Part 3: Working It (er...Working Out)

I've always loved being active and playing sports. I've a had a gym membership for years and would actively go at least 3x a week most of the time. However, like I said in my last post, I didnt have the entire formula, the eating part down so I never really went anywhere with my weight loss. I'd go down a few pounds but would then go back up the next month when I'd eat out a little more or whatever. So while I was patting myself on the back for working out, really I was just sorta staying stable.

Now thats not to say that it's only eating well that caused me to lose weight. When I started this journey, back in September 2011 I got SERIOUS about the entire process. Here's a little more on the working out part of it.


My gym membership had expired several months before (I didnt want to renew the contract because we planned on moving soon) so I'd been working out at home on and off. So all of this below, was done on my own, at home, with no membership or trainer.

While I have always loved sports and being active I have exercise induced asthma and have used that excuse not to run. But when I started this back in Sept I wanted to at least give it a go. So the very first day I ran. And boy howdy it wasn't far AT ALL. Literally. I mapped it out. And I was SO stinkin proud of myself. I remember coming home totally out of breath and telling my husband, I totally did it. I ran the whole way. Then I logged it in to mapmyrun.com and found out just how incredibly awesome my run was. All .62 miles of it. Yep. I did a bit over half a mile and I was DARN PROUD folks.

So I made a goal. To do more than that the next time I went out. And I did. .82 miles! And another goal the next day. Do better. And I did. And so my intense love of goal making was born! A few thoughts on that.


In order to make new goals I had to know where I was at. So every time I did a run I'd log it in. I had a lot of variables I could work with for my goals. Time (overall, per mile, etc), distance, amount of days, weekly totals, monthly totals, etc. And I used them all. The first few days t it was just, 'do better than I did last time', then it was, 'go running 3x this week'. The next two weeks it was do a better total mileage than I did the week before. I dont remember them all specifically but I also did a month of 10 miles a week, a month of 50 miles total, a week of 5k's, hitting my first 100 miles and doing 100 push ups and sit ups that day.

Here's a look at my calendars. I was loading most of my workouts into mapmyrun.com (since I was primarily running) until January. I LOVED getting to see my accomplishments so even when it was too cold to run outside, and I was bored on my treadmill I started using some at home videos like Xbox360 Your Shape Fitness Evolution,  Slim in 6, and The Bertinator youtube videos. Anyway then I printed off some calendars and I write on those daily.


(you can click to enlarge)

My favorite things about a few workout forms I used:

Running: Most calories burned in least amount of time. (This is HUGE for me.)
Equipment needed: A good pair of shoes and some great tunes! And maybe pepper spray if you're running alone and early in the morning. I also found it helpful to use things like mapmyrun (you can map your route after you run it on a home computer or w/ a smart phone while you run) or a GPS app on your phone like endomondo.

Slim in 6: A great at home workout that really makes ya sweat. Time ranges from 42-60 minutes. It consists of three workouts increasing in difficulty.
Equipment needed: Slim in 6 DVD's, resistance bands and light hand weights.

Your Shape Fitness Evolved Xbox360: Lots of variety; kickboxing, yoga, mini games, etc.  On board calorie counter.
Equipment needed: Xbox 360, kinect, fitness evolved game, other items depends on option, most you need nothing but some involve light hand weights.

The Bertinator: She's a hoot. She does the workouts along with you. It's always a good time. These are online on youtube. They range from 5-30+ minutes.
Equipment needed: light hand weights.

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred: Similar to Slim in 6. It's a video with 3 different episodes all 20 minutes each with warm up and cool down.
Equipment needed:30 Day Shred DVD and light hand weights.

I said it before and I'll say it again,

"I can jog for 30 minutes (which I had to work up to) and burn around 300 calories. Which is fantastic, dont get me wrong. But my point is, if you aren't conscience of what you're eating, you could mindlessly eat that many calories in a few minutes."

This is the reason I work out 6 days a week. To remind myself that EVERYTHING I put into my mouth counts. And a lot of times it helps to think, "Do I want to eat this ____ for ___calories if it means I just canceled out my run from this morning?" Like 22 gummy bears for 150 calories, man thats like 15 minutes of running! (Obviously it's not that every food needs to be bargained for like this, but if I'm using my 1200 calories for meal time I have to be pretty careful with my snacks.) If it's worth it, great. But I have to make the choice and be accountable.

Read Part 1 here.
Read Part 2 here.