First Run a Success

232.4 (up, but am sore so I'll blame it on that).

I did it. I got back to the gym. I had to do all the stuff you do at a new gym - figure out where the lockers where, how the towel service worked, where everything is located. But, I did all that and then I got on the treadmill. And Ran. I ended up doing week 4 of the C25K program. Essentially I did a 5 minute warm-up walk, ran 1/4 mile, walked 1/8 mile, ran 1/2 mile, walked 1/4 mile, ran 1/4 mile, walked 1/8 mile, ran 1/2 mile, walked 1/2 mile. Ultimately I ended a little over 2.5 miles, in about 33:00 minutes. Not bad. I burned about 400 calories, and am a little sore today but all that was to be expected.

I didn't hit the weights like I'd hoped. I'm always bad about motivation for weight training. But I didn't beat myself up about it because I did the most important thing - started again. So today I'm going back. I packed my gym bag, brought it to my office, and it's sitting in the corner of the room looking at me.

Last night I started thinking about things - I felt good that I'd ran again, but I was beating myself up for not eating right or drinking enough water that day. Then I realized that I can take this one step at a time. Always in my life when I decide to do something I do it 200%. I mean I go overboard and try to do it al at once. And I'm usually sucessful - for a time at least - until I burn out. This time I want to be ok with taking it slow.

I decided last night that today I'd work on eating better and drinking more water, with a goal of doing a little better each day. And sticking to the gym. I am going a little crazy in that department with plans to go every work day. I don't have to go for long, but I want to make myself go every night before I go home. I rarely have evening commitments that require me to be home at a particular time, so it shouldn't be a problem most of the time. Also, part of the reason I haven't been good about exercising on my own treadmill is that by the time I get home, I'm starving, and want to eat dinner. That's usually about 8:00 at night and I by the time I'm "digested" enough to feel comfortable exercising, it's bed time.

So this is a good solution. I work out right after work then I can go home and have dinner without guilt. And go to bed without guilt. I'll use my treadmill on the weekends, so it's not all a waste. That's the plan. Day 1 in the books. I'm going to shoot for getting under 230 by the end of the month. That should be really doable, but I'm going to set small goals this time around, and meet every one of them.