Thanks, SYTYCD!

Some readers know that I am an avid fan of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance". I danced when I was younger, along with cheerleading and color guard. I absolutely LOVE dance and seeing dancers grow within their art. The show is perfect for that. The thing is, when I watch SYTYCD, I miss dancing so much, but I know that my knees would be shot after the second class if I went back to it weighing over 250#. So, I decided Wednesday evening, while I was watching the show, that this would be the -last- year I'm this heavy. I -will- get back to dancing, even if it's just a class taken at a community college. I have no dreams or aspirations of ever performing (though that might be kind of cool), and the only possible way in which I have -ever- thought I would be affiliated with dance professionally is as a teacher. I just want to get back to it for the love of the art form. Taking all of that into consideration, I thought about how I would accomplish this. I'm all about plans. :-) First off, I've -got- to add flexibility training back into my routine. Limber muscles don't get injured as quickly and loose hamstrings help prevent back pain. So, stretching: check. Next, I need to up the intensity of my cardio workouts to get the maximum amount of caloric burn that I can get, while still keeping it mostly low-impact. I will also continue to lift weights for strength, muscular endurance, and for the fact that muscle burns more kCal, even at rest, than fat does. So, fat burning: check. The third leg of the tripod is sticking to WW like glue. I need to really focus on eating filling foods and stay away from processed/refined/HFCS-laden crap and stay as close to "real" food as I can get. That means cooking more, but that's OK. I'll deal. :-) With upping the intensity of my workouts, I'll earn more APs, and I'll need to make sure I'm eating some of them. I'm not sure why, but the more I exercise, the less hungry I am. :-/ So we'll have to see how it goes. So, sticking to WW: check.

Proving that I'm putting it into practice is the fact that I came into work (I work late on Thursdays, but have to be here early because of bus schedule), had some brekkie, and read for a while. Then I decided that I'm not going to banish any weight by sitting on my tushie reading Harry Potter, so I went out to the fitness trail around the pond and walked. For 55 minutes. I did approximately 2.25 miles in that 55 minutes. Next week, I want to go out earlier and see if I can get a full 3 miles in, and how long it will take me, as that's within spitting distance of a 5K. When I get my 5K time to under an hour, I will start adding distance because I eventually want to do a half-marathon and there is an 8K (5 miles) in November that I'd like to do, but only if I can get my time to around 1:20 or so.

I'm working on a shopping list for next week which will have less processed/pre-packaged/refined stuff on it, and more actual food. Watch out world!

Um, yeah...

I didn't have the best weekend. As I said in my last post, I'd been battling headaches all week. When I went home Thursday, I started getting auras (lights in the edges of my field of vision). Knowing that was an indication that a migraine would soon follow if I didn't head it off at the pass, I popped 3 Motrin and drank some caffeine. Woke up Friday with a headache, but it wasn't a migraine, so I figured I was in the clear. Not so much. Woke up Saturday with the worst migraine I've had in several years. Yeah. Complete with pulsating head, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, etc. The whole ball of wax, as it were. Even had to have DH call some friends with whom I'd had plans to cancel for me. Sheesh! I took more painkillers and went back to bed. Sunday, I awoke sans migraine, thanks be to all that is decent and holy, but was completely wiped. Because I was still wiped yesterday, no gym visit for me. Instead, I put new sheets on the bed and watched the pilot episode of "Ghost Whisperer". Not the most productive evening, but...

Tonight, I'm going home, and I'm cleaning house. It's driving me crazy. I know, I know. Who would notice? Still. I'm going to whack away at as much as I can this week and use that as my exercise. Hopefully, I'll have it back under control so that I can go to the gym -and- clean. Time to dust off my "control journal", huh? I wonder what Zone we are in? Hmmm. I just figure that a clean house would be more conducive to the other healthy changes I'm trying to make in my life. Let's see, shall we?