I was not a very athletic person as I was growing up. Never played sports, hated PE class, unless we were playing volleyball and took the bus no matter the distance , even if I could have walked it faster.
As time went on, and I "matured", I started dabbling in working out here and there , but never really committing myself for the long haul and would loose interest just as fast as I gained it.
All of this lead to my weight and my clothing size doing a yo-yo action over the years. Which, as we all know, is not the greatest for a person's health and nor does it really do anything for your self esteem.
After each baby, and we have 5, I would tell myself that I was going to start working out and eating right ,so I would loose the baby" fat" that I still had and that in doing this I was showing my kids how to live a healthy life and, also, making sure that I was going to be around for them as they got older.
I would stick to this for maybe 6 months and then I would be right back to eating the same way and not making time, but excuses, for the gym.
This went on for a very long period of time, years to be truthful.
Then when I was diagnosed with Crohns in 1998, I took a long and hard look at the way I was eating and made necessary, life changing adjustments that I have kept , till even today.
But, I still was not making the time for exercise.
So I continued on the weight loss/gain train and learned to keep, at least, 3 sizes in my closet at all times, so that I would not need to spend money on a new wardrobe each time my weight fluctuated in either direction.
Fast forward to 2010, after I have had baby #4 and GI Joe leaves for Ga. for 3 months, I suddenly find myself with more time and less people to take care of and a membership to a well known gym. I start taking class 3x a week, discovered I enjoyed running and so I would run on 3 other days of the week and lift weights right after , with only Sunday as my day off.
I felt so great, both mentally and physically and I actually liked myself, which was a major first for me. I vowed that when GI Joe came home and we moved to Fort Polk that I would continue working out and taking the time for myself that I needed, no matter what. That he WAS going to understand and would actually have the time to sit with the kids after he got home from work while I rush off to the gym.
Yeah, that lasted for all of about 5 seconds.
The Army has away of becoming , what some wives jokingly call, the "other woman" or the " mistress" of the soldier and it happens right under your nose and by the time you realize this it is to late. And so my 6 days a week work out schedule did a step down routine, 5, 4, 3, 2 till finally I was lucky if I was getting to the gym 1 day a week or even a walk around the track.
This went on for awhile then one night I saw an infomercial for Turbo Jam and really liked what I saw so I bought the dvds and committed to working out at home before Sasha and Gabriel got up or GI Joe home from PT in the morning. And I LOVED IT!!!
Then I became pregnant with baby #5, aka Ian :), and made the necessary adjustments to my work outs and kept on working out all the way through my pregnancy.
But, did not find it so easy to pick up where I left off after I waited the 6 weeks post baby to start working out again. Life with a new baby, 2 other children and a deployed husband does not leave a lot of time for working out or anything else for that matter. I did not find my work out "grove" till Ian was almost 5 months, and decided to buy chalean extreme and Turbo Fire then I started my 20 week transformation to a leaner, stronger and healthier ME!!!
After GI Joe came home I started noticing that I did not have all the extra time that I had had while he was deployed and so I would skip my work outs here and there , until finally I was not working out at all , but still eating like I was so all the weight that I had lost I was not so slowly gaining .
Until I am now at the same weight that I was a month after having Ian, who is now about to be 17 months old and not really liking myself to much these days. Finding that I would rather not leave my house because finding something to wear is a very low feeling experience for me.
Then the other day a friend of mine from back home, Jackie D., posted on her FB page about doing a couch to 5k, I had never heard of this so I looked it up and became very intrigued. I mean after all I had been a runner , in my previous life, and I enjoyed running , so why could I not do this too??. I could only come up with one reason; I am here in La and Jackie is in Tx. Well that was not a deterrent for Jackie she did not see that as a reason to not train "with her" , what's a few hundred miles :).
She set the start date as July 23 for our 9 week couch to 5k program, but I wanted to do something , like NOW.
So I sat down and made a list of all the workouts that I enjoy;
running
eliptical
Kick Boxing
weight lifting
power walking
Pilates
and set my mind to coming up with a routine that I know I would want to stick with, that I wont get so easily bored with and that will help me to , not only, loose a few pounds before I start my couch to 5k plan with Jackie, but would, also, help me to gain back some of the self confidence that I have lost.
I decided that I will do some sort of cardio on M,W and F, weight lifting and core training on T and Th and Pilates on Sunday. I have chosen to not set a certain time frame every day to work out, even though it is recommended that you do , because I have noticed that my days change from day to day and that I need to be flexible with all my time and available for my family when I am needed, even if that means that I have to work out at 4p and race home to shower and cook dinner with GI Joe, at least I have done my work out and made the ME time that I need.
5k HERE I COME!!!!
On Tuesday I started my "routine"
Tues. was Lean 1 dvd from Chalene Extreme
Wend. I went to the gym and did an elliptical /treadmill combo workout, going for distance not calorie count or pace.
15 min on the elliptical, which included a 5 min warm up ( total distance 1.08 miles)
10 min power walk on the treadmill ( did a 4.0 pace)
5 min run ( did a 5.5 pace)
10 min alternating 1min run followed by a 1 min power walk ( my run was at 6.5 and power walk 4.1)
( total distance on treadmill was 2.98 miles)
10 min elliptical , which included 3 min cool down ( total .75 miles)
over all I covered 4.81 miles
Needless to say I was very sweaty and red faced when I left the gym on Tues and still sore from weigh lifting on Monday. But, I felt GREAT!!!
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