Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Slow and Steady

That's me in the weight loss and running progress departments. Wednesday weigh in. Another 1+ pound loss. This scale is a funny thing. All week it looked like I wasn’t going to lose anything, even though I’d exercised every day including doing the Maunawili Falls hike again. Then presto chango, this morning it read 164.8. A few of my blogger friends are experiencing scale weirdnesses too. I think we all agree that as long as we keep on eating right and exercising regularly in whatever manner we choose, we’ll keep getting healthier and the weight will eventually come off.

I want to add a big congratulations to Shosh for reaching her WeightWatcher final goal weight this week. Yeah Shosh!!! I haven’t been following her journey that long, but I do know she’s been on this path for a while and has turned into quite the runner. And writes some excellent inspirational posts.

Here’s a pic of the top of the mountains from where I parked near the beginning of the trail to Maunawili Falls.


And here is a pic of the same mountains at the top of the climb. It looks a lot closer, don't you think? After that the trail levels out for a bit, then goes down, down, down till it reaches the stream again.

This time Ann went with me and she needed to rest often. Sound like someone else we know not too long ago? I don’t know if it was the going slower with her, or just that I’m getting in better shape, but this time the hike was so much easier for me. Like no problem at all. That was a wonderful feeling. On the way back we decided to follow the stream instead of tackling that sharp uphill. I’m glad we did because we could keep a steadier pace that way, even though we had to make like Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea at times. Speaking of running, I went to Week 4 of my C25K running plan on Monday, which was 3 min jog/90 sec walk, then 5 min jog/2 ½ min walk, repeated twice. Now to any runners reading this it might not seem like a lot, but to me it was huge. I jogged for 5 minutes! Twice!!!! It wasn’t super easy, but it was certainly doable. I think it helped that I’ve been setting the incline up a bit on the tread each time. For this first Wk4 workout I set it back to zero. Still watching the heart rate. And this time it never went above 140. That is so excellent! Oh! And last week when I went to the doctor for some odd rash and little infection that showed up the day after the Maunawili hike, my blood pressure was 120/60! That is down from 142/90 on May 21 and 136/80 on June 9th. I should have gone for a jog/walk this morning, but I was beat. Woke up at 5:30 a.m. (two mornings in a row now), didn’t get home from my daughter’s until 11:30 last night, and didn’t go to bed until almost 1 a.m. So, I went back to bed, read some, and woke back up at 11. I might go after work, but not sure. If not, I’ll probably go tomorrow before I leave for AZ.


Yeah, AZ! I’m so excited to see my sons and of course, the one and only Carlos Santana. I am so inspired by his and his family's spiritual and life journies, and his music makes me feel so great. You know there will be pictures when I get back. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to fit some exercise in between shopping and cooking. The worst that will happen is that the only exercise I’ll get is walking around stores and dancing at the concert. I’ll be back in time for Happy Hour with Dallas on Tuesday, though. I remembered my camera yesterday, but the battery was dead! Next week I WILL get a pic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the shout out!! I cannot tell you how much that means to me. And yes, I did get to goal this week :-)

GREAT NEWS on the blood pressure that is amazing!! Your body is so happy with all the exercise you're doing and it's rewarding you.

LOVE Carlos Santana. There is something very soothing about his music. Have a blast with him and of course your sons.

Cyndi said...

Thanks for the Kudos! I am so excited to hear another C25K success story! I still get those same feelings - the excitement and 'surprise' - 'I can't believe I'm actually doing this, but wow! I'm actually doing this!'

Great great job on the good BP too! I had some borderline BP readings in the last year - I think the highest was like 140 over 80 or something...we have 'Healthy Checks' screenings at work next week so I'm looking forward to seeing some improvement!

Michelle said...

I remember the first time I jogged for five minutes straight. It's a big milestone. We both know what the thought of jogging for five minutes would have done to our brains when we first started exercising. Man, I couldn't even walk briskly for five minutes at the start. I know you're facing a little setback right now but you'll pick up and carry on just as soon as you're able, I have no doubt!!