State of the Jill

As I've been absent from posting of late and when I have posted, I've cleverly avoided deep thoughts on health, weight loss and working out, I thought maybe I need to give you a big overview on where I am, philosophically (not geographically), on all these things lately. Cancel all of your regular programming and tune into this "State of the Jill" report. 

Working Out

Since January I've been pretty consistent with working out, logging about four or five workouts a week. I've practically* become a morning person, rising before dawn to work out. This is amazing, considering this post from a year and a half ago.  As I was telling someone last week, if I work out in the morning, there's only about five minutes each day when I can talk myself out of it (as I'm lying in bed contemplating my alarm clock). Once I make it past those five minutes, there's no way I'm not working out that day. On the other hand, if I plan to work out during lunch or after work, there are all kinds of things (you might call them excuses) that can crop up to keep me from my exercise. Another benefit to the "first thing in the morning" workout is there is no time to stop for breakfast on the way to gym.

Types of Workouts**

Since January and the onslaught of the morning workouts, I've been mostly walking as a workout, with an occasional swim or fitness class thrown in.  This was great in January as I had not been working out much at all in the fall, and I just needed to get moving again.  Now, though, I'm starting to get bored as I circle the track*** for the one millionth time each morning.  

This past weekend, I went for my first bike ride of the spring and loved it.  I hope to ride once or twice a week throughout the spring, and maybe get back to biking to work once the sun rises a bit earlier.  I've been toying with running again.  I kind of swore off of running last year as I got frustrated with it and with my weight gain.  However, my old running partner, Cindy, is running a half marathon in April and two of my cousins just did their first half marathons a month ago.  All three of these people regularly post their run stats on fb, which makes me curious and envious and basically makes me want to run again.  I have not started yet, but I'm seriously considering giving it another go. What can I say, I have a love/hate relationship with the darn thing and I can't quite seem to shake it.  Plus, as much as I say I hate running, I still really want to do another triathlon someday.

SIDE NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE MOST FUN OF YOUR LIFE AND ARE AVAILABLE ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 13 AND WILL BE IN CHARLOTTE THAT DAY, COME WITH ME TO CHEER FOR CINDY**** AT HER HALF MARATHON. TRUST ME, CHEERING IS WAY MORE FUN THAN RUNNING. Let me know if you are in.

Food

I am not in any way dieting or counting calories or trying to eat lots of fruits and veggies. I just can't bring myself to start anything like that. That part of me is kind of broken, and I'm not so sure it's natural/normal/healthy, even though it can be really successful.  I am trying to eat out less, but that's almost more of concern of the wallet than the stomach.  Or, really, both the wallet and the stomach. Anyway, the way I'm operating now, I pretty much buy the foods at the grocery store that I want to eat and then eat them.  I do make a few smaller meals at home each week, along with simple things like PB&J or cheese and spinach quesadillas. 

Being Overweight

Here's the way I see it.  If I'm not willing to cut my calories, then I can't really complain about being overweight. I am this way for a reason (I consume too many calories. And also, I blame genetics a teensy bit). I gained the weight back because of a reason (too many calories). For the most part, I'm not bothered by my size when I'm wearing clothes that fit.  Every once in awhile I catch a glimpse of my upper arm or my butt in the mirror and think a hateful thought. But I try to catch those thoughts as their happening and throw them out my mental window, because I'm trying to really cut back on that kind of stuff.  It doesn't do one lick of good.  Besides, I'm awesome.

Breakfast

Breakfast has always been a b**** for me.  Ask my mom. Even from the time I was little I hated figuring out what to have for breakfast.  Now that I'm working out first thing, I have to take a portable breakfast to work most mornings, which limits my choices.  I was eating oatmeal most days for several weeks until I got sick of the sight of it.  Then I created the wonderful concoction you see in the picture to the left.  It is a homemade breakfast sandwich!  Biscuits (out of a can) cooked on Sunday afternoon.  Then a pre-cooked (turkey) sausage patty and a bit of cheese makes a warm and delicious breakfast that I look forward to eating, but is about half the calories of a fast food breakfast.

Diet Coke

I still drink it.

There you go. That's an update on all of the topics we typically cover on the blog. Plus, lots of bonus embedded links to super old posts.  Let me know if you have any questions/comments/thoughts.  Sorry I've been such a lazy blogger lately. Experience tells me, though, that I can't promise I'll be better in the future, unfortunately.

*but not actually
**Seriously, is workout one word or two?  I seem to type it both ways, depending on if my thumb is feeling too lazy to hit the space bar or not.
***Since I'm working out before dawn in winter, I've been sticking to my gym's sweet indoor track.  Maybe once the sun decides to stop being a lazy bones and rise at a decent hour while providing an adequate heat source, I'll be able to go outside.
****I tried to find a great post about Cindy to link to, but it turns out I've never written an entire post on how awesome Cindy is as a running partner (or person).  But she's mentioned in about a million Thankful Thursday posts and they usually read something like this, "Today I'm thankful for my running buddy Cindy. She keeps me going even when I want to give up." Also she's mentioned in a bunch of race reports, because she is the person I'm most likely to run races with. Cindy, she's awesome. Let's go cheer for her, huh?