meh.

I was down all of about half a pound this week. And my body fat % was back up to 37% (I think the scale WAS lying to me a little bit last week). I am tempted to stuff the scale into the closet and not weigh myself until after the holidays when I'm prepared to do a couple weeks of hard-core low-carb. I haven't eaten anything starchy or sugary, it's just going to be a slow process, I know that, and maybe weighing myself every week isn't the best thing. Although, it's not like it's going to de-motivate me, so we'll see.

And also in crappy news, my right foot is really sore. I fear it is due to my indulgent wearing of my nice boots - with a heel - to a party last night. I went for a long walk this morning but by the end of it my foot was pretty achy so I opted out of the run I'd planned and rode my bike around and to the craft fair instead. I did my pushups, too - and just barely managed the last set, but you know, that was 120 pushups, I think I can whine a little about the last bit.

Hopefully my foot will be better tomorrow and I will be able to go for a run. At least I feel healthy otherwise (knock on wood).

one hundred pushups

Today I did 100 pushups in the span of about 20 minutes. Yay! and Ow!

Also, I managed the 20-minute run at the end of the couch-to-5K week 5, and I didn't even feel like dying at the end! The last minute was hard, but I did it. Next week gets back to shorter stretches with walks in between, but the total running time goes up steadily over the next few weeks and by Christmas - I think - I should be really running a real 5K.

How in the world did people get fit before they had the internet telling them how many pushups to do and how long to run for???

stronger

I've felt crappy for the past couple of days - some sinus thing, I think - and I bailed on Marci for going to Esquimalt Rec centre yesterday. She went anyway, and it turned out that she's having similar sinus things so I felt like a bit of a tool for bailing.

So I made a point of hauling out the pilates dvd in the afternoon and I did it, and felt better, then I did my pushups - Week 5! - and struggled through the first couple of sets then my muscles adjusted, or something, and I knocked off 27 in my last set - for a total of 93 pushups within the span of about an hour. Maybe an hour and a half... Rowan woke up after my first set and then I forgot I was doing pushups for a while, but then I did the last bits fairly close together. I am getting close to the point where I can DO 100 pushups in a certain time frame - probably half an hour is doable, maybe even 15 minutes, and I can foresee a time when the full 100 pushups in one set is not unachievable. The plan was also to do a bunch of squats but that just didn't happen.

Today is turning out to be a very difficult child day so I think by about 4:30 I will be more than ready to toss her next door and go for a run. My next scheduled run is 20 minutes non-stop, which worries me a little bit but I think I can do it.

well THAT explains it

If my very fancy scale is not lying to me, I've dropped 4% body fat since the end of October - down to 35%!!! I kind of think it's telling the truth, because my clothes are fitting me in a way I would expect if I were 5 lbs lighter than I actually am. So YAY PUSHUPS!!! And misc other weights I've been doing... but it's mostly been the pushups.

progress is progress

Down another pound this week. I missed Tuesday's workout but ran and did pushups Friday. Today I ran halfway across the park to get to coffee on time, but I ran the downhill part so that doesn't really count and I will go out for a proper run this afternoon. I'm going to do my pushups in a bit and I think I'll do just plain squats with the laundry detergent as well. I don't feel like going up to Sue's for a workout and she's got bugs now too anyway.

The belt I normally wear has probably 2 inches more of a "tail" on it now than it used to. :-D

Ooo, and because I seem to have been abandoned by the rest of the family today, and the chores are mostly done, I think I will haul out my pilates DVD too. And I can still spend a good amount of time knitting. It's better than a spa day.

Well no, not really. But it's cheaper than a spa day!

should I try to exercise if I already feel like crap?

Yesterday I was supposed to do a run and pushups. Unfortunately, the dog had a seizure in the middle of the night, necessitating half an hour of cleanup and the child sleeping crammed into a single bed with me for the remainder of the night.

So I wasn't feeling great the next morning. Plus the viruses decided to come back and make my nose stuffy, although I had no other cold symptoms. Physically, I probably could have managed a run, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Plus the dog needed a day of couch-time, so I didn't have a need to get her out too.

I pretty much sat on my butt all day, and I'm ok with that. I missed a run, oh well. I did my pushups today - I'm on week 4 now! - and my nose is completely clear and I feel much better. I feel a bit like the last two weeks have been a write-off, but I think there's a greater danger in too much self-castigation than in a bit of justified slacking. I'll squeeze a run in on Friday, somehow, and I'm looking forward to it.

Also, I have discovered that squat-overhead press exercises with the laundry detergent container are pretty great quick full-body workouts, if done in sets of 12.

exercise is good, but viruses work too

I'm down another pound and a half this week, after skipping my Tuesday workouts and only managing a run on Friday - no pushups or weights. I could almost feel my body bashing the viruses into submission, so maybe that had something to do with it. I was worried it was muscle atrophy but I did my pushups this morning - I redid the last day of week 3 instead of moving on to week 4, but it was ridiculously easy and I knocked off 20 in my last set, so I don't think my muscles suffered any from the almost-week of rest.

So I think I'm just going to keep going as I am until after Christmas, then in January do a couple weeks of super-low-carb. We're heading into the holiday-party season now, and while I don't have a problem avoiding the cookies and whatnot, denying myself the joys of carrots and apples seems just mean. And probably unnecessary.

Today I'm going to do my run then head up to Sue's for a weights workout. I'm following the beginner weight routines on stumptuous.com, which is a fantastically awesome site that everyone should check out.