What about me?

Hi guys! Thanks for reading! I have been a registered nurse for 12 years now!! I work 12 hour day shifts (7a-7p) in a small but busy emergency department. I was very active up until my first few years out of nursing school and into the real world. I worked night shift for the first 8 years of my career. Some where along the way I put fitness on the very back burner of an old burned out stove. My husband and I became very pleasantly plump together over the years. So with this class of becoming mindful of being healthier and being active has been a journey. We do not have any kids to chase after but we do have a very spunky pomeranian to run after!

Our pom, Rocket, has been my little buddy since day one! I try to take him everywhere we go…so it was easy to know that he would be my side kick on this fitness journey.

Week 1…

Lets just say day 1 of week 1 my husband thought I was a little crazy…When I was nursing school I used to wake up bright and early go to the gym then go to class…which could easily be 0330-0430 I was waking up! So on the first day I had to work so I usually leave the house a little before 0600 to get to work on time. To get my workout in I woke up at 0400 and headed out on my walk run with the couch to 5k app (C25K). Safety first…

I did the C25K app three days a week. So the first week was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The C25K app is completed over about an 8 week period. You alternate walking with running including a 5 min warm up and cool down. Through the weeks you build strength and build up how long you are actually running until you hit your goal in the end. Not going to lie…some of these runs felt awful. But the way I see it a bad run is better than no run at all. On these 3 same days, I incorporated flexibility. Stretching before and after runs are always important. I have always tried to cut corners with stretching before work outs just because I am impatient. Sitting still and doing something out of my comfort zone is just not for me but I did it each time!! Yay me!

Resistance training and weight lifting was another area that somewhat bored me. I think it is the whole standing still not feeling productive. I know it sounds silly because you are being productive but it just doesn’t seem that way to me in the mean time lol. Resistance training this week took place on Tuesday and Thursday at our local gym, Planet Fitness. My husband was really into this, he used to lift weights a lot himself. So when I was like “hey hunny, you want to go to the gym and lift weights?” he looked at me stun and was like “hell yea”. My husband and I are like two peas in a pod according to his dad. We truly are best friends and love doing everything we can do together, together. Even though he wasn’t too happy about 0400 wake up calls for running, he still laced up those shoes and took off with me! This first week of getting back into the gym figuring out which machines to use to group the different muscle groups together was very trying on my end. But thanks to this class, we had an awesome learning week of what to do! On Tuesday and Thursday I stuck to dumbbell weights for chest and back. I started off really low on weights as it has been quite some time since I have lifted weights. I did love using the leg press machine to exercise my quads, hamstrings, glutes and hips! My legs apparently are a lot stronger than I thought! I was able to do more sets at a higher weight than I would have thought.

Week 2…

And the beat goes on…One thing about me is I like consistency. The second week mimicked week one greatly. I thoroughly enjoyed running when I was younger. I remembered waking up early on Saturdays and just going for a run down the road I lived on. It probably helped that I lived in the country. Country life is where its at. Everything just seems more beautiful and doable in the country. Where we live now isn’t quite as country as where I grew up but still not a busy city scene either. Rocket man was enjoying my fitness journey. He liked to go on the runs so he could sniff and get into everything. It was great to get his energy out early on so that he wouldn’t be as hyper the rest of the day. I really think they need to open gyms where you can take your dog, he looked pretty sad when we headed out without him. Not every day I did the C25K app I had to work so some days I actually slept in a little til about 0600. This past week we took the canoe out with Rocket. Canoeing always makes my soul happy. There is always a lot of thinking or non thinking going on. Meaning some days, my best thoughts happen while we are out there and I come back peaceful. Then other days, I try to keep my mind blank. I didn’t know if canoeing could count as resistance training or cardiovascular because it was inconsistent meaning I wasn’t always rowing. So anyways, we still headed to the gym specifically for resistance training. When we went we always started with the elliptical or treadmill. 30 minutes on either one before lifting. This week I started doing weighted squats and lunges. Legs felt like jello!

Conclusion

I enjoyed the past 2 weeks. I was reminded of my love for running. Though my runs are more like jogging and I am still walking some of it. I still enjoyed and will continue to progress. The biggest thing was going back to the gym. I have always been nervous about going as I am so out of shape. But I remember that my body is a work in progress. People around me are also on their own fitness journey. I am glad I had a restart with this class.