I'm doing a couple of related things to get myself back to fitness and well-being:

  1. Lose 10% of my weight. I'm doing the diet bet (10% loss in 6 months)
  2. Exercise daily. I'm doing a 100-day challenge to do at least 30 minutes of exercise every day (stretching/yoga count - and are necessary - for rest days).
  3. Have a goal. I'm training for the Rock n Roll Raleigh half marathon in mid-April.
  4. Move, move, move. I'm doing the 1,000 mile challenge, which is to get in 1,000 miles in some way, shape, or form for 2015. It can be running, walking, swimming, biking - anything that is self-initiated movement.
  5. Track my calories. I'm committed to tracking my food every day on My Fitness Pal. Ideally, because of the diet bet, I will manage to not only track, but stay within the limits I set in terms of net calories consumed. I set it to lose 2lbs/week (which would have me comfortably winning my bet), or a total of 1200 net calories a day. (Here's where doing at least 500 calories' worth of exercise daily comes in, so that I can eat more!)
  6. Increase flexibility. I'm doing more stretching and foam-rolling because I've been having issues with flexibility and with my left hip flexor, glutes, and quads.
  7. Build core and upper-body strength. I'm doing the 100 push-ups challenge, which is 3x/week to build up my upper body and core strength. Only takes 10 minutes in the morning to do; I am doing it Mon/Weds/Fri. (For the record, these are modified push ups on my knees. One day I hope to be able to be fit and strong enough to do traditional push-ups.) 

 

HOW I'M KEEPING TRACK:

What I've done for myself is make a monthly chart with 4 checkboxes next to the following words: Stretch, Roll, 30 minutes, Track food. Every day I have been checking off what I have done. The must-do is the 30 minutes. So far I'm 7 for 7 (as of yesterday) doing 30 minutes every day. I also have a space to write down what I did, as well as putting in miles done. The push-ups alone don't count as 30 minutes a day because it's only 10 minutes of work, but I write them down and how many I did on the days I do them. (If anyone wants a copy of the sheet, I can provide it as a word doc for you.)

The sheet pretty much covers my major areas: 100 day challenge, 1,000 mile challenge, stretching and foam rolling, and food tracking. The actual food/exercise tracking is done on My Fitness Pal and (when running) via Map My Fitness. 

MY EXERCISE PLAN:

Truly, my goal is to just do 30 minutes a day. But, because I'm training for the half marathon and because I want to lose the weight I want to lose, most days I will do more. Monday and Wednesdays are run days - I'll run 3 miles (which for me is 45 minutes because I'm slow). Mondays I'll run with a group at the Duke Golf Course; Wednedays I'll run with the Fullsteam/Bull City group, followed up by a meditation class. In both cases I'm doing these with friends to keep me motivated. Long run is Saturdays, which my first few weeks will be with Team in Training folks, then later (once Winter Season is done for them) will be with another group of runners I know. 

The other days I want to work on strength and flexibility. Sunday I'm open to whatever strikes me, but likely will do weights with my hubs or my friend EJ. That's the day where if a friend says, "Come swimming with me/biking with me/workout with me," I'll say "Sure!" (as long as it's not a run). Tuesdays are the same, although I did try a cardio kickboxing class that wasn't bad this week and may try again. Thursdays I want to do a TRX class at the Y (weight resistence class using body weight and bands). Friday is my "rest" day, meaning I'll do the Yin Yoga class at the Y with the hubs (it's super relaxing). I will also likely have interspersed in there dog walks as needed. 

I'm also now doing more standing at work with my stand-up desk. It's adjustable so when I get tired of standing, I can easily set it back to sitting mode. Also trying, as much as possible, to walk to the bathroom that is as far away from me as possible when I need to go to the loo, as well as getting up to get water from the breakroom and drinking it as much as possible. 

HOW IT'S WORKING:

So that's my plan! But how did it work yesterday, when I was supposed to run and it was Bill's birthday?

Turns out I didn't get a run in yesterday because I couldn't get out of work in time to do it before going to meet Bill & Bonnie for Bill's birthday dinner. But the day still managed to work out well. I only went over my calories by about 500 (they were set to have me lose 1.5 lbs/week). I then went home after dinner and did 30 minutes of Zumba Core on XBox and burned about 420 calories (didn't walk/run after because it was bitterly cold here last night, and still is today). 

The plan is to do my run today instead of yesterday, so I'll go to the Y and run in the indoor track (42 laps = 3 miles) or on the treadmill if one is available. I've already stretched profusely this morning because my zumba core exercise from last night kicked my butt! At the time, it didn't feel like it did, but clearly my body is still adjusting to my giving it work to do for 30 minutes minimally every single day. So while it's sore, it's a happy, "Thank you for loving me, mama!" type of sore. 

So that's where I'm at. Thanks for reading, and share comments and feedback if you have any.