Posts by Pam

2012 Goals

Posted by Pam on Dec 29, 2011 in Health | 4 comments

I’ve been thinking about things I want to accomplish in 2012… I use the word accomplish because resolutions always induce a sense of failure in my mind if they’re not accomplished. I wanted to come up with a small list of goals I know I could realistically reach by the end of the year. So this is what I came up with…

Keep moving
No matter what keep moving. These past few months I’ve tried to do some sort of physical activity every day unless I’m sick or on the rare occasion I’m booked solid all day. I want to keep this up, and I don’t think it’ll be difficult since it feels like exercising has become a habit. I can definitely tell a difference in my mood and how I feel physically on days when I can’t fit anything in or I’m forced to stay in bed because of sickness.

Eat more veggies
I have no problem getting fruit into my diet everyday. I love fruit. Veggies, on the other hand… Some sort of salad is my veggie of choice but lately I’m so burned out on leaves of any kind. In all honesty, I need to be more proactive about finding healthy recipes to make veggies taste better. Plus, the weight would probably come off a bit faster if I ate more veggies.

Stay focused
When I say stay focused I don’t mean stay focused on getting healthy but all aspects of my life. We live in a world where everyone is multitasking and distracted (or is that me?) so it’s always hard to stay focused on one thing. If I have downtime, I’m not resting, I’m probably wasting time on my iPhone. I need to enjoy more downtime that requires me to be off the grid and actually enjoying that downtime.

Date
I like being single a lot and have no plans of it changing in 2012 on account of that selfish reason. That being said, it’s fun to go on a date with someone new, getting to know someone, flirting, etc. As I was brainstorming these goals, I set a number for how many dates I should go on (no, I will not say publicly how many I wrote down!) Then I remembered how many dates I’ve been on in the past five years, and I thought I shouldn’t get too set on a number. Plus, I don’t want to force going on a date with someone I don’t really want to go on a date with to meet some quota.

. . . and if I’m feeling really good:

Run a 5K
The ideal time of doing this would be Spring or Fall because I hate Kentucky’s humidity. I need to look into it for sure but I’m behind on training if I plan to do it in the Spring. Realistically, if it happens it’ll be in the Fall.

2012 is going to be my year. What do you have planned?

23.5 Hours

Posted by Pam on Dec 19, 2011 in Health | 0 comments

Can you limit your sitting and sleeping to just 23.5 hours a day?
Yes, you can.

Week 13 – Lucky 13

Posted by Pam on Dec 5, 2011 in Health | 0 comments

Happy December! As I was beginning this post I remembered that this past week was week 13. Is 13 supposed to be lucky or unlucky? Either way it was a lucky week for me. First, according to my dailymile stats I’ve walked 300 miles since 9/12! That would be the equivalent of walking to Nashville and back. Second, my weight finally moved! Third, and unrelated to my health, Ryan Adams is playing in town next month and I have tickets! Weee!

Monday I had a strength training consultation with one of the owners of my gym. I was surprised that she remembered me and greeted me with a big hug. I know many people prefer to remain anonymous at the gym and quite honestly I preferred that in the past. When people don’t take notice it’s easy to slack off or not show up. We went through a routine together and it requires balance and coordination; two skills I haven’t mastered. Needless to say, my form wasn’t great but I did it and I’ll get better the more I do it. The strength training was a workout by itself so I’m not sure where I mustered up the energy to get on the elliptical for 35 minutes after but I powered through.

I woke up Tuesday to some major soreness in my hamstrings and my chest. I was reminded of it in everything I did. I took the day off because we were at the hospital most of the day with Dad and honestly I wanted to take it easy.

Wednesday when I woke up I decided to weigh myself for some reason. I lost a few pounds – and my total weight loss is 20.2 pounds!!! 20lbs was my first big goal and I was completely ecstatic I finally reached it. I went back for round two even though I was still sore from Monday. I got through it and attempted to do some cardio but lasted a whole two minutes. My legs wouldn’t let me go any further. It wasn’t me being lazy, it was me knowing my limits, and I needed to give my muscles a rest. Later that evening I was still sore but I wanted to go for a walk and see if that would help. I’m not sure what got into me but as soon as I turned the corner on the road I normally walked, I started jogging. I made it pretty far, stopped to walk briefly, and back to jogging. I did that through the first half and decided to walk back. I guess it was the adrenaline of the cold and jogging but I didn’t feel any pain. Walking back was another story, with every step I felt the pain again in my hamstrings. It wasn’t an unbearable pain otherwise I wouldn’t have been laughing at myself the entire trek back.

I can’t remember what happened Thursday but I was only able to get in a walk that turned into a repeat of the night before. I was smiling most of the way thinking about how a couple months ago I couldn’t jog this far and now I can. I’ve still got a long way to go but these little things make me feel wonderful and all of this is worth it.

Friday I went back to the gym for my third day of strength training. I only had a certain amount of time I could spend at the gym due to other obligations and I knew I was being sloppy as a result. I managed to fit in some time on the elliptical but not as much as I would’ve liked. I guess my body is slowly adapting because there’s not much lingering pain after the workout and I don’t feel like I’m crawling to get out of my car which is always a plus!

The weekend was pretty uneventful at the gym due to other plans but I managed to get in some exercise both days. I made it a point to start writing down a few goals (fitness related and non-fitness related) for 2012 and I’ll post those eventually.

Oh, look at this! OK, I’m done feeling good about myself now! ;-D

Week 12 – Joining the gym

Posted by Pam on Nov 27, 2011 in Health | 8 comments

For a while my weight loss has slowed down to the point that it’s not moving. I finally stopped weighing myself every week because it was disheartening seeing my weight not moving, or that I gained weight. I took a week to count calories but I got as far as the fourth day, and while I was keeping it under every day, it was overwhelming to keep track of everything with other things going on. I am going to try again soon.

It’s been chilly and/or rainy the past few weeks, which doesn’t necessarily keep me from walking, but it’s hard to keep up with the mileage I’ve been doing on nice days. I’ve been trying to do workout videos in addition (usually Taebo or Jillian Michael’s 30-day shred) to make up for the mileage. Last Friday, I was determined to go back to Iroquois Park since I needed a change of scenery and something that would kick my butt – thank you Christina for introducing me to this park! I knew it was going to be cold that morning (30-something F) but after my body and brain fought one another for about 20 minutes I finally got used to it. I was so happy after I finished.

As much as I didn’t want to pay for a gym membership again, I figured it would be necessary when it’s really cold and snowy this winter. I signed up at Anytime Fitness; I’ve been a member twice in the past and really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the couple who own the place are really nice. When I was signing up, I told one of the owners about things I mentioned above, and he suggested strength training to get things moving again since I haven’t been doing that. He also set up an appointment tomorrow to meet with someone to talk about strength training and come up with a routine so that I can get the results that I want. I’m not sure if it’ll be a training session or more talking about what I should be doing. Either way I’m excited about it and looking forward to moving onto the next thing.

Lastly, I leave you with a nice sunset from a walk earlier this week. :)

What doesn’t kill you…

Posted by Pam on Nov 1, 2011 in Health | 6 comments

Happy November! I’m into week 9 of my fitness journey and feeling great aside from some (temporary) physical pain but more on that later…

When I first started out I was apprehensive about blogging or even making a separate twitter account documenting what I’m doing/eating/etc. to be healthy because what if I fail? Thinking about that now, I’ve missed out on things in life because I’m too worried about failure. I guess we all have this fear of failure to a point, but I feel like in certain aspects of my life that fear is more paralyzing than it should be. I’m so glad I started blogging and tweeting about this. It’s held me accountable and kept my mind stimulated – often when it should be stimulated on other things. When I began I doubt I could come up with anything nice to say about myself, and the more I think about it; I’ve felt this way a long time. It’s sad that I let it get to that point. With that being said, I feel like in this short time my confidence is back to what it should be. I haven’t lost a huge amount of weight this early on but I feel like I’ve lost twice that amount. These small victories keep my head up and onto the next challenge.

Speaking of challenges… Yesterday I was inputting data from the previous day into my Dailymile account, and I noticed I was at 193 miles since 9/12 and so close to 200. I completed 3 miles earlier in the day and I began wondering if I could pull off 4 more miles by the end of the day. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen but I made it to 200.41 miles last night! I knew as soon as I sat down on the couch my body was going to seek revenge. It wasn’t the mileage but the fact I took a certain trail with an intense hill 3 times. Needless to say, when I woke up around 2am to pain in my hips, thighs, and knees I wasn’t too surprised. For the most part it doesn’t hurt so much now but I have no plan to do anything intense today to test that.

I’ve been listening to this song called “What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)” by Kelly Clarkson on repeat the past couple of days and I absolutely love it. It’s such an empowering song that gets me going. Enjoy!

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, Stand a little taller.. What doesn’t kill you makes a fighter, Footsteps even lighter”