She Is Losing It

Despite my lack of posts for the last few days, i have indeed been continuing my workouts. Since I have been ignoring their advice to take a “rest” day every 2 days, I am a tad ahead of schedule. Although I started on June 1st, according to the EA Sports Active program I am now officially 1/2 way through my challenge.

I decided increase my workouts today in two ways.

#1-I changed the workout intensity level from moderate to hard. This increased length of the workout by about 8 minutes-mostly by increasing the number of reps on the exercises.

#2-I used a different exercise band. About a year and a half ago I had to go to physical therapy for a really bad ankle sprain (when folks say it can be more painful than a break-let me tell you, they aren’t lying). Long story short, they gave me a couple of different exercise bands. I started using the green one today instead of the red one that comes in the game. This increased the resistance on all the arm exercises-so it was like I had added “weight” to my bicep curls etc

I have been noticing some results. The first is that I feel more energetic. That’s not to say I haven’t had a few dead tired days (most noticeably after my week of travel) but overall I just have more juice. They always say exercise gives you more energy-but when you are out of shape and lacking energy, it just doesn’t seem like you can muster the effort to get going. Trust me-it is true!

On another note, a few more pairs of shorts now fit me. I was so disgusted and discouraged last month when I pulled out my summer clothes-not a single pair of my shorts fit. Those were already my “fat” shorts; last summer I had already felt chubby. So knowing that those didn’t even fit me any more, well, I must admit I actually cried. Sat down and cried. So the fact that I am fitting back into some is very encouraging.

Jenn Fowler blogs at Frugal Upstate where she encourages folks to “Use what you have, get creative and save.” She co-hosts the talk radio show “Frugal Coast2Coast” , is a FiLife contributor, one of the founding members of the Walmart Elevenmoms, and a Frugal Living Speaker. Jenn is addicted to twitter ( @jennfowler ).

This is the first time I’ve left my workout until the evening. Honestly, 11 years in the Army really did give me a very strong psychological association between mornings and working out Then there is that link between precipitation and training exercises (aka “if it ain’t raining, we ain’t training”) but that is an entirely different ball of wax

When I work out in the morning I am full of energy and have the whole day in front of me. Also I haven’t showered yet

When I try to exercise mid day it seems like it breaks up the whole day. Either I have to wait to take a shower, or I’ve already showered and then have the unpleasant choice of being sweaty or taking time to take yet ANOTHER shower. . .

Leaving it until the evening is usually an even worse alternative. I know, we THINK that it would be easy to work out at night, after all the kids are in bed and everything is done. But by the end of the day it is soooo easy to just give up and put it off until tomorrow.

That’s what I wanted to do. I’m still bone tired from my trip (even with a long nap this afternoon). I had a migraine from hell last night that took 2 doses of my meds to get rid of, and it left me with a niggling headache today. Add to that “Auntie P” showed up today and I have cramps. I wanted to just say “the hell with it all”.

But I knew if I did I’d have to come on here and write some sort of lame post on why I didn’t exercise. Which is exactly why I am posting here! It forces me to have more accountability! So I did, and it’s thanks to you all.

Just wanted to let you know that I really have done the 30 day challenge every day except Sunday (when I decided to give my body, and knees, a rest)

This morning at my mom’s while I’m doing the workout my son “buddy” was sitting on the sofa watching. Both of the kiddos for some reason like to sit and watch me do it-I figure it is good modeling for them. After all, that way they get to see that it is important to Mom to stay fit and to be healthy.

Anyway, the little “trainer” lady on the game is always giving you encouraging statments. (You can turn that off or reduce the frequency, I’ve left it at the factory setting) I was doing the inline skating and complaining (it makes your thighs BURN I tell ya), then next some squats came on. The lady said “Your body will thank you for this later”. Buddy-who is 5-chimes in from the sofa behind me “I don’t think your body is thanking you now”. . .

I almost fell out laughing. It’s really hard to do squats while you are also executing a belly laugh!

Heading home today-once I finish writing this I will change out of my sweaty clothes, pack the kiddos into the car and initiate the 4-5 hour drive home. For those of you wondering, I pretty much bombed on my intention to skip the sweets and eat slowly (although I did not eat anywhere near as much as I COULD have eaten). I did ok with the water but not fabulous, and I probably drank way too much coffee and diet coke.

So I may not have met all my goals, but I did only take that single day off from exercising. . . even when I had been up to 1 am talking with my sibilings, I still got up the next day and did it. So I count it a partial success.

On an admin note, we are still working on the comments for this site. We really do love to hear from you all. . . we’ll post a big obvious note when the comments are up and functional. Promise.