Monday, August 27, 2012

Skinny-ish Jeans

I am dedicating this post to my new work-out love, Farrells, and to my skinny jeans "I"ll buy these while I lose the baby weight after Dekker" jeans. That ended up being my "I hope they still fit after Tucker" jeans. Sigh.  Actually, I should just dedicate this post to any pair of jeans in my home that I can wear.

Comfortably.

Sigh again.

In May I decided that my belated 30th birthday present to myself and my Mother's Day gift to myself was to do the Farrells 10 week challenge.  It's that expensive much of an "investment in my health", I'm just saying-- I needed two holidays to justify it.  And I have the summer "off".  It was great timing.

So anyway, I love it.  Actually, I love, love, love it.  It is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but I never was willing to shell out invest the money.  I'm so glad I did.  Dave was on board.  He works out every morning, so I joined the 4:30 class in the afternoon.  Dave gets off early opens his office door and listens real good while the kids play educational games watch TV for 30 minutes (Tucker is secure in the swing).  And I love not having to get up at the crack of dawn and still get a good workout in.  In fact, this brings me to a short list of things I have loved:

 * I love having the workout toward the end of the day-- it is like a "reset" button if I have had a tough day with the kids.  And I like being home early enough to be a big help for the dinner/playtime/bath/bed routine.
* I love that it is climate controlled and indoors, even when it is 199 degrees outside.
* I love that somebody else does all the thinking and planning and all I have to do is show up.
* I love that it is a combination of strength and cardio.

So it is six days a week.  That is a lot, but it feels good to get back into the habit of working out finally do something consistently for more than six weeks for one of the first times in my adult life.  Now that I am not living a life of leisure working my buns off all day at home, and am back to work right down the street 30 minutes down the interstate in all but a different town at NCC two days a week, it is a little lot harder to get to the gym on my "work days".  There is a Farrells location by my office, but it is still hard to leave work in time to get there and get home all but before dinner is cleaned up and the baby is in bed.  On my work days I pack a cute little Puma bag reusable HyVee bag and cross my fingers.  Then I inevitably go early, change clothes and introduce myself to the instructor come barreling through their doors and change my clothes in front of a bunch of strangers in the bathroom and rush out onto the mats.  But I'm always glad I am there once we get going.  I usually workout in a super chic, matching outfit from Scheels one of two pairs of black Capri pants and a JDRF T-shirt.  One of the girls there called me Ms. Sallinger the first few weeks because most all of my shirts all say "Team Sallinger" on the back.  I love it.

Sigh.  Why is it so hard to work-out??  And make it a lifestyle?  I wish jobs required an hour of exercise a day.  It would sure save a lot of money on health insurance. 

Anyway, it's a pretty hard workout.  On my first day as a not "newbie 10 week-er" I kinda thought had convinced myself all day that maybe it would be easy.  And then I nearly threw up.  On my very first day ever, I had to get a drink and take a break before the warm-up was over.  Hahahahahahaha!  But whatev.  Today I had a flawless workout the instructor point out that I was punching with the wrong arm, but I am getting the hang of it.  And I feel better.  And I'm losing inches and my 10 week before and after pictures showed some improvement.  And I lost several 2 or 3 body fat percentage points... that counts.

I'm focusing on my nutrition for this10 week cycle.  I'm using "My Fitness Pal" on my phone because apparently "watching what I eat" means I just watch food go into my mouth.  Besides, 80% of change is made in the... ... kitchen.  Ug!  For my first 10 weeks about the only part of the nutrition plan I followed through on was drinking more water and enjoying a "free day" on Saturdays.  I didn't earn the free day, but I loved the concept.

Good Grief.

Why can't I work out one hour 45 minutes a day and eat whatever I want for the other 23 hours?  Is it too much to ask that I want to eat candy and breads and coffee and muffins and cookies and Chinese and sushi and crap, crap, crap and still lose weight and inches as long as I work-out???  I mean, I'm working out here! 

And I might become an instructor.  If I can get up the nerve.  And skill.  And fitness level.  And I think in the next 10 week cycle (Oct-Dec) I might add a few days of running.  Why am I even typing that?  Now people know.  Please, if you see me in a few weeks tomorrow saddled up to a plate of nachos at La Mesa with my work bestie Leslie, drinking pop and loving my life, don't judge me.  I am a work in progress.

Looooooooooong Sigh.

One Day At A Time.

On the journey,
Mae

PS If you are looking on an update on Tucker, it's coming.  He is doing great ah-mazing!!!!