Day One of Week One

Really, Day One was yesterday, so I don't feel to badly only being a day behind. Here's what the Wolfes are up to lately:

We're working as a family to be healthier. Three of the four of us (we still include him though) are in need of some help. We've got a few pounds to shed. As a family (really as a trio since this whole thing is a touchy subject between a sister and her skinny brother), we decided to start making a more conscious effort to increase our activity level, eat healthier and support eachother through this process.

We've weighed, taken measurements and have changed our morning routine to include family breakfasts that include protein to get us going in the morning and keeping us from unnecessary snacking.

I've never been one to count the days or the weeks when starting a new health program, but this time I thought it was important for us to be able to keep track of where we are and how far we've come.

The key here for us is that we're doing this as a family (for the first time ever!). In the past, I've focused on myself or Matt has focused on himself, but this time, Alie needs us - she needs us to encourage her, support her, and be "in the trenches" with her. The three of us are all in the same boat, so we'll sink or swim together.

Alie had a good cry yesterday when we weighed in, but after that, she was encouraged and motivated. I reminded her that we'd be with her every step of the way and that this whole experience would bring us closer as a family.

We started yesterday with Alie getting up at 5:00 a.m. to walk with us and then me, Colby and Alie playing (really playing!) outside for over an hour afterschool in the warm spring weather. Who knew that hopscotch and relay races could be this fun and that good of a workout?!?!

So, here we are. Making a more conscious effort to eat healthier, to move more and to slow things down a bit (more on that later).

Sneaking in Extra Exercise

The past few months I've really been concentrating on getting more exercise. I started playing on a Women's 30+ indoor soccer team and it's been great exercise! We have an hour practice on Monday evenings and games on Wednesdays. I have seen a huge difference in how my clothes fit (down 2 sizes in jeans!) and how I feel.

I've had a quad/leg injury that has just healed after 6 weeks! Talk about frustrating! Although the injury has hampered my running in a big way, I'm happy that the results I've seen from soccer has motivated me to get extra exercise whenever (and where ever) I can. Matt and I have been walking 5 mornings a week, doing soccer twice a week and (now that my leg is better), running at least twice a week.

In an effort to try to get the rest of the family to hop on the exercise bandwagon, Alie has been walking with us most mornings (the puppies are great motivation for her) and Alie and I have been using the Wii Active at least twice a week as well. Colby is getting in on the exercise action by lifting some weights (too cute to watch my skinny 8 yr old boy lifting 3 pound weights) and hitting the heavy bag we have hung in the basement.

My goal is to exercise twice a day 5 days a week and to get at least one (hopefully two) workouts in on the weekend.

I am also sneaking extra exercise in where I can. While my coffee is brewing (not a lot of brew time with Keurig), I'll do some pushups against the kitchen counter. The daily goal is to do 2 sets of 15 each, working up to 3 sets of 15 each. While I'm watching tv, I'll do some cruches or other ab exercises on the couch or in bed. Sneaking in these few exercises everyday is giving me results already - and I don't feel like I'm really working out!

Being more conscious of how often I'm exercising and how much extra movement I'm doing, is helping me get winter off to a great start!

Rate My Week! April 19-25 and Enough With the Oreos and 100 Pushups!

How's that for a super long, yet meaningless blog post title?!?!

First, Rate My Week - last week wasn't super duper as far as exercise and eating went. But (and this is BIG!), I went to Ohio to meet up with some of the PSF's (I had never met any of them in person - just online)!

I got in two good runs. Matt and I got up at o'dark thirty (okay, not that early) and ran on Thursday morning. Who doesn't love a 5:00 a.m. run?!? It was so nice to get back out in the morning. Running in the early a.m. is great for us because we can get our runs in and not have to worry about trying to schedule it later in the day. Also, on Saturday, Laura and I (I LOVE Laura - she is just AWESOME!) went for a great walk/run in the park near Pam's house. It was a really, really nice park and I had a great chat with Laura.

As far as eating went, I did okay - did fine on my veggies and kept the Oreos to a minimum, so that was good.

I'm rating my week of April 19 to 25 as an 8.

Next, Enough with the damn Oreos already! I have quit eating chocolate (chocolate candy: little morsels of heaven wrapped in foil). I stopped eating candy about a month and a half ago. But, in its place, I've taken a serious liking to Golden Oreos with Chocolate Cream Filling. Yum! I try to keep that dirty little habit in check, but sometimes . . . I have never looked at the calorie count for those little devils. Frankly, I didn't want to know. But, yesterday I looked! I shouldn't have. It was not good. 3 of those little cookies = 170 calories. As Alie would say "What a rip off!" or "That's cheap!". She'd definitely be right in this case.

So, I will hence begin rationing the Oreos. I'm going to buy some (no, I cannot go cold turkey) and put 3 cookies in a zip bag as my DOA (that's Daily Oreo Allowance, hopefully not Dead on Arrival). I am also thinking (but, I'll have to do this when Matt isn't around - he'd think I'm even more of a loon than he thinks I am already) about cutting each cookie into quarters.

Lastly, 100 Pushups!

I found this site: www.hundredpushups.com and decided to take up the challenge. It's only 6 weeks! I thought it would be fun for me and Matt to try it together, but I think he's gonna bail, so I'm in it alone. That's okay. I can certainly use some upper body strength and this is not a time consuming challenge. I'll take the baseline test this weekend and hit the floor on Monday!

Hoping to report good progress on the DOA and the 100 Pushups next week!

Rate My Weeks - April 5 - 11 and April 12 - 18

I've been so busy this month! April is a busy month for me at work (quarter-end reports, tax time and extra quarter-end work to be done), it's Alie's birthday month and to add to all of the "regular" April busyness, I've been up to my neck in soccer paperwork and preparations for the Spring season.

Needless to say, I'm behind on rating my weeks. So, for the week of April 5-11, I'm rating my week a 7. I did have three runs, but two of them were a struggle. I'm finding that my weekend runs are just better than weekday runs. I think because I can go early in the morning on weekends and I'm not as pressed for time as I am during the week. I didn't lose any weight, but I didn't gain, either.

For the week of April 12 - 18, I'm rating my week a 7.5. I ran 4 times last week, but only one run was more than 40 minutes (Saturday, 4/18 I ran for 50 minutes - a good run!). No weight loss last week, either, but no gain, so I'm as happy as I could be.

The first soccer game is now behind us - Colby's team won and Alie's team did as well. So, I'm now seeing the fruits of my paperwork labor.

I'm off to visit Pam and the other PSF's at the end of this week, and I'm sooo looking forward to it! It's going to be tough covering my mom duties while I'm gone (I'll miss the kids' soccer games on Sunday and a soccer fundraiser event on Saturday), but Matt will muddle through. Really, I'll work out logistics before I'm gone and have other moms help me out a bit with transporting the kids for me.

My goals for the weeks ahead as far as exercise and health goes are:

1) Continue with the health eating. I'm getting 4-5 fruits and veggies everyday and I'm so happy about that. Other than a few oreos, I'm not eating chocolate or much junk food at all. Also happy about that.

2) Find a way to get more exercise. I've been watching some fitness shows and really reading my fitness mags and I'm just not getting enough exercise to really blast fat and calories. I need to double (at least) my weekly exercise minutes. I'm hoping that when the weather gets warmer (maybe as soon as the beginning of May), Matt and I will be able to start running in the morning again. But, I can't let that be an excuse for me to not increase my exercise minutes right now.

Hoping this week is good for me - the kids are on vacation this week and I've got to get my stuff ready for my girls' weekend at Pam's!

Rate my Week! March 29 - April 4

It's Monday. Time to check in and see how I did last week.

Drum roll please . . . I'm giving last week an 8.

I didn't run as frequently as I would have liked - only three runs and a speedwork session with Colby. But, if you're a 7 year-old, you don't call it speedwork, you call it racing mom! We raced, it was fun. He beat me in every heat.

But, when I did my regular runs this week, I did reach a milestone - a pretty lofty one for me that suddenly became easily attainable. Hard to explain, but I reached my goal of doing a five mile run. I had set that goal for the end of April and I reached it in the first week of the month. Yay! So, all of my runs from now on should be at least 5 miles (my run yesterday was).

Oh, and I lost 1 pound this week! And, I still ate all of the golden oreos with chocolate creme filling that I wanted to ;)

This week, I'm hoping to get in at least 3 (hopefully 4) good runs and we may start soccer practices for Alie's team as well. That should be good exercise for all of us!

YOU Help Keep Me Motivated!!

You do! Your words of encouragement help more than you know. Really.

I'm not an attention-getter type of girl. I like being bland, blending in, not being in the spotlight and not being memorable. So, when I'm running, I try to "zone out" and not really pay attention to what's going on around me. The less I look at the cars going by, the happier I am. I get a lot of comments from people like "I saw you out running!" Yeah, I bet you did. But I didn't see you. I try not to see anyone.

Lastnight, I think everyone I knew was out. SIL drove by and beeped the horn, several neighbors were on their way home from work when I was out, and another neighbor's son was litterally hanging out of the truck window when they drove by me - laying on the horn, yelling words of encouragement to me. I gotta admit, it made me smile. And, pick up my pace a little. Who wants to look like their dying when the neighbors drive by?!?

Which gets me back to all of you. Your comments here, via e-mail and on SCS make me smile. Your words mean so much to me and I'm thankful and grateful for you all.

Thank you for your kind words. They mean so much and they definitely keep me going.

Oh, and I am defintely going to post my card for Dawn's color challenge. I just can't seem to get it photographed. I'll get there - eventually.

Rate My Week! March 22-28

It's Sunday! A new week, so time to Rate my Week for last week. It was a good one! I got in 4 good runs (yesterday's was almost 5 miles!) plus another session on the elliptical (total butt kicking - in a good way). Three of my runs were just plain great - even the hills didn't seem so bad. Only one run felt like more of a struggle - mostly because I struggled with my route. Oh, and I dropped 2 pounds! I did have a migraine, but I was able to keep it at bay so it wasn't so bad.

All in all, it was a very good week! I'm givin' it an 8.5!!

Next week, my goals are to continue with good food choices - more veggies - and add upper body workouts on my non running days. I'm pretty sure I can get to 5 miles in a run in the next week or so, but I won't push that one. It'll happen when it happens.

Also, I made a card for Dawn's color challenge. Maybe I'll even get that posted today. We'll see.

Rate My Week! March 15-21 and Advice from the Wolfe Brothers

In an effort to improve my all-around health, at the beginning of each week I've decided to stop and take stock of how I've done the previous week. I'll use a scale of 1-10 to rate how healthy I think my week was.

It's Monday March 23, so I'm going to rate my week for March 15-21. I'll give last week a 7.5 (I couldn't go with an 8 - wouldn't leave me much room for improvement - and my week was better than a 7. How's that for reasoning? ;)

I did get in 4 good runs, I tried to increase my intake of veggies, and I had very little chocolate. I did consume too many Golden Oreos with Chocolate Cream Filling, but I did need to indulge somehow.

The scale slid just a bit - a good thing. Any decline is good for me.

Okay, so March 15-21 is a 7.5 on the Healthy Scale.

Now, some advice from my Brothers-in-law. Two very different conversations on two very diverse topics: running and religion.

First, the condensed version of my conversation with Brother Doug - who came up with a simplified view of mankind some 15 years ago during an evening of induldging in some spirits with friends. Doug's view revolves around being a "LCHB": Loving, Caring Human Being. Doug's views are that if everyone simply acted as a Loving, Caring Human Being, the world would be a better place in general. I agree. Enough said. (Sorry, I'm not going to go into how this came up during our conversation about organized religion. I don't want to debate religion, defend my views - or lack thereof - or attack anyone else's views on the subject).

On to Brother Steve's advice about running. First, a bit of background on Steve. He's a runner. Has been for many, many years. If it involves running, he's done it: Boston Marathon (more than once), Ultra Marathons, Ultra Relays, Triathalons, snowshoe racing, you get the idea.

Well, during a chat this weekend, it came up in conversation how much I'm running. Not how far, but for how long. Steve told me and Matt that if we're not running for at least 30 minutes (and that's the bottom of the barrel minimum), it's not worth our time to even go out. I agree, in theory, so long as it's not 15 degrees with snow, ice and wind. In good weather, I agree whole-heartedly.

So, I've taken Steve's advice as a personal challenge - no more 28 minute runs for me! Steve told me that 40-45 is good for me. I'll go with that. It'll be at least 40 minutes for me from now on. Thanks, Steve!

Okay, back to eating my baby carrots. Shooting for an "8" this week! ;)

Why We "Run"

I use the term "run" very loosely here. I'm not a real runner - although there are certain magical times when I'm out exercising that I do feel like a real runner - what I do can more accurately be described as panting, gasping for breath, sucking wind, or if you're being polite - jogging.

I was thinking about this today while I was out for a run. I ran over 4 miles today - finally back to my "normal" pre-winter distance (boy, I love Spring!). I was thinking about why I do this self-inflicted torture several times per week, and why I'm still doing it after nearly a year.

Matt and I talk about it sometimes. We don't look like runners. We're short. We have short legs. We have flabby stomachs. It's okay, I can say this about both of us and not be worried Matt will be angry. We are what we are, and supermodels we aren't.

So, why do we do it? Well, we do it so we don't gain tremendous amounts of weight and have trouble walking let alone running. We do it because if we stop and then try to start up again, we know it will hurt. A lot. Those first few weeks are so painful on the legs. We don't ever want to go back to Stage 1.

We do it because we actually enjoy it. Shocker! Well, not so much a shocker for Matt - he's been running faithfully for years. He did cross country in high school and has run for several years since then. Me, it's a total shocker. I've run off and on (mostly off) since before I had Alie. I was quite consistent before I got pregnant with her and the fell off the wagon - succumbed to morning sickness and "can't get my lazy arse out of bed" sickness as well.

After I had Alie, I came back to running - did a few 5K's (pushing Alie in the jogging stroller even). I left running for a few years when I had Colby and now I'm finally back at it. More consistent than ever before. Since I'm done having kids, I think I might actually stick with it this time. Running has been like a good, old friend to me. No matter how long you're out of touch, that friend always welcomes you back like it was just yesterday that you were together.

But, I'm no runner. As I said before, I'm short, overweight and I'm not athletic at all. But, I'm still plodding along - albeit at a snail's pace. I don't run for speed (do I really need confirmation of how truly slow I am? Really.). I don't run for distance (I don't clock every route to see how far I've gone - sometimes, but not usually). I run simply because I enjoy it.

Enjoyment. Now, that's somethin'.

Workout Review - Ultimate TaeBo

It's snowing here today. A lot. We have over a foot of snow now and it's still snowing. So much for it stopping by noon. Because of the inclement weather, I didn't run today, but I needed to get some sweating in, so I decided to open the cabinet that holds my workout DVD's and see what I had. I have about a dozen exercise DVD's - most have never even been opened.

Well, I decided to have a date with Billy Blanks and TaeBo Ultimate. This workout kicked some serious tail! Mine, at least. I did the main workout - 60 minutes of high intensity stuff! There is also another 30 minute workout that can be done right after the first 60 minutes, but I thought I'd stop before I keeled over.

It was a great workout - it really got me super sweaty, worked all parts of me (especially my core where I REALLY need help) and I felt great afterward. It was very high intensity, lots of combinations of moves (punches, steps and kicks), but I was able to keep up (albeit not always on beat). This workout is not intended to be done every day (Billy told me so at the beginning of the DVD), and there's no formal warm up or cool down period, but that was really appealing to me. I really don't enjoy stretching, so this was perfect for me.

My goal is to open that DVD cabinet every week and try one of my DVD workouts. I have several, so I'll get a workout other than running at least once a week and I'll finally try some of the DVD's I've had for ages. Maybe I'll even shrink my middle a bit - a girl can dream, can't she?

So What if I Look Ridiculous, At Least I'm Doing Something!

WARNING - This post contains nothing of value. It's all mindless ramblings.

It was warm here today. 55 degrees! That's warm for the end of Feb. in New England. It was windy and rainy (oh, and dark) when I ran tonight, but it was still warm. I ran with a smile on my face the whole way. Not the usual grimace of pain from legs giving out on me or lungs not getting enough air. This was a real smile. A grin, even.

Oh, and since it's Friday, our little downtown was busy. Lots of people coming home from work, doing errands, stopping at the store, picking up take out, etc. Our downtown is small and quaint, but we have a few things here - during my runs I pass by three pizza places, one Chinese restaurant, a video store, a gas station, a Rite-Aid pharmacy and a small grocery store.

Near the end of my run, I went by the gas station and there was a woman getting gas. I ran to the end of the block and then walked back to cool down. I swear this woman kept looking at me. I didn't recognize her, but that doesn't mean much - I'm not so great at recognizing people from afar. This got me thinking - although I don't see a lot of people when I'm out running, I know a lot of people see me.

I'm pretty oblivious when I run. I'm concentrating on not having a heart attack, trying not to step in every puddle or slip on every ice patch. I'm just trying to make it through the run. I know a lot of people see me because friends and acquaintances tell me they see me. But, I like not seeing them. It's easier than trying to wave at cars that pass or acknowledge the folks that call out the car window as they drive by. Ignorance is Bliss.

I don't normally give much thought to what people are thinking about me when they see me. I don't much care. I have friends who won't run, ride a bike or even walk out in public because they're afraid of what people think. I so don't care. I'm out doing something, which is more than many other people are out doing. So what if I look Ridiculous. At least I'm doing something!