Day 121

I woke up with the best of intentions. I was going to make today the 5th day this week that I went jogging! But, I woke up late so it was already really hot and by the time the weather cooled to a non-lethal temperature it was time to go my friend's place for the Emmy's. Ugh - Dang this Texas heat.

Day 120 - Awesome Fitness Day

Today was an awesome day for me & my fitness routine :) I spent the afternoon walking with a friend around a local state park. Based on the park map we figured out that we did about 2.5 miles of hiking around the two lakes on the property. We were looking for alligators, but we only found one. It was a super cute baby one though, so it was worth it. :)
By the time I got home it was 5:30pm and I had energy left - so I decided to take care of some chores before going jogging. I am pretty proud of myself for not giving myself a pass on the jogging becuase of the walking. That is something the pre-jogging me would definetly have done :) Oh - and instead of snacking on chips while watching TV after my post-jogging shower, I had a bowl of grapes. I feel like one of those Nutrigrain Bar commercials: one good decision really can lead to another good decision. Haha :) Profound thoughts from a commerical.

1st lap - 5:54 min - j
2nd lap - 11:56 min - j
3rd lap - 18:42 min - j
4th lap - 24:48 min - j
5th lap - 6:26 min - 1/4 w, 1/4j
6th lap - 12:35 min - j

Day 119

Warning to all fellow joggers: even with a nice breeze, jogging at 3pm when it is 95 degrees outside is a BAD idea! Today is our early day at work and I decided to go at 3pm because I had just returned from running errands and wanted to get my jogging done before settling in for the evening. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I was wrong. Between the suffocating heat and the sports bra I need to throw out for having shrunk too much (it literally prevents me from taking a full breathe and HURTS), I was dizzy and weezing only half way into the first lap. I managed to muster my strength for the first 1.5 miles, but then I gave in and walked the fourth lap. While trying to regain the normal rhythem of my breathing I realized that forcing another two laps would be more detrimental than helpful. I needed water badly, so I called it a day at the 2 mile marker.

1st lap - 5:56 min - j
2nd lap - 12:01 min - j
3rd lap - 18:16 min - j
6th lap - 25:54 min - w

Day 118 - 3.5 for a 2nd time

I am actually pretty darn impressed with myself tonight! I jogged 3.5 miles again!!!!!!! And - I pushed myself really hard and was able to increase my speed too :) Woo-Hoo!! I think I am starting to actually get the swing of this whole jogging thing. YAY!!!
Oh - and I went to the doctor's office today and I found out that I have lost 3.5 pounds since I went in June!!! 3 more pounds and I will be back down to my college weight :) :) I love this whole looking hot bi-product of getting in shape!!!

1st lap - 5:50 min - j
2nd lap - 11:54 min - j
3rd lap - 17:41 min - j
4th lap - 23:40 min - j
5th lap - 5:35 min - j
6th lap - 11:05 min - j
7th lap - 18:04 min - j

(I had to correct my time on the 7th lap. Apparently my watch did not malfunction, I simply misread it in my deliriously tired state. When I went to go jogging the next day, I read it properly. Ha- I definetely need to drink more water.)

Day 116-117

Umm... I don't remember why I didn't go jogging on Tuesday, but I am pretty sure it was just because I was being lazy.

I didn't go on Wednesday because I had to take my cats to my parents' house so that I could have the exterminator come today. After dropping them off, my parents took me out for Mexican and everyone knows it is just bad form to turn down Mexican food for jogging. :) I did have chicken taco salad instead of cheese enchildas with queso - so I am happy with my healthier choice. Its a start.

Day 115

I am back on the wagon tonight, but man I am feeling the affects of yesterday's ridiculous spurge. Remind me not to do that again please. I managed to force myself through 2.5 miles and walked an addition 1.5 miles, but it was TOUGH. Half way through the first lap I was starting to get those pains in my side that feel like being stabbed with a lightening rod. I have decided that I should definitely make a more deliberate effort to drink water throughout the day prior to running. I do not know for sure that dehydration causes those pains, but either way I know water is a good idea.

1st lap - 6:22min - j
2nd lap - 12:45 min - j
3rd lap - 19:13 min - j
4th lap - 25:48 min - j
5th lap - 7:10 min - 1/2 j, 1/2w
6th lap - 13:30 min -j
7th lap - un-timed walk

Days 112-114

Fridays are one of my favorite days of the week (the other being Saturday) becuase I get off work at noon. You would think this would allow plenty of time to jog and theoretically you would be right. However between the hours of noon and 6pm it is hotter than nine blazes of Hades outside and therefore I refuse to jog. This particular Friday evening was booked as well with a work obligation and a movie with a coworker.

Saturday was cleaning day and left overs of my cold.I spent Saturday evening at my parent's house watching a movie and chit-chatting with my mom. She was starving and decided to throw her diet out for the diet as a reward for kyaking that afternoon - so we all ate more pizza than we needed. I have to admit though, Dominos is not kidding about their new and improved pizza: it really is pretty good.

Sunday was finish cleaning day followed by a whole pint of ice cream to calm myself after a rough afternoon. Although I am very satisfied with the new flavor of Bluebell (vanilla ice cream with crushed Butterfingers), I was very unsatisfied with my choice for dinner. Craving a particular dish at a local Thai resteraunt I decided that my headache would be cured by picking up a to-go order. Sadly though the resteraunt was closed and I had to settle for a local Chinese place. It was a poor substitute and the salt content left me with a headache. :(

Moral of this entry: Bad food choices + illness = no jogging.

Day 111

I had to wake up 1.5 hours early this morning for work. That combined with my lack of sleep last night (caused by my inability to breathe and my coughing) and my continued feeling of crappiness made me a generally BLAH girl today. Though I was determined to jog today for two reasons:

1st - I tried on a skirt this morning in my new size and was sad to realize that it is a bit more snug than I would like. I was therefore forced to wear my old black skirt instead.

2nd - I officially registered for my first ever attemppt at jogging a 5K! The Race for the Cure is in early October and I would like to see how well my training has truly progressed. So, I have decided to do a practice run (pun intended) on September 12 at the NOAH 5K being held on my university's campus. I am crossing my fingers that my recent success at home is a sign of my ability to succeed on that morning as well. However, I figure if for some reason I am unable to jog the whole
5K, I will know how much more I have to work in order to achieve my ultimate goal of jogging the Race for the Cure a few weeks later. We shall see. :)

With these motivations in mind, I forced myself to jog tonight. Considering the circumstances, I am very proud of myself for completing 2 miles before having to give up.

1st lap: 6:02 min - j
2nd lap: 12:13 min - j
3rd lap: 18:44 min - j
4th lap: 25:10 min - j

Day 110

I feel poopy again today. I hate not being able to breathe properly and hate even more the constant pressure throbbing in my head when I can't. However, I know that I need to keep up my physical activity not only to keep in shape for the upcoming Race for the Cure, but also to maintain my ability to wear my new size and my favorite old dress. For that reason, I forced myself to go walking. Jogging would not have happened, but I managed to walk a mile before my dripping got overwhelming. Sadly though, tonight's walk reemphasized my painful slowness when jogging. I have been proudly averaging 12 minute miles, which I fully acknowledge is very slow. However, upon timing myself last night I found that walking barely faster than a stroll without being able to breathe I walked a mile in 17.38 minutes. its ridiculous how much effort and sweat I put into cutting that time down 5 minutes. Oh well - I will increase my speed eventually. Right now my focus is on distance.

Day 109

About an hour after returning from my amazing feat last night I was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to be sick. Thankfully, I was only sick once. My dad says it was probably dehydration and he is probably right. I do definitely need to drink more water before and after jogging. Unfortunately, I also went to bed with a soar throat and woke up with really bad allergies. Thus, I feel stuffy, foggy, and drippy today. I wanted to be able to jog, but it was just not possible. I could barely move once I got home and went through almost a full box of tissues throughout the course of the day. So instead of jogging, I went to sleep. Well, I tried to at least.

Day 108 - I am AMAZING!!!!!!!

FOUR miles people!!!! That's right, I jogged FOUR miles!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!!!! I started out with the intention of doing 3 miles to get back into the swing after taking the weekend off. The weather was perfect for jogging and something just felt good about being out there pounding the pavement. Rather than pushing my speed, I was SLOW and steady. I believe for this reason I was able to glide through the first two miles with relative ease. During the 4th lap I started to think to myself, "Maybe this could be my second 3.5 mile night". My legs weren't hurting, I was breathing decently normal, and was moving without having to conciously make the effort. It was nice. So, I went for it when I had the chance. I still felt really good minus some pains in my feet from landing on them weirdly (I am still trying to train myself to jog properly). Then the amazing happened: at the end of the 7th lap - I still had the energy and desire to keep going!! So - I did. I even picked up the pace on the last lap and managed to jog at almost my full speed capabilities for half of the lap. BIZARRE, but I even had the engery to run past the crossing line by a few yards before deciding it was best to go ahead and stop. It was almost 10pm and I didn't want to be out much later. OMG!!!! I am SOOOO excited!!!!

This is something I genuinely thought I would never be able to accomplish. Now I realize that the mind is much more powerful than the body and that my physical ability to accomplish such a goal was never really the problem. Instead it was my opinion that I couldn't do it or that I didn't want to do it that really held me back from being athletic earlier in life. I am 29 and just now really taking ownership of my fitness. That is sad and kind of pathetic. But now that I am I feel GREAT about it!!! Moral of the night: You CAN do anything - the only question you have to ask yourself is WILL you do it!!! For me, the answer to that question in relation to jogging is YES!! YES - I WILL jog a 5K. YES- I WILL push myself and not give up. YES - I WILL BE A JOGGER!!!!

1st lap - 6:28 min - j
2nd lap - 13:06 min - j
3rd lap - 19:49 min - j
4th lap - 26:12 min - j
5th lap - 6:06 min - j
6th lap - 13:13 min - j
7th lap - 19:12 min - j
8th lap - 25:29 min - j

Day 105 - 107

I had the best of intentions and a total lack of motivation. Friday I was supposed to spend hiking with a friend, but she didn't tell me until we had arrived at our destination (a 2 hour trip) that the "hiking" she referred to was us trapsing around a campsite checking out the facilities. Then Friday night, I had intended to dance my pounds off at a local concert. Though I did dance for about 1.5 hours, I ended up leaving the concert early. So- I don't think I can honestly claim that I did much excercise today, but I did sweat A LOT. That has to count for something right?

Saturday and Sunday I spent a lot of time cleaning my apartment. I have been told that the movement done during this process counts as low impact excercise, so I am going to go with that to make me feel better about not jogging. :)

Day 104 - 4th time Baby!

My wedding dress came in!! Sadly though when I tried it on we found errors in the construction of it (they basically screwed up when they stitched it together) so I have to send it back and hope they don't f it up again. Thankfully,I still have 10 months before the wedding to make sure that it is PERFECT. The good thing is though that when I put it on and the lady laced up the back (it is corset style) you could totally tell that I have lost a few pounds because I actually have a waist :) :) I can't wait to see myself in it for real - 10 more months of jogging & much needed better eating habits and I am definately going to look HOT on my wedding day - and not just because it is an outdoor ceremony in June. :)

Anyways - motivated by my improvement I went jogging this evening and TOTALLY ROCKED it!!!! 3 miles without walking for the 4th time!!!!!! (I am not counting the day I did 3.5 miles because that is the start of a whole different tally.)Oh - and I improved my speed just a bit too! WOO-HOO :)

1st lap - 5:56 min - j
2nd lap - 12:57 min - j
3rd lap - 17:52 min - j
4th lap - 24:00 min -j
5th lap - 6:07 min - j
6th lap - 12:01 min - j

Day 103

I had intended on getting my excersise for the day by playing volleyball as part of our work function, but enough students showed up to have full teams- so I ended up serving as the line judge. Its okay - the event was for them anyways. After the game I went to dinner with a good friend from high school who just moved into town. Too bad you can't lose weight simply by chatting - I would be super skinny :)

Day 102

I am back in the swing of things today. I didn't make it to the full 3 miles, but I got really close. And I got times that are records for me - so I suppose progress was made in at least one sense. I will take what I can get :)

1st lap - 5:41 min - j
2nd lap - 11:45 min - j
3rd lap - 17:57 min - j
4th lap - 24:32 min - j
5th lap - 7:11 min - 1/2 w, 1/2j
6th lap - 13:05 min - j

Days 98 - 101

Instead of jogging, I spent the weekend floating the river with some of my favorite people. It was AWESOME! I totally rocked my bikini now that my new routine has helped me drop a dress size. Plus when we went dancing Saturday night, I got to wear a dress I haven't worn in 7 years :) :)
I spent Monday at the funeral of my great grandfather. It was a sad day, but I got to spend it with my amazing family, so in that sense it was good. I didn't have the energy or desire to jog by the time I got home though.

Day 97

Today I lost my Pepaw. He was 102 years old and got to go home peacefully while asleep in his own house with his family. He was ready to go, but it still hurts. I decided not to take the day off like my boss offered - Pepaw would not have wanted us to stop our lives just to fuss over him.
After work I thought it would be best to try to keep my plans for healthy living as best I could so I went ahead and went jogging. My heart was not in it at all though - not even a little bit. Every step felt desperate, painful, and heavy. Its funny how the mind and heart can do that to someone's body. I felt like I was jogging through wuick sand and my lungs were going to give out. It was awful, but I managed to sludge my way through 1.5 miles of jogging and then I walked a cool down lap. I was proud of myself for getting up and going, but have never felt so horribe while jogging before - not even when I very first started.

Day 96

After the feat I accomplished yesterday I gave my body a day off :)

Day 95: I'm AMAZING :) :) :) :)

Tonight I accomplished a goal I didn't even have: I jogged 3.5 miles without walking!!!!!!!!! It is weird - I feel really good, meaning my legs don't hurt and although I was definetly breathing hard I was able to push myself and sprint the last bit of distance between the gates (I wanted to catch the gate before it closed when a car left). :) I am SOOOOO excited!!!!!! I even walked a cool down lap to make a full 4 miles!!!!!

1st lap - 6:20 min - j
2nd lap - 12:48 min - j
3rd lap - 19:10 min - j
4th lap - 25:36 min - j
5th lap - 6:11 min - j
6th lap - 12:26 min - j
7th lap - 18:00 min - j
8th lap - walked cool down

Day 93 - 94

Sunday was spent shopping with my friend Mi and picking up tamales from a bakery down in Galveston with Mom. After not eating anything all day, I spurged and ordered myself a large $10 pizza from Papa John's. Not really on my diet plan, but it was thin crust :) Don't worry though - Between my diet/excersise plans and my new budget rule of only eating out 3 times a month - this will most definitely NOT become a regular thing. I like my new size and totally intend on maintaining it. :)

Monday was the start of a new week of jogging. I know originally I pledged to jog every day. That has proven unrealistic both physically and time wise. My new goal is to go 4 - 5 times a week. Today I was joined by my friend Jo who lives in my complex. Because we went around 8pm the weather was cool enough not to feel like we were suffocating, but it was still fairly humid. My clothes feel like I dunked them in a bucket of water when I get back. GROSS!

1st lap - 6:26 min - j
2nd lap - 13:13 min - j
3rd lap - 20:07 min - j
4th lap - 8:52 min - w
5th lap - 16:10 min - j
6th lap - 23:12 min - j
7th lap - walked cool down

Day 92

After all of these years with me, my cats have still not figured out that Saturdays are for sleeping in. They woke me up at 7am to be fed and sadly I could NOT get back to sleep. So, I decided to go jogging before it got too hot.

1st lap - 6:11 min - j
2nd lap - 12:38 min - j
3rd lap - 20:20 min - w
4th lap - 6:10 min - j
5th lap - 13:58 min - w
6th lap - 20:03 min - j
7th lap - walked cool down

Day 91

Today was a FABULOUS day!!! I got off work at 12pm (like I do every Friday) and met my mom and Nonnie for lunch and a movie. After that, Mom took me shopping. She has been making fun of me because all of my clothes are too big and decided I needed some new, less baggy work clothes. I really like the brand Worthington for worok clothes and JC Penny's had a sale going on - so we went there. I hate the lay out of their store because everything is so jumbled it is borderline impossible to find anything. THankfully though, my Mom has the ability to find treasures in the trash. :) I tried on a million pairs of pants before we found the perfect pair - brown, sleek looking slacks, on sale for $20. The best part though: they are a size 4!!!! I have not worn a size 4 since undergrad which was 7 years ago!!! YAY!!!!!!! Jogging sucks MUCH less when I can physically see the results!!!!!!!! 4 has always been one of my favorite numbers and now I know why :) :) :) In addition to the pants, I got two size 4 skirts and two shirts for $100. THANKS Mom for my presents :) :) We celebrated with homemade grilled pizza with Dad. :)

Day 90

My legs are still sore and my calves are still balled up like rocks, but I decided I have to "walk it off" so I went back down to the trail. I am proud of myself for going out, but somewhat disappointed in the showing. I only jogged one mile before giving up. I think a lot of it was mental, but the cramp in my right foot didn't help either.

Jogged one mile: 12:32 minutes. Walked one cool down lap.

Day 89

I woke up this morning and almost fell out of bed - literally! When I went to stand up, my calved muscles seized up in protest of the movement and gave out. So - after hobbling around all day, I decided to forgoe to excerise for the evening. My body says "THANK YOU" for the break. :)

Day 88: I was THIS close...

Tonight I was THIS close to again accomplishing the 3 mile jog! :) I am super excited about this leap in progress! Check it out:

1st lap - 6:11 min - j
2nd lap - 12:56 min - j
3rd lap - 19:20 min - j
4th lap - 26:11 min - j
5th lap - 6:08 min - jogged 3/4, walk 1/4
6th lap - 12:30 min - j
7th - walked cool down lap