Plants VS Zombies

Have you tried this game? Plants VS Zombies is fun, addictive and GOOD TRAINING. Seriously, there is a good life lesson going on in the little pixelated world.

The zombies are coming after you! You can hear them across the street breaking down the fence. You're hiding in your house unsure of what to do!!! AHA!! PLANT THINGS!! Plants keep the zombies away. It's true. Oh sure in the scheme of the game it's because they pop out of the ground and start firing and fighting off the impending doom, but let's take a look at my and your every day life here.

You know the zombies get closer to you the worse you treat your body. So if you eat junk and stagnate, they tend to catch up quickly. If you aren't careful, they will grab hold of you and turn you into a mindless eating machine just like they are. This is undesireable, trust me. If you don't trust me, watch any one of the million zombie movies on the market these days. You don't want to become one of these. Agreed? Good.

So what do you do? First of all. Go outside. Plant something! Did you know gardening if one of the best activities you can do? I didn't know this. Apparently though, it gently works pretty much your entire body. Now, gently is a relative term here. If you don't move at all and then throw yourself headlong into gardening, you're going to hurt the next day, lets be honest here. But like starting any other new activity, take it slow and build up your stamina for it. Then, not only are you working your body, making it stronger and leaner, you will have something either delicious or beautiful to show for it. In many cases, it will be beautiful AND delicious.

Those plants you put in your yard will absolutely help you keep the zombie horde away. Eating fresh natural things helps you put up a temporary shield against the zombies. It doesn't last unless you keep fueling it with healthy fresh things though. And the act of gardening, gives you the stamina and fitness to outrun though buggers when they come calling. They will come calling! So think about it...

There's a Zombie on your lawn! There's a zombie on your lawn! There's a zombie on the lawn, we don't want zombies on the lawn!

Part of the solution?

It’s Thursday here at the zombie blog. And that means it’s time to delve into a random thing I have been thinking about. I have to show you this T-Shirt graphic I found.

How perfect. Zombies are part of the precipitate. They are what is left over. They are what falls out of the stream. They are everything you wish you had done but came up with an excuse not to.

I want to be a part of the solution. This morning has been good. Yeah, I actually said that. It has been a good morning. I woke up, and despite having a stiff neck and nightmares, I greeted my hubby with a cheerful good morning. Then he asked me to go to the track this morning.

I wanted to resist going to workout with every fiber. However, we have a deal. If one of us manages to come up with the gumption to go do something physical, the other person MUST be supportive and cannot opt out of going. (Barring severe illness or injury of course) So what I really wanted to say was…. I don’t want to. But I will go if you want me to. I didn’t say that. I said… Ok. I had my breakfast shake, got dressed, and we went to the walking track, puppy in tow of course.

It was HOT despite the fact it wasn’t even 11 yet. But we went and we started walking and we didn’t go fast. I have lost my stamina. I need to recondition my body. But we went and we walked and we talked like old times. It was so much fun. Admittedly, the working out headaches have come back and I am disappointed about that. However, I walked the full mile. We stopped for just a couple of minutes to sit in the shade. This was mostly because we are all, Lucy included, getting used to being active in the heat again. I am so proud of myself. I really am. I am proud that I didn’t say no this morning. I am proud that I walked the full mile. I am proud that I am being honest about how I feel about it.

Lunch wasn’t terribly healthy. It was burritos with the trimmings. But I wrote it all down. I wrote down everything I ate yesterday. I am doing well for day 2 now. I feel like there might actually be some light at the end of this tunnel. Now, as soon as we can afford it, I’ll get my body bugg up and running again. Right now, I am listening to my body. I am eagerly waiting to notice that my knees don’t hurt as much, or I don’t get winded so quickly.

I am realizing now how important these things were to me before. When all that mattered to me were the numbers on the scale, I didn’t realize how much these non scale related signs meant to me. Just like when I lost 25lbs in a month and didn’t realize what an accomplishment that was. Having fallen way down and needing to pick myself up again is allowing me to see all of those things that were so important but that I was so obsessed with other things to notice.

Y Hello There!

I did it! I made good on a promise to myself. I worked out today!

When I got myself out of bed this morning, the very first thing I did was get dressed in my gym gear since it was already right there hanging up for me. I had a breakfast shake and took care of a couple of errands around the house while my husband was out running a few errands.

By the time he got home, my motivation was sorely lacking. I felt myself slipping into that smae old rut. So I went to go find him where he was taking care of a few things. I told him I needed help. I didn't want to go and I had no energy. He told me we were going. He did it nicely. But he also didn't leave room for argument.

So I went and boiled myself two eggs and had two pieces of toast. Normally I am starving after being done with the gym. I didn't want to feel like that so I had some more substantial breakfast. We packed the gym bag and went to the gym.

Do you know? I love our Y. It's just so awesome and the energy there is wonderful. There were no classes running right at that time we wanted to do so to our favorite ellipticals we went. I am so proud of myself. I did 2.02 miles in 35 minutes! I haven't worked out in MONTHS... literally. I am so happy wiht my results.

Also. I weighed in this morning. I am a little less than one pound away from my goal for this week. Knock me over with a feather. That means with a little effort... not even extra effort. A little effort will result in my being able to reach my weekly goal within a couple of weeks. I can still hit my 12 week goal without killing myself. This is so exciting.

These are all things that before last night I wouldn't have attempted or even thought about. I just 'knew' I was so far away from my goal that there wasn't even a point in trying to reach it anymore. I 'knew' it had been so long since we went to the gym there wasn't a point in going anymore. Well last night, if nothing else, taught me I was wrong about MANY things I 'knew'.

The Knitty Gritty
Elliptical 35 minutes.
2.02 Miles
Calories burned: TBA
C25K D1 W1

Look out shins!!

Today was a gym day. I WENT! HA! So there is some success already. Also, we took our good friend Sandy with us, since she wanted to see what the Y was all about. You can never have too many folks ready to whip some zombie booty. Be prepaired folks.

I showed her around and we put our junk in the locker and I was just about to suggest we go hop on the ellipticals when we saw the class schedule. She happened to notice that we were just in time for cardio kickboxing. I was a bit leery about this. I just didn't know if I could handle it. Well she really wanted too, and of course my hubby enthusiastically said he would do the class too... so naturally, I did the class.

I got a bit freaked out when one of the trainers told us not to forget that we could rest when ever we wanted to. The instructor was new and would work us hard.

oh god...

Well I am still here! I am very proud to say that I made it through the workout and it was actually really fun. I don't kick very high, but I'm just starting. I overdid it a little bit and ended up with a slight headache, but I was able to figure out how to bring my intensity down and that helped. The instructor was really great and friendly and upbeat and gave us alternative moves if we need to be at a lower intensity than she was running.

After that we did about 15-20 minutes of elliptical just because I was really looking forward to it and wanted to. I needed to stop though.

I am so proud of myself. I did a 55 minute cardio class. I can freakin rule the world!!!

Now... watch out for your shins zombies, here I come!

According to my bodybugg, the time of the class, from 4:30 -5:30 I burned 506 calories!!! I was actually really floored as I noticed at one point I was burning 14.2 calories a minute. In the grand scheme of things, I don't know what it all means yet. But I do know that I am feeling a bit more confident in my body and just really proud of myself right now.

It is official...

I am awesome.

The last two months I've been feeling... well...

::shuffle shuffle::

:BBBRRRRAAAIIIIIINNNNNSSSSSSS:

Pretty much sums it up. Today we were scheduled to go to the gym with a friend of ours who is interested in joining. Unfortunately she's not feeling well today. But do you know what????

WE WENT ANYWAY!!!!

Oh yes we did. I am now home from a nice workout at the gym! Here are the particulars of it all. I decided to start C25K again. This time though, I am doing it with a twist. I'm doing it on the elliptical. Sure it won't work exactly the same, but who cares really?

So I put the elliptical on 'Weight Loss'. It runs a series of intervals at 4/1 and 10/8 ? (I think it's 10/8, I'm not 100% sure now. It looks right though) Because the intervals for the C25K are off sync with the elliptical intervals it kept things really interesting. It was FUN. I was pouring buckets of sweat and enjoying it. How did this happen?

Those zombies are in trouble. Let me tell you. Okay, so step 1 is avoiding corndogs, and step 2 is keep the elliptical fun.

So I did a total of 35 minutes. In that time I did 2 miles! I was slowing down for cool down at the end, and went slowly for just another few minutes and did an additional .02 miles or something like that. But I wanted to see how fast I could do .10 miles. So for my last .10 I hustled!!! I did it in a little over a minute! It was a minute and 20, or a minute and 30... I have nothing to write with there so some of the numbers end up as ranges, you know?

Anyway, to sum up.... I am crazy proud of myself. I am about to go add stickers to my poster of awesome, and then go have lunch!

If the zombies come, at least there will be no dust bunnies...

I ate decently well today. I did have a hamburger and fries for lunch, but we got them at a little local restaurant so they weren't 'fast food' burgers. Dinner was chicken sandwiches and corn and I had a strawberry Greek yogurt as my other side.

I am feel so queasy in my tummy now though. I am not sure if it was the hamburger, or perhaps the chicken, but man. I feel gross.

On the positive side though, I got my exercise today. We are cleaning the house... and I mean CLEANING. It was move the couches and vacuum the base boards kind of cleaning. I ache and i am tired but Hell yeah my living room and dining room rock. Tomorrow afternoon we tackle the kitchen before we have company over.

Ah, knees... how you spurn me!

Yesterday I went back to the Y. Two days in a row folks. Two Day! Those zombies are in for a rude awakening. I decided I wanted to try and get an hour of working out in yesterday instead of the 30 minutes from the day prior. So I started with walking on the treadmill. I walked on average about a 2 for 30 minutes. Sometimes faster and sometimes slower. Then I got on the elliptical.

My knees were having none of it. While I had been walking on the treadmill, me knees just started HURTING. My knees never hurt on the elliptical, but evidently, they were mad at me for making them take the treadmill. So I did a total of 40 minutes instead.

I am fearing my dreams of running may be coming to an end because of the knees. At least I am making excellent progress on the elliptical and burning twice as many calories. I can't wait to be able to say for sure how many calories I am burning. I am so excited I am giddy in my chair. Another huge thank you to Like a fat kid loves cake, and Fatgirlvsworld for the Bodybugg. I am stalking my po box. :)

Anyway, Enjoy the blog hop today!

Well hello there Y

After a hiatus that went on for far too long, I got my butt back to the Y today. It was CROWDED. At our Y, they ask that during peek hours (4-7) that you limit yourself to 30 minutes at a time on any of the cardio machines as they are very popular. So I put my headset on and cranked up a little Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I set my machine for interval training and off I went. I did 30 minutes at a 10/8 -4/1 interval on the elliptical. I am so prpud of myself.

The last few days my body has been hurting because I went grocery shopping. Yeah... I let things get so out of hand that walking around the grocery store made me ache like I had worked out all weekend. NO MORE OF THAT. I am so proud of myself. The machine says I burned about 359 calories. It's going to be amazing to be using the bodybugg and actually get to know for certain.

Now. Next thing to learn. Bring healthy snacks to the Y. I got very hungry almost he moment we arrived, and by the time we left hubby was too hungry to make it home. So we stopped. I was pretty good. I opted away from some of the super high fat items, although I did have french fries with lunch... but next time I would rather not stop. :)

Anyway, it was a great day. I didn't see a zombie in sight. Wow..

Working out

Thursday I forgot to write about our workout at the gym! It was a running day, but my knees were hurting and I decided not to push it. Today is another running day so when I go to the Y I will be implementing my new C25K workout and see how it goes.

So while at the Y I did 30 minutes on the eliptical, about 10 minutes on the treadmill and the yellow curcuit. (strength training) In total, I burned about 330-350 calories. We forgot our little notepad so I couldn't record all of the details. I'm excited. My consistency excites me. I'm working towards being able to do a 5k on the elliptical.

I really never thought I would get to the point where it was fun. The running is still really really hard. I do manage to feel powerful afterwords though. But the elliptical is just FUN. I listen to my book on mp3 and just sweat. I use the weight loss setting on the elliptical and it gives me periods of high and low intensity. I am huffing and puffing through them, but having a great time.

I am expecting a good workout today as we'll be doing about an hour and a half instead of about 45 minutes. Ugh.. then I have to go to Sams Club...

Sweat is good!

Sweat is good! I mean unless of course yuo're hiding. Because lets face it. If your sweating like I have been while I am at the gym, they will find you. It doesn't matter who they are, but they will find you.

The good news is however, that the sweat and the stink means I am getting something done! Hurray!

Here are today's statistics.

W2d2 C25K = Fail. I wasn't able to complete it. My body gave out after the third run segment and I had to walk the rest.

Treadmill: 30 Minutes. 1.26 miles. approx 246 calories burned. Avg Cal per Hour 492, Avg Pace 23.48 min per mile. vert distance 159. Avg heart rate 137.

Elliptical: 35 minutes. 2.05 miles. approx 357 calories burned. avg heart rate 142. max heart rate 157.

I felt amazing when I finished.

The only downside today was the stretching room. I think I just posted about how wonderful it is out YMCA has a room for stretching that is cool, darker and quiet. Well today this woman had her two kids in there and she was loud, and her one child was unruly and annoying. It's very hard to listen to your body and stretch when your worried this woman's brat child is going to strangle you with a jump rope. Grrrr

I have a plan for c25k. I have yet to be able to complete w2's workout days in a row. So I am going to try shuffling it up a little bit. I will try w1d1, w2d1, w1d2, w2d2 etc. I want to find something to keep my being successful so I don't get discouraged and stop. I think this might do it. Wish me luck for Thursday!

Oh I also did my weight training routine again. WOW. It was harder today. Apparently I am still feeling all of the activity I have been doing lately. I've burned over 500 calories on the last two gym trips. That was previously unheard of for me. So I am not holding it against myself. I think I am doing dang awesome if I do say so myself. Watch out world, I got your back. :)

Success and then Confessions...

Today going to the gym was absolutely fantastic. First thing was first. I hadn't done my strength workout since APRIL. *Hangs head in shame* I know, I know. I know how important it is to build muscle as well as shed fat. I know this. I just tend to get tunnel vision. I have decided to widen my tunnel.

I mean let's look at this practically for a moment. Just RUNNING from the zombies isn't enough. Invariably you are going to run down an alley with a huge fence at the end, or one of those giant trash thingies. So what do you do? Make yourself cozy on a table cloth and welcome the horde to the buffet? No of course not! You're going to vault yourself over the huge trash thingie, or pull yourself up over that big fence. And you will run to your freedom!!! Or even better, run to the nearest Amunation and blow the unliving crap out of the horde following you. But this is still better done from the safety of somewhere high. Be careful not to fall, I don't want to be sued because your clumsy. After-all, all of the lawyers might have been eaten by then.

So I started out with my strength workout. There are several circuits at the YMCA. The beginner circuit is called the green circuit and I got all set up on it with a personal trainer when I first started. I am happy to report I have not LOST progress since I stopped doing it. I was still able to complete my circuit and feel good about it. I even discovered one or two places where I need to increase my weight.

After the strength training came C25K training. Since I couldn't complete it last time, I am back to counting this as W2D1. I did it! I learned from my mistakes last time. I slowed my pace back down to what was comfortable, but still challenging for me. I positioned myself between Roger and a Machine that wasn't working so I wouldn't have to deal with weird creepy people. I kept pep talking myself the entire time. The first two run sections were easy. It got hard after that though. So all through the runs I kept chanting in my head... "This is easy. You can do it! Your body is capable of great things! Only another few seconds. Just ten more seconds..." You get the picture. It helped carry me through the really rough pars. I am doing it though. I really am. I went 1.31 miles in 30 minutes. Yey!

I was experiencing some pain in my right leg and ankle though. So from there it was to the quiet room to stretch. I love that our Y has a cool, darker, quit room for stretching and AB work. I spent the next few minutes stretching out my legs, and that really seemed to help with the pain. While this was going on, Roger ran into a friend of his who stopped in.

It got me thinking. Working out is probably the last place you want to run into someone you know. You are sweaty, you stink, and if you're like me, look like hell by the end. But then, if someone can see you and hang out with you while you are in this state, you KNOW they have got your back when the invasion hits. I mean there's not always time for a shower when you're protecting the world from brain lusting aberrations, now is there. roger sees me in my 'I've been at the gym for a few hours' state and still loves me. That's true love right there.

Anyway, after stretching it was elliptical time! It was AWESOME! I did a weight loss program on the elliptical. Basically, it varies the levels of intensity. I did the entire thing on a resistance of 4, but my cross ramp height switched between a 4 and a 10 depending on if it was high or low intensity. OH MAN can you tell when it switches to that 10! For the first 30 seconds or so, each time, I almost felt like I couldn't do it. But then the discomfort faded and I was gliding into the sunset. I did an additional 35 minutes on the elliptical. 2.05 miles! 325 Cal. Whoo!! I'm excited.

Okay. Celebration and excitement... and now time for the confession.

I should have felt on top of the world. I did feel on top of the world. I felt on top of the world until I got home, showered and waited for Roger to shower so we could decide on dinner.

Ah food... my love... my nemesis. We spent the next several HOURS... and even now still to a degree being miserable. MISERABLE. Why? Well... because food is a sensitive subject. Times are tough right now as they are for most people. So we NEED to eat the food we have in the house. Yet, there is noting in this house that we want. What we WANT is to go out, eat whatever we want, have someone else serve it and someone else take it away. Tonight, it wasn't even the old fallback of 'I don't want to cook'. I didn't mind! But there was NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING I wanted that we had. I have an issue. Eating something I do not want, does nothing for me. Oh I know it's feeding my cells, but I -feel- completely unfulfilled and therefor want to keep eating until I do feel fulfilled. So I don't eat if its something I don't want. I know it's just going to trigger an awful cycle. However, not eating leads to crankiness, and eventually nausea and headaches for me. Not to mention I just burned over 500 calories. I need to refuel. So Roger did the smart thing and just made something... ANYTHING. It was healthy... brown rice, chicken breast and mixed vegetables. It was even tasty. However, I didn't want it. I ate it, but I didn't want it. So therefore, I didn't really enjoy it, and now I still want to go eat because I don't feel fulfilled in anyway.

I feel so stupid for feeling this way.

I have a list of goals that I want to accomplish with this weight loss journey. Some of them are physical, like I want to be able to cross my legs, or I want to be able to wrap a normal size towel around me. Some of them, however, are deeply emotional to me. One of them... is to feel in control of food instead of feeling it is in control of me.

I feel controlled... I don't like it.

If I glide, they won't hear me coming...

Because zombies are notoriously bad of hearing, right? No... not really. Notoriously bad at staircases? Yes!! Ah, well then. My training was not for nought then.

I went back to the Y today and attempted w2d2 of c25k. Today did not go well. I made it through one and a half run sessions. There were several factors working against me.

1. My right foot and leg were hurting me by the end of the first run section. I have noticed that I seem to 'lead' with my right foot. I always feel as though that leg is striding forward and my left foot is just catching up. The Educated Rabbit tells me he cannot see a difference in my stride, so it cannot be as bad as it feels. However, I am always suffering fatigue in my right leg because of it. If I am thinking about it and concentrating, I can shift my leading leg to the other leg. I wish however, there was a way I could just run evenly on both legs.
   
2. The creepy guy on the treadmill next to me. This isn't entirely accurate. There was girl on the treadmill next to me, and he was hanging out at her treadmill. I am not sure what it was about the guy that totally gave me the willies, but he did. Also, he was so freaking loud. I had to have my headphones turned up almost to painful to block him out. The comments he was making to the girl he was with just bothered me. He was constantly yelling at her to go faster and trying to adjust the controls on her machine to which she was screeching and whining shrilly to get him to stop.
   
3. I over did it. I tried to match T. E. R's pace from our last session. His stride is remarkably longer than mine is however. By trying to match his pace I burned myself out very quickly. My body just needed more time to recover.
   

So, things to work on. Run on BOTH legs. Learn to block out creepy individuals. I mean, he was not nearly as bad as the zombies, you know? The second tactic of course being, train hard enough to out run the creep. I think outrunning creepy men might even take more training then outrunning creep zombies. Go back to my comfortable pace, for now. There will be plenty of time and opportunity to push myself, but right now, I need to make it through the workouts.

The good news is when I felt like I was going to fall down foff the treadmill, we went to go stretch. I stopped to use the rest room and was actually feeling calmer and less pain in my legs than a few minutes earlier. So T. E. R and I decided to hop on the ellipticals for a little while.

When we first started going to the Y we tried these. I kid you not, after 2-3 minutes I felt like I was going to die. DIE. DIE a horrible undeath of zombie agony... But this time... Well. I ran on the elliptical for 20 minutes! TWENTY MINUTES after 30 minutes on the treadmill! I am so freaking proud of myself. I am so thrilled at the progress I have made. Best of all... IT WAS FUN!! Now we have two machines at the Y that we have a good time on. It's been a good day!

Progress

I returned from the YMCA successful! Tonight was really a test in determination. I didn't go to the gym at all last week. As you might notice, its Wednesday now, and I hadn't been at all this week either. Last night I was trying to think of a way to get out of going today, I admit it. Well, I didn't get out of it, and I managed to get myself excited about going. Then the car died.

This is how it will be in the end you know. They will evacuate the area, because of the zombie invasion. You'll holkd out just like people do during hurricane evacuations. When you finally decide... you know, the begonias just aren't holding back the legion of undead like I thought they might, we really should evacuate... You will find out your car battery is dead. So what do you do? Do you go back in the house and start clearing off your kitchen and coffee tables to block the windows off? Of course not! You grab yourself a machete and go steal a car to get theheck out of dodge!!

So in the spirit of not being defeated, we manually cleared the shrubs, bushes and wild foliage around where we park so another car could be driving up. This was an upper body workout in itself and got the car jumped. Then we hauled our sweaty mosquito bitten bodies to the gym and ran. Oh yes my friends, this chubby chica completed Week 2 Day 1! It was my fourth attempt and I did it! YES I DID. WHOO!

It was totally worth it.

But seriously... when they say the zombies are coming, its time to evacuate... just do it. :)

A quote

Even those on the right path will be run over if they just sit there.

I am paraphrasing this quote because I don't have it in front of me. But I need to take this to heart. I didn't go to the gym or running all last week because of my injury. Today I didn't go because we didn't get up until 2pm. This was because my poor Educated Rabbit was working on his Team Assignment for School until 6am. This is no fault of his however. I refuse to speak poorly of these people as it could negatively effect y beloved. So I will leave it as it was no fault of his.

Tomorrow however come rain shine or Zombies, I am going to the gym! I am working too hard and not willing to risk my success. Besides, I need to work off this fabulous seafood dinner that we made tonight!

Back You Beasts!

I have figured it out. This huge blister on my foot is part of the plot to slow down my fitness progress! The creatures of the night, and dark... and really just creatures of the 'ewww' (I mean seriously, have you seen some of these guys?) ... are uniting against me!



Resident Evil goes on to explain that when one becomes infected with the T Virus, you can gt huge blisters that cause you to drag your feet around. Clearly I am too awesome to become infected, and if I were, I keep on of these... around anyway.


-BUT- This insiduous plot agsint my poor feet has not gone unnoticed Zombies! I've got your number and I'm coming for you! You know, as soon as I can put weight on this foot again! DAMN YOU ZOMBIES!!!

I've been tracking what I am eating over the last week and I am doing well. I've managed to stay within caloric range most days! I am still working on not skipping meals. I need a schedule something fierce. I did however, break down and have a soda yesterday. It's a very personal gol for me to be able to do without soda. I was addicted for a long time and then I have it up. I went two years with out it and now I am drinking it again. So my goal was to go two weeks without it. I made it just over one. It's not the having ingested the thing that is bothering me, it's not being able to reach my goal. But I'll just try again. I know I can do it.

I am hoping to be able to get back to the gym tomorrow. The blister burst today so I can actually put my foot down flat. I was in no shape to run on it today though. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

On a side note, I am completely overwhelmed by some of the other obligations I have going on right now. I need to hit AT LEAST the 50% mark on Sylvie and Swallowtail, Yeesh...

EXTREME.... walking?

I decided to hit the trail head again today. I'm really rather proud of myself for this. I was all excited to go and managed to maintain that excitement all throughout the hot part of the day. Walking the trail in this weather means waiting until the sun is getting ready to set. Between 6:00 and 6:30 is the earliest I would try and go out there.

Well I had intended to run today. However, the left side of my face once again feels all funk-da-fied and I can't breathe out of my left nostril. So no running for me right now. Seriously, I was huffing and puffing like the undead already, running might just have finished me off.

Since I was not doing my run, I decided to go ahead and walk the 5k. I've done this before. What the heck was my issue today!? It was a great workout certainly, but I somehow broke myself. I have a MASSIVE blister on the ball of my right foot, and certain other parts I wont mention here got chafed like CRAZY. I mean it was hot out and all, but what in the world...?

I am proud of going and walking. I mean, I had to push through even if I didn't want too... being miles away from the car will do that to you. But dang... oww!

Where it all began...

I did not go to the Y on Wednesday....

But don't come down on me yet. Just listen...

One might say I am zombie obsessed. (I would never know where this notion came from...) Or, at the very least, that I have a fondness for them.

This is thanks to the Resident Evil franchise. It's a fantastically wonderful game series which spawned an entertaining movie series. We're not talking academy awards or anything, but if you like zombies, and watching people blow them up, it's a good time!

So then a little over a year ago, The Educated Rabbit and I were walking at the trail head. WE are both Role Players, and have been for years. We're also extremely lucky to have a couple live near to us who are our very good friends, and also very good role players. Trust me, as role players you find yourself to be blessed when you actually have a group near by, and extremely lucky when all of the players are GOOD. So the idea was spawned to create a RPG about Zombies and taking place in the Resident Evil World. The Educated Rabbit runs it, and the three of us are players. It has been a booming Success.

It has also fed my Zombie Mania...

I also have a new appreciation for Polynesians, Pineapples, Cars, and big guns... but that's another story.

Anyway... As we all know, I am secretely training for surviving the Zombie Apocalypse by Avoiding Corn dogs... and learning to run. Yesterday I went for my first run outside... in the place it all began. I ran at the Trail Head. It was amazing to have finished my run. I almost completed w2d2 of c25k. I didn't QUITE make it. But I'm getting better.

I am sure I would not outrun the zombies yet. Not even a little... but I'm getting there!

No I am not a vampire!

I infact, CAN be seen outside during daylight hours! It's just been too darn hot here in Florida to venture outside while the sun is still hanging in the sky. It has not been uncommon for it to hang out around 90 degrees in the shade, all the way until the sun sets. Now add the fact our humidity is out of control... and we have a complete avoidance of the outside.

This really upsets me, actually. In New York, where I grew up, the early evening hours of spring and summer were some of my favorite times. I love the blue grey light and the warm gentle breezes. We, of course, had humid days too, but not to the constant extent that we do here in Florida.

Yesterday started out as one of -those- days. You know the days I am talking about. You wake up sad or angry, have a headache, feel under the weather, and generally just want to spend the day doing nothing waiting for tomorrow. It started out as one of those days. I spend most of the day doing not much, and waiting for tomorrow. But then around 7:00 I decided I wanted to go for a walk. Far be it for me to turn down an opportunity when I actually WANT to go outside.

So the Educated Rabbit and I got dressed in appropriate 'outside' clothes; grabbed our MP3 players and headed out to the trail head we like to walk at. I lucked out completely. The weather was fantastic. It was warm, but not unbearably hot, and it was humid, but not terribly so. (This is Florida afterall) So not only did I walk, but I actually continued my training. -ON TIME-

I almost skipped a training day. Thankfully, I actually managed to kick my own rear into shape to get out there and get going. The exciting news is that I was almost able to complete the whole thing this time. Technically, I still consider myself to be on W2D1 because I haven't 'completed' it yet. I am -THIS- close though. The only thing was, I had to pause it in between my last two run sections. I just needed a few extra minutes to recover before finishing strong. I am really proud of myself.

Take that world!

The hidden dangers of.... things hidden

I actually recorded and tracked all of my food today. And just as I was about to congratulate myself on a job well done, I then looked at my total calories eaten!!

For the love of all things holy! I overate by 1000 calories.

::shuffle shuffle:: BRRRAAAIIIIINNNNSSSSS ::shuffle shuffle::

I think I hear them coming closer.

Seriously, 1000 calories? That is almost all of tomorrow's calories. It certainly opened my eyes to how out of whack my perceptions of food have become. I am way out of practice. It's time to get back to it.

Incidentally, I realized today when it comes to fighting zombies, you should walk softly and carry a big gun. That way, hopefully they won't hear you. If they do hear you, you happen to have a big gun you can blow their brains out with. (which depending on if it has just eaten means aiming for the had or the stomach.) Barring that, there is the old fall back of RUN THE HECK AWAY! This is the part I was training for today. Yes indeedy, I went to the Y.

HOLY COW. Let me tell you something. Those extra 30 seconds of jogging added in are nothing to sneeze at. They are something to pant and sweat and swear at! But I did it anyway. I DID NOT manage to run the full intervals with the exception of the first and second to last one. But I don't care. I am improving and I felt so good having completed it. I even added an additional 5 minutes of walking onto the end. I want to keep adding walking time so that I am walking a full 30 minutes extra on top of the running portions. Walking just makes me FEEL good.

There is this wonderful sensation that comes over me sometimes when I am doing a run section. When I am into the music and am able to fully concentrate on my running and breathing, I feel like I am flying. I can feel a smile just take over my face and I wonder when I became a girl who smiles while running. I'm 281lbs as of this morning. My highest recorded weight ever, and I feel like I can do something.

Now. If I could just get the pain in my calves to go away while I am running, things would be golden! But Not too much at once ey?

I'm totally a fat girl running. Before Spark I wouldn't have even given this concept a thought. You need to BE thin to start running. Running just makes you strong and keeps you thin, right? Where do we get these notions from. Is it because no one ever told us we could? Is it because people told us we couldn't? I know that a great deal of my self doubt stems from school. I could never complete the mile run in high school. I was overweight then too, but not by this much. So if I couldn't do it then, I sure as heck can't do it now, right?

WRONG!!! WRONG!!! All of it! So Wrong!

The truth is, if your body will take it, (and it will take so much more than you think it will) than YES YOU CAN DO IT! And anyone who has a problem with you or the fact you are trying to meet your goals be damned!

So get a good look at it now Zombies. Fantasize about it super-sized with cheese a drink and a dinky plastic toy, because I am running this fat tush right off!

The one I will become will catch me...

Something to remember as I head out to the Y today.



Let me fall
Let me climb
There’s a moment when fear
And dreams must collide


Someone I am
Is waiting for courage
The one I want
The one I will become
Will catch me

Thank you Fat Girl Vs World.