I mentioned it before, I think, but I'm trying to eat more healthily and lose this baby weight Esme left me with1. I joined Peertrainer, a free site where you log your meals and goals and exercise. They have groups that you can join of up to four people each to encourage each other and make you accountable for what you're doing. So far it's helped me evaluate what I eat. I know I have to report it, so I've been drinking more water, not grabbing bites of something sweet in the evening, and trying harder to eat veggies. I'm pretty proud of myself. Now I just need to get a scale so I can see if I'm making any progress.
I feel weird about this because I've always been kind of anti-dieting. My way of reconciling myself here is that I don't see what I'm doing as a diet -- I'm just making little changes to eat in a more healthy way and trying to add more activity to my day. I feel like I need to do this so I don't end up with health problems. There are a lot of things that run in my family, so I want to be as healthy as I can to try to stay that way.
I've started doing more pushups with Justin, too. This site gives a schedule to get you doing 100 pushups in 6 weeks. If you can only do a couple regular pushups it recommends doing an easier form that's still challenging but possible. Personally, I can't even do three knee pushups, so I had to get creative. I'm doing what I call couch pushups -- My hands are on the part of my couch that's right under the cushions -- about a foot off the floor -- and I do pushups from my knees. With this method I was able to do 26 pushups for my initial test with a straight body and everything2. Then yesterday, on the first day of the actual program, I did a total of 90 pushups! I couldn't believe it. I've only done probably ten knee pushups in my entire life up to this3, and that's not an exaggeration. And 30 of those were in my last set where I did my max. I can't believe I was able to do more in my max after four other sets than I had been able to do the day before at all! I'm pretty proud of myself here4.
My other big goal right now is water drinking. I drink at least 60 ounces a day. So far that's going really well5. I'm focusing on just that for a week and then I'll add in a new goal. I can't wait to fit into my jeans again!
And a quick update on Lent -- I've had no chocolate6 and am caught up on the reading. Yay! And for those of you who wanted a more detailed reading goal, it's about 11.5 pages per day. Sorry, I should've told you that at the beginning. So I've been reading 12 pages a day.
1Kids always give the worst presents.
2Justin's doing regular pushups. It's putting us on a fairly even level, workout-wise. Like, we both do around the same amount.
3One or two at a time.
4Although along with the pride I also possess a lot of soreness today.
5So easy with my water bottle! This water bottle and I were basically made for each other. When I try to drink my water requirement out of a glass I just can't bring myself to do it. From my water bottle it's a breeze! You may notice it's not full. That's because I've been drinking from it.
6Though I have definitely been tempted.
I think its way easier to drink water from a water bottle. I consider my water bottle almost like a pet, something that I love dearly, like to have near me, and would be really sad if it got lost or died.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're doing pushups with me! I'm having a hard time keeping good form with my knee pushups. I think I'm going to record myself doing them tomorrow so I can critique it. I want to do this, so I don't want to cut corners.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing Kacie blog about it, I joined Peertrainer too (mostly to help me keep track of my eating). Are you already part of a group? If so, do you have an opening?
ReplyDeleteI'm scared to try the push-up challenge thing. Upper body strength has never been my.... strength. Would you recommend it?
Karen- You can join Mel and I's group! We'll figure out someway to get you into it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as pushups, I'm starting at the beginning with only being able to do one or two girly pushups. The program starts off real slow for us types :-)
I like your water bottle, Mel.
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys -- it is a pretty awesome water bottle.
ReplyDeleteKaren -- that's so awesome that you're joining! I'll send you an invite tomorrow -- I have to go to bed. Or Kacie can do it. Whatever. I'm tired.
And about the pushups -- I knew I couldn't do any real ones, so I tried knee ones and seriously only got two and a half before I physically could not do any more. Pathetic. SO I tried the couch kind I described and I did 26. This way I can do enough that I'm actually able to DO it and make progress. I feel really proud of myself because I have zero upper body strength, too. Once I meet my goal doing couch pushups I'm going to move on to knee pushups and then maybe to the real thing, too! Just saying -- it's totally way more doable than I ever thought before.
And I meant to put a post up today, but it's been crazy. And now it's too late. Oh -- and I make the footnotes in Open Office and then copy/paste the whole thing over and tweak sizes and stuff a bit. That last part was for Karen.