Still Here!

I know, I know. I've been behind. I have many projects I'm working on...mostly writing projects, though my children can be seen as works in progress as well, and getting them on track takes oodles of time, as all parents know. Still, I have made time to exercise, and I'm proud of that.

Because I am also a college student, I have to squeeze homework into my day, so I've discovered working out/showering/reading the required literature needs to fit into the 2 1/2 hours I have to myself while the youngest is in preschool. I usually give exercising a good hours worth of that time and feel dreadfully guilty not keeping up the extra 1/2 hour I used to do. Plus, I've been using the bike machine since I've been having Achilles tendon problems. That means I am working out precisely 400 calories less every other day. That equals 1,200 less calories a week. What does that mean for me? That I'd better not consume as much food as I would during a week of working out more. Easy? I think not. As I posted before, we get into habits.

I will tell you one thing: I never skip breakfast and I pretty much stick to two bowls of Cheerios with (sweetened) vanilla flavored almond milk. I could do better by going without the sweetened almond milk. But I like it, and I don't miss the sugary cereals as much. In fact, because Cheerios only has 1 gram of sugar, now if I consume a sweeter cereal like, say, honey-nut Cheerios, it's often too sweet for my taste.

Anyhow, now I've been biking 20-40 minutes (depending on the day), and hoping my heels will heal. I want to get back to the other machines, the real calorie burners that make me sweat within ten minutes of using them. But biking has been challenging, and people seem to enjoy it. The machines are all usually in use.

Today I also did free weights. I've been watching people's strategies. How much weight they use. What exercises they employ. And when they aren't around to watch me copy them, I follow their example. Being observant helps, folks. Don't be afraid to see what everyone else is doing and try it out yourself.

Meantime, I am happily burning 250 calories on the bike, hoping I will fit into my jeans tomorrow. Cheers.