I found myself really motivated to bike, kind of motivated to run, and not at all motivated to lift weights. Clearly, my exercise habits are not well formed and changing constantly. But, the one thing that remained true was my love for the technology surrounding all of this. I tested 3 different running and biking apps last week. Every time I downloaded a new app, I couldn’t wait to use it. I also ate my weight in chocolate during Easter weekend and refused to count up calories. But who wants to hear about that, right?

At first, I thought this blog was going to be all about accountability. But I’m not sure how that can be sustained long term. When I’m doing well, I tend to not post; and when I’m doing poorly, I tend to not post and then write a sad confessional. That kind of content isn’t going to help anyone, including me. So, I think I’m going to steer the blog more about my discovery of all of these tools. 

Right now, the tools I use correspond directly with my goals, and they allow me to define those goals as simply or as specifically as I want. For instance:

I’m now 6 weeks away from Vegas, and basically the same weight I was 2 months ago. However, I do feel A LOT more confident about my ability to stick to a good diet and exercise plan. So now I’m going to turn up the dial a little bit. For the next 6 weeks, I’m going to go down to 1200 calories a day. I realize that I may not be able to maintain that long term, but I believe I can do it for 6 weeks. I won’t be able to do it without exercise, though. And writing down a plan in this blog seems to be the key to making it happen. So, here’s my plan for this week, or whatever’s left of it.

Wednesday – Weight training – I’ll have to feel out how much I can do
Thursday – run/walk in the morning
Friday – bike ride (and weight training if I’m not too sore from starting up again)
Saturday – run/walk in the morning
Sunday – bike ride and weight training

If you can’t tell, I love websites that count things. I’m in love with apps that collect data, especially when I’m learning by trial and error. (I think I learn most things by trial and error. I’m stubborn and skeptical of following directions. My mom always said I came from the school of hard knocks.) Anyway, a couple of years ago I bought into the Nike+ system and it motivated me quite a bit. But when I decided to start running again, it wasn’t working. The internet suggested the sensor’s battery was dead, so I bought a new one. Still didn’t work. So I started to look for a new solution that’s compatible with my iPhone.

The Runkeeper app has way more functionality than Nike+. You can track any activity, not just running. Enter your time manually or let the app use GPS to track your distance. The above image shows you my morning run (/walk which is why my pace is so slow.) The GPS worked great in the front pocket of my hoodie. However, I also tested it yesterday while riding my bike, and it didn’t work at all when my phone was in my jeans pocket. The website is really great, and you can upload activities directly to your account and/or Twitter and Facebook without having to plug your phone into a computer.

Since I hate having to take out and unlock my phone all the time while I’m running, I’m tempted to spend the $10 for the Pro version. The paid version has audio cues that you can program as well as iPod controls, which would allow me to focus entirely on my stride and, um, not getting hit by cars.  First, though, I’m going to test out some other free options.

Just so you know I haven’t changed too much, I did trip and fall while running and subsequently lost my house keys, which my husband thankfully went back and found for me. So don’t worry, I’m still Awkward Nerdy Christina underneath the shiny new veneer of Grown Up Christina Who Runs In The Morning.

However…I probably at least could’ve done some weights, even if it was only my upper body. I’ve learned that I definitely need to write down a plan, even if it is boring for others to read. The internets help me stay committed!

• Wednesday: weight training. Arms 3 sets of 14 (I need to get heavier weights), Legs 3 sets of 10, abs 3 sets of ten, add another crunch-like exercise
• Thursday morning: my next run!!
• Friday: rest. I know that’s 3 rest days this week, but I’m being realistic based on how I felt Monday and Tuesday.
• Saturday: Weights again and a 30 min walk if I’m up for it. DDR as a backup plan if it’s raining.
• Sunday: Run number 3!!

My legs still hurt 3 days after my first run, but I can’t get discouraged. I have Sara to remind me that I’ve already accomplished more than I thought I would! She’s made me feel brave enough to tell a few more people about this blog, and hopefully that will make me feel more motivated and accountable.

Can you even believe it?! It was 39 degrees, cloudy and rainy, and baby little me went OUTDOORS and ran IN PUBLIC. I was jubilant. I even did weights afterwards!

Today, the only think I did was a lot of Googling, mostly about shin splints and hip flexor pain. I have a lot of work to do and a lot to learn about my stride and which muscles need strengthening. But something changed.  For the first time, I’m really itching to get moving. I WANT TO EXERCISE. Sorry for all the shouting, but this is exciting!!

I’m forcing myself to take a rest day, though. I don’t want to injure myself. I don’t want to ruin a good thing. Maybe I’m just scared, but I’d rather take it slow as planned. This hip flexor pain is familiar, and it’s ground my progress to a halt on more than one occasion.

Speaking of plans, here are my goals for this week:

• Get sugar intake below 200% of recommended amount (totally neglected that this week)
• Work towards the first milestone of my running plan (more on that later)
• Up the amount of reps I’m doing with weight training
• Up the total time I’m exercising per day to 25 minutes instead of 15-20 like before

I’ll need to write out a more detailed plan later, especially since that last goal is going to entail making sure that muscle groups have a chance to rest.

I need to plan in advance for a few busy nights this week and tailor my workout schedule a little differently. So it’ll be DDR Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and weights Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Wednesday will have to be my rest day this week.

All of my weight training moves seemed easier this week except my abs, so I’m going to increase the reps on almost everything. I’ll do all arm exercises at 3 sets of 12 reps, all leg exercises at 3 sets of 8 reps, and keep abs at 3 sets of 10. I’m also going to keep DDR at 20 minutes since I was still wiped out after each session.

Diet

Now that I have developed my calorie tracking habit and have been fairly good at staying within range, it’s time to start improving my nutrition. My goal this week is to cut down on the amount of sugar I eat. I want to stay below 200% of my recommended value every day. I know this still seems like I’m eating a lot of sugar, but I think it’s going to be a really difficult thing for me to do and I want to do it gradually.

Step 1 will be figuring out what else I’m going to eat for breakfast. My smoothie was way too watery without that other banana half, and I was subsequently starving by about 10:30. I’m going to blame my lack of breakfast on the chocolate bar I snacked on and start off better tomorrow.

This week I started to feel frustrated that I haven’t been seeing any change in my weight over the last month. I want to be rewarded with some results, especially since I was so diligent this week in particular! See?

Even at 2200 calories on Friday, you can’t tell me I undid all my hard work for the whole week. So I did a little digging, and I think I found the problem.

The Daily Plate just redesigned everything, and now they have prominent daily nutrition values for different things like fat, protein, fiber, etc. I noticed that today, I’d eaten 309% of my recommended amount of sugar, but I only went 122 calories over (which I think is acceptable; I’m not being obsessive about calorie counting.) I clicked back and noticed my sugar values were 291% and 243% for Friday and Saturday. Ok, it was the weekend and as you can see, I did ease up a bit.  But then, the rest of the week, where I thought I was doing so great? 259%, 395% (!!) and 319%.

This is why I’m doing this blog. I’m recording data. With data, I can analyze and diagnose problems. It’s awesome!! Ok, now…what the heck am I eating that has so much sugar!?

It’s my morning smoothie!! My smoothie has 30g of sugar in it, which is 100% of my daily allowance. And 17g of that is the banana that goes in there. I had no idea bananas had so much sugar. And it’s the frozen banana that makes it so creamy and good! Half a banana from now on, until I figure out what else I could make for breakfast…

This week was MUCH better than last. So lets start with some successes, shall we?

• Grabbing some healthy snacks before the weekend got underway was really smart. I ended up weaving it into the millions of errands I was already running on Saturday by grabbing some Kelloggs Bliss granola bars (90 calories and sooo good) and Kashi cereal while at Target. Target surprisingly has a really good selection of snacks that aren’t full of sugar.
• No pain! Well, a little soreness, but I didn’t feel injured. In fact, after a great workout Monday, I felt amazing Tuesday morning. I already felt stronger when I was walking in to work. I don’t know how to explain it except that I felt very aware of my muscles, just that my body had the potential to be strong again. It was a very motivating thought, one that I haven’t had in a long time.
• Not giving up in despair after missing a workout. Work threw me off schedule and I wasn’t able to exercise Tuesday. This was especially demoralizing after how great I’d felt that morning. I was getting all down on myself that I messed up so early in the week, but found it in me to pick it back up Wednesday. I realized that I base my feelings on however the day before went and nothing else. So if I miss, I just need to look ahead to tomorrow and work towards feeling accomplished the next day.
• Controlling my weekend calories. I went colossally over my limit on Friday, and was on my way to doing so again after Saturday’s delicious lunch at Mudgie’s. Well, in addition to buying snacks at Target, I also tried on a swimsuit. I’m going to Vegas in 2 months, and the way I looked in that thing…well, that was quite the motivator. I don’t know if that’s the most positive way to keep myself on track, but it definitely worked.

Spring is definitely in the air, and I’m aware more than ever of my goal of running outside. Tonight or tomorrow, I’ll lay out a more specific plan for this week.

I didn’t hit my exercise or diet goals this week. However, I did go from exercising zero days a week to doing it 4 times. And, I did have my longest ever streak of tracking calories (10 days, which ended on Friday.) So it’s not like I didn’t do anything, but what I did still was not good enough. Stringing together 3 days of being unhealthy still makes me feel awful in the end.

I believe there are 2 things that threw me off track. Maybe if I address those, next week will be better.

1) Fear of pain from exercising. Despite my slow start, I did experience fairly severe pain for several days after my first weight training session. I’m sure that made me reluctant to try again. I do this every time I start exercising, and I simply need to break the cycle if I’m going to get anywhere. All I can do is do less than I did last Monday, and then do it again, and then do a little more, in order to get over the fear.

2) Lack of a weekend routine. This is a big, complicated problem. I don’t want to live a completely structured life 7 days a week. But I can do more to structure food and exercise. This week I’m going to do a mid-week grocery check on Thursday. We shop on Sundays and by the time the weekend rolls around, there’s not a lot of fresh, healthy food left in the house. Exercise is another story. I have no idea what to do about this. Sundays aren’t usually a problem, but Friday nights and Saturdays are tough to schedule anything consistently. This week I’m going to try planning a rest day on Friday. Not having a Friday night workout means I should be able to exercise as soon as I get up on Saturday, and not get derailed by anything throughout the day.

My goals for this week are to track my calories every day no matter what, and follow this exercise plan:
- Weight train for 10-15 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
- Cardio for 20 minutes (increased from 15 last week) on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

I unexpectedly went out after work with some co-workers. I hadn’t been eating particularly great all day, and so I definitely didn’t have any extra calories saved up for indulging. And indulge I did. Plus, I got home way too late to even thinking about exercising.

I could defend myself by saying that it’s very rare for me to go out with people after work, and I could let this one time slide. But I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to figure out a way to make up for it, because it’s not going to only be this one time. This is how life is when you’re young. It’s unpredictable, and lately for me at least, unhealthy. Instead of staying inside, I’m just going to work harder the next day.

Ideally, I’d make up for the night by burning off all the extra calories I consumed, plus making up the exercise time I missed. I think I’d literally injure myself if I tried to exercise off that many calories before the end of the week. The goal, though, is to train my body to be able to do that one day. So, I’m going to push myself as hard as I think I can.

My legs finally stopped hurting (yay!) so I’m going to do my normal 15 minute weight routine again tonight, with less squats than I did on Monday. Then, I’m going to plan for 30 minute DDR sessions on Saturday and Sunday instead of 15. I think I can do that based on how I felt earlier this week.

But seriously…did I really need to drink all that beer? That is going to be a reoccurring question, I think.