Back in the Saddle

Okay, I'm pretty much recovered from dengue. Information online says I'll be weak for another week or two, which I can attest to, but I'm so much better. I've been out of the fever/body pain stage for about a week now.

So today I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'm doing it with a friend.

It is hard. I liked it though.

Doing level one, at this point I didn't do everything I'd liked. I'm using liter water bottles as my weights (so 1 kilogram each) and I had to set them down and just lift my arms up for one of the squat thrust circuits. I also pretty much collapsed during the second push-up thing, my arms hurt, but I did some of them, but probably only half I was supposed to for that thirty seconds. And for one of the "jump ropes" (you mime having a jump rope, you don't really have one) I ended up walking in place instead because I felt like if I jumped I'd fall over. Haha. Otherwise I did it, doing the beginner modifications, though I did have to catch my breath three times (she says you can stop to catch your breath, but for no more than five seconds.. I made sure I got back to it before five seconds was up.)

I had the challenge of my wild kittens thinking me doing this was FANTASTIC! They thought it was a fun game. I don't have a mat, and my floor is marble, so I had laid down three couch cushions to do the floor stuff on... every time I returned to it (you get up and down a lot) one of the kittens (**coughPrincesscough**) had broken up them so they were scattered and I had to put them back together. Apparently couch cushions on the floor is FUN! Also, she kept running up my leg, leaping up and "tagging" me (with her claws retracted, so it didn't hurt) and then dashing away. She was obviously thinking my exercise was me zooming around in play and wanted to join in the fun. It was cute, but a little distracting.

I was panting and covered in sweat by the end. I hadn't eaten right before (I'd eaten two hours earlier,  but only a cup of cornflakes with a cup of milk, so not like a huge meal where it'd still be in my stomach) and that was probably a mistake. I also didn't eat right afterwards, since I was overheated... nor did I prepare my food. I was planning on having a bean burger with a baked potato, and I hadn't made them (I had the raw patty ready to cook, but I hadn't cooked it yet.) So when like fifteen minutes after the program I got shakey, it was another ten or fifteen minutes before I was able to eat, and by then I was extremely weak and wobbly.

Most likely that's compounded from the dengue, but for other people thinking of attempting the Shred I'd say either eat something small right before hand (I've read and found from my days doing the C25K that a banana is a perfect pre-workout snack) or have your food prepared and ready to go before you start the workout so if you need to eat fast for recovery afterwards, the second your body tells you that you can eat, you can eat. (Like most people I can't eat right after a workout, but as soon as my body had cooled down enough it was like I need fuel!)

Five ten minutes after eating though, the wobbliness went away and I felt great. I still feel good... though a bit wiped out.

I'm doing the 30 Day Shred now because my friend Lydia is coming in November (yay!) and I want to look great since she hasn't seen me in almost a year, since I moved to India. I moved here at the end of last November, and she'll be here mid-November, so really, it's like a year... and I've already lost 40 pounds! I'm hoping with the shred and watching my calories to lose another ten before she gets here, so I can be an impressive 50 pounds lighter... and toned! I figured starting the shred on October 1st not only gives me all of October, but gives me the first two weeks of November if I get sidetracked (like if I get a cold or something) or also so if after I finish the shred I look at my body and say "everything looks great but *this* area" I can have a couple weeks to tweak... I'm excited to get to reveal the changes in my body to the very first person to see me who knew me in the US when I left!

12MT: Pinterest Workout Challenge

All right for those of you who are brave enough to sign up for our year long health and fitness
challenge, 12 Months Together, month one is Pinterest Workout Challenge.

What do I mean by this?

Well, if you have Pinterest you probably have noticed lots of people pin workouts on there. So the idea is you go and you search out a workout that works for you, and that becomes your goal for the month.

So if you're really busy you may search "5 Minute Workout" or even "2 minute Workout". If you're really wanting to focus on a certain body part you might do "Ab Workouts" or "Thigh Workouts", etc. If you're wanting to focus on total body fitness you might search "Total Body Fitness." Do you want to make sure you can do it without having a gym membership or fancy equipment? "No Gym Workouts." Do you have a piece of fancy equipment or gym membership and you want to get the most of it? Search for that.

You get the idea.

They also have month long or week long challenges.

Now, the question comes up of how much and how often.

This depends on your fitness level... which I hope you'll candidly share with the group on our closed (no one outside the group can see) facebook group. If you're total beginner or totally, totally slammed with no workout time, please, please start slow. Just do more than you're doing now. If you're not working out at all, it's okay to say you're going to complete the workout only once or twice a week. Seriously. You have to start somewhere.

Also, this is not exclusive exercise. Nothing is limiting you to this, but we are asking you to commit to doing whatever you choose. (If you really decide to change your mind later, we'll consider letting you change it. We're totally flexible. But we want to make sure you're not wimping out, just realizing you're not too into it.)

So if you think "I can probably do this five times a week, but there's a big chance I won't", why don't you just sign up for 3, since this is the first challenge? If you do five, yay!! And we will encourage you to push yourself as the year progresses. But I want us all to be very realistic this first month, so that we don't feel like failures only a month in.

And yes, you can add other goals to the challenge, especially food goals. Like I said in the FAQ post, those are tacked on goals.

For example, I'm planning on doing the Pinterest Challenge (the one you see here), get back into logging my calories daily on myfitnesspal (Making sure I log completely at least 20 days this month), and by the end of the month be back on the 5:2 diet, which was working for me.

You can add tag ons too. But just remember, whatever you commit to, you're responsible for, and please don't overload yourself. This is month one.. if it ends up being too easy, then just do some extra this month and pick a harder goal next month.

Okay? Ready? Excited?

I am.

[And yes, we are totally accepting new people, before July 1st. If you want to join, leave your email address in the comments or email me at singingpilgrimdancing at gmail dot com with the subject line "I'm In!" If you're reading this after July 1st, there's a chance you can still join. Go read the FAQ post for more information.]

Join Me for a Year??

Okay, so today I'm introducing a fun concept. I want you to commit to doing a yearlong fitness
(and maybe diet) challenge with me.

It's not as scary as it may sound.

Each month, before the month begins, we'll set goals. Some months we may set a group goal (like all do the same workout) and many months we'll set personal goals, generally around a theme (like I'm thinking to start out: Pinterest workout challenges!)

During the month, we encourage each other. At the end of every month, we check in to say if we completed the goal, partially did the goal more than 50%, partially did the goal less than 50%, or dropped out that month.

Then the slate is wiped clean going into the next month. So don't let a not completed month discourage you! (We will keep track, but it doesn't affect the next month in anyway.)

At the end of the year if you've at least partially attempted every month, you're a total success! (And even if you dropped out here or there, we still love you! Ha!)

The idea is to give yearlong motivation. I don't want to do a different goal each month, separate from the rest of the months. Then a busy  month might come, people drop out, and never get back on track. The idea is to commit for YEAR because even if you fall down on it, if you've really tried all year, you're likely to have upped the amount of motivation you have going past that year to live healthily.

That being said, I may allow new people to join each month, with the understanding that they are joining for a year themselves, and they only "succeed" when they complete a year.

ALSO and this is very important: We will work around life changes. Like if you break your leg or get pregnant, get very sick etc. goals are totally allowed to be adjusted around that. You can concentrate on arm exercises, focus on pregnancy safe workouts, focus on getting Vitamin C and plenty of fluids, whatever is necessary. The point of this is to incorporate healthier living into your life, with will always include set backs or course changes. I think most  if not all of us are guilty of having healthy living set backs happen when our lives change, and I'd like this to help us re-adjust our goals, not abandon them, so we stay on track.

But that means, no matter what, you don't have an excuse for dropping out all together. Uh-uh, it's not happening. If 3 people sign up, 3 people will finish. If 40 people sign up, 40 people will finish. And by signing up you give me the right to harass you (in a friendly, encouraging manner) if you go AWAL. Haha.

So you're not sure you can do a year?

You can.

Seriously. You're totally in control of your goals, and partial credit counts. So if you know that ten minutes twice a week is all you can do, then do it. We're game for that. And if you feel like you can't join in on a group challenge, no problem. Just let us know and you'll get your own challenge.

And this is totally not my game. I mean I'll be organizing the communication (I have tons of ideas how we can encourage each others) but you guys are totally part of the process. You see a workout you want to do? Suggest it. You have an idea on how to motivate us? Suggest it. And if you just want to come in and have a goal set for you and then you do it? We're game for that too. We just want you to get healthier, over the course of a year, with us.

That said, this is supposed to be a challenge. So you have to be trying to do more than you are now. Like if you're already running three miles a day, you can't set "run three miles a day" as a goal. But you could do "work up to running 3.5 miles a day by the end of the month" or "maintain 3 miles a day running plus eliminate sugary beverages." Got it?

Tomorrow I'll outline ideas on how we can encourage and communicate with each other. If you're already in, tell me in the comments below your email address or email me at singingpilgrimdancing at gmail dot com with the subject line "I'm IN." Feel free to ask any questions you need answering before committing as well, and I will answer them. We start July 1st.

Are you in?

Workout Wednesday

Hello everyone! Okay, I realize Wednesday is over. Wednesday was a holiday here, and while I

didn't actually participate in the festival of Holi (a Hindu festival where people throw colored powder and dye on each other to celebrate color) I did have plans that kept me occupied all day.

So last week's goals were this: Complete week one of the Couch to 5K and work out to a youtube fitness video.

I did it!

Last week an hour or so after posting the inaugural Workout Wednesday I decided to go ahead and do the workout video... I did get bored five minutes into it though! So I decided to click on one of the recommended videos on the side though, and ended up working out for an hour to a couple different videos. So even though I didn't just work out to that particular channel I still count that as a success.

I didn't get to the first workout of the Couch to 5K until Saturday, but I was able to get out and do it then. It went well. I liked having the MP3 tracks telling me when to run and walk. I also was surprised at how many of my neighbors were out there also working out. There were walkers, runners, walk/runners like me, and even a few people doing either yoga or tai chi, plus a couple old men sitting cross legged on the benches meditating. All this while the sun was shining (but not too hotly yet), flowers were blooming, and kids who I am guessing belonged to the adults working out were running around playing games with each other. It was very pleasant!

I did the second workout on Monday. I didn't, however, check the battery life of my MP3 player, so about 3/4 of the way into my first run interval (ie at pretty much the very beginning of my workout) it died. I'm running around an oval path, so I decided to just estimate how much I "ran" and walked and just do that... I ended pretty much running half the oval, then walking back to the same place and running again. It wasn't exact. At this stage of the C25K I'm supposed to run 60 seconds, then walk 90 seconds.

When my MP3 player had died, I had glanced at my phone and it was 8:28am. I forgot about that until I was almost done, then it hit me to look at the time. See, in my head I'd been thinking "okay, I ran about this far last time I did it, so that's roughly 60 seconds, and I guess I walked this far" and had been trying to add up the time that way...

But anyway, what ended up happening is I *do* think I was running about 60 seconds, but I was walking about 2 minutes... but I ended up working out for like 25 minutes, instead of the 20 the plan is supposed to do. So I decided that was still a win, and about as good as I could get considering!

Then the next workout was supposed to be on Wednesday. But then I realized that Holi was Wednesday. So I asked my husband, "Honey?"

"Yes?"

"Come here for a minute, I need your advice."

He comes. "What do you want?"

"Well, for this Couch to 5K, my next workout is supposed to be Wednesday morn-"

"No."

"Oh, okay, thanks."

Haha. Basically it would be likely I'd have spent the whole workout getting shot at with waterguns filled with paint or something. So yeah.

So instead I did the third workout this morning (Thursday) and this time I checked my MP3's battery. I was able to do it successfully, and I'm looking forward to next week!

Goals for next week:

Do week 2 of the Couch to 5K.
Do at least two other workouts of at least 20 minutes each.
Research strength training without equipment. (It's recommended for my PCOS that I do strength training, since PCOS is linked to insulin resistance, and muscle processes insulin better or something. But I don't have access to a gym or any weights.)

I'll check in again next week!

Hello!

My groom and I

I am sorry I've neglected this blog a little. If you follow on the main blog, I have gotten married since I last posted here! I then left for almost a week on honeymoon, and have been back for almost a week. So now I'm turning my attention back to this blog... and fitness!

Several different people have told me I look like I've lost weight, separately, so I'm guessing I probably did, though I'm not sure. I don't feel like I have, in fact I feel like my gut got bigger! We don't have a scale here though, so I haven't weighed myself since I left the USA... but I do have a tape measure!

Since several people have independently told me, I guessed maybe I have, but that the reason I felt I'd increased my gut flabbiness may be because I've lost muscle definition. Which I'm sure is true because when I left the USA I was definitely fitter than I am now.

I had measured my waist shortly after arriving here because we were talking about ordering my wedding gown, so I know what my measurement was... so I re-measured and guess what? I've lost two inches! And like I said, that's with me being less fit than I was in America. So if I start exercising regularly again I'll probably only increase this unexpected loss.

Fitness wise I want to start running/jogging in the mornings again. I say want to instead "I'm starting tomorrow" because right now I'm not waking up in the mornings. Since I got back from my honeymoon my sleep has been messed up and the only morning I actually got up in the morning was Sunday. (I was sick during my honeymoon and it threw me off.) So once my mornings stabilize again, I plan on running.

A week or so after arriving in India. I was going to show you a current picture to compare my size, but I can't find one that really shows my body and when I tried to get Ryan to take one it came out awful and so maybe just look at the wedding photo above and try to decide if I look thinner?

I've thought about just starting in the afternoon but there are two reasons I haven't, though I am thinking I will come up with exercises for the afternoon.

The first reason is pollution. The air pollution here is very high, but in the nights it settles so that the least polluted time of the day is the early morning. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but it has to do with the sun heating stuff up I think as it rises.

The second reason is heat. It's already in the 90s farenheit at the hottest part of the day. Yes. In March. And it will always get hotter.

But as exercising outside in the dark is dangerous, the coolest part of the day with the sun being up would be early morning, so if I'm going to run again I want to do it then.

But of course, running isn't the only exercise in the world.

I did fifty crunches, fifty reverse crunches, fifty crissy-crossy leg thingies, and fifty leg lifts on each side the other day.

A while back I did what I called the "fifty" which was I think 12 different exercises, doing fifty of each, three times a week. I was planning on doing that again...

But I found myself exhausted by just what I described above because as I said, I'm not nearly as fit as I was in America.

So I added a few exercises to the list and told myself I need to do fifty of each exercise (or fifty seconds full out of some that you measure my time) this week. Then next week I'll try to pick two days and do fifty of all the exercises on the same day. Then the next week pick three days, and keep it that way until it seems easy, then up the exercises to seventy-five, or maybe just sixty.

And I've downloaded some tracks for the C25K for my MP3 player. Last time I didn't use tracks, so that will be new and different, and as soon as my mornings stabilize I'm looking forward to trying it out!

Fit Friday!

Sorry loveys that this is late.

Last Saturday I walked a lot. As in 5 times the amount my weight loss app pedometer had set as a goal for the day.

Sunday I also exceeded that goal, but only by two or three times.

Monday I pretty much just met the goal.

And from Tuesday on I've been so consumed with the drama of my soon approaching wedding I haven't kept track. However, on Tuesday  itself I went out with a girl friend and walked around a mall a lot talking, so I am positive I did well on that.

I didn't do anything formally otherwise, regarding working out, though I try to like swivel my hips and engage my abs as I do normal stuff.

Hope everyone else has had a good week!

Fit Friday!

I apologize for my absence from this blog but life has been crazy. My future mother-in-law had a heart attack last week. (She is okay, home with new meds and diet changes.) I've also been battling a ton of stress.

I've continued with Noom, though not perfectly.

Today I worked out, lightly. By that I mean I did some actual working out (crunches, planking, rear kick thingies) but mainly I just tried to keep moving during my normal daily tasks. Bouncing on my toes while standing still, swaying my hips, just trying to move more.

I'm especially focusing on my abs and obliques right now because I'm wearing a sari to my court wedding. Saris show part of the midriff.

I'd like to start the C25K again. It's been some months since I completed it and I was very slow at the end, so that I was running for half an hour but not for 5K. So I think starting it over would be good. But I admit I'm nervous about the prospect for a few reasons. One is the pollution here. I've had like pre-asthma for years, just having slight respiratory distress when I exert myself in the cold. But that was back home in the US where the air is clean (I lived in a rural area.) Here the air is heavily polluted and exerting myself in it by running outside may help me develop full blown asthma... at the same time maybe it won't. Or maybe the asthma developing is inevitable and this way I'd be having a stronger heart and lungs from the workout when it kicked in.

The other thing that makes me nervous is everyone keeps giving me horror stories of attackers and abductors, especially with that gang rape situation that I know was all over the international news. So the idea is that if I work out in the neighborhood with regularity maybe someone nefarious will take note and lie in wait... maybe paranoid. Maybe wise. For now I could go out at different times of day so I'm unpredictable. But the spring is brief here and before the 9 weeks are up I'd only be able to run in the early morning due to the heat.

I don't know. I think I'll pray about it. And maybe get pepper spray. ;)

Linking up with Get Fit Fridays.

Why a New Blog?

Me, out running the C25K

I decided to launch a new blog revolving around health and fitness.

Why?

Because a blog is a great way of having accountability when it comes to fitness.

Because the subject is very niche-y, and I think it'd be easier to maintain, and gain encouragement from, outside of the Songs on the Way.

Because I don't want to flood the Songs on the Way with too many daily posts. My rule of thumb is try to blog daily (but five or six times a week is okay), never blog more than twice daily, and try to only blog twice a day twice or less a week. But the truth is, when I tried to blog about fitness when I was doing the Couch to  5K or something, I'd find myself forgetting, or having another post idea that was more pressing to the vision of the Songs on the Way, and I got off track.

Because there are these awesome things called tabs, so I can link to this blog from the Songs on the Way and to the Songs on the Way from this blog, so they're not entirely separate.