a good weekend. Hope you are making it count! Remember, 1 day at a time, each day on it's own--that's all that matters! You can do it!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 200 (day 4 / week 29)

I can't believe that today is day 200 of my resolution! For 200 days straight I have exercised. For 200 days in a row, I have done this! It doesn't really feel like it's been 200 days, because I have been doing this one day at a time. If I've learned anything it's that baby steps, and taking big goals one day at a time, works. It's not about the bigger picture, until that picture is complete; it's about each individual brush stroke coming together, to make a lasting picture. I am so proud that I have stuck with this, and that I will be able to say soon, that I did something that changed my life, or an entire year straight. In case you guys are wondering, this is probably going to emerge into something more than a 365 day resolution--maybe it will turn into a 2 year resolution...how awesome would that be??

Today I went for a long walk...4.31 miles to be exact (85 minutes including my cool down and 1225 calories burned according to my HRM). I went by myself and brought my CD player. I haven't used this thing in YEARS. I was happy right off, because my belt thingy, that my CD player goes into actually fit me! The last time I tried to wear it, it was so tight that the straps kept falling out of the clip--it just wouldn't stay together. Yaay! I listened to No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom all the way through and then 2 or 3 songs over again. Music really makes the time go by fast. I hadn't listened to that CD in a long time, so it was fun to listen to something that was a "favorite" at one point in my life.

Today's QFC is T-Stands again. I won't be doing those, because....well because I did enough. I did try, but my legs were just to wobbly from the walking. Maybe later (probably not lol).

Off to take a shower. I should take a picture for Jen, the Prior Fat Girl because she was asking for our sweaty exercise pictures a couple weeks ago (you'd be surprised with how pictures of sweaty people exercising prove to be a form of inspiration/motivation lol). I never did it, but I always think about it lol. This girl has lost almost 100...ONE HUNDRED pounds! She is working on her last 10 and we are all so proud of her! Totally amazing and such an inspiration.

I can't wait until I can finally call myself a prior fat girl...now I'm just a semi fat girl doing the "done girl" dance--cause I'm, "done being a fat girl" lol (one of my sparkpeople groups).

Have a great day everyone! Make it count!! Do something everyday and do it for a week (1 day at a time)...then 2 weeks and 3...before you know it, you will see day 200 roll around! woo hoo!

I can do this. I am a star!