Gym days

I joined a gym today! With the weather getting colder and me getting lazier, I thought a gym might be a good way to keep up with the routine of making sure there is atleast some exercise in my life. Else winter just enables a craving for hot fried food and hot coffee every two hours....
I'm excited about the gym coz they have loads of stuff happening there - pilates, yoga, spinning, latin heat....haven't ever been to a gym that offers all this....so really looking forward to it!
It starts with the fitness assessment tomorrow....maybe I should just wear some ear plugs to it...don't want yet another soul telling me how unfit I am....but am sure it will be more positive than that and they will tell me what I need to do to get fit....So from tomorrow...with all the happy hormones being released....there probably will be less cynical statements like the ear plugs one...;)..on that note...looking forward to the interesting day tomorrow!!!

I'm Back

I'm back after a long long time...initially I was away for some inexplicable reasons and then I was being LAZY and for laziness excusesare very easy to come by....a slight knee ache, a slight headache...lack of sleep, too hot..too cold...anything!

But basically I also missed out on the 5K run that I was supposed to attend on the 5th of Sept....and since I've already admitted that I'm a queen of excuses - this time the excuse was that a friend was visiting from India and we had taken him out of town. For those who live by the "where there is a will, there is a way" principle...there would be an easy way out - but not for me! It was just easier to skip the run rather than go there and not be able to run the whole 5K.

But then as it usually happens - the conscience awakens and here I am signed up for yet another 5K on the 2nd of Oct. - and this time I made sure I signed up in advance so I don't get tempted to drop out!!

So running after a month and a half - I'd thought that getting past the first five minutes will be impossible, but hey I did two sets of nine minute runs with a walk of about two minutes in between and then another three minutes run to end! I think the weather being cooler also helped a little.

But I guess - with the muscles being so well rested for the past so many months, today could not have been so difficult. Tomorrow of course will be a whole new story!!! Looking forward though to tomorrow!!!

Inspiration?

My inspiration for the day was Drew Carey's weight loss - it for sure is a commendable achievement and it gives me heart to know its happening for people...so It surely will happen for me..But somehow to me the "before and after pictures" are not looking that appealing! I loved Drew Carey in "Who's line is it anyway?" and somehow its sort of wired in my brain that fat people have a great sense of humour - think about it...have you met a fat person who isn't funny? I think its mostly because you learn to laugh at yourself much more since you keep hearing people talk about your weight! Well that's a very personal experience as well as opinion!!

Anyway about Drew Carey - He's looking old and tired to me....I wish he'd lost weight everywhere else but the face...but nevertheless, a huge weight loss like this is definitely inspiring...(just don't see the pics though)!

So today with that inspiration I went swimming for almost an hour and then went and hogged to my hearts content! Somehow the diet I was mentioning yesterday still exists only in thought...maybe I should go off sugar...that might make a difference...!

I got the mail on the schedule for the week today - no surprises here...Am much behind schedule and with the 5K date approaching soon, there's just about a month to go....so I'd better buck up..!

Oh what a day.....

It was a terrible day today as far as any form of exercise is concerned...WHY?? Because there was none...absolutely none...!! Instead there was a very heavy lunch followed by dessert..actually it was a no-fat yogurt which when I had eaten before tasted really yummy but today it was sour...so it actually did taste like yogurt...why should you eat a dessert which seems like an indulgence but then tastes like yogurt?? This was then followed by almost two hours of procrastinating about when I should go for a swim and you know what happens after too much of procrastination right? Yes...I didn't go at all...actually I'd also decided on a specific recipe for dinner today which took forever - so that was my excuse at the time!! So a heavy dinner and some ice cream followed to make up for the damp squib of a dessert in the morning

And today I wore one of my old trousers after a very long time with the hope that it will be looser now...but guess what..it fits the same..:(..I am sooo disappointed. So I'm thinking about a diet - maybe where I don't eat sugar for week or something...but today seems to be a procrastination day...so maybe I'll leave it for tomorrow...!!

Which also reminds me tomorrow, I'll get the schedule for Week 4 of the action plan that I follow...and I am a whole week behind this time if not more...maybe I wont check my mail tomorrow...;-)

Swim!

After a lot of deliberation today, I finally went for a swim. Since it was in the evening and it easy to make excuses in the evening, I had almost convinced myself that I was too hungry and a better option would be to just have an early dinner - especially since we had some very interesting dinner tonight. But I finally did go for about 45 mins -  could've swam a little longer though but it was closing time! I really enjoyed the swim coz the poll surpassed my expectations completely. It was very large and two laps gives enough exercise to make me pant - well doesn't need too much to get me to pant of course ;-)

Now after the swim and wolfing down a heavy dinner the aches return again but they are the good kind of aches -which makes you feel good about the exercise. And now I've decided that I'll probably go for a short swim everyday - at least for 20 minutes or so, even if its just lazying around in the pool!!

So let see what I manage tomorrow!!!

??

Don't know whats wrong with me. Haven't been feeling very great over the last few days and didn't do too much running/ walking at all! My joints ache like am this very old woman - finding it very difficult to even walk straight...but today morning I decided that maybe I should go for a walk atleast. So I walked for 45 mins and felt a little better in the morning but as the day progressed the pain started to return. So A suggested that I should do something a little lighter on the knees for a few days - so tomorrow I plan to go swimming. I love to swim - so once I get into the water its difficult to get me out - but the only thing that keeps me from swimming is the thought of my already extremely frizzy hair getting wet and having to shampoo it all over again - at times twice a day...!!!

But anyway we haven't used our community swimming pool yet and have just about another month to make use of it before the winter sets in...so looking forward to a nice swim tomorrow...

Slipping??

Wondering whether I'm slipping back into my earlier way of laziness.....I could not walk properly today though..had a terrible body ache and general feeling of being unwell...Initially thought it was just an excuse that I was bringing up for consolation - but suddenly now there is an onset of a terrible cold!! Can't stop sneezing....

In the meanwhile the schedule for the week has arrived - which also made me realise that thought the time for each running set was increasing last week - I thought I had to keep doing 5 sets which was a wrong assumption. While the time per set increases, the number of sets required to be done reduce. So maybe I can keep up with this weeks schedule. Hope the cold goes away!!

Cross Training????

Can walking for 1.5 hours in a grocery store, pushing the cart, putting the stuff in the car and removing it to lug it up three floors classify as "Cross Training"???

I thought about what I could do today to break the monotony...and maybe all that thinking switched off my exercise muscles as well...so apart from the above I didn't do anything today - but that's not bad either isn't it? I did do three rounds to lug all the stuff up the stairs......;-))

On a Treadmill.....

A will be proud of me today...I managed to stick to the schedule inspite of him travelling today - I have the tendency to slip back on the days he travels! So though I was at my aunts place and was feeling really lazy - I pulled up myself to run on my cousins treadmill....I don't like treadmills at all, I get bored in the first five minutes...but today I decided something little will also help.

So I decided I won't run today but just walk for about 20 minutes and that's it! But somehow after the first couple of minutes of warming up - somehow felt I had to run! So I did and it was fun - to the extent that it can be of course...;-). But I also realised another reason for being wary of the treadmill - you can't adjust your speed without a thought there....on the road, you can run at your own pace, but if you try to decrease your speed on the treadmill, you do it consciously and that makes you think about what your doing and then you don't want to do it - so I continued to run at the same pace - which also means that I did not manage to do 6/1*5 but 3/1*3 and another 4 minutes running - because it made me tire out faster. So its food for thought - maybe once a week I should run on the treadmill - maybe a good way to ensure the run is faster than the trot that I can sometimes get into!

On another note - had sent the blog link to some friends & some of them wrote back that this inspires them to have their own mission and schedule too!!! - That's inspiring for me too ;-).....Good luck to all of us and maybe I've done my good deed for the day too...!!!

Finally two days in a row!!

Finally I managed to run two days in a row...thanks to A!! Have realised that the second and third set of 6/1 is most difficult..by the end of the third set, I feel so hot that I feel that my head will evaporate!!

After the run today though, was feeling really the sleepy in the morning, but as the day progressed the energy level was amazing - so hopefully will also continue tomorrow.

The Tools

Yes...so you need some tools for the mission...

So here are mine...atleast for the time being - my watch, shoes and the latest acquisition...a weighing machine...

Currently the watch is by far the most important. Can't even imagine running without the watch - Every 15 seconds will seem like a minute!!! Today I kept looking at the watch every 5-10 seconds...which caused A to crack up immensely....he thought it was hilarous to even imagine that I expected my six minute interval to be over every 5 seconds.....but yes...I managed to do 6/1*5 today...yaaayyyy...though I'm still not on track...it still means that I can run 30 minutes !!!

Apart from that I bought another tool to help to stay or track...or rather work as a huge encouragement. A weighing machine!! And boy did it help me wake up!! I realised that I'm no where close to my '20 pounds' mission. So that needs some measuring...coz "what you can't measure, you can't manage"!!! So heres looking forward to tomorrow...!!

The Program

I got a follow up mail from the running program I follow, two days back , updating me on the plan for the week. That's when I realised not only was I off track - by not doing it everyday, but also in terms of timing. So I had made up my mind to definitely get up early on the weekend and run. Basically the last two days were making me more and more determined to run in the morning, so I atleast end up doing it. But the alarm didn't go off and we had some work through the day, so no run today as well, but did end up walking for a long time, though leisure -  a walk counts right!!!

No way...

I don't know how this keeps happening...somehow I manage to run only on alternate days...today a cell phone error and loads of miscommunication kept me waiting for the husband for nearly 4 hours. I could have walked considering I was near the sea and that made it slightly cooler than it was every where else, somehow not yet feeling upto it! But did walk a bit while waiting - but most of the other time I could have used to walk was used up drinking cold cafe latte reading chicklit!!!

By Chance!

Well...so I'm not sure if I should consider this as sticking to the Plan...but the program I follow, recommends cross training on Day 4....so while I dont follow the program to the "T", I did do a brisk walk today as a part of the cross training...It was'nt a planned cross training though...just that I couldnt get myself to run, was feeling a little under the weather. But the walk of about one hour did make me feel good!

Excuse for the day...

I had a great plan for the run today....Had gone to a friends place for the night and thought I would run in the park near there before returning home. But the rain gods didn't concur. So I decided I would run in the evening..but a scary drive in the rain in the afternoon left me almost paralysed. I was almost thankful to reach home safely...so the relief caused the muscles to relax to an extent that they didn't work for the rest of the day...hows that for an excuse????......:(

Back on Track???

So after yesterday’s no show, I decided to get up really early today and head out….ok..so the early was not nearly as early…but basically went out at 8 am today. So finally I moved the run to morning from evening…so that may help prevent days like yesterday, where you basically finish up before the day and the events hit you. I decided since I’m not currently working and have nowhere to reach, I have the luxury of heading out for a jog even at 8 am, which in my life three months back would have been unthinkable!!

So inspite of the slight knee ache or rather stiffness, I went out and ran. The first set was terrible..thought I would faint and fall soon...but soon it got better and better and I managed to complete the run. I couldn't yet complete 5/1 *5..but managed to do 5/1 *4 and then another 3 minutes of running. So I came back home feeling really happy!

Ohhhh...the guilt...

Oh the guilt…its killing…Never thought I’d feel like this! The only time I really felt guilty about not exercising was when I was in 10th and had joined a gym. Joining a gym was a rarity then and my parents had paid a huge amount – which had made me calculate the per day cost which was soo high that I ensured that I went everyday since days missed didn’t accumulate. Since then, many gym memberships have come and gone….they have been more like donations to the gyms…with me landing up precisely for less than 10% of the time…and then the excuses were’nt too hard to come by.

So I feel really good about feeling guilty….but that doesn’t help when you’re basically feeling guilty. I had gone for my license test today and the good thing was that I got the drivers license. And just when I was contemplating to go out running, the husband called to pick him up from office. Everything was going fine till I reached his office and realised I was without a phone. Took me almost 50 minutes to find a phone and call him…and then it as a celebratory treat for the license…we decided to head out immediately for dinner! So it was a day of no run and not eating right…

Day 3

Nothing…..I didn’t run at all….but I compensated with a 3 hour walk in IKEA…any exercise counts right…maybe it didn’t get the heart rate up, but it was exercise nonetheless or so I would like to believe and prevent myself from feeling too guilty

5/1 X 5...5/1 X 5...thats the way we do it!!

Its Day 2 of the mission...well technically its day 3 but I missed a day yesterday and it surprised me as well how much it troubled me.

Normally I look for reasons to miss a workout and anything right from a slight drizzle to waking up in the middle of the night for 5 seconds...leading me to think that my sleep has bee disturbed. So yesterday when we suddenly decided to drive down to my aunts place, I actually started thinking about how I could fit in the run....unfortunately though it didn't happen and I ultimately ended up sleeping with this slight guilt prevailing...

So today with everyone in the family around and an excuse not too difficult, I surprised myself when suddenly I wanted to go out and run! The initial warm up 10 minutes had me wanting to run back into the house....and the first 5 minute run was soooo tough. It was almost like someone had attached weight to my back that was preventing me from going ahead....but I kept going...and before I knew I had done my 5/1 X 4 already...so 5/1 X 5 is 5 minutes of running or jogging followed by 1 minute of walk to be repeated 5 times. But I didn't manage to run 5 times...but not bad for Day 2 I thought.

The interesting parts of the run were a guy calling out when I was running "Good Exercise"...which had me wondering whether he was genuine or rather only mocking....but then his size made me believe maybe he genuinely meant it....and another young girl saying..."hey great...perfect time to jog..."...so the cynical me wondered again....but by the time I started thinking about it.....the endorphin rush...thanked all the people around...attributing the last 5/1 to the positive encouragement....!!

Feeling good and looking forward to tomorrow.....!!

A New Mission...a goal to be achieved!

Mission: To be 20 pounds lighter

Goal : Half Marathon in the next 7 months...why 7? no particular reason - my other favourite number 3 will be too soon!

Milestone: A 5K run on the 5th of September 2010

Well yes...am very excited and motivated today. I have set a goal for myself and am determined to achieve it. While some of the inspiration came from the book "Julie and Julia" that am currently reading, there were a whole lot of other reasons why this project made a lot of sense. I list them down here - so that they are always there to motivate me in moments of amnesia and weakness!!

1. Currently all my health problems get attributed in some way to the weight..so once this is taken care of...atleast I know the real reason for the problems...

2. "PAIN - FREE" Life!

3. Want to feel fit and energetic

4. Guilt free eating...everything that I want...

5. No more Hormonal Imbalances...

6. Bring down the medicines...

7. Want to complete the goal I set for myself and feel the exhilaration...would want my family and friends cheering at the finish line...

8. Have harboured a desire to pour water on myself while running someday...but have to get to that stage where its doesn't seem 'gimmicky'

9. Want to shop for medium sized clothes from now....well..I know I can't fit into small...so I set a realistic target

10. I want to have "Before" and "After" pictures to put display..and a story to tell as well....;-)

So here I am with my mission and a strong determination to succeed! Hope I manage to make a difference...to myself