Thursday, June 17, 2010

Day ELEVEN: A walk in the park & weighing IN

I am the Queen of the Elliptical machine. It comes easy for me, is predictable, & I don't have to think about a thing when I'm using it. Queen. Me.


Today Lauren started her golf lessons. I dropped Corbin off at the sitter's house and headed to the course. Lauren's lesson went from 9:45 - 11:00AM so this was going to be perfect: while Lauren was in her lesson, I would go to the fitness room at the club, use their elliptical for an hour, & be done the same time Lauren's lesson ended. I showed up with my water bottle, iPod, iPhone, People/Cooking Light Magazines... ready to go. After I walked Lauren over to her group, I looked out at the golf course. It was about 60 degrees this morning, a cool breeze, green grass, a bright blue sky... There were a few parents sitting on the patio watching their children & I walked up to one mother and said "would you like to look at these magazines? I'm going to go walk the course." She was thrilled to have something to read & I was thrilled to hit the road.


It was new to me - my feet, hitting the pavement. The cart path started out in a long, sharp decline. At first I was guarded, making sure not to go too fast down the steep hill. And then I thought... why not go fast? What's going to happen? So I broke into a youthful skip down the path and then a RUN. I'll admit, I couldn't breathe after a while and most of my exercise was spent fast-walking but still... there were points where I thought "okay, Amy... let's go" and I would jog for a bit. I completed one side of the golf course and then returned to the clubhouse. There sat my new friend, reading her borrowed magazines. I stopped, got my breath, visited & took a drink of water. I'd been walking/running for 25 minutes and, since I have promised you people I'd go for an hour each day, I said goodbye & headed out again. Next I covered the other side of the golf course. The solitude was magnificent. It was pretty and it was reverent. I was alone, listening to my iPod, and enjoying the morning. At one point I realized I was very far away from the club house and I thought about how I would have been REALLY concerned, at one time, if I had found myself that far away WITHOUT A CART. But today, being out there all by myself was intentional and I look forward to doing this again during Lauren's next golf lesson.






I've been worried about weighing myself. What if I have not lost any weight? What if I only lost a pound? Would I be disappointed and throw in the towel? Would I quit?? I finally got on the scale today and I'm happy to report that after 11 days of doing this, I've lost FIVE POUNDS so far!
My first reaction was "only... five pounds...?" (WHY do we always feel negative about what we've done??) And then Dr. Hempel said "FIVE POUNDS IS AWESOME. If you keep losing at this rate, you will have lost 15 pounds in the first month. That's GREAT!" (Aren't we lucky to have such a wonderful medical weight loss doctor?)

So I'll take my five pound lost and celebrate it! I'll even triple it! Watch.......

6 comments:

Kris said...

Celebrate the little things! It has been my mantra for the year. It is so easy to lose sight of the victories when your goal is a ways off. Of course 5lbs is a great accomplishment! Way to go! I know it is really hard when you only put up a .2 loss to still celebrate but make sure you do. You will always want more use that to fuel you.
Keep it up Amy! You can do it!

The Duckworth Family said...

lol, I would be happy with one pound! I took am scared to weigh myself becuase it's been awhile. I haven't had time (going out of time and events) to do weight watchers and miss that weekly weigh in. I'm anxious to start again!

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the AWESOME five-pound weight loss! Even at half that, it would add up to 130 pounds in a year. Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Are you doing intervals or anything like that for your elliptical workouts? Studies have shown that it's a far more effective calorie burn to do interval training for say, 20-30 minutes than it is to stay relatively level for 60-90 minutes. You need to basically trick your body or else it learns to expect the same workout and this is what can cause plateaus.

And be prepared...because when you get to Fitness Ridge all you will be doing are interval-type workouts!

WrayLynn said...

Great job! 5 lbs is great. Are you focusing on healthy eating as well? (Sorry if I missed a post on this.) My problem is not the exercise - I love it. It is eating healthily all the time. I have a major sweet tooth.

Lisé said...

Way to go, Amy! Love it that you stepped out of the box and onto the pavement. Good for you.