Diets and Exercise

This year has been rough for me on the dieting front. I lost so much weight in last fall, and then took a mini break for Thanksgiving…which extended to Christmas…then who starts a diet before the new year…then came Valentines day…then our trip to Lake Tahoe….you get the point. Here I am, back at square one. Around February, one of my coworkers challenged me to a competition: I would run 500 miles while he attempted to do 230,000 “push up equivalents” (which basically includes everything from a real push up to scratching his nose). Whoever hits their goal first in the year wins $1. Anyway, he probably saw that I was off track, and was trying to assist. A notable effort, I guess…but it really hasn’t helped. I have run about 20 miles since then, and he is I am sure well over 100,000 “push up equivalents” by now. I am so burnt out on running that nothing seems to motivate me. I was very successful in losing the weight last year when I ran, but I HATE RUNNING. Which is why about a month ago, I decided to try something different. I put on my $5 garage sale roller blades and headed out for a quick skate. As a skated the first 10 feet, I thought to myself that I would probably have to skate the 3 mile track twice since rollerblading was so much easier than running. Within the next 25 feet, I literally was huffing and puffing, hands on my knees contemplating if I should turn around. But I am not a quitter. I am stubborn, even to myself, so I continued on. Just to give you an idea…this track takes me about 30 minutes to run (at a very slow pace), and it took me 61 minutes to skate. Now, part of the reason was because when you have skates on, there is not one position that is comfortable to rest in (other than sprawling out on the ground). When I would try to stop and catch my breath, it felt like I was doing a wall-sit. So, to be clear, the 61 minutes does include 3 sprawling-out-on-the-ground sessions. Regardless, I am counting this as 10 “mile equivalents”…and before any of you challenge me, I would like to see you rollerblade 3 miles.