PIVOT!

My Fitbit goal is 10,000 steps a day. Some days that’s hard to reach when you’re sitting at a computer on meetings for 8-9 hours. But I’ve been crushing it this week. I had 56,994 steps Sunday-Tuesday. Yesterday, I wanted to take it over 20K. My arms were pretty sore when I woke up from various H.I.I.T, kickboxing and Tabata workouts I’d been doing the last couple days so I decided I’d take my new Asics to the gym and do a 5K on the treadmill.

I know new shoes aren’t always like walking on a cloud but this was terrible. I only lasted 30 minutes and I had to jump off. I went into the locker room and my heels were raw and red. Say what? I always buy Asics for my workout shoes. It’s the only shoe I’ll work out in. It hurt so bad I took them off in the car and walked across the driveway and into the house in my socks, even though it was 35 degrees and drizzling out. I’ll spare you the pictures of the nasty blisters that formed in the next few hours.

Anyway, I got some stuff done around the house and went in the kitchen to make dinner. My plan was to warm up a hamburger I had grilled the night before and to make some sweet potato fries. But alas, my sweet potato had gone bad. So asparagus and roasted carrots in the air fryer to the rescue.

When I finished dinner I started flipping through Youtube and different workout channels on my Roku trying to figure out what I was going to do to make up for the treadmill 5K that I couldn’t complete. I bet I flipped past 70-80 different workouts in that 15 minutes. Nothing sounded good. It was beginning to stress me out. For once, I listened to my achy, tired body and laid on the couch. I turned on some music and just laid there breathing and listening to music and not thinking about much of anything else. And apparently, I fell asleep.

I woke up on the couch at 7:30 and do you know which workout I ended up doing? NONE! I worked on a project for my friend’s birthday. I reminded myself that my step goal was 10K and I was over 16K. I told myself this is a marathon, not a race. There is no actual prize if I win the Fitbit challenge for steps every day, besides my foolish pride and competitive nature. My body needed a night to recover. So I did a 10 minute stretch before bed, barefoot, and called it a day. And that’s A-O-K!!

Days don’t always go the way we plan them. Meetings get moved. Tiny work crisis’s pop up out of nowhere and demand your attention. Workout intentions get foiled. Your body fights back. Food goes bad. Friends or family call and need to talk. But we’ve gotta roll with it. We gotta be flexible. We gotta pivot. Give yourself some grace. Get up the next day and give it your best. That’s all.

P.S. I hope someone reading this saw "pivot" and thought of the Friends episode when Ross buys the couch and is trying to move it up the stairs. 😄

It's a man's world? Oh please.

So I guess I was pretty active last week. I think it was the joy of the sunshine and 70 degree temps. Yes, it snowed again yesterday but I'm totally trying to block that out of my memory.  I finally broke 100,000 steps for a week and it felt great!

What's even better about it? Kara and Melody are breathing down my neck and bringing their best step game as well. They are neck in neck and closing in on me with a vengeance! I love it! I'm going to have to be super focused the rest of this week if I want to come in first again.  I leave for C-town tomorrow after work and will be home for 5 days.  Yes, 5 days in my danger zone.  Thursday I'll be sitting at Mayo Clinic all day with the family.  Maybe I can walk some laps on the hour? Friday is open so I can go up to the fitness center in town or hit the trails if it's nice.  Saturday and Sunday we have Easter at each of the Grandma's and we are also squeezing in a birthday party for Michael and maybe a dinner with my favorite preggo cousin, BT. It will be a busy few days, surrounded by tasty but terrible food choices and I will be out of my element.  I won't be doing my lunch walks with Melody or my nightly workout routines at the YMCA. I am packing some snacks and my vitamins to take with me. I will try desperately to get in at least 10,000 steps every day and just do the best I can on food choices.  That's all a girl can do.

Speaking of being a girl...I've noticed when it comes to the basketball court at the Y, it's a man's world.  One of the front desk workers commented the other night how I am often the only female in the gym shooting hoops.  She said it like it would bother her and could possibly be the reason that more women aren't in there. It doesn't phase me at all.  I'm surrounded by adolescent boys and sweaty men trying to relive their glory days in a pick up game with their buddies.  More than once they've tried to "run me off the court" but I always stand my ground. There's 6 hoops in here people, you can play on the other 5.  I just need my one. And if you ever want to play me for my hoop, bring it on. I can play horse with the best of them and love some competition.  I appreciate my parents raising me to be blind to societies idea of gender roles not only in sports, but in life. There is not much of anything you can tell me I can't do because I'm a woman.  Except pee standing up. I've tried it, it's not for me.  Men, I will give you that one. I wish the lady at the front desk and more females would come in and play in the gym.  And I love seeing when young girls come in once and awhile with their friends.  I always make sure to encourage their good shots or hustle.  But most days I just put on my headphones and ignore the testosterone that surrounds me. I'm not there to socialize. I'm there to get my sweat on and sink basket after basket and find my happy meditation zone.

Steps, superbowl and upcoming events

Well, I won last week’s step challenge…barely! These ladies are really “stepping up” their game.  And I had two days where steps weren’t quite to 10,000.  When you’re in a car for 7 hours it’s tough to get steps! So far for this week I’m in 3^rd place so I gotta get moving.  My 17,633 steps yesterday should’ve helped but I will have to keep my numbers high all week.  Only 3000 steps separate the three of us so it’s anybody’s game. 

Sunday night a bunch of our friends and kiddos came over to the watch the Superbowl.  Since that was a boring blowout we ended up talking in the dining room with the TV merely on for background noise. I had went to the gym in the morning because I knew it was going to be a crazy day. So thankful I did.  I barely cleared my 10,000 steps for the day.  And we spent part of our time walking back and forth in the kitchen to get our steps together.  Ha! I love my friends.  They are awesome.  Everyone else was looking at us like we were lunatics but, hey, that’s not breaking news at all.  Snacks and tempting food were abundant at the party.  I tried to be as good as I could but I did find myself grazing time and again.  Grr.  Although, it appears I could’ve just licked a salt block all night because man, was I swollen on Monday.  Still retaining some serious water today yet.  Yikes! At least all the birthday cake is finally out of the house! That should help.  Oh how I love me some Costco sheet cake.

I’m hoping the snow storm that has begun doesn’t end up cancelling pool class tonight.  Looking forward to some tabata in the pool and then kickboxing tabata when I get home.  A friend sent me an at home workout she tried that looks really interesting.  She did it up the ladder and back down.  1-12 and 12-1. Props to you, AW!! That’s awesome! I’m going to give it a try soon and thought I would share it in case anyone else is looking to shake things up a bit. 

Only 20 weeks until we go to Vegas and I will definitely be rocking a swimsuit at the pool at the end of June. Plus, my 20 year, no, that’s not a typo, my 20 year class reunion is this year as well.  Gulp.  When the hell did I get so old?  Anyway, two big events to keep me on track to my goals. Let’s shock the crap out of some people I haven’t seen in a while.  

A stellar week!

Our step competition has really got me focused and on the ball.  I love it.  I won this week’s challenge by logging 84,212 steps! That’s an average of 5.25 miles a day.  I had one day that I walked 8.12 miles.  Yes, I’m patting myself on the back a bit here but I’m really proud of myself.  It’s going in my victory journal.  Last week I walked a total of 36.78 miles.  If I average 35 miles a week that would be 1820 miles in a year and would definitely get me to Los Angeles (1700 miles away).  Hopefully each week I can get my mileage number to rise higher and higher.  Pair that with pool class and my tabata kick boxing and hooray for losing 5 pounds this week.  Wrestling will be done for the boys in March which means I will have my nights back to do my workouts instead of finding workouts to do while I wait for them to get done with practice.  Yippee!

I have a goal weight in mind by February 6^th and I’m working hard to get to it.  I have the magic number plastered in important places where I will see it constantly.  I’m not going to be obsessed or upset if I don’t hit it and spiral into a fit of depression but it would be a super cool milestone so I’m trying with all my might.  This weekend wasn’t easy. I was surrounded by temptation at every turn.  Pizza, breadsticks, wings, birthday cake galore…but I came through pretty well and just keep plugging away.  High protein, low carbs, wise choices, portion control.  All keys to success and part of my 2014 resolutions.  I hope your resolutions are still in play and you are working to make this a wonderful year.  And if you fell off the wagon, it’s ok.  Just climb back on.  Don’t wait until Monday or next month or the summer.  Do it now.  You will be glad you did.  Every day is a new chance.