I was out of the house for 10 days straight! UGH! I hate leaving my wonderfully, green, flowery, homey house right now. I just want to be here with all of my little chicks here with me.

So for 10 days I did NO exercise and it was not fun! I am back to P90X and running, too. I have decided to run on MWFs and do weights on TTH(S). I think that will work well. It means that I don't do his cardio workouts which really kick my rear end, but I am enjoying running in this nice weather.

My sweet hubby used some reward points to get me an iPod Nano so that I could get the Nike+ chip and keep track of my runs. He got it working for me over the weekend and I love it! It is neat to put in the run and then see what others are doing. It really motivated me. I wasn't going to run today, but I wanted to run longer and farther than yesterday. I am such a visual person! I wanted my chart to go up!

So Monday I did a walk/run. Yesterday I did not allow myself to stop to walk. I did 1.41 miles without a stop and it felt great! It was really hard up those hills, but I just slowed down and mentally pushed myself......if that makes any sense.

Today I waited too long to go out so it was pretty warm. I could tell a difference in my fatigue. Yesterday I ran a 10:31 mile (good for my first complete run), but today I was down to 11:16. Yesterday I ran in the early morning when it was 44 degrees. Makes a huge difference.

Feeling great about my exercise habits improving. It helps my eating habits improve, too. I have only lost 6 pounds (because my eating has been sporadic), but I have lost 5 1/2" in my overall body measurements! That excited me!

I am feeling so strong! I did DAY 4 of P90X yesterday (legs and back) and it kicked my rear! I was pouring sweat and I just sweat easily! I was still feeling it in my calves this morning.

Then I did DAY 5 just now - KENPO. It is an hour of kickboxing. I LOVED IT! I could do every move and finish the sequences. It took me a minute to get the moves of a few combos at first, but when I got it, I could finish. I know that I need to work on my form on my left leg. It seems so much weaker. Not sure if it is because of my leg work yesterday or just my weaker leg. We'll see.

I am feeling GREAT! I LOVE P90X! It is hard to get it in everyday and I can't seem to run when I do it, but I think it will improve my running after I am done. I am feeling so strong! I highly recommend this workout program.

Now I just need to check into their recovery drink I keep hearing so much about...............

By the way, I am down another .5 pound today. I have lost a total of 6.5 pounds so far in 4 weeks. I am smiling.

Yesterday was an enlightening day for me diet-wise. Thursday afternoon and yesterday, I ate what I wanted. I ate pizza, went to the movies and had popcorn, as well as had more chocolate than I needed. You know how I felt? In a word, sleepy. I fell asleep in the movie because of what I had eaten. I am so convinced of it.

However, up to that time, I had eaten healthy and felt great energy to do anything I needed to do for that day. Bottom line lesson learned, IT'S NOT WORTH IT! It feels so much better to eat healthy! It makes me way more effective in life. I need energy to do what I do in my home and in ministry. It is worth every bit of planning and denying to feed my body with energy-fueling foods.

So today I am back to my planned eating, healthy foods.

I also did the P90X yoga (Day 5) yesterday. It is an hour and a half long and after 40 minutes, I was struggling so badly that I quit. After 10 minutes, Leah convinced me to come back to finish it. I did finish it, only missing that 10 minutes. It is so hard because yoga involves a lot of holding up your own body weight. Hopefully, as I lose weight, I will be more able to do that.

Weigh In Day

I am down 1.6 pounds this week. That gives me a total weight loss of 6 pounds. I am excited about that.

Wade and I went to Panera Bread last night and I wanted to eat whatever I felt like, but I didn't let myself. I am glad I didn't. This morning I wanted to "reward" myself for my weight loss (with food, of course, how stupid!), but I didn't. I ate my yogurt and oatmeal and I feel great! So glad God gave me the discipline to deny myself my selfish desires. Help me, O Lord!

Today I will be doing DAY 4 of P90X after lunch sometime. I have much to do here today, but pressing on in the strength of the Lord.

3 Days Down, 87 to Go

Great morning so far. I didn't sleep well, but got up anyway to have some sweet time with the Lord, then upstairs to do DAY 3 of P90X. It was arms and shoulders. I made it through and did it all the way through. There was even one exercise when I saw it demonstrated, I got up to skip it then thought, oh I guess I could try and I COULD DO IT!!! I am getting stronger. That is so much fun!

I did just learn at breakfast that I am supposed to do the AB RIPPER again. Ugh! That's what killed me on Monday. I will do that later this afternoon.

In order to keep my body from being too sore, I then walked down to the mailbox and back (2 miles). It was spitting rain, but it brought a great time of prayer. I didn't take my iPod today because I needed to talk more to the Lord. I feel good, though my body is a bit worn out.

Now I am just praying that God will help me be disciplined about my eating today. So far, so good: oatmeal and blueberries. I'll be weighing in tomorrow. Can't wait to see how this P90X and eating very carefully has helped me on the scale.

I have been concerned that I am not taking in enough calories. I know that fruits and veggies in their most natural state are fewer calories, but I also know that if I don't take in enough calories, my body will begin to hoard what it has. I am struggling to get 1,000 some days. Maybe the answer is a bit more protein.

I am reading about health and will continue to in order to learn how to eat better.

I also am writing down my motivators for wanting to be healthy. I will share them when I finish the list.

Plyometrics. I have heard so much about plyometrics being so hard. I was dreading it tremendously, but I was so encouraged to do it today. I think it helped me to do Power 90 for the past few months. I could tell that the running I have been doing has helped strengthen my legs. I didn't fall away when we hit the lunges, squats, frog hop/squats, etc. I was able to complete the whole hour and 10 minute workout and there was only one exercise that I didn't finish.

Now I did modify some of the exercises to make them a bit easier for me. There was one person on the video doing the modified version. Now I will tell you that my heart rate was up and my body was very fatigued after the workout. I have felt tired all day since. I can't wait to fall into bed, but it is that great kind of tired.

I also have eaten really well today. I have eaten 2 fruits and 4 veggies, olive oil and lean protein, green tea and red wine. I haven't felt the FULL mark at all today which is really nice.

I can tell my taste buds are changing. I ate 3 chips today and didn't enjoy them. I will tell you that I still enjoy my one piece of dark chocolate that I treat myself with occasionally, but the greasy stuff isn't enjoyable. I enjoyed my spinach salad and fruit more today. That is a HUGE thing for me! I have craved junk food and fed myself junk food for so long. I am excited to know that this is possible: to retrain my taste buds.

I won't be able to run on the days I do plyometrics, I do know that. I am hoping to walk, maybe run (depending on how my body is doing on day 3) after our upper body workout tomorrow. I would like to at least be able to walk down to the mailbox and back once without much pain. :)

Thank You, Lord, for the discipline so far to stick with the life changes I am trying to make right now. Thank You for the encouragement through how I feel physically. It is affecting my whole life.

I didn't run today, but started P90X with Luke and Leah today. My goal is just to stick with it. I have been doing Power 90 (the program before P90X) for several months now and feel comfortable with it.

I did okay today with the workout. I probably used weights that were too light (from what Luke said), but wanted to start out easy. Then the AB RIPPER was turned on! UGH! I was hurting by the second exercise! UGH!

I know this will work if I stick with it. I also ate really well today, but wound up eating only 830 calories! That is not good! I ate more fruits and veggies today so it kept my calorie count down, but I know I need to take in more calories than that.

I planned on walking after the workout, but my whole body felt like jello. I am not sure how I can run/walk AND P90X. You only get one day to rest in this program and it is 90 days long. I do think it will make me stronger in order to run........in the long run.

Great weather this morning. Ran/walked 2.5 miles. Stronger run this morning which is a good thing since I ate that pizza and cookie dough yesterday! :) Veggies on tap for me today.

Today was a short walk/run, only 1.6 miles. I had to get up early to get it done and then my family needed me. I wanted to beat the rain and I am also keeping a friend's little one this morning.

I like these pavement shoes much better than my new trail shoes. They are so comfy! I did run more of the steeper hills today. Hard, but good.

Eating well. Big breakfast after my run:

5:00am coffee/cream
7:30am mini multi grain bagel
peanut butter
high fiber yogurt
2 glasses of water

Okay, so last week I gained and didn't post about it since I was so distracted about retreat. This week I am back down. So far I have lost a total of 4.2 pounds. I am grateful. Hoping to get outside again today. First school, though.

Walked/ran 3.6 miles: around the pavement, down to the mailbox, back up the hill, halfway back down the hill and back up, to the house, back around the pavement then home. It was a bit slow for me today. I don't know if it is my shoes or what. I used the trail shoes today and they still seem so heavy. At least my legs feel heavy. I ran til I couldn't run, then walked. Ran then walked. Kind of frustrating, so I just stayed out there as long as I could. Went for endurance rather than speed.

Absolutely beautiful day for it!