allaboutwomen

Okay, I finally got my time of month (the last one was 12 weeks ago). The thing is, when I do get it, is when I'm heaviest, weight wise.

It's depressing to weigh in on Sunday, and be six pounds heavier on Thursday.

I know, I know, it happens to all of us: water retention. Don't let it bug us, weigh in weekly, don't obsess, let it go, it's not fat, so don't worry about it.

But, being human, I do take it a little personally.

I'm not sure it's all water weight, either: this past week, between zero sleep, injured roommate, catching up on what I can in my classes, and doing finals, I emotion-ate everything I could get my hands on. I was exaughsted, so I searched for and found junk food. Oooh, those little jumbo honey buns...

Today, I woke up feeling GREAT. It's because I had woken up at 5 PM yesturday, and went to bed at 3 AM. I didn't need to sleep, and being on Clariten, I didn't want to sleep, either. So, I took Tylonal PM, and sat in the dark for a while, until I could kind of sleep. I woke up every half hour, quite confused as to where I was, but when my husband awoke at noon, I allowed myself to get up. I had just had 9 hours of (disturbed) sleep that I didn't need. I was finally energized.

Yes, I had a poor choice for breakfast. Then I got on sparkpeople, and saw how close I was to my next trophy! I was determined to get it today. I did. And then I saw the points for tracking cardio. Hmm. Max of 24, 1 for every 5 mins...how many mins was that?...oooh, 120 minutes, or 2 hours.

I was going to do that.
No arguments. I was going to do that.

So, I plunked my favorite TV show into the XBox360 (Inyuasha). I got a face towl and draped it across the treadmill. I put on my deoderant and sports clothes. I brought my 64 ounce water bottle, of which I had already sipped 16 oz in the past hour. I pulled my hair into two cute little pigtails.

And I walked.

I wanted a challenge, something that would get my heart racing for most of the work out. So I started at 2 mph, worked my way up to 3 mph over five minutes. Then, I stayed between 3.5 and 3.0 mph for 105 minutes. So, the other 15 went to my 5 min warm up, and a 10 min cool down. When I finished, I did my 10 Minute Solution Pilates, the 10 minutes stretching segment. So I did stretch.

It was stupid, I know. You aren't supposed to jump into such a strenuous work out after a period of such leniancy. I will be so sore tomorow. I was lucky to not injure myself, or hurt my heart. And I do have nice BIG blisters on the balls of my feet.

But I followed all other guidelines: I warmed up. I drank water before and during my work out, and am drinking the after work out water, too. I cooled down and stretched. When I became too tired, too stressed, I paused for a few minutes, breathing. I paid attention to what hurt, and my muscles and heart didn't. So I kept going.

I smell.

You know what? I did it to feel better. I pushed harder than I have in a long time. I didn't give up. And I accomplished something: I reached a point, a baseline for my fitness. No, I'm not going to walk 6 miles in 2 hours every day: but now I know that doing 3 miles in an hour isn't so unrealistic for ME. I'm strong. Wow. I'm strong. And it feels so darn good to look at the calories I burned. Way to go.