Milelage Monday

Been dealing with allergies for the past week, but not sure if it was that or some strange cold. Everyone in the house seemed to have a different version of the same thing. I've had a headache for the past who knows how long (a month?) off and on, and the last week and a half my sinuses have been aching and giving me a hassle. My husband had a bad headache for the better part of last week, and my mother in-law had the same sinus thing and a nasty cough. We all seem to be on the mend though. My sinuses still feel a little strange, but not as bad as they were.

I didn't do much in the way of exercise last week, but by Thursday or Friday, I had enough of feeling blah. The elliptical actually made me feel a bit better. Sweat it out of me, we'll see if that works.As long as my chest is clear, I should be fine to exercise.

I'm all caught up on my back log of virtual walk pictures. Which means I need to get my butt moving so I can get more pictures for next Monday. That's a good motivator right there. Since my last Mileage Monday post, I've passed through Howardstown, KY in Nelson county and I'm currently passing through White City, KY in Larue county. Let's get to the last of my saved pictures!

Mile 877.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 878.2 (elliptical for 1/2 mile)

Mile 880.6 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 883.6 (elliptical for 1/2 mile and Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 886 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 887 (elliptical for 1 mile)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk Site)

I just came upon my 8 year Sparkaversary. I joined SparkPeople.com 8 years ago because I finally was fed up with the yo-yo exercise/diet circle. The website is still extremley popular even with other free weight loss sites and apps out there. I've been tempted to try out other apps (such as MyFitnessPal), but I'm a loyal Sparker. I do use the FitBit site, but FitBit and SparkPeople can be linked together so that's a bonus. I still would recommend SparkPeople to anyone who wanted to lose weight or become more active. It still has one of the best online communities I've come across.

Keep moving!!!

Mileage Monday: Short And Quick

Here are some more of the pictures I have saved from the virtual walk site from the last several weeks. I mentioned in my last Mileage Monday post that I've been dealing with anxiety and avoidance issues. I'm getting a hold of it though, at least to some degree. I do intend to write about it, but it is a touchy subject. It's personal and hard to talk about sometimes because it makes me feel uncomfortable. But I figure there are other people with cerebral palsy who are dealing with the same set backs and fears, so why not share my experience? That's what this whole blog is for right? To share my journey and how I deal with my situation. I won't be "cured" of anxiety, but I can learn to deal with it and keep moving forward. It's no fun to go through, and is downright scary sometimes.

Onward and upward. Here are some more pictures from the cross country walk.

Mile 868 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 869 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 872 (elliptical for 1 mile and Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 872.4 (marched in place watching The Biggest Loser for .5 mile)

Mile 874.8 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 877.2 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk Site)

I'm almost current with the pictures. I have three left. Now if I can just get my butt up and moving I can add to those pictures. It seems I've lost my mojo. I'm nowhere near as consistent with exercise as I once was. I'll get there again, I just need to focus and DO IT. Keep moving!

Mileage Monday: Slacking Again

I've missed several weeks again for my Mileage Monday posts. I won't appologize, I won't make promises to do better, but they will still be posted. I may miss a week here or there, but oh well. As Roni and Carla would say...WYCWYC.

My workouts have been hit and miss lately also. I'll get into the why of that at a later time, but long story short, it has to do with avoidance of a certain issue. If you guessed fear of falling as a cause for this avoidance, you're spot on. Like I said, a story for another time. But it's time to deal with it.

On to the virtual walk progress report. I'm still going, although like I said, it's hit and miss. I got back on the wagon this morning though. Only did 1/2 mile on the elliptical, but it's something. I still have a few weeks of pictures to get caught up on, so let's get started.

Mile 858.6 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 861 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 861.4 (elliptical for .5 mile)

Mile 862.2 (Jessica Smith for .8 mile)

Mile 864.6 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 865.5 (elliptical for 1 mile)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk)

Onward and upward. Hope everyone who is dealing with the tons and tons of snow is safe and staying warm. Wish I could send you our 90 degree weather. How about I send you 30 degrees of warmth? I'll give you all 30 degrees from our temps. I miss the 70s and 60s. Too soon to be getting into the 90s. Bah. Oh well. Keep moving!

Mileage Monday: Let's Try Again

First of all, this post's title now has two meanings. The first reason for the post's title is the fact that this post is a day late. My computer lost Internet connection as I was writing this post. I kid you not. I was in the process on inserting the pictures from the virtual walk site, when I got an error message saying I lost connection. Everyone here lost the Internet, but when the router rebooted, mine didn't come up. Turned out to be a loose cable connection (outside somewhere) to my machine. All fixed now though. Just annoying to yet again have a plan of mine disrupted. Seems like every time I make a plan, something always pops up to disrupt it.

The second reason for the title of this post is exercise related. I was all gung ho about my new workout plan. Get up every hour and get on the elliptical. I should have waited until my upper back was 100%. I did get on the elliptical every hour for about 6 minutes (did two tenths of a mile in that time), and by 2 PM that afternoon, my shoulders were screaming at me. So, I needed a little patience.

I am back into my routine now though. Only just. I did a mile yesterday (Sunday) and a mile today (Monday), and I feel pretty good. Upper back is all better. I am also very pleased that my stamina didn't go down the toilet after my exercise hiatus. It's been, what, three weeks or so since my back went wacko, and I am still able to do 1/2 straight. Big smile at that.

So, my plan is to do at least 1/2 mile on the elliptical most days of the week (saying every day is unrealistic), and then maybe another 1/2 later that morning or one of my Leslie Sansone DVDs. Other than that, I will be getting up every hour. Not on the elliptical, but just marching in place. I think that will be easier. We'll see though.

I'm still going strong on the virtual walk site. The last few weeks I've not entered any mileage, but I still have a back log of pictures to share. So let's get to it!

Mile 831.8 (3.1 miles as I marched in place while watching Biggest Loser)

Mile 832.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 833.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 836.2 (Leslie for 2.4)

Mile 837.2 (elliptical for 1)

Mile 838.2 (elliptical)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk site)

There ya have it! A day late, but it's up. I am very very very happy that Google's Blogger platform saves drafts frequently so I didn't have to write all of this twice. Normally, I write my posts on Evernote's desktop software (I love Evernote!!!!) and then copy and paste it to Blogger, but decided not to this time. Lesson learned, but Google's Blogger is awesome.

Mileage Monday - Back To Strength

My efforts to make friends with my hand weights again is going well. Last week I managed only one day, but that's OK. I want to take it slow. This week my plan is two days. I already did my strength routine for today, and I'll do it again on Thursday. Then next week I may try for three days. We'll see.

I do find myself enjoying my strength training workouts more since I've cut out the ab routine. I had such a long ab routine (20 minutes just for ab work), that I found myself really dreading strength training days. For now I don't plan on adding any ab work back into my routine. I may pick and choose a few moves to add back in further down the line.

I'm doing OK with my cardio workouts. I have to say it again, if I don't get my workouts in early in the morning they tend not to happen. I had a few days like that last week, and I regretted not getting those workouts in. So far so good this week.

Since my last Mileage Monday post, I've passed through Burgin, KY in Mercer county, and I have about 1 mile to go until I reach Harrodsburg, KY in Mercer county. It's actually 1.1 mile I have left to go. I plan on doing the elliptical tomorrow, and I typically just do 1 mile on the elliptical. I may have to push another tenth of a mile to get to the next town. I've been thinking about increasing my mileage on the elliptical for a while, so this might be a good excuse to do that.

Here are the pictures I have from the virtual walk site for the last week.

Mile 805.6 (Leslie for 2.4 miles)

Mile 806.6 (Elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 809 (Leslie for 2.4 miles)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk site)

Make it a great week, and Keep Moving!

The Return! Mileage Monday

Well, I've been back from vacation for several weeks, and you're right, there's no vacation recap yet. I know I said I'd have it up soon after I got back, but it's not. It's an overwhelming task I admit it. I think of the overall picture of writing three or four posts all at once, and it's daunting. I need to look at it one post at a time, sit down, and just get it done. I've already got the web links for everything, I just need to write them up. And I was smart this time around. Rather than trying to remember where and what I ate after I got back from vacation, I wrote it all down that night.

It is coming, I just won't put a due date on it. I stress myself out that way. I'll write it when I write it. But I will write it. Had some adventures, that's for sure.

Back to Mileage Monday updates. I said I would make friends with my hand weights when I got back from vacation, and well, I did my best. The hand weights aren't the problem, it's the crunches that did me in. I think I'm going to get rid of a lot of my ab routine. I strained my neck pretty good, and aggravated a pinched nerve I have from time to time. I couldn't turn my head for about a week, well maybe not a week, but a good 4 days at least. I did go to the chiropractor, and he got it all sorted out.

Apparently, my lower back was in rough shape, because he said it was way out of whack. I didn't realize it because I had so much pain in my neck. He said "pain masks pain", and he's right. He spent longer than usual on me, and he had to do the ultrasonic therapy (heat therapy) twice on me, because I had pain still. It took several days before I could really turn my head (also bending my head backwards was painful) again. Even now, it's not quite right. A lot better than it was though.

So yes, ab routine is going away for a while. I'm not too bothered by it. My abs are strong as it is. The elliptical and Leslie Sansone DVDs take care of any ab work also. Particularly the elliptical. I'll give my hand weights another go this week and see what happens.

I've gone several miles on the virtual walk site since being back. I've now gone a total of 803.2 miles, and since my last Mileage Monday post, I've passed through Bryantsville, KY in Garrard county. I have about  3 miles until I get to Burgin, KY in Mercer county.

Here are the latest pictures!

Mile 797.8 (Leslie for 2.4 miles)

Mile 798.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 799.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 802.2 (Leslie for 2.4 miles)

Mile 803.2 (elliptical for 1 mile)

There ya go! Hope everyone is having a great Monday so far. Keep moving!

Mile Monday And Adios!

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for vacation for a little over a week. I had planned to get some posts written to upload while I was away, but that didn't happen. I got distracted by errands and other things, and well, it just got away from me. I only got in one workout also since last week. But that's OK, I don't want to be worn out while I'm gone.

I plan to write up a recap of my vacation when I return, and I have a few other posts to write up when I get back. Hopefully our flight back East will be uneventful, unlike last year when our flight was delayed an hour and we missed our connecting flight in Dallas. Spent 6 hours in the Dallas airport waiting on standby. Wasn't fun. Hopefully everything will go smoothly this time around.

Here's the lone picture from the virtual walk site from last week.

Mile 795.4 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

(photo credit - Virtual Walk)

Have a great week and a half, and I'll see you when I get back! Keep moving!

Mileage Monday!

This might be the last Mileage Monday I post for a few weeks. I thought I had more of a backlog of pictures, but looks like I'm all caught up after this post. Next week, I'll be out of town for about nine days, but I should have at least 4 or 5 pictures, so I might squeeze in one more Mileage Monday post before I go.

Still going strong with my cardio workouts. Strength training is another story. My hand weights and I need to become reacquainted when I get back from vacation. I haven't done consistent strength training since late November 2013, maybe even October. So, it's time to get back to it. At least I'm back into consistent cardio workouts, which for me is more important. Strength training is important, but for me to keep moving is even more so.

I've also been fairly good at getting my workouts done in the morning. I may even start earlier than I do now. Normally, I wake up, have coffee right away, and check email. I get sucked in, and that's my problem. If I get up, get dressed, and get my butt on the elliptical or some other workout, I can get all that out of the way, and THEN have coffee. That might be tough. We'll see. I can be a zombie first thing in the morning. Don't talk to me until I have coffee, or you might lose your head. Nah, I'm not that bad. We'll play it by ear though when I get back. I need a cut off time in the morning though so I don't get sucked in.

OK, on to the pictures from the virtual walk site!

Mile 782.6 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 785 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 786 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 789.6 (Leslie Sansone for 3.5 miles)

Mile 792 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 793 (elliptical for 1 mile)

I will try and have one more Mileage Monday post before I leave. I also plan on writing up some posts this week to auto upload while I'm gone. Maybe do a few posts this week, and a few posts while I'm gone. I do have things I want to write about, I've just gotten side-tracked with other things. And of course, I will be writing up a vacation recap when I get back. Within a few weeks of returning if not sooner.

Keep moving!

Mileage Monday!!

Where does the time go? I blink and it's been a month since my last post? Wow. Sorry about that. I need to give myself a big kick in the rear as far as this blog goes. I've neglected it far too much lately. Since my last Mileage Monday post, I've passed through the town of Bighill, KY, Berea, KY, and Kirksville, KY, all in the county of Madison. I have about 6.5 miles until I reach Bryantsville, KY in Gerrard county.

I'm sill going strong with my elliptical and my Leslie Sansone DVDs. I feel like I have a lot more stamina now than I did a few months ago. I'm still taking breaks every quarter mile on my elliptical, and that frustrates me. I don't get how I once was able to do a full mile with no stops. That was on my old machine. As soon as I got my new machine about three years ago, I haven't been able to do more than half a mile straight. I don't get it. But that's OK. As long as I keep moving, that's all that matters. I can still do 65 minutes straight of Leslie Sansone.

Lots of great pictures from the virtual walk site lately too. I'm excited to share these, they're very pretty. The virtual walk site is still a great motivator to get me up and moving. Here are the pictures!

Mile 771.6 (Leslie Sansone for 3.7 miles)

Mile 775 (Leslie Sansone for 3.5 miles)

Mile 778.6 (Leslie Sansone for 3.6 miles)

Mile 779.6 (Elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 780.6 (Elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 781.6 (Elliptical for 1 mile)

(photo credit - http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html;jsessionid=1F4E2B8269D80C6DF557FB31D1D6D77B)

And there you have it! Hope everyone is having a great Monday. Make it a great week! Keep moving!

Mileage Monday

It's time for another Mileage Monday post. I skipped the last few weeks it seems. I'm still moving right along across the country on the virtual walk site. I've been entering my mileage consistently now for five years. Hard to believe, it only seems like yesterday that I found that site. Pretty good motivator to keep moving.

Since my last Mileage Monday post, I've passed through Bighill, KY and Berea, KY both in Madison county. I have about 1.9 miles until I reach Kirksville, KY also in Madison county.

I made up my mind about the dilemma I've been having with my Leslie Sansone DVDs. I've decided to go with the mileage from my FitBit. It seems very accurate every single time I do the DVD. Always 3.6 or 3.7 miles for the "5 mile" DVD. I'm also doing my best to get in 10,000 steps a day. And on the days I do Leslie's "5 Mile" DVD I make it. Just doing the DVD gets me up to 8,000 steps.

I'm also going to incorporate "march in place" breaks throughout my day to get up to 10,000 steps. If I notice I've been sitting too long, I'll get up and march in place for 10 minutes. I'll try to do that once every hour. See how that works.

On to the virtual walk pictures!

Mile 258.8 (Leslie Sansone for 2.3 miles)

Mile 759.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 762.2 (Leslie Sansone for 2.4 miles)

Mile 763.2 (elliptical for 1 mile)

Mile 766.8 (Leslie Sansone for 3.6 miles)

Mile 767.8 (elliptical for 1 mile)

(photo credit - http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html;jsessionid=1F4E2B8269D80C6DF557FB31D1D6D77B)

Very pretty area. I wonder what it would be like to actually be on that road. It always looks so quiet and empty.

Keep moving!