Overshot!

My Health Coach just called for my monthly check in.

Admittedly, I signed up for this benefit for the opportunity for $$ if I complied. I am chatty, I like to answer questions, why not?

I am looking great! Beautiful posture and winning smile!

Well, I guess I am a sucker because I have long passed the required number of calls and I keep on trucking with my health coach. I always forget her name, but she lives in Ohio and is nice.

She has been very supportive of me and has given me credit (or slack) for the big stress in my life since May. I have listened to her and appreciated her rah-rah-rah attitude.

Last month she encouraged me to really minimize my goal for November. She talked me into making a goal of going to the gym or playing Wii intensely once per week. I was also supposed to do some mental health work.

The overachiever in me thought that was pretty lame, but I humored her.

I actually am taking Spanish and sort of polishing off my French.

She just called to check in with me and I blew that goal out of the water and I feel AWESOME!!

I went to the gym about 3 times a week and did several mental health care activities.

She is so smart. Set the bar low and feel amazing and motivated!

Off to sign up for fencing and physics classes now...

Nobody's fault but my own.

Today on FML:
Today, it’s decided, I’m going a diet. For real. But I said that yesterday. And the day before. FML

I can relate, but cannot agree.No, this is not a "FML" worthy scenario. This is my fault, my lack of self control, my lack of commitment.

I believe in eating whole foods and I know that I need to overcome my sweet tooth, my habit of eating out, my resistance to exercise, and my sporadic cooking schedule.

I believe these are reasonable and feasible.

I can change, I can try again. I am doing the best I can, and I know I am not alone.

Todd and I are in a little competition to see who can lose 10 pounds first. I will post our method of tracking, etc once we get officially started. I am not so much motivated by the competition, but by my desire for him to be healthy and follow doctors orders, and he reminds me that he wants the same for me.

This weekend we tried to go to the gym together, but it was closed early. We went home and played SingStar together in duet mode.

Shake it!

We danced and sang, we broke a nice sweat.

We plugged in our neglected Wii controllers for future at home workouts together.

Healthy cooking in a rush.

I stole this quote from a friend's blog:

"My goal tonight was to use them up before they rotted."

I feel like this is the goal with way too much of my cooking with fresh vegetables! My healthy cooking challenge.

I am inspired by this:


to make something like this:


But I get busy or forgetful and soon the vegetables in the fridge are looking at me like this:


I am working on a better game plan right now and I have learned to accept my limitations, for the sake of food and budget waste. Living in a climate with a short growing season, the vegetables will soon be pretty pricy, like 99cents per green pepper. That always seems like a lot to me.

How much are green peppers in other states?

Future topic:

Food dehydrators!
Do you have one? Do you use it? Is it good for making low salt, low sugar food? Or are those a part of the process?

I have no clue- I just know that dried food is delicious for snacks but can be so expensive, like Just Corn and Just Raspberries. Those are freeze dried, so I cant afford that machine but I may be able to swing a dehydrator.

I am working on the gym. Anyone out there who would like to motivate me or tag along with me, please pipe up!

I went to the gym tonight

and as a reward, the universe had a copy of a recent People Magazine waiting for me to read!

Thanks, Universe!

In the magazine I saw a brief review of this book:



The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude

"Here’s the skinny: After a lifetime of yo-yo dieting with pills, hypnosis, and ill-informed half-measures, Carol Lay finally shed her excess pounds and kept them off. Now this California cartoonist shares her experiences in a funny, genuine, and eye-popping graphic memoir that tells Carol’s story and shows you how you can do it, too."

Could be a fun read. I enjoy comics and graphic novels. If I ever get aroun to reading this or flipping through it at a store I will let you know.

I brought my gym bag to work!

Tonight I will scuttle to the gym straight from work for Body Pump.

Check out this rad gym bag! Only $75! Sigh.

I cannot believe how difficult it is to get myself to bring a gym bag to work...it took like, 3 years! 29 years if you count all the years that I did not have a gym membership!

It is pretty lame because the light rail station is 1 block from my gym and totally easy to get to from work. Then it is just a brisk 8 blocks walk home with my friend who teaches the class and lives right by me.

It will be a super frigid walk tonight (it is -3 right now, up from -21!), but so worth it! I really am so pleased with myself when I get to the gym.

A friend who just joined my gym is part of my motivation, plus my other friend who teaches the class. Also, a doctor I see who was all, "Go to the gym straight from work. Seriously."

PS:
I went to the gym on Sunday even though I was not feeling 100% due to alcohol choices I made the prior evening. Thanks to a friend who called and invited me along to the gym.

I also went to the gym last night! Nice. Thanks to the same friend!

Things not to say outloud at the gym

Things Not to Say Out loud at the Gym:

January 8, 2009 10:23 am

by Renee D from The Shoebox Blog

* “Geez, that door is heavy.”
* “Great! A vending machine!”
* “I only come here for the whirlpool.”
* “Move it, Tons O ‘ Fun.”
* “I can’t wait ’til March so I can quit coming here.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I have been going to the gym in spurts still, better than nothing but hope to improve on that as time carries on.

I have already had one Thanksgiving gathering and I was a hearty eater. My friends can really cook. I went to Body Pump before and after the event, and hit the elliptical hard too.



I wonder if my muscles are any bigger??

I have been working on my Body Pump form, I have a ways to go, I have plenty of underused muscles!

My friend wrote this little piece with suggestions to help prevent overeating during the holidays, check it out if you please!

Yeah, one of my good friend is an obesity researcher. You would think her research results would rub off on me! Yeah right. Once I was in one of her weight management studies, but I was put in the control group; how's that for impartial!

Oh, did I tell you I bought chop sticks to try to eat less? I actually bought a chopstick helper:

We'll see how that goes. I eat a lot of black beans and salsa, so that may be messy.

Good luck out there! Practice mindful eating! Savor every bite and then walk it off!

A nice read.

If you feel like a laugh and have a moment, check out this piece from McSweeny's:

NOTED POST-MARXIST SOCIOLOGIST, PHILOSOPHER, AND CULTURAL CRITIC SLAVOJ WELCOMES YOU TO THE GYM.

BY Evan Johnston

Slavoj Žižek

Exerpt:

A deviation: have you ever been doing a repetitive motion over and over and then thought, "My God, what am I doing?" Exercise allows us to engage in these repetitive motions without having to question why. The superego asks the id, "What are you doing? Don't make me look stupid," and then the ego and id respond, "Go to bed, old man. I am working out like Olivia Newton-John!"

Oooo Girl!

I made it to the gym the last two nights! Ow! All thanks to K and determination.

Yesterday I rode K's bike to the gym even though it was dark and cold! Brrr!


Ok, not THAT cold yet!

I chickened out of Body Pump, but I set the elliptical on a setting where it went from hard to easier, hard to easier. For a while I had been keeping it on a level setting.

Today, K picked me up and we stayed at the gym for and hour and 15min. That is a whole 15 minutes longer than I usually tolerate!

C can tell you, we are pretty much 1 hour gym people and we used to peer pressure 2 hour gym person K to reduce his workout. Sorry C! I was weak without you!

I walked, went on the mixed level elliptical, and did some weight machines. Plus, I watched the Biggest Loser for the first time.


Oh, it was the family edition!

Hooo Boy! Even with the sound off there was some drama there! And inspiration.

Can someone tell me why the crazy girl from Days of our Lives circa 1996 is on this show? I thought she was possessed by the devil or ate her sister's baby or something?



Do you watch this show? I know people love it. Do they teach people useful ways to have a more healthy lifestyle? Or do they just exploit their goals?? (Sorry, cynical.)

Me: Yesterday

From: Natalie Dee

I hope to get my booty to the gym tonight. Maybe to Body Pump...I don't need to do much walking tomorrow anyway.

Back to Bacck Blinking Bottom!

If you saw a blinking red bum bopping around the Midtown YWCA the last two nights, you may have seen me!



I rode my bike to the gym and hopped on the elliptical machine. Check it out:


Fantastic!

Oh, and today I really wanted a coke, but I had an iced black coffee instead.



NICE!

Bike! Bike! Bike!

I did it! I rode my bike today!



I rode down the Greenway to Lake Calhoun and I rode around the lake twice. TWICE!



I feel pretty great. I highly recommend forcing yourself to do something even when all you want to do is take a nap!

Do it up!

I just got home from a long bike ride on K's bike!

Ow!

USA! USA! USA!

I rode east on the Midtown Greenway from our house, over the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge to the West River Road. Then I went south to 38th Street and visited Todd's office. The I took 38th to Hiawatha Avenue, rode north to 32nd and rode west home.




Fascinating huh?

Hey, check out this biking image I found while I wrote this:


There's a double meaning in that....

Two wheeled loan and a promise

My friend K was generous enough to let me borrow his bicycle while he and C are in India for a month.I am so excited! You see, the bike I own needs pricey repairs and I had been hemming and hawing about investing in a bike that I may or may not ride 8 blocks the gym year round.

Eight blocks is not far (though it can be VERY far when the temps are low and the snow is flying), but I do not always have access to a car and my neighborhood is not a safe place to walk alone after dark. Unfortunatly is not exactly a safe place to bike either. (The incident in the link took place 1.5 blocks from my house, and right on the route to the gym.)

Anyway! I am going to try getting into the habit of riding K's bike to the gym. I promised him I would, and since K is a wonderful person, I aim to keep that promise.

Hip hop, and ya don't stop!

Guess who accidentally ended up in a Hip Hop Dance class???

C. and I!


We are total hip hoppers now, so step off!

We thought it was going to be hip hop aerobics, but it was straight up dance class. It was pretty hilarious, I felt like such a geek, but I laughed a lot- good for the abs, right?

After hip hop class, we took a Zumba class, that was so fun! There was no pressure to conform, just pressure to shake your moneymaker!
That is MY kind of dancing!

Get this- there was a woman in the class who had a 4 or 5 month old baby in a baby Bjorn shaking her booty. That baby was loving it!

Her little arms and legs were flapping around and she had a HUGE smile on her face, that is...until she fell asleep half way through the class! Too much fun!!