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Archive for the ‘Couch to 5K’ Category

Healthy Android Apps

22 Jan

Last December I got an Android phone after my trusty Lotus bit the dust. I had a free data plan and figured I might as well make good use of it! I’ve gone a little nuts with the apps, but there’s something out there to help with literally anything you need to do. Since my word of the year is health, I’m using it to help me get healthy.

There are so many apps out there, but my favorites are the CardioTrainer and Calorific apps from WorkSmart Labs. CardioTrainer is free and records all of your workouts…anything from yoga to running to weight training. It tells you how many calories you’re burning, how far you’ve gone, and even plays your workout playlist to keep you motivated. I highly recommend upgrading to Pro (For $9.99…it was given to me as a gift by my mom.) if you can afford it. This gives you additional options, including interval training and premium features like a weight loss trainer which I’ve found very helpful in planning my food intake and calorie burn goals.

Calorific is also free and makes it easy to make good food choices. Each food is categorized as green, yellow, or red. Your green foods are things  like fruits and veggies, whole grain breads, brown rice, beans, and fat free dairy products. These are supposed to make up 50% of your calorie intake. Yellow is mainly lean meats, white breads, nuts, oils, and low fat dairy. Yellow foods should be 35% of your daily caloric intake. Red is beef, fried foods, butter, ice cream, soda, cake, and all of those things we love but should eat in very small doses. They should make up the remaining 15% of your diet. It’s a much more simplified version of the calorie counters you might find on SparkPeople or Weight Watchers, which makes it much easier to use and much more effective for people like me who tend to get easily frustrated trying to nail down every single food as specifically as possible.

I also really like the Daily Workouts from Daniel Miller. He has them for abs, butt, and arms. These apps are free and give you an easy 5 minute workout, but for 99 cents each you can upgrade them and get an additional workout so you can switch it up a little.

There is also a free heart rate monitor out there for Android phones. It gets fairly accurate results when used correctly. Knowing your heart rate helps you be sure your hitting your target during exercise.

I know there are many more apps out there, but this is what I’ve found and like so far. Do you have one you love?

 
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Posted in Couch to 5K, Free Stuff, Health, Sites to See

 

Hot Sister Wives?

09 Sep

Today, I ran in the morning and went to Zumba in the evening.  Needless to say, I’m feeling rather accomplished and pretty good about myself.  Thus follows this conversation:

Me: If I keep up this momentum, you’ll have a hot wife.

Husband: I already do.

Me: Who is she? And why doesn’t she clean up this damn house?

7 year old son: He means YOU, mommy!

Me: Your daddy obviously needs glasses.

7yo: Mommy, anyone can tell you’re hot.  You’re all sweaty.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  But I’m thinking a sister wife would be a great thing to have…she could clean the house, help with the kids, cook…but she would have to weigh about 400 pounds, smell like garlic, and have poor oral hygiene.  Because while I’m eager to share the work, I’m not so eager to share my husband’s affections.

I’m thinking this plan needs some more work…

 
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Posted in Couch to 5K, Me Stuff, Randomness

 

Lifting the Fog

02 Sep

I am awash in personal drama that has me in a terrible fog.  The nausea continues, though I know I’m not pregnant.  I have no idea what is causing it, but it really, really sucks.  It is constant and incredibly annoying.  And I just feel generally not quite right…little headaches, falling asleep when I shouldn’t, sudden weight gain, and emotional…I suspect it’s nothing more than stress, but it’s incredibly frustrating.

Then there’s my computer…it is, I believe, dead.  I manage to grab my husband’s a few times a day, but not for long and I never manage to get the things done that I intend to do.  I can boot my computer and open a program.  I can even use it for a few minutes, but then it locks up or sends me to the blue screen of death.  I have decided that upgrading the RAM is my last resort and that costs money we don’t have.  My printer isn’t working anymore, either.  I think it needs ink, but can’t afford that either.  (And if you’ve sent me an email and I didn’t reply, I missed it.  There are 73 new emails in my box and I hate trying to wade through them on my phone.  Send me a text if it’s important…)

And the money thing is always there…can I afford to buy shampoo this week?  What about toilet paper?  Oh, and don’t forget that there is a shut-off notice for the electricity sitting on your desk.  Better get that paid.  The good news is that I finally convinced my husband that we can no longer afford the satellite bill.  We had run out of all of our “special offers” and the price jumped way back up and they wouldn’t go back down.  So we shut it off.  I’m having some minor withdrawal, but am glad to have one less monthly expense.

And the beginning of the semester is always a little fog-inducing.  Moreso with the drama over the class and pre-requisites.  I’m overwhelmed at how far behind I already feel.  I need to type up my notes and study for lab quizzes and do homework assignments, all of which are impossible to do when the kids are up, and I’m too mentally exhausted to do once they’re down.

Speaking of kids, I feel like I have 500, not 3.  One in school already, one about to start.  They need to be on opposite sides of town, with drop off and pick up at the same time.  How will we manage this on the weeks that we can only afford to put gas in 1 car?  The logistics alone make me want to cry, especially since pick-up needs to happen while I’m supposed to be in class on Mondays and Wednesdays!  I have no idea how we’re going to make this work, but I guess we will somehow.  And once I’m home alone with just one child, how is that going to affect my day?  Will I have less time to spend on other stuff, or more?  One less child to deal with, but the one that’s left is all alone.  Anxious to see how that will work!  (Really, if anyone has experienced this, fill me in…is having only 1 more work than having 2?)

I want, no I need, to run but can’t fit it in.  It’s too hot at the time of day that I can manage it and I’m too tired to do it when it’s cool enough.  I suspect this would do wonders for my overall state of mind and I hope the weather cools down soon so I can do it.

Crap, my computer time is up.  I swear, number one on my list of things to do is buy some RAM.  And pray that fixes the problem…

 
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Posted in Couch to 5K, Family, Me Stuff, Parenting, Rambling

 

A Loving Missive

13 Aug

Dear People on the Trails at Kiwanis Park:

I love that you’re out in the mornings, getting exercise and socializing.  I hope that I am doing the same when I reach your age.  But can I point something out?  When you walk 4 abreast, you take up the entire width of the trail.  When I’m trying to run and you’re ambling along at a snail’s pace, this is very frustrating because I am unable to get past you.  Can I make a suggestion?

Get.outta.my.way.

Thanks bunches.

XOXOXOX

 
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Posted in Couch to 5K

 

Don’t Stop Believing

20 Apr

Remember all my talk last spring about Couch to 5K?  And then it got too hot to run outside, so I kind of quit.  I tried again in the fall, but couldn’t get my schedule sorted out and kind of dropped out again.  And then I hurt my back, then I hurt it again and again…with all of that, it’s been at least 6 months since I ran.  I’ve been in too much pain and had too little energy.

But one day last week I woke up and my pain levels were maybe a 2, instead of the 7 (or 8…or 9) they had been for months.  I know people will roll their eyes, but it was literally like I was healed over night.  It still hurts at the end of a long day or if I am in certain positions for too long, but the excruciating, exhausting pain is gone.  I am doing stuff with the kids again, I am working on cleaning up the 3 months of mess that nobody else in this house has bothered to touch, and I feel like there’s a possibility of this going away completely.  If you’ve been reading the past few months, you know this last point is huge.

I have been toying with the idea of going out and running for a few days.  I was a little scared, but I was ready to make some effort toward losing the weight I’ve put on while I was in too much pain to care.  So this afternoon I suited up, got my husband to drive me over to Kiwanis Greenway (just in case I passed out or fell or randomly got shot) and RAN.  I just did W1D1 of C25K, but I finished it and had such a runner’s high afterwards.

My cool down song was, appropriately, the Glee cast version of Don’t Stop Believing.

 
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Posted in Couch to 5K, Health, On My iPod

 
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