Making A Come Back!

Well I finally did it!  I joined the YMCA this past Friday and I am so proud of myself for finally taking a step in the right direction with renewing my weight loss journey.

Sure I've thought and written about my plan to get back on track with losing weight before but I haven't actually followed through with the plan.  This time there wasn't a lot of thinking, writing, or planning involved - I just did it!

My good friend Chelsea was proposed to on Christmas Eve by her Marine boyfriend Dan who was home on leave.  I was informed soon after that I would be standing up in her wedding as a bridesmaid.  My initial thought was something along the lines of OK, you really need to lose weight now so you'll look good in a dress in front of her family and friends.

Then last week the plans were made to look at bridesmaid dresses and almost complete panic set in.

I was not looking forward to trying dresses on with the other two girls who are what I call skinny.  I expressed my concerns to Chelsea about needing to lose weight for her wedding and so we made plans to go to the YMCA (where Chelsea works) to give me a quick tour and to sign me up.

Thanks to my employer I only have to pay $24/month because they take care of the joiners fee and I get a $5 discount on top of my student rate.

Chelsea and I are now workout buddies which is great.

Tonight was our first workout.  Between chatting with Chelsea and reading Charlie St. Cloud (for the second time) 30 minutes flew by and I had put in 6.17 miles on the bike.

I was thinking of waiting to workout again with Chelsea on Thursday after work but since I've been home I've been tossing around the idea of working out tomorrow right after work on my own.  There is only one fear in my mind and that is that I'll burn myself out with working out by trying to do too much too soon.  But I'm also in this awesome mood where I'm motivated and want to workout.  I haven't felt like this in a while so I'm thinking I should just go with it?

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

I'll be watching for your comments and I'll keep you posted on what I decide.  I'm making a come back to both blogging and to my weight loss journey!

This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing

Can anyone name the artist that sings that song?  Read this post to find out if you were right!

Fitness for life is a two credit gym class I am taking this semester that requires me to hit the cardio for a minimum of 20 minutes on Wednesday and Friday every week.  This week I decided I wasn't feeling the treadmill so I jumped on the stationary bike.

Wednesday I had a dead iPod so I just pedaled away while trying really hard to not stare at the timer on the bike.  Let's just say that it was the longest and toughest 30 minutes of my life.  I was always varying the resistance and slowing down and speeding up.

If I had my iPod it would have helped some but I've noticed even with running on the treadmill music just doesn't cut it when it comes to getting me to forget about the timer.

Today I still had a dead iPod but I happened to see my Kindle as I was getting things packed up at work before heading to the gym.  I decided since I'm not taking as much time to read now that school has started why not use my gym time as reading time?

I had a scare when I got set up on the bike after turning my Kindle on - it said my battery is low plug me in!  No, it didn't really say that exactly but close enough.

I rolled with the punches though and just decided to use it until it died on me.

My Kindle returned all of the love I give it by surviving 31 minutes and only reminding me one more time that it wanted to be connected to some juice.

If you follow me on Daily Mile at all you already know that I was 20 minutes into my workout before I checked the time.  Even better is it felt like I had just gotten on the bike a minute ago.  Even better still is I "went" farther than I did on Wednesday and kept the resistance the same at 10 for the entire workout.

On my drive home I realized working out ain't no thinkin' thing!

When my head is involved in my workout I don't preform as well as I know I could.  Wednesday is a prime example - varying the resistance and speed because my legs were "tired/sore" or whatever and the time was going by super slow.  Same thing happens with running.  I stop running long before my body truly says it can't take me any farther at the pace I'm going.

Today proves the point that half - or more of - the battle is mental.  Because my mind was occupied with what I was reading I didn't have the ability to worry about the time and my legs being "tired/sore".  Sorry brain guess what?  My legs felt the exact same way as they did Wednesday and I didn't need to slow down or make it easier!

I am not sure that I could run while reading my Kindle so for now I am going to stick to the stationary bike but maybe sometime I'll give reading a shot while I'm running.  Stationary bike, you and I plus third wheel Kindle have a date next Wednesday at 11:45am - see you then!

Questions for you...

How do you overcome the mental battle in your workouts?

Do you read while running/biking on gym equipment?  (Please don't try reading while running/biking out in the "real" world!)

Currently listening to...

Ala-Freakin-Bama - Trace Adkins - album: Cowboy's Back in Town (see some pictures I took of Mr. Adkins at Country Fest in June here

If you guessed Trace Adkins as the artist who sings the song I used for my post title you were correct!

I just have to add another song to my "currently listening to" for the day!  Brown Chicken Brown Cow - Have you seen the music video for this??  If not watch it now!!

Back on the Wagon!

Hello Summer!  While the weather here in Wisconsin might not always feel like summer right now I am officially done with school for the semester so it is my summer, woot!  With summer should come more consistent blogging from me (yay!) and less whining about being stressed (double yay!).

I want to say a quick thank you to my readers who have stuck around despite my lack of interesting and regular posts.  Also, I'm excited to say I've reached 200 comments!!  Some of those comments are my own replies to your comments but still, 200 comments!!  I'm excited if you can't tell. ;)

Yesterday marked day one of working 8-hour days at my job.  I don't really get much of a summer break by working 40-hour weeks but I am making money which I need to be able to pay for school so I can't complain.  And I work at the same place my mom does so we carpool all summer.  Not having to pay for gas basically all summer is awesomesauce!

Yesterday also marked day one of no Mountain Dew...again.  Last week I stepped off the no Mountain Dew wagon for a few days.  I got myself back on yesterday, yay for something positive!  I have come to realize that I will probably never be completely Mountain Dew free and I'm OK with that.  If I can consistently limit my intake to 2 per week I would be super happy with that.  So that's my goal, 2 per week...I better drink them slow when I have them then eh?

Sunday Sami and I were schedule for a ride at 10am but let's just say I woke up after 10am and Sami never contacted me so I just said whatever to it.  We aren't schedule for any rides as of right now so I need to get in touch with her.  Because of the full-time hours I'm working for the summer we're only going to be able to get together on the weekends so I really need to get my butt in gear about riding without her.  Here's to getting back on the fitness wagon!

I have an interesting post floating around in my head that I will try to write tonight.  It will have pictures instead of just my boring ol' writing (yay!) so hopefully that helps make my posts more interesting.  I know bloggers love to see pictures and not just a bunch of words.

You are now semi caught up on my life.  I will catch you up a bit more this week with some more posts woot!!

Questions...

What are your summer plans?  Are you working or do you actually get a summer break?

Carpooling: yay or nay?

Help...Please?

If you recall earlier this month I talked about my plans with my friend Sami to bike this summer at least 1/2 times a week together and work our way up to a round trip ride to town from my house (probably about 30 miles).  If not and you would like to read about it and our first ride together you can find it here.

It's now been over a week since our ride and I haven't gone again.  I should have gone alone or asked my dad to go with me over the weekend but I didn't.

Sami and I were supposed to ride together again last Wednesday after I was done with work.  Unfortunately I was coming down with a cold so I wasn't feeling well and decided to leave work 2 hours early that day.  I cancelled our ride.

I should have ridden yesterday as I was feeling pretty good by then but I didn't.

I should ride tonight but as I mentioned in my last post (read it here) I have a lot of work to get done to finish up my speech class.  And oh by the way it's all late so not getting it done tonight (if possible) is not an option.

So, what does this all mean?  Tomorrow when Sami comes over to ride with me it's going to be hell because it's been over a week since I rode last.  Maybe this will teach me a lesson about committing to riding consistently? ;) I can hope!

I'm not going to dwell on the fact that this past week hasn't gone as I thought it would.  I am just going to look ahead and take each day as it comes and do what I can to prevent a repeat.

I still need to come up with some sort of plan for the summer.  The first ride was 8.71 miles.  I'm wondering if that was too much right away?  Obviously Sami and I want to be able to safely ride 30 miles by the end of the summer.  I've never come up with a "training" plan on my own before so I am at a complete loss of where to even begin.

Help...please?

What the H-E-double hockey sticks am I doing??

Just so you know this post is probably not going to be very positive so if you don't want to read a negative Nelly post skip this one.  And I apologize that it seems like I probably do a lot of negative posts but honestly, that's how I feel and this blog is for me to get those negative feelings out there instead of holding them in.

Lately I am wondering what the h-e double hockey sticks I am doing with my life.  More specifically my health and school.

Thursday I biked with my friend Sami.  I planned to take Friday off and bike again alone or with my dad Saturday or Sunday.  I did neither.

Thursday afternoon through Sunday I basically was a couch potato and accomplished nothing other than reading blogs and watching TV.  I had homework that needed to get done like yesterday.

I now have a lot on my plate for this afternoon/evening after I get home from work.  I am going to feel overwhelmed and will probably resist just sitting down and getting it all done.

And I'm wondering why...

I mean seriously, why would I choose to not use the time available to work on homework so I can avoid feeling overwhelmed?

Why would I choose to not use the time available to bike as planned?  Am I really that lazy?

School is approaching the end (thank God!) but I still have so much to do and I just don't know what has turned me into the student who is fine with turning assignments in late, or not doing them at all.  I never was this way, even in high school when I started my procrastination.

I keep talking about how I want to lose weight, and how after my most recent appointment with my doctor in April I need to lose weight for medical reasons but yet I'm still not putting the effort in on my own time.

I can't rely on a work out buddy.  I need to do this on my own most of the time.

I've blogged about my plans and struggles to give up Mountain Dew, or really soda in general, but I have yet to really stick to the plan and follow through.  I keep saying it's because it is available in my house.  But we all know that's just an excuse.  Yes, it would be easier to kick the habit if it wasn't in the house but it is my choice.  I can just say no if I really want to.  Same with at work and at school.  Is it available for me to buy from a vending machine?  Yes.  Do I have to buy one?  NO!

Why is it so hard for me to just say no to soda??

I just feel extremely frustrated with myself lately.  I don't understand what I need to feel like in order for it to set in that I'm doing this to myself and I can change my ways to not feel frustrated and every other negative feeling.

I hope I can turn things around before I hit "rock bottom" and just feel so terrible that I have to make the necessary changes.

If you stuck around this long, thank you.  I appreciate the time it took you to read this and leave a comment.

Goal: Be more positive.  Find something good I've done each day.  Make more good things happen each day.  Be the person I want to be, not the person I make myself be.

I'm finally cool like all of you!!

It's been a long time since I've been on a bike but thanks to a friend from high school, Sami, I'll be riding a bike on a regular basis this summer.  Yesterday while at work I was working hard browsing Facebook on my phone and I came across Sami's status which she said her plan was to ride her bike at least 5 days a week this summer and lose 40 pounds by her birthday.  After leaving a comment about how she should come to my house because I would ride with her I used Facebook to get her phone number so I could text her about really following through on this idea of getting together.

The plan was hatched to meet at my house today after I was home from class.  I had mapped out some routes around my house we could try but when we were actually were ready to leave my house the plan(s) went out the window.  Who needs a plan when you can just fly by the seat of your pants?

Thanks to my free Cardiotrainer app our route was mapped as we went and it was timed.  Thanks to this awesome app I can now be cool like all of you and post mile splits and other work out information on my blog!  Yes, I was really excited when this thought crossed my mind as I was reviewing the stats from my work out.

8.71 miles in 1:00:18

Mile 1: 6:16

Mile 2: 7:20

Mile 3: 5:36

Mile 4: 6:19

Mile 5: 7:07

Mile 6: 5:57

Mile 7: 8:19

Mile 8: 7:38

Average pace 6:55 min/mi

Using this app was awesome! This app automatically pauses your work out when you stop moving, awesomesauce!  Between miles 1 and 2 there was in my terms a hill.  Was there really?  No, according to the elevation report there was only a slight change but not enough for it to really be something.  There were also other little hills along the route which you can see from the slower mile splits.  It's amazing how in a car, or even walking, I wouldn't notice these "hills" but biking boy oh boy do I notice them!  I'm sure as the summer goes on and my legs become better conditioned I won't notice them as much.

The only thing I want to change for next time is the bikes we used.  Because of my plans I thought we would be riding on the gravel roads around my house so we used the mountain bikes.  But while flying by the seat of our pants we decided to just stay on the black top roads and just do out and back trips rather than round trips.  My family has a few old road bikes so those will definitely be used next time.

Sami and I rewarded ourselves for our hard work with a piece of the cake I baked the other night.  Recipe coming soon?  As we were enjoying our reward we planned out when we could get together the next three weeks.  We're going to get together again on Wednesday the 11th, Tuesday the 17th, and Sunday the 22nd.  After that we're probably only going to be able to get together on the weekends because I will be working 8-5 Monday-Friday and she works at 6 every night.  But getting together with her on the weekends is better than not at all.  Our goal for the end of summer is to be able to ride to town and back to my house.  Based on the one route I mapped out for this goal trip it will be roughly 30 miles total.

I plan on asking my dad if he would like to ride with me a couple of times a week because lets face it, riding alone with no one to talk to is boring and I can't rely on only riding with Sami if I want to be able to ride 30 miles by the end of summer without dying.  I'm not sure when my next ride will be.  Tomorrow the weather looks amazing, 63*F and sunny, but I'm not sure riding back to back days will be a good idea.  Saturday would be my ideal day to ride, a day of rest in between rides, but the weather is looking to be less than ideal,  61*F with a few showers (30% chance of rain).  Decisions decisions.  Guess I shouldn't talk myself out of riding on Saturday, I mean I rode this afternoon and it was cold, cloudy, and windy and I did just fine.

Well that's my big news for today.  I'll be biking this summer with my new work out buddy!

Question...

Anyone interested in helping me devise a biking plan for the summer??  Leave me a comment if you are!

Until next time...