Day 6: Sucks (or so I thought)

It figures I would jinx myself. It all started out with a post on my friend Kyle's facebook page. He congratulated me on doing well so far, and I made a funny little joke back saying that Day 6 was always the hardest, so I better watch out. Of course, at the time, I was kidding. But as it turns out, Day 6 almost broke the streak.

First, let me back up. Some of you might be wondering - how in the hell is it Day 6 when Monday was Day 1?? Well, technically Monday was Day 3 since I started my first day walking on New Years Day. But for the sake of starting the blog up again I said that my first post back was Day 1. What can I say - I love the drama.

But back to Day 6. Like I said, it all started as a joke that turned bad. I could not get out of bed this morning. And I don't mean, "Oh, woe is me. I'm still sleepy". No. It was, "F you alarm! I'm not getting up!!". Not only did I not get up for my walk this morning, I was late to work because I overslept. But, I knew I still had yoga tonight, so that made it okay.

Then the day got super busy. Freaking work man - always getting in the way. (When did I start channeling The Big Lebowski??) Anyway, by the end of the day I really didn't want to go to yoga. And you know that's bad because I actually really enjoy yoga. Especially the yoga where we get to lay on the ground at the end and just relax, which is what this yoga was. And I still couldn't get myself to go. I was drowning in a sea of lazy-assness, but luckily I was told to get my ass up and go.

I never really found the buddy system of working out to work for me, mostly for two reasons. One - I'm pretty competitive, even over stupid stuff like who's going the fastest on the spin bike (which is never me FYI) and two - I get really self-conscious that I'm going to look stupid or embarrass myself. Which I know is dumb because I've embarrassed myself way more in front of my friends out and about than I ever could at the gym (it's called the Shandygaff dance floor), but it's still how I feel.

But if it hadn't been for my friends today convincing me to get my ass to the gym at 4:55pm, I don't think I would have gone. I'm pretty sure I would have gone home, laid on the couch, and then beat myself up over not going because that's what I used to do. But now it feels like I accomplished something. Like this was my first hurdle, and it was my friends that got me over it. It's a really amazing feeling. So if any of them are reading this right now - thank you. And if you ever need some motivation to workout, I'll be there. =0)

~Catie

Let's try this again (aka Day 1 Redux)

Um, yeah. I really don't have anything to say. I could give you lots of excuses (I hurt my knee! I got really busy!) but at the end of the day I got lazy and gave up. Like I have many times before when I've tried to start a workout plan. And the way I see it, there are two ways I can look at the situation:

1) I can kick myself, get down, and just wallow in the fact that I "failed" once again

or...

2) I can look at what when wrong, as well as what went right, and try learn from it

I think I'm going to take option 2.

I read through some of my previous blog posts from last year, and it's cheesy to say, but me back then was inspiring! Which leads me to ask, "What the hell happened??" Seriously! I was so ready to go this time last year I could have convinced Sarah Palin to vote for Obama. That's how motivated I was. And it actually lasted for a few months, which I am pretty proud of since it's probably the longest a workout plan has lasted for me. And a lot of it had to do with this blog - I felt like I had to post, which kept me going to workout.

But I soon realized that it wasn't the best plan. I couldn't have the blog be my sole motivation; it had to come from me. But somehow it all blended together, and I started to feel obligated to the blog. I got annoyed with the forced need to write, and I took it out on my workouts. Which, looking back on it, was really stupid because the only person I was hurting was me. It's not like anyone reading this would be mad if I didn't post every day! Everyone knows what it's like to be busy, and when things start to become an obligation they become very difficult to do. At least for me, at this point in my life.

I want working out to be something I actually enjoy, which is something I've never really experienced. It's fun for a time, but it's not something I really look forward to. And, to be honest, I'm not really sure what to do. Do I only do workouts that I really like, and risk it becoming boring after a time, or do I force myself to do workouts that I don't really like, but I know will be good in the long run? Is there a happy medium? If there is, I'm still looking for it (and if you know, please share your secrets!!).

So, here's the deal. I'm now 27 years old - not getting any younger as they say. I currently weigh 155 pounds. Boom. There it is. For the whole webiverse to see. But, the number doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that I get winded and tired easily, and that it's only going to get harder to get healthier the older I get. So, as many have done before and will do after, my resolution is to get healthier.

My goal is to gain muscle, lose some inches, and just feel healthier. I could keep track of my weight, but gaining muscle gains weight, so that seems counterintuitive seeing as how I want to gain muscle. So I am going to judge it on how I look in the mirror, how my clothes fit, and my energy level.

Right now my plan is to walk 30 minutes every day on the treadmill. We have a treadmill in our basement, which is a huge help, and I hope to walk every morning before work. Why then? Well, because I know myself, and I will come up with every excuse in the book to not work out when I get home from work. Never fail. So I'm not giving myself the chance. At this point in the game, I don't trust myself to do what's best for me after a whole day of work, so I have to get it out of the way early, or else it won't work.

I'm also going to try and experiment with different workouts, similar to what I did last time around. Difference is, I will have already walked in the morning for 30 minutes, so if something is a bust I still worked out. I don't have to get down because I didn't get a great workout if I already walked in the morning, but I still have the chance to find some workouts I really like. Today will be the first try with a ballet-pilates hybrid class I'm taking after work. I'll let you know how it goes!

So, there it is. Catie Gets Healthy Part 2. I don't know what the future holds for me and getting healthy, but I have hope for this plan. And at this point, hope is the best motivator.

~Catie