I like it a lot.

I've noticed a few things recently.

On Friday night, I took my twin nieces to a football game in town. I walked up and down a hill, holding their little hands. When one twin started crying, I picked her up, walked down the stairs and walked her around the stadium.

The next day, I crawled up on my front porch to reach an electrical outlet on my porch ceiling.

Today, I walked up and down a few flights of stairs. If someone needed something downstairs, I volunteered to go get it.

And I did all of this without huffing, puffing, and being out of breath.

I specifically remember not being able to walk up the hill at the football game when I was in college.

I lost 50 pounds and am down to a jean size I haven't been in since high school. Full disclosure: I would still like to lose another 25 to 40 pounds, so I'm nowhere near done.

But I'm just now realizing how much I can do.

I like this version of myself.

I like it a lot.

Quotes for fall

While walking with a friend after work one day:

Me: Sometimes I just don't feel like wearing pants.

Friend: That's the quote of the week.

Fyi, I was talking about wearing a skirt. My skirts don't fit me anymore. Ah, bummer.

Not a cat.

This week, I'm trying to meet my step goal every single day.

So far, I'm killing it. I think I need to change my goal to meet my steps every single day for the rest of the summer.

It would be nice to lose a good 5-10 pounds before the end of August. I've been lazy recently in exercising, and I need to get better.

Tonight, apparently my nap was more important than exercise. By the time I woke up, it was getting dark outside. I still needed a good 2,500 steps, maybe a little more.

I rolled out of bed and thought about just walking around my house to get the steps. But no, I thought, I need to make an effort and leave my house to exercise.

Meh, leaving the house.

By the time I got to the walking track, it was around the time I usually finish my walk.

I parked my car, popped my headphones in, and turned on my workout playlist on Spotify. While I don't particularly enjoy exercise (who does?), it's nice to listen to music and forget about my worries for a little while.

Plus, no one was walking because it was dark out, which meant I didn't have to awkwardly wonder if I should smile at people walking the opposite direction.

It started out as a peaceful walk with no other human interaction for this introvert.

About halfway through the walking track, I noticed something move in front of me, maybe 25 feet away.

It was black. At first I thought it was a cat, so I kept walking.

It was hanging out on the cement, right in the way of where I was going to walk. When it started moving, I noticed that the black cat was long, skinny, and had a white stripe down its back.

My exact thought at that point: OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD.

Not a cat.

I turned around and walked back to my car. I'm happy to report that I'm capable of moving really, really fast, especially if the consequences of not moving fast involve getting skunked.

I kept looking back, wondering if it was chasing me. Do skunks chase people? I have no idea. I can't say that I've ever been in a position to think about that before now.

As I was walking really, really fast, trying to outrun a skunk, a thought ran through my mind.

Well, at least this will make a good blog post.

Next time, I'll exercise in the daylight. Also, as I was running away from a skunk, my FitBit started to buzz.

I met my step goal.

I met my step goal today running away from a skunk.

I'm a believer.

I remember a while ago, I was in Nebraska with my boss. After a long day, we were exhausted and we went and got something to eat.

Okay, I'm lying. I don't remember what we were doing that day, and I don't even remember the point of the trip. But what I do remember is the waiter/restaurant worker commenting on the FitBit my boss was wearing.

A conversation ensued, either on that trip or on some other trip (I have a great memory) and my boss told me about the joys of wearing a FitBit.

It tracks your steps, he told me.

I didn't understand. It it really that important? Can't you just keep track of how much you work out, and keep healthy that way?

I Googled 'Workout graphics.' Ha, ha.

Fast forward to last weekend, and there's a FitBit sitting on my mom's kitchen table unopened.

I offered to buy it from her. A few dollars later, I charged it, slapped it on my wrist and I was good to go.

In Octoberish, I started walking every day. I downloaded the FitBit app on my phone. After two months of having bronchitis and hurting every time I moved, it felt good to walk.

When I lost the daylight hours to walk, I started working out in the gym again, after a year hiatus. Okay, I lied again. It's been more like 1.5 years since I regularly went to the gym.

Since Oct. 1, I've lost 12 pounds. I do a mediocre job of counting my calories, so I could lose more if I had the patience to log every single thing that goes into my mouth.

But I'm happy with the results. I have a pair of fancy pants work pants that I noticed were really, really loose the other day. They used to be tight on me, so much so that I didn't really like wearing them.

Huzzah!

I can burn more calories at the gym in the same amount of time, too. Last night, I was on the elliptical and burned 357 calories. Two months ago, the number of calories I burned in the same amount of time was 225.

So, that's happy news.

Last night, after I worked out I still had 2,000 steps to walk before I hit my 10,000 steps goal. I needed a few things from the store that rhymes with sharmart, so I parked at the other end of the parking lot.

I browsed past the baby section, because, you know, babies! Clothes! Hats! Socks!

After I was finished shopping, I walked around the store some more. You have to get your steps in, I told myself, so I took one for the team and went back to the baby section.

Did I mention...babies!!!!!

So there you have it. I actually really like that thing on my wrist. I thought it was stupid at first, but I've been converted.

I'm a believer.

New goals

I fell off the bandwagon.

Last year, I got into the habit of working out five times a week, and burning between 400 and 500 calories. Sometimes it was more, sometimes it was less. I worked out until I was tired, and I was okay with whatever calorie number that was.

Through a series of unfortunate events, well, working out became an option and not a priority.

I've been trying to change that recently.

I've been going two or three times a week, and burning between 150 to 250 calories.

I need to get back on the bandwagon. My goal from now on is to burn 500 calories five days a week.

Lovingly stolen from Pinterest.

A plus I've noticed recently is that the gym I go to isn't busy. In February and March, it was so busy that I walked out several times because there were no machines available.

It's May now, and I'm pretty sure the New Year's resolutions people have given up. I feel guilty for being happy about that, and maybe I'm a terrible person, but it makes me happy that I can have whatever machine I want and not be squished between tons of people.

A less hectic gym makes me pretty happy.

The more intense workouts start tonight. We'll see what kind of a mood I'm in tomorrow.

:)