The Downside to Exercising...

LESS TIME FOR READING!!!

Wahhh... I have barely read in the last week! I finished my last book on April 17 and just started a new one today. Well, I tried starting it on Saturday but read about 2 pages and passed out asleep on top of the book. I was going to start The Sunday List of Dreams... one of the community boards that I joined on SparkPeople is a bookclub and that was their choice for April. As I already had the book sitting here at home, I thought now would be a good time to read it. HA! Fates are playing a trick on me. The damn book sat in one spot for months!!! Then I pull it out to read it and the freakin' thing disappears!!! I kid you not! Gone... vanished!

So I decided to go with a series that has been a favorite of mine recently... Sookie Stackhouse. I am reading Dead as a Doornail. The only problem is that after my dismal attempt to start it on Saturday night, I have had no time to read at all!!! So today I was determined to MAKE time. I went to the mall for a haircut and afterwards went to B&N for lunch and some much needed reading time. It felt so good just to sit there with a book in my hands and lose myself in someone else's world. Gawd, I have missed that.

Then after coming home... I was almost feeling down that I hadn't gotten a bike ride in today. It was 70 degrees when I left for the mall and by the time I came home it was in the 50's, gray and drizzly. What I wanted to make for dinner was missing one ingredient... I was going to drive to the grocery store and then after a quick check outside decided to bike there. The girls even came with me. On the way there it was fine... but on the way home it started to drizzle. But the funny thing was... it felt great! Even the girls had fun... we were riding our bikes in the rain. People probably thought we were nuts! But, you know what... I still managed to get in a 30 minute bike ride today! Woo Hoo!

So now I am off to bed... with my book... and lets hope this time, I make it past two pages.

Good things:
1. A fresh new haircut (that I actually like!)
2. Quiet reading time at B&N
3. Riding in the rain

Haven't really posted much lately...

Between work and enjoying the beautiful weather that decided to grace us, I have not been on the computer much. Things are good. The girls have not killed each other. K1 has decided to take up running. So far he is running 1 mile each night. I give part credit to the fact that he has to run the Mile in PE this week and I believe that I will take some credit for that as well. It is interesting to see the kids pick up on my new habits, whether it is reading nutrition labels or exercising.

I am off to work tonight. I still haven't turned in my two week notice. I need to talk to S. first about the job. I won't hear from the library til next week the earliest. Decisions need to be made. Just the thought that I won't be working there much longer makes going in so much easier!

The new bike is working out great! I really love it! It's not like I have to make myself go for a ride... I really enjoy doing it. And last week I bought a new "computer" odometer/tripometer/etc... for it. So now I can see exactly how fast I am pedaling... how far I am riding... and calories burned. So far I am keeping it to 5 miles which I do in about 25 minutes and then do a 5 minute cool down ride... very easy, gentle pedaling around our driveway or a parking lot. I would really like to increase the mileage but I need to pace myself - no burnout.

I have been watching the scale lately but more for curiosity sake.... AND I have gained 2 lbs!! I am LOL at that because normally I would be discouraged and upset. BUT I have been exercising so much...both CARDIO and strength training exercises that I can feel the muscles developing. My stomach is slowly flattening and clothes from last summer are TOO big! So no worries! I will just keep doing what I have been doing and eventually the scale will start to go in the direction that I want it to.

Off to the hellhole... ooops, I mean work. :) I need to find some time to post more and to do my good things posts. I miss them.

How Do You Approach the Day??

Gawd, how true! This hits home for me in so many ways... there are so many days when I start the day worrying about something, or tired, or just in a general bad mood. And doesn't that just set the tone for the rest of the day??? I was once told by a former boss of mine, that my mood tends to set the tone for the night at work... now, I find it hard to believe that I am responsible for 2o+ people on any given night but what she was trying to say that on the nights that I was up and high energy, that it was contagious and others picked up on that. She may have had a point but I still think she gave me too much credit for the mood of the crew. But I can see where her point does affect my daily life because if I am feeling bad, sad, mad, frustrated... I know my kids pick up on that and I have now started them off on a bad day as well.

I was thinking about this quote though and how it affects my fitness self. Lately, I am just enjoying life. I do have some back burner problems that are simmering... I don't mean to imply that all is perfect but I am not dwelling on those. I know they are there and I am taking steps to work on them. But anywho, back to my point... I did have one, right?... These last two weeks I have just had a completely different renewed sense of exhilaration! I look forward to exercising... whether it is the BodyRev or biking/walking or my strength exercises that I am doing. I love the feeling of euphoria that I seem to have right now. I look at my day and try to decide ahead of time where I am going to fit in some exercise and if it works, GREAT... if it doesn't, I try to adjust. And if I absolutely can't fit what I intended in, then I try to modify... my new motto is... Something... Anything is better than nothing!

Today K2 babysat her little charge at our house... K1 needed new gym shoes (he tried telling me he needed size 14!!! He got a size 12.)... there was dinner to worry about... I only had 2.5 hours of sleep this morning because of the interview... and I wanted to exercise... Normally, I would've stressed about wanting to do it all... I would've gotten myself worked up to a point where I was frustrated, upset and frazzled. But today I didn't let it get to me... K2 did her babysitting job... when the "little princess" left at 4:30, we hit some sports stores and the mall for new shoes for K1 (he is running the mile at school tomorrow and his old shoes wouldn't have made it). We spent longer than I had intended on the shoes but we left the mall with a pair he was happy with and that fit... I wasn't all that crazy about the price ($65) but it was cheaper than alot of the others that we saw... so half full type of thing. I decided to take it easy on myself and treat the kids to dinner at the mall (plus, I got to get my sandwich at B&N). We made it home by 7:00 and after seeing that the kids were settled in with their homework, I and my bike hit the road for the last remnants of sunshine. I had a great 40 minute ride thru neighborhood roads... I pushed myself on some and enjoyed the downhill breeze on others. When I came home, it was time to get everyone to bed. And I still managed to get in 35 minutes of my strength training program in.

The day went really well... and all of this on only 2.5 hours of sleep! But this was a perfect example for me of how a positive attitude can help get so much accomplished. Did I do everything? No... I have dirty dishes in the sink... not many though and they will be done in the a.m. while the kids are getting ready for school. No problem.

I really have to try to remember this... because I know this isn't a life change for me yet...but if I could just get to the point where this could be the norm, how great that could be. Oh, and as for influence... the girls had a much better day... I complimented them how nice it was not to have any fighting going on today.... small skirmishes but no major battles. AND K1 at 8:00 asked if it was okay if he went out and ran a mile... which he did. So maybe my positive attitude had something to do with that.

Think about it... how will you face your busy, hectic day tomorrow?

Finally Spring has Arrived!

The temps finally hit the 50's today! Although we didn't take advantage of it right away. The kids had popped in a movie and I curled up with Vengeance in Death and finished it!! Good book!

I finally got to pull out that new bike and give it a try. K2 and I went for a 40 minute ride thru the neighborhood. Hmm... I need to be sure to continue to do BR legs... my legs were burning for a bit... can't have that now. I know I can do better.

For dinner, we threw a couple of cheap steaks onto the grill and added a salad, baked potatoes (sweet potato for me), some green beans and French bread. A most fantastic meal! I even surprised the kids with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Nothing much going on tonight... I think I am going to crash with a new book... I have two historicals sent from the Book Pimp via Sinful that I have yet to read... The Raven Prince and A Lady's Pleasure. I think I will start with RP, I believe I heard good things on the BB about it.

So goodnight, all! Hope you are having a good weekend.

My 3 good things:
1. Bike ride
2. All the kids getting their bikes ready for spring
3. Strawberry shortcake

The Bike...

For a few weeks now, I have been telling J that I plan on buying a new bike this year. My current one is a Raleigh 10 speed that my parents gave to me for my high school graduation present. It was a good bike but I am just a bit older (HA!) now and require something a little more comfortable. My plan was to just buy one from Target.

This weekend a local bike chain had their annual Bike Expo at the fairgrounds. J and I decided to go to see what else was out there. After I saw the prices on good, name brand, quality bikes, I started to balk. I didn't have that much to spend on one. J said that we still needed to go and see what else was there plus that I could get a bike to fit my body... not just pulling one off the rack at Target.

It was easy to rule out the road bikes (think Lance Armstrong) and the mountain bikes. Most of my bike riding would be on paved roads and graveled bike trails. I was deciding between the hybrid variety and the comfort variety however the comfort ones had larger angled handlebars... kind of felt like I was riding a customized Harley. So I pretty much looked among the Hybrids. I tried out quite a few but kept coming back to one in particular, a Gary Fisher. The fit of it from handlebar to body just seemed better plus the gear shifts were a thumb switch instead of a rotational turn of the handle.

The bike was definitely more than what I had planned to spend so I needed to sit and have a talk with my husband who seemed like maybe he was in a buying mood. J agreed that I need a new bike however he wanted to see me get a better one... one that would last, one that would fit my body. If I really liked this bike AND I was really going to use it, he had no problem with spending the money on a better bike. I honestly think that I will do a lot of bike riding this summer... I am in an area that riding on the roads around here is safe...plus I have access (with some car travel) to a variety of bike trails. I am more physically active and fit than any of the past few previous years. I really think that bike riding will add another dimension to my fitness activity.

So the decision was made and a bike was bought... now if only the weather would co-operate... 35 degrees is not ideal biking weather!