Saturday, March 28, 2009

Chubby Dennis - from couch potato to 5K

I am writing this post to keep me accountable. Now everyone knows (at least the one or two people that actually read this) so I've got to stick with it! This week I started a new program called "From the couch to a 5K". For the past year I have been unable to motivate myself to exercise. I know, I know, I know how good it is for me. I tell patients all day long to exercise. I tell my son to exercise. Yet, I have not been able to get myself to exercise. I'm not exactly sure why because I've always been an active person. My theory of this lack of motivation is that my previous attempts at exercise did not work. That is, I did not lose weight which is what I was trying to accomplish with the exercise. I've tried a one year stint of "body pump" classes at Gold's Gym when we lived in College Station and lost only 3 pounds. I walked 2-3 miles on hilly terrain in Connecticut but didn't shed a pound. When we moved to Houston, I started jogging at least 5 times a week. Chad will attest to the fact that I was faithful to my program and even added the metabolic typing diet but again only lost 3 pounds. Which unfortunately does not add up to a total of 6 pounds because of course I had regained the original 3 that I lost with body pump. Frustrated is an understatement for how I felt. So I just stopped and ended up waffling back and forth with the same three pounds regardless of whether I exercised or not. I enjoy a good walk but had even stopped doing that. Last fall I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and started on medication. Correcting my thyroid along with following a yeast free diet has helped me shed 16 pounds. But guess what - I did not exercise one time. So you can imagine how I may not see the benefit in exercise if weight loss is my goal. Over this past week, I decided to change my goal. My goal is now to run a 5K instead of to lose weight. I need something to shoot for! I found this podcast I downloaded to my IPOD (Coleman's hand me down) called "Chubby Jones from the couch to a 5k" and started this week. It is a nine week program and I'm sticking to it. I'll let you know how it goes!!

1 comment:

Chrissy said...

A 5k is a great goal. I signed up for one last year and it got me motivated to actually train for it. Of course after the 5k was over I never ran again... Maybe I'll do it again to loose the babypounds. Good luck and we'll be cheering for you!!!
Chrissy