ouch!

So, I wasn't too good and missed almost a week doing stuff.  Again, I have plenty of excuses, but I am still mad at myself.  I did the tae bo today, and ugh I am now so tired its ridiculous.  Serves me right for not doing anything for five days...now I have to feel it!  At least I should sleep well tonight.

Sore!

Not sure if it was yesterday's yoga or the day before's tae bo, but my arms were sore this morning.  Not in a bad way, in a good way.  Its odd for such a thing to be delayed for me by two days so I'm somewhat inclined to lean towards it being from yoga, though I can't think of what would have caused that.

I am definitely feeling it now though.  I just did the ten minute cardio today, but I added in all my own stretches and ab exercises to push it a bit.  I had some stuff to do today, so time was a bit crunched.

I'm not pleased with my lunch though.  It wasn't horrible, but I definitely overate.  I had some leftover mac and cheese, some fried shrimp and an avocado.  I probably could have cut it in half and been okay.  I tend to try to finish stuff off when I should stretch it to two meals.  It was really tasty though.  I was good at dinner and only had one piece of chicken.

Yoga

I am definitely going to have to look over my yoga routine.  I think it is a good set of exercises, but it seems a little off.  And it definitely doesn't help that my list isn't in the right order and I have to keep looking up the exercises in my book to remember exactly what they are.  And I think my  list is slightly redundant.  I am going to re-write it by Thursday so that it is better.

Whew!

I went back to the tae bo vid today.  I did all of the parts, in order.  There were only a couple of places that I had to stop.  I felt really good about that.

So, I decided it might be a good idea to start keeping track of my measurements.  I don't own any kind of scale, and I've heard a lot of bad things about tracking by scale.  I know you can track by how well your clothes fit, but I've also had success in the past with measurements.  If nothing else, it will help to keep me motivated.  I can't find the book I used before, and don't feel like looking for it, so I will be mostly going by memory.  I remember measuring my (right) thigh and upper arm, bust, hip and waist.  So that's what I'm going to do now.

Thigh:  28 3/4...Hip 48 1/4...Waist 42....Bust 44...Arm 13...That is around the thickest part, except for the waist which was around the thinnest and the arm which I just did the middle.  I have my measurements from a couple years ago around here somewhere, I'll have to hunt them down sometime and see what they were.

It's funny how we convince ourselves of what we want to believe.  For the longest time I told myself that as long as I went in at the middle I wasn't overweight.  It took me absolutely years (and staring at my pants laying out on the bed and a shirt laid flat) to realize that I would probably always go in at the middle, and that didn't mean anything.

not so bad

I went back to the original ten minute cardio vid today.  I definitely am starting to tell the difference in what I am able to do.  And the reps I have been doing to build arm strength are getting easier too.  I am encouraged by this.  Hopefully I can start picking up the pace and getting somewhere instead of struggling to start.

I am not sure I am doing as well on the food aspect.  I'm not eating any worse, but I don't think I'm making as much headway as I would like.  I still find myself craving (and caving in) more meat than I should probably be eating...and definitely not the healthy proteins I could be eating, but fatty meats.  I have been making an effort to keep eating more veggies...I do like vegetables so that isn't so hard really.  I just need to be more strict with myself and portions.

abs!

I tried the ab boot camp by the tae bo guy today.  If I thought the tae bo owned me, I was wrong.  There were quite a few that I just couldn't complete on this one!  And half the time it wasn't because of the abs.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a six pack or anything, but my thighs and neck were killing me on some of the exercises.  Even now, an hour later, my legs ache, and normally I don't feel things until the day after.  I can feel it in my abs too though, so that is good.

I'm not sure I'm going to do that one as regularly as the others.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow. 

*sniffle

I woke this morning with a head cold...couldn't stop blowing my nose to save my life!  All  morning long, it was non-stop.  I thought at first it was an allergy (I am allergic to dust), but the house was vacuumed on Sunday, so that wasn't as likely.  Then, strangely, around lunch time, it seems to have gone away, so here's hoping that it doesn't come back this evening or tomorrow.

I got out my yoga book and worked through the yoga routine I had.  It has been quite the while since I've done anything from that book, I had to re-read almost all the poses just to remember what to do.  I was surprised at how steady I was in the tree pose.  It has always been one of my favorites, but I used to struggle to do it with long pants on...my raised leg would always slip down.  Today, it wasn't an issue, even though I was wearing long jogging pants.  I was less wobbly than I remember as well.

I definitely need work on both my triangle and my warrior poses.  Warrior has always been a slight struggle, and triangle can be as well.  I think I need to remove my glasses for the triangle.  I kept trying to look up at the ceiling to maintain my center of balance, and it was half in and half out of my glasses field of vision, and so it made me feel extra wobbly.

Ugh

So it's been quite the while.  Hubby was pretty out of it with the flu, and son was home for fall break, and so I let myself slide.  We did end up being gone at least half the day both weekend days, so time was a bit tight, but I could have done more on some of those days as well.

Today, I tried doing that tae bo workout....though the vids were out of order so I missed 1/5th of it....it still about knocked me over.  I think I may try to get that in at least once a week.  I am thinking of trying a new mixup.  I know I want to do more yoga, not only is it good for my mental state, I want to not only loose weight but recover some of the flexibility I have lost over the years and develop more strength.  I have always loved some of the yoga poses that there is no way I can possibly do right now.  I will have to dig it out, but a while back I went through my yoga books and made up a workout that did the whole body.

I am thinking that if I do three days of cardio (possibly one of tae bo and two of the other cardio I liked), and then in between did the yoga workout with some upper body weights (my upper body strength has always been pathetic) and general stretching.  Minimum of 5 days, but I could either do more yoga on the weekend or just general stretching.  I think that is something that would be not only maintainable, but something that would be interesting, so that I wouldn't get bored with it, and would hit all of the areas I want to hit:  better overall fitness, building strength and flexibility and loosing weight.

Another day....

So I was good yesterday, and today, I did my cardio and stretching/strengthening.  I am definitely starting to see results in the stretching.  I have always been pretty flexible...no matter how long it's been, given a few minutes to warm up, I can palm the ground while standing up.  But I am seeing an improvement in how far I can stretch.  I am hoping to work back into being able to do the splits eventually.

I still like the ten minute cardio best, and it is definitely feeling shorter.  When I first started it, by the 4 minute remaining mark, I was counting down the minutes.  Today, for the first time, when the last repetition started, I thought there was at least one more to go, so that felt good.

Gonna do fish and fries for dinner with carrot sticks.  Tomorrow I am going to be roasting a chicken in the oven, so that should be really good.  I have to figure out how to caramelize the onions and roast the carrots and end up with them in one dish...will probably cook the onions later and just mix them up, although I may roast them together, I haven't figured out that part yet.

Slackin

Once again, I could give great examples of why I haven't done jack over the past two days.  We had car issues and my son was sick...but really I allowed those things to give me an excuse to not work out.  I considered slacking again today (I had to clean), but I don't think I will let myself.

We made nacho's a couple of days ago, and wow is that an easy way to eat too much.  It doesn't look like much when you just have the chips on the plate.  But by the time you have added a bit of everything, it is a huge pile of food.  I try to make sure we have lettuce, tomato and olives for some veggies, but still the bulk of the meal is cheese, meat and chips.  One night we made taquitos with it, which is nice, because they are tasty, but again, by the time you get your nacho's made up, you don't have room for anything else (and probably have already eaten too much).  Nachos are almost as bad as a buffet.

Results?

I don't own a scale.  I have been tempted before, but ultimately the numbers don't matter to me.  I want to feel good.  I want to be able to look in the mirror and love what I see (I love myself, I just don't love the way I have let myself devolve).  I want to be able to go into any store and find clothing in my size (or at least be able to complain that everything that fits me around the waist is inches too short!).

I can't tell if I am starting to see results or if I am just thinking I am.  I noticed yesterday that my watch (which is metal and non-elastic) was sliding around on my wrist and normally it is not so loose.  I also am starting to see (I think) more definition on my arms and feel it on my legs. 

Irregardless of that, I am definitely finding that I am less sore the day after.  I am trying to push myself more when I work out, so we'll see how that goes.