100 posts!

100 posts!

I wanted to blog about something spectacular for my 100th post. I have been thinking about it for a week or two now. What would be something remarkable and worthy to say on my 100th post. Surely there would be something especially fascinating. Well, whatever that might be I could never think of it. So instead I'm going to expose a part of me that I will probably regret ever sharing. It's not a big part of me, but it does rear it's ugly head from time to time. When this happens I do not always fight it off. Sometimes I just like to enjoy the unenviable.

What is that? LAZY. I admit it, I can be lazy. That is how it happens that clothes don't get washed on time, or my kids have to dig through the laundry baskets to find their clean but unfolded clothes, or other household chores don't get done. That is what causes last minute mad dashes to the school in the mornings and cereal nights for dinner.

This morning I have been lazy. I slept in, even though really I wasn't sleeping I was just laying there thanks to my 2 boys that were horseplaying around this morning starting at 6:53 am. I should have never looked at my alarm clock. Because once I open my eyes that is the end of my sleep. I was able to close my eyes again--surprise surprise!! But I was not able to fall back into that heavenly state we call sleep. So I just laid there. I laid there until 8:10 am when I had to get out of bed and get dressed and get my kids off to school.

Thankfully Alyssa, my 9 year old daughter, offered to dress Tyler to allow me that luxury! My kids make their own lunch in the morning and they all are capable of getting themselves ready for school and grabbing some cold cereal for breakfast. Usually I have to monitor them and get them to hurry along but I didn't this morning and thankfully they cooperated by getting themselves ready without my cojoling.

After taking them to school I really tried to fight myself into not exercising. You see usually it is a fight to get me to exercise but I had promised myself earlier this week to exercise no matter what. And I learned way back when I was in Young Women's that I could resist temptation by deciding in advance to make the right choice and then the choice would be easier when I was confronted with it because the choice would already be made in my mind.

In case there are any doubters of that philosophy out there, that is the best way to stick to a diet and exercise plan too. Decide ahead of time, get the healthy food, set aside time for priority exercise and then you will follow through because you have decided ahead of time. That has been one of my biggest secrets to losing weight. When I employ that method I am successful.

So in my laziness this morning I did get down to the basement to do my elliptical workout. I know that sounds like a contradictory statement but it's not. Here's why:

This is what I worked out in. Yes, those are the shoes I spent 32 minutes and 33 seconds in while doing the elliptical machine. And if those look a little like pajama pants? Well, they are. When I got dressed in my hurried state, I didn't actually get completely dressed.

I did put on my Enell sports bra and a sweat top of sorts, but I did not change out of my pajama pants. And I slipped those shoes on because I didn't have to tie the shoe strings and that's too much effort when you're lazy. When I realized that I was on the elliptical with the wrong shoes on I was a minute or so into my exercising and I did not want to go and change them for fear I would lose my momentum.

So I told myself I would just exercise for 20 minutes instead of 25 or 30 since my feet would be uncomfortable. I considered taking the shoes off completely and just exercising in my socks because I have done that before too and it was fine. And I pictured in my mind the poor Olympic Athletes from Africa who cannot afford shoes to run in and thought if they can do it, so can I. But I didn't, I opted to be lazy and not break the sweat I was quickly starting to build and just left those darned heeled shoes on.

About three and a half minutes into my workout I was getting unusually winded early on. I wondered what was going on. Finally I dismissed it as it being a result of my lazy start to the morning. I had set the resistance to a 6 as I usually do and told myself to keep it up until at least nine minutes then I could reduce it to 5. Well, nine minutes came and I told myself to wait until ten minutes had passed; because I usually set a goal for myself and then see if I can surpass it by just a little bit as if to prove I'm making more than just a minimal effort. Then eleven minutes passed and then twelve. Then surprisingly at just past thirteen minutes I set out to change my resistance.

Right at that point, something on the TV caught my attention and I forgot all about the huffing and puffing and uncomfortable movements my body was doing. Finally at nineteen minutes and forty-six seconds I looked down at my control panel to change my resistance and whoa--that resistance!! Could I be seeing it wrong? It wasn't a 6 at all instead it was a 9!! (GASP!!) NO WONDER I felt so worn out and winded even in those early minutes.

When I really did reduce the resistance I put it down to 6. Well, after riding it at a 9 for that long a 6 was way too easy. So I tried a 7, yep too easy. I set it at 8 and mentally convinced myself to ride for 28 minutes total. 8 minutes left, I could do it. The 8 minutes went by and then I told myself I must exceed it. So I then talked myself into keeping at it for 30 minutes. Well 30 minutes came and went and can you see the pattern here?

Yes, I had to keep going. Because this time I was watching my calorie counter and I had to burn at least 400 calories (at least according to the calorie counter on my elliptical control panel). So I burned 400 calories and then I was watching Fat Calories. I wanted to be able to burn at least 160 of those. Finally at 32 minutes and a few seconds I had reached and exceeded my goals and started to slow and got off.

In the end, I lasted 32 minutes and 33 seconds. I burned 415 calories and 162 fat calories. I do not really know what fat calories are but it sounds like a good thing to be burning! And I don't really believe that I burned 415 calories even though that is what the readout on the control panel said. I think it's just set to show an amount based upon an average person's weight and intensity. Obviously that will vary depending on who is riding it. So I had to get on the computer and figure out how many calories I actually did burn.

I came across this link that told me I burned about 252 calories for my weight and for the length of time I exercised. Of course the type of exercise is important too. Because some types of exercise burn more calories than others. I found this fun link that shows how many calories you can burn, even kissing or grocery shopping.

Lazy. Yes, that is what kind of morning I've had so far. And because of my laziness this morning I jumped on the computer after doing my exercise. So now I'm off to get my lazy self out of these lazy pajamas and shoes and into a nice warm shower!