Blog Archives
My Progress So Far and “Focusing on the Positive”
Setting the stage…
On June 1st, I kicked off a renewed effort to get in shape and loose weight because my body was (and is) literally hurting when I do simple routine things around the house.
And let me tell you friends, neighbors and the two people who are actually reading this blog, that when shaving, showering, and putting on your clothes and shoes makes you grunt and wheeze and get out of breath, then it is time to do something.
Another indicator is all the drivers for your local Domino Pizza joint have your gate code memorized and the counter staff know you by first name when you drop in to get a Pick Up order. *sigh*
We won’t even talk about the weight induced knee injury back in Jan which still bugs me from time to time. *SIGH*
Let’s Hear it for the Boy! / Week in Review
Last Monday I set out my goals for the week. Let’s see how I did:
Weigh in daily
- — Yeppers, I mostly got this one. I missed one day, but the rest I did.
….
- — Yeppers, I mostly got this one. I missed one day, but the rest I did.
- No diet coke. None. Zip. Nada.
- — Yeppers!! I want a BIG round of applause please!!!!!! I did not HAVE A SINGLE SOLITARY DIET COKE ALL WEEK!!!!!!!! Not a single diet coke.
….
- — Yeppers!! I want a BIG round of applause please!!!!!! I did not HAVE A SINGLE SOLITARY DIET COKE ALL WEEK!!!!!!!! Not a single diet coke.
Switch to green tea in the evenings / limit of 3 cups coffee in the AM
- — Yeppers, I did this. I actually bought some lemon and ginseng Lipton Tea bags, intending to brew my own and sweeten it with Stevia, but… the Arizona Diet Ginseng Green Tea jugs were on sale and I grabbed four of them at the same time. I’ve not gone through all the Arizona Tea yet. When I do, then I’ll try my hand at brewing my own tea at home, which will be cheaper than buying it pre-made and I’ll feel better about doing my bit for the planet by not throwing away those big plastic jugs the tea comes in. It should also be noted that Read the rest of this entry
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Thur & Friday… Good & Bad-ish and writing before coffee.
It is 8am on Saturday… And I haven’t had coffee yet…
It’s brewing. But you should be warned that I am awake at an ungodly hour of the morning and I am pre-caffeine.
Goodness knows what my fingers will end up typing. Jus’ sayin…
I woke up hungry this morning. I haven’t woken up hungry in a long time. So something must be changing in my body. I’ll count that one up as a “good” thing.
Just because I’m still pre-coffee (still brewing… …I can smell it all the way from the kitchen) and in a grumpy mood, I’m going to whine about my sinuses. I thought I was coming down with a cold. I may be but it may also be allergies. I’ve got this awful drainage which is causing me to cough this icky gunk. All clear so far so no infection but it is DISGUSTING!
I’ll be right back. The coffee should be done by now.
Back. jus a moment while I take a sip….
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
There is nothing quite so delicious as that first sip of coffee. It is a signal to the body that the rush is coming. Moving on..
Stuff I did gooder on Thur & Friday…
Yes, “gooder” is a word. But in case you’re not up on your lingo. “Gooder” means:
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Ugh… My body hates me.
Jus tha’ facts… Jus tha’ facts…
I just woke up about an hour ago. That would be 11:30 CST. Ugh. I went to bed last night at 12:30ish so I was probably asleep by 1am. Ok, campers, lets do the math. [drum roll please] That works out to roughly 10 and 1/2 hours of sleep!!!!!!
My body hates me.
Ok, ok, it really doesn’t hate me but it is being VERY demanding:
Me: I’m going to get you into shape. Here’s the work out plan.
Body: Excuse me? Are you serious? You’re nuts
Me: Yes I’m serious about this. We are going to get into shape.
Body: Fine. But have you heard about this thing called “payback?” heh heh heh
Me: Payback?
Body: Yes! Go ahead, do something like dance for four and a half hours of practice and classes, and then drive a standard truck for another 2 hours commuting and then haul groceries up stairs and stretch and lift, go ahead and just try it boyo! ‘Cause if you do, I’m going to make you SLEEP! I’m gonna make you REST! But not until I make you ache and your muscles burn. I’ve got friends ya know… My buddies, who you know as the arches in your feet, are a nice set of twins who will make you regret all that dancing!
Me: Do your worst…Ssssnnnnnnzzzzzzzzzz
*SIGH*
All kidding aside, it is horrible how much “recovery” time my body demands at this stage of the game. And it is horrible how
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Day Three… and itty bitty steps which feel like hiking Mount Rainier
Doing Better – Not perfect but better
The photo to the right is one that I took on a trip to Seattle Washington, where I attended the Emerald City Hoedown, which was this year’s IAGLCWDC Annual Convention and where I taught a workshop at the event.
We stayed an extra day so we could go on a bus tour of Mount Rainer National Park which I really enjoyed. On the tour, we stopped at several points, got out of the bus and was able to enjoy a bit of the scenery. One of those stops took the tour group down into a ravine created by a glacial melt river full of rounded rocks washed down the mountainside by the water.
The park service had used some of these rocks to create “stairs” on the path down into the ravine for visitors to the park to use to get closer to the water and to a log “bridge” which allowed you to cross the river. I was toward the back of the group and was doing pretty good, until I saw the steps in the photo.
That’s where I bailed and said “There’s no way!”
Two years ago, I would have happily gone on down with the rest of the group but when I saw these rocks, my self-preservation instincts kicked into high gear and did some fast calculations involving the lack of a hand rail, the roundness of the rocks, the wetness of the rocks, my physical condition, and memories of a fall on stairs during a vacation last year and the result was visions of my dance career flashing before my eyes.
I went back up and watched from the ledge.
It was just one more realization of just how out of shape I am. And how badly I need to get back into shape. And just how much my physical condition (or lack of it) is affecting just about everything in my life.
Today is Wed, Day 3 on the path to a new healthier me…
Things I did good yesterday:
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Day Two… Small Steps and Overdoing it on Day 1…
Another short post…
Stuff I did good yesterday.
![Tape Measure on a Cat [CC]](https://txcowboydancer.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/tape-measure-on-a-cat.jpg)
Does this thing make me look fat?
- One complete day without Diet Coke. Yay!
. - Breakfast was two eggs, two slices of toast and orange juice and coffee (we won’t discuss that breakfast was around 11am since I slept til 10:30ish)
.. - Lunch (which was actually around 5:30pm was grilled chicken sandwich (mustard and extra veggies) and ice tea at Sonic. (I didn’t know Sonic sold Ice Tea… LOL — Note to self and to the six people actually reading this “no fast food” means that if I do have to do something on the run, I do something from the few “good” choices and there are some, a few, at just about every fast food joint.)
.. - Dinner (around 11pm-ish) was a sandwich and potato salad and ice tea. (I was EXHAUSTED when I got home so we went the easy route)
Let the applause commence!
On the “over did it” front:
I used my body WAY too much. I had dance practice with my partner but before we started dancing we did some cycling and some lifting and stretching for about half an hour.
Then we danced for an hour.
Then I had 3 hours of West Cost Class and social dancing in between. When I got home, around 10:30ish, after going by Kroger, I was so sore.
I couldn’t get to sleep until almost 2am. Then I kept waking up all night because my legs hurt; I finally got up around 6 am, so I’ll probably need a nap sometime today. I definitely overused my legs; they are literally aching right now, even as I type this, especially the big muscles in the back of the legs and the ankles and the arches of my feet.
NOTE to self. On a big “dance day” I shouldn’t also do “aerobics” and lifting. I should do those on non-dance-practice days.
Stuff for today:
I’m glad that today is a “computer” day where I update my Squidoo articles and add more products to my Zazzle store, etc.
I am going to TRY to get to the 24 hour fitness near me for an hour today to work on learning the new Smooth Advanced dance for ACDA/UCWDC.
Today, however, is also “laundry day” which for me, at my current fitness level counts as “exercise”. *sigh* I really need to take photos or better yet, a short video of the trek up and down the stairs to the laundry room. You fine folks reading this really do need visuals to truly appreciate the ordeal involved in the simple statement “Today is Laundry Day.” Ugh.
All in all, day one went well. Day two is underway and I basically have no choice any longer. I have to get healthy or else. We don’t want to think about the “or else.”
There you have it. Stay tuned. And wish me success.
See ya on the dance floor.
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 