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Posts Tagged ‘working out’

Continuing Journey to Fitness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 8, 2018| 6 Comments »


So, I had lost 19 lbs. as of last October. For the past few months, since my mom has been in the nursing home, I haven’t exercised or eaten the way I should. At first, I didn’t gain any weight. But as I started losing muscle mass from stopping my weight workouts, I felt my clothes get a little tighter (when you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories). I had already gone down a size, and I really didn’t want to have to hang my head in shame and go back to the other size. But I was spending so much time at the nursing home that I was just grabbing whatever food I could and not finding time to exercise. And I could really feel my health declining. Things didn’t feel right with my body anymore. When I fell and injured my right knee and pulled my left hip muscle, I went to the gym and froze my membership. I didn’t stop it completely, but I was considering that. Then I started remembering how much better I felt when I was working out.

My hip injury is barely a twinge now, so I went back to the gym yesterday. I decided to focus on cardio right now and maybe take weights back up later. I have a treadmill at home, but it’s too far to go during lunch, and the gym is just about 10 minutes away from work. So for the last two days, I’ve gone to the gym and walked on the treadmill. I might tackle the elliptical when I have more stamina. And then run on the treadmill.

Also, I’ve been looking at a Mediterranean diet lately. Yesterday, I had stuffed grape leaves, olives, and mozzarella balls. Today for lunch I had half a pita stuffed with hummus, feta cheese, and olives and a stuffed grape leaf on the side. It amazes me how few calories these meals have, and most of it is very good for you. I hate diets that completely eliminate certain foods. Eating at least a partial Mediterranean diet is fairly easy for me because I like the food. I need to add some fish to the mix. Does that mean I won’t eat any pizza or burgers ever? Not this girl! I’m not giving up anything. But I can change the frequency I eat these things that aren’t as good for me.

All these foods I ate for lunch were bought from the grocery store, which means I’m saving money compared to eating out. So that’s another plus! 🙂

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me health wise. What are YOU doing to take charge of your health? Do tell.

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ROW80 Check-In 12/8/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2013| 12 Comments »

Is anyone else getting excited about Christmas? I am! Last year, I lost my father on Thanksgiving day. Then, in mid-December, I found out I had diabetes…the same day the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. Not a great holiday season last year, huh? But it’s a new year, and I have my blood sugar under control with one insulin shot a day plus some pills. Not ideal, but life is good. I intend to ENJOY my holidays this year.

So onto the report.

Writing: I finished my WIP on November 30, and I didn’t touch it until yesterday. I edited five chapters yesterday. So far, so good. I only found a few little things where I thought I should word some things differently. The manuscript is actually 900+ words short of what I shot for. Also, though, I realized there was a scene that might work between the prologue and the current first chapter. I’m going to talk to my beta readers about it and get their input when I’m ready to send it to them.

Exercise: Mostly, this has gone well. I did my three days at the gym. I have an extra incentive not to skip workouts since my insurance will now pay for it if I go 12 times in a month. I skipped a couple of days on the treadmill because 1) I had to get up at 4:00 on Thursday, and 2) I overslept on Friday (probably because of #1).

FlyLady: I’ve done so-so on housekeeping and organization. Now that the last exporting class for work is over, my stress is now lower. I nailed our presentation at that class, by the way. WIN! 🙂 So I’m ready to embrace all three of my goals with gusto! The rest of December is going to be awesome!

Let’s all get excited together, okay? It can be contagious!

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ROW80 Sunday Update 7/7/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 7, 2013| 18 Comments »

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July holiday. If you’re not in the US, I hope you still are having a great weekend! I had a lot going on the last few days, especially since my boss decided to close on Friday (unpaid day off) instead of just Thursday. We were able to fill those days with food, family, and fun.

I missed my three days a week writing goal, only writing two days. But my word count was 2831, so that wasn’t too shabby. I would really like to hit over 3000 a week, but I’ll take what I got. It’s been a busy week. 🙂

I haven’t walked on the treadmill for the past two days. I have a problem with my foot sometimes where a sharp pain will shoot through the top of it when I’m walking, and it’s so bad, I almost fall. This is a problem that usually lasts two or three days. The odd thing is that this time, it’s the other foot. I didn’t go to the gym, either. I have no excuse except that the gym is about 20-25 minutes away. I live out in the boonies. The reason I use that gym is it’s conveniently close to where I work, but I haven’t worked the past few days. I’ll get back on track tomorrow. Hopefully, my foot will be well enough to walk on the treadmill today.

How did the rest of you do last week?

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Fitness Friday – Back on Track!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 28, 2013| 8 Comments »

Finally! My plateau seems to be over, at least for now. I’ve been struggling with the same 2-3 lbs., going up and down, up and down, until I thought my head was going to explode. It would have been easy to just quit, believing that my workouts weren’t doing any good, my change in habits not helping. But I kept on even when I was feeling a little discouraged. Because you know what? Things would have been a whole lot worse if I went back to my old habits. And the perseverance has paid off. I was happy when I got back down to my lowest weight. So I was even happier when I saw, this morning, that I had lost even more. So this is a lesson to all of us. Don’t give up. Don’t think a plateau means you’ve stopped losing weight. Maybe it’s just your body resting for a bit. If you do hit a plateau, you can sometimes get past it by eating things a little differently. For instance, you can cut down on carbs and eat more protein. Or you can do exactly the opposite, cut down on protein and eat more carbs. Change which veggies and fruits you eat. Drink more water. Just do something DIFFERENT. This has always helped the Weight Watchers members I taught when I worked there. But the most important thing is to not get discouraged. If you continue to expend more calories than you take it (unless you’re eating too LITTLE and your body thinks you’re starving it), you’ll eventually lose the weight.

I also want to invite all of you to comment here about your own weight loss/healthy living struggles. I do want to encourage anyone who needs it. Sometimes just putting it out there and sharing with others helps. So every Friday, when I post Fitness Friday, feel free to share your own stories in the comments. Let’s do this thing together, okay?

I haven’t been sharing stats since my weight has been all over the place and wouldn’t settle down. But I’m back to sharing now. So here it is.

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 169
This week’s loss: 2.5 lbs.
Total loss: 24 lbs.

P.S. Update on my dogs. My old dog, Chipper came back yesterday, and he’s still home. However, Duke did not come back. We looked again at his broken harness, and both hubby and I determined that it HAD been cut. So someone must had tried to steal him that night and just couldn’t get hold of him, and it might be those same people that have him now, although there’s no way to know. We’ve canvassed the neighborhood, and no one will claim to have seen him. 😦

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Fitness Friday…And Other Stuff

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 21, 2013| 14 Comments »

Weight loss can be so frustrating. I’m continuing to work out with weights four days a week. I added an extra five lbs. to some of the machines yesterday, so that was cool. I’ve been walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes in the mornings. I WAS walking about 45 minutes in the evenings, too, but my foot has been acting up again. It’s usually better in the mornings, but by the afternoon, it’s hurting too much to walk. This is a chronic problem and usually goes away on it’s own in about three days. I’m also eating less and TRYING to eat better, although eating better is a slow going thing. But I’m STILL not losing weight, even with all these changes I’m making. I sticking right at the 172 mark. The scale goes up and down all week, only to settle at 172 on Fridays. Maybe I’ve just hit a natural plateau since I lost so steadily for the first 21 lbs. I saw this happen a lot at Weight Watchers when I worked there. I’m not giving up. I know it has to come off eventually. If you expend more calories than you take it, you have to lose weight, right? I just need to make sure I’m eating ENOUGH. If you don’t eat enough calories, you body thinks you’re starving it and hangs on to fat. I’ve seen this happen, so I know it’s true.

Some pretty good news. Most of you know I was upset because hubby got disqualified from a great paying position in the company he works for due to some *#&$*&#$’s who have a beef with him. And then they put him on second shift on an entry level job with low pay. Well, apparently, human resources (I expect there was some help from the union) said they couldn’t do that. So, even though he couldn’t have the premium job back, they had to let him choose from three different jobs in the plant. Now here’s where I can show you what a decent human being my husband is. There was one day shift job he could have taken, but he would have bumped several people out of their jobs into other jobs, which would have made them unhappy. So my husband took a job where there was actually an opening. He’s going to be back on third shift (YAY!) and making about the same as he was before he got that better job. Thanks to all of you who sent good thoughts and prayers our way. 🙂

I actually wrote on my WIP last night…the first time in over a month.

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Fitness Friday – Still Working Things Out

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 14, 2013| 2 Comments »

This week has been so hectic with Vacation Bible School. My usual schedule is to work out during lunch 4 days a week at the gym, alternating arm work and leg work. Today is arm day. I HATE arm day. I feel like such a wimp. I LOVE leg day. I feel more powerful on leg day. Anyway, I usually walk on the treadmill at home in the evenings for about 45 minutes (long enough to watch a show on Netflix). With this hectic week, I’ve skipped two days of walking. By the time I get home, and get stuff done, it’s 9:30, and that’s way too late to walk if I plan on getting any sleep. So I’ve been walking about 10 minutes in the mornings to make up a little of it. I actually RAN for one minute of the 10 this morning. My legs didn’t like it. LOL

I mentioned last week that I had gained 6 lbs. My weight has gone up and down all week long. I learned in my 15 years experience at Weight Watchers, that it’s not good to weigh every day while losing weight. Once a week is best. But I just had to know what was going on with my weight. This morning, I was back down to within 1/2 lb. of my lowest weight, so I’m back on track. I would REALLY like to get down into the 160’s next week. *crosses fingers*

Okay…time to go work out those arms! Ugh.

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Fitness Friday – Whaaaaat?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 7, 2013| 10 Comments »

Yeah, that was me totally freaking out when I got on the scale this morning. I knew I had gained a couple of lbs. on vacation…you know, all the lying around on the beach, no exercise, eating more than usual. I had weighed a couple of days after I got back. No big deal, right? But when I weighed this morning, I had gained a total of SIX lbs. What the heck?

Okay, breathe, Lauralynn. This week I REALLY worked out with weights. I pushed myself more than usual. I walked on the treadmill at home every night but one, for 45-50 minutes (long enough to watch a show on Netflix). Remember a while back when I talked about how your muscles actually filled with water when you first start working out? Oh, how I hope that’s what happened. A weight gain that fast makes no sense, otherwise. I’ve exercised more this week than I have in YEARS. That’s got to be it, right? Can you tell I’m still freaking out?

I will NOT cry. I just need to keep exercising, keep eating like I should, and the weight should start coming off. My clothes don’t feel tighter, so that’s a relief. This, too, shall pass.

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Fitness Friday – Fitting in Exercise

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 1, 2013| 14 Comments »

It’s so hard to fit exercise into our routines. Something always seems to come up. Like on Monday. I’ve been eating lunch about 11:00 to 11:30 at my desk, then going to exercise at the gym at about 1:30 or so. But on Monday, the day got crazy. I had to work right through my exercise time because I was trying to find out where the truck was that had my customer’s shipment. I had to sit here waiting on phone calls and emails. By 4:00, there wasn’t much sense in going because my office would have been closed when I got back. So I’ve started exercising after work. The biggest problem with that is my car wants so badly to point toward home after a hard day at the office. And this time of year, they are all hard days. Plus, my feet seem to hurt worse this time of day. What to do??? I’ve just got to find the best time to exercise and do it. And maybe be flexible enough so that I don’t HAVE to do it the same time every day. What do YOU do for exercise, and when?

Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 180
This week’s loss: 2 lbs.
Total loss: 13 lbs.

Do I get a sticker?

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Wednesday Update 11/7/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 7, 2012| 13 Comments »

This week is starting off a little better. Monday, I only wrote 361 words, but last night I managed 505. I’m still not sure how to fill in the blanks on this story. It might end up being a novella instead of a novel. I’ve been trying to write novels instead of being the queen of novellas, but this one may not make it. We’ll see. It will be as long as it wants to be.

I went to the gym Monday and Tuesday, doing cardio only. As I posted earlier, I’m going to focus on cardio this week and then see how it goes with weight work. When I go at lunch, there’s a time constraint, so I might have to change the times of my workouts.

How are ya’ll doing? (Yes, I’m from the south.)

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Changing my Workout Strategy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

There are many reasons people work out. Looks, health, strength, etc. For me, it’s about health first, then looks. My original workout strategy was to work out with weights, legs on Monday and Thursday, arms on Tuesday and Friday. Some weeks I did okay, some not. If I had to skip a workout, I would work both arms AND legs the next day. My plan for cardio was to walk on the treadmill at home. Well, there has been no walking on the treadmill. You know how it is…when you’re at home, there are so many other things to do.

So here’s my new plan. I’m going to start doing cardio at the gym. They have state of the art treadmills, better than the ones at the bigger gym where I used to be a member. They actually have COMFORTABLE places to put your hands when you’re walking. The reason I want to focus on cardio for a bit is that my blood pressure has been high and, historically, cardio exercise has brought it back down with no medication. Then I’m going to start adding weight work back. I have a friend who won a month at this gym, so I would have to go in the evenings instead of at lunch if I go with her. Which makes me think…I could do some cardio at lunch and go back for weight work in the evenings. Maybe….

Another thing I’ve started doing is keeping an exercise journal so I’ll know exactly where I’m improving. Longer times and faster speeds on the treadmill. Heavier weights or more sets on weight work. I think this will help me stay on track, too.

So what about you? What are you doing to take care of your health? Do you have health issues that exercise would help with?

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