Back to the Gym

So I have been trying to lose weight for – well since I turned 12 and I am 44 now so . . .you do the math. After 40, with 2 kids and a couple bouts of depression, where I stayed in bed for months I was in really bad physical condition and I decided to make a change. It took 2 years of trying different workout methods, and eating plans before I realized that I couldn’t make myself work hard enough to change alone – I got a trainer 3x a week and she made me hurt every day. I love her – she saved my life.

 It took 12 months to lose 50 pounds, and then we moved. So I lost my gym, my grocery store, and my workout buddies. I got settled and started again – thankfully I didn’t gain any of the weight back, unfortunately I didn’t keep making progress either. So here I sit with really another 50 pounds to lose to be healthy, again trying to make a go of it on my own. (I hear the song “All By Myself” playing, hmmm).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3j_fdSpkmE

A local friend is a runner and got me to try a race with giant inflatables.

http://insaneinflatable5k.com/obstacles/

 I started the couch to 5k program using this app so that I wouldn’t slow down the real runners too much.

It went well in 4 weeks I got to where I could run for 90 second intervals at a pretty good pace. On day one of the program my 60 second run on a treadmill showed my heart rate going to 188,(might have been close to a heart attack, but since I didn’t pass out it’s all good) by the fourth week I was running faster and my heart rate only made it to 170 and my recovery was much faster. We did 3.5 miles with 11 obstacles in just under an hour – not bad for newbies.

We finished the race and I didn’t have another one on the calendar so I didn’t run for 3 weeks – I walked and did the elliptical but it was a half-assed effort. Truth be told I really dislike running, but I found it was an easy way to knock out 300+ calories in 30 minutes, then 30 minutes on core work and some weight lifting and you have real progress in 1 hour. I returned reluctantly to the gym, and decided to start again at week 1 but day 3, I thought maybe I had a little conditioning left – WOW I was shocked I ran the whole routine at my faster speeds and without any extra recovery time, and no slowing down WOO-HOO!!!

I am back to the gym, on my way to being in great shape!!

Count down to PCS (permanent change of duty station)

As you might have gathered from earlier posts we are getting stationed in South Korea. This was a real shock to all of us it was 27^th on our wish list followed by Ft Rucker, AL; and Ft Polk LA – and my spouse already has over 20 years in the Army so we would be potentially retiring at the end of our tour in Korea – hmm seems complicated to me.  We live our lives “at the needs of the Army” so South Korea it will be.

In 4 weeks we have managed to get 2 passports each (one of the bureaucratic hoops we get to jump through), the cat and dog have their shots and lab work, we had our physicals, and some needed paperwork has come in so that I can start the next series of appointments.  My time has been loaded with interesting ‘things to do’, seems our last duty station didn’t put any of our medical visits in the computer so I had to re-do all the fun appointments – the boob smasher, and every lady loves “could you scoot a little farther down the table?” Fortunately even with the constant need to do things twice we are still moving down the check list.

 Unfortunately it has taken up so much of my time I haven’t been able to do research on the fun parts of moving to South Korea, just the nuts and bolts of getting 4 humans, a dog, and a cat there. I have lots of ideas I want to research – local festivals, National events and celebrations, and basic info- what is the weather like  *sigh* hopefully I will have some cool things to tell eventually, right now I need to get on the phone and check the cost of shipping an 80 pound Lab from Dallas to Seoul . . . .