So, What is YOUR Excuse?

I hate sounding like an exercise evangelist. But the fact of the matter is, there really are so many benefits from exercising. In my personal experience, I've seen:

• Getting toned. I haven't lost any weight, but I can see my body changing shape, clothes fitting differently.
• More Stamina. If I am walking/hiking, I can go much longer without needing a break. (Unless I am properly hydrated and have to take potty breaks:-)
• Better mental health. I notice this in general, but on weekends if I decide to be a slug and not get at least some cardio in, I tend to start feeling like Charlie Brown with those little dark clouds following me around. 
• Better physical health. As mentioned in a previous post, I get sick much less, and when I do catch colds or have allergy attacks, I recover much faster. In fact, I recover from any kind of strain my quicker now. I walked the 1/2 marathon on Sunday and was back to the gym the next day. 

I try not to annoy people with proselytizing, but it's hard. It drives me nuts when people tell my why they can't exercise. Here are my favorite excuses that I've heard lately, and my responses:

• Excuse: I can't afford a gym membership.
• My Reply: Really? How much is your cable bill every month? I've never seen a cable bill that is smaller than a gym membership monthly fee.
• Excuse: I don't have time to exercise.
• My Reply: Really? How much time every day do you spend watching TV? If you cancel cable, you can knock out two excuses in one blow. And, you can watch cable/satellite TV at the gym -- all cardio machines have built in TVs.
• Excuse: It's too cold/hot/raining out.
• My Reply: Let me get this straight. You are paying $30/month to go to the INDOOR gym, but you can't go to the INDOOR gym because it is cold OUTDOORS? So tell me, how did you get to the grocery store/post office/anywhere else you went today? Did those things not involve going outside in order to get INSIDE?
• Excuse: I don't know anyone at the gym.
• My Reply:I didn't know anyone when I joined the gym either.  So I said "Hi" to the people I didn't know. You know what? I know them now.  But seriously, here is tip: Leave your iPod home now and then. I think I met more people the month I was without an iPod than I had in the previous 5 months of being a member at the gym. Wearing an iPod all the time can give people the impression that you don't want to be talked to, not wearing an iPod can do the opposite. 
• Excuse: I don't feel good enough to exercise. 
• My Reply: What doesn't feel good? If you have an actual ailment (the flu, anything contagious) then absolutely stay home and rest. If your doctor has told you that you cannot exercise,  then again, stay home till he tells you otherwise. However, if you are just tired, don't feel like getting up, don't feel like leaving the house, that is NOT a valid excuse. I have literally NEVER gone to the gym and felt worse after. The only times I have felt worse is when I give in to being lazy and blow it off. 
• Excuse: I am too stressed out to spend time exercising.
• My Reply: Whatever is bothering you, you will only feel worse if you sit and stew over it. You will always feel better if you take it out in the gym. Case in point: one of the best moments of my life was when some idiot broke my little heart, the trainer at the gym I was going to at the time taught me how to play racquetball.  I named the racquetball after the jerk and smashed the living crap out of it. I cannot tell you how much that did for my poor broken psyche.
• Excuse: I hate going to the gym.
• My Reply: So, walk outside. Get a Wii and play WiiFitness. Take a dance class. Take a self defense class. Your local rec center, church, or adult ed mostly likely offer free or low-cost activities. Heck, there might even be a web site that offers free activities that can get you out moving!
• Excuse: I'm too out of shape to start. 
• My Reply: No, you aren't too out of shape to start, you are too scared to start. Trust me on this one, the scariest thing I ever did as an adult was to walk into a gym for the first time (I remember this -- it was the Prospect Hill gym in Waltham -- I was terrified.)  But you know what? It wasn't that scary at all. The people were all really nice to me. But, even if you are too scared to go to a gym, you can start small -- remember my motto -- SOMETHING is better than NOTHING.  Here are some suggestions to get you started:
• When you go to work or shopping, don't take the first parking space you see. Park further from the door every day.
• When you go grocery shopping, only get 1/2 of what you need in each aisle, then go back and make a second lap.
• Use your imagination. For example, pretend you are expecting a diamond shipment via US mail. Walk to your mailbox once every hour to see if they have come  yet.

So, now tell me -- if you are reading this -- have you exercised today? If not, WHY? If I haven't covered your excuse here, please tell me what it is, I'm dying to hear something more creative!

1/2 Marathon Results

I did my 8th race today, my first ever 1/2 marathon. Here are the results of the last 8 races:

• February 6, 2011 (4:32:04 20:47/M)
• December 11, 2010 (51:43.9, 16:41/M)
• November 20, 2010 (1:02:36.7, 17:53/m)
• November 13, 2010 (53:45.2, 17:20/m)
• October 2, 2010 (51:57) (Note -- this race doesn't count. After the race all participants received a message stating that the race organizers messed up the course and it in fact was not a full 5k, which explains the really good time.)
• September 12, 2010 (57:44 18:37/m)
• July 3, 2010 (56:25:35 18:12/m)
• June 5, 2010 (1:03:20 20:26/m)

My time was a little higher than I had hoped, but given that George ran with me, causing me to stop for breaks than I wanted to take, I was pretty pleased with the results. The highlights of the race included:

• No blisters! I used moleskin, and that really seemed to do the trick. I will definitely use that for all long walks in the future.
• LOTS of encouragement:
• I got a text last night from Heather that said, "GOOD LUCK! Power to the new sports bra and all that is contained within!" Made me laugh, which is one of my favorite motivators.
• David and Beth were there to take pictures and cheer us on. Beth texted us encouragement throughout the race. David even went out in search of scissors and ice at 5:45 this morning for me, and had Starbucks at the finish line for me!
• Dave and Alison from the gym surprised me at mile 12 to cheer me on for the last part of the race. (This made me cry, I thought it was the sweetest thing EVER!)
• And most of all, cousin Amy kicked my butt to finish. I didn't want to quit, but I had cramping and bad back pain about mile 8. Amy didn't just cheer me on, she waited for me while I took breaks,  didn't even consider leaving me behind, and was WAY more patient with me than I ever could have expected anyone to be.

Thanks so much to everyone who supported me in this endeavor, I seriously love you all! 

I started this blog as a way to encourage other obese people to get out and do stuff. I really hope that someone reading this realizes the same thing that I have been lucky enough to have shown to me again and again: It is not being fat that keeps you from doing stuff, it's the voices in your head that keep you from doing stuff. I have been lucky enough to find people (all the way back to that day on Mount Monadnock with Wayne) to help me drown out the voices in my head. I hope some day that I can convince people reading this (Michael, I'm looking at you) that there is life beyond the couch. You just have to start, take one step at a time, and prove to that annoying voice inside that it is WRONG. I am living proof of it.

And, for those who need photographic proof, once again my adoring and adored husband photo-documented everything (click to enlarge pictures):

 

Me and Amy the night before the race in our official race t-shirts and hats. The hats were really neat. They were made out of this stretchy fabric that felt kind of like wearing underpants on my head. In a good way.

Me and Amy, before the race, warming up.

Cousin Beth, posting our pictures to Facebook.

David, doing our shin splint exercises with us.

Me and Amy, being goofy as we start the race. Notice my gatorade red tongue. I actually remembered to hydrate, I downed about 50 ounces before the race. Which was fine except there weren't enough porta potties for my taste.

Getting near the finish line. This is my favorite picture from today, I love Amy's "You GO GIRL" fist-pumping action.

Amy, crossing the finish line.

Me, crossing the finish line.

Having our official portrait taken.

Our official portrait by David.

When all was said and done, Amy looked like she could do another 13.1 miles. I looked like I wanted Amy to carry me to the car. But I was much better after the Starbucks my baby brought me.

So, I'm downloading the pictures and I come across this one. This store was across the street from the finish line. I asked David why he took the picture. He said, "Because it's Fudge! I like Fudge!" We didn't actually go here, but now that I've rested and drank more, my appetite is back and I kinda feel like I could eat the store!

Musical Motivation!

Ok, something I've wanted to do for a long time is to post my workout playlist. It's long, I like variety. The thing is, I've more or less had the same playlist for a very long time. 

I am doing a 1/2 marathon on Sunday, I have an iTunes gift-card burning a hole in my pocket, and I need some help. What songs are missing from my playlist? What get up and get moving songs need to be here, and you are just shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that they are not here?  Leave me a comment and tell me what songs NEED to be here!

Thanks!

Song/Artist

Song/Artist

Add It Up / Violent Femmes Ain't It The Truth / Dramarama Ain't No Mountain High Enough / Diana Ross Airport Song / Guster Alex Chilton / The Replacements All Day Afternoon / The Judybats All You People / Seven Nations Alone Again Or / Love Alone Again Or / UFO Alone Again, Or / Oblivians America / Neil Diamond American Fun / The Stompers Angels / Lene Lovich Angels Of The SIlences / Counting Crows Another Nail in My Heart / Squeeze At Wo's / Bim Skala Bim Athena / The Who Atlantics, The / Lonely Hearts Avenging Annie / Andy Pratt Awful Age / The Sheila Divine Baba O'Riley / The Who Baby Stick Around / Joe Jackson The Bad Touch / Bloodhound Gang The Ballroom Blitz / Sweet Bang! Bang! / The Knux Barrel Of A Gun / Guster Beautiful Noise /  Neil Diamond Beautiful Stranger / Madonna Ben And Mary / Sordid Humor Black Horse /  KT Tunstall Bodhisattva / Steely Dan Born To Raise Hell Bottle Of Fur/  Urge Overkill Bottle Of Smoke / The Pogues The Bottom Line / Big Audio Dynamite Brain Damage / Bim Skala Bim Break on Through / The Doors Brighton Rock / Queen Bury Me /Guster Burying Ground / The Lemonheads But It's Alright / J.J. Jackson The Calendar Hung Itself... / Bright Eyes The Caterpillar / The Cure Cemetry Gates / The Smiths Chelsea Dagger / The Fratellis Cherry, Cherry / Neil Diamond Cherub Rock / Smashing Pumpkins Chocolate / Snow Patrol Clampdown / The Clash Clang Bang Clang / The Lemonheads Classic Rot / Dramarama Come To The Window / The Lemonheads Corona Crunchy Granola Suite / Neil Diamond Cyanide / Castaneda Dance, M**********r, Dance! / Violent Femmes Daylight / The Judybats Death On Two Legs / Queen Death or Glory / The Clash Delicious / Poets of the Fall Demon Rock Do It Clean / Echo and The Bunnymen Do the Strand / Roxy Music Do You Want To Hold Me / Bow Wow Wow Doctor Jeep / The Sisters Of Mercy Don't Fear the Reaper / Blue Öyster Cult Double Shot  / Swingin' Medallions Dragula / Rob Zombie The Eagle and the Hawk / John Denver Egghead / Lene Lovich Elderberry Wine / Elton John Elvis is Everywhere / Mojo Nixon Exhuming McCarthy / R.E.M. Faith / George Michael Fall In Two / Guster Fat Bottomed Girls / Queen Fiesta / The Pogues Fire / Poets of the Fall Fire and Fast Bullets / Blitzen Trapper Flathead / The Fratellis Float On / Modest Mouse Four Days / Counting Crows Fox on the Run / Sweet From a Whisper to a Scream / Elvis Costello Funnel Of Love / Southern Culture On The Skids Genius of Love / Talking Heads Get That Girl / Joe Jackson Gloria / U2 Goat Girl / Tanya Donelly Goodnight Old Friend / Leo Sayer Gorgeous Behavior / Marching Band Got the Time / Joe Jackson Graduate / Third Eye Blind Great Escape / Guster Groove Is In the Heart / Deee-Lite Hard Candy / Counting Crows Have You Seen Me Lately? / Counting Crows Here and Now / Letters To Cleo Hey Nonny Nonny / Violent Femmes Hitsville U.K. / The Clash Homespun / Grant Lee Buffalo Hum / The Sheila Divine I Am Superman / R.E.M. I Believe in a Thing Called Love / The Darkness I Confess / The English Beat I Could Never / Marching Band I Saw Her Again  / The Mamas and The Papas I'll Do Ya / Whale I'm Beautiful / Bette Midler I'm Just a Singer  / The Moody Blues I'm the Man / Joe Jackson I've Seen All Good People / Yes Idiot Heart / Sunset Rubdown If I Should Fall From Grace With God / The Pogues Illuminate / Orbital and David Gray In Quintessence / Squeeze Incredible Bittersweet / The Judybats Is Anything / The Judybats J.P.P. McStep B. Blues / Jefferson Airplane Town Called Malice / The Jam Joan / Lene Lovich Johnny and Mary / Robert Palmer Join Together / The Who Just A Touch / R.E.M. Kid Charlemagne / Steely Dan Kiss / Prince and The Revolution Kiss Off / Violent Femmes Kiss Them For Me / Siouxsie and The Banshees L.A. Woman / The Doors La Dulcinea / The Judybats Latest Monkey / Buffalo Tom Lazy Line Painter Jane Leaving Train Lemon Peeler

Let Forever Be / The Chemical Brothers Let's Go Crazy / Prince and The Revolution Life And How To Live It / R.E.M. Lift / Poets of the Fall The Lion Sleeps Tonight / The Tokens Living In the Past / Jethro Tull Long Away / Queen Long Cool Woman / The Hollies Look At The Rain / Meat Puppets Looking for Clues / Robert Palmer Lost / Meat Puppets Lost In the Supermarket / The Clash The Love Cats / The Cure Make No Plans / Marching Band Mambo No, 5 / Lou Bega A Message to You Rudy / The Specials Misfire / Queen Miss Free Love '69 Mission of Mercy / The Motels Monkey / Counting Crows Monkey Talk / Lene Lovich Moving Minors Over County Lines / Blitzen Trapper Mr. Blue Sky / Electric Light Orchestra Mrs. Robinson / The Lemonheads My Heart And The Real World Mykonos / Fleet Foxes Mystery Achievement / The Pretenders Never ending story / Limahl New Song / Howard Jones Oklahoma / Sordid Humor Opportune Moment / The Sheila Divine Ordinary Angels / Frente! Out the Window / Violent Femmes Overboard / Poets of the Fall Papa Gene's Blues / The Monkees Perfect Way / Scritti Politti Photograph / Def Leppard Plaster Caster / The Lemonheads Police On My Back / The Clash Positive Bleeding / Urge Overkill Pretty Little Angel Eyes / Curtis Lee Prime Time / The Tubes Privilege (Set Me Free) / Patti Smith Psychosis / Poets of the Fall Ragged Wood / Fleet Foxes Red Sails / David Bowie Rescue / Echo and The Bunnymen Respect / Aretha Franklin Ribbons / The Sisters Of Mercy Ride My See-Saw / The Moody Blues The Right Profile / The Clash River Deep, Mountain High / Tina Turner The Rodeo Song / Garry Lee and Showdown Rosalita / Bruce Springsteen Run Run Away / Slade Rush / Big Audio Dynamite Save It For Later / The English Beat Say When / Lene Lovich Scarlett / The Judybats Scream / Seven Nations Seconds / Grant Lee Buffalo Semi-Charmed Life / Third Eye Blind Senses Working Overtime / XTC Sex On Fire / Kings of Leon Shadowtime / Siouxsie and The Banshees She's a Rainbow / The Rolling Stones She's Sad She Said / The Judybats She's the One / Bruce Springsteen Shine / Meat Puppets Sing Along / Grant Lee Buffalo Sister Havana / Urge Overkill Sitting Still / R.E.M. Sleeping Beauty / Lene Lovich Slow Dog / Belly Sodajerk / Buffalo Tom Somebody Told Me / The Killers South Australia / The Pogues Spanish Bombs / The Clash Spring Released / Grant Lee Philips Stand and Deliver / Adam and The Ants Stone Cold Crazy / Queen The Story in Your Eyes / The Moody Blues Street Life / Roxy Music Summer Grof / The Spinto Band Sunday / The Lemonheads Suspicious Minds / Elvis Presley Sweet Lady / Queen Sweet Young Thing / The Monkees Switchin' to Glide / The Kings Take A Chance On Me / ABBA Take Back the City / Snow Patrol Take Me I'm Yours  / Squeeze Take Me in Your Arms   / The Doobie Brothers Takin' It to the Streets / Taylor Hicks Tarzan Boy / Andrew Sixty Tattooed Love Boys / The Pretenders Telepath / Leo Sayer Telepathy / Lene Lovich Thank The Lord For The Night Time / Neil Diamond This Charming Man / The Smiths The Three Sunrises / U2 Tie Your Mother Down / Queen Till Victory / Patti Smith Tonight, Tonight / Smashing Pumpkins Touch Me / The Doors Train In Vain / The Clash Tree House / Buffalo Tom Turkish Song Of The Damned / The Pogues Turning Japanese / The Vapors Twist and Crawl / The English Beat Twisting / They Might Be Giants Two Princes / Spin Doctors Two Weeks In Another Town / The Lemonheads Tzena, Tzena, Tzena / The Weavers Under Pressure / David Bowie and Queen Union Square / Tom Waits Until The Next Time / Dramarama Use Somebody / Kings of Leon Vicar In a Tutu / The Smiths Virus Road / Cold Water Flat Vision Thing / The Sisters Of Mercy Wait for Me / Castaneda Waiting For The Rain / The Judybats Waterloo / ABBA When It Began / The Replacements Whisper to a Scream /  Icicle Works White Punks on Dope / The Tubes White Winter Hymnal / Fleet Foxes Window / Guster Wonderlust King  / Gogol Bordello You and I / Queen You and Me / The Moody Blues You Just May Be The One / The Monkees You Told Me / The Monkees 1999 /  Prince

Hear me Roar!

At the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival this week. Haven't done any long walks since last weekend. In fact, I haven't been to the gym since Tuesday. Other than when  I was hiking out west over the summer, this is the longest  I have gone without hitting the gym. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised how crappy and tired I feel. It amazes me (in a good way) how used to working out every day I am. I also notice that although I pretty much weigh the same, I'm in so much better overall health. For example, I usually have a horrible allergy attack in mid-January. This year, it lasted about a day -- I just recover that much faster, and don't get sick nearly as often to start with. Another example, I hauled 6 bird boxes from the 2nd floor of the hotel down to my car this morning. I am woman, hear me ROAR!

But my favorite thing about being in shape -- I have stamina and recover in hours now. The last long walk we did (I haven't uploaded the pix yet) was 7 miles. I had a blister that hurt, but my muscles and bones were fine, and I didn't even have to nap afterwards, in fact if anything, it energizes me. Again, hear me ROAR!

I'll be starting afternoon walks again this week, and will be doing the Melbourne Marathon next Sunday. Join me if you want to roar too!

Event update: 10 miles!

If you didn't choose to GOYB today, you missed a spectacular 10-mile walk along the water. Here's just a little of what we saw. Click to enlarge pictures.

 There was a fair amount of bones and other dead stuff today. This was a bird we found, haven't been able to ID the species yet.

 We walked all the way to Brevard County from Treasure Shore Beach (5.25 miles out, 10.5 miles round trip). Here is Heather in front of the sign to prove it.

 Here is me in front of the sign. And no, we didn't drive there, we really walked:-) I gots the blisters to prove it. And, Dave and Alison,  I finally figured out the Garmin, so I have the technology to prove it too!

This was our coolest sighting of the day. We saw a sea turtle from the bridge. Then we saw another, and another, I think in the end there were about 6 playing in the water.

Here is the divine Miss H. sitting on the VERY windy bridge. She was sitting on the railing and to be honest, I tried to take the picture as quickly as possible cause it was making me nervous, I was afraid she was about to take a swim with the sea turtles below.

So, we were quite proud of our accomplishment.  Bring on the 1/2 marathon! Seriously, other than the blister, I felt great during and after the walk. I used Glide, and worked great on the places that my sports bra hits, but it didn't seem to work quite as well on my foot.  I could really use some blister prevention tips and cures.

Super Speed Walk!

So, Heather and I met at Wabasso Beach for our walk. We did FANTASTIC! I am SO ready for the 1/2 marathon. We did 15 miles in under an hour and a half. GO US!

In a completely unrelated note, Dave, Alison if you are reading this, I think I figured out how to use the Garmin! Or maybe not... LOL (It might have been closer to 3 miles in 1.5 hours:-)

Goals and Resolution for 2011

I realized today that I have been hesitant to record my goals and resolutions for this year because once I write them down, I will have to start working on them. So, as of this moment going forward, here are my goals and resolution for this year:

• Walk 500 miles. (8.2 down, 491.7 to go)
• Last year, I made an effort to reserve only one night a week on which I would eat crap for dinner. This year, I resolve to, instead of once per week, only eat crap AFTER I have walked 25 miles. After I eat crap, the count starts back at 1. 
• Get onto Alison (my awesome trainer's) Success Stories board.
• Short term goals continued over from last year:
• Continue seeking out bee people. This was the most important one last year, and is still the most important this year. I've found one or two, but you can never have enough. 
• Finish Timmy and start book.
• Get new tattoo. 
• Learn a song on the banjo and post a video to YouTube.
• Toilet train the cats. (I don't kid myself. I realize I have very little control over this one.)
• Add something new to the long term goals list.  http://deemotivation.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-years-resolutions.html

And finally, I decided that my main resolution this year is that no matter how high the cliff, this year I will hurl myself off of it with complete abandon. I might crash and burn or I might learn to fly, but either option is better than clinging to the same cliff for 46 years and being sad cause nothing ever changes.