Boot Camp

Starting Sunday I'm going to be participating in Spark People's New You Bootcamp. It's 4 weeks of daily workouts, plus your own 30 minutes of exercise each day. And there are bonus challenges along the way. It starts Sunday, but to give us a heads up Coach Nicole posted the first day's workout and challenge already. It's a 10 minute kickboxing workout, which might be fun. No 30 minute cardio workout on Sunday, so the kickboxing covers it for cardio and strength training. As for the bonus challenge...

Your Bonus Challenge for Day 1 (optional) is to update your SparkPage or Blog with your starting stats--such as "before" photos, your goals for the month, what you hope to accomplish during Bootcamp, or any other measurements. This way, when you complete the Bootcamp you'll have a reminder of where you started and the progress you've made.

I knew it had to happen sometime... My "before" picture is still from when I was 131 in May before Eliana turned 1! And my "after" picture is from September of that same year... I guess I need a new "before" picture to keep me motivated since I have put back on a lot of that weight! So I'm going to be working toward that bonus challenge for the weekend. I weighed this morning (it was higher than I expected, too, which was not encouraging!) and took my measurements, so I'll post them at the same time. It'll be interesting to see if those measurements change in a month's time after the bootcamp.

(As I'm typing this, I realize that it sounds like I'm adding a lot to my exercise plate here... running, yoga, bootcamp... the truth is that my running will be my 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week, the yoga/stretching is really just a few minutes in the morning and nothing too serious, and the bootcamp fits right along with my goals, so I will only be doing their exercises and not my own in addition. It all goes together and should be nice having someone else telling me what to do... like when I took classes at the gym!)

Couch to 5K

Well, I just signed up to do the Couch to 5K running program with my Babyfit friends. It's a little scary for me, as I've had trouble running, but if there's any program that will get me running, this is it. I just have to make it a priority. We're planning on starting after the new year, and the plan goes for 2 months. So it fits perfectly with my plan to get back on the SparkWagon after the new year. Here's the plan:

Week 1

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. 2

Week 2

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. 3

Week 3

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

• Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

• Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

• Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Week 4

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week 5

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
• Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.

Week 6

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 25 minutes) with no walking.

Week 7

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).

Week 8

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).

Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).

Week 9

Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

Workout 3 The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

I'll be doing it on the treadmill, while Ellie's taking her nap each afternoon. I wish I could say I'd get up in the morning and do it before she gets up, but I know I'm not disciplined enough to do that. Maybe I can work up to it, but for now I'll just plan to do it during naptime.

So there you have it. I am committed. Hold me accountable!

August Challenge Points

So far for August I've had....

water: 99 cups

exercise: 735 minutes (or 12 hours 15 minutes)

Which means I've accrued a grand total of.... 834 points so far!

Challenge Change

A bit ago I joined a 4 week challenge and aimed to lose 8 lbs in that time.

Then I plateaued.

It seemed like I plateaued just as the challenge started, then I got discouraged and frustrated. So I'm opting out. I'm still trying to get 30 min cardio in daily, plus drink all my water (10 cups daily), but I'm not focusing on how much weight I'm losing. The weight will come off eventually. I just need to keep eating right, drinking water, and exercising.

But I joined another challenge group. This is the July challenge group and is different from the other. Basically, it's a point system. You get 1 point for each minute of exercise you do, plus 1 bonus point for each cup of water you drink.

So far for July I'm up to 237 points.

I don't know what that means yet, but it has kept me drinking my water. Tomorrow we're hiking Ousel Falls, so I'll get some exercise in, too. Today it was a bit scarce, with just a walk after dinner. But tomorrow is 4th of July, so we'll hike and then watch the fireworks up at Big Sky. It should be a good day.

4 week challenge

I joined a 4 week challenge today on SparkPeople. My aim is to lose 8 lbs (bringing me down to 115 lbs - my intermediate goal) in the next 4 weeks. That's about 2 lbs per week. I've been doing a good job eating, but I need to work on exercising regularly, more than just walking. So right now I'm going to do some step aerobics and get a jump on my exercise while Ellie's napping.