Ch-ch-ch- Changes!

Okay... in my quest for Valor and Joy... and in finding "the old me" again, I am finally motivated to lose weight and more importantly, live a more healthy life. My parents are ridiculously healthy, in a way that is nearly impossible to live up to. Anything I ever do is easily criticized by them as not being enough. But I cannot change for them, even though there is a part of me that hates disappointing them and wants so desperately for them to be impressed with my efforts. But no... the changes I make must be strictly for ME.

So, here is what I started 2 weeks ago...

1) I am working out a minimum of 45 minutes per day, and sometimes as much as 2 hours. No, I don't expect to keep this up on a daily basis longterm, but for now, I need the routine to keep myself going. I know once I "pause" an exercise routine, it's so darned easy to fall off the wagon completely. How am I working out? Well, I do have a gym membership, but I'm planning to cancel it. It's been so hard to find the time to get to the gym, with or without Vienna, but I have found a workaround solution... workout DVDs. For now, I'm alternating with 2 of them, often doing both in a day:

* Jillian Michael's "30 DAY SHRED"

* Bob Harper's "Weight Loss Yoga"

Both are intense workouts that I can do at home, and I'm already seeing results. The first few days, I could barely manage 30 seconds of jumping jacks (!!), and now they are easy for me. My endurance and strength is improving, and it feels great.

2) The BodyBugg. It's freaking awesome, and it's a great motivator for me, because I'm a competitive person, and this gives me daily targets and nice charts to see where I'm at throughout the day.

And I'm trying to take little moments throughout the day to take some deep breaths and enjoy my surroundings...

I've lost 5 pounds so far, and I ran around the block last night without collapsing, so I consider that a big WIN!