More Walking in My Future!

I'm back--I hope! No, I'm definitely back! I was thinking about starting a new blog about my current fitness and weight loss efforts, but then I remembered this blog, with such a long history! I don't know that I'll ever run again, but I'm definitely on another fitness journey now. I've bookmarked two walkable fun runs in my area, one in September, and another next January. 

In addition to getting more exercise, I restarted WeightWatchers in January, and it's been really helpful! I'm doing their Virtual Workshops via Zoom, and really appreciate that flexibility. I also like WW Connect, WeightWatcher's version on Facebook.I've done WeightWatchers a number of times over the (many) years, but sometimes the time is finally right, ya know?

More Pool Physical Therapy

I went back to pool physical therapy this morning, and had a good workout! I talked with my physical therapist about having 1-mile walks or run/walks as my next fitness goal, and she really liked the idea! She suggested I wait a while, though, since we still have some more physical therapy work to do. I'm still working on my weight too, through Weight Watchers.

More Water Aerobics

George and I did a water aerobics class last night at Gold's Gym, and Kathryn from our Galloway running group joined us! It was another pretty good sized class, not like two weeks ago when I was the only one. I enjoyed knowing one more person in the class, and Kathryn had a nice time chatting in the sauna for a few minutes afterward. I tried the heavier water weights during the class last night, and I can feel it this morning! Not too bad, but I can tell I had a good upper body workout last night. I need more of those, since upper body strength is a weakness of mine right now.

Meanwhile, I've finally started having some success with my latest Weight Watchers venture, down 6.8 pounds on my own scale. I continue to be consistent about weighing myself daily, even when I've gone over the points allowance. I'm not enjoying tracking what I eat and drink, but I think it's helping me be more aware of what I eat, which is a good exercise right now.

Pre-Race Day

It felt good to sleep in my own bed last night, and to go to my regular gym this morning! Vacation was great--don't get me wrong!! But, it's nice to return to my regular routine a bit.

I ended up going a little longer than I meant to on the treadmill, 25 minutes for 2.02 miles at a 1% incline. It felt good to run, but I finally made myself stop! To round things out, I rode on the recumbent bike for 6 minutes and 1.02 miles.

After the workout, I went to the ladies restroom, and low and behold, there was a WIG hanging from one of the hooks! It caught me by surprise, to say the least! :D

From there, I went to Cary to get my Weight Watchers weigh-in for the week in. I usually go to meetings near work during the week, but since I missed this past Wednesday, and that location is on the other side of Durham from where I live, the Cary location turned out to be closer. According to the scales, I'm down 3.2 lbs from my last weigh-in about a week and a half ago! Mind you, this time I was in workout clothes and hadn't eaten anything today, and when I weigh in after work, I'm in work clothes and jewelry, and have had a couple of meals by the time I weigh in. So, probably not much of a difference, really, but okay since I've been on vacation.

Tomorrow's the race I've been working toward for months, the City of Oaks Half Marathon. I'm excited, and pretty nervous! I'm going to the expo in a while, which should be fun. I've never been in a race big enough to have an expo. Wow.

A Little Different

This morning I decided to start with the elliptical machine, and went for 15 minutes and 1.14 miles. Nice change of pace there. After the elliptical, I rode on the recumbent bike for 2.19 miles and 12 minutes. Then I ran on the treadmill for 33 minutes and 2.74 miles (12:02 average pace).

Last evening I went to my second Weight Watchers meeting in a row (yay!) and was glad to post a loss there. There was one lady who had returned to the meeting after some time away. She talked about how she'd eaten a half gallon of ice cream, to which she'd added peanut butter and chocolate sauce. Oddly enough, that sounded really good to me! But she shared that by the end, she didn't even like it anymore. Can see that too. After that, at the end of the meeting, people got various little WW awards, and one lady got her lifetime membership! Now, that's a better "prize" than ice cream, peanut butter AND chocolate! To get to lifetime Weight Watchers membership, she had to hit her goal weight and MAINTAIN it for SIX WEEKS! Now, there's determination!

Morning Walk

This morning I was pretty tired, mostly from yesterday's day trip to Merchants Millpond State Park and other spots between here and there, but perhaps from yesterday morning's workout as well. So, I just decided to walk this morning, and ended up going 2.3 miles in 41:07 minutes. That's a 17:53 average pace, which is pretty good for me, as I've been a slow walker in the past. Being under 20 minutes per mile is an improvement. The marathon training must be paying off! ;-)

I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in this morning, and have dropped 9.2 pounds in two weeks, which is pretty exciting. (I lost 5 lbs the first week, and 4.2 pounds in the past week!) The weigh-in receptionist said if I had another big loss this next week, then we might think about adding a point to my daily total (I'm doing the Flex Plan). I just smiled, but didn't mention that I've had a hard time staying under my points total as it is, but I'm still losing weight. I doubt that'll last for long, and I'll need to be more diligent with the points when my rate of weight loss slows down. Funny thing is, when I logged my new weight on Weight Watchers' eTools this afternoon, the site had me retake the Points Quiz, and it took a point AWAY from me! Ha!

I stopped by REI AGAIN this morning on my way home from WW, and stocked up on energy gels again. They're still having a sale on selected food products, so I decided to try a couple of different flavors of the Hammer Gel, Apple-Cinnamon and Raspberry. I tried them this afternoon, and while they were okay, I still like their Vanilla the best. Of the Gu Gels, I like the Vanilla Bean the best so far, so there is a trend. Ya know, I haven't heard anyone else mention the vanilla, but I've heard folks talk about the chocolate and espresso flavors. I think I'll continue to prefer a lighter flavor for pre/post workouts.

In the Gym

This morning I did 25 minutes on the recumbant bike, then 25 minutes on the elliptical machine. My legs felt pretty good today, after some soreness overnight. Felt really good to work up a sweat, even in the air conditioning. Afterward, I did a bit of upper body strength training, first with a kettlebell, and then with some free weights.

Weight Watchers is going well, all in all, so far. One of the great benefits so far is that I'm drinking more water.

Back in the Gym

After two days of running outside, it felt pretty good to be back in the gym. I did 10 minutes on the recumbant bicycle, my first time on it this workout week. Then I got on the elliptical machine for 35 minutes.

I rejoined Weight Watchers Wednesday evening, so yesterday was my first day of counting points on the Flex Plan. I'm glad to be keeping track of my food now, which will be a good habit to get back into. I signed up for the monthly pass to save money, and it also qualified me for eTools free. So I can keep track of my food and points online on the Weight Watchers website--right up my alley! (Thanks, Beth, for the inspiration!)

I'd gotten back onto the website SparkPeople earlier this week. The food and exercise tracker didn't do it for me, though. And while you get points for doing different activities on the website, they don't get you anything (except for a virtual trophy). With Weight Watchers, you get activity points for exercise to add to your food points total, which is a little more motivation for me.