Short term goals

WARNING: The today in this post refers to Monday. I was slow to post...

 I am a planner and have always had to be. I went to college with no financial assistance from my family. I managed to work full time and participated in activities . What kept me afloat during this period was setting short term realistic goals for myself that would ultimately lead to me reaching my ultimate goal, which, at that time, was graduation.

Setting goals and working to achieve them is very important in any fitness plan.  My long term goal is to be fit. I have an idea of what I want my body to look and feel like. I know that I want awesome abs. I want to wear a bikini at 40.  I can envision all of this and I know that none of this will happen next week. This means that if my goal is set far out, I will not experience any notable success next week.  I know and accept this.  It is very easy to set generic goals for fitness. I have set generic goals and I have heard others talk about theirs. Examples would be “I want to be fit or I want to eat healthier”. These goals are great, but lack specificity. With only an abstract idea and no concrete action plan, it becomes infinitely more difficult to measure success.

In an attempt to remedy this, I have decided to start setting short term goals with a definitive measure of success. Reaching these smaller goals that I set for myself will eventually lead to me succeeding at my long term goal by creating concrete and manageable steps that can be tackled one at a time. The goal I set for myself this week is to wake up at 5 am to workout. I am not a morning person so this will definitely be a challenge for me.  I woke up this morning at 5 and looked outside. It was pitch black and I decided that a run in the dark was not for me. That being said, I did not want to stay in bed and feel like a quitter on my first day. I hit snooze at 5. I got up at 5:14 and made my bed. I then did an ab workout that I LOVE from Melissa Bender on YouTube. The video is 10 minutes. There are 10 different ab exercises. You do each exercise for 50 seconds with a 10 second rest between each one. This morning was a success!!  

My son has his guitar lesson tonight. Lessons are 30 minutes long. I usually sit in my car and watch Hulu on my phone or laptop.  So, I have made my second goal to run while I am waiting on my son to complete his lesson. We shall see how that goes...  If the plan works tonight, then I will plan on running Wednesday while my daughter is at her Saxophone lesson!!!

Depression and my war against the pudge...

I started Ripped in 30 about 30 days ago. The first two weeks were great. I did my workout everyday and I was able to run a few times.  I saw notable changes and I was pumped. Week three found me a little depressed. I have struggled with depression for years. At one point in my life I was so depressed that I stayed in bed most of the day. I worked nights. I would take my kids(the Joes) to school and I would stay in bed all day. I only worked 3 nights out of the week but that did not stop me from spending hours in the bed, allowing my life to slip past me. My son who is now 14 recalls that he knew I was sad. The discussion that followed was an eye opener for me. I have made a significant effort not to isolate when I am feeling depressed. I make special efforts to spend more time with The Joes and to try to better manage my symptoms.  Over the last two weeks, we have spent a lot of time together as a family. We have been cooking together and we make an effort to cook healthy meals. I feel that this was a success. What was not a success was me in pajamas everyday for a week. During the third week, my car decided to quit me while on an exit ramp. The shop quoted me a fix-it price of 900 dollars. I decided to take some time, think about it and make an educated decision. This meant that I was stuck at home for a week. I worked from home, in pajamas, every single day. Two of these days, I took a half day. I was just chillin at the house in my pajamas...depressed!!!  I had to rely on others to get The Joes to activities, but the fact that there were “others” to help was a blessing.  The two weeks were not a total loss. There was another success!  I did run about 6 times. A few of those runs were on a treadmill. The outside runs were great. Greatly influenced by other’s running times, I set a new running goal to consistently run 2 miles in 20 minutes or less.  Four of the runs were outside runs. The times were as follows: 3 miles in 34:03, 2.2 miles in 23:18, 2 miles in 20:32 and 2 miles in 20:09. These two weeks reminded me that I am much stronger today than I was years ago. I cannot just lie down and let life pass me by. Today I am a fighter...

After...

I finished the 30 Day Shred last Wednesday!!!! It also happened to be my birthday so my post is a little late...While I finished on Wednesday, I spent Thursday through Sunday celebrating with awesome family and friends. I went to see Raphael Saadiq on Thursday at the House of Blues. On Friday, I went to the Chocolate Martini Bar with some girlfriends. On Saturday, I spent the day with my daughter and nephew. We were treated to the yummy flavors of Sweetie Fry and I finished my back to school shopping!! On Sunday we  headed to church, then went to dinner at the Chocolate Martini Bar again and we saw Adrian Dunn's Hopera that evening. I had an amazing time and felt amazing because I reached a goal that I had set for myself. I must say that 37 feels awesome for me! I completed 30 days of workouts. I feel stronger and leaner. I keep looking at my thighs and I am completely amazed at how toned they look to me. I am not as toned as I would like to be...but I definitely see a change in my body. BTW...my right thigh is larger than the other. It has a couple dimples!!Argh. I am trying hard to get rid of them!!!! I did not lose a significant amount of weight but I did lose inches which excites me more than the weight!! I have also gained speed. This was not an anticipated side effect but one that I appreciate greatly. I have been able to get my mile time down from a 12 minute mile to now below a 10 minute mile. I am now starting Ripped in 30 from Jillian Michaels. I may only do this workout 6 days a week as opposed to the 30 days of workouts with the previous workout... My new measurements are as follows:

Waist: 26  Bust: 31 Hips:37 1/2   Thigh: 21
Calves:12 1/4   Bicep:10 1/2 Weight:132

Goal:Running a Faster Mile

I ran the Mill Creek Classic Half Marathon in March of 2012. I finished it in 2:48:00. I ran about 13 minute miles. I ran a whopping 19 torturous hills. I most likely finished it because I ran with an awesome partner!!!! I was very proud of myself that I ran continuously for almost three hours. I never imagined that I would run that far ever! This was a tremendous accomplishment for me. More recently I have found that I have been consistently running about 11 or 12 minute miles. I am not satisfied with this time. My new goal is to run a faster mile. I do not want to do interval training. It is not very appealing to me. I have decided to stop trying to run long runs AND improve my time. I just cut my runs short. Very short. My latest plan has me running 3 times a week, 1 mile each workout. I have found that it is less intimidating knowing that I am only going to run a mile and that I can invest all my energy in the run. I have met each run with success. My latest times for my mile runs have been 9:40, 9:46 and 10:00(on the treadmill). I plan to run 4 times next week, 1 mile each time. The goal is to run sub-10 minute miles each time. Every two weeks I will add one mile and attempt to maintain a consistent time. I am also doing Jillian Micheals 30 Day Shred and Kettlebell swings and situps. I am feeling a lot stronger and this may be impacting my performance during my runs. I am hopeful that I will run a 5K in the fall in under 30 minutes!!!!

My kids are not responsible for my doughy middle...

I always cringe when I hear folks say that they sacrificed their dreams for their children. I guess it's a parenting choice. Neither way is right or wrong. I have chosen to not attribute any of my shortcomings or failures to my children. I imagine that it must be a great burden for a child to bare. Imagine thinking: My mom never finished college because of me or my mom has extra weight around her midsection which leads to higher rates of heart disease because of me... SCARY STUFF!!!!

When I go to my kids school I am always met with visions of moms who have given up on the idea of fitness. I have some mom friends who attribute their doughy middles to the births of their middle school aged children and proclaim that there is no time for them to work out. I will just go ahead and admit the following fact for all of us: My kids are not responsible for my doughy middle. I know that this is shocking considering they are 14 and 11 years old. In reality, I have a doughy middle because I have not been as committed to my own personal fitness as I should have been. It is my responsibility to hang around for a while to be a parent to my kids. I have control over my physical being and have decided to make an effort to set an example of wellness and fitness for them. When I started running, I included my children. I ran with my son who pushed me to run faster. I included my daughter in races which brought us a little closer together. I am working to teach my children that fitness is a lifestyle. I have decided to take back control of my life and my health. Every day I am more amazed at what my body can do and I look forward to learning all that I am capable of!

Goals: Awesome Abs!!

Setting specific goals can be intimidating but like most situations you have to set them in order to progress. Fitness is no different then anything else in your life, if you become complacent you will not see progress. Fitness goals seem to be unobtainable for some simply because the goals they set are not realistic, you can't run today and see the results tonight! Like most people I have worked very hard to get bikini worthy abs, among other things, and not to toot my own horn but I've done well. Lately I seemed to have hit a plateau so I have decided to revamp my routine, check out my weekly calendar and slenderize your waist with me!

OK Abs!!




Plan of Action

• Limit ab isolation to once per week: It appears to be "thickening"my waistline.
• Alternate my morning super sets with a full body dumbbell routine.
• Omit sit-ups from morning super sets.

7 days in...

Today is day 7 of the 30 Day Shred!!!! I have actually completed seven days and 12 miles of running. I am feeling stronger and my endurance has increased. I am quite pleased with my ability to stick to the program this time. I must say that my success can probably be attributed to my workout partner who is such an inspiration. Working out with a partner has been a blessing! We have been texting to confirm completion of workouts or to encourage success in future workouts. It is providing me with someone to talk to about my progress and how I am feeling and it holds me accountable. It also saves those around me who are disinterested in my working out from being forced to listen to me drone on and on about my excitement about exercising. My daughter has commented that my abs are starting to look good!!! My new measurements are below:

Waist: 27   Bust: 31 Hips:38   Thigh: 22 1/2

Calves:12 1/2   Bicep:9 1/2
Weight: 134