that's what you get for falling again
This past weekend I flew to Charleston, SC, where I attended my wee baby brother's college graduation ceremony. He and I have never been close, but I am quite proud of him. He managed to get a double-major in political science and German, AND graduate magna cum laude, AND do it all in 3.5 years. The College of Charleston had a gorgeous outdoor ceremony where all the male graduates wore white dinner jackets and all the female graduates wore white dresses and it was SO SOUTHERN YOU COULD DIE. Heh. Saturday was actually quite a terrific day; after the ceremony, we ate lunch at a fantastic barbeque place in Mount Pleasant, and then we drove down to the aquarium and just wandered around the docks - and by chance, there was a sailboat heading out in 5 minutes. So we spent two hours gliding through the water, soaking up the sun. It was one of the highlights of my year so far, you guys. I can't believe I had never been on a sailboat before. The weather was gorgeous and the water was clear and beautiful and it was like a tiny slice of heaven. And I am only slightly sunburned now, yay!
And now for some fitness stuff I've been meaning to post for awhile. At the start of April, I said that I was going to attempt to exercise 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day. The promised weekly updates on my progress didn't quite happen (hi, IT'S ME, what did you expect), but here I am with a monthly update, hee! I am pleased to report that I totally stuck to my plan. Except for the last week of April when I only managed to get in 3 days of exercise, I spent 5 straight weeks meeting my goal - and thereby exercising more than I ever have in my LIFE. Except for maybe those mandatory P.E. classes in middle school.
I am also kind of ridiculously proud of the progress I've made in terms of how much I can push myself, and for how long. My biggest weakness (other than being pathetically out of shape) is that I have no endurance. I get these bursts of energy where I can run really fast or lift something really heavy, but 20 seconds later I'm completely drained. I could never really get into jogging because I'd run out of steam after about a minute and be forced to revert to walking. So I tried setting the bar low at first, and then gradually raising it from week to week. My starting point was a 30-minute session where I alternated fast walking and slooooow jogging, in 3-minute increments. As that became more comfortable, I would increase the time I spent jogging and decrease the time I spent walking, and try jogging slightly faster. At the end of April, I could jog at a medium pace for 25 minutes at a time without stopping or slowing down. Which probably doesn't sound like much, but for me that is HUGE. I can climb a flight of stairs now without getting winded! It's awesome! \o/
For May, my new goal is to keep the number of exercise days per week to 4 (because stuff always comes up, blah blah) but increase the time to 45 minutes. Baby steps, heh. The ante was upped last week and I UTTERLY FAILED. /o\ I've only been to the gym twice since the start of May, and I only lasted 30 minutes the first time. Oops? I blame my job entirely. (We had a huge deadline last Friday, but now it turns out there are more deadlines after that one so I'm still not out of Unpaid Overtime Hell.) Plus the weekend traveling didn't help.
Also, my eating habits have declined over the past couple weeks so the exercise isn't doing nearly as much for me as it used to. I could easily fix this by, you know, not buying giant bags of Doritos at the grocery store. Must work on that.
Um, what else. Winter has finally left Chicago, w00t. I have not kept up with ANY fannish shows, and I have yet to see either the new Trek movie or the new X-Men movie (though I am less inclined to ever see the second one. Hugh Jackman, meh. I'm over it). Am currently clipping for the VVC auction vid. I remembered how to make clips, yay! On the bus rides to and from work I am devouring Neil Gaiman's American Gods like whoa. (omg omg omg YOU GUYS. this morning I had just gotten to the part where (spoilers ahoy) Shadow had been hanging from the tree for days and then his heart stopped beating and he died AND THEN THE BUS REACHED MY STOP AND I HAD TO QUIT READING. wtf. Timing FAIL.) Aaaaaaand yeah, that's all. My apologies for not being around much. I've been increasingly absent from LJ and chat and email, but it's all due to actually getting out and enjoying the real world for a bit. I'll be back as soon as the feeling of "omg spring SPRING YAY HOW I MISSED YOU" has abated. ;)
And now for some fitness stuff I've been meaning to post for awhile. At the start of April, I said that I was going to attempt to exercise 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day. The promised weekly updates on my progress didn't quite happen (hi, IT'S ME, what did you expect), but here I am with a monthly update, hee! I am pleased to report that I totally stuck to my plan. Except for the last week of April when I only managed to get in 3 days of exercise, I spent 5 straight weeks meeting my goal - and thereby exercising more than I ever have in my LIFE. Except for maybe those mandatory P.E. classes in middle school.
I am also kind of ridiculously proud of the progress I've made in terms of how much I can push myself, and for how long. My biggest weakness (other than being pathetically out of shape) is that I have no endurance. I get these bursts of energy where I can run really fast or lift something really heavy, but 20 seconds later I'm completely drained. I could never really get into jogging because I'd run out of steam after about a minute and be forced to revert to walking. So I tried setting the bar low at first, and then gradually raising it from week to week. My starting point was a 30-minute session where I alternated fast walking and slooooow jogging, in 3-minute increments. As that became more comfortable, I would increase the time I spent jogging and decrease the time I spent walking, and try jogging slightly faster. At the end of April, I could jog at a medium pace for 25 minutes at a time without stopping or slowing down. Which probably doesn't sound like much, but for me that is HUGE. I can climb a flight of stairs now without getting winded! It's awesome! \o/
For May, my new goal is to keep the number of exercise days per week to 4 (because stuff always comes up, blah blah) but increase the time to 45 minutes. Baby steps, heh. The ante was upped last week and I UTTERLY FAILED. /o\ I've only been to the gym twice since the start of May, and I only lasted 30 minutes the first time. Oops? I blame my job entirely. (We had a huge deadline last Friday, but now it turns out there are more deadlines after that one so I'm still not out of Unpaid Overtime Hell.) Plus the weekend traveling didn't help.
Also, my eating habits have declined over the past couple weeks so the exercise isn't doing nearly as much for me as it used to. I could easily fix this by, you know, not buying giant bags of Doritos at the grocery store. Must work on that.
Um, what else. Winter has finally left Chicago, w00t. I have not kept up with ANY fannish shows, and I have yet to see either the new Trek movie or the new X-Men movie (though I am less inclined to ever see the second one. Hugh Jackman, meh. I'm over it). Am currently clipping for the VVC auction vid. I remembered how to make clips, yay! On the bus rides to and from work I am devouring Neil Gaiman's American Gods like whoa. (omg omg omg YOU GUYS. this morning I had just gotten to the part where (spoilers ahoy) Shadow had been hanging from the tree for days and then his heart stopped beating and he died AND THEN THE BUS REACHED MY STOP AND I HAD TO QUIT READING. wtf. Timing FAIL.) Aaaaaaand yeah, that's all. My apologies for not being around much. I've been increasingly absent from LJ and chat and email, but it's all due to actually getting out and enjoying the real world for a bit. I'll be back as soon as the feeling of "omg spring SPRING YAY HOW I MISSED YOU" has abated. ;)