I Really Hate Not Being 100%

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

I have a viral infection. My symptoms: ear ache, sore throat, post nasal drip, fever and a swollen taste bud (really!?!). I’ve battled this infection for the last 6 days with only Ibuprofen. The worst seems to be over so no antibiotics for me. Just Claritin-D, Motrin for the fever, a dash of salt water for gargling and rest.

I decided not to do the strength workout today. I want to knock out the fever. Besides, my legs could use the recovery time from the last few walks. My exercise will be limited to my daily walks with the dogs.

Instead, I’ll use today to pick up a few items I need for my daily walks – an iPhone armband, a water bottle, socks and possibly a heart rate monitor. I would like to get a 2nd pair of shoes, but that can wait until next month.

With any luck, I’ll have this knocked out of me before my 5K this weekend.


Short Strides, Not Long Strides

April 7 walkI’ve been getting closer to the 15-minute mile during my walks. I’m walking slightly more than 2.5 miles/day. Today I decided to try going 4 miles. My plan was to focus on distance, not speed.

Heh. Well so much for planning. The pace for my first mile turned out to be my best – 15:08. I was walking fast and taking long strides. For the first two miles I was pushing it but my body was not responding. My stomach was cramping, my heart rate was a bit too high and my legs were going wobbly. Oh and I ran out of water.

Luckily I had reached a little strip mall. I popped into the Chipotle for a cup of high quality H2O and sat on a bench outside for a few minutes. I felt so much better after downing the water. Clearly I was feeling dehydrated.

Something had to change before my trek back home began. Then I recalled a conversation I had earlier with my friend Miss E. She is encouraging to transition over to running. She recommended I focus on short strides, not long strides. Short strides are more efficient and prevent injuries.

So I picked up a bottle of water at the Exxon station and started my uphill trip back home, taking short strides along the way.

What a difference. I felt re-energized by the water and the shorter strides actually made the last 2 miles seem easy.

Lesson learned.


Taking the LiveLife Active Plunge

liveLife ActiveWeight Watchers just announced its new LiveLife Active Challenge and I’ve signed up.

The challenge lasts through June 1. Each week I’ll kick my workouts up a notch and keep track of all my activities via eTools.

Since I’ve been focused much more heavily on exercise the last couple of months, I’m very excited about participating in my very first challenge. So what’s on tap this week?

Week 1 Daily Workout Plan
Monday – 45 Minute Power Walk (3 miles)
Tuesday – Body Sculpting
Wednesday – 45 Min Power Walk (3 miles)
Thursday – Body Sculpting
Friday – 45 Minute Power Walk (3 miles)
Saturday – Brambleton Ribbon 5K (walk)
Sunday – Day Hike at Great Falls

Brambleton will be my first 5k in about 10 years and my first 5k this year. Can’t wait to start.


Some Days You Just Need A Little TLC

All hail Spider, my furry evil overlord.

All hail Spider, my furry evil overlord.

As predicted, today I feel worse. My muscles were very stiff getting out of bed. Maximum soreness hit as I was due for my second session with trainer John. He did a great job loosening me up. The workout felt good but I was exhausted. Afterward I only desired a warm comfy place to rest. My allergies kept me up last night, so with the muscle soreness, the workout and the lack of sleep, I just wanted to crawl back into bed.

Before I could head for my bed, I had a little visitor. Spider (my evil overlord cat) decided to jump into my lap in a rare moment of sweetness. He kneaded my lap, belly and chest, purring contently the entire time. He would nuzzle my chin, neck and give me soft little head butts. It was as if he knew I was hurting and wanted me to feel better. For 15 minutes I was in heaven.

Then little shit promptly bit my hand (braking the skin) and ran off. Well that woke me up and I ended up doing some gardening.

Perhaps that was really the evil overlord’s plan all the time.


Adding Strength Training To The Mix

Image courtesy of artemisphoto/freedigitalphotos.net

Image courtesy of artemisphoto/ freedigitalphotos.net

Yesterday I had my first session with John, my new trainer.

Yep, I’m sore. Tomorrow will be worse. That’s expected.

So this morning I hopped out of bed (yes, hopped), put on my workout clothes and went on a 2.58-mile walk. Not expected.

I feel grrrreat!

I’ve used trainers before and it was always the same. Work me like a dog and for a week I’m in pain. Every single frickin’ session. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Not this time. Yea, I’m sore, but I can actually function. Woohoo!

My trainer told me up front that people (especially women) are more likely to quit their trainers because they get destroyed by their sessions. He’s right. I hated that I couldn’t do anything without pain. That includes curling up in a fetal position to feel sorry for myself.

Training became an excuse not to do my normal routines because I need to recover from my sessions. Oh, and injuries always followed. Yikes.

So my new trainer, John, wants to focus on getting form correct (reduces the chance of injuries), do a full muscle workout each session and push me so that I have some soreness, but not to the point where I have an excuse to stop doing anything else.

I really like what he told me – “This is long term. Don’t think about losing weight. The weight training, cardio and diet will help reshape your body.”

I also liked that he took the time to explain what each exercise does, the importance of form for the each lift, pull, squat, and what food adjustments I need to consider now that I’m adding strength training. My past trainers conversations would be along the lines of “Give me one more,” “Hold the position,” and my favorite, “You can do better than that.”

The session was terrific. I was sweaty, felt great and discovered I had muscles in places I didn’t know existed. I go back for more tomorrow.


And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away (Well, Not That Far)

Today was a beautiful day. Unfortunately I was stuck in doors working on our budget. I planned to go on a walk early afternoon, but that just didn’t happen. I did convince my husband to go for a short walk (just a mile) this evening before sunset. Boy, it was cold and the wind didn’t help either. He’s having a bit of a problem with one of his baby toes. So the deal was if he was feeling up to it we could go more than the planned mile.

Now I haven’t gone on one of my dailies for a few days. Wasn’t sure if I was going to feel sluggish or not. Oh, and something you should know: Before the weight loss, I always struggled to keep up with my husband in parking lots, let alone walks. He’s got very long legs and has huge strides. I use to always complain about how fast he walked, but in reality, it’s his regular pace.

Tonight was a different story. I felt great and walked faster than the hubby the entire time. Before Easter, my pace was around 16:40/mile. Tonight try 15:10/mile. I just decided to go all out, thinking we would only go a mile (and I was right about that). So I wanted to maximize my workout. The most awesome thing, I actually ran for more than a block in the final stretch.

Now I’ve done little sprints previously, but 1) only about 10 yards and 2)being totally winded afterwards. Not tonight. I felt great and could have gone a little more, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I do worry that I might mess up my knees. I just don’t know what a safe weight would be to start running or if there is even such a thing. Part of me thinks I’m being paranoid and I should give it a try while the other thinks I should focus on my walking speed. Ugh!

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?


Easter Weekend – No Weigh In, Renewed Commitment

Thanks to how busy I was Easter weekend, I didn’t go to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting to weigh in. That’s probably a good thing. Saturday night we visited friends and dinner was delicious home made pizza and wine. I did a pretty good job of not chowing on everything in sight, but clearly it was very carb heavy. I did count my Weight Watcher’s points and ended up dipping into my weekly allowance points. So overall, I think I did OK.

I did step on the home scale this morning and showed no loss or gain for the week. I’m not recording that. I only record the official weigh in’s at Weight Watchers.

So that gives me 5 days of going hard core low carb, daily walks and 2 days of doing weight machines (something I’m adding this week) before stepping on the scale. I’m hopeful I’ll see continued progress in the right direction.


Kicking My Plateau’s Arse

Dot to Trot's smooth yoga moves? Nope. An image courtesy of ponsuwan/ FreeDigitalImage.net

Dot to Trot’s smooth yoga moves? Nope. Image courtesy of ponsuwan/FreeDigitalImage.net

If you are trying to lose weight then at some point or another you will hit a plateau. Plateaus are my mortal enemies. The quickest way to spell the end of my diets – hitting that damn plateau. They are just so maddeningly frustrating to break through.

I experienced a hellish one back in January. For nearly 7 miserable weeks the scale seemed stuck at 280. Oh, it would tease me and dip to 278 only to sucker punch me the next week to 282. No matter what I did food wise, I was stuck.

My normal M.O. when a plateau crosses my path is to give up. Not this time. Why? Attitude.

My only thought was how bad I was going to kick this plateau’s ass. People were going to feel sorry for this plateau when they realized how far my foot was up its butt. I knew I was on the right path – my clothes were all loose, I had way more energy, I didn’t want to eat unhealthy foods. Nothing was going to stop me.

So how did I kick this plateau’s arse? Yoga.

Because of my injuries, I lost weight just by eating right. However, come January, my metabolism settled in and my body got use to what I was doing. I couldn’t cut back without feeling hungry all day – not good when you are a fat chick! Eating healthy was no longer enough. Thankfully my doctor give me the clear to do yoga. I started doing yoga 3 days a week. And then, like magic, the scale started to cooperate.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve added daily walks to my routine, kicking my metabolism up a few more notches.

Obviously, the closer I get to my goal weight, the slower the weight will come off. While I’ve been averaging a loss of 3.5 lbs the last few weeks, I don’t expect to keep that up. Also, I know my plateau will come back someday. So I plan to be better prepared to give it another ass-whupping.


Working Out With The Pups

Peekabu passed out after her walk.

Peekabu passed out after her walk.

Since we are seeding our lawn, we have to walk the dogs. They get 4 walks a day. It’s the perfect amount of exercise for them.  Peekabu could lose about 5 lbs. We’re taking advantage of our spring weather as VA summers are not ideal for walking Old English Sheepdogs.  Shadowfax, our Mini Schnauzer is at the high end of his weight so it couldn’t hurt him to lose a few pounds.  He’s 10 and the the walks are giving Shadowfax a little perk in his step. Always a good thing.

I do the noon and late afternoon shifts. Each dog is only allowed one pit stop along the walk for sniffing or whatever.  So the pace is pretty good and I feel that I’m actually exerting myself. If I have to clean up after a dog, the pace gets a wee bit faster until I come across a trash can.

I walk each dog separately. Peekabu, as well behaved as she is, does occasionally get spooked. At that point I need both hands to control 90+ lbs. of rambunctious fury.

Having already done my 2.5 miles this morning, I decided to actually track the walks with the dogs. We do a simple walk around our block. Distance? Half a mile. So .50 Miles x 2 Walks =  1 Mile.  The dogs’ afternoon walk is a bit longer, so I’m curious to see where that ends up.


Am I One Tough Mudder?

Dot hiking in Shenandoah a few years and 61+ lbs ago.

Dot hiking in the Shenandoah Mountains a few years and 61+ lbs ago.

I really want to do this! But I’m in no shape to even attempt Tough Mudder…yet!

Goals!
I’ve decided that when I weigh 200 lbs, I’ll start training for the Tough Mudder with the goal of doing TM when I’m within 20 lbs of my goal weight. According to my last weigh in, I need to lose 64 more pounds before training starts. Easy Peasy!

So in the meantime, I’m going to continue with walking everyday, increasing my time and distance each week. Since I’m not ready for Tough Mudder, I’m going to register for a few 5k walks in the area. If I walk everyday, I’ll reward myself with a weekly pedicure. For the 5k walks, I’ll treat myself to a facial.

By late April I plan to start hiking again. I really do miss hiking. Its been more than 4 years since my last outing. Far too long. I figured I’ll start off with day hikes in Great Falls, Roosevelt Island, Bull Run Mountain Conservancy, etc. Then come summer I’ll be ready for the weekend hiking trips to the Shenandoah or Dolly Sods – complete with backpack! Glad I didn’t let my REI membership expire.