Day 103

One of my biggest problems with this challenge is finding motivation on the days when I don't exercise first thing in the morning. It becomes a game of wills and I almost always lose.

I thought forcing myself to blog before noon would help, which for the most part does, except for on days like today when I had to be at work for a meeting at 7am. I didn't get home until almost 1pm with all the errands we ran afterwards, and that killed the day for blogging and exercising (this is my problem on the weekends also with work). My motivation goes out the door. I guess this is where the "one choice at a time," part comes in, but I guess i struggle with that also,  which is why I have to tell myself this everyday.

Anyway today could have been better, and would have been if I didn't have that last minute meeting.

Tonight I did static holds in a bicep curl 1-2 mins each while pulsing inward to feel my deltoids working. I was watching those little cooking tutorials from Tasty and Tip Hero that float all over FB, hence the varied times (I watched 6 videos).

So tired. Off to bed. I HAVE to get out of this rutt and start exercising in the morning again.

One day at a time. One choice at a time.

I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength.

Day 29 (1 day left!)

Today was my day off and I completely forgot that my MIL was giving me my birthday present today--a photo shoot of my son (he just turned 4). I exercised first thing when I got up, like I planned, but then we headed to the mall and I put on my pedometer (the spiffy one I mentioned yesterday) because I knew I would be doing A LOT of walking.

At home I did EA Sports Active's 30 day challenge (can you believe I have only 1 day left???) and that ended up being 12 minutes burning 68 calories.

I am surprised and a little disappointed w/ my spiffy pedometer, because I think it falls asleep on the job and doesn't keep track like it should. I noticed it this morning when I was outside with the monkey walking, while he was riding his bike. I walked down the street and up again, and it said I took like 4 steps. What the hizzy yo?

So when I got home from the mall, I looked at it (from being there for 4--count'em 4 hours!) and it said 4050 steps and that I was only moving for 43 minutes. *buzzer* wrong answer. Maybe it needs a new battery. Maybe I'll have hubby do that tomorrow while I'm at work and wear my dino pedometer (it's old).

Ok well I'm off to bed. Have a good weekend!

I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength! (Phil 4:13)

Day 12

Today I did the Wii Fit Plus, as it is a "rest day" on EA Active Sports. I did 30 minutes and burned 109 calories. I want to continue to exercise, but I don't want to overdue it while I'm on this diet.

R3P2D2 (Round 3, Phase 2, Day 2)

This morning I weighed in at 188.2! Sweet.


Bust: 38.0 (-0.5)
R Arm: 11 (-0)
Waist: 34 (-1)
Hips: 42.5 (-0.5)
R Thigh: 21 (-0)

Not bad! We will see how tomorrow goes. Off to wake the Monkey Boy up!

Have a good day. Make it count!

I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength! (Phil 4:13)

Day 10 (a long time ago)

It feels like I exercised such a long time ago that it feels like I didn't exercise. It was only this morning, and I was done by 9am. Sweet.

I did EA Active Sports and burned 114 calories for 18 minutes. Later this afternoon I got into a cleaning frenzy and did some heavy cleaning for maybe 90 minutes. When hubby got home, he could tell because he said "wow, someone has been busy" lol. I guess that's a man's way of saying it looks nice :).

I had my ultrasound of my thyroid today (I thought it was Saturday but I guess I was wrong) but wont know any results until Jan 21st. Maybe.

Have to work tomorrow, so off to bed.

Have a good night!

I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength! (Phil 4:13)

Day 325 (day 3 / week 46)

Last night was the first night that the Monkey Boy spent the night somewhere else (with his Nana). It was different. I was able to exercise this morning and focus 100% on that. That was nice :).

Today I did Day 4 of the 30DS and I did level 2, because I am bored with level 1 (yes only after 3 days lol). I modified the cardio again, doing shadow boxing instead of the jumping (high knees). I also followed Anita with the other jumpy ones that they were able to make low impact through her.

I also did 36 Wii Minutes focusing on balance and core stuff .

This is Mii (Meli). Isn't she cute?

Today I played this one game, that I hate. It's a balance game that I don't even know the name of. I hate it, because I absolutely suck at it. I can usually never get passed level 2 or 3 (I've been to level 3 like maybe 2 times in the last month) so I never play the game. I decided to today, though, just to see if I could do it.

I beat it! I finished ALL of the levels in the time allotted! TWICE!! Wow. I really amazed myself today. Just goes to show that all of the balance work I have been doing lately is paying off, and proves anything you put time into does pay off in some way or another (*cough* exercise).

This is level 1. You have to shift your balance to get the tiny Mii marble into the glowing pinkish hole.


(level 1)

Then it drops to level 2, it becomes more challenging with more marbles, so on and so forth. The very last level has like 10 (i'm guessing) Mii marbles and you have to get them all into the hole. It's shaped like a W with ridges and the sides are flat so that they roll of the edges (the entire board spins and knocks them all off when one of them falls off the sides). It was surprisingly easy. Some of the previous levels are much harder.


(level 2)

At the very end, all of the Mii Marbles form a circle, change into little Wii people at the end, and jump around excitidly. It's a small but fun reward.



On top of that fun reward, my Wii Fit age was 20 today! TWENTY!



Even the balance board was pretty impressed with that--it never says my body is in "great condition" (that means absolutely nothing except to a 31 year old fat chick lol).



Off to take a shower and go Christmas shopping for the boy and other family members. That is why we had him spend the night at his Nana's house. I hope he didn't drive her crazy. He probably didn't. He only does that to us. lol.

Make it count! The holidays are coming up!

I can do this. I am a star.

UPDATE: I also walked 2.12 miles.

Day 318 (day 3 / week 45)

Today I did 63 Wii Minutes. I focused on flying...b/c if it ever becomes possible, I want to be a seasoned pro at it lol (they are arm exercises lol), the snowball throw, which is core exercises/posture and balance in one, golf (again) and tilt city, which is balance with hand/eye/body coordination. Lots of fun.

I tried to do the Locust or the Lotus (I forget what it's called), where you sit as still as you can w/out moving (supposed to help you focus), but I can't make it passed like 60 seconds when I am doing good. On average I can't make it passed 20 seconds lol. Oh well, just gotta keep trying. I did that 4 or 5 times. I just can't sit still very well lol (I move all around on the stillness test too.

I took pics for yesterday and forgot to post, so I will do it now. This is what it looks like when I golf. You can see the little yellow area with the red line in it, that shows my shift of weight and my balance.










No matter what I do or how many times I move her, this is where she ends up when I am exercising. She loves her cow hoof (that's what she is chewing on) and will gnaw at it the entire time I am exercising. More often than not, she has her paw right up there on my balance board. lol.







Have a great day! Make it count! If you start now, you will be on track for any new years resolutions--it takes a while to create habits! It's very doable though, you just have to be committed! You can to anything you tell yourself you can! If you say you can't, you wont.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 317 (day 2 / week 45)

I think I realized today why I procrastinate with blogging. I am not procrastinating with blogging so much as I am with a 2nd part of exercise. I always exercise early in the morning, but I have this intention to exercise a 2nd time in the day. I have mentioned a few times that if I don't exercise in the mornings then I have a difficult time in the afternoon. I think this is why I blog so late. I want to exercise late, but keep putting that off, essentially putting off blogging. :)

Glad I figured that out.

Today I did 30 Wii minutes (golf for 10, balance/posture for 10 and yoga for 10). I also did 25 minutes of yard work. I intended to do more and get back on the Wii but I procrastinated. lol. Oh well, at least I got something done. I was really sore today from yesterday (golf and flying). My shoulders and hip flexors and waist are sore. The good kind of sore :).

We are having the bug guy come out again tomorrow (he was just here like maybe 2 weeks ago and we haven't seen many dead bugs like we should have) and then it's my hubby's sister's birthday, so it won't be a late day (or a 2 parter) for exercise, like I intend most days. I will just be exercising in the am, and then I will blog about it afterward, since I have no reason not to. lol. We'll see how that goes lol.

Have a great night and an awesome weekend!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 283 (day 3 / week 40)

I woke up this morning REALLY sore. I told myself yesterday that I would do the 30DS regardless of how I felt, and I did. I'm glad I did. I am a lot less sore now, than I was when I woke up, but I knew that would be the case if I did it.

Today was day 2 of the 30 day shred and I did level 2. It's a fun level and I like how I am doing this other schedule of it, so everyday seems different. I think that will keep my interest.

As far as the 30 day in a row thing, I am not going to hold myself to that, because of work and other things that I don't have much control over. I can say now, while it's my day off, that I will do the 30DS when I get off of work, but that's much easier said than done. I am, however, going to do 30 days, and will follow the schedule I posted a few days ago. Thirty days is 30 days, no mater how you look at it. I know that I will be doing something physical on the days that I am not doing the 30 day shred, so it's all good.

Day 2 of no sugar is much easier than day 1. Not having the temptations in my own home makes it easy, but my hubby does have 2 candy bars on the kitchen counter, that I am surprisingly not tempted by (yaay!) and we also have chocolate chips/chocolate milk, but those are for the most part for the monkey boy, so I am not tempted by those either. Consistency is definitely the name of the game when it comes to a hard goal like this (this is how it was for me at the beginning of my exercise resolution as well). Each day becomes easier than the day before, and it's like a snowball effect.

I'm secretly excited because my hubby has been interested and has been looking at a Wii Fit. I don't want to seem too excited to him, because I want him to think he's getting it for himself. If I show too much of an interest, we will have gotten it because of me. Then when one of those discussions comes up when I want something (a haircut, exercise video, weights, whatever it may be) he will use it against me and say "well we just got you a ________". lol. If he gets it for himself, we all know who will use it though (ME!). So, I'm hoping we can get it for Christmas, for a present to the family (the monkey boy will like it too). It's coming up pretty quickly!

We have lots of errands to do today, so we will get in a lot of walking. I am going to return the HRM that we bought from Kohl's. My HRM doesn't count the calories for anything below 80ish (my resting HR is pretty low--48-52). It also jumps around and reads inaccurately (I had my arms in the air and it said my HR was 188--so not true) and I think my timex reads better than this New Balance HRM so I will just use what I have for now. *shrugs*

Ok well off to take a shower.

Have a great day! Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 269 (day 3 / week 38)

Today was a fun day. I went to the Walk From Obesity and saw two of my coworkers there and the director of our unit. It was nice to see someone there that I knew who didn't mind walking around--I love my hubby but he doesn't care for walking the way I do. . I also got to meet Dr Teng, whom I hear a lot about, but have never met before. We walked 2 laps, which I think was about 1.5 miles and then we walked around the activities part of it. We were there for 3 hours, but I only had my HRM running for 2 (the physical part until we slowed down to browse) burning 907 minutes.


The mayor of our city, Oscar Goodman, was there too. He is the one in the suit. I got a great picture of his back lol.


There was another event going on at the same time, and I think it was a Shred-It party. You could take your documents that needed to be shredded here and have it shredded for free. There was also a farmers market and I bought 6 herb plants: mother of thyme, oregano, italian parsley, golden lemon parsley, purple basil and italian basil and a planter and soil for 4 of them all for $20. We bought some homemade olive and oregano hummus and a sampler of 4 different olive oils and barrel-aged heirloom balsamic vinegar (SO delicious!). We also bought some fresh baked bread by a local baker (Bon Bakery) here as well, fetta batard and multigrain batard. They go very well with the oils and balsamic vinegar that we got.

There was a big jump house dinosaur there that The Monkey Boy and my MIL went in. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but when it was time to get out because he seemed so frightened, he didn't want to leave and had a meltdown when we did (Typical).


See? Exercise can be fun! You can easily trick yourself into exercising by hitting a farmers market and just walking all over the place with family and friends. You wont even know you're exercising because you are distracting yourself with conversation and a good time.

Be back tomorrow after I finished making it count. Hope you are having a great weekend!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 263 (day 4 / week 37)

Almost 100 days left... can you believe how fast this year has gone by?

Today I did 2 things. I walked to CVS this morning, which I think is 2.5 miles in 40 minutes, 647 calories burned. I met my hubby there, bought a dog bed for Pebbles, and then we drove home as it was too hot to walk back.

Then I walked on the treadmill for 12 minutes at the highest incline (still trying to figure out the treadmill--haven't read the directions yet) using the arm thingies...i don't know what they are called but it's almost like you are cross country skiing with them, and you can control the resistance, and it's pretty tough right now (when I find that out, I'll update here too). I cooled down for 10 minutes and burned a total of 261 calories.

Sorry for the haircut teaser. I forgot I mentioned it! lol. I have to hit the sac now, but when I get a picture of it, I will update it. I cut 5" off, so it's kind of a long bob now. I like it :).

Have a good night!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 261 (day 2 / week 37)

I've been procrastinating all day. Not with exercise, but entering it on sparkpeople and here.

I finished exercising, got all showered up and ready for the day (to do nothing lol) all before 8am. I did my 2.08 mile route and jogged maybe 1/2 of that. I can feel that I am getting faster :). Including my cool down it took me 50 minutes total and I burned 621 calories.

Not bad.

Off to spend some more time w/ my family. Hope you all had a great day!

Have an awesome weekend. Make it count! The earlier the better... (for me anyway).

I can do this. I am a star.

PS Did I mention that I got my hair cut?

Day 253 (day 1 / week 37)

Yesterday (9/10) was very busy. I was trying to research doctors for our PCP and then I found some paperwork that I realized was due today (9/11) so I spent the end of my day reading and taking "tests."

Luckily, I was able to exercise before any of this happened. I did my very first route, 2.08 miles, and including the cool down, I was out for about 46 minutes. My HRM is really frustrating me now. I think that wearing it to work the other day killed the battery...again. That being said I hope my hubby will let me buy the Polar F11 that I decided to buy. Polar was my first HRM. It lasted for quite a few years without ever having to change the battery (like 4-5) in fact, I still haven't changed the battery in it...but I can't find the strap, so I can't tell if it's working or accurate. The watch part still works though lol.

Ok the Monkey Boy woke me up this morning, so I am dragging his little butt out with me whether he likes it or not. Hopefully he doesn't scream bloody murder when we are out. I could only imagine what the neighbors would think.

I have to go to work today to drop off this paperwork, so I will blog during the Monkey Boy's nap. Pray with me that he takes a nap lol.

Make today count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 248 (day 3 / week 36)

I scrubbed the kitchen carpet today for exercise. One hour and 40 minutes and 650-odd calories (I don't remember the exact number and I am too lazy to go get my HRM watch to see what it said).

That went well and my carpet looks good...although it's still wet and I scrubbed it 12 hours ago. Hopefully it dries, and we don't have mildew. The fans are on high, and it's still wet, not soaked, but just wet.

On a different subject, yesterday we had Citywide, a company contracted by Nevada Power to make people's air conditioning run more efficiently, come out to the house. Our air conditioning works fine, but the bill is ridiculous. It's a free service, so we figured, what the heck, and made an appointment. They came out and put 2lbs 4oz of freon in! For free! We thought that would be the end of it, that it would run cooler, like they said, but it's not. In fact, it's not working at all now. We have it set to 84F, and it's 90 in here! It just runs and runs, and never shuts off. We eventually turned it off and opened the door, because it was the same temp outside! I have called this company 4 times in the last 5 hours, and all I keep getting is, "I called the tech out there and he didn't call you? He should have called you. I will call him again," and we never get a call.

This bites. I have to go to sleep in an hour for work, and it's dark outside now. They are not going to call or come and it totally frustrates me. You would think that it would get cooler in here, now that it's cooling down outside, but it's getting warmer. It started off at 88F and will probably be 91F sometime in the next hour or so. Oye. I have no idea what we can do, but call this place...although they obviously don't care because they aren't calling back. *shrugs.* Hopefully (doubtfully) my hubby will do something about it tomorrow. The in-laws decided to have their Labor Day party tomorrow instead of on Monday, so he will be there all day instead. I am willing to bet $ that he will forget to call, or do anything about it, and then when I get home from work, he is just going to complain. lol. Gotta love men. What would they do without us? (lol j/k--he's a good guy, I'm just totally teasing).

Anyway, I work tomorrow (Sunday) and have Monday off, and work again Tuesday and Wednesday. I will probably do my stairs at work and such. Maybe I will get to do a few bed transfers.

Hope you guys have a good night! We are hot, but in good spirits, nonetheless. I hope the heat doesn't keep us (me) up. Hubby doesn't have to work in the morning, but I have to.

Viva Las Vegas. pssht. lol.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 236 (day 5 / week 34)

Today I got out somewhat early and walked my 2 mile route. At the point where I turn around (1 mile) there is a park called the Helen Meyer Park & Center, and last week when I was walking with the Monkey Boy, I saw something there called the, "World Trail." I thought it would be a great idea to come back and do something there, since it gives a variety of opportunities to do more exercise.
You may have seen a "world trail" before, but didn't know what it was or even what to do to do with it...well, like in the case of me (lol). I have seen these quite a few times over the years, but the signs that came with it had been vandalized or damaged to the point where it wasn't readable, so I was just clueless. At this park, you can read them. Clearly. :) (you can click on the pictures to get a larger one to read the signs).

In the middle of my 2 mile walk, I stopped and did 2 of the exercises at the World Trail. As you can see, there are a lot of them (maybe 10-15?) but I only did two. The step up thingies: 2 sets of 15 on the medium peg, and 1 set of 15 on the tallest peg and the parallel bars (3 sets of 10 dips). The pegs I liked. I used balance and my quads, glutes and hammies. It had my HR up in the 140s doing these (great workout!) and they were fun, in an exercisey sort of way.


The other, the parallel bars, were really short and stumpy (even for me at 5'2 + 3/4!) and a bit awkward. I tried to do all of the exercises that it suggested, The Arm Walk, Body Dip and, Body Swing, but could really only do the later two. I did 2 sets of 10 body dips and 1 set of 10 body swings. I didn't even really know how to go about doing the arm walk because of how awkwardly short they were. I bet this world is for kids lolol.

All in all i accomplished 66 minutes, 2 miles and 2 Quickfire Challenges on the World Trail (that I made up for myself), and burned 648 calories.

I want to do more today...I NEED to do more today because I work 36 hours in the next 3 days... but the Monkey Boy just woke up. Maybe he will let me take him for a walk :). I'll update here if (WHEN) I do.

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 228 (day 34 / week 33)

Today I got up and headed outside before the sun rose. I really enjoy walking early. It's not even 80 degrees outside yet, and it's so peaceful because there are hardly any traffic sounds in the distance at that time.

I walked up and down the street again, 4x. I am estimating that it's about 2 miles. With the amount of time it takes me to walk it, it makes sense, and the fun part is that it has an obvious incline (not too much, but just enough)! More work=more calories burned! I warmed up a bit before heading out and had a short cool down period, putting me at 45 minutes (481 calories).

Ok, off to get ready for work! I get to leave 20 minutes later today b/c it's a weekend and my hubby can watch the Monkey Boy. Woo hoo!

Make it count!

Have a blessed Sunday.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 224 (day 7 / week 32)

Gotta make today a quickie because I have to go get ready for work now.

I just got back from doing my 2 mile route that I do often. This time I wore my sculpting gloves and took my little hand weights with me and got a pretty good workout. It took me a little longer to finish today because of the awkward added weight (just have to get used to it), so it took me about 40 minutes, including the cool down and I burned 514 calories. Sweet!

Ok gotta go get ready for work.

Have a good day everyone! Make it count, even if it's by parking as far away as possible to your destination and walking the extra distance.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 223 (day 6 / week 32)

I am so proud of myself today! I got up uber early to exercise and did it! I was out of the house around 4:45am and I walked up and down my street shadow boxing with my sculpting gloves on and with 2 lb weights (I think for a total of 3-4 lbs or so). I really liked walking up and down the street. I have no idea how far it was, but I will map it later tonight to find out (I'm pretty curious although it probably isn't very far).

I started out doing alternate overhead shoulder presses, then that turned into alternate bicep curls, and then I did the cross, hook, undercut variation from Turbo Jam that Chalene loves for us to do so much (I love them too).

It feels so great. I feel awake, I have energy and I am happy because I got in 25 minutes of exercise, burning 338 calories, before 5:15 am. Sweet! God blessed me with a good night sleep (thank you Lord!) and with the motivation to do it.

What better than to start your day off with a blessing :). I should bless you guys with my walk and take a picture of the view I have of some of the casinos from our street...really beautiful!

Have a good day everyone! If I do more when I get home (which I plan to) I will post it here! Off to get ready for work!

UPDATE: Not sure what it's worth, but I parked in the farthest place I could find today and walked about a 1/2 mile just to and from my car today (over 1000 steps and yes, I actually counted them! lol). Not much, but it's something and the best way I could find to incorporate exercise into my day. It took me about 15 minutes total (in a dress and heels). It's 8:30 pm and I am bushed, so I am calling it a night so I can get up early again to exercise. I don't have to be in as early (1/2 hr later than today), but I am going to wake up at 4:30am again, just so that I can exercise longer. I still don't know how far I walked this morning. Maybe I will figure it out tomorrow.

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 216 (day 6 / week 31)

I got up *really* early this morning (5am!), to exercise. I can honestly say that this would have never happened before.

I did Turbo Jam's "Burn" workout (from Learn and Burn), that way if time runs out for me today, it's my fail safe and I will at least have this to fall back on. I will update it here when I do something more later today!

Gotta go get ready to leave!

Make today count!

I can do this. I am a star.