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Dec
02

The One Hour Golden Zone

I’m here! I’m here!

There have been so many times I have sat down with the intention of posting here and at my other blogs, and I have just been way too exhausted. How things are so, so busy even though I’m off work this week, I don’t know…

I’m still getting up about an hour and a half earlier than I usually do every morning to exercise. I am so darned proud of myself! A solid hour of exercise every morning has been hard, but the pride and confidence that I get from doing with it and sticking with it (even if it hasn’t been quite two weeks yet) has made me feel amazing.

While my chiropractor was able to do amazing things with my ankle to alleviate pain, it’s still just not strong enough for a walk every morning (unless I want to limp home on the second day, which is no fun at all I can tell you from experience), so I’m alternating my walking days right now. On the opposite days, I’m doing a solid hour of…

Yep, my old friend. Wii Fit!

The first morning I opted for an hour of Wii Fit, I felt bad. I was sure I was cheating somehow, even though I was determined to do the same amount of time a walk would take, and even though I knew that I had to give my ankle some rest lest I damage it severely. So I did the hour and wow!

As it turns out, the Wii Fit is a more intense workout than the walking by heaps. I know that’s because there is only so much I can push walking because of my ankle, but still. Wow. I was really impressed and finally got shot with the clue gun that Wii Fit is like anything else – you get out of it what you put into it. And I have been putting some hardcore workout time into it.

While some people might not ever pair ‘hardcore’ with ‘Wii Fit’, I do because by the time I am done, I am exhausted, drenched with sweat and puffing. Woohoo!

I am so happy about this because it means that I don’t have to walk on rainy mornings if I don’t want to, and I can strengthen my ankle up slowly while still getting the amount of exercise I want. While my weight is still bobbing around, the past couple of days have showed definite losses. Happy, happy!

So I have the exercise, now I just have to get the eating and the mentality up to par.

Category: Body, Checking In, Exercise, Food, Walking  5 Comments
Nov
26

End of an Awesome Week

Have I mentioned how brilliant my chiropractor is? Because she is.

I mentioned ankle problems earlier this week and bought a brace for extra support. Well, it turned out that the brace made it so much worse. I ended up limping home the last quarter of the walk yesterday. Given it was my first rainy day walk of the week, I was feeling a tad miserable.

I didn’t do the walk this morning simply because it takes me forty minutes to walk to my chiro and forty minutes to walk back. Given the state of my ankle, I didn’t think I could do an hour walking and then two forty minute walks just a few hours after that.

My ankle had me in a heap of pain by the time I got to the chiro, but that’s where the brilliance comes in. She studied my walking a bit and then did fixes on my ankle, up my calf and even did some work on my hip. When I left to walk home, I had absolutely no pain. Lovely!

So while my weight hasn’t been reflecting my hard work so far, I’m still proud of punch at the amount of work I’ve put in this week. Five hours and twenty minutes of walking – and that’s not including all the extra walking I’ve done here and there.

Lovely stuff. :)

Category: Body, Checking In  Comments off
Nov
23

Day 23 – Day 2

When I think about it being day 23 of dedicating myself to my health and well-being, I can’t help but smile. The time has flown so fast, and I’ve already had ups and downs with the making of new friends and adding in social occasions. But I feel so good! I feel like I have started the habits of a lifetime rather than just another ‘new diet’.

I have added on another component to my lifestyle. Even though it feels weird to say that on day two, I feel proud just to have started. Exercise and I haven’t had the best of relationships in the past, but things are going well. Even if it is just day two.

That’s me! I wanted to take a picture on day one, but I was waiting on a replacement camera after mine bit the fuzz. This isn’t a great pic by any means, but it features me with my essentials: bandanna to keep my hair back, mp3 player currently set to The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry, my sunnies and a loose jumper over my t-shirt.

Today I definitely walked four kilometres, as The Bloke dropped me off a little further away. That started my walk with a hill, which set my ankle off a little. I’m thinking of wrapping it up to make it a little sturdier until the muscle builds up.

All in all, I feel like I’m on the right track and I like how things are going – slowly but surely. I’m not sure if I’ll ever like getting up so early in the morning, but it really does work best for me to exercise first thing.

Things are looking up.

Category: Body, Exercise  One Comment
Nov
22

Walk It Off

Today I got up about two hours earlier than I am used to – which, in and of itself is pretty huge because I am not a morning person – so my husband could drop me off on his way to work. With my sunnies on, my hair pulled back and my audiobook of The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry in my mp3 player, I set off.

I didn’t miss the irony of the universe when – completely unknown to me – Fry started his biography talking about his addiction to sugar and what it did to him. He swiftly went from an intelligent man I like to listen to, to a comrade in arms who has struggled as I do with this sweet-laden society.

Unlike music, which – after years of marching band – forces me to walk the tempo of whatever song is on, having an audiobook on engages my mind in a way that let’s me walk at a truly beginner’s pace while engaging my mind to the point I can mostly ignore breathlessness, soreness and sweat.

In one hour and two minutes I walked somewhere between 3.5 and 4 kilometres (somewhere between just over 2 and 2.5 miles) nonstop. I’m feeling quite chuffed about both the distance and the amount of time it took. An hour seems to perfectly… perfect and the distance challenges me without leaving me feeling like a worn out bicycle tire.

I know this is the first day of many, but taking that first step is so incredibly important that it is worth celebrating.

I already have my first goal, too. The Bloke has promised me that if I keep up with my walking routine with no exceptions for a month, I get to go in and have shoes fitted to me (something we’ve seen advertised on tele for athletes).

Overall, this is a very happy start. I hope to have my replacement camera with me soon so I can take pictures of the walk.

Category: Body, Exercise, Getting Started  2 Comments
Nov
17

Clothes Shopping & Other Uncomfortable Things

One of the thing that sucks the most about gaining all the weight back definitely comes with clothes shopping. When I lost the weight before, I never anticipated gaining the weight back (who would) and got rid of my ‘fat(ter)’ clothes. But put moving house, severe depression, recovery from surgery and work stress in a big ol’ soup pot and, apparently, you get fifty pounds.

So I finally headed down to the shops today to get a pair of jeans that actually fit properly and a couple comfortable t-shirts. Summer is coming and I wanted to at least feel reasonable about what I was wearing (and not cut off the circulation around my middle). Somehow I’ve managed to have more social connections now and more social outings. Feeling comfortable trumped my squigeeness about spending money on clothing that might not fit in a few months.

I was sad to see myself back in the higher size numbers (and thus with much more limited choices) but going in there with the view of getting stuff I’m comfortable in until I can get back into my preferred clothes made the experience a lot better. I also didn’t let myself go crazy and stuck to stuff that worked instead of falling into the old habit of buying stuff completely unflattering for my shape.

If nothing else, it’s gotten me even more excited about the walking routine I’ll be starting on Monday. I’m starting on Monday because it involves my husband dropping me off on his way to work and me walking back home.

I think I’ve finally come to the realisation that I have to do things – even if they are unconventional – to get myself to exercise. ‘You walk or you don’t get back home to work’ fits my ‘just have to get it done’ mentality right now.

I am so ready to getting back to where I was fifty pounds ago when clothes shopping was beginning to be fun and I was starting to learn what my body shape actually looked like beneath the flub.

I am sooo over fat.

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