Friday, August 19, 2011

Nature Trail Run and Leftover Chinese

I feel good. I'm sitting here at the computer eating my yummy leftover General Tso's chicken, feeling nicely sore (I'm sure tomorrow I will NOT be thinking "nicely sore") and smelling fresh and clean from my nice, cool shower. I went for a run after work today at the nature/fitness path at the school.


It's beautiful here! The trail takes you around the middle school, by a corn field, through this path of trees shown above, then as you go around, there are fitness stations where you can do sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, and many other strength exercises. I am always a bit shy excersising around other people. I know, I know.....the last thing I should be thinking about is what other people are thinking of me, but hey it happens! It usually takes me a moment or two to realize that most everyone around is either quite old and walking to get some excersise, or young and riding thier bikes around, or walking their dog - at least when I have been there.

I didn't do any of the fitness stations the first time I was there - tonight, however, I managed to work up the courage to do some push-ups on the push-up bars.........a whole measly 5 - LOL! Did I mention I am TERRIBLE at doing push-ups?! I work out my arms with free weights and do pretty good - I do reps of 15-20 with 10 lb dumbbells - which I think is pretty good since I started out with reps of 10 with 5 lb dumbells. HOWEVER, push-ups are another story - no wonder I didn't want anybody to see me! I'll get better eventually, and hopefully I will get over my fear of people seeing me working out.


I made it 3 times around - I believe that it is a mile all the way around once. I didn't run the entire way - I did intervals where I ran basically as long as I could then at certain points I would sprint, then walk and catch my breath for about 2 minutes. I think I ran about 3/4 of the way and walked a 1/4. I really need to get one of those nifty watches that track your distance, time, and calories!


I also used mini goals and visualization to get motivated to run faster and further. My mini goals were something like "just get to the next station" or "I am going to run until the next bend in the path". And, you are probably going to laugh, but I visualized a pair of size 6 jeans up in front of me and pretended that I needed to catch up to them so I could put them on........it's a little silly, I know, but it worked because I really don't remember the last time I could fit into a size 6  (middle school maybe?)  I wasn't big in high school - I was in really good shape because I was riding my horse almost everyday and training for the equestrian team and for 4-H. I stuck mostly to a size 8 because I had a lot of muscle in my legs and butt. So, a size 6 is my eventual goal and my motivator - I'm in a size 13/14 right now so I have a ways to go yet. I know that being healthy is suppose to be the biggest motivator, but, I am eating very healthy (well except for tonight with my leftover chinese - I only ate like a quarter of it though!) by completely changing the way that I eat and the kind of food that I eat. I'll take what works - I've lost 35 lbs so far, with another  30 to go - for now using my pant size is working for me - if it stops working than I'll figure out something else. The most important thing to me is not quitting.


P.S.     This is me being a bit more honest about myself - I don't usually share quite this much info - I  don't like share my failures, pant size and amount of weight I want to lose with just anybody - so enjoy (this is prolly my endorphins talking right now.....I may end up regretting this lol).

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