Who knew it would be so easy?

Certainly not me of all people. This getting up ridiculously early and going to the gym. That's what I'm talking about. I have a crazy busy life and it's become crystal clear that if I'm ever going to make it to the gym, consistently, is by going very early in the morning - on work days. Now that spring is here, weekends my gym open at 8:30 - I'm already well into my day then, so that won't work. So 6am this morning, there I was en-route to the gym. I hadn't packed my gym bag and work bag. I had; however, packed my lunch last night and at least gotten my workout clothing out. I also went to the gym that's a little more than five minutes drive from home.....and then came home to shower and get ready for work. You know what? 45 minutes of working out was good - weird, though as I've never worked out in this gym, like...ever! But I did it - some stretching, got on the bike, more stretching, lots of sweating and I survived, AND even made it to work on time. Rinse repeat tomorrow. Oh, and you know what? tracking my food intake and exercise on MFP consistently this month has given me a 4.2 lb loss!

First Week Crushing It! Recap

Kind of an odd blog post title, eh?

Well, some of you may know that I post on the WW (Canada) GDT (General Daily Thread) on a regular basis.  I've recently joined a group there who is tracking everything we eat/sleep/move/do on My Fitness Pal.  It's an increadibly diverse group with a common theme and desire - to Crush It! - and it's been our Mantra of late.

So, quick recap of the last week looks something like this:

Start - Saturday, March 30 - 177.8

I ate "as clean as I could" for the first few days and really hit my stride by Monday - the first of April - or the day for April Fools!  Yup, that's me, the April Fool!   Anyhoo, I've been doing the cleanse, eating clean, and introduce exercise to the mix......quite a lot of formal exercise compared to the recent past and add to that farm/garden clean-up.  I've been physically active - very physically active.  So my weight went down, and I had a few blips, and back down, and another blip, then came Saturday.......yeah, Sunday's weight (yesterday) wasn't the greatest.  I managed to get back down close to my lowest weight last week by this morning.  Nice thing is - I just know that after Saturday's aerobithon (six 45 minute workout sessions - more on that later), that I'd be retaining water in my sore muscles. 

First WI - April 8 - 173.6 - that's -3.2 in one week.  Colour me HAPPPPPPY!

So, what's in store for week 2?

Exactly what I did in week 1 - clean eating, planned exercise, and lots of movement.


*************************

Update and my preliminary thoughts on the BodyMedia Link.  Wow, I just love this little thing!  I wear it up to about 22 hours per day (yes I sleep in it and I don't feel it at all!).  It's been synching with MFP to track my calories (and what I eat) as well as tracked workouts, adds/deducts calories for daily life itself, tracks how I sleep (it's amazing - shows every time I wake up, even if it's just for a minute), and acts as a pedometer.

My pedometer readings look like this for the past four days:

Thursday - 9266 steps
Friday - 8616 steps
Saturday - 20,271 - yes, that's twice the 10K steps I was aiming for!
Sunday - 13, 926 - yes, I was busy working outdoors.

It's really keeping me thinking about what goes in mouth, whether I'm moving enough (ie today I'm at my desk and sitting in meetings most of the day - I know I need to go to the mailroom, or walk to the cafeteria to fill up my water bottle, or something.......just to get that movement in).

**************************

Tonight is run club - 2 x 1 intervals (not sure how many).  Also not sure if I'm up to running 2 minutes straight.  My next thought, as I start to panic as I'm typing this, is - what if 1 minute isn't enough recovery time and I die out there?

Tonight's temperature - +10C-ish.  Much better than the near freezing temps of last week......and freaking rain - a lot of rain.  I have my raincoat and a baseball cap to keep the rain off my face, so I should be fine, but I'd be happier if we were doing something I was more familiar with.  Longer distance in inclement weather scares me!???

Anyhoo, will report back tomorrow.....if I survive?!

The First Week!

Wow, I am amazed/thrilled/excited/proud with how I'm doing.  I have had this habit over the past 20 years or so of making these grand plans to get and stay healthy by eating right, drinking water, and exercising.......sometimes I'm great at it, sometimes, well, I'm an epic failure.

I can feel it - in the air - in my head - it's just there.....this time is different.  I am fed up of failure, but moreso, I'm just plain fed up of being tired, feeling plump, not having energy, having issues with my digestive system ... oh I could go on and on. 

So, it's been, well, today is day 6 of my plan....I'm been eating clean, planning and tracking my food on MFP (come find me, I'm Oldefarmgirl over there) and planning and executing my formal exercise plan.

So far this week, I have accomplished this:

Monday - RR Learn to Run
Tuesday - gym, gentle leg workout and abs (my legs were tired from Monday)
Wednesday - RR Learn to Run
Today - I get my new bike, so I have either a 7k or 10k planned....and if I still have any energy afterwards, I'm going to wash the filth off my van - it's plastered with road salt and mud (gotta love spring on zee farm!).

Today's food is planned and I'm going over to track it shortly - I also promise to get 3+L in today.  Oh, yesterday, well, only got 2.5L in, but that's not too bad, now is it?

The cleanse is going very well - and I had a great sleep last night - first one in a while.

I also just uploaded my first full 24 hours of stats on my BodyMedia Link - I think I'm in love.  It showed me that I managed 9812 steps out of my target of 10k - close!  I also got 7h52m of sleep last night, which I'm sure is a record....yes, I plan on wearing it when I sleep.  I had a great calorie deficit yesterday and I'm definitely on track!

Oh, before I forget - running club last night - again 1 x 1 (10 times).  I found the first three intervals brutal as my shins were a bit sore and it was cold and windy.  By the time I got to the tenth interval, I think I could have done more!  Seriously!  Anyhoo, those new lovely shoes were a great hit with my left foot....no pain in the ball of my foot at all and no rub points anywhere in my shoes on either foot!

Tonight, I'm headed to The Bay to pick up a new sports bra that is on sale AND has come highly recommended by some very seasoned runners...The Shock Absorber Ultimate Run Bra......

Keep on keeping on!

Running.......

Sorry about being MIA.  I took a braincation.  I was in a serious funk the last few days.  Well, 10 days for sure.  I ate crap, felt like crap, didn't give a crap.....you get the picture.

So, I promised myself - oh, April 1st is coming, you're not working that day - that's the day I will do what I should be doing.  Reset, reboot, re-re-re-re after how many re's?

So here's what went down....my youngest daughter is dealing with a very deep bout of depression right now and it's killing me.  I know it's her, not me, but wow, really hard to be supportive 24/7 when I was already struggling myself.  It's so hard as a mom to see your child suffering so much and knowing that other than being supportive, there is nothing I can do to fix this......I love my girls so much and it is just so damned hard.

As you know, I came back from an incredible vacation exactly one month ago today, and I have been suffering with borderline vertigo attacks ever since....the stress of returning to work with a 14 hour time difference (jet lag central over here), the stress of working through the psychiatric medical system with my daughter (I'm thrilled to say we are finally making some amazing progress), and just trying to get caught up.

Went to work every day, came home and NEEDED a nap.  I would have been face down on the floor had I not.  BUT, silly me, some days I pushed myself too hard - went to the gym, did some work around the house.  And I paid for it.

As you may have read, I had registered for a Women's Learn to Run program at our local Running Room.  It started on March 25th.  I was in NO SHAPE to run - hell, walking in a straight line most days was a struggle.

So, the pitty party started, and continued.

Then POOF!  It was a long-weekend - a four-day long weekend!  WOOT!  Thursday evening, we went to see my oldest daughter in a speech competition at the university and then out to dinner - nice family dinner out!  Friday - we went to a farm auction - kind of a ritual around my world - the Good Friday Farm Auction Sale in Ilderton!  We didn't buy much in the way of farm equipment (DF bought a pump), but I scored on a bunch of landscaping shrubs!  SCORED!  Can't plant them yet, as it's still snowing (what? - again Mother Nature, come on!?).

So I had a great sleep on Friday night, got up on Saturday and decided - this is it!  I had my daughters clean out the fridge, and we headed off to the grocery store.  Did the "perimeter" shopping like it was our job, and also visited the Health Food section.  A gazillion dollars later (I haven't shopped like that in eons), we came home with lean and mean foods - healthy greens and fruit, lean protiens, and two containers of Almond milk, which I had never tried.  I was immediately a fan of Vanilla Flavoured Almond Milk - I now put it in my one cup of morning coffee (no more half & half and sugar for me) and use it to make my oatmeal each morning - yum!

I also started a cleanse - my sister and her hubby did it in January and highly recommended it....it's gentle.  I started it on Saturday......and am thrilled to say that I'm down 4.2 lbs already - WOOT!  I'm using CleanseSMART and boosting it a bit with 2 capsules of FiberSMART each day.  It's a 30 day cleanse, and I figure with 30 days of clean eating under my belt, I will be back in the habit of eating clean and healthy again!

Okay, back to running - and getting physical!

I felt great the past few days.......no dizziness!  Nothing.......so last night, I jumped into week 2 of the Learn to Run Program - they were doing 1 min run x 1 min walk x 10.  Shockingly enough - I DID IT!  I kept up!  I didn't die!  and even more shocking - I LOVED IT!  LOOOOVED IT!  My left foot and shin didn't though, so like a smart woman, I went into the store right after the clinic and got fitted for a new pair of runners....here's the ones I got:

New Balance W860YG3

I had a pair of NB years ago and didn't care for them that much.....these were like walking on a cloud!

Next purchase is a good running bra!  I'm stumped though...I think I'm going to tough it out for a few weeks and double up as I did last night - I know that I will be losing inches quite quickly in the next month or so, so perhaps I will wait for May and use it as a reward for sticking with it!

April is here - spring is here.  I have a lot of purging and cleaning to do - everywhere it seems.
The house - closets, and "stuff" - I'm getting through it!
The yard - wow, it's amazing how much crap can accumulate and land in your yard over the winter...especially when you have almost 5 acres of lawn/gardens to rake/clean up!  We'll get to it later this week when it finally warms up a bit.
Me - mind clutter (getting there), body clutter, oh my!  Well, here's my plan for April:

Food:
Clean eating - tracking on MFP (myfitnesspal)

Workouts:

Mon - run club
Tues - circuit training/weights legs
Wed - run club
Thurs - circuit training/weights upper body
Fri - rest
Sat - Zumba, core
Sun - run club

Biking 3 days per week min!  on that note, I also want to share that I went out and bought myself an amazing bike yesterday - hybrid, step through.  I get it on Thursday - I'm so excited!  

...and last but not least, UPS should be delivering a little gift to me today - my Body Media Link should be arriving today!  More on that once I've got it set up and have used it for a bit.

What are you doing for exercise in April?

Thinking on Thursday!

Yep, apparently, this week's blog posts are brought to you by rhymes?  Most of them anyway.

A very cool thing happened yesterday - I'm famous!  NOT.   But I did make it onto the news at the launch of the Get Fresh....Eat Local launch yesterday.  I was working in the barn with DF when the 6 o'clock news came on, so had no idea until DF was on Facebook later on and an old work friend had posted he had seen me.  Of course that meant I needed to stay up until 11pm to watch the next round of news........so I could see myself (vain, who said I was vain?!).  My five seconds of fame - in the background!  But hey, I was recognizable if nothing else.....

My on-going battle of the bulge continues.  Yesterday I ate well, tracked, was low on water and did not work out (and I ate two cookies - but within calories).

Today - water on deck - aiming for 100+ ounces (or 3L).  I count in ounces as my water bottle on my desk is in ounces!  It's 24 ounces, so I need to drink 4 at work, and then a bit more.....

Food is planned - will track shortly.

Workout - yup, need to get one of those in today.  Gym bag is in my car, so I may likely go on the way home, so I don't come up with 101 excuses not to go. 

Happy Thursday!