Getting Uncomfortable

I woke up this morning about 5:15 am, which was 15 minutes before the alarm clock was scheduled to wake me from my dreams.   I said to myself, I’ll just go back to sleep, and I sorta did, at least until the alarm actually sounded.   Okay, I’m awake, no excuse not to go on this early morning walk with my girl.  After all it was my bright idea anyway.  I didn’t oversleep and I don’t feel overly tired despite working overtime yesterday.  But, it was still dark outside; which means you’re still supposed to be asleep….Right?  I’m just not a morning person.  Ultimately, though I couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to stay in bed.  However, my brain does not function at this hour….why didn’t I pick out my walking clothes last night? Where are my tennis shoes?  Nyah calm down, stop jumping, I’m confused too, why am I stepping on dog food?!  … Where did this giant pimple come from on my cheek? Is it cold outside this early? Do I need to wear pants? Where are my freaking SHOES?!  I had to calm down.  I took a deep breath, rinsed my mouth out, didn’t care that my hair was standing on top of my head, and put on an uncomfortable pair of sneakers I found under the bed.  As I coached myself to the front door, I saw the unthinkable….RAIN! If you read my blog you know I hate rain.  It’s gloomy and wet,  it’s just ugh.  Well, I’m up now I rationalized with myself and I’ve stuffed my feet into these shoes, so I might as well run back up and get the umbrella.  Luckily, by the time I made it to my friend’s house the rain had stopped. 
She is the complete opposite of me, a total ray of sunshine in the morning.  She regularly gets up at 5 o’clock or earlier.  “Good Morning Friend!” She giddily exclaimed, “I’m so excited even though this is so late.” (It was only 6 AM y’all) Then she explained how she picked out a red towel for me to wipe my sweat because she knows I like red.  I could barely put on shoes, and she was up color-coding! LOL….  After a few minutes of walking around the park track near her house, I finally started to wake up.  She said “Carli, you have to get uncomfortable”  I was still grouchy and cut her off before she even finished her sentence.  Being my best friend and accustomed to my morning moodiness, she said, “No, just listen.  You have to get uncomfortable if you want to see a change.  Right now, you’re out of your element, but this is the sort of thing that’s going to make you to see a difference.  Right now you’re doing things that you’re comfortable with, and maintaining, but for the real change, you’re going to be uncomfortable.”  Her thoughts were profound.  It was the first thing that made sense all morning. Because, it was nothing but the truth that she was preaching.  If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got….We were able to power walk 2 miles, and catch up on life details, even though we talk daily as much as Oprah and Gayle. 

 I went to work feeling like the toughest part of my day was over, that was until I saw my co-workers congregated in the lobby.   “What’s going on? “ I asked.  They told me that all of the elevators were down.  We’d have to do the unthinkable, worse than getting up when it’s dark, worse than walking in the rain…we would have to climb 9 flights of stairs to the office.  I thought about how ridiculous it would be to stand in the lobby when I have two functioning legs.  Just show me where are the steps are.   I climbed all nine double flights,  198 stairs to be exact.  When I reached the top, winded and starting to shine, I wished I had my red towel.  I peeped my head in the HR guy’s office and panted, “I think I deserve over-time pay for this.”  He replied, “Oh, it’s part of the firm’s new Wellness program.”  Yeah okay, I laughed.  These slick lawyers always have the right thing to say! But, I can’t complain, because I knew for sure this time that the rest of the day would be down hill.

A Week of Activity

I don’t feel really chatty today.  I think it’s because I’m tired.  I walked on Monday with Mr. Man, I went to extreme boot camp class on Tuesday with my girl from work, I did my normal weekly walk with my Best Friend yesterday and Boot camp again today.  It really pays to have a surplus of workout buddies.  If it weren’t for my friends, I probably would have only worked out 1 or 2 of the last four days.  If you ever feel like you need motivation to get in some extra activity find some fitness friends to help you stay on track.  My legs are looking tight and sexy, but I think I’ll take a day or so off, I don’t want to over do it.  However, I really do need to get back to running.  Walking in the park and pushups are a great way to stay in shape, but there’s nothing quite like running.   I want to be ready for my Sista Strut Breast Cancer 5K  in October.  And then take it to the next level.  I get emails everyday asking about a 5K bridge to 10K podcast.  Yes, it is coming.  It is a long process.  But the process has finally been started.  I created my own plan, because I couldn’t really find one that I liked.  I also have most of my weekly start up tips prepared.  And,  I have some great suggestions for music.  I’m working hard for you guys.  If you want to leave a music suggestion for the 10K podcast, just leave a comment here….Well that’s about it, short and sweet, I’m calling it a night girls and boys.  Bye!

2 for 1 Special

So, I’m calling it a 2 for 1 special, not because I did something really cool like work out twice in one day, but because I’m super busy and I’m putting two days of workouts in 1 blog post.   So yesterday,  Mr. Man text me and told me that he wanted to go for a walk again.  I couldn’t believe it!  Especially, since he said he was still sore from climbing the hill on Saturday.  I had a ton of stuff to do, but it’s so hard for me to turn down somebody who wants to work out, and he was willing to make the long drive to my side of the river.  It was a beautiful night, everyone is happy that the weather finally broke from one of the hottest summers on record.  We walked back towards the picturesque water basin & fountain.  There were couples everywhere…but gay couples.  Girls kissing girls and men on cute wine and cheese picnics together.  Love who you wanna love, but I think we missed the memo and came on Gay night in the park.


 
     Anyway, Mr. Man said this part of the park is so beautiful, that he could imagine that many guys propose to their ladies right here…..Hmmmm….. In my practical mind I said “pump your brakes dude, we’ve been dating for less than 2 months.”  But instead I said yea it is beautiful…hmmmmm…anyway, we had a great walk, I ran the hill, while he walked because I didn’t want him to over do it since he hadn’t “exercised like this since high school.” ……Once we got close to the car, I noticed he started to actually run, challenging me to a race!   “Ah naw!”, I exclaimed.  He wasn’t going to be beat me on my own turf.   I took off running and left him and Nyah in my dust. ….Much like my Lil sister left me on race day.  When they made it to the car, I said did you really think you could beat me running????  He slapped his hand on the hood of the car and said “Yep I just won”  LOL!  Cheaters never win I said jokingly, forgetting the childhood rules that you gotta “touch the base” first to win the race.
     As much fun as my walk was, I was totally unprepared for today’s boot camp class.  5 minutes in, we had already done 3 suicide runs spaced by jumping jacks.  This class made climbing that monstrous hill in the park akin to stepping over a rock.  Lyle was on a mission today.  There were about 12 of us in class today, so he gave us each an activity, sit-ups, jumping jacks, push-ups on “ The Perfect Pushup ”, Kettlebell squats, Jump Rope, Resistance Band pulls and more.  We each rotated to the next “station” until we completed 45 seconds at each activity.  And, when we finished the interval workouts breathing heavy and shirts soaked with sweat.  He said okay, let’s take a water break and repeat!  Seriously.  We had to do it all over again.  Then we ran a lap for the girl who was late.  My co-worker friend and I power walked, there was no running left in me.  Finally it was time for the cool down stretches and about 20 extra push-ups.  But we survived, just to do it all again on Thursday.

A Romantic Stroll

                                                                                              This morning, I missed the first wake-up call from Mr. Man.  He enjoyed our workout so much last weekend, that he wanted to go again.  Finally, I heard the phone ring when he was just 20 minutes away.  Still sleepy, I put on some shorts to go with the t-shirt that I slept in, as I fumbled my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash the cat butt out of my eyes.  Since he recommend today’s workout and he was such a good sport last time, I decided that I would take it easy on him this morning.  When we got to the park, I chose a more scenic route.  We walked towards the beautiful water basin where they have the paddle boats, it was such a beautiful scene I had to snap a quick pic with my cell phone.  I told him about Art Hill, the giant hill in front of the St. Louis Art Museum, where in the winter it’s covered with snow and ton’s of people come out and go sledding.  He said it looked like it would be a lot of fun.  And then a light bulb went off in my mind.   Why do we have to wait until winter to climb the hill?  He agreed, and we found the steepest part of the hill; we were ready for the challenge.  But, get this, he said he wanted to hold my hand on the way up!  He is so super romantic, and I’m so…. not.    I can’t even count how many roses  he’s bought for me.  Anyway, I know when you’re dating it’s not all about you, so I agreed to hold his hand and climb the hill regardless of how ridiculous it felt to me.  I held his hand and we climbed the hill together.  That hill was a lot steeper than I remembered.  He was holding my hand encouraging me, and once we got close to the top, he started dragging and I was pulling him up.  I said “Okay, Mr. Man, you’re a big dude, I can’t pull you up this hill!”  Neither one of us gave up, and together, holding hands, fingers locked, we made it to the top of the hill….awwwwwwww……maybe I liked it after all.  We were both breathing heavy and he and Nyah sat down at the foot of the statue for a break.  I really wanted to push myself, so I ran back down the hill and power walked back up to them at the top.  I was wiped after that.  But we still had to get back to the car.  We crossed a cute little bridge over a pond and saw couples and families enjoying picnics.  But, the next wire bridge kinda creeped me out.  Like you could see the water through the wire on the bottom.  I’m kinda scared of heights and weird stuff like glass elevators.  Anyway, he was really understanding about my crazy fear, and agreed to turn around to avoid that bridge.  In the end, we walked much further than we initially planned since we avoided the scary bridge.  After we walked and climbed the hill and avoided the bridge, we finally got back to the car about an hour and 15 minutes later.  I don’t really know how many miles it was since we weren’t on the regular path.  The hot summer sun was beaming down in full effect, and we were both sweating profusely.  I started freaking out, I still hate to sweat, and I really hate to stink, especially in front of guy.  He said, “it’s okay Baby, it’s a good stink.”  I said you know what, it is a good funk, because we’re working on getting healthy together, so we embraced our funk and sweat, but just not each other. LOL!  He’s so patient and understanding with me and all my quirks, I think I could get used to having him around. 

Gold Star Day

I woke up this morning and got on the scale, and I was floored, shocked, amazed and disappointed.  I saw a number that I haven’t seen in a really long time.  I started praying to God to help me.  This weight loss thing can be so hard sometimes.   I know that I have a gift of helping people with their journey, but its so frustrating that my progress made a U-turn and is running in the wrong direction.  I started panicking, telling myself; I’ll never be able to make my fitness DVD, will my blog readers and runners start to think I’m a fraud?  And then I had to catch myself.  That downward spiral only goes down and nothing good comes from it.  I prayed God just help me with today.  I started remembering what my weight watcher leader and my Hollywood Aunt always say, just take it ONE DAY AT TIME.  I realized, that no, Running Into Shape is not a disaster because I gained a couple pounds and yes, they will still read your blog and  yes your family still loves you because you’re human, and we make mistakes.  I prayed again “Okay God, I’m serious, help a sista out, I can’t do it by myself.”  Instead of hitting up the deli shop at my job for a quick muffin, I took a vitamuffin top (100 cal) and a weightwatcher yogurt….(amaretto flavor, so delicious)…. Then I told my co-worker first thing, I’m eating a salad & water for lunch, nothing else, not negotiable.  She’s working on her weight too, and she signed up Lyle’s Boot Camp class with me!  I am so excited to have another workout buddy.  You know I live for a plan, so I found my next 5K.  It’s called the Sista Strut to help bring awareness to the startling number of women of color with breast cancer in my area.  It’s a walk, but it’s not until October, so I hope to run the whole thing.   

After work, I came home to let Nyah out and get dressed for class.  I picked up my co-worker friend and we were on our way.  We were just about 3 minutes late and already missed 3 exercises.  Lyle is serious about his class.  We joined in the jumping jacks and squat thrusts.  Then, he had us lay the mats on an incline and do sit ups and pushups and repeat.  That little hill made it that much harder.  But thank GOD, for a cool day, it was only in the 80′s with a cool breeze.  I’ll take that over ridiculously hot days we’ve been having.  Class was so nice to do with a friend, and have that extra encouragement during the suicide runs and planks.  I guess God was listening this morning, because I had a Gold Star day!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B-Vita Muffin Top, WW Amaretto Yogurt (actually quite filling combo), Green Tea w/ Splenda

L- Fried Chicken Salad w/Fat Free Italian Dressing, Small breadstick & Water

D- Subway Sandwich & 13 animal crackers (I counted a serving)

Good Morning!

Last night, Me and Mr. Man went to a bar-b-que at my Big Little Sister’s house.  That girl has more BBQ’s  and “just because” parties than anybody I know.  After the party, we came back to my house and watched this semi-scary movie called “The Crazies.”  I love thrillers, but this one kind of missed the mark.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t that good.  Anyway, by the time the movie was over, it was after 2 AM and there was terrible thunderstorm that sounded like it was trying to beat down the windows.  Nyah was even a little scared of the loud thunder and lighting, so she curled up close under our feet…..  Mr. Man lives almost an hour away, so while we waiting for the rain to slack up, we both fell asleep on couch.  After a while I got in bed…..  Wait a minute y’all!  I said “I” got in bed by myself.  Get your mind out the gutter.  LOL!  I brought him a pillow and he slept on the couch…….I already knew I had a super busy Saturday ahead of me, so I’ve been planning my early morning workout to beat the hot summer sun.  

The storm knocked the power out for a few minutes, and my alarm clock was wrong, so I just let my internal clock wake me up.  When I woke up and looked at my cell it was a little after 7 AM.  I laid down for about another hour and then got up.  Oh no, I thought he’s gonna see my “morning face.” …..Nonetheless, when I told him it was time to get up and go workout, he looked at me quizzically, like I was trying to teach a dog how to play poker.  “Yes, workout, meet Carli the certified fitness instructor!”  He was a little taken aback, by my early morning aggressiveness, but I promised him I’d cook breakfast, so he was all good after that.  Me, Mr. Man and Nyah headed to Forest Park.  I asked him, “how far can you walk?”  He said “oh it doesn’t matter Baby”, I said okay, then 3 miles it is.  He said, well I don’t know about that!  I told him, that I would push him, but only to the point where he felt tired, but comfortable.  I think he thought it was going to be a romantic morning stroll.  Wrong!  I told him, “We’re working on getting sexy and getting healthy, come on, keep up!  All of the cheery morning people, were smiling and waving at us.   I was walking backwards facing him, and encouraging him.  I could tell that 3 miles would have been a little bit too much for him; so after we walked for about 1 mile, I told him where the turnaround point was for 2 miles and took off running.  He later said “I looked up and you were gone!”  I did the whole 3 miles.  Running and walking.  I didn’t have my podcast on, but I ran for a few minutes and walked for a few minutes and repeated until I got back to the car.  He was there waiting with Nyah.  He was only waiting on me  for a few minutes.  So, it worked out perfectly.  We just barely beat the real heat. We went our separate ways, just to freshen up and get back together for tonight.  Now, we’re headed to a charity fundraiser with my sisters.  And get this it’s a “Mouse race, Luau and dinner”….somebody was being really creative.  Like do I really want to eat dinner and bid on running mice at the same time???   Will they be in a box? Or a cage? Or have leashes or something? I mean one time I saw a dead mouse in my house and was literally scared to tears…..anyway, I could blog for hours, but tonight should be ummmm  interesting.  Well I’m off to put my money on the fastest looking critter!  Go mousey go!  (Maybe they’re plastic mice?)  I don’t know…..Anyway, I guess I’ll just go and have a good time.  Good Bye!

The Good The Bad The Ugly & The Best

I woke up this morning knowing that I had to go and workout today.  Today was another scorcher, well above 90 degrees.  But, I thought about how many times have I read emails and comments from you guys saying “You kept on going through the rain, through the cold through the whatever, because you could hear my voice in Week 5 saying “Just get to it, No excuses!”  When I got home from work, I said it’s just too hot outside, I’ll go to the gym.  But I didn’t want to feel like a hamster running around the track in circles.  So, I decided that I would drink plenty of water and brave the weather.  My Big Little Sister called and invited me to her neighborhood block party, but I was getting ready to go to the park to run.  Then, I had an ingenious idea.  Why not walk to my Sister’s house?  I jumped on Google maps really quick and saw that it was just a little over 3 and half miles and an estimated 1 hour and 8 minute walk.   I can handle that.  Right?  Maybe?  I was so excited about my adventure, I grabbed my fur baby Nyah, and hit the pavement, and told my sister to look out for us.  I was probably too excited, because I forgot my Cell Phone and had to turn back around after a few minutes to get it.  By the time I walked back to my door, I was already sweating.  This is a good plan right? This will make a good blog post tonight right?  We headed out again, this time armed with my cell phone, a towel to catch my sweat, and my iPod .  I took a self defense class in college that said as a lady you should never run alone with earphones in both ears, so I always have just one in, so I can pay attention to my surroundings while jamming to my podcast.  There was so much to see, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and then the Best thing.  I told y’all before I live in the hood/ghetto, but all the scary looking people were scared of Nyah, so it worked out perfectly.  About 10 minutes into my walk, I was thinking I’d never make it all the way there; because I’ve never walked to a real destination except my Mom’s house about 7 blocks away.  Then I saw “The GOOD”, this church billboard sign that read “Run Till You Finish” with a scripture.  I appreciated that little boost and knew right then that I would make it all the way. 

 Then came “The BAD.”  I had to walk past like 3 cemeteries.  That stuff creeps me out, and it made me think about dead people.  No fun. 

Then came the “The UGLY.”  There was this horrible collapsed building, or what used to be to be building, it reminded me of the Haiti disaster.  I kept asking myself what happened?   We don’t have earthquakes, or Tsunamis that would do damage like that here in St. Louis.  How does the city allow it to stay like that?  Why won’t they clean it up?  It was just sad really.   When you’re driving past, it’s so easy to over look the details. 

Anyway, Me and Nyah, kept pushing, trying to block out the disturbing broken glass and boarded up ghetto images and focus on the main goal, my sister’s house in a good/safe neighborhood.  When we were just about 10 minutes away there was a monster hill, and another cemetery.  I hadn’t really put steep hills in my brave hood adventure equation.  It killed me and Nyah, I was dragging all 65 pounds of her by the time we finally arrived at the block party.  I looked at my Nike Tracker, it read exactly 1 hour and 8 minutes.  I was so freaking happy!  I did it!   And I did it in the suggested amount of time.  Finally the there was “The BEST”, my cute little niece at the finish line.  Her smiling face and jumbled 2 year old words made it all worthwhile.

Hot & Lazy

Hey Everybody. It’s so hot here in St. Louis, and I’ve been quite lazy. I felt like it was too hot to go to boot camp class on Tuesday and Thursday. It was over 90 degrees both days, and I  just couldn’t imagine doing jumping jacks or running bleachers in that type of humid heat. However, instead of hitting the gym, I hit the couch and watched TV….. I know that’s all bad. I could make a ton of excuses,  I was tired, and I stayed up all night with my sister, I was planning my b-day party or I worked overtime. All of which are true, but still just excuses. So, the truth is, I was just too lazy to fit it in. I thought about my blog every single day, but I didn’t really have much to say. However, when I woke up this morning, I said I will write a blog post tonight, and I will go workout. During church today, the pastor showed us pictures of his totaled car from an horrible accident where a truck hit him, and his car flipped several times, yet he says the hand of God reached down and saved his life.  By the time the paramedics arrived to the scene, he was no longer strapped in the driver’s seat but somehow miraculously placed in the back seat, still with his hat on his head and glasses on his face! Judging by the pictures of the wrecked car with most of the windows broken out, it’s nothing short of a miracle, that he was able to walk away with only a minor scratch. He shouted his favorite line, “Ain’t He Alright!” It was quite eye opening, it made me think back to my car accident when I physically could not work out for weeks, and wanted to,  but now I’m fully able and just too lazy. That’s not acceptable.  I wanted to make sure I would work out today, so I recruited my little sister for back up.  Once she was dressed and ready to go, I really didn’t have an excuse.  I poked around for a while, and finally put on my tennis shoes, shorts and a tank top.  My little sister likes working out in the park instead of the gym.  Today was another scorcher, up in the nineties, but since she was joining me I let her pick the location.  When we got there I had every intention on walking 3 miles, but I wasn’t even going to pretend to run with my podcast.  We got started, and walked and talked about our future dream houses and future careers.  After about a mile or so, the sun and the heat were just too unbearable.  We turned around and dragged ourselves back to my car.  Even when we were close enough to see the car, it still seemed far away, because it was just so darn hot.  Dripping sweat, we finally climbed in the car, I guzzled a warm bottle of water like a championship boxer, letting it drip down my chin and chest without care.   Mission accomplished…Well sort of.  Physically, I could have kept walking my because legs weren’t hurting, but I don’t think it would’ve been safe.  There was probably a weather heat advisory.  But, I’m satisfied, because we definitely burned more calories than we would have sitting at home watching a movie.