Decisions and minor frustrations

I know I must sound manic.. ecstatic one day and frustrated the next and I'm sure some of it is hormones but well.. such is life.

Today's frustration and confusion came from my workout. I've been noticing that I burn WAY more calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical than 30 minutes on the treadmill.

For example, yesterday in 30 minutes on the elliptical I burned 400 calories, and I stayed "at a higher level of aerobic activity" for an additional hour, burning a total of 580 calories.

Treadmill (on Monday) for 30 minutes burned 294 calories and the lasting effect after an hour netted only a total of 425 calories.

In addition to the NUMBERS, I feel a lot better after an elliptical workout. I have that extra hitch in my step and feel like bouncing off the walls. After a treadmill workout, I'm exhausted - ready for a nap! So.

I guess I've made my decision, I'm just looking for support on it. At least for now, until I shed some more weight, I'm going to focus on Elliptical workouts. As the weather breaks, and races get closer (and I'm MUCH lighter) I will resume my 5k training. But for now, my main goal is to lose weight and so that's what I'll do.

The down side to this is that I won't have any neat little nike+ graphics for the elliptical (it doesn't work on ellipticals) I've also found myself paying less attention to elliptical mileage and just pushing as hard as I can and I listen to Great Big Sea --- my inspiration :)

So there it is, now I'm going to go get some yummy BBQ chicken and brown rice.

I leave for Columbus tomorrow...


My last (for awhile) run data:

New things... bring Excitement

I have a new plan I'm trying. Well I did it today and I really liked it. I'm not a morning person- ask anyone who knows me, I'm a late night owl and I prefer to sleep in. BUT, I've decided that I'm going to start working out BEFORE work. That means getting up at 5, being at the gym by 5:30, so I can return home shortly after 6 to get ready for work. I did it today.... I LOVED IT. I felt great all day long!

I will try it again next week. (I"ll be at a conference so everything will be kinda messed up for awhile)

The second excitement is I changed my plan for life.. or at least the next few credit hours. I decided instead of pursuing technology- I want to add high school math to my license. In short this means I WILL HAVE MATH HOMEWORK this semester.. and I'm totally PSYCHED about it :) I'm a nut, ok I admit it. I love math, I enjoy doing math, and I'm actually GIDDY that I will get to do math homework. I believe this is further proof that I belong in a MATH classroom even more than a computer lab. I'll explain more about this later.. but right now-I have a nice warm bed to crawl into and a couple of math books to start reading.. HEE HEE =)

Feeling better

Well, my weigh in this morning was just as dismal as last night's. However, I had a good talk with the lady from BodyBugg and I had a great workout (only 30 mins) at the gym and I think I've got it figured out.

It's that time of the month - AND I think I was pushing myself too hard. I was tired all last week and my workouts never exhausted me like that. I'm all about being exhausted as I'm working out... but not in the aftermath- that's not right.

So my goal this week is to eat a little more (within my budget), workout HARD for 30 minutes a day, and get 8 hours of sleep each night. I'm hoping the snow storm will help me with getting lots of sleep tonight. In fact, as soon as I write this, I'm going to watch the end of Biggest Loser, then crawl into bed and read my book -- and be ASLEEP by 11 if not sooner!!

Thanks for listening.. I'm off =)

Blah.. what a letdown

Today was rough. I woke up late, and it went downhill from there. I was in a fog all day long. Unfortunately the fog turned into a migraine. I fended that off with my best friend - Aleve- and managed to complete my Walmart shopping trip. I found a cute pair of pajamas to use as a goal outfit, and some luggage for my little excursion next week. (To Columbus for a technology conference).
My headache being gone, I came home, got psyched up for the gym, and went to get weighed in. I don't know... I hate that scale. I've been working my butt off, showing calorie deficits over 1000 almost every day, and yet, according to their scale I've only lost 1 pound. ONE. That's it. ONE!

So off I headed to the treadmill for my run. I don't know if it was the aftermath of the migraine (I forgot they can be draining) or the disappointment of the weigh in, but my workout felt terrible. My calves were cramping, my feet were aching, and my time ended up... well pardon my "french" sucking! I know I pushed myself hard during the run portions, but then I seem to go even slower in the walk portions. I think I'm dehydrated, or at least dried out. Partially from the cold weather and hot showers. I've been getting better about putting moisturizer on, and I'm trying to drink more water. I'm just frustrated.


I keep reminding myself that TOMORROW is the weigh in that counts. Tomorrow is the one that I use to keep track of my success.

In other news. I started a new experiment. I know other people have done it before, but I thought I would try the "picture a day" thing. So I'm going to take a picture of myself everyday for a year. You are welcome to check out my experiment. Of course today's picture will be lovely since I forgot to take it BEFORE I worked out! oh well.

Here's to KNOWING tomorrow will be better than today!

Blast from the Past

So today I got an IM from an old friend. The premise was business but the result was great. It was so nice chatting and catching up and things are really go well for both of us! It's strange how just that tiny reconnection with a friend can make you smile... minutes... after the conversation is over - and of course, no one can even see that I'm smiling. In fact one of my favorite quotes is "If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it." By Andy Rooney I think it's very true. If no one is around you are smiling for yourself, because it's what you REALLY feel. (this conversation also proved to be a much better alternative than the ice cream sundae I was going to have!)

OK enough of that .. back to business...
It looks like I get to start reading a new book tomorrow - I think I"ll end VERY close tonight, but not quite enough. I did however go out and buy the book today.. so it will be ready and waiting for me.
I learned an important lesson today - or rather figured out a potentially disasterous problem. The last few days, when I've been kicking my own butt at the gym, I 've come home and had a terrible upset stomach. I've eaten like I should but both Wed and Thur I headed to bed early in an attempt to make it go away. Today when I got home from the gym, it happened again, after successfully devouring a pita with turkey and cheese and strawberries (The strawberries weren't in the pita!) . So I did some research and found that one cause of an upset stomach after a workout is dehydration. UH OH. So today, as I was feeling rotten, I re-filled my water bottle and continued sipping on it... and tada! it went away. I now know (especially on days when I really push myself) I need to keep drinking water, long after my workout is over.

Today on the treadmill (and the 3 mins or so on the bike) the bottoms of my feet were killing me. Any ideas why? I also got on the new Precor elliptical/stepper machine. I didn't like it. It's cool, it adjusts to your strides so you can be doing steps, a short stride, or long stride like skiing. But I had a hard time keeping it where I wanted it. After running on the treadmill, I wanted to just work my quads - my calves were beat up enough. I think I'll stick to the regular ellipticals from now on.

Yesterday was my rest day - and I decided I really deserved it. So I curled up on the couch and watched "Catch Me if You Can"

I guess that's all for now. This week's motivational quote has been "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over is you just sit there." I have to remind myself to get up an move sometimes!

Book Store.. here I come

I guess I'll be heading to the bookstore after school tomorrow so I can start reading the prize I'm sure to earn in the next two days =)

Things have been going well. Today I took a step and sculpting class at the gym - it truly kicked my butt and felt great.

I'm so tired though, all this activity is making me crave sleep all the more!

Another Sole Sisters connection - today I decided that I needed a new sports bra so I figured I would look and see what kind the one was that I liked. It was Moving Comfort. There was actually a story in Sole Sisters about the founders of the company. It makes me very glad that I wear their stuff and I will definitely buy more from them.

Well I'm bushed.

54 Days until Great Big Sea!!!

13,732

That's the number of steps I did today! I blame it all on my rekindled love of the elliptical and an unending basketball game. Really, Virginia Tech needs to work on their Free Throws! :)

Tonight's post is going to be short because it's already 10:30 and I need to get up extra early.

I kicked some butt today.
I did my regular treadmill run - 30 mins
Then I got on the elliptical for about 45 minutes.

I met my calorie burn goal, my step goal, and my exercise time goal. Pretty good day I'd say. But now I'm understandingly tired.

Talk to you all tomorrow!