Hit the double digits!

Well, I've been working hard in the gym for four weeks now & I can certainly tell you that when I take a rest day, it feels kinda funny like I should be working. It is all slowly paying off. Monday mornings are my official weigh-in day & today I was down 10 pounds since I got started. Although I'd like for it to come off a little faster, I'm good with this. I realize that it took time for me to put this much on & will take time for me to eliminate it also. I also realize that I still need to do some major tweaking on how I eat. Although I am making better choices, I am not being very disciplined yet. I need to make an effort to keep up with my calories & how many grams of fat/carbs/protein that I'm taking in to make sure that I have both my exercise and diet working well together. Well, I'm off to enjoy what's left of this snow day. Hope you all are off to a great week!!

Progress

Monday morning are my weigh-day, so Monday officially marked week one on this massive endeavor. I'm proud to report that I'm down 4.5 pounds. I did some kind of work out 5 days last week. When I initially met my friend, we started with approximately 30 second jog/60 second walk intervals for 20 minutes after a 5 minute warm up walk and finished with a 5 minute cool down walk before heading to weights & this week that has progressed to a 60 second jog/1:10 walk for the 20 minutes of intervals. I'm hanging in there as far as weights go too, however, I will admit that my arms & chest are definitely my weak areas.

I'm so appreciate of my friend who is willing to take the time out of her schedule to help me. She has truly been so motivating for me. The entire experience is teaching me a lot about myself already and this is just the beginning.

On another note, the 4th Annual Marcrom's Pharmacy Lose to Win Challenge is getting underway & I'm going to participate again. I will admit that I wasn't as committed as I should have been when I did it during the fall of 2008, but they have revamped some aspects of the contest & I am definitely working on revamping my mindset about food, exercise, and what I am capable of accomplishing.

Well, I'm outta here, but I'll keep you posted.

Slow & Steady

I've met my friend that's helping me with this huge endeavor both Monday & Tuesday nights to work out. Both days we've done a walk/jog session for about 20 minutes with a 5 minute warm-up and another 5 minute cool down. We've also spend 30 minutes each night doing weight training. Monday was arms & chest and WOW! I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to turn the steering wheel when I left the rec center. LOL. I actually came home & told my hubby that he would need to put the chicken I had marinated in the fridge in the oven for me because I didn't think I could raise my arms that far. After a hot shower the soreness was more tolerable, but definitely still there. On Tuesday we worked legs, which made me sore, but I don't have nearly as much trouble with legs. On Wednesday, I was supposed to meet her for a 5:30 am class, but I was still trying to get my lesson plans done for school and was afraid I'd be late for my morning supervision, so I bailed on that one. Anyway, it's still early, but I'm already feeling a little better. I haven't had a diet soda since Sunday & the headaches have almost gone away totally. Well, time for me to go, gotta enjoy the snow day I got from school!

Getting Started - FINALLY!

It took me some time to get things lined up with my friend who is going to be training me and with all the holiday things going on, I'm really just getting started today. I began today only drinking water and if you know me, this is a BIG one. I rarely drink anything other than Diet Pepsi or Diet Sundrop. Although I'm not pulling in a lot of calories with these, I know I'm not getting enough (ready any here) water. Also, my friend reminded me that the aspartmine in diet sodas do make you crave more sweets & I definitely agree. Besides, all those chemicals can't be good for me and that doesn't even take into consideration the bloated feeling from drinking all that stuff. Of course, my 3-day headache has begun as I knew it would, but at least in a few days the headache will go away & I will be on my way to a healthier me. I've been pretty careful about what I'm eating & I'm logging everything. We had inservice today, which gives us a rare opportunity to go out for lunch, but I resisted the urge to go eat Chinese with my coworkers and came home for veggie soup and a salad with some lean protein. I start my workouts tonight, so I'll keep you guys posted. Hope you are all having a great start to the year!