Pounding the pavement

Week 7 is officially in the dust. I took my running outside today. It’s been almost 5 weeks since I actually ran outside. I was nervous. I’ve grown comfortable running in my room (or Jorja’s room). I have the comfort of a clock to keep track of how much longer I have. I have easy reach to my water bottle. I run on a padded carpet. But I knew I needed to get back outside, I needed to test my ability to run on concrete to see if I have improved any.

I am happy to say, that I have greatly improved. My shins did not bother me at all, now my calves on the other hand did. But I put my playlist on, ran the app and jogged up and down my street. I stopped only twice and walked for about 30 seconds, then began jogging again. It’s still not easy to run the whole time, but I keep moving. In fact when I was about to stop for the third time, the app told me it was time to cool down.

Not having my clock to stare at every two minutes actually helped me. I didn’t focus on how much time I had left, but rather on my breathing and my pacing. It felt good to be outside in the fresh air knowing I was doing something good for myself.

Speaking of which, I am addicted with weighing myself. I felt lighter and wanted to see if it was just a feeling I had, or if I actually had lost weight. The last weight I reported was 226. I am now 224.4 – so I’ve now officially lost 9.6 pounds. I still have over 25 pounds to go to get to my first goal, but I’m pleased to see the results that I am seeing.

I posted my daily picture today of chocolate hearts and how my sugar cravings are becoming less and less. I had a friend recently post on facebook and ask if anyone else was experiencing this odd phenomenon where you don’t want sugar as much because you have started running. I never thought that would happen to me. I’ve always had the biggest sweet tooth, especially for chocolate. Now, I still crave chocolate, but I am happy that it now only takes a little bit and I am satisfied. The kids and I bought some donuts recently from a new donut place. I had a chocolate eclair and it was actually hard for me to finish.

I haven’t made any dramatic changes to my diet, but I have added more raw vegetables and fresh fruit to our snacks. I’d rather spend money on those then junk. I’m glad I will be resting tomorrow, my whole body is craving the rest. I’ve been pushing myself harder and harder all this week. I did Tae Bo on Tuesday, then yesterday I did a workout I made up that consists of doing lat pull downs, shoulder presses, crunches, pushups, arm curls, squats, and crunch punches. Each one I do for 60 seconds – it ends up being about 25 of each item. I do them in groups of three and do 5 pushups between each group. I got this idea from my friend Dana, who makes up her own workouts too. I wanted something to focus on my arms to help them tone up, as well as other items that work other parts of my body, from my legs to my abs.

So my workout looks like this:

• Lat Pull Downs for 60 seconds (or 25)
• Shoulder Presses for 60 seconds (or 25)
• Crunches for 60 seconds (or 25)
• 5 Pushups
• Arm Curls for 60 seconds (or 25)
• Deep Squats (I try to touch the floor) for 60 seconds (or 25)
• Crunch Punches (you wrap a band around your waist while sitting with yourself in a sit up position – like a 45 degree angle – and punch from right to left) for 60 seconds (or 25 each side)
• 5 Pushups

That is one complete circuit, then I repeat this process – I was able to do it four times last night. So I’m going to keep trucking along with my workouts. Next week I start week 8 and will be running for 28 minutes.