Confessions of Fangirl

I’ve spent today doing nothing. I had plans on doing some things I think. Gym in the morning, then reading by the pool in the afternoon, and then maybe some writing and junk food in the evening. I did go to the gym this morning. I managed to do two and a half miles this morning on my walk/jog which is exciting. Well, I actually did close to three miles, but part of that total distance was before I started the Couch to 5k app so I wasn’t counting that little fraction of a mile. I mean, I’m counting it, but not in the timed portion I guess. Today was my best distance and time I’ve had actually, which I’m really excited about! I’m pretty proud of myself. I mean, I still have a long way to go, fitness-wise, but I’ve worked hard and I’ve come a long way. I know that in order to lose weight, or at least a significant amount of weight in a shorter period of time, I’d have to curb my carbs and watch my junk food intake a lot more than I currently am, but I still haven’t gotten to the point where I’m willing to do that. Sometimes it’s just for convenience reasons and sometimes it’s because I just don’t want to.

Even without making the dietary changes a doctor or nutritionist would likely recommend, I’ve still cut my body fat percentage from 36% to under 32%. If I can get it down a little further, I’ll be in the “acceptable” range instead of “obese.” I’ll probably still be considered “overweight,” but I think even that change will have a good impact on my overall wellbeing long term. I need to bring down my BMI a little more too, but that number went from 35.7 to 32.3 which means that if I can bring that down a little further, I’ll be out of the “obese” territory and into “overweight” there too. The thing I probably really need to focus on is losing weight in my waist. I’m rather “apple” shaped which is linked with high rates of heart disease and diabetes--ugh.

Further, I’ve gone from barely being able to jog for a minute straight to being able to do almost thirty. My time has gone from an average of around 16 minutes for a mile to about fourteen and a half. Not to mention I have done several self-guided 5ks and one organized 5k this year. I want to get to the point where I can jog a full 5k. I’m sure I’ll get there. Even with the starts and stops in my jogging practice this year, I’ve still made great improvements and I think that the other exercises I’ve been doing have helped build strength in my legs and endurance in my cardiovascular system, which are the essentials of jogging after all.

I’ve gotten a bit off course with my work towards being able to do a pull-up by February of next year, but I have been doing arm and shoulder exercises and if I lose more weight, I’ll have less to pull up which can’t hurt my chances of meeting that goal either. I probably do need to get a little more serious about working towards that goal if I really want to meet it. Most Thursday mornings, I’ve been doing the yoga class at the gym, which I do think is really good for me. My balance isn’t great and I think the practice helps. Plus, my legs feel like jello after so I know it’s a good leg day. But they aren’t having the class tomorrow morning (they didn’t have any classes today so I’m guessing not having the pre-6am class tomorrow is a holdover), which means I’ll need to figure out what I want to do workout wise. Because I did a couch to 5k workout Monday and today and water aerobics on Monday, I’m thinking that some good strength training exercises should be on the menu for tomorrow, including seeing where I am pull up/chin up wise. They have a machine that lets you counterbalance some of your own weight so that you can build up those muscles and increase how much of your weight you pull up over time. I haven’t used it in about a month probably, so tomorrow I think I’ll have a go at it and see where I am.

Alright, I need rest if I’m going to attack tomorrow. I have a sleepover tomorrow night at a friend’s after work too so it’s going to be a long day (though I think it will be a good one).