A little Lorna Doone with my workout

Just to update a little bit here, on my goals for the Biggest Loser contest. 

• As of last Friday, I had lost almost five pounds. 
• As of Monday, I started my free two week sample of GNC's Body Fit from their Femme Factor line.  I'm a bit skeptical, but it was free.  We'll see.  If I understand it correctly, it's supposed to boost energy and aid one's body in metabolizing fat.  (Insert eyeroll).  Active ingredients, aka, the miracle combo: green coffee bean extract,raspberry ketones, saffron extract, and garcinia combogia extract.
• As far as energy levels and mood for other things around the house, meh, not so great.  I'm still a slug.  We did have a busy weekend, starting Thursday night with hauling everything out of the living room for new carpet on Friday morning; kids' school program Friday afternoon; and prom on Saturday, including having a group of the girls' friends gather here for beauty parlor, pictures, and snacks before they went into town.  So, really, I've done much, just not the regular getting a handle on everything around the house.  I did, however, have a really good day Saturday.  I had lists for chores for the kids and kept everyone moving.  I had the snacks ready for the older kids on time, and even got out the punch bowl for them, to "fancy things up."  It was a great day, about which I hope to write more one day this week.
• Exercise, at least on that front, I'm pretty much successful.  But only thanks to the ticker.   Some days I feel like that's what gets me out of bed, just knowing I want to move my little person. 

When I made my ticker, I figured I'd have to do four days a week with 60 minutes a day.  Usually faithful means three days a week.  But I figured, just for the sake of the Biggest Loser challenge, I'd bump up my goals a bit.  But I wasn't very good about sneaking in that extra day of exercise the first few weeks.  So now I need to do about five days a week of about 60 minutes a day.  Sigh.  I'm still going to give it my best shot.  I'll get that little marker as far as I can along her row of trees. 

If tickerfactory itself cooperates.  I've had to make a new ticker two days in a row now, because it won't recognize my password.  I have a feeling it's something to do with the cookies on my computer, so I'm having Joe clear them for me.  Either way, I will plug along with my exercise as faithfully as I can. 

Some days it's been nice enough to walk outside, and that's always a treat.  The wind is still brisk, and Lana's yard is still soft, so it varies from day to day where and if we can be outside.

When it's too windy outside, we use the inside equipment.  Today, I walked inside.  Lana is ill today, so I knew I'd be alone.  I took along my mp3 player and Lorna Doone, a Romance of Old Exmoor.  While I listened to John Ridd telling about the atrocities of Doones, I walked and ran for 1/2 hour.  I did ten minutes of warm-up at 3.5 mph and after that, I alternated 2 minutes of jogging at 4 mph, with 3 minutes of walking at 3.5 mph. 

I felt nearly done in at that point, but I was determined to get my sixty minutes.  After a pretty slow first couple of chapters, John Ridd's tale was finally getting interesting, so that helped, too.  I did five minutes on the Cardio-Glide, just a slow and steady clip, with a few brief pauses here and there. 

Then on to the Gazelle.  I did five minute just plain gazelling, and continued on with ten minutes of doing the special positions: squatting, tip-toes, leaning forward, leaning backward and giant steps.  I did 30 seconds of each position, alternating with thirty seconds in the normal fashion. 

I finished up with a last ten minute segment on the tread mill, mostly walking at 3.5 mph, but with one two minutes interval of jogging at 4.0 mph.

That was sixty minutes of exercise.  And as I walked to the car, the narrator in my ear finished up chapter five of Lorna Doone, "An Illegal Settlement," which explains how it came to be that the Doones were allowed to terrorize the countryside around Exmoor.