Trying New Things

I have been so encouraged by the people who have reached out to me as they've read this silly little blog.  People I haven't talked to in ages have sent me messages.  I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate it.  Cause this thing is hard.  I'm getting a better sense of that the more I hear from you guys.  I've learned that we all want to do better, and we all need more support.  I hope this can be an outlet for that.  A couple of people have given me tips and ideas about how to be more successful.  Please know those are always welcome.  If I knew what I was doing, I would be the average sized friend, not the fat friend.  I'm open to trying anything.  Eating what I want and not exercising except for chasing kids is not the best method, I've learned.  So this first effort is a combination of what two people have suggested.

My day started crazy early today.  The husband had to leave for work while it was still dark out today, so of course I woke up.  I'm talking there was a five still on the clock.  I'm a morning person for the most part, but when it's still dark, that is not morning.  And the kids were all still asleep so the motivation was lacking.  After not moving for a few minutes, I realized I would not be going back to sleep.  I managed to talk myself into getting up and going to the elliptical.  The first Jimmy Smits episode of Sons of Anarchy helped get me going.  I'm trying not to let myself watch unless I'm actually doing something at the same time, and I REALLY wanted to watch.  I managed to do three miles before I thought I'd collapse.

Here's where the new methods come in.  One person I spoke to mentioned that it's not as effective to just do cardio.  i need to mix it up a little.  The problem for me is that I feel like I've accomplished something if there's some sort of screen I can look at that tells me how far I've traveled or how many calories I've burned.  I can't let go of that yet, so I decided to just add other things to it.

Another friend suggested Tabata workouts.  These are short intervals of exercise.  It's alternating 20 seconds of exercise and 10 seconds of rest, repeated four times.  Sounds easy, right?  The nice thing is that you can do it anywhere and it doesn't take long.  I did a 10 minute beginner workout to start.  Ya'll, I know it sounds like that's not much, but I am feeling it.  And it was short enough and fun enough that the kids did it with me.  There are different workouts for different levels.  I found lots of them on Pinterest.  

I'm weighing in tomorrow, but I don't think I'll see a big change this week.  Why can't it be like on The Biggest Loser where they lose like half a person during the first week?  I could use a little high five from the scale to keep me going.  But whatever happens, I do feel better, and that's really the point.