Wednesday workout

This morning I did the elliptical for 65 minutes, using the intervals program to switch things around a bit. It was a nice change of pace!

Yesterday I stopped by the Rice Diet Clinic, and was able to see my first face shot, and then a follow-up taken a couple weeks ago. I was really encouraged by the difference in my face and neck. :)

Melissa, a friend of mine, joined me for dinner at the Rice House last night. It was such a treat to catch up with her!

This morning's workout & low blood pressure

I did 60 minutes on the elliptical this morning, a moderate workout. I was feeling a on the low side (88/52), even for me.

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here in Durham. Hope I can get outside for a walk sometime during the workday. I often feel refreshed when I do.

New week of training

Had a good weekend of exercise, with a walk around the cross country trail Saturday afternoon (beautiful weather for it!) and 60 minutes on the elliptical machine yesterday.

This morning I did 5 minutes on the treadmill and 65 minutes on the elliptical. I have a strong feeling about this being a fresh week on several fronts, including exercise and diet.

Slightly harder workout

I did another 60 minutes on the elliptical machine today, a little harder than yesterday, as I burned 637 calories--according to the machine, and went 4.5 miles.

Lately I've discovered a whole new wardrobe of t-shirts, ones that I got at various events, but that I couldn't fit into at the time. A fair number of those events offered XXL as their biggest t-shirt size, but I took them anyway, thinking, "One day I'll be able to wear this!" The day has finally arrived! I should get rid of the 3Xs now, but it's hard to get rid of a big, comfy t-shirt!

Lighter workout

I was tired this morning, so I did a lighter hour on the elliptical this morning, only burning 605 calories. Glad I did the whole hour, though I felt a little wimpy for taking it easy. I'm still kinda tired, the achy kind of tired, though, so I needed to listen to my body.

George and I have a date night at the gym planned for tonight, and I'll probably do some strength training then.

Another goal hit!

I did another 65 minutes on the elliptical machine this morning, and hit 5 miles exactly! In a bit of a numbers coincidence, that translated into 7333 strides, and 722.2 calories.

Earlier this week, I asked one of the nurses at the Rice Diet to check my resting heart rate, and it's down to 56! When I started the Rice Diet back in August, it was 70, and more recently, it was 60.

This morning, one of the nurses and I were talking about how maintaining the diet and exercise regimen is hard at times, but that it's a choice I'm making. I could let the diabetes win out, but then losing my feet, my vision, or kidneys to complications from diabetes would be even harder, in my opinion.

Another milestone

This morning I did another hearty workout on the elliptical for 65 minutes, for 4.94 miles. I'm inching my way toward 5 miles.

At the Rice House this morning, I got the okay to stop checking my blood sugars before each meal! Yippee! I'll still keep the monitor around, of course, but I'm excited to be able to give my fingers a rest.

Workout update

Both Saturday and yesteday, I did pretty vigorous workouts of 65 minutes each on the elliptical, Saturday at the Duke Fitness Center, and yesterday at Peak Fitness. I think the machines might be callibrated a little differently, as Saturday I almost hit my 5 mile goal, finishing at 4.98 miles! Yesterday I was back at 4.91 miles, and they seemed like similar workouts.

Today I slept in a little, so only did a 50 minute workout on the elliptical. I'm a little sore for the hard workouts lately, so my body probably appreciated the small break to heal.

Taking it up a notch

This morning, I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, then a hard 65 minutes on the elliptical. I burned 706.9 calories and went 4.80 miles. I'm feeling a little tired now and wishing I could take a 30-minute nap, but work calls!

Several people have mentioned my weight loss this week, most of whom told me I look pretty. It's made me wonder, did I not look pretty before? Surely part of it is that I feel and look healthier, and I carry myself differently. One co-worker told me about another acquaintance of hers who lost a lot of weight and how her face looked very different. She finally figured out that one of the nicely different things was that she could see this person's eyes better. I thought that was an interesting observation.

New 5K

I signed up for another 5K yesterday, the Run for the Oaks, on March 17 in Raleigh. Proceeds will go to help plant trees around the city, which is a cause with a different twist. The route is in the same area as the race I participated in back in October, and it's a pretty fast course. I'm looking forward to it!

Overslept this morning

I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I woke up naturally at 6 AM, rather than my normal 5:00. I almost took it easy this morning and give myself the morning off from exercise, but I decided to hop into my workout clothes and get whatever exercise in that I could. I managed a 30 minute stint on the elliptical, which felt good. I missed getting the whole 60-minute sweat in, but I do feel really good for getting the extra sleep.

Calorie goal hit!

A couple days ago, I got close to 700 calories burned on the elliptical, and was hoping to stretch for 700 calories burned soon. Well, today I hit the 705 calories burned mark in 65 minutes! Yay! I'm a little tired now, and wish I could stretch out for a short nap even, but am at work and can't do the nap thing. Oh well, good for the stamina! In this morning's workout I went 4.89 miles, so my next goal will be to hit 5 miles.

More exercise

Last night George and I went to the gym together and walked around the indoor track for about half an hour, then got into the pool and hot tub. :) It was fun to get some exercise and then some R&R and catch up at the same time. Between the walk and yesterday morning's hard workout, I'm still a little weary, so I took it a little easy this morning and did a 45 minute workout on the elliptical.

At the Rice House this morning, I met someone who's come all the way from Alaska to do the Rice Diet! Wow! :)

Hard workout!

This morning I spent 65 minutes on the elliptical, and really booked it, burning 690 calories in that time. I kicked the resistance up through 6->7-> 8, and still felt strong, which surprised me. I am tired now, though, and have a full day of work ahead. One of my new goals is to burn 700 calories on the ellliptical machine.

I had my iPod back in action this morning, which helped a lot! It was doing wierd things, so I finally took the time to go through my iPod and iTunes for Dummies book and learned how to reset the iPod. I was happy to find that doing that solved the problem! :-)

Friday workout

I made it through an hour on the elliptical machine this morning, kinda surprised myself, as I'm feeling droopy here at the end of the week. Part of what got me through was that I didn't think I'd have time to take any walk breaks today at work--busy day today! I did change the resistance a bit too, moving it up to 7 after about five minutes of warmup, then moving it up to 8 for the last ten minutes or so.

I hope to make it back the gym for an afternoon or evening workout this weekend, would love to spend some time in the hot tub.

Update: I did make it outside for a 15 minute walk around the Quad this afternoon. Brrr, it's cold outside!!

Hour-long workout and snacking opportunities

This morning I got back to an hour on the elliptical machine! It felt good, and I was surprised, since I had a Junior League meeting last night and didn't get to bed til nearly midnight (so I was tired!).

Okay, okay, so it wasn't totally the meeting's fault that I was up late. The Duke-UNC basketball game didn't start until 9:00, and the game was on TV, so I stayed up watching it. Duke was ahead for most of the game, so I was psyched to watch a Duke win, but they let it slip away, and Carolina stayed the course. Bummer.

By the way, survived the eating table at the Junior League meeting, and I even took one of my favorite things, homemade pimento cheese (and crackers to put it on). I did have three pieces of celery (no pimento cheese on them, either!), but no harm done when I got on the scales this morning. (Big surprise!) I did more socializing with a glass of water in my hand. I couldn't compliment anyone on how good their dish tasted, but I was able to find other things to talk about! :-)

I felt like snacking during the basketball game on TV (old habit) and after the loss (to feel better), but passed. This morning I felt better for skipping the late night snacking.

Early morning at the gym

This morning I did 45 intense minutes on the elliptical, was a great workout. I was inspired by a regular there at the gym who commented that she noticed I'd lost some weight. I told her about the Rice Diet, and she said she actually used to work security there years ago! Small world.

I made it out to the Quad for a 15 minute walk this afternoon to round out an hour of exercise for the day. What a beautiful afternoon! It's still nippy, but a big improvement temperature-wise over the past couple of days!

Short workout

This morning, I only spent 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. George and I had a covenant group meeting last night, so I ended up getting to bed later. :-( I hate using lack of sleep as an excuse, but I'm trying to listen to my body, and still find it hard to get to bed at a decent hour when I have meetings after work. Add to the mix the fact that I'm no longer depending on caffeine to keep me awake at work. *sigh*

My fasting blood sugar was 110 this morning, even with the exercise (would more have helped?) and being down on the scales this morning. I may have to go back on metformin. We'll see how my blood sugar readings go for the rest of the day.

Morning workouts

George and I worked out together yesterday morning at the gym, though I did all cardio on the elliptical and he got on the weight machines after a short cardio session. This morning I did a hard 45 minutes on the elliptical, so I decided to make it a little shorter in time.

This will be my first full day off metformin! Dr. Neelon stopped by my breakfast table at the Rice House yesterday and told me not to take any more metformin and we'll see how it goes. I'm excited about the prospect of being off the diabetes medication! I certainly weigh less than I did when I was diagnosed with diabetes.

Morning walk

I decided to walk outside on this cold morning, so I headed over to the cross country trail about a quarter to 8. Since it was so cold, I picked up the pace and finished in just under an hour, so I walked around in the parking lot to get an hour of exercise in. ;-)

Good night's sleep

I went to bed early last night, and it's amazing how much better I feel today! Wow! I got back up to 65 minutes on the elliptical machine this morning, and that felt good too!

I was excited to find out yesterday that my hemaglobin A1c is down to 5.6! It's down from 10.9 last July.

Last night I finished reading The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde, and started reading The New Psycho-Cybernetics, a book my sis gave me for Christmas. I remember the tennis coach at my high school having her team members read the original, and the team was quite good. I had the same coach for a PE class, and thought she was a neat lady. Anyway, I think the book will be a really good one for me to read, with the diet and exercise program I'm on. Bet I'll be writing more about it soon!