Almost one month later

Ow. My sides hurt from working out. I am proud to say I've either jogged or walked every day since I started doing this blog. And instead of doing the weights that I said I would I've instead been doing resistance training with my own body weight (push ups, lunges, squats, tricep dips, crunches, and a whole bunch of other exercises I can't remember the name of) every other day.

I have been eating well too. I feel pretty good, but I don't get it: I haven't lost any weight since I started. I've been told that some people won't see results right away but that they should keep at it and then it will suddenly all come off. I dunno know about this. What I do know is that I'm annoyed that I'm not seeing any results other than I'm sleeping better and that I generally feel healthier. Some people have said "muscle weighs more than fat" and whatnot. Maybe I should have taken measurements before I started.

Anyway, you'll notice that the first thing I mentioned around my resistance training was pushups.
You know what?  I've never in my whole, entire life been able to squeeze out even one real pushup. So I have had to do modified pushups off the knees instead of off the toes because I lack the strength to do them the proper way (I have a friend who refers to them simply as "sissy pushups").
And while it hasn't been all that long since I started working on them, I have already noticed a small change in my upper body's response. I'm finding it easier to do the reps and I'm doing them with better form than when I started on them. That's kind of cool.
I have to laugh though: the morning following my first attempt at the pushups saw me grimacing when I went to do even simple little things like put my jacket on because my pec muscles were sore.
Incidentally, I don't have a personal trainer to show me the correct way to do the exercises I've chosen to aid me in my lifestyle journey forward, so I bought an strength training resource guide which was designed especially for women to learn a good array of body building exercises from which to build upon.

But... for the pushups I found this site titled The Hundred Push Ups Challenge and it shows correct body positioning for pushups. You can even employ their readily provided test to see where you fit on its scale (measures physical strength of the arms and chest).Anyway, I wasn't surprised to learn I was at square one of their scale so there I started.

Sept 29, 2010 - My first everything

Ok so I'm 31. I have a son who is almost three. I work a lot. I love my job (I publish a magazine and host a radio show - and I only cover things that I like). When I was young (pre-child) I was always rail thin, I ran about 6 kms a day and I was very healthy.
When I carried my son I gained a huge amount of weight (70 lbs). Told ya it was a huge amount of weight!
Anyway, I have never gotten over how unhappy I am with my weight and image. I finally decided that it was time to get healthy, so I started to run again and I even started lifting some weights and doing other strength training exercises. My goal is to be healthy and fit.

Here's a photo of me now (I cringed when I decided to do it, but I thought it would be a great motivator!)

Anyway, I am going to go running now. My plan is to work out every day, alternating between cardio (three days per week) and weight/strength training (four days/week). I will eat healthy and will update my blog once per week.

Since my goal weight is 135 lbs, this means I must lose an average of 5 lbs per month for the next six months. March 29, 2011 being my final weigh in day.

OK well I'm headed out for my run now! see ya!