This weekend was wonderful and fun, it was a great birthday, I got some walking in and did some good stuff.   This wasn't a horrible week since I got to the gym twice....but I am still not looking forward to the weigh in tomorrow morning.   I have GOT to get on top of this.  I looked at one of my goals from a year ago and I wanted to be a lot ligher than I am now as of my birthday this year...and am at the same weight basically that I was a year ago.  Now that is also a good thing because it means I didn't GAIN any weight.  But freakin seriously.  

 

I was watching an episode of Take Home Chef at some point this weekend that was really inspiring.  This woman had lost about 200 lbs and wanted to do something special for her husband who had supported her the entire time...so she called Curtis and he helped her make a great meal for him.   Curtis was really interested in her weight loss and asked her how she did it and how she kept the weight off.  She said in a nutshell the way she lost all of the weight was by going to the gym twice a day...and for motivation to keep the weight off she keeps one of her old shirts in her gym bag that is a 3x...and she wears a small size top now.   She said that it hasn't been as difficult as she thought it would be to keep the weight off because she has so much more energy now than she used to...that she actually feels like an energizer bunny! 

 

One of my coworkers quoted Jillian today...I thought it was great :)   I wonder if Bob and Jillian know how many people they have touched and taught things to...   

Well, I am doing my best to see if I can at least make the scale move in my favor again this week through some working out.   I was pretty sore after the stair challenge...but I survived lol  Am ready for our next challenge, we'll see if we can line something up this weekend. 

 

A normal day for me includes 20-45 minutes at the barn taking care of my horse.  That can mean I spend 45 minutes sweating, running around with my horse, lifting heavy things...or it can mean that I just grab a wheel barrow, shovel out a stall, dump the wheel barrow, drop some grain in for her and leave asap.  During the winter, the 2nd scenario is more likely...whereas during the summer when its warm and light out, the first scenario is more likely.   Its also more likely for me to spend more time there between semesters so in the middle of summer or on winter break.   Lately its been so cold that I've been doing the 20 minute routine with a couple of 45's in there.    I walked you through that because sometimes I forget that that is exercise that I do.  I'm just so used to it and it is part of my routine so I dont always mention the day to day stuff, and I won't always mention it here so I figured I would point that out. 

 

I literally did NOTHING as far as exercise goes yesterday.  For the 2nd time since I bought my horse about 18 months ago, I didn't even go to the barn!  I ended up getting roped into working late and then going out to dinner with the big-wigs...it was actually a lot of fun and I dont regret it...although I may be regretting it come Tuesday!    Aside from yesterday though I have been doing pretty well with the exercising/going to the gym.  The one part of winter that helps me get more exercise is that there is this white stuff...so I shovel a fair amount of snow.  Thats a nice little workout that needs to be done :)   I was in the habit of going to the gym almost every day there for awhile...had worked myself up to where I was relatively comfortable with doing 30 minutes on the elliptical.   Then when I started going back a couple weeks ago I realized that I am not going to be able to start back out at that level!  eek.   So I have picked back up to where I can do 15 minutes on an interval program on the elliptical...and am going from there.      In the past week I have gone to the gym on Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday and I am liking that feeling of getting back into the habit of going to the gym.   Tuesday was my best workout day yet this year.  In the morning I shoveled snow for about 15 minutes, after work I did my 20 minute routine at the barn and then my roommate and I went to the gym where I managed to do an 8 minute warmup on the treadmill, went upstairs and stretched, did my 15 minutes interval on the elliptical, then downstairs to cool down a bit and use the core exerciser for 15 minutes.  The core exerciser is one of those things that I really like, its not exactly going to get my heart rate up, its not really going to make me sore the next day....but its better that just sitting somewhere because it is making me work those core muscles.  (its this little machine that looks like a saddle and even has stirrups and moves side to side and front to back, requiring you to keep your center.  I can also work on my horseback riding skills a bit...although again its not real tough.)  I may attempt tonight to do my workout 15 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the core to cool down a bit and 15 more on the elliptical...we'll see.  I really need to work on getting in some more strength exercises too.    Anyway, I'm beat this has been a heck of a week at work so I'm going to get off of the computer and finish up my day.