It’s been a while

I stopped posting about my progress at the end of last year. It’s kind of difficult to pick up again after stopping for a while. At first it was “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Tomorrow became next week. Next week became next month and before I knew it SIX months had gone by.

Here’s a QUICK update about nothing specific just to get going again. 

The great news is that simply because I stopped writing about my progress I didn’t actually stop my activities. 

I’m glad I listened to suggestions about bundling up during the cold weather and go outside. I was running during snow storms and it was great 🙂

I’ve kept up with my jogging regimen until I twisted my ankle during a jog at night; not very smart. 

I’ve gone out on the bike every chance I get. I’ve been increasing my distance and speed. This year I’ve been out 33 times and have done over 800 miles. The most miles I’ve ridden in a single day alone was 80 miles. I’ve also gone out a few times in group rides which are a ton of fun. 

I’ve picked up a few other activities too. This year has been a year of many firsts. Things like yoga. Things like Zumba. Things like spinning class. 
All in all this year has been pretty  awesome. 

Until next time 🙂

Weekly update #12

Health and wellness is the catalyst of my recent lifestyle change. At the end of last week I felt discouraged and deflated. The lack of active days, pain, and gaining 5 lbs overnight! Needless to say last week was really tough; but it helped me refocus and also reminded me why I started my lifestyle change. It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be quick, it’s not going to be fun. It’ll take hard work and it’ll take a long time. 

This week was the complete opposite of last week. I feel re-energized and super satisfied with my activity and overall results. I feel I’m back on track. I lost 6 lbs this week, 1 lb net lost since last week. My goal is to lose another 2 by the end of the month. I should be able to lose that in the next 4 days. 

I had been putting off jogging due to the pain from plantar fasciitis the day after the jog. I had been icing and rolling my affected foot without much improvement. It was suggested by my manager to ice and use the roller immediately after jogging. I don’t want to  jinx it but it seems to be doing the trick.

This coming week I will be on vacation, staycation. I’ll be playing host to my childhood friend visiting from California. I love playing tourist around Boston. I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of that. I should also have some extra free time to explore new bike courses and jogging routes.

Weekly breakdown:

Monday & Wednesday & Saturday: Jogged the 3.7 mile course around my house and the beach. The time ranged from 50 min and 30 sec to 51 min and 30 sec. Not too fast and not too slow. I walk for the first 15 minutes to warm up. 

Friday: Biked 19.8 miles / 1 hour and 21 minutes / 689 ft of elevation / 14.6 mph average speed / average heart rate 152 bpm. I emphasized heart rate because it’s the primary way to know I’m actually doing work and burning fat. I’m still obese and speed will come as I lose weigh and get stronger. 

Friday Night: I went out dancing. I’m counting it as exercise because it was four hours of nonstop dancing (30 mins break for a drink). I think I sweated more than any of my jogs or rides.

Sunday: I’ll be repeating the same course as Friday, 19.8 miles. I’m expecting similar stats too. Although I want to break the 15 mph speed average.

Some noteworthy items throughout the week: 

Wednesday I had my first James Hook lobster roll. I’ve walked/driven by this iconic place in Bosyon for so many years and never went in.

Thursday night I went to the movies, watched the Mechanic. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Jessica Alba and Jason Statham are some of my favorite actors. Before the movie I treated myself to a Salvadoran delicacy: Minuta!

Saturday night I served as a judge of a beauty pageant. A friend has been running this pageant for about 9 years. It’s always a fun show. 

I’m really looking forward to this coming week.

Weekly Update #11

Last week was the slowest in months. Last Friday I woke up with pain between my back and chest. Felt as if I had pulled something. I had some trouble moving and breathing at times. 

Monday my friend and I went out for an easy walk at Deer Island, 2.7 miles. We jogged up some hills, but we walked most of the peninsula. 

Friday I went out on the bike and completed 25 miles. My body was complaining for the last 10 miles. Saturday I was feeling pretty damn sored. I suppose it’s to be expected when I took a full week off from the bike. 

The good news is that my chest and back pain are gone.

Saturday my brother and I decided to take the boat on the water for a couple of hours. The sea was pretty damn choppy for some reason, but it was lots of fun. 

Lucas is home! Vero, Jose and Lucas left the hospital on Tuesday evening. 

That’s pretty much the week. 

Some of the issues that have risen can be discouraging but I have to make sure to remind myself why I’m trying to get healthy in the first place and push myself when I’m down to keep going.

Thanks for reading. 

Weekly Update 3

Time flies when you’re running 🙂 This has been a fabulous week for me! It’s the first time I write down weekly goals and  better yet I’ve achieved pretty much everything on my on it!

I’m going to be mentioning Mike a lot in this entry and the reason is that he was participating in a step challenge at his job and I walked with him to help him get at least 20 thousand steps a day to help him place top 10. 

Highlights from the week:

1. I’ve achieved all the goals in my list for the week. 
2. I lost 7 lbs this week which brings my weight loss to a grand total of 20 lbs since I got active 3 months ago. 
3. Pena 5K – I reduced my time by two minutes since last week, finished it in 28 minutes and 23 seconds. This is my personal best at Deer Island  ever. 
4. Ran Deer Island without stopping. One of my main goals was to run the this course without stopping. I can check that one off the list now.

Breakdown of the week:

Monday – Mike and I walked 8.5 miles in the evening. We walked from work to the train station where I leave my car. 

Tuesday – I ran 4.11 miles at ungodly hours in morning, ungodly for me! In the evening Mike and I walked 5.75 miles at the lovely heart break reservation in Saugus. It’s a beautifully scenic and hilly course. 

Wednesday – I ran 2.5 miles in the morning and walked 7.5 miles in the evening with Mike. We went from Downtown Boston to Cambridge, then to Somerville, then to Everett. 

Thursday – Pena 5K @ Deer Island. I walked around the course once to warm up before running it. 

Friday – Ran 3.75 miles in the morning and 9+ miles in the evening with Mike. I didn’t start the tracking app on time, so I missed he first 30ish minutes of walking. 

I have only one goal for the weekend: DON’T GAIN ANY WEIGHT. 

I usually gain a few pounds during the weekend. I spend a lot of time at my parents’ house. There’s always so much deliciousness everywhere!

This week I was telling Mike about it during one of our long walks and because he’s a numbers guy he simply commented that I was ‘losing one third’ of my weight lost. That somehow set things to a different perspective. I don’t want to lose 33% of anything! And that’s what I had been doing for ever. Some weekends I would gain all the weight back during the weekend.

I’m extremely pleased with the progress this week and intend to keep it going next week and into the foreseeable future.

Thanks for reading.

Weekly Update 2

Where to start? Overall I’m feeling good about the changes I’ve made so far and my newly developed habits. Most importantly I’m feeling good about myself; I’m feeling happier; I have more energy. There are days when I do feel sored after an intense run or a long walk, but it’s not that bad.

Monday this week I found a gift on my desk from someone at work, thank you Hadley. It was a book, Younger Next Year, I’ve been reading it any chance I get. I’m learning a lot from it and have started to implement some of the advice in it. I’ve ordered the accompanying exercise book.

Exercise

• Lots of walking – In the past 7 days I’ve logged 7 walking logs in my run keeper for a total of 26 miles walked. I purposely get off the train many stations before my stop to walk for about an hour in the afternoon/evening. I’ve also walked to train stations further away from my house to get in a 40 min walk before work. One I left my car at home to walk to the train station in the morning and in the evening.
  
• Jogging/Running – Sunday I went out for a morning jog. I’ve never done that before; shin splints were bothering me during this jog. Tuesday I went out to the beach for a jog in the evening. To my delight the shin splints were gone and PF was barely noticeable! My couch to 5K app moved me to the next level, two 8 minutes of jogging sessions. I felt great after the 31 minute program (5 min warm up, 8 min jog, 5 min walk, 8 min jog, 5 min cool down).
  
• Today I’ll be going out to Deer Island for our weekly Pena 5K. I’m hoping my time will improve. The last time I completed it in 33 min and 32 seconds, about 3 minutes improvement from the previous week. I hope to be closer to 30 minutes this week.

Health

• Plantar fasciitis is getting better
• Shin Splints showed their ugly face during the weekend, but disappeared during the week

In the bedroom:

• I haven’t removed the TV from the room yet, BUT I haven’t turned it on in a few days. I believe I will completely remove it this weekend.
• Shades are blacked out.
• I brought an old school alarm clock, so I can leave my phone outside the bedroom. 
• Early riser – due to work circumstances I’ve had to get up early for about a week now and I don’t hate it! I’ll try to keep getting up early going forward and go for a jog or walk in the morning before heading to work.

Diet

• During the weekend I gained a few lbs because I love food and have no self control over it yet. Mom’s cooking is so damn delicious!
• Breakfast- I’ve been good during weekdays. I’ve been eating veggie omelette switch feta cheese.
• Lunch – I’ve been good during the weekdays too. I’ve tried to get smaller portions and healthy choices from work’s cafe.
• Dinner – I could do better here. Currently I’ve stopped cooking because it takes long and by the time I get home it’s too late. I’m getting my food cooked by my friend’s aunt. She cooks all kinds of stuff, some healthy and others not so much, but all delicious:)
• I’ve tried to avoid rice
• No soft drinks

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to keep these short in the future. I’ll also try to post throughout the week after activities.

What’s Working for Me?

Changing old habits is extremely difficult. The only time I can claim I was ‘fit’ was during my last two years of High School. I was in the my school’s fútbol & track team; I also played on a local fútbol club outside of school; lastly I would roller blade everywhere!

When I was in school and physically active I would eat ALL kinds of junk food and it didn’t matter simply because I was young and involved in sports.

Upon graduating high school my physical activity also graduated to non-existent, but my diet stayed the same. Bad combination!

My weight gain was gradual for the first five years; then it just got out of control and before I knew it I was the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life!

I’m fortunate I didn’t have a life threatening experience that made me realize I had to change my life. One day I simply woke up and didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. It made me realize that if I’m still young; that I should get healthy; that I want to play with my grand children when the time comes; that I work hard to be financially stable as I get older, but being financially stable won’t help me if I’m dead.

Sooo here I am writing about the changes I’ve made and I’m planning to make in my life to turn old bad habits into new good habits.

Below are some of the things that are working for me.

Consistency -Since I’m in the early stages of working out/getting active, I’m trying to keep the momentum and motivation going by not missing more than one day between activities. If I jog or run and I’m tired the next day, then only walk and take it easy, but DO something.

Make Time – Time is our most precious resource. We all have responsibilities and a million other things that need to be done yesterday, but you’ll have to make time for your health and wellness. Perhaps don’t watch that one hour episode of that mediocre TV show; maybe you can drop a bad habit that consumes time and replace it with a better habit. I add ‘exercise/run/jog/walk’ to my calendar. It helps me to get mentally prepared. Lately it’s also getting me excited to plan what activity I’ll be doing later.

Music – Good tunes will go a long way. I love my reggaeton playlist. It helps me forget that I’m ‘working’. It helps me to keep a faster pace. It helps me stay active longer. I’ve also tried listening to audio books while I walk, it does the job.

Variety – I’m so extremely fortunate to be surrounded by so many places to run, job, or walk. Close to work I have the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston Common and Charles River. Close to my house I have the beach, parks, and walking trails.

Running Clothes & Shoes – I found that having running ‘outfits’ tell your brain it’s time to go. My ‘outfit’ – running shoes, socks, sweatpants, and sweater. Now that the weather is warm I’ve replaced the sweatpants with shorts and sweater with a dri-fit t-shirt. It’s a simple trick that gets me in the ‘get active’ mind frame.

Tracking Apps – I use three apps for different purposes. Runkeeper tracks my overall number of activities, total distance, and total time. Couch to 5K is slowly building my endurance, stamina and speed. Fitbit tracks my steps, stairs, and heart rate through out the day.

I have to note that an advantage to walking around Boston is that I’ve discovered some cool new areas around Beacon Hill. Here are a couple of pictures. 

Any suggestions or routines you use to get you going will be greatly appreciated.