Holidays are hard!

Ok, so I have slightly fallen off track. the holidays are a hard time to try to start a daily exercise schedule. I did four days of the DVD in a row, then skipped day, did it agian, and then skipped a few days. Arrgh! But this is all about self-love so I am going to forgive myself and start again.....tomorrow!

Day 3

Another post after midnight! I have to start going to bed earlier. So, today I did not make it to my group run. My co-parent agreed to come over for an hour while I went but after trudging home from work through the snow and making dinner for the kids I just did not feel like it. I have to make up the run (it was thankfiully just a short one) sometime before Sunday. I did the DVD though and really felt it this time - wow! The side plank move remains the toughest for me. I have to say that Jillian Michaels is pretty hot and I don't even mind being yelled at by her! Not much else to say tonight - too tired.

Tomorrow - day 4 - 6-pack DVD.

Day 2

So, I just finished the 6 week 6-pack dvd and it is midnight!! That is crazy but, hey, I did it. Today was the day that I began the 18 week half marathon clinic. There was also a little snowstorm so the run was short  - about 2 km. It was so nice to be running with a group though. I really need the motivation of running with other people especially in the winter. I am going to try my hardest to complete this running clinic - I have signed up for three others in the past and completed none of them! Completing the running clinic is just as important to me as completing the half marathon. It is really exciting, too, to be sitting with other people all working towards the same goal together but as individuals. I know some people actually race in these runs - as in try to "win" but for most people they are trying to beat individual goals. For me, it will be just finishing. Maybe in the future I will try to beat my own time. As long as I finish this thing, I have won and that is pretty amazing.

I didn't feel much from my dvd workout yesterday, until I coughed. then I felt my ab muscles! I do think that I didn't push myself very much. So this evening I tried to push myself a little harder during the workout. I am also going to try to push myself harder with running. I tend to run at a leisurely pace and I don't really challenge myself. In order to reach these goals, I need to challenege myself a little bit more. I have it in my mind that if all goes well with the half marathon and try a tri I will attempt a marathon in the fall. I am always too ambitious so it is probably a very unrealistic plan but it is good to have something to work towards!

Tomorrow, day 3: the workout dvd and run with my clinic.

Day 1

Today was day one of my 6/18/30 week fitness journey. I did the Jillain Michael's 6 week 6-pack DVD for the first time. It was pretty good - some parts were very hard especially the side plank and I didn't really understand the spider plank. My arms and legs don't coordinate well with each other so I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to do aerobic/fitness moves. hopefully I'll figure it out - I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  I did the DVD after I had put the kids to bed - there isn't a lot of cardio so I'm not worried about thumping on my downstairs neighbour's ceiling (which is a BIG worry of mine with some of my other fitness DVDs). I will be able to do this in the evenings and that is essential for a single mama like myself. I could do the DVD with the kids around but would get interrupted constantly and I also worry about these DVDs affecting my daughter's self-esteem. I don't actually want to introduce either of my children to the idea of getting rid of fat/dieting/etc. To be fair, Jillian mainly talks about getting strong and healthy but there is some fat talk.

My cats were annoying during the workout - one decided to lie right under me while I was doing a side plank - one of the hardest moves! I was trying to get him to move but he was calmly rolling around and stretching. I'm glad I didn't fall over!

The main problem I have with fitness DVDs is that they get boring fast. This one has two workouts - I am supposed to do workout 1 for 3 weeks and then start doing workout 2. Hopefully that will keep away some of the boredom. I mean, I liked it but after 21 days, I will probably find it very repetitive and dull. We'll see.

Day 2 I will do the DVD workout again and I begin week one of my 1/2 marathon running clinic. YAY!

Here's to goals

I have started this blog as a way to inspire and motivate me to meet some fitness goals. My six week fitness goal is to do the new Jillian Michael's DVD 6 week 6-pack. She promises ripped abs in just 6 weeks - we'll see. In 18 weeks I hope to have successfully completed a 1/2 marathon running clinic at the end of which I will hopefully run a 1/2 marathon. My 30 week goal is to successfully complete a try a tri, which is a small, beginner triathlon. My main challenge with the try a tri will be the swimming so I will be training for that over the next 30 weeks.

In my mind, I make time for fitness and see it as an important aspect of my current life. in practice, it always gets pushed aside when life gets too busy. I hope by writing this blog I will push myself to actually carve time out in my life to really take my fitness goals seriously. There are no weight loss goals. In the past I lost a lot of weight but I have not always been able to do so in a self-loving way. I think focusing on weight loss at this point in my life is counter productive to being a strong and healthy person. Instead I am focusing on these (hopefully) fun fitness goals. I want to really make time for exercising. Although in the past weight loss has been the most obvious outcome of exercising, there are so many benefits - most of which are much more important than losing weight such as prevention against tons of diseases and stress reduction. I am going to try to write about fitness without writing about weight-loss, There are too many women obsessing over weight to the point that they (we) drift into body hatred. This blog is not about hating the adult woman body - it is about loving it by treating it well and helping it to be strong and healthy.

This is not just a record of me meeting certain fitness goals but it is also a continuation of a journey I have been on for  few years now - a journey to be a fit person, dare I even say an athlete. I was never an athletic person so this is all new to me. I never would have imagined that I'd be running regularly; that running 10 km would be no big deal. I'm proud of the way that I took control of and changed that aspect of my life. I'm proud of myself and want to bring about even more changes. After reaching these goals my next fitness goal will be a marathon. Maybe I'll start a new blog for that but I'm not going to get ahead of myself

So, my attempt to meet these three goals will begin December 13 and end in mid-June.