Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My I.E.P. (Individualized. Exercise. Plan.)

I have decided to design my personal I.E.P. (Individualized. Exercise. Plan.).  Hey, I'm a special education teacher! What do you expect?  I know how to modify as needed.  It was during my walking and jogging this evening that I suddenly had a plan form in my mind.
GOAL:  To jog 3 miles

As I thought about this new goal of mine I immediately thought of, what else, an I.E.P. and decided to add objectives with it.  So, objective 1 will begin with being able to jog 1/2 a mile.  I'm going on week 3 of my exercise goal and am happy to say that I was able to jog to the end of my street today!!!  Now this is not quite 1/2 mile, but it's getting closer. I know that walking up and down my street once is half a mile, and I originally started out walking 1 1/2 miles.  My entire workout always begins with a 5 minute warm-up walk and always ends with a 5-10 minute cool down walk.  During week 1, I started out by jogging for 30 seconds then walking 30 seconds and continued this for the remainder 1.5 mile stretch.  I thought I was going to die when I finished my first day as this all occurred in 90% humidity. (And, it does not matter what time it is, the humidity is always there!)  I carried on and finished the week out with this routine every other day.

Week 2 brought about a new challenge.  I was feeling so confident in my exercise plan that I decided to increase my walking to 2 miles.  I replaced the 30 second jog and 30 second walk with my ipod.  Music is a much better motivator!  Anyway, I decided to just jog as long as I could and then walk about the same distance.  I noticed that I was able to jog a little bit further this week, about halfway down the street without passing out.

I am now on week 3 of my plan.  This week I decided to increase my distance further to 2 1/2 miles.  The first day I really noticed how I was able to do more jogging than walking down the street.  Today, I was able to jog down one side of my street without stopping!  As I was jogging down the street I decided not to listen to music this time and to concentrate more on my breathing.  During this time I also became aware of different spot checks.  When my breathing became more heavier, I started paying attention to what I was running past.  My goal was to get past these points until the end of the street.  Check point 1:  Run past the house with the sprinkler and through the sprinkler.  It did cool me off for a second.  Check point 2:  Run past the fire hydrant.  Thank goodness I didn't have to pee!  Check point 3:  Run past the house for sale with the sign, Gorgeous Inside!  That made me feel good!  At last I could see the end of the street, and I ran to it with all I could give it.  I was so proud!  I walked down the other side of the street and then completed this again 2 more times! 

As I finished my cool down walk I thought to myself, I think I just may be able to reach my goal one day.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Weight Loss Update

I see it's been a few weeks since I last blogged, but as I sit here at 11:00 at night I suddenly got in a writing mood.

Here's an update on my weight loss progress.  I set out a month ago to lose some weight this summer.  It's really not going as good as I had hoped.  Let me just say that when you turn 40 it really sucks that your body does not respond like it used to.  It's not because I haven't tried, but in the last month I have only lost 4 pounds!!!   I started out with the South Beach Diet plan and then the 17 day diet.  Last time I checked there were about 30 days in a month.  So it's been 30 days and all I've lost is 4 pounds?!  Those diets officially suck! 

I haven't given up though.  While I have always loved walking I have decided to start jogging as well.  I've never really been a fan of running, but I am desperate for something to help jump start my metabolism.  I am proud to say that it's been 2 weeks and I am still at it.  I started out at a mile and a half and have now added 2 miles of alternating walking with jogging.  Surprisingly, I am enjoying my new fitness goal which is to eventually jog 3 miles and enter a 5k event possibly next spring. 

A challenge I know I will face is when school starts back up in about a month.  I know it will be so easy to get back into that routine and slack off on the exercising, but I am determined to keep it up.  If there are any runners out there reading this feel free to send me some motivation every now and then.  I'll really appreciate it!

My Favorite Memories of 2019

     Some of my favorite memories of 2019 began with a trip to the Dominican Republic and ended with getting the opportunity to enjoy my you...