This morning my Shopping Cousin called as asked me to go workout out with her tonight. I really didn’t feel like it because I’m sick again. I can’t believe it; I just got over a dual ear infection and sinus infection. The doctor said if I have these sinus issues again that I should go see the Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I was only feeling 100% healthy for about 3 days, before my troubles started all over again. It sounds like I’m holding my nose when I talk. But, anyway, I agreed to go with my cousin because I know how important it is to have a workout buddy when you need one. We agreed to go to the gym at 6 tonight after work. My cousin is late for everything y’all. We didn’t make it to the gym until after 7:30. She told me she wanted to punk out and not go, but, she didn’t want me to write about her! I got a good laugh out of that, because that’s certainly what I would have done, especially since it was her idea in the first place. Unfortunately, I did have to harass her about the cute non-athletic shoes she was wearing. Just like a true shop-aholic, she told me they were some fancy name brand, like that made it okay. It was not okay, real tennis shoes have shoestrings! Anyway, I told her she better be ready for a real workout after making me wait on her. We went upstairs to the indoor track at the gym and I did a new runner routine with her. We power walked 4 laps and ran 2 laps and repeated. We finished a whole mile. She’s skinny and had pretty good running speed. She’s actually living proof that changing your eating habits works. She lost over 100 pounds and has kept it off for almost 20 years! After running the track we went down to the machine room and got on the elliptical machine. I let her listen to my podcast and she really liked it. She “ran” on the elliptical during the running intervals of Week 1. After the elliptical, she thought surely we were finished. “Oh, no” I told her. “You wanted your trainer/cousin Carli to give you a good workout, and that’s what I’m gonna do!” We got on the bouncy medicine balls and did leg exercises, sit-ups and even push-ups. We did a few cool down stretches and I figured that was enough. We had a great workout, and it was good to see that the two of us could do something together other than go shopping.
Today is Wednesday, so it was time for the weekly walk with my Best Friend. Since I did so well with Week 2 yesterday, I decided it was time to move on to Week 3. My friend got a head start walking down the path, while I got my iPod together. I did just fine with the 1st 90 second interval run. The next 3 minute run was a little tough, but not impossible. I kept saying to myself I’ve run 3 whole miles several times, I know I can do this. The second set of runs were a lot harder, but I kept pushing. I remembered the joy of running past the skinny people walking, even if it was only for 3 minutes at time. It was also cool to see people cheering on the “fat girl running.” People gave me a thumbs up and one plus size girl grabbed her heart and smiled. Like I always say, if I can do it, anybody can. Running feels so good, I can’t believe I let myself get back to the point that I had to start training all over…. When I finished all of the running intervals, I was so tired. When I turned around and looked for my friend, she was nowhere in sight. I figured that she would want to do the whole 3 miles so I kept walking. I slowed down and waited for a few minutes at the halfway turn around point. When she got there she told me she wished I hadn’t done the whole walk and she kept looking for me to turn around. I told her I kept turning around looking for her to wave at me to come back. Neither one of us really wanted to do the whole thing, but that’s the great thing about working out outdoors, whether you feel like quitting or not, you still have to get back to the car. And eventually, we did.
Hey Everybody! I’ve been real lazy lately. Eating too much devil food, not keeping points and not working out enough. I don’t know why…it could be stress, PMS, work, blah blah, I could make up one hundred excuses, and that’s just what they would be, excuses. Today I was determined to get back in the swing of things. After work, I came home and got dressed for the gym. It was much too humid to run outside. I really didn’t feel like working out, and I’m sick of being on Week 2, but I have no one to blame but myself. I put on the Week 2 Podcast and hit the track. At the time, I was frustrated with somebody who jacked me around for some money, and I took out all of my aggression on my workout. I was like “Bring it on Carli, I’m Ready!” (I know Y’all talk back to my podcast, so I can talk back too!) I did so well, I mean I RAN during the running intervals. I surprised myself. Maybe someone should always screw me over right before a workout….well, maybe not. But anyway, I did great, no extra walking breaks; sweat pouring and legs burning, I just pushed right through it. I think I’m finally ready to move on to Week 3. So now for the juicy stuff. You know how I said I might have a date on Saturday? Well I did. And it was fantastic! He brought a dozen white roses to the Mexican restaurant on our 1st dinner date. My pastor always says “while you’re busy looking for Tall, Dark & Handsome; Mr. Right, just might be Short, Fat & Ugly. Well, He ain’t short, and he’s kinda cute. So, you figure it out…. We had such a great time and after dinner we went downtown to the John Legend
music concert and watched 4th of July, fireworks under the Arch. It was funny because my WHOLE family was there. My Mama, sisters, best friend, my shopping cousin, everybody. I warned him that they would be at the free summer concert, but he didn’t mind, because he’s real family oriented too, plus there were thousands of other people there. I kept cracking jokes like “Dang Mama, get off of my Date” Lol. My family treats everybody like family, so he told me he felt welcome and comfortable. We had such a great time; we went out again on Monday, since we were both work off for the holiday. …Well that’s the scoop. Oh yeah I signed back up for boot camp class. So hopefully with both the Couch to 5K running plan and boot camp, I can get back in the shape I want to be in.
Amber lost nearly 90 pounds with Jillian’s program!
My Best Friend and I knew we had plans tonight, so we moved our Weekly Wednesday Walk to Tuesday. I was still a little sore from Monday, but she didn’t really give me a choice. And, I knew it was now or never. It’s so good to have someone push you in the right direction. Once we got started on our stroll through the park, my body didn’t even realize that I was working out until after the first mile or so. Being lazy, I asked my friend if we had to the do the whole 3 miles since I had done 3 miles yesterday. She told me that “she” didn’t do 3 miles yesterday and to keep walking. I don’t know where all this laziness is coming from. It’s a little bit of staying up too late (like now it’s already after 1 AM) mixed with just plain old slacking off. However, we did finish the whole 3 miles….. Today, we went to a free summer concert at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was so nice! I met some former co-workers who saved us a great spot near the stage. I think there had to be thousands of people there. There were families and couples and friends, sharing picnic food and wine. I brought some sparkling Moscato wine and cheese and crackers. We passed around other sharables. My bubbly wine was a big hit. The ambiance was so nice, these pics don’t even do it justice. It was a perfect night, a cool breeze, smooth jazz surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. Even amongst so many people, it felt private. It made me wonder how FREE events like this can go on and I didn’t even know about it. Some people sat with their eyes closed and inhaled the tunes, while other wildly danced around the stage. The singer Dawn Weber had several different horns and great jazzy funky band called the Electro Funk Assembly that appealed to all music tastes. It was a wonderful way to unwind from the stresses of the day. There are a few more concerts before the summer is over, and I hope that I will get to go again.
Today when I got off work I was feeling so tired and lazy, and it just so happened that my Little sister text me and said “Hey let’s go work out.” I was excited to have my old workout buddy back. She was so busy with school and afterschool activities, I felt like we hadn’t worked out together in forever. We decided to jog in the park. It was hot, but it wasn’t devil’s kitchen hot like it was the other day. I put on Week 2 (again) and asked her to run the intervals with me. It was hard! I’ve been doing the program indoors because of the extreme weather, and going back to “real” training outdoors was pretty tough. By the time I got the 4th running interval I couldn’t even finish the whole 90 second run. I walked through the 5th one and ran the 6th one. I felt like a loser, so I re-wind my podcast and repeated 2 of the intervals to make up for it. Overall, we finished 3 miles and I did all of the intervals. My legs were burning and I was breathing heavy; I felt anything but in shape. My sister said “what is wrong with you? why are you not in shape like you’re supposed to be?” I told her, I know I’m not where I should be. It’s so frustrating when I know that I’ve run a 5K, and now I can’t even run 90 second intervals. But, I know that it takes hard work and regular training to stay where I want to be. I know if I work hard, I’ll be back where I want to be.
