I seem to like challenging myself, I have my blog everyday challenge and my 365 challenge (to be fair they have shortage merged). More importantly they have worked. So now I am going to add a new challenge. A sleep challenge. I have spent the summer trying to become a healthier person, with varying degrees of success. I have become a much more active person, though my weight-loss has been slowing down. As part of my self-examination before I took the leap to join weight watchers I realised that all that was good, but I need to do something about my sleeping.
I don’t sleep enough. The way my days go now, I wake up with the kids in the morning, usually between 7 and 8 and don’t get to bed until around 2am, sometimes later. Most nights I’m lucky to get 5 hours sleep. Of course then you have times like the last week where I was struggling with a deadline and got less than 3 hours on a few nights. The biggest problem is that most nights between 6 and 8 I’m a walking around like a zombie, occasionally going as far as falling asleep in my chair. This isn’t a good time to be half asleep. On some days it’s the only chance I have to be around the kids so I want to be more alert.
Continue reading “The sleep challenge”
Well today I took a step I’ve been debating all summer. Today I joined weight watchers. I’ve been loosing weight sence spring, working out and trying to eat better. Well as I’ve watched my weight hover around the 240s for the last 6 weeks it became clear that I needed to get serious about what I’m eating. To help with that I’ve joined Weight watchers. I’ll be talking about the process in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
September is going to be an important month for my running, I want to get out at least twice a week for a run on the street, but also I want to recommit to the Gym. With at least one trip a week, hopefully 2. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing at the gym, but I want to do more than just the treadmill. I am also hopeful that I can take advantage of the nice fall weathered to get on my bike a few times.
I’ve taken a couple of steps to improve my running. The first was physical, I purchased new running shoes. Shoes that I will only use for running. They are Asics GT 2150 Running Shoes and feel really good on my feet. I got a great deal on them, and I am really looking forward to taking them out for a spin. The second was virtual, and very geeky. I have subscribed to RunKeeper Elite which gives me access to more fitness reports plus will allow people to watch me as I run from the RunKeeper website. While working on this post tonight I received an email from RunKeeper announcing that the Pro version of RunKeeper has come to Android, this was the one thing I was waiting for.
Tonight will be my first live run with my upgrades. If you’re interested you can follow along at my RunKeeper Profile page. The only question is when will I hit the round. Probably around 10:30, when my mom stops by to sit with the kids.
Today I headed out for a run, It’s been almost 10 days since I’ve gone out for a run. Last time I was out I pulled a muscle in my thigh and haven’t been able to run. After re-injuring my muscle on the weekend I figured as soon as I thought I could handle it. It wasn’t an easy run, but I managed to get close my pre-injury pass, but it was hard. It’s amazing how much can be mental, as I was running I was watching my pass in Runkeeper and It seemed I was going very slowly. It took a while but I soon realised that I was looking at Miles and not KM. It all worked out in the end and I’m looking forward to my next run, tomorrow or Friday.
Today I headed out for my run like usual. Though it didn’t end like usual, about 2 maybe 3 minutes into my run I feel something in my leg. My calf to be precise, at first I thought it was nothing and tried to run on. That unfortunately didn’t work out. I soon found my self hobbling back home. Before I my leg betrayed me I was having a good run, and after a weekend of overindulgence I really need one. I’m not sure what I’ve done to my leg, if it’s a charile horse or a pulled muscle or something else. Only time will tell, I just hope that it wont keep me from the gym with Melissa tomorrow night.
For my evening workout Jacob climbed into the trailer and I hoped on my bike and away we went. When we started I wasn’t sure where we were going, I just knew I wanted to ride for at least 30 minutes, and Jacob wanted to go to a park to eat his skittles.
In my head I had 2 choices, East or West. East would have taken us to Sunnyside and the dinosaur park or perhaps the Castle park in High Park. West was to Marie Curtis Park, where we went on Sunday, or perhaps a little further. We ended up going west stopping at little splash pad and playground near Douglas Kennedy Park. It was further then we went on Sunday but a place Melissa and I used to ride to before we had kids and shelved our bikes.
It was a good ride, though at times I found pulling the extra weight of Jacob and the trailer challenging. I only wish we had more time, there was a few baseball games that we passed that it might have been fun to sit and watch. I’m looking forward to our weekend rides as a family, there are lots of places to stop and have picnics or just to run around.
The ride as a workout was great, the entire trip there and back (minus the time in the playground) was about an hour. We traveled 16.14, and averaged 15 km an hour. It felt good to get out there. I’m really looking forward to future rides. I’m thinking it might be worth looking into spinning classes at the gym.
Our Picture today is from the park we stopped at, it was a little spinning seat that Jacob climbed up onto (with my help) and I spun it. Unfortunately it seemed to pick up speed and before I could get a great picture Jacob was falling off.
Continue reading “Project 365-176: Evening Ride with Jacob”
Ever since Melissa joined Jenny I have struggled with how I would lose the weight that I need to lose. So far I haven’t found an eating plan that I can stick to. After a day or to I always seem to fall off the wagon, with junk food snack her or forgetting to log my food there. Of course I do try and eat less and most,y I have succeeded. I’m also becoming very active with Trips to the Gym, or my evening runs. It’s never felt that I was succeeding. Today when I stood on that scale and saw that I was under 250 it felt good, now I just need to get my eating under control and I. Could be under 240 by the long weekend in August.
I find it strange how the Gym has become the focus of my working out, when I started it was running. When we joined the gym my running seemed to take a back seat. To be fair the gym has a lot of perks, no weather, good equipment, sauna but I think that I’m missing something doing most of my working out there. So I’m hoping to get back out on the streets for more of my workouts in the coming weeks. There will be plenty of time for the Gym when it’s to cold to be outside. Also this past weekend I was reminded of what I used to love doing for exercise and fun, Cycling.
Since we moved into our place before Violet was born my bike has sat mostly unused in our yard. I have wanted to take it down and see about getting it ready to ride again but never found the time. This Sunday I found the time, spending 
some of Sunday morning getting Melissa’s and my bikes fit for riding. I found the process enjoyable, what’s more is where I have never gotten into the Exercise bikes at the gym loved heading out for a leisurely ride with the kids in tow. It was so enjoyable that after the kids went to bed I headed out for another ride. This time I tried to push myself a little more and did a 30 minute, almost 10k ride around the neighbourhood. It was great and though it is another thing to keep me from my running, it’s also something I can do with the kids. On evenings when the weather is nice and I’m at home with the kids, I can either pack a picnic or head out after dinner and go for a ride. With nice visit to a park in the middle I’m sure the kids would love the adventures.
So going forward I have three ways to work out, Gym, Running and Cycling. Now I just have to find a way to juggle my schedule to fit them all in. I’m hoping to use my blog to motivate and inspire me. I’m not sure who that will work yet, but I’m sure I’ll have it figured out in the coming weeks. It will probably include progress reports and write ups about some of my workouts. After all there are some other benefits of working out in the great out doors, if you go to the right places you can get rewarded with quite a view:
Tonight was another night at the gym so when I got home I grabbed a snack from tube fridge
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to write about the changes our family is going through, from diet to exercise and a lot of things in between, but it seems that I can never find the words. So today I set aside what I’ve written and started fresh. I’ve taken a step forward instead of writing about all the changes I’m starting with becoming more active and joining the Gym. The rest will follow, there are a lot of changes in my life and I really want to share them.
Getting more active started with an App on my Milestone, Couch to 5K. Melissa found the program on the net (http://www.c25k.com/) and I found the Android app (http://sites.google.com/site/c25kapp/)and we decided to give it a try. It was hard going at first and I’m running a few weeks behind the 9 week program. Melissa started the program with me, but soon found it wasn’t for her(yet) and we looked to other solutions for working out. To that end in the middle of May we joined a Gym. Running is still something we both want to do, we just have different timetables. I’m planning to run the CIBC Run for the Cure while Melissa will just walk it this year. Next year we hope to run it together. What I’m not sure about is if I want to wait till October to do my first 5K Run. I might look at doing one in July or August.
We chose to join Goodlife Fitness because there is a location that’s close to us and we have access to a bunch of Gyms throughout the city. Joining a gym has been new experience for me, and at times seems overwhelming. With all the different machines and options at times I’m not sure what to do. We’ve been doing orientation classes to teach us how to use the different machines and they have helped. Mostly I’ve been using the treadmill to keep up with my C2K and the elliptical. We’ve tried to get out to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, and with the helps of our family we have managed it. The biggest surprise about the gym has been how much we enjoy our time at the gym.
Going forward the challenge is finding the time to get to the gym and still do some running on the street. I like the treadmill but it’s completely different they when I go for a run outside. Right now I’m getting to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and I’m lucky to get one run outside a week. I need to change that, specially if I am to run a 5k this summer.
