Workout Schedule 1.6.13

It may have been a teensy bit ambitious to swim for a full 30 minutes my first time out in...oh...forever. My chest is sore today!

I really have no idea about how to swim "properly" as far as for exercise and fitness. I know nothing about distances or what is a good speed for a beginner. I didn't pay much attention yesterday to how far I went, I just had a goal to swim for 30 minutes.

I think I swam 25 yards in about 30 seconds, which is not fast at all. But I did it roughly 60 times, which would equal approximately 1500 yards. After doing some research today I have come to find out 1500 yards is a pretty significant distance to swim. Oops! Who knew?

I guess there are two things for me to take away from this: one, I have more endurance than I realize and two, sometimes being in the dark is a good thing.

Next time I hit the pool I will be paying more attention to distance rather than overall time, and I found some swim "workouts" that I may incorporate as time goes on.

After I got home from the gym yesterday I did something I have NEVER done before.

I took the time to actually put on my calendar the dates and times of the group exercise classes (yoga/pilates) that I would be interested in taking at the gym. Now I have this on my phone, tablet and laptop, so no excuses about not knowing when they are!

I also took some time today to write out a tentative training plan, something else I have NEVER done before. 

This is now hanging on my wall, I have recorded my weight for the start of the year on it and I will make notes each time I workout as to what the workout actually entailed and put a colorful sticker on each day my workout gets completed for a little extra motivation. 

Now, I don't expect to follow this to a T, especially since I didn't actually go for a run today, but it gives me a guideline to follow. Kind of like my meal plan, if things get moved around a bit, I am cool with it, but it is one less thing to have to THINK about. 

All in all I'm feeling pretty good about my healthy plan for the next week. I have meals planned, I joined a gym, and I have a workout schedule to guide me. 

Do you plan your workouts or can you wing it and still get them done? 

Healthy Living....Again

So, as is typical for me, I go through times of being really conscious of what I eat, and being active and really fulfilling my life mantra of living the life I want right now, and then I go through times of being less conscious and less active and less fulfilling of my life mantra.

This year has been, as is typical, a combination. There were several months where I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. Then, there were several months where I was doing much better, being active, eating well, losing the extra pounds I had picked up. And then...I slacked off again.

Oh, I had lots of excuses, as usual. I had friends visiting, it was summer, it was my birthday, I went on a trip...whatever.

Come fall I started to get back on the bandwagon and was being more conscious again, and again, lost a few of the pounds I had picked up.

But then...I allowed myself to be distracted again. A few of those lost pounds were found again.

I must say I am disappointed in myself. I wanted to be more fit than I am right now.

But at the same time, I have to give myself some props because I still have yet to give up! I haven't thrown in the towel and I continue to pick myself back up, increase my awareness and my activity levels and re-focus on my overall health. This is such a change from my behavior of years past. I would let myself get to the point where I was very overweight and so unhappy.

With age, time and "wisdom" I have been able to shorten the time span of being "off the wagon" and am able to re-focus sooner.

In this vein, over the last couple of days I have been working on cleaning up my diet. I do pretty well in the morning and less well in the afternoon. Today I committed to not having any sweets. I took the sweets we did have, put them in a baggie, gave them to Chris and said to get them out of my house. I don't know where they are or what he did with them and that is a good thing!

I also decided it was time to put some activity back into my life. I headed out for a walk. It was a beautiful day, cold, clear and dry.

I walked for just shy of 3 miles in about 50 minutes...not fast but at least I got out there. I came home and did 10 minutes of abs work, too.

Later, I thought to myself "I need a goal!" Here it is:

I signed up to run the Happy Girls Half Marathon Memorial Day weekend 2013 in Bend, Oregon. My friend Kelsey is joining me because she is such a good sport!

The Happy Girls Half is a women's only event taking place in Bend along the Deschutes River, through part of the town of Bend and back into the park near the river. I'm really looking forward to it! This will be my third half marathon and my plan at this point is to try and run most if not all of it. 

Just like last year and the Helvetia Half Marathon, I have plenty of time to get back to training and actually run this event. 

Now I have my goal and a friend to keep me accountable. Hopefully this will also help keep me focused on other healthy living choices such as better food and more activity overall. 

Are you thinking about any fitness events in 2013? 

Weekend Rewind

What a lovely Memorial Day Weekend!

Rewind to Friday:

First thing Friday morning I headed out to get some training miles on my feet for the half marathon (that is happening in less than 2 weeks!!). The weather was gross. Cloudy, sprinkling and cold. But, I needed to get the miles done. So, I dressed like a crazy person and hit the pavement.

This is what dedication looks like.

Don't I just look thrilled to be heading out for what ended up to be 7.68 miles in the rain and cold? Ugh! Actually, I got really lucky because it barely sprinkled on me just a couple of times. About 30 minutes after I got home a big rainstorm came through and it rained for about 2 hours straight.

After that I jumped in the shower, got dressed and zoomed out to my chiropractor for a massage and adjustment. I hurt my neck on Tuesday and was so thankful to be able to get in. My neck isn't 100%, but it is feeling better.

When I was done there I had to run several errands that I had been procrastinating on, like buying cat food and going to the bank.

Later that evening Chris and I decided to head out to dinner. We didn't know where we were going, but ended up at The Jacksonville Inn. The Jacksonville Inn is a nice dining establishment. We had never been there before, but the food was quite good, they have an incredible wine list, and their desserts looked amazing. Forgive the picture quality, but I didn't want my flash going off in the restaurant.

We ordered a bottle of wine to share.

This was a local blend from the Applegate Valley. It needed to breathe a bit, but after that it had a very nice, full, somewhat spicy taste. It was a nice bottle, and relatively inexpensive.

Chris had the prime rib, which he said was good, except the mashed potatoes seemed like they came from a box. I had salmon with orange and fennel with double veggies. It was okay. I have made better at home, but everything was fresh and the veggies were not overcooked. Chris decided he needed dessert so ordered a white and dark chocolate mousse cake thing.

It was huge. I didn't have a single bite. Chris ate most of it but took the last bit home for later.

Overall, The Jacksonville Inn was a nice restaurant. They had live piano music and our server was very friendly and accommodating. The one negative is how I was greeted by the manager. You see, when Chris and I left we didn't have a destination in mind. I was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, jeans and my hair was pulled back in a headband, and I had no makeup on. I looked pretty casual, I will admit. When we walked in we were at first ignored and then eventually, after a couple of minutes the manager said "Can I help you?" while looking me up and down. It was immediately obvious that he disapproved of my attire.

Here's the thing: 99% of the time I am dressed well (better than a sweatshirt and jeans) but this time I wasn't. There is no good reason for a restaurant manager to look down on me so obviously for my dress. It isn't *that* nice of a restaurant, for one thing, and for another it is Southern Oregon (not a lot of dress-up happening around here - common clothing for outings is uggs/pajama pants/hoodie and a pony tail). In any case, the manager was rude to me right off the bat and questioned me later about the saying on my sweatshirt. I would say that was the biggest drawback to our evening.

I would go back, and I would take out of town guests there for a nice meal, I would just be sure to be a little more dressed next time.

Saturday was a very busy and awesome day, but I'm going to write a separate post about the majority of the day. We did go grocery shopping first thing in the morning and combined with a bunch of lettuce I harvested from the garden I was able to have a huge salad for lunch!

4 produce bags FULL of lettuces. Yeah baby!

Lettuces, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, sprouts, avocado, turkey, tiny bit o cheese.

In the evening we went to Red Robin for dinner with some friends and then saw Men In Black 3 (in 2D). It was a decent movie. I didn't love it, but I did think that Josh Brolin did an amazing job playing the young Agent K.

A significant portion of Sunday was spent shopping and running around. More on that later! But I did get some new swimsuit bottoms to go with my several new swimsuit tops, so that was great! And I bought a new pair of jeans in a smaller size! YAY! Sunday evening we had grilled cornish game hens and salad for dinner. Delicious.

More salad! I ate about half a game hen.

Today we had a golf date with our realtor. This was our first golf game of the season and I, well, I totally sucked. Chris on the other hand was rockin' it! He was playing very well. The weather was a tiny bit cool and overcast as we got started, but the clouds broke up and we had a beautiful and warm round of golf! Such fun, even though I played horribly!

Our realtor, Eric.

We had a really great visit with Eric and enjoyed our time in the sun. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and we even took a nap! What else are 3 day weekends for? Chris smoked a pork roast that we then pulled and had for dinner with a side salad. It was really good, moist and flavorful

I hope you all had a great weekend, too! What kind of grill grub did you have??

January 31, 2012

Hello Again! It feels like forever since I posted.

The big news is that I survived my two weekend class and can now return to a regularly scheduled schedule. I have a $%&*-ton of homework to accomplish, but I will just take it one step at a time.

(I should really be doing homework right now, but hey, I needed to check in here!)

Okay, I have a couple of things to say. First of all I want to tell you about an experience I had at school. I am taking a business class and one of the things that keeps coming up is ethics. I have a pretty darn strong ethical compass. In fact, my ethics are what caused me to leave two different jobs in the past. I just have to say that I am *appalled* at the lack of ethics and the, shall we say, moral flexibility that many of my (typically younger) fellow students have. They attempt to justify everything! I actually inquired of my teacher if I was totally out of line with the general thinking of the class and she said that I certainly had a different thought process, likely due to generation differences and work experience. This lack of ethics really concerns me. I mean, do these kids understand that lack of ethics is what led to Enron's collapse? Bear Sterns? The Gulf Oil spill? The current economic recession where thousands of people have lost their jobs and homes? Unethical behavior is a cancer in our business world and I have a great fear that it is only going to get worse.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Respond in the comments if you like.

Today is the last day of January so I thought I would check in on my goals.

I have to say that my school schedule this month, as I suspected it might, really got in the way of my goal achievement. It is mostly because after 8 straight hours of class I am exhausted. I still had to do all the regular life stuff and homework stuff, so I really didn't have the energy to do anything else.

I exercised 10 days of the month. Not that great, but I was expecting that a little bit.

I did start training for the half marathon on some of those days and completed walk/jogs several times, increasing both my distance (longest was 4.61 miles jog/walk) and time jogging (1 min walk/jog intervals for over 3 miles). So that is progress and I fully intend to get back to training this week!

I didn't exercise every other day so I am a little behind on my goal of exercising half the days of the year, but I can catch up.

This means I am also a little behind on my goal of exercise minutes for the year, but as my friend Jenn pointed out, half marathon training should get me a lot of those minutes.

I am still going to school, surviving it and doing well ( I think) so am still working on the overall goal of finishing this year. We shall see!

So, I didn't hit all the numbers for January, but I didn't think I would either.

February starts tomorrow! Short month, and time for some short term goals.

Biggest goal is to get back to half marathon training by hitting  the pavement two-three times per week for walk/jog intervals of increasing time and distance. I hope to improve during the month and perhaps be able to double my jog time and add at least another mile and a half to my distance.

That's the biggest plan! One step at a time, right?

Thanks for hanging in here as I have coped with a crazy schedule! I plan to be here more now that I am back to regular class schedule!

Have I Mentioned Prep Work?

Okay, so I realized yesterday that starting THIS Saturday I will have school for 13 days straight. 9 of those days I will have to be at school by 8 or 8:30 in the morning and stay until at least 3:30, and 5 of those days until 5pm. Uhm...I haven't had a "work" 9-5 type of schedule since, uhm...October 16th 2009.

I have a distinct feeling that I am going to be pretty wiped out! Because, not only will I have to be in school all that time, but I will still have tons of school reading and homework to accomplish outside of those hours, plus my regular life. Things like exercising, preparing meals, grocery shopping, playing with the kitten, speaking to my husband. You know..the usual!!

I know that lots and lots of people are much busier than this all the time, and I salute you! I used to have a regular J-O-B and will again in the future, but I haven't for a while now and this is going to be an adjustment.

You know what is going to save my ass? Prep.

Seriously. I am prepping in as many ways as I can. I am reading as far ahead as I have time for this week in all of my classes. Reading a chapter in a text book can take an hour or more, and that is a pretty cursory read. So I am doing lots of prep-reading.

Meal prep is critical! I know I have said this before, and I will again. CRITICAL!! So that is what I did tonight. I did a bunch of prep work.

*peeled and sliced carrots
*sliced cucumbers
*peeled and sliced jicama
*sliced cucumber
*sliced red and yellow peppers
*chopped onion
*cooked 2 cups of brown rice
*washed and chopped two heads of lettuce
*got the coffee pot ready for the morning, all I have to do is push start
*made and packaged lunches for tomorrow, all I have to do is throw them in appropriate lunch box/bag (using my new and totally awesome reusable lunch and snack bags!!)
*pulled chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow nights dinner
*made an executive decision to make what I was going to make tomorrow on Thursday when I have more time (hence the need for the chicken). Thursday's meal is a crockpot meal that should leave us with left-overs. Left-overs are an awesome prep tool!
*washed and prepped snow peas

The dishwasher is going and I'm going to go throw a load of clothes in the laundry, because I won't have time for all day laundry projects.

Chris did a bunch of playing and chasing with the kitten tonight (she loves to be chased around the house-she chases us back! It is hilarious!)

Here is what all that veggie prep work will do for me: I can eat the veggies raw. If I want to add them to a meal (like the peppers tomorrow night) they are already cleaned and sliced and just have to be thrown in the pan. The onion is chopped so I can just scoop out how much I need. I can reheat the brown rice and have it with dinner tomorrow, and I can add some to my leftover butternut squash tomatillo "bisque" that I made a big ole pot of last night. I am taking that for my lunch tomorrow.

If I want I can add some rinsed and drained canned beans (pinto, kidney, black) to the brown rice with some seasonings for a tasty and filling lunch.

A salad is literally moments from being ready with everything washed, sliced and chopped.

I did most of this while I was making dinner tonight. Yes it took a bit of time, but it will be time very well spent as things get hectic. Yes, I will have to do more prep work in the next couple of weeks, but it too will be time well spent to help keep me sane.

And on the note of leftovers, I have bean soup, turkey and rice soup, and chicken pot pie in my freezer in ready to eat portions from meals I have already made. This Friday I will probably make another crockpot meal or two (or three-remember I now have the triple crocker!) and stick those in the freezer, too. This is a huge time saver and sanity saver when I am exhausted and it's time to make dinner. Plus, those meals can be such life savers with Chris' schedule. If he gets a call and has to go to work at oddball times, making a whole dinner is not worth it, but having good food to eat after a warm up in the microwave is always worth it.

Oh, and just a little update: Yesterday I did a 3.34 mile walk/jog in 49 minutes, with 1 minute walk/jog intervals. I felt pretty darn good and today am not sore. I feel like that was a really great "benchmark" workout. It showed me where I am really at currently with distance and jogging ability. I now feel like I really have a place to start training from. Over the next few weeks the goal is to get out on the pavement at least twice a week (three times would be better!) and work on increasing both mileage and walk/jog interval times.

Do you do prep work? What do you think is critical for your sanity in crazy times??

Why Southern Oregon Is Awesome

Do you want to know why living in Southern Oregon is AWESOME (most of the time)??

Here are some examples:

These pictures were taken January 10th, 2012 around 3:30 in the afternoon. Chris and I went for a 3.37 mile walk in 50 minutes over near the Medford Airport. There is a paved walking path all round one side of the airport, and then another part that is all gravel.

The views are amazing. The airplanes taking off and landing is fun and different.

The sun was shining, and it was cool, but not as cold as it was over the weekend. We actually had a great walk and the sun was just dipping behind the mountains as we finished up.

I only got 3 days of exercise in this week, Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, but Friday was a 4.61 mile wog in 1:11:46. And I was going to exercise Saturday...but I couldn't move my legs.

Seriously, my thighs were killing me. The wog + distance increase may have been a little much, but I felt good at the time. Today I am exercising no matter what and Monday I don't have school so that will help, too.

I actually felt really good about my run on Friday! I just thought I would go out and see what I could do and how I felt. I picked a mostly flat area of low traffic neighborhood and just walked and jogged and walked and jogged and then walked. The jogging wasn't easy, but it also wasn't has difficult as I thought it might be, and I managed to go as far as I *wanted* (meaning I said I want to run down one side of this whole block) and I did.

Food, always my weakness, has been good and not so good, but I'm working on it.

I need to work on some goals for this week and post those for accountability. Happy Sunday!!

Sunday Snippets

Happy Sunday!

I am a horrible football fan...I have not watched any of the games in the last few weeks and now I see that the Broncos win over the STEELERS (!?!?) and the Falcons were absolutely shut OUT by the Giants. Those must have been some interesting games.

So it looks like the game to watch next week is DEFINITELY Packers/Giants. GO PACK! Seriously, if Green Bay doesn't make it to the Super Bowl I will be so disappointed. They better make it because I am already planning my Super Bowl snack menu.

Want to see the cutest thing in the world? Of course you do.

feets!

Heey...

Okay so I thought I'd do a little goal follow up being that it is Sunday.

So far this month I have exercised 7 of the 8 days for at least 25 minutes. So for goal # 4. Exercise at least 20 minutes 183 days of the year...I am doing very well!

Goal #5 is for 3960 exercise minutes and so far I have 333. Only 3627 more to go!

Goal #3 is to train for and complete the Helvetia Half Marathon on June 9th. I have been feet to pavement 3 days since the first of the year totalling ~187 minutes and ~11 miles. That is a good place to start.

Goal #1 progress starts tomorrow as I head back to school for Winter Term. Ugh...it is going to be a looooooong day.

Goal #2 is to lose lbs. I have been eating pretty well this week, along with exercising daily, so that goal is tracking pretty well, too.

My weekly goals starting Wednesday the 4th through Wednesday the 11th are the following:

1: no bread products *****

2: include fruit or veggie with every meal *****

3: plan for healthy and calorie appropriate snacks *****

4: log food & exercise daily *****

5: Exercise at least 5 times for at least 20 minutes *****

The asterisks mean that I have completed that goal for the day. Right on target!!

Tomorrow is a rest day, and thank goodness because my muscles are SORE.

Here is where I walked today with Chris.

It was sunny, but it was COLD! And yes, I have more than one sweatshirt, but this one is the warmest and has the best pocket for all my stuff.

We covered 2.79 miles in 47 minutes. It wasn't a fast walk, but it is better than sitting at home on the couch. We left that up to Roxie.

When we got home we decided it was time to harvest our lemons. This is our second year with the lemon tree/bush.

 We got a total harvest of 12 lemons, one of which we already used and one we gave to my brother.

The remaining 10 we decided to make booze with.

What?

Don't look at me like that! We wanted to try and make some limoncello, which is an Italian after dinner liqueur.

It is a somewhat tedious process, being that all you use of the lemons is the rind, being very careful to remove as much of the white pith as possible. The rinds go into a seal able jar and get covered with Everclear. The lemon rind flavors the alcohol and then in a couple weeks a simple syrup is added and that sets together to blend. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks!

The rest of the lemons went through the juicer and we now have fresh lemon juice frozen into cubes in the freezer.

We had a smidge leftover so we mixed the juice with a bit of vodka, triple-sec, ice and sugar. SO fresh and tasty. Chris and I shared it, which really means I had a few sips. :-)

Dinner was an eggplant and pasta dish with a big ole salad on the side. I'd show you but my pictures suck and make it look yucky. It wasn't.

I have lunches and coffee all prepped for tomorrow, need to get my backpack put together, get showered and get to bed! I have to be up around 6 in the morning tomorrow and out the door by 7:45. Ugh. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a morning person? No? Well...*I* Am NOT A Morning Person. sigh. Oh well. I've done it before and I'm sure I'll be doing it again.

What did you do today? How are you holding up on your goals?? It's week two!!

January 5th Already?

Hard to believe we are already 5 days into January. And it's Thursday.

January 5th!?!?

I have had a pretty good first few days of the year.

I have exercised between 50 and 80 minutes three of the last four days, and will exercise today, too.

After the New Years Day hill-hike, I went on Tuesday for an almost 4 mile walk. My race training officially started!

Yesterday I used my new body ball (Thank you Christopher!) and did a workout that I am feeling today! My back and the back of my thighs are sore!

I have done a pretty good job with my eating. The first couple days of the month were less good, but I have been tracking my calories and am reminded (again) how quickly those extra calories add up! It is good for me to see it in black and white and to keep that in mind.

Knowing how many calories I had eaten yesterday by the end of lunch time made it easier for me to skip my afternoon snack, drink water instead, and eat a healthy dinner with no after dinner dessert/snack. I stayed within my calorie range yesterday which made me happy.

Brown rice, black beans and seasonings heated, topped with grape tomatoes, 1/3 avocado and greens. Eaten with a spoon to slow me down. Side of my brothers homemade bread and butter pickles and an ounce of home-mixed (not store bought) nuts.

Yesterday I also worked on food prep. I have mentioned many times before, and will again, how critical food prep is for my success.

There are times when I love to get into the kitchen and cook, prep, prepare and create, but most of the time I just want to have something to eat and I don't want to take all dang day to make it. Having healthy food options ready to go is a life saver for me, and it makes lunch making in the morning that much simpler.

Yesterday I chopped carrots, celery, onion, red and yellow bell peppers, and jicama and put them in containers in the fridge. I also made a big batch of quinoa and stuck that in the fridge. I opened a can of black beans and rinsed them off and put them in the fridge, too.

I also used my new triple crock (LOVE IT!) to make my version of Pesto-Infused White Bean and Sun-Dried Tomato Stew from Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Roberston, and a leftover turkey and wild rice stoup/casserole.

2.5 quarts each, with individual temp settings.

The White Bean soup has diced frozen tomatoes from my garden, some fresh grape tomatoes, some dried tomatoes and some smoked tomatoes (all from my garden) in the slow cooker with white beans, onion, garlic, broth, fennel seeds, oregano, pepper and a chopped red bell pepper. I let that cook on high for about 5 or 6 hours and then tossed in four or five frozen ice cubes of homemade pesto. That all went into the fridge to cool and I will eat some of it this week/end and some of it will go into the freezer for future lunches.

The leftover turkey stoup/casserole was about 2 cups of cubed leftover turkey that we fried on New Years day, chopped fresh mushrooms, a cup of uncooked wild rice, onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, pepper, frozen green beans from my garden, chopped carrots, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and broth. All that went into the crock pot for about 5 or 6 hours and then it, too, got parceled out into containers. Those will also be available for a meal this week/end and will go into the freezer for future meals.

I used the third crock to heat the last of my homemade canned tomato sauce. I cooked the last spaghetti squash from our garden in the oven and for dinner we had spaghetti squash topped with the heated tomato sauce and a bit of leftover turkey for protein. Very tasty. (I was going to serve a side salad but I didn't like the looks of my lettuce).

In the midst of all that, of course, we had to have some play time.

And play makes us sleepy.

Today is off to a good start as well, with a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, topped with frozen fresh blueberries (bought locally at my farm stand last summer), and some dried cranberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon. YUM.

Yesterday on Facebook Jillian Michaels posted a challenge to remove one unhealthy thing from your life for a week, as a way to get started with decreasing or removing that habit from your life for longer.

I made the following goals for a week, starting yesterday, through 1/11/12.

1: no bread products
2: include fruit or veggie with every meal
3: plan for healthy and calorie appropriate snacks
4: log food & exercise daily
5: Exercise at least 5 times for at least 20 minutes

Having both short and long term goals is helpful for me in building a feeling of success and achievement.

Do you food prep? How are your goals holding up so far?



Goals for 2012

I know I'm a day or two behind, but here are my goals, as promised, for 2012.

1. Complete my Bachelor of Science in Human Communication by the end of Fall Term 2012 (December), including a Certificate in Human Resources Management and a Certificate in Conflict Resolution.

I currently have 74 credits (of 90 required) completed and am taking 20 credits Winter Term 2012 putting me at 54 more required credits. To achieve my goal I will need to take 20 credits in Spring 2012 and Fall 2012 with an additional 14 credits in Summer 2012. Included in that process will be my required practicum project.

This is a very lofty goal. It will require a tremendous amount of dedication and time from me, in addition to a pretty significant amount of money, and a certain aligning of the stars and universe to make it all happen. I am going to do everything in my power to make this goal a reality, while still keeping in mind that I am subject to outside forces (like class schedules).

2. Lose 20 pounds.

See my previous post for my achievements and accomplishments in 2011. In 2012 I want to continue my healthy downward body size trend.

In order to achieve this goal I will need to monitor my food intake and increase my activity level back to 40-60 minutes of exercise 5-6 days a week.

3. Complete the Helvetia Half Marathon on June 9th, 2012 in Hillsboro, Oregon. 13.1 miles.

I have participated in the Helvetia event (completing the 10K) twice before, once in 2006 and once in 2009. I thought it would be appropriate to continue my every 3 year streak and up the ante by participating again in 2012 only this time completing the half.

In order to achieve this goal I will need to start training in earnest with my feet on the pavement. I will need to review Chi-Running and Marathoning for Mortals and set up a training plan that is appropriate and achievable. I will need to follow that training plan to safely increase my mileage over the next several months without injury.

I have one caveat with this goal. My PRIMARY goal for this year is to finish my degree (see #1) which may interfere with the level and time commitment of training required to appropriately train for the full half marathon. My PLAN and INTENTION is to complete the half (walking/wogging/jogging), but if my course load prevents me from an appropriate level of training, I will complete the 10K (6.2 miles) instead of the half.

4. Exercise at least 20 minutes 183 days of the year.

Last year I exercised for 151 days of the year. 183 days is half the number of the days of the year (rounded up).

In order to complete this goal I will need to exercise for at least 20 minutes averaging every other day.

5. Complete 3960 exercise minutes during the year.

This is 300 more minutes than goal # 4. I don't think they are mutually exclusive. One is more about the number of days I exercise, which creates consistency, whereas this one is about an amount of exercise.

In order to complete this goal I will need to have at least 30 exercise sessions lasting 10 minutes longer than my 20 minute minimum on 183 days.

There ya go! My 5 main goals for 2012.

They are SMART goals meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and they all have a Timeline.

Now it's your turn! Did you set any goals or resolutions for 2012?

2011 Health and Fitness Recap

Before I post about my goals for 2012, I thought I would recap a little bit of my fitness achievements from 2011.

In order to get a big picture, I have to jump back to 2010. You may recall that my mom went into the hospital for 10 weeks the end of 2010. It was an emotionally overwhelming time for me. I am an emotional eater and during times of massive stress like that, not only does the increase in cortisol make it super duper easy for me to gain weight (easier than normal) I also mentally check out with giving a damn about what goes in my mouth. Food becomes soothing, rather than nourishing. I gained quite a bit of weight during the end of 2010 which meant that my 2011 started off with me feeling fat and unhappy.

In fact, when we went to Jamaica in December of 2010 I took almost zero pictures of myself because I looked horrible.

One of about 5 pictures. Just look at my face, I was still massively stressed out.

January 2011 I was heavier than I had been in a few years. My clothes didn't fit and I was miserable. I have had a decades long struggle with my weight and food, but this was the heaviest I had been in about 5 years. Sad panda. I can't find anywhere where I wrote down how much I weighed, but I know it was the high 170's. I think 178.

In the spring I did a cleanse and lost about 8 lbs. In mid-March I weighed 168. I continued to lose weight over the year and by late summer was in the low 150's. I think the lowest I saw, briefly, was 151 or 153.

This morning I weighed myself and I am noting it just to have a starting place recorded. 158.5. A month or so ago I weighed 153.5, so the holiday weight gain came to exactly 5 lbs. Not great, not horrible. I plan to start working on removing that and a few more in the coming weeks.

But, health and fitness and my journey are NOT all about what is on the scale. That is just one measurement, and not that great of a measurement, of fitness.

I have said before that I keep track of the days that I workout on my wall calendar by putting a sticker on it if I work out. I keep it really simple. If I exercise for more than 20 minutes (anything..lawn mowing, walking, weights, yoga, hiking, whatever) I get a sticker. I know some people have elaborate, color-coded systems, charts, graphs, etc., but for me keeping it simple, fun and very visible is a great motivator! I want my stickers!


I reviewed my stickers the other day and discovered that I exercised 151 days of the year. That is about 30 days shy of half the total number of days in the year. Honestly, I was both pretty impressed and a little disappointed with this. 151 days is pretty damn good, but with very little extra effort I could have achieved half of the days. Still, 151 days of exercise is better than no days of exercise, so I am pleased with that.

Best month: June with 27 days of exercise.

I also noted that there was only one month where there were zero stickers on the calendar. Now, I could have just been lazy and not put any stickers, but even if I didn't exercise at all that month (September) I still feel good about doing some type of exercise at least a few days every month of the year but one. That helps build overall consistency, and I like it.

Worst month: September with zero recorded days of exercise.

Also, my overall fitness level, though harder to track, improved significantly over the year. My recovery time has decreased. My form for squats and lunges has improved tremendously. My ability to climb the big hill or hike Roxy Ann has increased dramatically. So much so, that even without regular exercise over the last couple of months, when my friends and I hiked the big hill on New Years Day, I was feeling pretty good, wasn't horribly out of breath and was not sore the next day. Noticeable progress, with which I am pleased.

Christmas Day 2010

The other component in my healthy life is food. I would say that I was about 50/50 with food last year. About 50% of the time I was really diligent about what I ate, and the other 50% of the time I wasn't. This leaves me room for improvement on the healthy eating side of my fitness journey.

NYE 2011 (Man I look tired! Chris just looks silly, as usual.)

Looking back over 2011 has helped me to really see what I DID accomplish and areas where I could improve. It also has given me some food for thought as to what my fitness goals for 2012 are going to be.

Did you do a year-end health and fitness review? What kind of progress did you make? What kind of improvements are you looking for in 2012?

Helvetia Half Marathon- Gulp!

Helvetia Half Marathon & Drop Top 10k

Okay....I've done it!

 

I have signed up and registered to run the 12th Annual Helvetia Half Marathon on June 9th, 2012.

A half marathon is 13.1 miles.

 

I have joined TEAM TRIUMPH, created by my friend and coach, Emily Segal, for motivation, running tips and moral support.

Team Triumph is a global "team" of people coming together to support each other to participate in any sort of race sometime in the next 12 months. Some people are walking 5k’s; some people are participating in Full Marathons. Whatever that individual wants to challenge themselves with! Emily will be posting blogs and training tips and each of us will be sharing our journey, trials and triumphs!

 

I would like to invite each of you to participate in either the Helvetia Half (there is also a 10k which is 6.2 miles) or pick your own event and join Team Triumph. The only requirement is that you commit to an event within the next 12 months!

Types of events:

5k = 3.1 miles

10k = 6.2 miles

Half Marathon = 13.1 miles

Full Marathon = 26.2 miles

Sprint Triathlons = swim, bike and run (you can do it!)

A great one for women is the Danskin Women's Triathlon! I would love to do this but the locations are not that great for me right now.

Cycling events

Swimming events

Kayaking events

Other events??

Check out THIS website to find all different types of activities and events near you!

I would love to see a number of people get out and join me at Helvetia. You do NOT have to run! You do not have to do the Half Marathon! You can walk, jog, crawl, sprint or whatever!

I will be sharing some of my training info and progress here on the blog. I encourage others to comment and share their training trials and triumphs, too!

I am excited and nervous!

So far, I have gone on two walk/jog's in the last week or so. I have jogged about a mile and a half, downhill, both times. As we move forward I will be adding more distance.

 

Check out this blog post by EMILY SEGAL to get some inspiration and ideas on how to start running if you never have before!

Also, some great books about running:

Marathoning for Mortals

ChiRunning

and I am going to read Born to Run.

Interested? Intrigued? Scared?

Comment and let me know what you think!!