Exercising..whats that?

I’m not sure if I've mentioned it before, but my Statistics teacher likes to go on rants while in the middle of class. He likes to talk a lot, is goofy and likes to throw hilarious stories or random thoughts he has in the discussion. Yesterday, as he’s going around checking homework, he stops dead in his tracks and says “whats this thing on my hip?” and pulls a podomiter (I'm too lazy to look up the right spelling for it!) off his hip. He starts to explain that a bunch of people that work at our college each  have one on because they are doing a contest. There are 8 groups with 5 people in each. I think he said its for a month. At the end they will see which group took the most steps and they’ll get a prize or something. It’s a fun way to stay in shape. He was laughing because he said that when he went into the class before ours he also told them about this and when he looked at the screen it said he had already walked 7000 steps. Our class starts at 1pm so at the time he told his other class it had to of been before noon. 7000, crazy! He’s on his feet all day in classes. He asked if he really does walk around that much…the answer? He cant stop waling. He goes back and forth the whole class period. Its quite humorous.

Anyway, because of this contest they are doing and also watching the progress of my bloggy friend Becca who is doing the 30 Miles In 30 Days Challenge, I have decided to start working on my own exercise and also participate

I haven’t always been good at exercising. Back when I was younger we didn't exercise at all and didn't follow good habits. Its something that my parents started to change when I became a teenager  Luckily, I had many friends in the neighbor so we always went out to play which gave me some good exercise but that was basically it. It was something that we chose not to fit into our schedules. Maybe being lazy was part of it. I started dating someone in 2007. This was the worst point, in my opinion, of my weight problem. He wasn't the skinniest and liked to eat and drink beer. Obviously I wasn't a beer drinking or anything but loved to eat. Him and I would go to the mall almost every night and get a box of popcorn from Target..it was the worst habit now that I look back. I know a lot of it was myself not thinking and doing what I wanted but I feel some of it was his influence also. I've learned to not let others eating habits, and even habits in general, influence my life and what I chose to do. Skip to December;  Christmas of 2008, I got Wii Fit as one of my gifts. Let me tell you, that stuff is FUN! We used it every single day. We were able to have fun trying to get the most points or get the best time while also working out and breaking a sweat. Skip to when Brian and I started dating.

After a few months of Brian and I dating, I decided to move in with him, his dad and grandmother. I took the Wii with me. While I loved living there, there wasn't a lot ot do. I lived there until 2010. Brian worked a lot which meant I spent lots of time upstairs in his room watching TV or being on the computer. After awhile, I decided to combine working out while watching TV. One of the games on the Wii is stepping  You choose either 10, 20 or 30 minutes and there's a goal that you have to try to get to. The benefit of this particular game? You can switch the input and watch TV while doing it and the voice that goes along with the game will still speak through the Wii remote. I’d step for 30 minutes while watching a show…brilliant idea! I got to watch great shows and the time went by so fast. Another issue thing that was difficult was that the grocery store was like 20 minutes away. Brian’s grandmother was always so sweet to bring us home food. She worked at one of the stores and was able to shop before coming home from work. Once Brian got off of work we never really felt like going anywhere. We'd go sometimes and get a sald for dinner or something but not to actually shop. The thing was though, I didn't prefer to cook in their kitchen (neither did Brian). This meant that I’d go days just eating fishies and fruits and whatever little snacks his grandmother brought home. I’d eat spaghetti and meatballs, or mac n’ cheese but that was basically it unless Brian’s grandmother actually made chicken or something for dinner. Needless to say, because of the lack of eating and the exercise I lost alot of weight. Maybe 30 pounds. This was a big deal. While I say it was partly the lack of eating, alot of it was actually working out and watching what I ate even if it wasn't alot

This was the only really good picture I could find which shows the weight loss. So, I'm going to make a long story short. Now we are all trying to lose weight again. We love to go on walks. Last summer we went on one like everyday. Now that Spring has finally started to show itself we've already been on 3 walks this week. Bailey is enjoying it too :) Totally sore after but so worth it! The darn winter killed us though. I know, its not winters fault but still. For myself, I wanted to start exercising again but no one wanted to join me. Its harder to do it on your own because then you get distracted but when others are there, especially on the Wii you can have fun at the same time. Brian got a gym membership last year, but I've only been once with him. Shame! I don't even know what I"m doing at the gym. Where do I being and how much do I do? It's something I've been struggling to solve for awhile. I might start going with him again though! I find it humorous that apparently they have free pizza at the gym on the first of every month, does anyone else find that funny? 

A few weeks ago my dad and I started working out downstairs. We have a treadmill and a stepper thing. Its awesome! We put on music and go for about 20 minutes. Every other day we increase the speed and incline so that we don't over do it. My mom and I do a workout routine On Demand which is wonderful but her back was out and now she's sick so I'm waiting until she's fully better to start that again. Progress is being made and I'm SO excited!!

So, I have also decided to do this 30 miles in 30 days as I said above. Because the month is almost half way done I'm going to do 15 miles in 15 days. I'm excited because I know when I see how many miles I've gone each day, it'll be so worth it!! I cant wait to share all the progress with you guys

And because, I cant end a Friday post without letters....

Dear Brian: I really don't want to go to tonight's hockey game, but I will, because I love you!

Dear weather: you make me so mad! I'm pretty sure you should make up your mind. This whole sleet/snow/hail combo thing isnt working well

Dear readers: I just love you all!!

Dear Caroline: Uncle Brian and I are SO beyond excited to come see you in a little over a month! 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!