Mrs. G's Journey to Better Health

It was a rough day. For the first time, ever, I got my 1st filling. I chipped a tooth eating a hard shell taco. Actually, I had a cavity and the taco chipped the edge of it. Half my face felt numb for what felt like the entire day (about 2.5hours). I did not get walk in today, but I also ate less than my allowance of daily calories. We shall see what the scale says tomorrow morning.

3 days ago it was very hot. 4PM and it was 100*F. Today, 72hours later, it was 40* cool. This morning I got up feeling like I wanted to stay in bed, curl up in with my kids and blow the day away. Instead, I got up, and set out with kids in the double jogging stroller and went for my walk. It was cool. No chance of rain in the forecast. This was the view at the dam. It was very hazy/foggy. I started to feel a mist, then it turned into light drizzle. It never rained, but the drizzle was enough to get me wet. I pressed on and got my walk in, 4.5miles. Now it's the end of the day and my FitBit reads 13,000 steps. I may not be able to make an entry tomorrow, may not be in the mood for much. I will be visiting the dentist because I chipped a tooth eating a hard shell taco last week.

This is my FitBit, and it is telling me I walked over 11,000 steps today. My intention for today was to walk from home all the way to the park. Along the way I came across 3 dogs. 2 were on a leash, the third was not and it was not happy I was walking past it. I crossed the street to avoid getting bit. I didn't see his human any where near him. I also encountered many red lights. *sigh* All these things slowed my walking time down enough that I ended up needing a ride the rest of the way to the park. Normally, I would have kept walking no matter how long it would have taken me. This time was different. I wanted to be at the park by a certain time. Why? Because my son would be playing soccer. That was not the end of my walking. While my son did his stretching and his warm up exercises, I decided to walk around the field. I did four laps, which were the equivalent of 1 mile. I got my 3.5mile walk in and enjoyed my son's soccer game as well. After socce...

It was a hot day. I have not watched the news yet to know how hot it actually got today, but I am sure it was well over 100*F. At 4PM today it was 99*F, well, that is according to my iPhone. I knew it was going to be hot day and somehow I needed to make sure to keep my walk in the forefront of my mind. My usual walking podcasts are, in alphabetical order as they appear on my iPhone: - Balanced Living - Biggest Loser Fan Cast - Jillian Micheals with Janice, - Jillian Micheals by her biggest fan, - Logical Weight Loss, and - Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone Well, I am all caught up on these podcasts, so I set out to find something else to listen, something to keep me motivated on my walk. I downloaded three new ones: - Dr.Fitness and the Fat Guy, - Eat, Sleep, Move, and - Fat 2 Fit Radio 4 O'Clock rolled around and it was a still hot outside. So I decided to hold off for an hour and go. Sure enough, the temp dropped a bit and I ventured out for my walk....

Running seems like something challenging. I can run 20-30 seconds and my body starts to complain. I feel so awkward jogging while my body does the juggling jiggly wobbly dance. I will eventually get to jogging/running a marathon, but that is a bit in the future. I may feel like I can't run, but I can walk. For now I walk and do short spurts of jogging. I jog until I am almost out of breath, then I start walking until I regain normal breathing... then, I repeat. Mostly, I walk. I walk. Today I felt lazy and I did  not want to go out for the walk/ wanna be job. I decided that today I would not try jogging spurts. I went for a 4.75mile walk. Yes, I walked the entire way, which is much better than slacking off and staying home. "All or nothing," and "Go big or go home," are expressions that come to mind when I see sport competitions. I used to have this mentality when it came to exercise as well. If I couldn't do the entire walk the way I wanted/planned, I w...

The thing that stood out the most for me today was a very unexpected pleasant surprise. On Tuesday's I volunteer in my son's kindergarten class. Out of nowhere this young man comes up to me and addresses me by name and says, "Mrs. G, I made a flower for you." It was very sweet. I thanked him and brought the flower home. I meant to take a picture of it to post but, ... I forgot. It was made of pieces of geometric shaped paper. During my 30 minute lunch break I listened to part of podcast #14 of "Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone" and it was perfect timing. The part I listen to spoke about shin splints. I realized that the slight pain I felt during yesterday's walk is called "shin splints." I learned that I could use ice to help relieve some of the pain; for next time I can use arch inserts and try not landing on my heel when walking. During the evening, I got to watch the only TV I watch on a regular basis: The Biggest Loser. The episode was o...

I feel so proud of myself today. I walked. I usually drive to The Kid's school to pick him up. Today, I decided I would take the double jogging stroller and pick him up. I did it. I walked 2.5 miles there and another 2.5miles back. I walked a total of 5miles. I was worried about getting to the school on time, and so I gave myself plenty of time for all the red lights. I got there 15 minutes  before school let out. The 2.5mile walk took me 50minutes to accomplish. During my walk I finished listing to a couple of podcasts. "Logical Weightloss" and "Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone" This was my first episode of Logical Weightloss for me. The host apparently is a SparkPeople member, also uses Loseit.com and Fitbit.com. I was pleased to hear him say what I did a few days ago on here. And, that is, he had neglected to post/podcast because he had gained some weight and wanted to wait to report back something more positive. He finally decided to post/podcast because ...

It's a good day when we're celebrating a day filled with lots of sugar and I did not pig out on it. In fact, I had a handful of chocolate covered raisins today and that was it! Whoo-hoo! Yay for me. Spring Break is over and tomorrow the usual school week resumes. This time I'm thinking of walking to pick up The Kid from school at least twice a week. Can I do it? Will I get there in time to pick-up the kid? We live about 2.5 miles away from the school and it is not all level ground. A slight uphill exists. I know I can walk all the way there. My concern is with getting there on time and being able to walk all the way back. A round trip is 5 miles, in 80 some odd degree weather. I will take plenty of drinking water with us. Wish me luck.

Taking the time to exercise is tough. I seem to put everyone and everything else first. Taking the time for me is difficult for me to do. Today I made progress by at least bringing myself on an equal with others. I need to walk/exercise so today in effort to get some walking in, I took the kids to the Los Angeles Zoo. We were there for 6 hours. The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals and I enjoyed some easy paced walking. We got to take in the "World of Birds," show. A show I, myself, have not seen in over 10 years. It was nice, but must admit, it felt short. Alyssa, you put the cherry on my day by checking in on me. Thank you.

It's been a while since my last blog entry. My tweeting has slowed down to a crawl. My FitBit lost it's charge, I finally recharged it but have not synced it. As a result of all these little things, I have gained some weight back. 15 lbs to be more exact. I keep procrastinating posting because I want to have something positive to say, but... it's not happening. So, this post it to admit, I have fallen off my weight loss wagon and am struggling to get back on my journey. It seems that when I was posting on Facebook, Tweeting, blogging on my SparkPage and my own blog, I was doing a lot better. Tomorrow I will: --Weigh myself --Post my weight --Log everything I eat, even if I go over my calorie budget. --Tweet at least twice --Make one Facebook status post. Following this post, I will recharge my FitBit and sync it up again. I will also make an effort to get 7 hours of continuous sleep tonight. Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrsGJourney Blog: http://mrsgsjo...