Family fun

Today was one of those days I used to dream about. In the morning we played and tickled and all that fun stuff. Then, I was out and about with my beautiful family. My amazing son and my loving husband. We walked all over town, played at the sound garden. We had lunch downtown. Little man actually ate what we bought him at a restaurant. We came home and relaxed for a little bit and then went to the store and got dinner. Which, by the way, little man ate almost all of his dinner too. Then we played as a family before getting ready to brush his teeth and send him to bed. He even let me brush his teeth without a fight.
I know my last two posts were about fitness, and if you really need me to work that in, I got over 11,000 steps in today. This was just one of those days that I really just need to remember. This was one of those days that every parent dreams of. This is one of those days that I wish could last forever.

Not giving up

Well, so far the exercise part of this journey is going pretty well. Although today and yesterday were off days for me. I went a little too hard on Wednesday morning. I did the 30 day fit challenge and then right after that I did my kick boxing routine. Well, that has kind of hindered things. My thigh muscles, while they feel more pronounced are absolutely killing me. Every time I stand up or sit down I regret it. It is finally getting better though. Anyway, I went back and looked at my calorie counting app since I started it on like the 13th or so and I have only gone over my allotted calories twice. Although, I still think I need to do more than just count calories. As much as I hate doing it, I think I am going to have to download My Fitness Pal instead. That one counts more than just calories. I really thought that working out more was going to help but it turns out "you can't out train a bad diet." So my plan is to start working harder on the food I eat. I will admit that it proving to be harder than I thought. But my first goal is going to be giving up pop and honestly only having one or two energy drinks a week. I say that all the time, but I always end up giving in. This time I'll go to almost strictly coffee, tea and water. Which reminds me. I am going to get this tea from the Natural Foods store downtown. It's a matcha green tea.  I hear it's good for weight loss. So I am going to try that too. I also have decided that instead of having a big goal, like weighing 175 lbs, I will do little goals. So right now it is either to weigh 240 lbs, down from 260. Either that or to wear a size 14. Whichever comes first. All I know is that I am really proud of myself for not giving up or getting lazy. I am that kind of person that gives up way too easily when I don't see results pretty much right away. So, I am going to continue to work hard and do better and I am hoping to at least feel better.

The beginning of my fit and fabulous journey

So, a few days ago I decided I was going to get in shape. I got my results back from my pap and I have abnormal cells. So, needless to say, I am scared crap-less. So that night I spent a good two hours online researching fitness, running, counting calories and all that good stuff. The thing is, I have done this before. I have sat there at night reading about things like the Couch to 5K program and beginner running, cardio for overweight people. The problem is, I would come up with this big plan to start running, fall asleep and wake up the next morning with absolutely no motivation whatsoever.

Well, I guess this time is different. The next day I spent the beginning of my day downloading and checking out a bunch of apps for counting calories, tracking fitness and counting steps. I finally decided on a trio of apps: Google Fit, Noom Weight Loss Coach and their other app Noom Walk, which tracks your steps. Later that day with my little man (one of the biggest reasons for all of this) went down for his nap, I found a beginners kickboxing lesson on YouTube. I am not going to lie, it was in no way easy. Now, Alan and I walk like crazy, but we walk for fun. It is never too fast or too hard. It very rarely gets my heart pumping or sweat dripping. There is definitely a difference between walking leisurely for 5 miles and a 25 minute cardio kickboxing session when you are an overweight, out of shape, pack a day smoker. But I did it. And let me just say, I felt amazing after. I'm not kidding. I really felt great. Yeah, my legs were tired and my arms were a little sore and I was completely out of breath for a good 10 minutes, but I felt awesome. I felt like a rock star. But of course in the back of my mind I had this fear that I would wake up the next day and not want to do anything at all.

Well, I am proud to say that today was the next day and this girl kicked butt again. When little man went down for his nap I did a 30 minute beginner yoga session. I don't want to do too much too fast so I thought I could do a little low impact workout. Well, that just wasn't enough for me. So after dinner I loaded little man into the jogging stroller that I am now super giddy that we have, and took off for a walk. I walked about a mile, although it wasn't all walking. I actually jogged. I'm not going to sit here and say it was awesome, or flawless or even that I felt that great. It wasn’t and I didn't. I actually only jogged for a total of 2 minutes. One minute with two minutes of walking in between. Now I know to some people that may not seem like anything, but to me…wow. All I can really say is wow. And to top it all off, I smoked less than a pack of cigarettes both days and I also stayed under my allotted calories both days. Today I even had more "green foods" than anything else.

The pride that I feel in myself is really an amazing motivator. So is my son, this health scare and that feeling I am going to have when I step on the scale see that I am starting to lose weight. This is going to be one heck of a journey, and it is going to be hard and there will be days where I am going to want to give up. I am really just hoping that by writing this down here, I can inspire myself when I truly need it. And maybe someone will stumble upon with and I can inspire them too.