It was a very nice day today weather-wise; it was about as good as you can ask for from Ohio in March. It was sunny and almost 60. To take advantage of the weather and get rid a little of my spring fever, after work I went out for a walk/run. I also wanted to see how close I could get to running since I'm supposed to be doing a 5K next weekend (It looks like I'll be doing it, but I'll be speed walking it with my sister-in-law. She and I are both in need of support for our first go round). Wow is running outside totally different from running on a treadmill. What seems ridiculously slow running outside had me winded in no time. I did do 5500 steps which according to the pedometer is approximately 3 miles. So, distance not a problem, the speed at which I do the distance is a problem. Not sure where to go from here. I guess I need to read some more about running outside.

Things I never thought I'd be able to do...

I totally had an "Omigod I did not just do that" moment in pilates tonight. The good kind. The kind where you manage to do a move you never ever thought you'd be able to do.

Backstory: my regular pilates teacher had been off last time I had been to class, and I took last Saturday off from class, so it'd been a little while since I'd attempted what she calls the "rollover prep". This is basically where you lay on your back with your legs straight up in the air and attempt to bring your feet toward your head --like you would do a plow in yoga. I typically had only been able to lift my hips a few inches off the ground.

So she queued us into the move....imprint, table top, legs up, lift.....and omigod, my legs were at my face! I did not just do that! You're kidding me! And I was able to roll back down with control! This is amazing! I was also able to keep my legs straight up for the entire hundreds sequence for the first time. I actually think this has been helped by doing squats, I'd been struggling with this not because of my ab strength, but because it was difficult to keep my legs together.

Needless to say that it helped my motivation tremendously. I'm definitely gaining strength and continue to lose inches.

March Goals

I'm sticking with this. :) Last month was a struggle, but last week, things eased up. Somehow I felt guilty about wanting to weigh less. Yes, I know it's healthy for me, but somehow I had resistance to it. This week, that seemed to relax. It's ok to want my body to be healthy and be smaller. For some reason it also seems more realistic. Probably because I've stuck with it this long and continue to feel proud about the goals I've accomplished. So.....for March (yes, I know it's already started):

• Exercise 18-23 times in March for 45-50 minutes. I'd also like to get my cardio minutes up, but I think that will come with the weather getting better, I'll be more able to walk outside.
• I'll be doing the 30 day plan again for at least the first 2 weeks of the month to get my eating back on track. This seems to be the hardest part for me, but eating fish and veggie food was a step in the right direction for me.
• Since it's Lent, no meat on Fridays for me and I also gave up red meat. I'm actually enjoying it this year, it's caused me to be more creative about what I'm eating (I wish papa johns would stop running the 3 kinds of sausage pizza, it looks sooo good). I appreciate that it's asking me to be more flexible. It's also meant I found a great recipe for low fat mac n' cheese (with spinach and green onions).

yay march. I feel like I'm finally on my way!

February Report

February has been a busy month. It's also been a little bit of a struggle for me. I've been so busy and the energy had been a little low. I didn't really feel the motivation to exercise. However I did accomplish the following:

• I did barely squeak by to my exercise goal. I exercised 16 times in February for an average of 58 minutes. The average time is down from last month, but considering where my motivation level was this month, I'm glad I pushed through. Besides the time goal was 40 minutes average, so I still beat that.
• eating....I'm not sure what to say here. It was probably a mediocre. I didn't eat horribly, but it wasn't fabulous. I did however actually eat fish this month. Anyone in my family who reads this will probably drop over dead reading that. I also actually enjoyed it. I'll still a little skeptical, but I'm working on that. I also ate a vegetarian meal and enjoyed it. So eating was pretty much a wash.
• I did 495 minutes of strength training (including pilates) and 448 minutes of cardio. This is not as uneven as I thought it would be, but I think I need to work on getting in some more cardio minutes as this probably resulted in....
• ...My weight remained steady. I was up and down with in a 3 lb range. I didn't lose any weight, but I maintained, which is pretty good for me. This is also impressive as I ate an entire box of Trefoils cookies in 3 days.
  
• I'm also very proud of the fact that I managed to do my first running without stopping workout this month. I did another one this week. I had to stop briefly for about a minute in the middle because I had an awful stitch in my side. But it's also taking about 10 minutes of running before I even break a sweat. I also came very close to breaking the 4 mph average. I also got to 2.32 miles in 30 minutes which is much better. I'm not sure I'm going to run the 5K on St. Pat's Day, I'm not sure I'm ready. I only have 2 more weeks to get in another whole mile. I'm not sure my cardio endurance is there yet.

In what seemed like a month of downs, I feel like I did pretty well and I'm also very proud that I stuck with it. Onto month three....