As they say

When one door closes another opens. I'm pretty glad that door closed because I'm a lot more excited about the door that opened. This summer is going to continue to be epic.

Yeah, that's right

Found a nice trail outside kokomo.  It was great since it's part of the rails totrails program.

Biggest Loser

A friend of a friend likes to coordinate biggest loser competitions among friends. We all weighed-in today and we will all weigh-in in August. The person with the greatest percentage weight loss wins the pot from the buy-ins of all participants.

Now to lose the greatest percentage so I can win the pot! It is only around $200, but still a nice incentive.

Doing more stuff for myself

I have horrible vision. As someone with horrible vision who hates horrible vision I've wanted laser surgery ever since I heard it came out. One of my facebook friends just talked about her story and spoke highly of a center in Charlotte. I came to find out that most of my friends in Charlotte went to that exact same center so I decided since I knew where to go it was finally time to get it done. I went in today and learned that I am a fine candidate for PRK which is actually safer than LASIK, but has a much longer recovery time. I'm not happy about recovery time, but it is something I want to do.

The past week of wearing my glasses led to some awkward head angles trying to see what Chalene was doing while trying to do my exercises. In 2 months I shouldn't have to worry about glasses for a few years!

I did it

Tonight I went out with a bunch of friends and had a few beers and I kept telling myself I needed to do my ChaLean Extreme when I got home. Well I did! I did both videos I was supposed to!

Now I need to find some affordable adjustable dumbbells. They has ones that went up to 25# each at Target, but the dial was broken on 1 and they only had 2 total so I figured I'd wait.

I'll check Play It Again Sports and see if they have what I need. That way I'll use resistance bands on the road and dumbbells at home.

Momentum building

It's day 3 of ChaLean Extreme and still going strong. I was so sore today from the videos. It's amazing how changing it up a bit and using weights can make such a difference.

I did the ab video yesterday which is just 10 minutes of abs. I like to do the P90x ab video every once in a while because those are killer!!

I made the mistake today of seeing Bridesmaids with a bunch of friends. Boy did that make my abs feel like they actually exist!

Hashing

Today I did my ChaLean Extreme ab workout and I'm following it up with a "hash run" with the Hash House Harriers. I'm not sure how far we will run, but I'm pretty sure we'll have fun.

Changing it up a bit

Walking gets boring pretty quickly regardless of whether it is on a treadmill or outside (unless you are with a group or actually going somewhere) so I'm going to focus on getting more walking throughout the day, but doing exercise videos such as ChaLean Extreme.

I only did this for a couple weeks before and people noticed I was more tone. ChaLean Extreme is by the same company as P90X and many (hopefully me) use it as a precursor to P90X.

I still need to jog for my marathon training, but I do like someone pushing me, even if it is on a TV screen.

Focusing on food

Really, in the grand scheme of things, my bigger issue with weight is food. I need to maintain a certain level of activity, but I really lose weight by eliminating refined carbohydrates (not all carbohydrates, just the refined ones).

I'm getting back into the habit of shredded wheat and bran and eating more vegetables. It can be difficult sometimes on the road, but just like everything else it can be as easy as you make it.

Also yesterday I did 13 flights of stairs. That was killer.

Going Green

Fitness and exercise should be more than driving to a gym. Since I moved uptown I have been trying to incorporate more exercise into my daily routine.
I walk to the grocery store.
I walk to Subway to eat
I ride the bus to the airport
I walked from one concourse to another in Atlanta

For this trip I also took public transit from the airport. This meant I had to walk down several flights of stairs with all my luggage. This is something I wouldn't do on a given day after checking into a hotel with an elevator, but it all adds up.

Today my exercise wasn't as good as it has been, but my eating was much better so overall today was a good day! I also got all the work done I was supposed to!

New exercise: walking around amusement parks

I have a few friends who have season passes to caowinds so I decided to get one too.  We mainly just powerwalk around the park so it is a nice excuse to walk around for 4 hours.  I just have to avoid the food.

Airport walking

I am doing my best to fit in walking wherever I can. Take today, I got to IND 2 hours before my flight. I could have vegged out eating cookies in the lounge but I chose to walk around IND for 2 hours instead.

My running play list

• A-ha "Take on Me"
• Ace of Base "The Sign"
• Adele "Chasing Pavements"
• Alanis Morisette "Head Over Feet"
• Augustana "I Still Ain't Over You"
• Beatles "I Feel Fine"
• Hannah Miller "I'm the Moon"
• Jump Little Children "Mexico"
• Pete Yorn "For Nancy"
• Katharine McPhee "Over It"
• Jack Johnson "Upside Down"
• Kelly Clarkson "I Do Not Hook Up"
• Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone"
• Kelly Clarkson "Walk Away"
• Kelly Clarkson "Breakaway"
• KT Tunstall "Suddenly I See"
• Lenka "Trouble is a Friend"
• Mumford & Sons "Little Lion Man"
• Needtobreathe "More Time"
• Neon Trees "Animals"
• Peter Shilling "Major Tom"
• Queen "Killer Queen"
• The Script "Breakeven"
• Shawn Colvin "Sunny Came Home"
  

Breaking in new shoes

I decided I needed to have a second pair of running shoes so I would have a pair for the road and a pair for home. I didn't want to do too much so I just did 5K on the treadmill and did bicep curls during commercial breaks of Grey's Anatomy.

Best laid plans

I had a 6:40 am flight which meant I had to be packed and ready around 4:40 am. Long story short I remembered workout clothes but forgot my shoes.
I could either use that as my excuse or I could still do what I can.

My friend does 15 minutes in the stairwells of hotels skipping every other step going up. I made it about 6 minutes, then moved on to the treadmill and did 2 miles. After that I went back up to my room and did some push ups (10 pathetic girlie ones), used my resistance bands for bicep curls and upright rows. I wanted to do my Chalean Extreme ab video, but apparently I didn't have it loaded.

BodyMedia says I burned 2320 calories so far today. I can do better.

What have I been up to?

That's a good question! Thanks for asking. I haven't updated this blog since September, but a lot has changed since then. The current goal is to run a 1/2 marathon every month this year. We're already into May so how am I doing?

• January was the Walt Disney World 1/2. I finished 3:37
• February was the Disney Princess. I made it around 11 miles. I had bad blisters starting at mile 8. I was tending to them at mile 10, but the sag wagon was quickly approaching and I had to either run or get on the bus so I got on the bus.
• March was the Corporate Cup 1/2 in Charlotte. I didn't realize that race was primarily a 5k so only 3 walkers were doing the 1/2. This meant all the water stops had been taken down and I was just provided a map to help me finish the course. At mile 10 I asked for a ride home since I was also moving that day.
• April I was going through a tough time and didn't start.
• That leaves us at May. I ran the Lincoln, NE National Guard 1/2. I finished in 3:25 which is 12 minutes faster than January and best of all I finished!!!