Workout Wednesday - Progress Report

Say hello to my little friend. Her name is Mia. I think I love her! Mia is the item I decided to "reward" myself with for sticking to my Workout Wednesday goals. I think, if you don't reward yourself along the way then what fun is it?! So I allowed myself to purchase Mia over the weekend and so far we're on our honeymoon. If you don't know, Mia is A Clarisonic Sonic Skin Cleansing System and she's wonderful. She works with your skin to help your cleanser pentrate more deeply and cleanse better than most other methods of cleansing your skin. It may be all in my mind, but I already see a difference in my skin when I wake in the morning and I've only been using it for 3 days!

But enough about my reward, you want to know why I'm rewarding myself so let's get to that part. When January began I told you that I wanted to enter the new year with goals of being healthier as well as more active. I'm a crocheter, that means I sit a lot, I'm also an assistant so again, I sit most of the day. Sitting is not good for you so I work on getting up every couple of hours to make sure I'm not causing myself irreparble damage. I started with setting a few goals. I don't expect to get to my goals right way because I'm working everything into a natural process for me. However, I do keep those goals in mind whenever I'm doing anything that I think can help me along the way.

Photo courtesy of TeamsterNation

The first thing was water. I have never been a water drinker, I have always had water when that was the only option. Oh how things have changed. After doing a bit of research I started challenging myself to drink at least 4 8-ounce glasses of water everyday in the form of two 16.9 oz. bottles of water. I'm happy to report I'm still drinking 2 bottles a day and in-between I drink herbal teas and some juice. I work on not drinking too much juice because of the sugar content. So goal number one is sticking!!

The second thing was walking. That's a big one for me because I just don't like having to make a whole production out of working out. However, on Monday, January 25th I got up, threw on some shorts and a tank, my walking shes, got on the treadmill and started 10-mins a day in the morning and .25 miles. I put my headphones on and it was a breeze! So ever since then I have been steadily increasing my time and my speed so that I can set a mileage goal and not just a "do it" goal. This morning I did 17 minutes and .8 miles! I have miles to go, but I think I'm on track and I'm feeling great!!

Stats:
 - Bust 34: goal 34
 - Waist 29.5 (down from 30): goal 25
 - Hips 37.5: goal 35
 - Weight 119 (down from 123): goal between 115 & 120

I hope that in some way I'm inspiring you to get moving with something you've always wanted to do, starting with one small step. Work youself into it and see what happens. I promise you'll be happier you did. I'd also love to hear about your journey.

Click here to be taken to all the Workout Wednesday posts!

Next week: Vitamins

Workout Wednesday - Walking

Image courtesy of "Walk for Healthy Bodies"

Here we are already into the fourth installment of this plan! I am still very excited about it and loving the small changes I'm begining to experience. What about you? Have you started to make small changes? Are you seeing any progress? If not, don't worry, the main thing is to keep doing it and being consistent in your efforts.

Last week I told you about changing my habits with water(link to post). I let you know that my goal was to increase my intake to ensure that I was getting enough fluids every day because of the health benefit. This week we're talking about walking. I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of exercising. I've managed to do it in the past for various reasons, but it's never been able to stick for me. However, I realize that the sedentary lifestyle I'm leading will cause me to "age" faster than I would like so I'm willing to do something about it. After having my baby girl last year I purchased a pair of "Shape-ups" that I blogged about briefly. Ever since then I haven't mentioned anything so I've decided I should let you know what's happening. My shape-ups have been getting a ton of wear inside the house and at work. That's it. I haven't done anything in the way of getting out and really putting them to work. However, I can say they helped tone some muscles that had gotten very litte use during my pregnancy.

So now what's the plan? Well, since I'm now documenting and setting goals that depend on me getting up and doing something, I suppose I need to put my shoes to much better use. In reasearching walking I found that it's one of the best things you can do for yourself because it's one of those things that can easily be done by almost anyone. Getting a short walk in your day can help improve your heart health, your penchant for diabetes, your cholesterol health etc. I don't like to exercise, but I actually love to walk so I'm going to start there and see where it leads.

My goal is to start walking about 10 minutes every morning either before I leave for work or mid-morning to get away from my desk. Because this is something new to my schedule I need to figure out what time slot will work best, however, I want to make sure that I get at least 10 minutes worth of walking in per day for the next two weeks. Once I get the pattern down I will increase by 5 minutes per two weeks until I am walking at least 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. I know it's a short time slot, but I don't want to overwhelm myself with a goal that become ominous! This goal gets me going slow and easy and I think it will work well for me.

Here are some articles you can read on the benefits of walking:
 - Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health
 - Benefits of Walking
 - Health Benefits of Walking

If you are just joining the conversation,  here are some previous articles:
 - Getting Started
 - Goals
 - Water

What's your plan for a healthier 2012? Next week: Progress Report