Exercise – Page 2 – Currently Clueless

Sunburnt and sore

Posted on January 26, 20121 Comment

Just a quick post tonight, we haven’t been home for long and I’m absolutely knackered. Had a very busy Australia Day today. Went to the national park and climbed Stamford Hill (will post pics tomorrow) and then went around to a really nice secluded beach while we were in the national park and went snorkelling, which was a first for me. I spent so long swimming against the current, that I’m sure I burnt a lot of calories, but I have no idea. Funnily climbing the hill and going back down I only burnt 397 calories in total. But it’s all good, I was hiking, the heart rate was going and it was just stunning from the top.

But now, I’m tired and need to go and take some panadol and rub myself with cooling gel to get rid of the sunburn that I also managed to get myself today. Sigh.

Fitness is that you?

Posted on January 24, 20122 Comments

Today’s daily food intake…

I got up this morning after my disastrous attempts yesterday to do my C25K run at the bright and early time of 6.30am. I did briefly consider ignoring the alarm and sleeping for another hour, but two things spurred me on:

1) I really didn’t want to have to say that I failed again, and
2) Mick said to me last night before we went to sleep that he doubted I would get up when my alarm went off and that I would sleep in and not do my morning shuffle (I can’t call it a run or a jog, because all I do is shuffle – in a jog like kind of way).

So with those two things spurring me on, I got up, got dressed, got my phone hooked up – RunKeeper on, music ready and C25K app open and ready. And off I went.

I happen to live in a very gorgeously beautiful town and right next to the ocean, so my track took me along the ocean edge on a walking trail. It was all good up to the point that the trail stopped. Because when the trail stopped, I was faced with beach – sand, lots of sand. I can’t run well at the best of times, trying to run on sand was hell. But I did it and when I got to the end and looked back over where I had come it was so beautiful that I stopped to take a photo.

Now here’s a hint for everyone out there. If you use the C25K app on a HTC Desire and press stop, then go into your camera to take a photo, you may find yourself having to start all over again. Because that’s where I found myself. When I’d finished taking my photos I went to restart C25K, only to find that it had shut down and when I re-opened, it faced me with the start screen!!! No!!! I could not believe that had happened to me. (But on the plus side, take a look at the gorgeous views I had while doing my shuffle…)

It was at that point I could have screamed (if it wasn’t for all the campervans in the area I was standing in, I was a little afraid of the people I’d wake up), so I stomped off, full of huff and fury, leaving the C25K off and trudged home.

So now I have to restart the program from the beginning, but I think I may give it another few weeks before I try again. Between Zumba last night and the shuffle this morning my knees were very tight and swollen feeling today and I think I may have overdone it just a tad. But it’s nothing that a fantastic swim this afternoon didn’t fix up.

Now, speaking of swimming. I started doing laps at the local pool about three weeks ago – going twice a week and swimming, in the beginning, for an hour – doing 40 laps, which equals 1km. And three weeks ago, it took me 58 minutes to do those 40 laps and each lap was a struggle. I couldn’t even do a whole lap of breaststroke, I had to do a bit of a paddle in between. It’s amazing how far I have come in just three weeks.

Tonight I powered through my first 14 laps in just under 15 minutes and pretty much the whole time I was doing breaststroke (well, my version of it anyway – I’m planning on taking adult lessons to learn the proper technique). It was hard and I was damn puffed, but I was amazed at just how quick I did those laps tonight and how many of them were pure breaststroke. It seems that I may just be increasing in my fitness after all. It’s very exciting and it’s definitely keeping me going.

My aim now is to see how many laps I can swim in 60 minutes, rather than how long it takes me to swim 40 laps.

Best laid plans

Posted on January 23, 2012Leave a comment

Today’s daily food intake…

I had all the best intentions of the world in getting up early this morning to go for a walk/run/jog/shuffle and start the C25K app that I download, oh about a million years ago and which has been sitting on my phone doing, well, nothing. However, to actually wake up early, one must set one’s alarm clock so that you don’t sleep till your normal time. And if you do happen to wake up earlier, one should not roll over, look at the clock and then think “hell no, I’ll do it tomorrow”. Which is precisely what I did.

So all the great intentions I had of doing some exercise before I get ready and go to work in the mornings went right out the door (without me). I’m really trying wanting to amp up my exercise and do more than what I am currently doing, so I was planning on doing the C25K app at least three times a week in the mornings before work, hoping to do maybe 4 or 5 days. Now I just need to get my butt out of bed in the mornings and do it. (JFDI)

Which brings me to pre-season task #2 – list our excuses. I’m pretty sure I need to put this down as an excuse, and start working out a way that I’m going to solve it. Because it’s been frustrating me all day. Which for me, is rather strange – Tina, being frustrated by not exercising. That is something new and completely un-Tina-like. Maybe I’m finally starting to grow up and take notice of the things I learn? At nearly 36 years old, that’s not bad…

A strange thing happened today

Posted on January 8, 2012Leave a comment

Today’s daily food intake…

What might that thing be you asked? I exercised. Not so strange you might say, having been reading my blog and the exercise I’ve been doing this week. Well the strange thing about this was that today was my rest day. Sunday’s have always been put down as a rest day, a day when everyone can take a break from the exercise (though really, we could choose any day, so long as we exercised 6 days a week), but I’ve always chosen Sunday’s as my rest day.

But I woke up this morning, and pottered around the house doing a little tidying up and made a nice healthy Tuna salad for Mick and I for lunch, when I convinced Mick to finally set the Wii up again (it’s been sitting in the box since we moved into the house over four months ago). So he set it all up, and I got my balance board out of the box too. I sat there looking at it and looking at the games and yep – I went for the games.

Literally not five minutes into playing Hells Kitchen I got bored, and then I started feeling guilty. Guilty for not exercising. Here I was sitting down playing games when I could get up off my butt and play with the Wii Fit, which is like playing a game, but exercising at the same time. I cannot believe I felt guilt.

Guilt. For not exercising. Me. I promise you, this is a definite first for me. Never have I ever felt guilty for not exercising, even when I’ve blown off the gym for something completely random.

So, there I was in the living room, doing the Wii Fit step games. And funnily enough, I burnt 414 calories. Though truth be told, I’m beginning to wonder if there might be something wrong with my HRM because at one point my heart rate was at 208, and I was barely puffing – I’d think I’d be dead if my heart rate was that high. But hey, a nice tidy 50 odd minutes of exercise and it left me just feeling good, so for that alone, the calories burnt are negligible.

I’m still stunned. But I’m excited too, that maybe, just maybe this time I might actually make a really good go of this 12WBT, because my mindset seems to be shifting ever so slightly over to healthy.

What is wrong with Port Lincoln?

Posted on January 7, 2012Leave a comment

Today’s daily food intake…

Easy answer – there are too many bloody hills! Yes people that’s right. If you come to Port Lincoln, then be prepared for some serious exercise. Today was what is known in the 12WBT universe as Super Saturday Session (or SSS), where you really try and smash out the exercise and burn some serious calories. I knew a couple of days ago that we were going to go for a ride (I’d even managed to get Mick to miss Cricket to do this with me, a bloody amazing feat even if I say so myself) and I’d let Mick decide where we were going to go. I was thinking that maybe doing about 10km would be good. I’d be happy with that.

Nope. 16.91km thank you very much. Mick decided that we would ride along the Parnkalla Trail (or some of it as it’s about 14km in length from one end to the other (28km there and back – HELLO!). Little did I know just how hilly and steep some of the points were. And to say that I’m not the most confident rider is an understatement (read that as – big ‘ole fat coward!), there were times when I was truly crapping myself. Or I would have been if my butt muscles hadn’t been so sore from the bike.

Would I say that riding a bike is my favourite form of exercise? No. But it certainly does help that kilometres add up. I burn more calories riding a bike than I do swimming, but it’s a lot more uncomfortable and hot than swimming. So with each form of exercise, you have to take the good with the bad. On the one hand with swimming, I might not get the best cardio workout (I just can’t seem to push myself in the pool because I get so out of breath and just can’t seem to get my breath back), but I do get some great resistance happening, which I’m sure is helping my muscles along. Plus, in the pool it’s pretty hard to get too hot and sweaty, which I love. But then with cycling I get the great cardio happening and find that I push myself that little bit harder, but I’m not so great with hills and find that I can’t make it up them and have to walk – which is still exercise I suppose. All in all, I’d have to say that both forms of exercise will definitely be staying in my diary, and I think I might mix it up with a little walking and some Zumba. Tonight’s mission is to sit down and diarise my work-out plan for the next couple of weeks.

So all in all, today was a great day. Good, healthy food choices, and lots of exercise. The ride took us 2 hours and 9 minutes, smashed out 16.91km and burnt a fantastic 1265 calories. I’m proud of myself. But please excuse me now, while I go and die *sigh*

6.5km’s down, lots more to go

Posted on January 5, 20122 Comments

Today’s daily food intake…

Well after a very un-eventful afternoon, Mick, Snotface and myself decided to go for a bit of a ride this afternoon. I have to say, that Mick is the most supportive person I have ever known. He quietly let’s me go about and do what I do. If I put weight on, he doesn’t say anything, when I complain about gaining weight, he quietly listens. But when I want to exercise (like going for a bike ride, or a walk etc) and I don’t want to go by myself, he’s right there next to me, making sure that my tyres are pumped up nicely, and that I have enough water in my water bottle, and then planning a route for us to take. I’d truly be lost without him.

But seriously, that wasn’t the point of this post. The point is, we went for a bike ride this evening when Mick got home from work. 51 minutes of hellish torture. I used to be good at this bike riding lark. But it’s been so long since I’ve done it, and I’m so seriously unfit that I just wanted it to end. But yay I managed to last our entire trip. I was hoping for an hour, but the route didn’t take us quite that long so we were home in under an hour. But I still managed to burn 519 calories.

Quick question for anyone out there willing to answer though. I had my iPod with me, with RunKeeper going and the GPS was (supposedly) on, though it wouldn’t calculate our distance at all. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I really don’t want to have to come home all the time and plot my maps on RunKeeper when I can load it up automatically. That takes valuable blogging time away from me – hence the very weak and boring post tonight, I’m knackered.

Update on kilometre challenge: up to 66 likes, and the post is still open for likes for about another 14 hours. Holy hell I’m going to be busy. (And with tonight’s bike ride I only have 61km left to fulfill.)

Second weigh-in for 2012

Posted on January 4, 2012Leave a comment

Today’s daily food intake…

Argh today was not the best day! I woke up feeling all great and ready to face the scales, which I did. Then I wish I hadn’t. I wasn’t expecting a huge loss, but I was expecting a loss. I know from having done the 12WBT program before that you can still lose weight on the program even if you aren’t doing exercise. Not that I would encourage that kind of behaviour, because really, that is going to defeat the purpose of getting a healthy lifestyle happening and, well, you can only keep that up for so long before you won’t lose weight just by eating healthy. But I had been slack and working myself up to get into the exercising.

So I got on the scales and what did I see? A little loss? No. A big loss? No.

A BIG FAT GAIN!!! That’s what I saw. 1.1kg of fat has been added to my body in only two days. I really can’t explain it. I was quite devastated. Here was me coming along with my haha I’ve been great for the last two days attitude and boy did I get kicked in the face. I’m not going to stress about it too much at the moment though. I’m hoping it kinda pans itself out and it’s just part of being a female and all that crap. If there is another gain next Wednesday though, the scales and I will be having some serious words.

I suppose the one good thing that did come out of it though is that it spurred me on to doing some exercise. Well that spurred me on, as well as meeting my new exercise buddy Miss A, who is also going to be doing the 12WBT program. It’s nice to have met someone else new here in Port Lincoln and someone who is going to be doing the same challenge, someone who will get where I’m coming from when I want to pull my hair out or just generally cry. So we met up and had lovely skinny lattes, and chatted, and I got to thinking. All this talk of having an exercise buddy is no good if I don’t actually do any exercise.

So I went home, got my bathers on, strapped on my Heart Rate Monitor, left Snotface at home playing Sims (I tried to get her to come with me to the pool, but she wasn’t interested, and really, how do you convince a 15 year old that they want to go out and do something other than playing on the computer? – No really, HOW?), got in my car and went straight to the pool.

58 minutes and 25 seconds later I had done 42 laps of the pool, which equates to 1km and 50 metres (or 1.05km if you prefer) and had burnt off a nice, healthy 471 calories. I felt so great after having completed it. But by the time I got home, I was knackered. It really has been such a long time since I’ve exercised. I’m almost (almost, not quite) looking forward to doing more. So my plan of attack tomorrow is to get out in the morning, before it gets hot and everyone wakes up and can see me wobbling along, and do a session of the C25K app. I’m a crap runner, have never gotten into it, but always wanted to try. So tomorrow I shall.

And next Wednesday – look out scales, I’m coming to get you!

I have joined NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo!

Posted on November 1, 2010Leave a comment

Well today starts off what I believe will be a very busy month. Not only am I making it my aim to go to the gym at least 21 times, but I have my quilt projects to complete (and start). You would think that would be enough for me but nope, not nearly.

I have joined Nanowrimo and also now NaBloPoMo. So along with lots of sweating and sewing there will also be a lot of writing, some of which I may share with you. But considering I have only ever really written blogs, I’m not that optimistic at having anything worth sharing out of these 50,000 words.

Stay tuned for stressed out Tina.

So many things to do, so little time

Posted on October 31, 2010Leave a comment

So right now I’m working on a few different things. I’m still trying to do the This That quilt test, while trying to find just the right fabrics to make the “official” quilt out of. I’m trying to find three different patterns to make somewhat matching quilts for a mini project – more to come on that later and I’ve become addicted to Mug Rugs. So yes, I have a few plans for them also… So many things to do, and that’s just the quilting.

On top of the quilting projects that I have in the works, I have signed up for Nanowrimo. Every year I have said I would do it, but every year I have chickened out of it, but this year I have bitten the bullet and decided to just go for it. I have a very very vague idea of something I would like to write, but I’m not feeling a whole lot of confidence in that at the moment. But I can officially start writing in 1 hour and 42 minutes – but I think I might go to bed instead 🙂

Back to the gym with me tomorrow. It’s been two weeks since my last visit, and I can feel the tiny bit of fitness I had worked up slipping away each day. Time to get that back and get fitter and slimmer for a January wedding of a friend.

So that’s my life at the moment, what’s happening with you all?

12WBT Day fifty seven – Keeping on track

Posted on August 17, 2010Leave a comment

Not a lot to report on yesterday or today. Have had a nice successful couple of days of eating, though I was very hungry all day yesterday for some reason which I can’t understand. Went to the gym after work and did a BodyCombat class, but was a little bit upset with my performance, because I know that I didn’t put my all into it. I was so severly lacking in energy, but I went and did the class and felt great after having done it. Had a bit of a big dinner yesterday, but just needed food.

Today was the Accelerator Day program, so that meant no carbs. I was actually fine, but I’m actually putting that down to the fact that once again I am sick. So so disappointed, because I was all set to go in and do BodyCombat and BodyPump tonight, but instead I went home early from work and moped, I’m guessing that there will probably be no gym for me tomorrow either, and that just disappoints me even more.

Weigh in day tomorrow and I really have no idea what to expect. There has been some good exercise this week (still not as much as I’d like to be doing) and there was the Triathalon on Saturday, but I still just don’t know. Hopefully there will be a loss, but you just never know. Daily stats are going to have to wait, because I have put my food list down somewhere and can’t remember where, and I feel like crap so I’m going to turn the computer off. They will come later.

Good luck on weigh day tomorrow everyone.