Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Go Away, Winter.

With no temperatures even above 20 degrees for the foreseeable future I'm getting a bit bummed. I'm feeling pretty inspired and motivated about so many things in my life right now and then to have this persistent winter that just won't give up is horrible. I've shoveled out the motorhome several times now, but it's still stuck where it's at. I don't think it'll be that hard to get it to get out of the little hole it's in but in reality it's stuck right now. I tried again yesterday and the tires just spin.

It did warm up for about two days last week and that's when I first shoveled all around it so that things would hopefully melt more. I also got out the ladder and uncovered the solar panels again and chipped off the layer of ice on them. Not that there's much sun to be had, but anything is better than nothing.

I'm still going to the gym and working on the C25K program. I'm on week 5 now, which is one of the hardest weeks both physically and definitely mentally. After tomorrow night I will officially be half way through the program and well on my way to being able to run!

During week 3 of the program I did actually start to lose weight. My scale isn't great but probably about 5lbs. Week 4 saw most of that weight come back for whatever reason. Now this morning I weighed myself and I was pretty solidly down the 5lbs again. Like I've said before weight loss isn't really my focus right now, but I'll definitely take what I can get of it.


So yeah! Winter can go away now and other than that things are looking good for 2014.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Couch To 5K (C25K) Running Program

This is some of what I was talking about in my last post, and so far posting and video wise I've done nothing. I wanted to really keep track of my thoughts and obstacles through all of this and make some good posts and videos. So far, I've fallen incredibly short. I haven't been sure if I wanted to post them here or somewhere else, but here it goes.

Around the first of the year I shaved off my beard. I've had it to some capacity since the end of 2011. Having a clean shaven face after so long revealed that I have quite a fat face. Haha. On a base level, who cares. I'm okay with who I am and how much I weigh (290lbs). However, deep down I've wanted to lose some weight like most everyone.

For the first time ever I joined a gym. I've never gone to a gym, ever. It took me two weeks to finally get up the courage to walk into one and sign up. I planned on going that first night but I had to go BUY GYM CLOTHES first. Ugh. In the end I just bought some pants and shoes. With those, I drove over to the gym. Sat out in the parking lot for a while. Chickened out and went home. I'm pretty sure I did this the next night too.

I did end up going within that first week. I go on my way home from work. It's right along my way home and is, mostly, convenient for me. So far I haven't skipped out on any of the days I really plan to go to keep with my C25K program. There's been a number of days when there's been a few too many people in there for me and I really want to just leave without ever going in. I'm overcoming that fear. I'm trying to feel more comfortable, feel like it's MY gym. Like I have every right to be there too.

One big thing I've had to keep telling myself, and truly know in my heart, to keep this going is that I'm doing this for me. I'm the only one that's going to do it! For me. Nobody in that gym is going to do it for me. What they're doing or thinking or not thinking doesn't mean anything to me. Broaden the picture and nobody in my life is going to do it for me either. I have to be the one to make the effort, the plans, and climb over the obstacles.


So anyway, the C25K program is an interval training program that slowly builds up your endurance over a 9 week program. At the end of the 9 weeks, you should be able to run a 5k. I've done this program twice before. The first time getting to week 5 before giving it up. The last time too many things were against me and I didn't get very far I don't think. This time, I'm going to complete the program. Even if it takes me 12 weeks instead of 9. Or 100. I'm currently on week 3 with one running day left to go. So far so good.

I'm not focusing on weight loss, or eating healthy, or anything right now. Which, for the record neither of those things is happening. For now I'm interested in building up my endurance, getting into the HABIT of going to the gym, and I will worry about the rest later on.