100 miles down, 30 hours to go!

I did it. Happy birthday to me- I went 100 miles in April.

That is like walking from London to Calais France. (Europe makes 100 miles seem a lot further than Canada)

And I feel great about it. The point of this challenge was to motivate me and make me keep going just a little bit more. The result was that I have maintained the 33 pounds that I have lost so far, and I am in way better shape to try to drop a few more!

I have a new challenge for May. 30 active hours. What I mean by "active hours" is hours in which you are doing intentional physical activity, like hiking. not hours where you are moving but not really, like shopping at the mall. The intention of this is to work less hard, but for longer. Instead of pushing myself to finish my miles, I will back off the speed and keep going. I chose 30, because that works out to an hour every day, but I have no intention of doing an actual hour every day.

Some days I will do a 30 minute walk and that will be it. Some days We will go on 2 hour hikes. As long as I get my but off the couch and move, I think I can make this 30 hour goal. I just need some fun way to measure it.

Happy May everyone! 

Thoughts from the elliptical

My love/ Nemesis

I think I am finally getting the hang of working out. For the first time in my life, I feel good when I work out, not just bored at the time then glad I did after.

My weight loss has been stalled, but after dropping my initial 30 pounds, I have kept it off for over a month. I am going to call that a win, and push my self to get off this plateau.

I have also seen a huge increase in my fitness since we started this plan. In November we would go to the gym and do a 20 or 30 minute workout. I would get on the elliptical, set it to "please be nice" aka the easiest setting and just try to survive 10 or 15 minutes, then switch to the recumbent bike for 10 or 15 minutes.

Now I pop back and forth every 20 minutes when the gym is busy, limited only by the "20 minute limit when someone is waiting" rule. And I often get back in line to go back on the elliptical, setting it on 6 or 7.

I was getting pretty pleased that we had increased our workouts to 40-45 minutes, more than double what we were doing some days!

Then this last week I have had what feels like a "fitness breakthrough"; instead of being bored and tired and forcing myself to keep working, I have actually started to enjoy the workout itself. This doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of days where I would prefer to nap on the couch, and I know I have a long road ahead to fitness, but this big step forward is making me feel finally good at the gym.

Almost April!

Hey everyone! It is almost April- here is a reminder that April is the 100 mile month! Just to recap here is the challenge:

Go 100 miles this month on your own steam, for the purpose of exercise.

It can be walking, running, hiking, swimming, or even the mileage from a stationary workout machine. If you do zumba, clip on a pedometer and count each step! If you bike count those miles up! You are earning them.

My plan is scheduled to start on Sunday and I am so excited to do this. It will be so nice to look back at the end of the month and feel like I have gone somewhere!

One of the ways that I push myself, is by earning a reward. If you knew my family you would say this is an "apple doesn't fall very far from the tree" scenario, since I was raised by a dad who believed we should earn everything, even if it meant walking past a bike every day, until all the chores were done! What that taught me, is that things feel great when you earn them. They mean more, and have infinitely more value.

This translates to two things that are helping me lose weight; In the short term there are calories.

 If I think of calories like money, something that must be earned before it is spent, then it makes the trade of workout for snacks much easier. The reason i gained all the weight in the first place, is that there is no credit limit on calories, you can borrow from your future until things are so out of control. And there is no declaring bankruptcy- you have to earn your way back out. But any financial planner can tell you, with a good plan and responsibility, you can pay down debt, so that is what I do at the gym every day. It makes the slice of pizza taste so much better, knowing that I earned it. The same way it felt great the first time you bought yourself with something from your babysitting money.

Things you work for, are worth more.

The other way the lifestyle of earning things is helping, is that once I want something, I know I can find a way to get it. If I tell myself that I can have something once I have lost a certain number of pounds, I know I want that thing. My latest motivation is skydiving.

I know, the thing that is motivating me, is a desire to jump out of an airplane. But I have done it before, and if you think you get an endorphin rush off a treadmill, you should try the adrenaline of skydiving. It is life changing. Last time I went, I was quite a bit thinner, and the place we want to go has a weight restriction. I was 50 pounds too heavy to skydive in November. Now I am 18 pounds to heavy.
I have 6 weeks, to drop those last 18 pounds, and I know it won't be easy, but I also know I can do it.

So Happy April! I hope you join me in this challenge, and I hope you share your results!

Groupon FTW and a side on Pinspiration.

In case you are my mom and you are reading this, FTW means for the win.

2012 is going to be my year.

I signed up for a groupon that got us a month of gym membership for $40 for the 2 of us.

We start as soon as David's show ends on monday.

I am also using Pinterest to help motivate me. I used to look at yummy baked goods and pin them, but now I am using it as a source of motivation to eat well and drop the pounds. Here are some of the things I have pinned:

As well as 100's of recipes for healthy food and workout ideas. 

To see all my pins, check them out here! 

I know finding motivation can be difficult and I know everyone finds it in a different way, and Pinterest is a great way to boost your motivation factor when you are trapped at a desk.

The Value of Health

One of the reasons it can be so hard to get healthy, is that it can seem so expensive. Especially when you compare healthy to healthiest- like comparing veggies to organic veggies, walking outside to a gym membership. Sometimes it is hard to spend the extra money on the things that I call "motivating factors".

For me, it is hard to spend money to walk on a treadmill at a gym, when I can walk outside for free. But there is something about knowing I have spent that money that makes me want to go, to get my money's worth. Same thing with organic veggies, once you spend that bit extra, you are more motivated to eat them, because if they go bad, it is SUCH a waste of money.

For me the motivation to splurge on the gym in the first place came from something my younger sister said to me once that really resonated with me. She said "If there was a pill that was $200 per month, and you could take it and be healthy and fit, you would right? So when you pay extra for gyms and healthy food, it is the same thing, the same money" 

For some reason thinking of it like that, made the splurge all worth it, and going to the gym is what motivated me in the first place.