Finally.

I got up and out this morning. I went 1.7 miles at a brisk walk. It felt really good. Gods and Goddesses willing, I will be back out again tomorrow, for another short brisk walk. I felt good all day. Except the students were so awful that my co-teacher made a test for them to take tomorrow. Yikes.

2 mile run

yesterday. Hope to go again tonight as I missed this morning, but its the boy's bday so doubtful. I'll be at 6 weeks on Wed so can start some light strength training then (though not abdominal specific until 3 mos I think).

Elliptical, how do I love thee,

Did 60 minutes on the elliptical. SO FUN! I love it, it's like all the good parts of running but you can just go and go! I did 5.3 miles.

Now, according to the machine, I worked off somewhere around 780 calories. That makes the elliptical the exception to my big "working out won't help you lose weight!" rule. Because 800 calories in a hour? That will help you lose weight, regardless of dietary changes. Unless you are really putting in some serious food.

Anyhoodle, I like it so much, Chris and I are talking about selling our treadmill to play it again and trading it in for one.

4 Mile Fast Walk

Plus strength routine. I only did worked out three times this week! So, not as good a week as last week was. Well, I did the strength routine four times. Still, not a good week!

Two more

Couldn't quite get er done this morning, so I went tonight. Its so nice that its cool outside and I have options!

Did ten minutes on the treadmill yesterday and apparently my ankle wasn't ready for it, so I hurt it again. Got off and tried the elliptical, but I don't like the machines at my work gym, so I switched to the bike and did that for thirty minutes. It really wasn't my best day, I was pretty cranky about it.

Fat Dog

Fat dog and I did 2 again this morning, in 26 minutes. Good progress, feels great to be out there. Still taking it easy.

2

I didn't post again last week but I did 2 on Monday, walked the first mile and real slow jog the second mile. We had our leadership conference all week and then drove to vegas this weekend for Garth Brooks show, so nothing else last week.

However, I started this week off on a good note. I did 2 miles after I dropped Kailey at the bus and was home in time to get ready for work and take Jake. I did a real slow jog the whole way and it took me 28 minutes, so 14 min miles. I feel pretty good. My goal is to continue this in the mornings (although its damn hard when its still dark and cold out at 7am!). I'm going to stick to 2 miles until I get it down to 10 or 11 min miles, then add a half mile until I get to 3, with the goal being to do 3 miles in 30 minutes. Only then will I focus on longer distances.

As for strength training, I'm going to buy either a medicine ball or a bosu. These were critical tools in the core training I did with my trainer a couple years ago, and they can be done at home in front of the TV. But again, not gonna worry about that for another couple weeks.

On the health front - my goal has been to add more fiber to my diet, starting with breakfast. So I've been trying to eat fiber one, which tastes like poop, or oatmeal. And, I'm drinking a 24 oz decaf ice tea once or twice a day, and limiting myself to one diet soda (that's not new, but its what I do).

Elliptical

Did 3.1 miles on the elliptical at the gym. Will do a slow two mile walk with the dog here in a few minutes, plus my strength exercises.

This was the first time I have ever done a full workout on the elliptical. The only other time I went on that machine was five minutes one time, and that was just to fulfill an assignment from my therapist that I try something new at the gym.

But I must say I really liked it. At first, I thought it was going to be pure misery, because I could feel right away that my quads were working harder than they typically do when I am doing my regular, shuffling little jogging, but once I warmed up I was good. I had planned to do 30 minutes, not setting a distance because it was a new machine for me, but by the end I was enjoying myself so much I decided to go ahead and do 3.1 miles, which only took me another four minutes. I really liked it! No pressure on my hip at all, and very little on my ankle and I think that may have been caused by my tendency to be picking up my feet and going on my toes on the machine, which I think you are not supposed to do, it looks to me like you are supposed to keep your feet flat, so I suppose that is just something I will get better at over time.

And what a workout it is! Geez, I had it only on level 2 and my heart rate was right up there where it usually is when running and I really felt like I got a good workout! Chris usually puts that damn thing up to like level eight or something!

Anyways, certainly a really good alternative to running while an injury heals or just to take a break, or for when I have to be at the gym and not outside.

In other health goal news, my latest thing is trying to dilute my "water" even more than I typically do. I keep reading that artificial sweeteners, when used too much, tend to trigger cravings for sugar, and my goal right now is to have as many sugar free days as possible. So, I typically use one of those little "water bottle" packets of Crystal Light in a one quart water bottle, but now I am diluting it even further and using one of those little packets to half a gallon of water, so just one packet per day, if I drink my full two quarts of water a day, which is what I always try to do. I will be keeping sugar free days on my exercise log, so we'll see how I do. I'm not willing to swear it off entirely, since I think a life without chocolate isn't much of a life at all, but at the same time, I know that it contributes mightily to my not being able to lose more weight and also to just me feeling miserable.

I'm thinking my first 5K of the year will be in March, a suburb near here does a St. Patrick's day 5K, so I think I'll do that.

I had a good week y'all

Today did four mile fast walk. It was windy and cold. Glad I decided to walk instead of run, since running in the wind is just way more awful than walking in it. Anyhoodle, my total mileage for the week was 16.2 miles, half of it walking and the other half running.

Good week!