So I've set up a playlist on my old iPod that I have been playing when I walk. Hubby gave me his old iPod touch but my old one fits better in my arm band thing. Plus I don't worry so much about dropping it when I'm walking. Anyway, I set up a list of the songs that seem to be pushing me the best right now. It's 9 songs for a total of 33.9 minutes. Since I'm walking 24 minutes a day it means there's always 2 songs I don't hear each day so I'm rotating through. Here's my current playlist:
1. Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert
2. Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyonce
3. Sexy Back (Dirty Edit) by Justin Timberlake
4. Just Dance (feat. Colby O'Donis) by Lady Gaga
5. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
6. Supermassive Black Hole by Muse
7. So What by Pink
8. Misery Business by Paramore
9. Breakin' Dishes by Rhianna
As my walk gets longer I'll add songs to the list. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to add them here. I'm looking for songs with a good beat to them.
Showing posts with label Basic Info. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basic Info. Show all posts
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Why I Am Doing This...
Some people will say 'why bother, big is beautiful too' or 'be happy as you are' or 'why be concerned with what others think', etcetera. And on average I would agree. That said, I still have come to the decision that I need to lose weight and there are many reasons for that. First off, I don't like myself as I am. Yes big can be beautiful, I just don't feel like ME big is beautiful. Now that's not to say that with my personal hangups I won't find skinny me beautiful either but that's an issue to tackle at a later date.
Also, the weight added to my metal rods is not good. I've been told for years that there's a chance I could bend my rods and have to go through the surgery all over again, even longer this time as they would have to remove these and put new ones in. I don't want that to happen. I've never wanted it to happen but no one ever said this would be easy either.
On top of it being bad for my rods, I'm finding that the combination of the rods and the weight is making certain things more difficult. I won't go into details on this as to be blunt some of it is just TMI and fricken gross. I will say that between the two I just can't move certain ways and we'll leave it at that.
Another reason is clothing. I'm tired of having to shop in big girl departements or big girl stores or online because not every place carries my size. I want to be able to walk into the Gap or walk into Lord and Taylor or some random store and buy a cute top and not get upset when they don't have my size. I don't want to walk into a store and ask a sales girl if they carry my size and have them look at me like a gross fat cow just because I don't wear a size 2. Not saying I'll ever wear a size 2, but I'll be honest.... size 22 isn't always easy to find.
Slight TMI here but another reason I'm doing this has to do with my husband. I'm not doing this for him, and I don't recommend that anyone do anything like this for anyone but their self. That said, sexual relations just aren't as fun when you feel like a beached whale. I love my husband, I love being with my husband that way, but the weight just doesn't help the possibilities or the desire to do so. Enough said, moving on. lol
Another reason for doing this is my father. I'm not doing this for him, I'm not doing this for his approval. But I sit here and I look at him and he's 77 years old, sits on his behind most days and looks like he's pregnant with quadruplets and perhaps a beach ball. He doesn't exercise because 'it hurts his hips and knees' and he consumes more red meat, salt and alcohol on a daily basis than one human should. I don't want to be like that. If my husband and I ever actually adopt children like we've talked about, I want to be able to do things with those children. And I don't want those children to be like I am now simply because the house is constantly full of Hostess, Ben & Jerry's & Oreos.
Most of all, I'm doing this for my self esteem. I've never been anything more than 'the stupid little fat girl' in the eyes of so many people that it's how I've come to see myself. I want to be more than that. Granted the weight is only part of the issue there, but it's something I have the choice of changing and I'm doing my best to do just that.
That said, I welcome anyone who reads this blog to this journey of mine. I hope you will find it informative, encouraging, maybe even funny at times. Whatever you take from this, feel free to send me a message. If it's negative, don't bother as I get enough of that in my life. But helpful hints and encouragement are always welcome and appreciated!
Also, the weight added to my metal rods is not good. I've been told for years that there's a chance I could bend my rods and have to go through the surgery all over again, even longer this time as they would have to remove these and put new ones in. I don't want that to happen. I've never wanted it to happen but no one ever said this would be easy either.
On top of it being bad for my rods, I'm finding that the combination of the rods and the weight is making certain things more difficult. I won't go into details on this as to be blunt some of it is just TMI and fricken gross. I will say that between the two I just can't move certain ways and we'll leave it at that.
Another reason is clothing. I'm tired of having to shop in big girl departements or big girl stores or online because not every place carries my size. I want to be able to walk into the Gap or walk into Lord and Taylor or some random store and buy a cute top and not get upset when they don't have my size. I don't want to walk into a store and ask a sales girl if they carry my size and have them look at me like a gross fat cow just because I don't wear a size 2. Not saying I'll ever wear a size 2, but I'll be honest.... size 22 isn't always easy to find.
Slight TMI here but another reason I'm doing this has to do with my husband. I'm not doing this for him, and I don't recommend that anyone do anything like this for anyone but their self. That said, sexual relations just aren't as fun when you feel like a beached whale. I love my husband, I love being with my husband that way, but the weight just doesn't help the possibilities or the desire to do so. Enough said, moving on. lol
Another reason for doing this is my father. I'm not doing this for him, I'm not doing this for his approval. But I sit here and I look at him and he's 77 years old, sits on his behind most days and looks like he's pregnant with quadruplets and perhaps a beach ball. He doesn't exercise because 'it hurts his hips and knees' and he consumes more red meat, salt and alcohol on a daily basis than one human should. I don't want to be like that. If my husband and I ever actually adopt children like we've talked about, I want to be able to do things with those children. And I don't want those children to be like I am now simply because the house is constantly full of Hostess, Ben & Jerry's & Oreos.
Most of all, I'm doing this for my self esteem. I've never been anything more than 'the stupid little fat girl' in the eyes of so many people that it's how I've come to see myself. I want to be more than that. Granted the weight is only part of the issue there, but it's something I have the choice of changing and I'm doing my best to do just that.
That said, I welcome anyone who reads this blog to this journey of mine. I hope you will find it informative, encouraging, maybe even funny at times. Whatever you take from this, feel free to send me a message. If it's negative, don't bother as I get enough of that in my life. But helpful hints and encouragement are always welcome and appreciated!
Exercise
Exercise is one of those words that should be added to a list of bad words. But it's a necessity. Over the years I've had people say 'oh you should job 4 miles a day' or 'do some sit ups' or whatever. For the most part I've ignored the statements because plain and simple, I can't. I'm not one of those active outdoorsy types who put on short shorts and run for days or participate in a billion sports. Never have been, never will be. I've also found gym memberships to be useless. If they work for you, that's awesome. Personally, I find that I feel like I'm being judged and I also easily find excuses not to go. That said, I went to our local Walmart and spent almost $300 to get a nice new treadmill. It's not 'top of the line' by any means. But it works, it holds my weight and I can walk on it.
I started on February 1st walking 1 mile a day. That first day my mile clocked in at 25 minutes. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I increased my speed until I was walking anywhere from 2.5-2.7 mph and doing the mile in 23:08. On February 18th I added a pair of 2 pound weighted gloves to the mix, really getting my arms into the walk. I've had to slow down just the 2.5 mph, but my legs work harder to keep me walking straight and I feel like I've gotten an overall better walk in. All this has been cronicled on my Facebook and I'll start doing so here as well. With the addition of the gloves I have gone from walking the full mile with no breaks to having to pause in the middle and catch my breath again. I hope next week I can do the full mile again. And once I'm able to do that I will start planning to walk further.
I realize that walking 1 mile is no huge accomplishment. But as I said in my rules, any exercise is better than no exercise. And everyone has to start somewhere. This is my start. In 24 days I have not missed walking a single day. That's progress in my eyes and I plan to keep it up. Hopefully in a week or two I can add a quarter mile to my walk and keep adding from there.
When I added the gloves on the 18th I clocked in at 24:03 and did on the 19th & 20th as well. For the last 4 days I've come in at 24:02. My best time was 23:06 on the 10th & 12th. But I will take the minute difference in favor of what feels like a harder better workout.
I started on February 1st walking 1 mile a day. That first day my mile clocked in at 25 minutes. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I increased my speed until I was walking anywhere from 2.5-2.7 mph and doing the mile in 23:08. On February 18th I added a pair of 2 pound weighted gloves to the mix, really getting my arms into the walk. I've had to slow down just the 2.5 mph, but my legs work harder to keep me walking straight and I feel like I've gotten an overall better walk in. All this has been cronicled on my Facebook and I'll start doing so here as well. With the addition of the gloves I have gone from walking the full mile with no breaks to having to pause in the middle and catch my breath again. I hope next week I can do the full mile again. And once I'm able to do that I will start planning to walk further.
I realize that walking 1 mile is no huge accomplishment. But as I said in my rules, any exercise is better than no exercise. And everyone has to start somewhere. This is my start. In 24 days I have not missed walking a single day. That's progress in my eyes and I plan to keep it up. Hopefully in a week or two I can add a quarter mile to my walk and keep adding from there.
When I added the gloves on the 18th I clocked in at 24:03 and did on the 19th & 20th as well. For the last 4 days I've come in at 24:02. My best time was 23:06 on the 10th & 12th. But I will take the minute difference in favor of what feels like a harder better workout.
A Bit About Me....
I suppose I should start this blog off with a bit of the 'who and why' stuff. First off, my name is Kristen Staubitz. I'm 32 years old and live in Michigan with my wonderful husband Marc, my senior citizen father John and our 3 cat (Kira, Cory & Midnight) and 1 dog (Milly). I am currently unemployed but have been searching for a job for a while now (damn economy). I like to read and write. I'm not exactly an outdoors/active type. And I tend to suffer from a good amount of medical issues.
The biggest of those medical issues is that I have scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and had to have 2 metal rods put in my back when I was 11 years old. A whole butt load of issues has come with that. I get arthritis like a little old lady and feel the weather changes. I don't bend and move the same way other people do. And it makes some things that other people can do easily just plain hurt.
As if that's not enough, I suffer from high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, my gallbladder was removed a few years ago and I just recently had to have a procedure to get rid of my second kidney stone. Yes, when it rains it pours.
Between all of this, as well as a love of junk food and some not so helpful family members, I've spent most of my life overweight. I was that rather round girl in school that people liked to make fun of. As if the back surgery and the special treatment I needed from that didn't put enough of a bulls-eye on me.
You might be wondering at this point, why should you care about any of this. In truth, you don't have to. I'm simply trying to give some background before I get into the real reason for this blog.
After almost 30 years overweight, I've finally got determined to lose it once and for all. Enough of the crash diets and the yo yo diets. In fact, to hell with 'diets' at all. No I'm going for a change to my nutritional habits. And coming up on the end of my first month, it's working for me.
My goal in making this blog is to keep track of my progress in this goal. If by some chance someone reads this and finds it helpful in their own goals, that's awesome. If not, then maybe they'll find some humor in this fat girl's attempt to be thin for a change.
Oh and P.S.... please excuse the typos. Sometimes my hands just can't keep up with my brain. lol
The biggest of those medical issues is that I have scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and had to have 2 metal rods put in my back when I was 11 years old. A whole butt load of issues has come with that. I get arthritis like a little old lady and feel the weather changes. I don't bend and move the same way other people do. And it makes some things that other people can do easily just plain hurt.
As if that's not enough, I suffer from high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, my gallbladder was removed a few years ago and I just recently had to have a procedure to get rid of my second kidney stone. Yes, when it rains it pours.
Between all of this, as well as a love of junk food and some not so helpful family members, I've spent most of my life overweight. I was that rather round girl in school that people liked to make fun of. As if the back surgery and the special treatment I needed from that didn't put enough of a bulls-eye on me.
You might be wondering at this point, why should you care about any of this. In truth, you don't have to. I'm simply trying to give some background before I get into the real reason for this blog.
After almost 30 years overweight, I've finally got determined to lose it once and for all. Enough of the crash diets and the yo yo diets. In fact, to hell with 'diets' at all. No I'm going for a change to my nutritional habits. And coming up on the end of my first month, it's working for me.
My goal in making this blog is to keep track of my progress in this goal. If by some chance someone reads this and finds it helpful in their own goals, that's awesome. If not, then maybe they'll find some humor in this fat girl's attempt to be thin for a change.
Oh and P.S.... please excuse the typos. Sometimes my hands just can't keep up with my brain. lol
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