What I Love About Working Out

For the few of you that are regular followers of my little blog, you know that I have been working on losing a few pounds and making my life a bit healthier.  I've mentioned it here and here and here.

Now that I am officially 10 weeks into my fitness regime, there are a few more things that I'm discovering.  First and foremost?  I still do NOT like running.  I've been doing it 3 times a week for 10 weeks and am almost done with my Couch to 5K training.  I will be doing a 5K in May with my sister, but for as much as I tried and wanted to love it, I still dislike running.  But.  Disliking it doesn't necessarily mean I'll quit doing it.  That's still yet to be determined.

Secondly?  I still love my sweets.  If anybody knows a way to not like them, I'd love to hear it.  Anway.  Here are a few things I LOVE about working out.

I posted this photo on Instagram on Sunday.  This dress I wore on my wedding day (for the luncheon).  It doesn't fit the same now as it did then, but the fact that I can get it on and get away with wearing it is a huge step in the right direction!

1.  I love that I am setting a good example for my children.  They know that every morning, I am going to be exercising. Sometimes they do it with me.  Sometimes I find them doing it on their own.  They know that exercise makes you healthy and strong and it is a frequent discussion in my house.

(Side note? My 3 year old son likes to step on my bathroom scale every time he's in my bathroom. And he always has a response to his "weigh-in".  Sometimes he'll cheer and do a little happy dance, other times it's a disgruntled growl.  Hehehe!! They really do watch every single thing you do! :) )

2.  I love the girl bonding time I get with working out.  I love my workout buddies!  I love the fun girl time, the chatting and the motivation they give me.  I fear for the day when I no longer have my "sweat buddies" to cheer me on.

3.  I love that I feel stronger.  I still don't really look that different (well, except for my calves.  I can totally tell a difference in my calves.  But you know what? I could care less about my calves...), but I totally feel different.  I feel stronger.  I feel healthier.  I love it.

4.  I love accomplishing my goals.  Most of the time, they are only significant to me.  But I love when I can cross a "huge" milestone of my list.  An example. For the last few weeks, I have been trying so hard to get my 3.1 miles done within 36 minutes.  I finally accomplished that goal this week.  Not that big of a deal to anybody else, but a HUGE deal to me.  

5.   Last but not least? I LOVE watching the scale go down and the numbers on the measuring tape getting smaller.  From the time I stepped on the scale checking into the hospital to have my baby girl on October 8 until today, I have lost a grand total of 36 pounds.  Granted.  30 of those pounds were just from this last pregnancy.  However, 6 of those pounds were from Baby Numero Uno.  I'm glad to see them gone!

If you are just starting your weight loss journey, or are discouraged and feeling like it's not worth it.  Stick to it!  It does take a long time.  It is super hard.  But it is worth it!!

Need another fitness pal?  Come join me on MyFitnessPal!  I can always use more people to hold me accountable!

Hard Things

                                 I found {this} print on Etsy yesterday (via Brightsides Designs)

"I Can Do Hard Things" is my new mantra. 

While plugging along on the treadmill this morning, I probably repeated it a zillion times to myself.

Today, I was ready to quit.
I've been counting calories scrupulously since Little Miss was born almost 4 months ago.

I've been super dedicated to working out; especially the last 3 weeks.

(I've been doing the BodyRock 30 Day Challenge as well as the Couch to 5K training).
This week, I've cut out all extra sugar and treats.

This morning, I made the mistake of weighing in and measuring myself.

IT WAS BAD NEWS BEARS.

Not one ounce or millimeter of difference.
My immediate reaction was "Why?!?  Why am I making myself miserable for nothing?"

I have a dear friend who lets me come run on her treadmill for my Couch to 5K training.  She lets my kids play so I can focus on the task at hand.  She has been ever so helpful in my journey thus far.  Anyway.   I told her I was ready to throw in the towel and she quickly talked me out of it.  She's been in my spot; had 3 babies, tried losing weight while nursing, the whole 9 yards.  As far as fitness and weight loss goes she's light years ahead of me, but having that "buddy" made a world of difference for me today.  So, I did my run, tried to go harder than I did last time, was successful and feel 100 times better about myself than I did this morning.

The moral of the story?  YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS.  Don't give up.  Grab a girlfriend and get moving.  Just a little bit if needs be, but do something.

And seriously?  Come join me on {MyFitnessPal}.  The more the merrier.  We can all use a little help! ;)

Checking In

Remember this post?  The one where I broke down all my health and fitness goals?  Okay.  Well, I've learned a few things since starting my "journey" a couple of months ago.  Let me share.

So far, I've been doing okay.  I've lost all my pregnancy weight plus a pound (that would be 30+ pounds thank you very much).  The last three weeks I've hit a wall; but I am blaming that on the death of my sister's boyfriend, which caused a tremendous amount of stress and a bit of extra company in my house.  Add to that all the holiday yumminess that is taking place right now and you've got my big, fat, cement wall.  I plan on breaking that wall down come January 1st.  But here's what I've learned:

Having a fitness buddy is an incredible motivator.  While I don't always workout with my girlfriends, we do always check up on each other, compare notes and try to motivate each other.  It really makes a difference!!

MyFitnessPal is my new best friend.  Seriously.  I log on probably 15 times a day to add in my food intake, any exercise I've done, and just to check my friend's progress and reports for the day.  It is an amazingly easy little app that keeps track of all my calories (both digested and burned).  LOVE it and highly recommend it.  Are you on My Fitness Pal and need an extra friend?  You can find me {here}.

Breakfast is a must.  Even if it's just 2 pieces of toast, your body needs nourishment in the morning.  Water is also a must.  I am blaming my lack of weight loss for the last 2 weeks on those two things.  Even though I stayed within my allowed calories for the day, I stopped losing weight when I stopped eating breakfast and neglected to get my 8+ cups of water each day.

Bodyrock.tv is also a new favorite.  It's full of 15 minute workouts that really, really work.  I'm not gonna lie; the workouts are HARD.  But, they're quick and they work.  I will say that their videos verge on being pornographic, so I make sure that I don't have it on while my husband or my children are within viewing areas.  I have their app for my phone so I can just watch the videos on my phone for my workout; and then nobody can see it but me.

And lastly, another new favorite is Rock My Run.

 You can find tons of playlists already put together, in time increments that work for you.  You can either purchase playlists to download OR you can just be patient and get one free one each month.

So, there are my tips for anybody who wants them as we all gear up to kick 2013 off on the right foot.  I'd love to hear how you plan on achieving your fitness goals this year!!

**By the way, I got no compensation whatsoever from any of the companies listed above.  I just really, truly love their sites and use them regularly!!**

Motivation & Goal Setting

I am at the end of my pregnancy, which means I am pretty much ready to just have this baby and move on with things.  Not that I have much to complain about; I'm just ready to be done with this phase and on to the next.  Does that make sense?

Anyway, one of the things I am most looking forward to is exercising  (for real) and getting back into shape.  Remember when I told you forever ago that my husband promised me a wonderful vacation should I reach my goal weight (you can read about it {here})?  Well I am SO ready to earn that vacation, and my goal is to reach my "end" weight by May of 2013.  That's 7 months post-baby to lose my pounds, and it would mean I'd earn my vacation just in time for my 6th anniversary.

However. I know it's going to take more than just working out to lose my weight.  I also need to do better at healthy meal planning for my family.  And thanks to Pinterest, I really have no excuse when it comes to meal planning anymore.

So here's my plan.  I have already started meal planning for November. (I'm starting with November because October will be full of having a baby/company in town/too much chaos to try and stick to a schedule)  Here's what it's looking like:

Most of the empty slots are just for leftovers, but I do have a few more to fill.  My goal was to have one major salad/week, eat more fish (which I don't like) and have everything made from scratch.  We'll see how that goes.

This is my fitness binder.  

Inside, I have collected a variety of quick workouts I can do at home.  They come from various fitness magazines or things I've found on-line and just printed off (again, Pinterest is a God-send for stuff like this!). I also have a deck of cards stored in there so I can do my own routine (I blogged about that workout {here}). I like that they're all right there together, so when I have a few extra minutes in my day, I can just open it up and find a fun workout.  It's perfect for those days when I can't seem to find the time for a full workout.

I have also set a few short term goals for myself.  Namely:

• Drink as close to a gallon of water each day as possible.
• No sweets during the week; only dessert on Sunday.
• Get moving!  Do something everyday as soon as I feel physically capable of doing so.

I had started training for a 5K a month before I found out I was pregnant.  I plan on re-starting the Couch to 5K program as soon as absolutely possible, and have already made plans with a couple of girlfriends and my sister to run this awesome race in January.

Hopefully that's enough time for this total NON-RUNNER to be ready for a 5K.

So there you go.  6 weeks and counting down.  Any advice?