A pedometer is a girl's best friend

I have to say, I really love my pedometer. It isn't a particularly fancy pedometer, but it does the job it needs to: it counts my steps in a mostly accurate manner.

The reason I love it is it's a great motivator. I end up walking more because I have a visualization of how much I've already walked. This evening, I was about 100 steps shy of 10,000 steps, and instead of puttering around the house until I reached that amount, I put my shoes backed on and walked another mile.

It also gives me motivation to stay hydrated at work, strangely enough. The more water I drink, the more trips to the bathroom I have to take... and when each trip to the bathroom is 200+ steps, I can rack up a half mile or more just wandering around at work.

two hundred sit-ups, Week 1

I'm starting Week 2 of the two hundred sit-ups program today.

I've actually been surprised at how easy it is, and that I actually feel like I'm making some sort of progress already, as little as it is. During week 1, I found myself just barely able to finish the first workout, struggling to finish the final set, where you do as many crunches as possible, with a set minimum. The second workout went a little bit better, but I was still struggling with the final set. The third workout, I was able to do about 4 crunches more than the minimum. The total number of crunches increases with each workout, so progress is built in.

I'm also not quite as weak as I thought - I was able to do 29 crunches in the initial test, which put me in the third bracket of work-out sets for week 1 and 2. Still a pretty pathetic number, but decent enough to build on.

My plan is to start one of the other programs on alternate days once I've finished week 3 of two hundred sit-ups, either one hundred push-ups or two hundred squats. We'll see how it goes!

The Game Plan

Food
I want to cook more, and I want to try and get more fruits and vegetables into my diet. This is going to involve more frequent trips to the grocery store, which can be rather difficult without a car. Either I need to suck it up and figure out how the bus schedule works, or just walk there every other day and only pick up what I need for immediate meals, so that it fits handily in a backpack.

I also need to start using up my frozen food, since I'll be moving out of this apartment in two months or so. This is a good thing, since I'll end up trying new recipes and may find things I enjoy. I may also find "Oh god never cook that again!" recipes, but that is a hazard of culinary experimentation.

Exercise
First thing to say here is that I am not going to exercise to lose weight. I am going to exercise because I want to be stronger, and because I want to feel more in touch with my body.

Walking will make up the majority of my aerobic exercise. I generally end up walking around 4 miles just from my everyday activities, like going to work, walking to campus, so on and so forth. But I need to make more of an effort to go out for walks just for the sake of walking, without dragging along a bag or purse or whatever else is necessary for what I need to do that day.

I also want to build my strength and flexibility. Right now, my arms and core are weak. I haven't been using them very much, and it shows every time I exert them. So I am going to start with the two hundred sit-ups program (which is really a two hundred crunches program), and add on one hundred push ups and two hundred squats when I've made some progress with building my core. I'll also try and run through a stretching routine each day, though I'm also hoping to find some simple yoga routines on Youtube that will help with flexibility.

Mental Wellness
I need to sleep. I feel better when I get in a solid 7-8 hours of sleep at night. I function better, and I do not need to rely on caffeine and sugar to keep me away through the day.

I also need to work on my time management skills. I want to finish my incomplete coursework over the next couple of months, and I need to manage my time so that I have time for work, schoolwork, job searching, and relaxation in a week. Some days I will probably overdo one of these things and be unable to concentrate on the others, but that's okay. I will simply have to accept that I did not manage to get everything done in the time I gave myself for it, move on, and try to do better the next day.

It's hard for me to balance getting things done with sleeping. It always has been. I got homework done in high school and undergrad by not sleeping, and it made me sick. I tried to do the same thing in grad school and my body and mind couldn't handle it. I never again want to be in that place.

So now, I'm going to fix it.

My life is a shambles!

Recently, I finished graduate school.

Or at least, I should have. But sometime in the past few years, I lost sight of some of the important things in life, like eating properly, getting plenty of sleep, and exercising occasionally. Those little life maintenance things that I don't really miss when I forget to do them because I also seem to forget how good it feels to be well-rested, well-nourished, and fit. Forget to do them for long enough, and suddenly it takes a heck of a lot more effort to get back into the habit of living to feel good.

So while I should have graduated, I find myself stuck with four incomplete courses instead. I forgot to take care of my physical needs, and couldn't keep up with the mental taxation of graduate school as a result. I couldn't manage my time, I felt awful, I gained 20 pounds.

Granted, the past two years have brought some wonderful things as well. I've made some amazing friends, I've gotten engaged to a wonderful, geeky man, and I've had the opportunity to take fun classes as well as practical ones.

But somewhere along the way, I feel like I got disconnected from my body, from my physical well-being.

This is my journey to find it again.