Week 13

Arrghhh . . .  still sloughing off and being BAD and lazy.  I need to continue motivating myself . . .  still have some outfits i want to squeeze into and still have quite a ways to go . . . 

week 13

M - 0

T - 25 mins, 45 - - 

W - 25 mins, 

Th - 25 mins, 45 - - 

F - 0

Sa - 30 mins, 45 - -

Sun - 25 mins, 45 - - 

I had two days off this week -- and as can be seen above, haven't lived up to my goal of doing squats, crunches, and pushups every day.  I wish I weren't such a lazy mofo, but it's a bad trait of mine that needs constant attention.  Vanity is the only thing that works . . .  so I need to picture myself on that beach in Thailand, prancing around in  my teeny triangle-top and string bikini -- looking sleek and svelte of course -- just need to hold that thought and follow through on my plans!!

I think also I need a day or two to just allow myself to be lazy . . .  or is that an evil slippery slope that I'm heading onto?  Should I aim for seven-days-a-week workouts or try for five or six? Which will I be least likely to flake out on?  Hmm . . . decisions, decisions . . . 

to make it worse, here I am in week 14 and feeling super puffy and bloated . . . just a horrible feeling, I did a stats weigh in but since I'm retaining major water the numbers were depressing . . . aarrrgghhh . . .  can't menopause just come already???

Well, I'll keep slugging away at it, things are bound to improve. . .  need a better strategy though for my workouts.  I hate spending too much time on them, if I can devise a way to hit all major body parts AND do the elliptical, I'll be elated . . .  more on that later . . . <3!

Aaiiiiieeee!!! Week 12

I haven't gotten around to posting my weekly workouts 'cos frankly these last two weeks have been BAD.  In Seoul, where I live now, there is a seasonal condition called "hwang-sa" -- meaning "yellow dust".  This is a pale yellow, hideously grey and choking dust cloud which has been swept across the sea from China and deposited onto the Korean peninsula.  It often reaches Japan, and has been found in small amounts on the US West Coast.  Anyway, this hwang-sa is one of the most miserable things about living here -- you can't go hiking, running, in-like skating, etc. and it's even nasty to go outdoors during a bad bout of it.  We shut all our windows and just hunker down, but we still have to go up to our college campus to teach . . .  so there is no escape.  It gets in your hair, lungs, teeth, everything -- a horrible hollow, wheezy feeling deep in your bronchial tubes . . . and we just had to endure it for two weeks.

My Korean students say they didn;t notice it, but I had classes filled w/ red-eyed, sniffling students so I think they're in denial.  Perhaps my lungs are just extra tender and fresh, having lived in quite nice areas of the world and have been lucky to grow up in natural surroundinds w/ plenty of fresh air . . .  but then again i wouldn't want to have corroded, toughened-up lungs either.  

So, my workouts have sort of sloughed off recently. . . 

week 12

M -nothing, choking and gasping from dusty air

T - 20 mins, 45 squats

W - 15 mins, 45 squats

Th - 15 mins. 45 squats

F - 10 mins

Sa - 0

Su - 0

I'm so ashamed.

Week 10

OK, I slipped up a wee bit this week . . .  but at least I managed to do something each day -- that's the important part.

M - 10 mins, 45 squats/ 60 crunches/ 10 pushups

T - 25, 45/60/10

W - 20, 45/60/10

Th - 20, 45/

F - walk from Yonsei University to Yeonhui (up and over the mountain, perhaps 45 mins total) (and wearing heels too!)

Sa - 25, 45/120/10

Su - 45/120/10

So I didn't do anything aerobic on Sunday -- but "the flow" started this weekend and it's strangely made me feel tired and lethargic, and pale.  Now, having a natural cafe latte complexion and being washed out does not look so good -- a weird zombie-ish look.  *sigh*   My mother hit menopause early, I keep hoping it'll happen to me early too but apparently not yet!  I have friends who are outraged/aghast when I tell them this, but really, but this age, if the urge were to hit me then it would have.  

Anyway, back to my workout:  I've stared upping the crunches, since they are fairly easy for me to do and doing 60 wasn't doing anything -- that is, I couldn't feel it the day after.  When I upped it to 120, however, aye yay yay, I felt it, so that's good.

Week 9

Wheeeee!!!!  Another good workout week.  I'm really starting to feel "like I used to" before the I let the chub pile on . .  . I don't feel that hideous, depressing spare-tire around my middle when I bend over or lean over to get something -- it used to be this big wad of fat that just oozed over, nowhere to go, like a balloon animal squeezed on one end.  That's what I felt like!  Now, the fat is still there, a smaller pad of it, but it's smaller for sure.  I'm so excited to be seeing actual results!

Here's Week 9 workouts:

M - no elliptical/aerobics but 45 squats/60 crunches/5 pushups

T - 25 mins / 45/60/10

W - 20 mins / 45/90/10

Th - 25 mins / 45

F - 20 mins / 45

Sa - 15 mins / - - 5

Su - rested  (I think I deserved it but still feel a bit bad!)

I'm still wanting to work on my upper thighs -- the backs are still ripply, and my rear -- but will continue this squats/crunches/pushups regimen for at least this month and then in Nov. see if I need to ramp it up a bit. . . . 

Week 8

Wow!!  I've been doing this for two whole months -- I still have to "make" myself do a workout but it's great to look back and see that I actually DO have the willpower to continue this . . . I've heard that something must be done for 90 days before it becomes a habit, it must be somewhat true because I'm at the point where I hate missing a workout . . .  

here's the numbers:  

M - 25 mins

T - 20

W - 20

Th - 30

F - one hour mountain hike

Sa - 40 

Su - 10 

That mountain hike knocked me out!  My legs/feet weren't used to upward climbing and doing actual work, that's one of the downfalls of living in a huge city:  so much pollution and bad smells and crowdedness it's hard to get out as often as we should.  Now that the rainy season is finally over we can start to do some more hiking.  All we have to watch out for now is the "hwangsa" -- ie yellow dust -- THAT really does a number on our tender, soft, clean lungs, but it doesn't seem to affect Koreans at all.  We watch the "Yellow Dust Monitor" (google it) to check how bad it is, anything above 50 we won't leave the apt. . .  .!

AND this week we stopped running the AC!!  It ran ALLLLLL summer long, to combat the mugginess and dankness and ickiness that permeates Korean houses during the summer.  Well, Japan was just as bad, except running the AC there is pretty much like taking money and burning it w/ a match, it's sooooo expensive to run the AC or heat in that country.  Here in Korea, it's pricey enough but not as bad and totally worth it!

Week 7

Continuing to work out, feeling better, I think I'm looking better too -- wore a pink knee-length skirt that I bought in Athens 2003 or 2004 . . .  it had been too tight and rudely clingy for me to wear for the last two or three so years, and it felt great to finally be able to fit into it again!  Of course, it's elastic-waist and stretchy, but still, it looks so much better.  Here's week 7 workouts:

M:  20 mins

T:  30 mins

W:  15 mins

Th:   25 mins

F:  10 mins

Sa:  15 mins

Su:  5 mins

again, the short workouts (5-10 mins) are so I can "say" I did a workout every day, plus, it gives me that forward momentum to clamber on the elliptical every day.  When I skip a day, it's extra difficult to restart -- it's easier to just make a habit of it.  This week I didn't have many long workouts, usually I try to get them in on the weekends but this week my "flow" started on Thursday . . . . ick . . . . just didn't feel like doing anything too genki, but I did force myself to do a little every day.

I begin w/ 3-4 mins (one song on  my pinkie ipod) at level 4, then continue with level 5 the rest of the time.  My HR is always around 120 or so, often a bit higher.  The beginning of the week it got up to 137, but I like to keep it at 120 for now.   Here's to a great week 8!!

Week 6

I've been working out on the new elliptical for SIX whole weeks now . . . . it's gone amazingly fast, workout-wise (but not work-wise, that's a different story hahaha) --

and I'm up to the level 5 setting.  I started out at level 1 six weeks ago, and it winded me something BAD the first time I used it.  My workouts for the first few days were super short, but it's fairly easy to get the hang of the elliptical.  It's different from our Nordictrack ski machine, as in:  much easier!  But it does give a good, smooth, non-jarring workout -- way better than a treadmill.

Here's the week's recap:

M -- 10 mins

T -- 20 mins

W -- 30 mins

Th --25 mins

F -- looooong walk from Yongsan University up and over the hill down to Yeon-hi Dong and to the Hanguk Factory outlet, probably a 60 min. walk IN HEELS. (I live and work in Seoul, Korea, that's where the interesting place names come from!)

Sa --25 mins

Su -- 5 mins

Mondays we need to start our first classes at 10 am, teach six hours with a two-hour break then are done at 6 pm -- so it's hard to get a longer workout, getting home so late.  Sunday I just climbed onto the machine w/ bare feet, so I could say "I did something every day this week" -- and I did!  YAY!!!