These Mountains Are Mine.: goals

In an effort to keep myself accountable, here's how have I been doing on my August Fitness goals.

August Fitness Goals

Naps limited to 10-15 min

(maybe I'll take one "long" nap on the weekend or something)

Gym 2 times during the week and 1 time on weekend

(can be replaced by other activity like DVD, hiking, etc.)

Smaller portions

Lots of water

No eating out during the week

Take a daily vitamin and Vitamin D

I've been doing pretty well on naps. I have been skipping the nap and going to bed earlier, or at most taking 10-15 min power naps. There have been a couple days where John Paul and I slept for 2 hours midday, but for the most part I'm doing much better. I'm also taking vitamins daily, and eating smaller (usually healthier) portions. We didn't eat out mid-week all month until yesterday (oops) but this is a huge improvement for us (considering that eating out is our favorite activity). I'm not eating as healthy as I should because of money restraints, but it is improving. I'm also drinking a lot less soda. Because of all these tiny changes, I lost 2 lbs in the last two weeks. Not a lot, but at least it's going back the other direction since I was steadily adding a pound or two every few weeks before.

My biggest failure has been with the gym. I've been once this month. Not exactly the 4-6 I was hoping for. This is probably the most important area I need to change and I feel like I should be able to just suck it up and go. But it's the last thing I want to do after working a full day and I'm realistic enough to know that I won't be able to motivate myself to sacrifice extra sleep in the morning to do it beforehand. Plus John Paul isn't really motivated to go with me right now because he's super active at work all day with his new job (He's lost 8 pounds this month just from that alone). On the positive side, I have been stretching a lot and that's very yoga-esque, right?

I've had this post drafted for awhile and recently I noticed that multiple of the other blogs I read had fitness posts! I took it as a sign that it was time to post...

John Paul and I are almost to that "rock bottom" place as far as health and fitness goes. You know, that place where you step on the scale and are so disgusted it launches you into a fit of motivation? We're both "fed up" with feeling tired and not fitting into our clothes...and so "Project Get Skinny" has been initiated. I affectionately named it this because it's blunt/honest. We want to be thin/fit.

Obviously this is more about being healthy than skinny, but I am also tired of girls telling me I'm skinny and treating me like I have an eating disorder when I mention we want to change our diet and exercise. I totally understand that women struggle with self-worth and eating disorders but we can't use that as an excuse to be unhealthy or overeat either which is the direction I have more of a tendency to go. I've always gotten by on a good metabolism but those days are coming to a close. Whether I show it or not I have gained nearly 20 pounds in the last year alone. That is on top of the 15 pounds I gained during college. I think combined with lack of energy this is enough to warrant some diet and exercise changes.

I don't care about the number (weight), mostly I want to tone up and build up endurance/energy. But I do plan to weigh before and periodically to see what my progress is.

Thanks to everyone who gave all the suggestions on my last fitness post. Keep em comin! Especially if you have practical advice like "ways I motivated my butt out of bed in the morning."

I'll tell you what is not an option for me right now: Running.
I've never been a runner, and I quit sports after middle school so my endurance is zero. I think my heart rate gets too high, and I also have knee/ankle issues that seem to surface along with shin splints. I get winded after about 2 minutes of running on a treadmill. It is BAD. One of my long term goals is to run a short marathon, but before I can even start a running routine I need to get into better shape.

Okay so all that rambling (and nothing you haven't heard before) leads me to my practical, tangible goals.