Hump Day

It's Wednesday!  YAY!  I always feel a bit better about the week when Wednesday rolls around.  It means the work week is half way over and only a couple more days until the weekend.  Weekend = extra sleep and time with the hubby.  Two of my favorite things! 

Though my horoscope today said that:
"if you are wishing away your life [by rushing through the week and looking forward to the weekend when "life" will begin again], you may want to examine the reasons for it.  Are you unfulfilled in your life in some way?  If so, you should be looking for some other path to follow.  Wouldn't it be better to be doing something you find engaging?" 

Now I don't know if you "believe" in horoscopes or find them somewhat intuitive like I do (the personality characteristics I have with my sign are pretty uncanny!), but this is some pretty powerful insight!  Do you find yourself slugging through the first half of the work week wishing it was Friday, then when Wednesday/Thursday comes around you start counting the hours until your weekend starts Friday afternoon?  I think most people do, I know I do and maybe that is something I need to change.  We go through our work days doing what we do because we are good at it and/or just to pay the bills. However, there is a lucky percentage of people that LOVE what they do and wake up excited to do their job.  Not all of us are lucky in that sense, but that doesn't mean we can't be fulfilled in some other way. 

How about spending time each night with your family?  How about spending time with yourself to work on your fitness?  Now that last one is definitely time well worth spending!  We so commonly put all other things before our needs that before we know it, it's 10 o'clock at night and the chores have been done and you've been plopped down in front of the TV for over an hour and sit there wishing you would have taken the time earlier to go for that run or popped in that 30 minute workout DVD that makes you sore but feels great afterward.

Well I did just that yesterday!  As I had mentioned previously, the Seattle Center is offering free Zumba class every Tuesday evening from 6-7pm on the rooftop of the Fisher Pavilion.  Now I get off work at 4pm, so having to wait around for two hours after the end of my work day is not ideal, but how can you beat doing your workout in a setting like this?

The weather had been cloudy and drizzling rain most of the day, then around 2pm the clouds started to dissipate and the sun came out in all its glory.  Though with all the rain we've had lately, all it did was make Seattle a humid mess.  Ugh!  So I walked to the Seattle Center (my office is only 4 blocks away) and watched as other people joined for the free class.  The instructor set up his sound system, yes I said he, it was a guy teaching about 35 women how to Zumba.  Apparently he teachs nearby because there were a lot of his students at the free class.  I'd taken Zumba one time before and remembered two things: 1) you don't want shoes with lots of grip on the bottom, because of all the dance moves where your legs are twisting, the grips can make it tougher to do the moves and you end up fatiguing or even twisting your knees! 2) This workout is NO JOKE!  My hips were burning half way through, then my quads, then my butt joined the party.  I left class with jello legs and was a complete sweat ball!  Having the class outside is fun, save for the gawkers walking through that area of the park and doing the whole class in the blazing sunshine, and I met some really great women and had a blast! 

You can definitely count on me joining this group every Tuesday until August 21 when the free classes end; what a workout!  I'm so glad that I did this and took the time for me to get a good workout in.  When I got home the chores were still waiting for me and I got them done, ate dinner and still had time to plop myself in front of the TV to watch an episode of Deadliest Catch before bed.  I have no idea why, but that show is SO addicting!  I have no more excuses, if I can fit in a workout like this where the timing is inconvenient and still get everything done that I need to get done, then I can certainly fit in an hour long run or a 30 minute DVD workout.  This is me engaging in something fulfilling for me, my life and my future.

Work challenge update: My step totals for the past two days have blown my step totals from a week ago out of the water!  Monday I had 10,083 steps and Tuesday I had 16,238!  I love seeing all the movement I'm doing in a form that I can measure!

Question for you: What can you or are you engaged in that brings fulfillment to your life?  It could be work, family, a hobby, anything that makes you happy or brings you joy!

Wednesday, but feels like Thursday!

Well technically it is my Thursday, I don't work this Friday.  Hello three day weekend!!  WOOHOO!!  So needless to say, my weeks get a bit messed up prepping to be out for an extended weekend.  Though I should be used to this as this happens every other weekend.  Le sigh.

Yesterdays steps total for my work challenge were...7382.  Mwah mwah mwaaahhh!  Yeah, pretty bad, especially since I wanted to take more than 10,000 steps, not less!  I didn't get a run in yesterday so that greatly affected my step count.  However I did get some good walking in while walking to my evening plans.

Mariners Game!

A vendor was in town from the east coast and we went to a game last night.  It was fun hanging out with my co-workers outside of work.  You get a different dynamic when people aren't under the watchful eye of their employer and can relax and be themselves.  The Mariners lost (big surprise there), but the company was great!

Today I had a package waiting for me when I got home from work.

I was so excited when I saw it...I love getting packages!  I already knew what it was, but I still get giddy like a kid on Christmas.  :)

My first pair of running shorts...EVER!

My running training began, and has been, through the cold and wet months of the year here in the Pacific Northwest, so I've never needed shorts.  Come to think of it, I've never run in shorts before, well unless you count basketball when I was younger, then yes, I have run in shorts.  But that was different.  :)  

These shorts are the Nike 2-in-1 Tempo running shorts and I got these for a particular reason.  The reviews said that they don't ride up!  Being a bigger girl with larger thighs, that is an important feature in running shorts because there is nothing worse than having severely chafed inner thighs while trying to run any distance.  Ouch, my thighs hurt just thinking about it. 

Check 'em out, they don't look too bad on me, kinda snazzy huh?

Though now I've posted a crotch shot of myself.  How tasteful of me.  Nice going slick, grandma would be shaking her head in embarrassment.

Well that's it for me today.  Hope everyone had a great Wednesday and have great plans ahead for the weekend.  Looks like it might actually be decent weather around here for the weekend, 74 degrees!!!  WOO HOO!!!

Later gator!

Under the weather

Today finds me a bit under the weather.  Yesterday was gorgeous!  It was sunny and 78 degrees out, finally some warm weather around here!  I got a decent 3 mile run in after work, the new theme has helped to motivate me so far...let's keep this good thing going!  The run itself was tough, my legs felt like lead the whole way, my quads would just not loosen up!  It was frustrating!!

This morning I woke up to the cloudy and cold...and a tickle in my throat.  That is where all my colds and flus begin, so I know not to take it lightly!  I've been drinking hot water like it's going out of style today.  Wait, was drinking plain hot water ever in style?  hhhmmm... Then during the time frame I normally go for a my lunch run a meeting was set up and it started to rain outside.  Lovely.

I guess it's just as well, let my body rest up for a bit while we brave another cold, windy and rainy day here in Seattle.  I've given up on spring, I'm looking forward to summer!


So, before bed last night I had to log my daily step total from my pedometer to report the next day for the work challenge.  I had logged 9651 steps.  Not bad, but not great either.  I would really like to see my total over 10,000 steps.  The reason why?  My work is very sedentary.  I'm at a desk all day long, plopped in front of a computer.  I used to work in a much more active job where hitting 10,000 steps would happen before lunch time; and I LOVED it.  I loved the constant movement and exercise I would get daily just from doing my job.  Alas, the job ceased to exist and I had to find something stable and what came with it was a stable location of work.  So getting active during the rest of my day is a huge thing for me and I want to make sure I'm getting the proper amount of activity to be healthy.

So now that I know what my benchmark is, I need to work on getting more steps then I am getting now.  The challenge is so on!

Question for you:  Do you use a pedometer?  How many steps do you take a day?  

Office Challenge

So my work has issued a challenge to all its employees to get more active and moving more.  I work at an office building tethered to a desk all day and leaves little ability to get some regular movement.  Ugh  So as a "Summer Shape Up" challenge, they have encouraged people to build teams of 5 people and have given everyone pedometers.  The goal is to see how many steps your team can take in 6 weeks, the top three teams with the most steps win prizes.  The prizes are pretty swanky, so it has drawn quite a bit of people to get involved in the challenge.  I did it because I wanted to see how much movement I can get into my day and keep myself from feeling so lethargic and drained at work.  Well and the idea of winning an iPad is a pretty good motivator.

So here it is...my new buddy for the next six weeks.

I'm excited because since I've been running I haven't used a pedometer to see what my step total is, so this will be a fun experiment for me.  I'm hoping that this challenge will help give me more of an incentive to go on my lunch time runs and take more walks on my breaks.  I love how I feel when I get back to work after a run, I've shaken off the stress of the day so far and I'm feeling more focused on what I need to do.

The real challenge for me will be to remember to keep it on me at all times!  I need to record the steps from when I first wake up to me going to bed.  So making sure that it is on me at all times I think will be the challenge in and of itself.  HA!

The challenge begins tomorrow so I don't have to wear it just yet.  Speaking of tomorrow, I'm going to start having a Monday theme, so stick around and check me out tomorrow to see what new adventure we start.!

Until then, have a great rest of your weekend!