A Work Out post

Just a little bit ago I was watching the rerun of "40 Most Slimmed Celebs" on VH1 and was a little motivated to finally go work out. As I mentioned previously, one of my goals for the year is to lose some weight and get in shape.

No, this isn't going to turn into a work out blog, although I might occasionally update how I'm doing, so don't worry!

Fortunately, I think my eating habits are fine, as I haven't really gained any weight between my doctors visits (I've been going roughly every 6 months for a check up for about the last year and a half now due to a minor surgery I had to have at the end of 2008). I try to maintain 1200-1500 calories a day - meaning I aim for 1200, but I gave myself that little bit of leeway with the 1500 since I've heard that 1500 is a healthy average to maintain. I do this by having something light when I get up - usually a low-fat breakfast bar on days I work, or an english muffin or sandwich on days I don't (depends on what time I get up). Then I usually eat light during the rest of the day until dinner (which I eat a decent sized meal). I'll snack on something light if I get hungry, usually crackers, as I heard a news report that it's good to snack when you get hungry so that you don't pig out when it's time for dinner and eat more than you should. At night if I get hungry I'll eat one of these yummy, 60 calorie Jell-O mousse temptations things I kept seeing on tv and HAD to try - they taste REALLY GOOD and are ONLY 60 CALORIES!

As far as a workout... well, that's been pretty much non-existent.

In high school I played soccer every spring and the first 2 weeks of practice were all conditioning with a little bit of skrimmage at the end. Our coach worked us hard those first 2 weeks and I was in pretty good shape!

When I got to college I didn't have the time join an intermural team as my schedule was pretty busy with classes, university band, working nights at the school newspaper and having a social life on the weekends, however I did walk all over campus to all those places. There were a few times later in college I got into a workout regime and stuck with it for about a month, but then over the summer I got out of the habit as I wasn't near campus as much.

I've tried the DDR workout a bit several times, which is fun, but I hate that the songs are like 1:30-2 minutes long and that you have to stop after everyone to pick the next song, in most cases - it's not constant. Not to mention, I got tired of working out to the same songs all the time (I have 3 different DDR games, but still...)

I also tried the Zumba DVDs, twice. I realized I can't work out to an exercise video. I don't like doing the same thing all the time, I like a little variation which you can't get with a DVD.

I'm hoping to win another $100 Amazon giftcard so I can get us a Wii and maybe later on that Jenny McCarthy work out game with the camera toy or the WiiFit, but that doesn't help me right now.

My mom was telling me about this great deal that one of the gyms in town has going on right now ($20 sign up fee per person, then $20 for the first name on the membership, $12 for the second, $7 for the third, etc...) and how great their equipment is... I was going to hop on their membership, but I guess you all have to live under the same address or be under 22, so that wasn't going to work. Hubby and I looked into it, as when I was in college, I really enjoyed spending 20-30 min on the treadmills but we can't afford one of those right now, however we just don't have the money for a gym membership right now.

My parents did give me their old exercise bike they were going to get rid of awhile back, so I've been using that but not as much as I probably should... I weighed myself the other day and it said I was 163, which is consistent with what I weighed when I went to the doctor in July. I'd like to lose 10lbs, if not closer to 20, as I hate the size jeans I'm in (13, 11 if they have stretch material in em - I miss wearing my size 9s!), my stomach doesn't look attractive in some of my 'hot' clothes,and when I gain weight part of it goes to my face and I HATE how it looks in pictures. I would LOVE to be right around 140 again, as I haven't been that weight since my early college days and I looked pretty good back then!

Okay, so here's my little workout regime I'm going to try to do 3-4 times a week:

• 20 reps (to start) of lunges with dumbells
• 20 reps per arm (to start) of dumbbell curls
• 20 reps (to start) of tricep extentions
• 10 min (to start) of riding the exercise bike
• 50 (to start) crunches
• 50 (to start) of "rowboats"
• 1 min (to start) of that exercise where you lay on your back and keep your legs straight while elevated 

I can't wait for all this snow to go away and the weather to warm up so I can go use our walking path around the corner - from our building to the stoplight and back is roughly a 2 mile walk!