Work Workouts

Happy Hump Day!

I'm starting out my work week today and will head towards work shortly after posting this. Today is my short day and also the day I have my workout hour before we start so I am dressed in my workout clothes. My work clothes, make-up, hair dryer, and straighter are packed in my backpack where I get cleaned up and change in the locker room. It has been a pretty good routine these last two weeks. I have two more weeks with my trainer Rosa and then I go to another trainer and another schedule. Weeeee.....

The rule at work is that you have to live within 15 minutes of the police department to be able to do your workout at home. Same with lunch. You can run home for lunch but only if you life within 15 minutes of the PD. I don't and therefore I have to drive to work to begin my workout. On my long days I hang around the PD for my workout and lunch. I am able to walk around outside but I have to stay within the 15 minutes incase I am needed for staffing in the dispatch center (this will be more important once I am out of training).

Hanging around the PD can make my workouts feel limited. There is a weight room, which I have only been into a couple of times. There is also a mat room and an exercise room. I'll be honest. I thought having this new beautiful building (the new PD building was built in 2012) would mean a sweet gym but that isn't the case. The weight room is “stacked” with equipment but not the exercise room.

There is two treadmills, a rowing machine, an elliptical, and two racing bikes with TINY seats. Most days I walk outside whether it be downtown, to Fred Meyer, or in our parking garage. There is also several different options for walking stairs and I do that once a week. I've used the bike, elliptical, and treadmill as well. There are always offers of DVDs as there is a TV in the exercise room as well. I can also take some of my own DVDs as well.

It can be easy to short myself on a heavy workout as I am limited on time for actual exercise AND getting ready. I am debating this week on no longer putting on full face make up after my workouts. Still kicking that one around and I have been for a few weeks. I also just got a new Apple Watch yesterday and I am hoping this will help with motivation. I know already I am anxious to get my workout started so I can start seeing some numbers. That is promising!

I'll report more on the watch when I have time to play around with it. In the meantime, any exercise is better than no exercise. I am really glad I have this opportunity to workout as part of my paid workday.  

Tango, Not The Cha-Cha

(Cue the sad violin music)

It is with my head hanging low that I report in from my weekly WI today. I have to say it wasn't as “bad” as I thought it would/could be. After a week of careless eating and lots of splurging I gained 1.4 of the 2.2 pounds I lost last week.

My days start out pretty good. I have a healthy breakfast and I pack my snack and lunch for work. Sometimes I like what I pack for lunch and sometimes I don't. I find that by afternoon/end of shift I am tempted by ice cream. The thoughts that run through my head is “I shouldn't stop for an ice cream treat. Oh heck...why not.” One day it was eating out because I didn't like my lunch. One day it was eating out because I hadn't really planned to be home for dinner at a reasonable time. You can pretty much fill in the blank when it comes to persuading myself to venture from healthy eating.

I was all prepared to write a blog post today about how silly it is going two steps forward only to go one step backwards. I need to be more accountable to myself. I saw this posted on FB this morning and though it was very appropriate for our WW meeting topic this week.

I shared this in my meeting. Our leader Donna asked what phrase we might be able to use to keep us on track. I decided my phrase this week is “Tango, not the cha-cha.” I want to have continuous movement forward, similar to the tango, and not this continued back and forth like the cha-cha. I'm going to keep that in the forefront of my brain this week.

The activity is the easier part of my plan these days as I workout during my four work days. I know I can increase the intensity of that (another post for another day) but movement is good. I need to clean up my diet and whip myself back into shape.

Sunday

Good Morning and Happy Monday.

I had meant to drop in yesterday evening and fill you in on my Sunday. I guess I got lazy. So I'll fill you in now.

I had plans to meet Mark for coffee at 10am and then meet my Mom for a movie at noon. Our movie was pushed to 2:30pm so I asked Mark if he would rather go to Big City Coffee for coffee and breakfast. I had not yet made my omelet at home and was debating spending the money to eat a full breakfast at Big City or eating at home and splurging on a sweet treat. I went for the full breakfast idea and ordered an egg sandwich on a bagel. I like this because I then can eat half the sandwich as a sandwich and half just the bagel. There is always a bit too much eggs at Big City and Mark and I agreed we could have just shared the meal. Maybe next time.

Mark suggested a walk downtown and I had to go to Trader Joe's so we combined the two and set out on foot.

On our walk Mark told me about a new German beer place and wanted to walk by and take a look. I wanted to stop in a taste. I talked him into going inside and asking about a beer flight that we could share. Prost! has only been open a couple months and they don't yet have flights available. We were able to try two of their beers. We decided on splitting a cider and the waitress suggested the cider with the ginger vs the traditional apple flavor.

While I would not have originally picked this type of cider, it was delicious. The split was the perfect amount as well.

We walked back to our cars and said our goodbyes. My Mom called to say she was ready to meet up for the movie. I needed to go to Old Navy so we met up there and then headed to our movie. We saw Ricki and the Flash, which was really good. I enjoyed the movie and I loved that Meryl Streep and her real life daughter, Mimi Gummer, were both cast in the mother-daughter roles. I loved Mimi's character and could have while a whole movie with just her. She used to be on a show I watched that didn't last more than one season. It was a really fun movie and a great one to see if you have adult children. Invite your Mommy along and watch it. Mom wouldn't let me buy the movie or the popcorn so while I invited her, I ended up being treated!

We stopped in to the care center where my grandma has been staying for a visit. She had back surgery in July and has yet to go back home. Between complications and pain she has been in a nursing home/care center for a month now. I know she is anxious to get home but we also know that it would be too hard on grandpa having to take care of her. I wish she would start to get on the mend. Poor thing.

It was a lazy evening and around 8:30pm we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory for my favorite chicken lettuce wrap tacos and their brown bread. We didn't have dessert as I had a cookie dough shake on my way home from the care center.

I think by now you can tell my post tomorrow will be how I need to have a pep talk with myself, once again, about healthy eating.