Pre-shredded for your convenience

You may notice over on my Shred update that I skipped like three days this week. Work was kicking my ass, and Friday is A's night to watch TV. I was going to go for a walk on my day off and try out my new shoes, but then it rained.

Oh well, I'm still going to hit my target three times this week when I do it again tonight. I also went for a long walk yesterday afternoon (well, long for the dog, I could have easily gone farther). Today I mowed (and bagged) the leaves in our front yard. Last fall the tree held on for longer than it should, and then it snowed. Hopefully now the grass will grow in OK.

I didn't put up last weeks weight because it was higher than I would like. The bad week of eating combined with some PMS bloating wasn't in my favor. I think this week I'll be back on track. I'm getting awfully close to weighing what I did when I got married (my fourth anniversary is this Tuesday), and that makes me all kinds of happy.

The shoes I got Saturday were these (I returned the shoes from Friday, too much shoe according to the sales guy yesterday). I'm hoping when I add the next step of my plan in that they fit what I need. I'm going to try out the Couch to 5K program from Cool Running. I watched (after I worked out) Biggest Loser and realized that part of what I need is more cardio. The best way to do that (without buying lots of equipment) is running. I'm a little worried about my knees. They aren't bad, but I'm starting with a lot of extra weight. That stress on your joints is hard no matter how good your shoes are. My friend Kristen is going to hopefully do it with me. She was already a runner, so hopefully I won't slow her down.

Tonight is my 10th time of Level 1, and while I have to do more of certain things to make up for what hurts my knees, I am going through without really stopping at all. I've even managed to feel like I've mastered some parts, and that I'm improving on others. My pushups before sucked, they couldn't even really be called push ups. Now my modified ones are passable, at least for a few. I can also do a crunch for real now, not a half way one.

The biggest difference is that with the weight from January-February, and what this has done for my fitness, I am now able to do things I haven't done in years. I can do a walk that before would have left me sore and huffing. I can crawl on the floor to get the dog's toys out from under the TV and not dread it. The yard work today while a decent amount of work, really didn't feel like much. Last year, it would have kicked my ass.