Fun weekend hiking & enjoying the fall colors
by Christine on October 10th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
It was a very busy weekend for me, and I got lots of weird exercise in, which is great! It’s my favorite kind of exercise…the kind that happens by happenstance!
Saturday the hubby and I headed off to the Herkimer Diamond Mine. It’s a real working quarry where you bust up rocks and search for diamonds. (They aren’t real diamonds of course–just high quality quartz.) We weren’t overly successful and only found a few super teeny tiny diamonds. Still, the process of hammering the hell out of rocks for three hours was interesting, fun in a weird way, and great for some upper body exercise! Three hours of that burned about 1,000 calories!
Sunday we went for a hike with a group of the hubby’s friends. We went up Buck Mountain, overlooking Lake George. It was a somewhat difficult hike (very difficult for the three newbie hikers in our group), very warm, but with fantastic views at the top! Four hours of hiking burned maybe 1300 calories for me…not bad! It was just under a 7 mile hike, 2,000 foot elevation. Not one of the tallest peaks in the Adirondacks, but it was a very steady and unrelenting climb.
I was one of the carpool drivers, and man, driving after a long hike is really tough! All you want to do is kick off your hiking boots and sleep a little! I had a five-hour energy and some carrots and tried to make do.
After we went home and showered we all met back up at one of the friends’ house. Everyone had pizza (boo, I can’t have pizza! So I had some cereal at home before going over there) and played board games. I left early because I was pretty dang sleepy!
Today it’s Columbus Day and I don’t have the day off. I’m at work, but I’m feeling pretty tired. I don’t think it’ll be a very productive day at work!
Weight today was unsurprisingly down a little bit! 127.0 today, hooray!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
Challenge Complete!
by Christine on August 18th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
My XN Two-Week Exercise Challenge concluded yesterday. How did I do?
Well, I managed to get in 12 out of 14 days of exercise. I’m happy with that, even though it didn’t fulfill my mission of 14 days of exercise. That being said, my goal was to get in a better habit of exercising regularly, and I think I managed to accomplish that. I noticed that I DO feel better when I have exercised….a fact that I had lost sight of.
The bad news is that the exercise didn’t do a damn thing for my weight. That doesn’t really surprise me, since I’ve always said that weight loss is 80% about the food and 20% about the exercise. Well, that’s how it seems to work for me, anyway. My weight is actually up one pound due to some poor food choices the past few days (emotional eating) but I will nip that in the bud asap.
Attending the new yoga studio was probably my favorite exercise of the 2 weeks. I really missed the stretching and meditation in my life. Walking/jogging on the treadmill was by far my least favorite exercise. I probably felt the best after my vigorous household work, because it felt productive.
I went golfing again for work yesterday, and I had a great golf game! Probably one of my best golf games. I almost won a longest drive and a closest-to-the-pin award (but someone skunked me at the last minute).
I’m very tired though. Seems like I’m tired all the time. I was asleep by about 8:30 pm last night, and I feel tired and groggy this morning.
Rollerblading during my lunch break…
by Christine on August 11th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
I’m doing pretty good with my 2-week XN Exercise Challenge! So far I’ve made it through 7 days of exercise with only 1 day missed. Not too bad. Yesterday I got my exercise in when I went rollerblading at lunchtime. I always keep my blades in the trunk of my car so I can go out. The Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail is close to my workplace and is a wonderful, paved recreational trail following the Mohawk River.
Yesterday was a lot of fun because a storm was rolling in. I thought I would get rained on at any moment! When I was on my return route, I kept feeling sprinkles fall on me; I kept pushing forwards faster and faster, trying to beat the storm. What a great workout, trying to keep ahead of the storm!
Calories Burned Rollerblading: 189 calories (30 minutes)
Food yesterday:
8 a.m.: Coffee (163 calories)
10 a.m.: Trail mix (150 calories)
1 pm: Salad from Subway with ham (110) plus salad dressing (60), diet coke
3 pm: Dried peach thing, fruit-roll-up-ishy (50)
7 pm: Tuna steak with peppercorn, maybe 3 oz (90) and about 1/2 cup rice (100) and a side salad with balsamic dressing (40), water
9 p.m.: Chocolate skim milk (200)
Total Calories: 963; Right on target!
XN Challenge update
by Christine on August 8th, 2011
filed under Christine's Life Updates, Exercise
Four days, and so far it’s been mostly a success.
Day 1: Walked with the hubby, so that was a success.
Day 2: Golfed for work.
Day 3: Fail. No excuse.
Day 4: Went to the gym with hubby. Success.
Well, that’s three out of four days of successes, which is good I guess.
It was pretty much a topsy-turvey weekend for me. Not all good; not all bad. I’m working on moving past shitty days and embracing Joyful living, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s hard, hard, hard. Weekends like this make me wish that I belonged to some kind of religious community (preferably Buddhist, I think). Not one that preaches that some kind of diety in the sky will swoop down and make everything alright, but one that teaches how to find inner peace and joy within your own mind. Such a way of living would probably help with the weight loss conundrum as well.
The plan this week is to continue moving forwards with the XN Exercise Challenge and try to re-instill some healthy workout habits into my lifestyle. That’s going to involve re-prioritizing other events in my life to fit exercise in, but I think it will be healthy and good. I’m looking forward to it.
Here’s something that happened last night that might help other banders or weight-loss-seekers who find themselves in a similar situation. Hubby and I were out walking last night with our neighbor friends, and they invited us over for pizza at their house. We wanted to socialize, but I didn’t want the pizza (can’t do it with the band, and it’s not healthy for weight loss anyway). We agreed, but I just brought over my own food (a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup) that I heated up at their house. Was it awkward? Kind of, but nobody was offended and I didn’t end up going to bed feeling guilty that I ate crappy food for dinner.
Things I am grateful and joyful about today:
My wonderful husband. A healthy family. A job with a paycheck. My car maybe getting fixed, and cash in my wallet to pay for the repairs.
XN CHALLENGE: 2-Week Exercise Plan
by Christine on August 4th, 2011
filed under Exercise
I have been sitting here feeling somewhat sorry for myself. Do you ever read through some of your fellow bloggers’ posts, see how amazing they are doing going to the gym, all the calories they are burning and the weight they are losing?
And you look at yourself and you notice that you don’t go to the gym. And aren’t losing the weight. But you really really want to.
Well, yeah, that’s kind of been me for the last week or two. I’m being fucking lazy, you guys. So it’s time to cement some workout time. That means PUTTING IT ON THE OFFICIAL SCHEDULE. Cuz that’s the way I rumble. If it’s on the schedule, I do it. If it’s not on the schedule, I won’t remember or will give 10001 excuses why I won’t work out. Bullhonkey!
So I’m setting out a 2-week exercise plan for me. The goal is not to lose weight really; my goal right now is to get into the beginning of a routine. So don’t mock the lack of actual cardio. it’s not my goal. Movement is the goal. Every day. Period.
Thursday the 4th
Going to SPAC to the orchestra. Plan to get there early and get a few miles in around the golf course before going into the concert venue.
Friday the 5th
Golfing for work. Easy to plan this one!
Saturday the 6th
Gym in the morning, while hubby is off playing cards.
Sunday the 7th
Gym in the morning.
Hopefully something more active and fun in the afternoon, like canoeing or roller blading.
Monday the 8th
Rollerblading or walking at lunchtime. On the schedule.
Tuesday the 9th
I wan to try a walk-in yoga class after work this day. Hopefully I like the teacher. I’ve been missing yoga for a while now. I’m soooo sad my old center went out of business.
Wednesday the 10th
Out with a friend after work. Bicycle or go to the gym together. I’m lucky that a lot of my friends are agreeable to doing fun physical activities, not just eating or drinking!
Thursday the 11th (ONE WEEK DOWN)
Tricky day. Another orchestra event. Or pub trivia. This might actually require waking up early to go to the gym. I’m also putting rollerblading down at lunchtime on the official schedule.
Friday the 12th
Oh no. Another day up in the air. I don’t know what’s on tap after work, so I better schedule gym time in the morning.
Saturday the 13th
Either gym in the morning, or a fun activity during the day, such as golfing or hiking. Hopefully hiking!
Sunday the 14th
Same thing as Saturday. I’ll do the gym in the morning if I have to, but hopefully we can go hiking or biking or something.
Monday the 15th
Gym after work. Scheduled. On the calendar.
Tuesday the 16th
Gym after work. Scheduled. On calendar.
Wednesday the 17th (LAST DAY OF 2-WEEK CHALLENGE)
Out with a friend again. Hopefully go biking or golfing!
So there you have it! Two full weeks, actually planned out ahead of time, scheduled on the calendar, and made a priority in my life. The goal is to move and to create a better habit of exercising regularly. I’ll check in to verify that I’m adhering to the goal!
