Agenda:Fitness

2009-08-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Day 12

2009-05-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

All right, so I know what you are thinking…where did days 8-11 go? Well, that’s a great question. The answer, however, is not so great. I took a couple days away from blogging. Don’t think I didn’t think of the readers daily. Of course I did. But, at those times, I realized that there are probably only two people checking in to read this blog. It hasn’t exactly gathered mass popularity yet so I didn’t think very many people would mind.
I want you to know that I’m not going track every single day’s meals but I will admit on one occasion, there were pop tarts, there was sorbet, and on mother’s day, there were pancakes and frozen yogurt. I went a little wild. I know. Do I feel guilty? Heck no! Because it was MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND!

I also did a fair amount of staying up later than I normally would and ran around after the kids the entire day, so, I am pretty sure these treats were earned. However, that is a terrible justification.

Ruben is out of town for a couple days, so its just me and the kids and no, I’m not running or walking with the kids tonight. Mateo still isn’t over his owie on his knee from last week. But tomorrow. Tomorrow its on. I need it. I can feel the stress building up and I know that I need to exercise. And since you are shaking your head in disappointment at me for ditching you for three days, I’ll skip the whole dinner thing since those are the calories I would be out burning on exercise anyway.

Day 7

2009-05-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Foods today were probably not the best choices but I fed cravings. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I behaved very well in proportions so, I will pat myself on the back for that one but when you see my pie chart, you will know that my fat and carbs could be much better!

Today's Foods
Breakfast
- 3 cups coffee
- 3 tbsp creamer
- Med apple
Snack
- sting cheese
Lunch
- eggplant and tofu
- kung pao chicken
- steamed rice
Snack
- ritz crackers
Dinner
- spaghetti with ground beef and tomato sauce

Today was a loss turned success. It started with a call from the spouse that he was at te dentist to get one of his wisdom teeth pulled on an emergency basis and led to me pretty much a single mommy for the evening.

I arrived home to Ruben in bed, begging for more vicodin. I made dinner and decided, rather optimistically, that even if I couldn't leave Ruben with the kids tonight, I could at least take the kids out and we could walk what I normally run.

About 3/4 of a mile down the road and I'm feeling my stress level increase instead of decrease but try to focus on the fresh air and flowers in bloom when it happened. Mateo fell and skinned his knee and it was bleeding everywhere and he refused to walk another step. Crap! This, of course, meant I got to carry him on my shoulders the 3/4 of a mile back home! Did I mention there are hills? BIG HILLS!

We were gone a total of 35 minutes, with 20 plus of that time being me carrying Mateo time. I felt like my stress was higher than it was before we left and I wanted to cry along with Mateo but, I am still proud. I am glad that I got out to exercise even if I had to alter everything to bring the kids along. I'm impressed that I worked up those hills with an extra 40 lbs on me. And, I'm pretty sure, with him flailing all over the place, that I worked my core muscles more than I have in any of the previous exercises.
If I were to do it all over again, though? We'd play soccer in the back yard!

Day 6

2009-05-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

So, I feel the need to add some sort of diet component to this. If you know me, you know that I will keep adding levels until its so annoying that I can’t keep up with it anymore and I will quit the whole thing.
That being said, I am going to keep a food journal and hope that it keeps me on track with a total improvement in fitness. Before I know it, this blog will be my own personal “Biggest Loser” type thing.

Today’s food:
Breakfast
- 3 cups coffee with 3 tbsp fat free coffee mate
- 1 cup grapes
Snack
- Low fat string cheese
Lunch
- 2 oz beans
- 2 oz rice
- 5 oz carne asada
- 3 cups unsweetened iced tea
Dinner
- Water
- 3 oz macaroni and cheese with beef

Turns out, about 3/4 of a mile into this run and I think I'm a lot further than I really am. That kind of bums me out. I got to thinking about how if I didn't get so stressed out in the first place, I wouldn't be quite the health disaster I am. I had just sighed that I needed some sort of relaxant when Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child came on my ipod and the smell of marijuana came floating through the air from someone's back yard. I had to smile to myself as this wasn't exactly what I had been thinking of but the universe does provide to me in the craziest of ways! I picked up the pace a bit to get away from the scent and figured I had better be careful what I wish for!

Day 5

2009-05-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

A long day at work and I was more than ready to go for a run tonight.

I decided to put the ipod in my pocket, put one ear phone in, and rock my way through the almost 3 mile trip. I ran about a block longer than I did the first two days and then, ran much longer on the back end. My feet were almost completely better and I found myself stepping with the beat which kept me either running or walking as fast I normally run.

I was about a quarter of a mile from home when a woman in a blue Expedition reached her entire arm out the window and gave me a full fledged flip off! I couldn’t believe it! I kept thinking, it’s a good thing that exercise releases endorphins or I would have shouted at her to get her butt out of her car and race me! I picked up the pace for the rest of the way home, anxious to tell Ruben about the finger incident.

After my shower, I found myself dancing all around the house as I did the every last little thing that needed to get done. Is this the extra energy people always claim you have when you work out? If it is, I liked it!

Day 4

2009-05-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Goodwill after work and just walking around that store was excruciating. The hard concrete floors were an assault on my angry feet. I must’ve seemed so rude, demanding that we leave. Right away!

I got home and found myself avoiding the hardwood floors and hanging out in the soft carpeted bedrooms. A light bulb went off in my head! I could work out in my room!

I grabbed the ipod and shook my booty to the music and did sit ups and push ups and stretches. An hour and a half later, as I was doing some strange belly dancing move to a Weezer song, Ruben walked in and just started laughing. I did, too. I knew that this was a weak attempt but it was better than nothing!

Day 3

2009-04-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 3 am to go to the bathroom and almost fell over from the pain that my feet and legs were giving. The bottom of my heels were purple with giant bruises. I could hardly walk! I worked through the day wincing with each step. I decided that the grocery shopping trip we did tonight counted as a workout. I pushed the cart with 80lbs worth of kids in it for 45 minutes and let’s face it: I hurt so badly that I wouldn’t make it a block running!

Day 2

2009-04-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

I got on my sweats again and headed to the living room to grab my shoes and in the process, started to state that I was sore and didn’t want to go but that I knew that I would be glad when all was said and done. Before I could get that out, though, Ruben cut me off and told me to stop complaining. That whining on day 2 was not at all warranted. I wanted to throw one of my shoes at him! Instead, I hit the ground running. I could use this anger as my motivation. The route I had scoped out was just shy of 3 miles and yesterday, it took me almost a full hour to walk/jog/run that distance! I made it the full ½ mile I had run the day before when I was about to burst into tears. My feet! Oh my feet! They hurt so badly that each step was like little sewing pins stabbing into my 8 blisters! I walked the rest of the way and continued to beat myself up over the fact that today would be no faster.

At home, I showered, still angry at my rude spouse, feeling the sting of hot water run over my bleeding Achilles tendons. I resolved that I could not let my husband ruin this experience for me. I must keep going!

Day 1

2009-04-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

4/28/09

I was sitting on the floor of my room staring at my closet, looking at tons of clothes and thinking I had nothing to wear. Yea, right, EVERY woman does this…Nothing special here. But here’s the thing. I have clothes. Lots of them. Great clothes. But, slowly, I have grown out of pretty much everything in my closet. I carefully plan my daily attire around cotton shirts and slacks that have a bit of stretch. I wear TONS of black to try to hide my ever growing mid-section. I had worn everything that fit within the last week and still needed to carefully plan the next three work days. I was getting frustrated fast. My husband walked into the room and I sat there, explaining the delimma to him and as I did, I grabbed a pair of sweat pants, tee shirt, and my tennis shoes. That was it. I had had it! I was going out for a run. I am tired of being too big for my wardrobe!

I stuffed my cell phone in my sports bra, just in case, and I hit the pavement. I got about a ½ mile out before I ran out of steam but I felt so good running and releasing all the pent up stress I didn’t realize I was carrying that I decided to keep walking. About a mile and a ½ in, I could feel the blisters on my feet breaking and knew that it would hurt tomorrow but I was more than a mile from home any direction I went. Could I call for help? Sure! But why? Wasn’t this about making a difference in my life? I could not quit that quickly! I switched on and off between jogging desperately to get home and walking because OMG the cramping and my feeeeetttttt!!!!

I got home, took off my shoes and assessed the damage. I had 8 blisters on my feet in total. Some on top of others! I hopped in the shower and could feel my heart beating stronger than it had in a while. I felt better than I had in months! I was triumphant!

It was then, dancing in the shower to my ipod with a permanent smile on my face, that I decided my new agenda was fitness.