"Never Too Late to Have a Life. And never too late to change one"

My new Nike Shoes that I'm yet to break in!

I have had two very very bad weeks, personally, exercise-wise, professionally, you name it I had it. Two weeks ago my five year old son was really congested and he woke up in the middle of the night telling me his chest hurt. My husband stayed home with him and took him to see his pediatrician. Asthma. Yes, asthma. I was so upset! My poor little boy and of course he was congested the entire week. Needless to say I couldn't take him to the gym kid's club because they don't allow children who are sick. And not that I wanted to do that anyway. He went back to school the next day and it wouldn't be that fair for him to have to be at school all day, after school care, and then the gym in addition to that. I wanted to get him home and into bed early. In addition to him being sick I had a sore throat for an entire week. So there went that week.

The next week I was ready to go back to the gym again and that week I let life get in my way. I was speaking to a women's group on Friday and I had to prepare the class outline. My husband had a talk at our congregation (religious) and he likes my input when he's working on a talk, so we worked on those a little each night after work. We planned to do our family study on Tuesday so I didn't go to the gym, but he had to work super late so we had to move it to Wednesday and so Wednesday I didn't go to the gym. Thursday was our meeting and his talk. By Friday I was drained from a crazy week at work and I had a heck of a day on Friday, that included exchanging words and opinions with someone.

So that is how you can let two weeks go by with NO exercise. None, not even with the exercise class that I very well know is on Comcast On Demand. Sad I know... My only saving grace is that I have a decent fill that keeps me from over-eating.

I won't say that I will NEVER let this happen again but I can tell you that I will work very hard to never let it happen again. The results are so obvious on my middle section! Breaks are good but they can't be too long!So I will end this with one of Nike's amazing quotes.

"Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously. You know when you need a break. You know when you need a rest. You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of. And you know when it's time to take care of yourself, for yourself. To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete. Because you know it's never too late to have a life. And never too late to change one." – Nike

Sixth Week of Exercise

This is my sixth week of exercise! I skipped the week of December 28 so these aren't consecutive weeks, but pretty darn close!

I have a confession to make. (do you want to read this Kimmi?) I haven't been logging my food or exercise on livestrong.com. No, I haven't....

Why is it that I have such a challenge doing everything that I'm supposed to at the same time? I've been exercising like crazy but I'm not logging my food, therefore I know I'm eating a lot more than I should. Sigh...

Okay, on to more positive things. I am finally making some progress on my running after six weeks! (remember I'm not a runner so this will take me longer than most people) I am starting to run 90 seconds now and then walking 90 seconds. Yay! Not every single time but a lot of the time. I want to start building up to run longer periods of time.  Next goal will be to run for 2 minutes and then to only walk for 90 second in between.  I'm trying to follow the "Couch-to-5K Running Plan" somewhat.

I can not believe I'm going to be forty four weeks from today! At forty I am going to start a completely different phase of my life health-wise. On to new goals for the second half of my life!

The Perfect Fill!

I think I'm finally there! I'm pretty sure I have the perfect fill!

I've been really tight, meaning I can hardly get any food down during the day, and I've been really loose, where I was eating way more than usual. I wanted to be just right. I wanted to be tight enough to feel that sign that tells me, "Okay, stop. No need to eat anything else." At the same time I don't want to be so tight that I can only have soup for lunch.

Today was a perfect eating day. I had coffee and a protein shake for breakfast. Then I had some soup and a fish taco, sans the tortilla, for lunch. Dinner was a "chicken" tofu patty and a black bean patty. I had a few tortilla chips as a snack after lunch and I think I'll have a protein chocolate bar as a snack in a bit.

I have worked so hard over the last couple of months to get here. I'm serious! I mean that I have inched my way here .2 ccs at a time! I didn't want to overdo it. I wanted exactly the right about of restriction and I really think this is it this time. I've lost SIX whole pounds since my fill on December 29!

I feel pretty good. I was exhausted when I woke up this morning after two days in a row of running. I'm taking a break today and I'm running tomorrow.

Then there's the balance in my life. Due to all my working out my house is a MESS. I've been too tired to clean. Besides tired I have to get dinner and go over the kids' homework when I get home! I won't have a chance to clean until this weekend, unless I can have the house cleaned tomorrow. Balance between working out and keeping the house clean. That's next on my goal list!

Locker Number 18

I have a funny habit I told my step-daughter Mandi about when we were Zumba-hopping last week. She laughed when I told her. I always use Locker # 18 in the locker room. I do this to keep my goal right in front of me. My goal is to weigh as much as I did when I was eighteen.

Okay, before you go thinking that's an unrealistic goal and that no almost-40 year old can ever weigh as much as she or he did in high school, you must know that I weighed a lot at eighteen. I also wasn't a size 6, like some teenagers. But I was comfortable at that size. I was a healthy size for my height and very close to my ideal weight. It's also 40 pounds less than I weigh now. That's not so unrealistic when you've already lost 40 pounds.

I thought of moving around to different locker numbers. For example, right now I would be using #25 because I weigh about as much as I did at that age. Then I would move down to #23 when I weigh as much as I did then and so on until I reach #18. That just seemed like too much work and I decided to stick to my end result goal, #18. I want to weigh as much as I did at my graduation.

It's kind of cool that 99% of the time the #18 locker is available at the gym. When I change in the locker room I put my clothes in my gym bag and I put everything in locker #18. As I lock my old fashioned high school-like combination lock on the locker I look at the number 18 before I head out to run on the treadmill and it makes me run faster.

Vacation is OVER!

Desing by Anne Taintor

So here I am. It's the very last day of my vacation and I'm sad. One part of me is ready to go back to work and a very big part of me is not. The part of me that is ready to go back is the part that needs order and a schedule in life. The kids go back to school, thus it forces me to get up in early and to get the kids to school on time.

I don't write New Year's resolutions but I always write down my goals. This year I have simplified my goals to two. 1. Do what I should and 2. Don't do what I shouldn't. Part of doing what I should is waking up early and getting the kids to school on time. Don't ask me why I struggle with that simple rule but I do.

Another part of doing what I should is eating right and exercising. Doing what I shouldn't is eating food that is bad for me. Let's see how this simple approach works for me. Going back to work will keep me on the straight and narrow with my exercise routine. I'll be able to pick up the kids from their after school and then go running for half an hour before heading home. That's the plan.

My husband is going back on his no meat diet so that will make it easier to eat healthy. Back to fish and tofu, which is so much better for us, kids included.

New year, healthier me. New year, more organized me. New year, more disciplined me. New year, runner me!

But yes, I still wish I could stay home, exercise all I want and write all I want. But alas, I can't. I have to go back to work tomorrow and head back to the grind.