Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts

Sunday, April 29, 2012

100 Reasons to Work Out

I found this on SparkPeople today and I thought it was sort of cute.
100 Reasons not to skip your workout.


  • Because it makes you feel confident
  • Because it helps you get stronger
  • Because exercise helps combat depression
  • Because you'll feel proud of yourself
  • Because you have goals you want to reach
  • Because you'll feel bad if you don't
  • Because you want to move forward, not backward
  • Because it burns more calories than not working out
  • Because it improves your heart health
  • Because you want a great butt
  • Because it prevents diabetes
  • Because you want to be a good example to your kids
  • Because you want to feel good in your clothes
  • Because it reduces your risk of cancer
  • Because your body was made to move
  • Because you want to be an athlete
  • Because you want to look better
  • Because it lifts your mood
  • Because you want to stand taller
  • Because it reduces back pain
  • Because it feels good
  • Because it makes you feel accomplished
  • Because you spend most of your day on your butt
  • Because swimsuit season is always coming
  • Because strong is the new skinny
  • Because dieting only works so much
  • Because it strengthens your bones, too
  • Because it helps you lose weight
  • Because it allows you to eat more food
  • Because it's the best way to spend "me" time
  • Because it helps you de-stress
  • Because it's cheaper than therapy
  • Because you want a strong core
  • Because you want to take care for yourself
  • Because you take pride in your body
  • Because it strengthens your legs
  • Because it helps your clothes fit better
  • Because you want to push yourself
  • Because you are capable of more than you ever imagined
  • Because moving your body feels good
  • Because it keeps your mind sharp
  • Because it helps you beat belly bloat
  • Because it helps you sleep better at night
  • Because it gives you energy
  • Because you want to stay healthy as you age
  • Because you want to look younger
  • Because you want toned arms
  • Because it improves your balance
  • Because it burns off last night's dessert
  • Because it boosts your immune system
  • Because sweat is sexy
  • Because you want to live longer
  • Because you want to get better at your game
  • Because you want to catch someone's eye
  • Because exercisers earn more money
  • Because you're more likely to eat better when you exercise
  • Because you want to shave time off your running pace
  • Because you want to breathe easier
  • Because you want to see the scale drop
  • Because exercise improves your sex life
  • Because you are worth it
  • Because being fit makes everything in life better
  • Because you promised yourself that you would
  • Because you deserve a better life
  • Because it'll help you drink more water
  • Because you want to do real push-ups
  • Because it reduces your health care costs
  • Because you'll miss fewer days of work
  • Because you want to create a new future for yourself
  • Because it'll help you like what you see in the mirror
  • Because it makes clothing shopping more fun
  • Because you want to look and feel incredible
  • Because exercising can be fun
  • Because it'll give your skin a glow
  • Because it's a good way to spend time with your friends
  • Because it'll help you prevent the middle-age spread
  • Because it reduces your blood pressure
  • Because you don't want to let yourself go
  • Because you don't want to squeeze into an airplane or rollercoaster seat
  • Because it strengthens your spirit
  • Because it's a cheap way to entertain yourself
  • Because you'll be able to reward yourself
  • Because you need a reason to wear those new workout clothes
  • Because you're tired of being tired
  • Because not working out is not going to get you very far
  • Because it's a great way to spend time outside
  • Because you made a commitment to yourself
  • Because you're tired of starting over
  • Because there will always be another wedding, vacation or reunion
  • Because you're not a quitter
  • Because it improves your cholesterol
  • Because it boosts your metabolism
  • Because it prevents age-related muscle loss
  • Because if you can do this, you can do anything
  • Because a fit body is a healthy body
  • Because it beats sitting on the couch
  • Because  everyone has at least 10 minutes to spare
  • Because you want to be stronger than your excuses
  • Because not working out isn't working out for you
  • Because the only workout you ever regret is the one you skip
  • Sunday, March 11, 2012

    Week 11, and my 21-day challenge

    All right. Time to get my ass in gear. These last two weeks have been so ridiculous on my part! Screw up after screw up. So I'm trying something new, to re-invigorate myself, as I feel like I've hit a large rut. I haven't weighed myself in a while because I've been staying at my mom's, as mentioned. I've dealt with so much stress the past couple weeks, and it's time to face it head on instead of hiding.

    Work is a big thing, as always. I am finally getting used to my new role, but it is leaving every single one of the people on my team completely, utterly exhausted. I have never seen us so zombie-like! I hadn't thought it was possible to work harder than we already were, but it feels like double-time now. I've never, ever had a workload that was possible to keep up with (luckily my bosses have always been understanding of this and know that I have always done the work that should be done by two full-time people rather than one, so I always get positive feedback) and it's been frustrating to just NEVER be caught up, ever. I'm not helping this by staying up super late, drinking alcohol which screws with my sleep, and drinking way too much caffeine to combat the exhaustion. I've been staying at my mom's, as mentioned, to cat-sit, and it's been really hard to not have my Wii or my aerobics step. This means that the workouts I planned to do are not the ones that I actually LIKE to do. I ended up skipping much of those. I still squeezed in 150 or so fitness minutes, but the food I ate defeated all of that, really.

    On the positive side, I've been way more social the past couple weeks than I have been previously, which makes me happy, but it also means going out for food and drinks. I went out to eat FIVE times in one week -- out for sushi with one of my best friends and her fiance, then the same night went to Chile's and then a club (drinks) with my friend Jeff who I haven't seen in a long time, with my dad to Applebee's on Thursday night, with my coworkers to a bar on Friday night (drinks + mozzarella sticks + French fries), and to a Mexican restaurant with my friend (fajitas and margaritas) last night. WOW! I picked decent options for sushi and Applebees and Chile's (really no excuse as all the nutritional info was available) but again, pretty much defeated the purpose when paired with alcohol which I'm sure had more calories than the food itself!

    I then, as mentioned, had computer troubles and it ended up costing me a grand total of $920 to fix it. UGH! Total ripoff. I have SparkPeople on my phone but it was really hard for me to track. It was such a pain to try to manually enter all these foods on my phone and I just got frustrated and basically gave up.

    I moved most of my stuff back into my condo today as my mom comes back from Florida tomorrow. It will be SO nice to be back in my own place with all my stuff. I've been really anxious/depressed here, probably because I grew up in this place (always hard to go home, isn't it?) I've stopped there a couple times to pick stuff up but haven't spent any extended time there in a long time.

    I think I let myself slack off a LOT after I'd seen that I'd lost 15 lbs. I also haven't been able to hold myself accountable because I haven't weighed in in forever since I don't have a scale here. March is also a really difficult month for me (won't go into detail since this is such a public blog, but I tend to be a lot more emotional/stressed out in March). Part of me was thinking about starting some new goals starting April 1st, but then I thought, why wait til then? I don't want to suffer through March. I want to be proactive and I want to fight it.

    I have 21 days before April begins. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit. So starting today, I am making myself my own little challenge. It isn't a whole lot different than my general goals, but I want to stick with these pretty strictly for at LEAST 21 days and I want to note the differences I feel.

    My 21-Day Spring Challenge
    1. Stick within my calorie range every single day for 21 days. Often I let myself slack 1 or 2 days a week and then I really am just taking two steps back because I go too overboard rather than just allowing myself to go a couple hundred calories over.
    2. Work out at least 150 minutes per week for the next 3 weeks. My absolute minimum has been 90 minutes, which is pretty sad, so I'm upping it by an hour. I think this goal should be pretty easy for me, as I've been very consistent in doing my minimum of 90 minutes/week and I usually hit 150 minutes anyway.
    3. Not a drop of alcohol. It's really derailing my efforts! I usually have a few drinks a week, typically at my dad's or with my friends. I'm just going to pass on this for a while. I think it will make me feel a lot better emotionally. Hangovers are NOT my friends! Even if I don't drink much and am not hungover, I still feel sluggish, and I know that alcohol is pretty much just poison.

    That's it. Not hard, right? I just want to be CONSISTENT.

    I do have positive things to look forward to, too. I get March 23rd off, and I have a friend coming in from out of town who will be staying with me for the weekend. I'm going to a Dar Williams concert the night of the 23rd, which will be amazing (she's my favorite artist, and it's been a couple years since I've seen her live.) I'm really looking forward to that already!

    One thing that has made this sooo much easier is that the weather is perfect. Generally Wisconsin doesn't even start to get a glimpse of spring until late April, but we're having some BEAUTIFUL weather here. We had a mild winter to begin with but it really feels like spring. As I write this, I'm sitting in front of the open window, it's 66 degrees and sunny. I just got done with a walk/jog that lasted almost an hour and I burned 680 calories! This is the third time I've gone walking/jogging this week, but I went a lot further than usual this time (I think). The whole route is only 3.6 miles, but it is HILLY. I jog when going downhill and on some flat surfaces and then I walk all the uphills and most flat surfaces. I used to be able to do this in about 40 minutes but now I'm up to 52 minutes. Oh well. I blame the hills :)

    My only problem with running is that even though I stretch a lot and cool down, I still end up so ridiculously sore and I end up having to take a couple days off of working out. I know I just have to get used to it again.

    So here is my menu plan for this week as well as my workout plan. I'm eating more meat this week than I usually do because I had a couple recipes I really wanted to try!


    Sunday
    Dinner: Broccoli, bell pepper, and flank steak stir fry
    Workout: Jog, 53 minutes total

    Monday
    Dinner: Blackened chicken with mixed greens, shredded cheese, sliced red onion, broccoli, bell pepper
    Workout: Frontside (circuit training DVD), 45 minutes

    Tuesday
    Dinner: Wild Mushroom, Flank Steak, and Poblano Tacos
    Workout: Cardio kickbox (25 minutes high-intensity cardio)

    Wednesday
    Dinner: Vegan samosa wraps
    Workout: Rest day

    Thursday
    Dinner: Leftovers or something frozen
    Workout: Wii boxing (Gold's Gym workout) for at least 40 minutes

    Friday
    Dinner: Jimmy John's vegetarian sub
    Workout: Rest day

    Saturday
    Dinner: Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry
    Workout: Backside (circuit training DVD), 50 minutes

    Total workout minutes: 218 (3.6 hours)

    I might not weigh myself for a while... I'm nervous about how much weight I gained while living here!
    Hope everyone is doing well.

    Sunday, February 26, 2012

    15 pounds gone!

    Today I "officially" weighed in (as I do on Sundays.) I've lost a total of 15 lbs since January 1st! I'm pretty excited about that. I usually lose a few pounds in the first week just due to water weight and such, but I'm glad it stuck.

    Today is my dad's birthday and I was looking for a picture of the two of us to put up as my facebook picture, and we really don't have any together recently, so I went way back and found pictures from my high school graduation. I was so incredibly ashamed of my body then, and though I was overweight, I was only about 20 lbs overweight as opposed to 70. Isn't it amazing how you can think you are SUCH an ugly person and then look back and realize that you were at least somewhat cute? It's too bad that I was so racked with self-image issues that I just sort of hid. If I had been more confident, I would have done more, I think. Before my senior year of high school I'd lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers (well, I wasn't an official member, but I learned the points system very quickly) but I still felt like the scared fat girl.

    Anyway, the whole point of that paragraph was that I feel motivated. I've never been stuck in quite the rut I feel I'm in now (it's sort of hard to be at your first real, full-time job ... as opposed to the constant change of school, classes, internships, student jobs, groups, friends, etc.) but looking at those old pictures was a really strong motivator of why I want to do this. This is super dorky but as SparkPeople had suggested when I first set up an account, I'd taken a couple pics from my freshman year of college and put them on the back of my bathroom door next to my full-length mirror as motivation.

    So I don't know, I just felt good today, especially after seeing the lowest weight I've hit since the beginning of the year. 15.2  lbs gone... 61.8 lbs before I reach my first goal weight! (a whopping 81.8 lbs before I reach my ULTIMATE goal weight... but I'd be happy at my first goal weight, too.)

    Fiddler on the Roof today was great. We went to dinner afterwards. I did get the grilled chicken fajita salad. I managed to limit myself to just a couple chips from the basket, though we were all starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. I'm sure the salad I ate wasn't less caloric than a lot of items offered, but at least I got some nutrition in there. The amount of grilled chicken on the salad was massive, probably at least two servings of chicken, and there was  a good sprinkling of cheese and a couple tablespoons of guacamole (which I used instead of the dressing it came with), not to mention a couple of those little fried triangle things they stick in salads to purposely make them calorie-laden. Could I have set them aside? Yeah, I could've. But I didn't. And you know what? I don't care.

    I very rarely go out to eat (well, unless you count Jimmy John's every Friday, but at least I can calculate the nutritional info for that accurately rather than trying to guess, and I can plan my fat/calories/sodium around that) and the last few times that I've done so, I have been trying to order food that at least packs a nutritional punch, even if it is full of fat and calories. I guarantee you my salad had more calories than a Big Mac, but at least I knew that I was getting a ton of mixed greens, veggies, real cheese as opposed to that processed American cheese crap, good fats from the guacamole, and not as much saturated or trans fat.

    It's really been a change for me to not "blow it" completely when I go out to eat. Normally I would say "Well, I guess this will just be one of those screw up days." And I'd make no effort. I'd order the heaviest cheeseburger I could with fries, and probably get an appetizer too. Now, I feel like every single time I've gone out to eat this year, I've made a healthier choice, even if it's not under 500 calories.

    Anyway, that's all. Back to work tomorrow. I move into my mom's house for a couple weeks starting tomorrow to house-sit (mostly cat-sit) for her, so I've been busy packing (while watching The Oscars, of course.) I'm a little nervous about working out -- I use my Wii so often and I won't have it. I mean, my mom lives 15 minutes away from me so it's not like I can't come here, but I like to just come right home after work and she lives closer to my work than I do, so I'd like not to make too many trips to my condo. I'm bringing 5 exercise DVDs and I'm hoping we have a couple nice-ish days so I can go for a walk/jog (she lives in a much better neighborhood for this than I do - I live in a nice place but there aren't many sidewalks and there's a lot of traffic). Also bringing weights and my resistance band. We'll see!