Stairway to Fitness Heaven?

As I noted in my last post, this week my goals are to do some sort of cardio exercise for at least thirty minutes everyday and to make it to three BodyPump classes. I got a good start on the cardio tonight when I met Karrie and Jennifer at the gym. We spent about forty minutes on the treadmill and then moved to the stair machine. I'd never done the stairs before, and it was tough! I did maybe about fifteen minutes of climbing total, spread out over about twenty-five minutes. After about seven minutes I realized what it reminded me of: the cathedrals towers in Europe that "you just have to see the view from," which of course never had elevators, and you had to climb up and up probably 500 steps, usually in a winding staircase and it felt like it was never going to end and you're in the middle of a huge line, so you have to keep going or the Japanese tourists behind you will poke you in the back with their umbrellas or push past you and your friends all pass you by and you're the last of your group to get to the top and then by the time you do get there you're so worn out you can barely hold your camera up to take a steady picture and then just when you've caught your breath your tour guide announces that "time's short and we have to move on to the next stop" and you have to go down the 500-step winding staircase, which should be easier but is actually harder, because your head is so heavy and your weakened body has to hold it up to keep from tipping over and rolling head-over-heels down the stairs.

Anyway. In case you didn't pick up on it, I'm not a huge fan of the stair climber machine. It'll probably be a while before I do that one again. I'm just starting down the path to physical fitness, and the stairs seem like at least an "advanced-intermediate" level activity.

I've also started a food journal, writing down everything that I eat each day. I've seen several articles that said that the key to achieving and sustaining long term weight loss is keeping a food journal. It makes total sense: seeing everything you eat written down in black and white is good motivation to eat right. The same advice is given to people who want to start and stick to a financial budget. I've never been very good at journals, so I'm mentioning this here to give me some accountability.

Oh yeah, I work out too!

As this is supposed to be a blog about exercising, I should probably mention how I've been doing in that aspect the past couple days. I made it to BodyPump again last night, and I spent twenty-five minutes ellipticizing at home today (to the music of Disney's Aladdin--I love that Genie!). I had planned to go to BodyPump tomorrow morning, but I'm going to help my brother install his new kitchen cabinets instead. (I figure manual labor counts as a kind of exercise, right?) My goal for the next week is to do at least 30 minutes of cardio every day and to go to three BodyPump classes.

Home Demolishing

I gotta say, nothing releases stress and aggression like a taking a hammer to a wall.

My upstairs bathroom shower has been broken for a couple months now. The faucet handle broke and I have been too lazy and poor to get it fixed. But since I had to have the plumber out for another issue, I figured I ought to get this taken care of today too.

Oops!

In order for the plumber to get to all the pipes to repair the broken part, I had to remove the shower wall. I have a prefabricated shower, so the panels fit together like a big puzzle, which fortunately meant I wouldn't have to completely destroy a whole wall. I just had to knock out the drywall around the panel I needed to remove, take out a few screws, and lift it out. It was pretty easy and didn't take long at all.

Just getting started and Mission Accomplished!

I'm so excited that my upstairs bathroom is all working again! Now I have to get in gear about repairing the drywall around the panel. Drywalling is one home repair that I'm actually pretty good at and that I kind of enjoy. And I've been wanting to repaint that bathroom anyway.

And the best part is, the plumber didn't charge me for the other thing I had him fix, since I saved him a bunch of time by taking out the wall while he worked on that. So I saved myself probably $100!

The Musical Workout

I wasn't hungry when I went home for dinner tonight (who's hungry at 4:00?), so I worked out instead. I ellipticized for twenty-five whole minutes! That's the longest I've done since I was sick, and it wasn't nearly as difficult as my other elliptical workouts have been lately. I think I figured out why. I usually watch a sitcom or a movie while I'm working out, but today I put in a musical. Not just any musical either, but the Sound of Music, my favorite musical ever. I've always thought musicals were a bit magical: the costumes, the romance, the crowds of people randomly bursting into big song-and-dance numbers. And watching a musical while I'm ellipticizing makes my workout magical too! I skip to my favorite songs and try to keep in time with the rhythm and the time just flies by! I first noticed this phenomenon about a month ago, when I ellipticized to another musical, Bride & Prejudice, but today's workout confirmed it. This is an excellent reason to pull out all my favorite old musicals, and I'm going to try a few of my favorite Disney movies to see if it has the same effect.

One other quick note: in BodyPump one of the triceps tracks they play the Gwen Stefani song Wind It Up, which is based on the song the Lonely Goatherd from the Sound of Music. I've noticed that the triceps track goes quicker and easier for me when they play that song.

Pump it UP!

I went to BodyPump again last tonight with Karrie, Jennifer, and Brandy. I find myself actually looking forward to those classes, even though they're really challenging. But I always feel really good about myself when I'm done; I know I'm doing something positive. Even though I've only been going for about eight weeks, I can tell a difference. I've increased the weights for several of the exercises and I can see and feel some muscle tone in my arms. I think over the next few classes I'm going to try to increase the weights for the other tracks as well.

"Don't worry, I'm doing something real good!"

I didn't make it to the gym today, but I did workout at home. I ellipticized for 20 minutes and then I taught my sister how to do some of the moves from BodyPump. So I did manage to get almost an hour workout. Ellipticizing was really hard; I still haven't totally recovered from being sick. N wanted to "help" me by getting on the machine too, or adjusting the resistance level to the highest setting. But fortunately Kate distracted him by showing him how to lift weights. He was so cute trying to do bicep curls--he can do about three with the five pound weight.

While Kate and I were doing the BodyPump workout, N was entertaining himself elsewhere in the room. At one point we realized that he was being rather quiet, which usually means trouble, so Kate called out, "Bunny, what are you doing?" To which he replied, "Don't worry. I'm doing something real good!" in his innocent little voice, which of course meant he was doing something he shouldn't be doing (unwinding the thread from my sewing machine, to be exact).

After dinner tonight Kate and I had a cookie taste-off. She has a box of Girl Scouts Thin Mints (my absolute, all time favorite) and a package of Keebler Grasshoppers. I love, love, love the Thin Mints, but the Grasshoppers are only okay. Kate said that there wasn't really a difference, so we put that statement to the test. We both guessed right, and I believe even more firmly that the Thin Mints are by far the superior cookie. (I'm so proud of myself that I showed some will power and only ate three cookies, instead of devouring a whole sleeve, like I normally would.)

What a difference a day makes...

There has been a definite correlation between the weather and my state of mind lately. Yesterday was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and the feeling that spring was just around the corner put me in a cheerful mood and gave me a kick of motivation. I met Karrie, Jennifer, and Brandy at BodyPump in the morning and had a great, challenging workout. Then I spent the afternoon in the sunshine, working on refinishing my new-to-me kitchen cabinets. The weather was so warm I was even able to wear my favorite sandals.

This morning started off promising as well. The sun was shining and I didn't even need a jacket when I went to church (I wore my sandals again, too). But by the time services were over, the sky had clouded over, the wind had picked up, and the temperature had dropped about fifteen degrees. And along with the temperature, my mood has plummeted. I am anxious again about all those things that constantly weigh on my mind lately, like money and family concerns. I feel restless and frustrated and at loose ends, and worst of all, I feel like things are never going to get better.

I have been trying to get stuff done today though. I'm baking bread, and I inventoried my grocery stock to come up with healthful meal ideas for this week. And I recycled a sweater, which means I unraveled the yarn so I can knit it up into something else. So this afternoon,

this:

$5 purple sweater from Old Navy

became this:
hanks washed and drying to be wound into balls later

I got the sweater on sale probably four years ago. It was a little small, but I always told myself, I'll lose weight and then it'll fit perfectly. Yeah, right. How many times have you told yourself that lie? As I was going through my closets a couple months ago, I realized that I could reclaim that yarn and turn it into something that actually fit me. The yarn is a nice purple tweed, 60% lambs wool, 40% nylon. I followed the instructions for sweater recycling detailed here. I'm hoping to have enough to make this Lush and Lacy Cardigan from SweaterBabe (the pictures on their website aren't that great, but there are lots of cute projects on Ravelry).

Hey, just talking about yarn and knitting has put me in a better mood. So has the smell of freshly baked bread wafting up the stairs from the kitchen. So, later 'gaters, I'm gonna go get a slice.