Getting back on the fitness wagon

I work out!

I began thinking last week that I wasn’t exactly sure why I fell off the wagon to begin with. Ironically, I fell off the wagon the week before I started my new job. I got two hours of my life back with my new commute, yet somehow I couldn’t find the time to exercise.

I could blame it on having all of that free time and working on the house more… I could say that my exercise buddy was out of commission with a knee injury, so I couldn’t go… I could come up with any number of reasons that culminated in me not making the effort.

The real problem?

I did not make exercise my priority.

It was as simple as that!

I’m gradually easing myself back into a fitness regimen because an injury would really set me back. I got on the scale last Thursday and it read about what I thought it would. I’ve gained 8 pounds in the past 5 months of not going to the gym. You know what? It’s not such a big deal. I can gain that by taking in an extra 200 calories a day, or by not working out. That’s about one Blue Moon (which unfortunately, I LOVE to drink). Sure, it sucks that I lost my initial momentum, but in time I will lose what I gained. It could be worse – I’m still 2 pounds less than I was when I started getting serious about my fitness last November.

Slow and steady wins the race. I went to pilates last Tuesday, then got up early and did 25 minutes on the elliptical last Thursday. Friday evening I certainly consumed too many calories in the form of fried foods and adult beverages, but I did have a late night swim, plus the walk to the swimming places and back to my vehicle. So I walked for about 1.5 miles in addition to probably half an hour or so of doggie paddling and a few ungraceful dives. I think that counts as three days of working out.

I went to pilates last night, then got up early this morning and did another 25 minutes on the elliptical before work. I may get to the gym on Thursday, but we’ll see. Friday morning I’m planning to get up early again and do the elliptical before work.

My goal is to make it to the gym or be active three times a week, preferably for 45 minutes to an hour each time. Hopefully I will go more, but if I don’t, I’m not going to beat myself up over it. At least three times a week, the gym is my priority. Ideally, I will go early on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with a few pilates or other classes once my fitness level starts to improve. I used to get my heart rate up in the 160 to 170 range, and now I can’t push myself much past 140-145.

I know how out of shape I am and I don’t want to push myself too hard right now and get discouraged, hence why I am only doing 25 minutes on the elliptical. I can push myself in a few weeks, but not now.

My main goal this go-around is to make physical activity a habit and to keep up with it. I want to be healthy, but I don’t want to become so focused on the weight loss aspect that I lose sight of the ultimate goal – being healthy. I’d like to get my BMI to within the normal range, and that is my main goal. If I lose more, that would be great.

I’m not going to obsess over the scale. The next time I’m planning to weigh myself will be September 23^rd. Hopefully by then, there will be a downward trend. I said before that I wasn't going to go crazy over tracking my food and exercise, but I changed my mind. I had a lot of success last time using Lose It, so I think it will be a helpful tool to keep me on track. It's also nice to have a good idea of how many calories are in whatever I'm about to shove down my gullet. Some foods can be deceivingly filled with sugar or fat. I'll be getting an iPhone soon as well (so happy about that, my BlackBerry is literally taped together and no one makes apps for it anymore), so it will be nice to have the Lose It application on my phone.

That's it for now. I'm hoping to get some photos posted of our work in the kitchen this weekend!

Oblong eggs, rowdy roos and getting fit

I’m sure that this one wasn’t much fun to lay!

In other news, I found a new home for Dresden. Last week, I contacted the people at Cedar Run Cattle to place an order for the meat for our party in October. On a whim, I asked if they knew anyone in the area who might be interested in a rooster. Their response:  “We will be happy to take your rooster, we have done this for others who could not keep a rooster & wanted a good home.”

Woohoo! So that problem was solved. It’s a win-win and I'm so happy that I asked them. I’m buying meat from a local farmer who raises happy and healthy animals without antibiotics and steroids, and Dresden gets a happy home full of new hens to chase. 

It was all just going entirely too well. When I got home from work yesterday, I quickly changed into my workout clothes for my Pilates date with HotFrugal Angela at the Y. I ran out to the coop to check for eggs (where I found the behemoth egg that begins this post). I’d just gathered all of the eggs when Dresden ran up to me. His head was COVERED in blood. Great. After some panicked moments, I hunted down Mouse, whose head was also covered in blood. Well, at least I figured out that they were fighting with each other instead of being attacked by another animal.

When I got back from the gym, I got a better look at both of them. Their wounds looked to be just from their combs and wattles… apparently those bleed a lot, so the blood made things look worse than they really were. But seriously, what are the people at Cedar Run going to think when I bring them a bloody rooster? One of my girlfriends already joked about me running a cockfighting ring in Hobbs. :-P 

So now I’m likely going to have to give Dresden yet another bath before we take him to his new home. I’m hoping that some peroxide will work for getting the blood out (I poured tonic water over their heads last night, but it just got them wet and pissed them off). It wouldn’t be so bad except that he’s white and has those furry feathers, so it looks really gross.

My next planned post will be about meeting our dinner (tomorrow night when we drop off Dresden). We’re ordering beef, pork and chicken from Cedar Run, and I get to meet some of their animals tomorrow. I don’t want to feel as disconnected from my food… meat doesn’t come from the grocery store, it comes from real animals. If I’m going to be eating them, I should at least have the courage to meet my dinner and say, “Yup, you’re cute, but you’re also delicious.” I want to see that they’re being treated humanely and not living in cramped quarters. I want them to have access to plenty of fresh air and pasture with room to run. When I talked to the owner, they said that they’re thinking of adding some ducks to the mix. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they do! I’ve wanted to find a good source of fresh duck for about a year now.

I'm also hoping to blog more about getting back into an exercise routine. I slacked off after I started the new job, but I'm getting back to it. Although getting through Pilates yesterday was brutal, I felt great afterwards. I also felt great this morning. My plan is to get to the gym tomorrow morning before work. We'll see if I can drag my sorry ass out of bed at 6 a.m. I have no excuses now - somehow I managed to get to the gym 3-6 times a week when I worked in Baltimore. Now that I'm local, I get two hours of my day back. I can use the Y in Easton (in walking distance of the hospital) or I can use the Y in Denton. No more excuses not to be fit and healthy.

This time I'm going to get in shape without obsessing over the scale or tracking my exercise and calorie intake. The best shape I've been in over the past ten years was when Jay and I first started dating. I didn't even watch what I was eating all that much. I exercised nearly every day. Back then I was running, but I don't know if I really want to get back into it. I found that I was more likely to hurt myself, plus I don't have the great trails like I had when I lived in Piney Orchard. For the first year that Jay and I were dating, both of us lived in the city and we walked everywhere. I figure that I'll walk a few times a week at work, take some classes at the gym and use the elliptical machines. I am also not going to weigh myself more than once a month (if at all). The scale is going to fluctuate every day, sometimes by multiple pounds up or down. Getting on the scale makes me crazy and discouraged. I'm not going to do it.

That's it for now. Hopefully when I get home, the blood will have mysteriously vanished and I'll have a coop full of normal sized eggs.