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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Ramblings: Exercise (or lack there of)

I worked out for almost an hour today while Ellie napped.  Thirty minutes on the elliptical and then some crunches and stuff.  My stomach is finally getting smaller, but it seriously needs to be toned.  I still feel like a whale most of the time.  I can't seem to get under 180.  It's incredibly frustrating and I'm tempted to try something more extreme with my diet.  Although I'm not sure what I can do on a limited grocery budget...
I'm mostly just tired of eating.  I know that sounds really weird, but once I get dinner made and clean up after, I have no desire to actually eat it.
So, I've been doing sit ups like this.  At first I did them holding a 5 lb medicine ball because it gave me enough momentum to actually sit up.  I hadn't realized how completely non-existant my abs were until I tried to do a crunch.  Not even a sit up, just a crunch.  I'm tempted to take pictures of my stomach, like progress pictures.  Maybe write about it on here.  Depends on how much progress I actually make, especially since no one wants to see that.
Other than that I'm just doing the elliptical, some planks, stretching, a few push ups.  
Oh!  I did plies using the back of my couch the other day.  Holy crap.  My legs hurts for days.  Days.  As in plural.  I guess if it hurts it's working, right?  It didn't hurt during, at all.  It felt easy, actually.  But the next day...wow.
So maybe if all this totally random compilation of exercises works, I'll let you know.  I'm pretty sure any crazy compilation of exercise works as long as you actually do it regularly.
I do really want to start running, but I still have to figure out the "when" of that one.  I don't want to have to take Ellie with me, I want "going for a run" to be a me-time thing.  So my only real opportunities would be on days when Nick closes, which means I wouldn't be running on any kind of regular schedule, but maybe it'll work.  Sometimes I feel like I would rather run than get on the elliptical.  I wish we could have gotten a treadmill, and I guess eventually we could but then we're making space for two gigantic machines.  I wasn't looking to have a home gym.
I am borrowing my sister in law's jogging stroller, so maybe that will work for now.  

2 comments:

Sleep Goblin said...

The elliptical never did much for me, which was sad because I hate running something fierce. However, my friend Bri decided she needed a workout buddy and started coming over almost every day with her P90X videos. I couldn't do the whole thing, I basically did what I could and rested whenever I wanted. But because we did it every day I got better. I also started rock climbing again, and as I got better at that, I found I wanted to work out so I could do more fun climbs. After all that running didn't seem so bad, and I did the Couch to 5k program. Running was definitely more fun outside, and I found that getting Vibram 5 Finger shoes forced me to learn how to run correctly (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html?_r=0 ) which helped a lot. I really need to get back on some of those things...

Oh, and for kind of fun workouts that involve some ballet moves, try Yoga Booty Ballet (some of them are on Netflix)

Lisa said...

Thanks for the suggestions! I kept meaning to try the Couch to 5k thing, but then I got pregnant with Ellie. I have always wanted to get to a point where I enjoyed running. I don't know why that's a goal, but I just don't want it to feel like I'm dying :)
The last time I bought running shoes they told me I overpronate. I'm intrigued by the 5 Finger shoes...
I'll definitely check out Netflix!
We bought the elliptical for Nick mostly. He can't do high impact cardio because of surgery on his hip a few years back, but he is supposed to get regular cardio per his cardiologist (he has a congenital heart defect) so the elliptical was our best option.
I can definitely tell it isn't as intense because after walking about 5 minutes pushing Ellie my legs were already burning. I don't get that on the elliptical until I'm 30 minutes in.