Random Thoughts

2 mile time: 51 mins.

I decided to start keeping (rough) track of my walking times. Day-to-day will vary a lot by a few minutes, because I time it from my car clock (I don't like wearing watches), so it depends where I park, if I have to wait for anyone to pull out of the lot, etc. But my hope is that over time I'll see a general downward trend in my times as my body gets more and more used to walking.

Tonight I knew it was supposed to rain. I knew it was going to be soon when I took off on my walk. I thought about going to the 1/2 mile mark and back, then again to make it 2 miles--that way I wouldn't be stuck too far out if it started pouring. But I knew that if I did that, I would stop after the first round and I knew I wouldn't go back for another trip, so I just went to the full mile marker. Somewhere between 1/2 - 1/4 mile left, it did start to rain, but not too hard, so I was only mildly wet by the time I got back to the car.

My walk was different today, though. I started getting sore before I hit the first 1/2 mile marker. A little bit before I reached the 1 mile turnaround, I suddenly lost all interest in walking and wanted to stop. Thankfully, I HAD to finish to get back to my car! That's one of the things I like about walking outside as opposed to at home or in the gym--I can't just stop, I have to finish or I'd be stranded. By the time I was getting close to the parking lot again, I was so thankful that I was done, and that's the first time I've felt like that since I started walking. I don't know if it was the weather rubbing off on me or my body was just too run down from my Couch to 5K attempt yesterday or what. I may take a rest day tomorrow depending on how my body feels. This is the first time I walked 3 days in a row so I might be pushing my body a little faster than it wants yet.

I still haven't heard about my fill.

Now for the random thoughts:

#1: First off, I know I have at least one regular reader, hopefully more, and I'm sure you're curious what I look like. I hadn't posted any pictures yet because I was hoping that the first time I did would be a comparison picture. I haven't lost enough weight yet to see any difference, so I can't do that yet. But I've been posting for awhile now so I figured I'd at least show ya'll my "before" pictures that were taken last April around my first post-op visit:



Now that I look at the side view, I think DH's angle was a little off, because I look thinner there than I am, I think... Also, the ponytail is gone, my hair is above my shoulders now. Sometime soon I'll post some more recent pictures.

#2: I don't know how people can do the Couch to 5K program on a treadmill. It would drive me nuts having to change the speeds so often.

#3: I think I'm going to weigh myself tomorrow. I haven't in awhile because my weight has just been bouncing up and down meaninglessly. I haven't been eating the best lately though, so despite my exercise, I'm pretty sure I've gained weight. Somedays I just don't feel like fighting my weight if my band isn't going to help me. It's a bad attitude that I know a good fill will take away, but I know I still need to get a grip on it before I gain back TOO much weight.

#4: I've been asking DH alot lately about what it's like being an average weight (he's about 5'10"ish and 175 lbs--he has a little bit of a pot belly, but he's by no means chubby at all). I ask questions like if his feet hurt after standing on them for 8 hours, how he feels after we do the 2 mile walk, stuff like that. I have been overweight since 1st or 2nd grade so I have absolutely no memories of what it's like to be thin; what it's like to have a job where standing on your feet all day doesn't phase you, what it's like to walk around and never get tired, what it's like to run up a flight of stairs easily, what it's like not to have your thighs rub together. It's a whole different world that he experiences from mine.

#5: I was a little self-conscious yesterday when I was doing my running portions, but I realized that I have absolutely no shame when I'm working out in the gym or walking on the trail among people who don't even know what 200 pounds is. I know many overweight people are embarrassed to exercise around fit people because they're afraid of what they think. It doesn't bother me though because even though some people will always think poorly of my body, more people are proud that I'm doing something about it. In the office gym, the regulars always smile when I come in because they think exactly that. I get that feeling from people on the walking trail, too. Especially other overweight people that I see (though never as big as me), we smile at each other because we know we're both making a difference in our lives.

#6: I want this: http://www.fitbit.com I haven't decided if I want to pre-order it or wait for it to come out. I considered getting a BodyBugg awhile ago until I saw that you had to pay a monthly fee, and wearing it as an arm band always kind of bothered me. This thing would be awesome, plus I have a lot of sleeping problems so I'd like to see what it does with that.

I think that's all the random thoughts I've had stored up, sorry for the long post!

Couch to 5K

Yes, I tried Week 1 of Couch to 5K today...and sucked horribly. After the first run, I was gasping like an asthmatic. I think it's 8 intervals of running. Of those, I ran at interval 1, 4, 5 (yes, two back to back), and 8. So I didn't do all of them, which I thought I was ready for, but I'm still pretty impressed I did as much as I did. I think the first run took my breath so much because I was running a little faster than I meant to--there were two women I had to get around. I went a little slower the other 3 times and they weren't -as- bad.

Shock and a gasp, I guess walking 2 miles a few times doesn't mean I'm ready to start jogging :P

I thought about just not doing it again until I drop some more weight, but DH suggested that I keep just doing as much as I can, which he's right. It's good for my heart rate and eventually it'll get easier. I'll just keep repeating Week 1 as long as I need to. For a 400-pound woman, ANY jogging is an accomplishment.

But damn I'm sore!

Got My Walk In

Still waiting to hear about my fill...

I did get my walk in tonight. I went the opposite way on the Saw Mill path and found out there aren't any distance markers, so I just went as far as I thought was a mile. I probably could have went further, but I had no idea what time it was or how far I went to know how long it would take me to get back before sunset (when the path closes). Turns out I walked 45 minutes, which is more or less 2 miles based on my latest walks. Woohoo! It was nice but now that the weather has warmed up, there are lots of bugs and they annoy me like crazy.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow morning but I'm still hoping to get a walk in after work. If it's raining when I get off work, I'll just go down to the gym.

Soooo...that didn't work

I talked to a coworker today who is really into fitness and asked him what he thought about my walking vs. gym dilemma. He said that walking is hands-down a better workout for the body. And since I'm getting increasingly bored with the gym, today I decided to skip the gym and start walking when I get home instead while the weather is nice. I look much more forward to walking than I do going down to the gym, changing, working out for 20 minutes, usually getting kicked out before I finish, then have to drive home all sweaty and blah.

This plan just kind of fell through tonight. When I got home, DH was making dinner and I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't go for my walk yet. Turns out I could have went for the walk and gotten back way before it was ready, but I didn't know. Then new House and Heroes episodes tonight, so that was that.

Tomorrow DH works until 8 so I'm going to change at work and stop at the Saw Mill path right after work before picking him up.

Also, I sent that email to my program coordinator last Monday, I asked her about it Tuesday and she said she was going to work on it Wednesday. I haven't heard back from her. It's been almost 5 weeks since my fill. I'm tempted to just call the evil scheduling lady and fight it out with her and get it scheduled, but I don't know what the coordinator is doing. This is so frustrating :(

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!