Great Weekend!

This weekend was about 90 degrees both days. Yesterday I went for a 2 mile walk in our neighborhood (first time) with DH. We did a lot yesterday and I almost didn't go. At 7:45 it was starting to get dusky and I really wanted to make sure I got my exercise in, so we went, no excuses. My shoes performed well! They get to stay, officially. My feet were just barely aching by the time we finished. The only bad part of the walk is this really steep hill for about half a block to get up to the main street we walked on. I had to stop once or twice because my leg muscles were killing me going up that hill. No stops after that though! It was great. The time also goes by faster because the landscape changes and I have landmarks to be able to tell how much further to go, versus walking on the Saw Mill pathway where it's just trees, trees, and more trees.

Tonight we went to this place called Lenoir Preserve, which I think tries to keep a quiet area for the birds and such. There is this other trail that we see every day on my way to work and I thought that it originated at this little park, but apparently not. It wasn't very big and we ran out of trails to walk on there. I only got about a mile in, but still better than nothing, and we got to see something new.

I'm curious to know if a 2 mile walk or my regular gym routine (15 mins bike, 5 mins elliptical) is a better/more beneficial workout. Any thoughts?

Good Workout

I did 10 minutes on the elliptical (go me!), weights, then 10 more minutes on the bike. I really want to work up to be able to do 10 minutes on the elliptical and then do 15-20 minutes on the bike. Just not there yet. My feet were hurting by the end of the 10 bike mins so I just stopped.

I was in a really good mood today (probably from working out last night, I'm always in a better mood), then about half an hour ago, someone called me from my job and tried to blame me for doing something wrong when she neglected to tell me something that she "didn't think anyone would notice" last night so I fixed it when I came in this morning, apparently it was supposed to stay changed the way she did it--again, she didn't bother to tell anyone this. Why am -I- upset about this? Because I hate it when people try to tell me I did something wrong. I take pride in my work and I'm good at what I do. Why am I talking about work here, when I usually avoid it? Because it ruined my mood. And I know I will dwell on it most of this weekend, when I'm looking really forward to some good walks with the excellent weather that's coming. I tried to take my mind off it by watching a new movie, but DH's friends are here and they're so freaking loud that I had to turn it off. Grr.

Hopefully my new shoes will perform well on the walks this weekend; if not, I'll just keep using them for the gym and use my old, no-support-but-don't-hurt-my-feet shoes for walking.

Yay! Endorphins!

I made it to the gym tonight and did my regular workout (15 mins bike, weights, 5 mins elliptical). My feet still hurt with the new shoes but not really more than my regular ones. They may have even hurt less on the elliptical than usual. Still have to test them walking this weekend, but I think I'll be keeping them, just have to break them in a tiny bit.

I feel MUCH better, I get grumpy when I don't work out and I don't complain as much when I do exercise!

This weekend is going to be gorgeous (80s) and I plan on walking both days!

Lost Another Day

I forgot my gym bag this morning and it was too late to turn back and get it by the time I realized it. And since I got home later than usual (picking up DH from work then long grocery store run), dinner was much later. I just got done eating and it's 9:30, so no workout tonight either. Bah.

Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Not Much Of A Support Group

I didn't get a chance to work out today, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I've been really tired lately so I think it's good for my body to rest. I went to another support group tonight for my program. The topic was self-image, beauty inside and out or something like that. It was mostly about how we've changed the way we see post-op (and post-weight loss) selves and things we do now to pamper ourselves in our new bodies. Well, there's a problem here. I don't have a post-weight loss body. I see myself the same way because not much has changed. And I'm not doing anything new for myself because I'm not to a point yet where I would. So I just listened most of the time.

But I did meet a woman tonight who was banded in January and is having some problems. She is retaining this weird pouch of fluid in her abdomen. She saw our surgeon April 1st and was sent over the same day for an ultrasound to see if it was an ulcer or fluid. She hadn't heard back from the office yet. She has tried calling 5 times and nobody has gotten back to her about what she's supposed to do; if she's supposed to schedule an appointment to get it drained or what. This is really echoing the situation from an LBT woman that had my surgeon and had a flipped port and lots of pain but couldn't get a hold of anyone in the office to address her emergency for weeks. I had been warned about the office staff and I'm experiencing my own issues with them, but this new woman is really stressed out about getting this taken care of and she just keeps running into a wall. I keep losing faith in my surgeon's office, even if the program coordinator seems to be on our level and trying to do what she can.

I asked her if she got my email yesterday and said she's going to work on it tomorrow, to see if I can schedule a fill and get weighed during an office visit in the meantime instead of having to wait to schedule the fill until I have the appt. Hopefully I'll hear from her tomorrow; I can eat a frickin horse right now and I'm getting really impatient for a fill.

Darnit!

I have to figure something out with my gym workouts. I am consistantly getting kicked out of the gym now by the security guard. Plus, if I ever start increasing my workout times, I will never get it all in by 6:15 or so. I'm not a morning person, so I can't go before work, and I would feel weird getting hot and sweaty during my lunch hour. I also wouldn't like driving out of my way to another gym on the way home from work. What to do?

I'm suffering from exercise ADD lately. Tonight I did 6 minutes on the elliptical, did some weight training, 2 more minutes on the elliptical, then 5 minutes on the bike (where I got kicked out of the gym). It's not that I'm too tired to keep going longer on the elliptical, I just get to the point where I don't feel like going any longer. It's the weirdest thing. It was nice when one of the girls was with me, I wish I had a regular workout partner sometimes to keep my mind occupied. I think that's it, I just get bored.

I exchanged my New Balance shoes for a different pair (still New Balance). I ended up with the store manager helping me since they were swamped when I came in. Turns out that the other shoes were actually a half-size too big, that's why my feet kept sliding forward in my shoes. The new ones are also a little smaller width, which I can tell they are a little tighter, but that might be a good thing. The new ones were more comfortable right away in the store, but I can't really tell how they'll hold up in the gym since I was just all over the place tonight. I got $20 back since these were cheaper (which I didn't know, it didn't affect my choice). On the way to the checkout, I just happened to mention my lap-band and turns out the manager has it too! We talked for a little bit and he gave me his card and said to call him if I ever need support with that or about shoes or whatever. It was very cool!

No workout tomorrow unless I happen to wake up early. I have my support group meeting again and hopefully it won't be arts and crafts time again. I sent an email to the program coordinator today telling her it's been 4 weeks and I want a fill! We'll see what happens next.

New shoes = fail, me = win.

Today was 75 degrees outside and it was gorgeous. I did go for a walk with DH and did the full two miles. Not only that, but I jogged the very last hundred or two feet (I have bad distance perception, I couldn't tell you how far it actually was). So that is why I = win.

The shoes are getting exchanged. They have officially failed. I am going to exchange them for a pair that doesn't have the "rollbar" under the heel to keep me from walking on the outside of my feet. I think that, being overweight, walking on the outside of my feet is a coping mechanism to keep my balance, etc. So when my feet are forced to walk flat, my ankles actually hurt a little bit. The big problem though is that around only the first 1/4 mile, the balls of my feet were already starting to hurt. My ankle also was slipping up on my right foot a little bit with each step. At the 1 mile turn-around point, I stopped to try to lace my shoe tighter on that foot to prevent the slipping, but then I had to stop another time or two to keep readjusting the lacing and never got it quite right, so my feet were bothering me even more. My feet were so achy by the time we got back to the car.

So I figure if I just get a good pair of athletic shoes that fit right, it will still be worth the money. I think if I try to focus on one specific shoe feature (like stability, which is what the sales people were focusing on), I will never have a shoe that works for all of the exercises I do. May I can even get the pretty ones I saw, then! Guess we'll see.

Tomorrow I might try to go for another walk or I'll just do WATP (Walk Away The Pounds).