How much...

exercise is it if you ride a bike 2 miles...towing a trailer with a 40 pound toddler in it? Just wondering...

and yeah, for your information, I did do that. And I plan on doing it more regularly, too. Took a path called The Linear Trail and rode it...didn't know where it went (I always thought it went under Ft. Riley Blvd, but I was mistaken!)...but now I know! And Scotty enjoyed it.

And the cars and drivers truly were courteous to me as I drove on the big roads...no honking, and some actually yielded to me to let me get in the proper turning lanes!!!

Back in the saddle...

I'm a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. It really did work for me...but then I stopped.

I stopped going to meetings. I stopped writing down what I ate. I stopped keeping track of my water intake. I stopped tracking my exercise.

And I paid for it. Dearly.

I am now tired of it.

So, this morning, I got "back in the saddle" (to get rid of the saddle bags, lol)...and went to Weight Watchers. At 7:30 a.m.

Those of you who know me KNOW I am SO not a morning person. So it must be extremely important to me that I got out of bed and headed to be weighed. It was NOT PRETTY. I won't share the number. But I am now on track to lose 30 lbs...

I got home, ate a good breakfast (and wrote it down), took my thyroid meds (which I've been quite lax about), and exercised. I did Leslie Sansone's Walk Away The Pounds video...the 1 mile walk. I filled my water bottle, too...and I'm going to be sure to drink two today (it is a 32 oz bottle).

Then I got on my exercise ball...I did 10 crunches (and it was TOUGH for me, my lazy fat self!), then 10 push ups (again, tough, but this one is because I have a HUGE muscle knot in my left shoulder - side note: my hubby gave me a WONDERFUL shoulder massage last night which began the process of breaking the knot, but it will need a few more attempts before I am pain free), then 10 more crunches, then 10 more pushups. I feel GOOD.


I know I should have started this earlier...swim-suit season is here, and I am going to be at the pool a lot with my kids...I had to resort to a skirted bottom this year (I have a tankini style suit), and that bottom really depresses me...so, by the END of the summer, I hope to get rid of that skirt bottom....

Giddy-yap horsie...here I GO!

** this is NOT a paid message...note there are NO links. You want info about WW or Leslie Sansone or an exercise ball...search it out!

Exercise: Week 1 recap

I didn't bother posting any more about my exercising on DDR, simply because we had some things going on (dental appointments) that got in the way of daily exercise. But here's the recap:

4 days exercised
20 minutes a day (except on Thursday, when I hit the wrong button and ended up going another 10 minutes because I didn't want to lose all the info on the exercise I HAD already done!)
9.5 miles "jogged" total
550 calories burned
105 songs played

I think that's pretty darned good - I exercised for over 1 1/2 hours this week (which for me is AMAZING!)...and burned a decent amount of calories. I was impressed by the "miles jogged"...you don't think you move that much, but you do!

I like that this workout mode on DDR saves all the stuff you've done and does cumulative totals as well. Since it doesn't physically weigh you, you have to enter your weight in as you go. I'm only going to that weekly...I think it's self-defeating to get on the scale every day! Next week, I'm increasing to 30 minutes daily. I don't know whether I've lost any weight or not, but I FEEL better.

This morning, Scott came in from the gym while I was doing my workout. I think he saw that it really IS a great workout. **Lauren and Alex - watch out....I might be REALLY good on DDR by the time we get to Pittsburgh again!!!**

And the best part? I'm having FUN. I really feel like going upstairs and doing it AGAIN, lol!!!!

Exercise - Day 2

This is FUN!

20 minutes fly by so quickly.

and I have discovered that DDR is not only a workout for the body, but for the mind...because you REALLY work your brain out doing this as well. You're watching the arrows, trying to get your feet where they belong...it's actually mind boggling at times. But it's FUN!

Exercise - Day 1

Did 30 minutes on DDR. What's DDR some of you may ask? It's a KIDS' game on playstation 2 (and the various other gamer devices). A pad, music, lots of arrows.

The kids got DDR 2, Super Nova for Christmas. While I think some of the "videos" that are playing while the music is going (who am I kidding...the MUSIC too) are too racy and not quite what I'd like seeing, I have to admit that it is FUN. I know there are Christian Music versions out there, but so far, all I've seen are the ones for PC, and quite frankly, I don't want to exercise in front of my teeny monitor when I can do it in front of my larger TV.

So...back to DDR. It has a workout mode. You can register your weight, the time you'd like to work out for (or set a goal of calories burned, instead!). This thing tracks everything for you, and with a memory card (which Santa was smart and delivered along with the PS2 and DDR) it will stay for as long as you like!

I worked out for 20 minutes today (good for someone who hasn't done it in a LONG time). And you know what? I sweat more doing DDR for 20 minutes than I usually did at Curves for 30 minutes and 2 circuits. Why is that? Though I have to admit that Curves works a lot of other body parts...at least here I'm getting the cardio that I so DESPERATELY need.

I'll post, hopefully regularly, about my exercising, lol!