The Bigger the Cushion, the Sweeter the Pushin'

So, I went out with the eHarmony guy again tonight, and while it was a thoroughly meh date (to be fair, I'm PMSing pretty badly at the moment, so it may be entirely my fault that it was meh, so I'm debating whether I owe it one more try before I drop the Friend Bomb), it involved post-dinner coffee, so I am currently still too caffeinated to sleep, even though it is about midnight and I still have to get to work at a decent time tomorrow. And I am reminded that there is nothing...I mean NOTHING on TV at 11:30. This is why if I am up at this time, I am usually washing my face...moisturizing...doing all of those things girls do before they go to bed, and I usually finish just in time to snuggle up and watch Arrested Development as I doze off to sleep. But I'm too wired for bedtime rituals just yet, so naturally, I turn to you, dear blog.

Anyway, this weekend I decided that, since I was set to start tap classes this week and the weather is finally starting to be somewhat consistently nice, it was a good time for me to start keeping track of my fitness level again. Last year around this time, inspired by Celebrity Fit Club, I started doing a set of fitness assessments on myself. Nothing big, just keeping track of the time it takes me to do a short run...number of pushups I can do in a minute... crunches... weight, and some miscellaneous measurements and my body fat content. I kept this up for about two months, but when I left my apartment in Lafayette I no longer had my running trail, so I had no way to relate any further progress to my original baseline. Plus, I was eating and drinking pretty much whatever I wanted, since I was moving back in with Mom and Dad for a while and they are a really bad influence on me. Once I moved here, I was focusing entirely on correcting my bad eating habits, and I find I do best if I focus on either diet OR exercise - if I try to do both at the same time, I just end up blowing them both off in an alarmingly short period of time.

So now that my eating habits are under control again (mostly) and my weight has pretty much stabilized, I can focus on just generally getting healthier. So I figured out a short running route around my neighborhood that will serve as a good test for me - it's short enough that I'll eventually be able to run all of it, but it doesn't take very long and therefore doesn't kill my knees. And I set my new baseline on Sunday. Some things I noticed in the process:

1. As I had always suspected, my old complex TOTALLY lied about that trail being a mile long. Because I refuse to believe that I could be that much slower now, when I'm pushing around 15 fewer lbs.

2. Either nobody in my neighborhood jogs, or I looked REALLY good in my baggy track pants, because every single person I jogged past kind of stared at me. I think it was the former - I almost never see joggers unless I'm downtown. My neighbors get enough exercise chasing their kids and dogs around. But I ran about 3/4 of the loop, which was more than I thought I'd be able to do my first time out, so I felt pretty good about that.

3. Now this one I knew was coming - my calves are NOT used to running. Every time I go for a jog after a while of not doing it, I know to expect at least a couple of days of nearly incapacitating calf soreness. The other muscles in my legs might be sore, and the pushups usually leave me a little rough, but nothing debilitating. Once I go out one or two times, I'm fine and my calves adjust but DAMN does that first time suck. Especially when the next day you're going to tap class, where you spend an hour DELIBERATELY ISOLATING YOUR CALF MUSCLES. They didn't really start to seize up on me until I was walking back to my office after class - it took me until I got home to figure out why I was suddenly so much more uncomfortable. I've been hobbling around the lab for two days now trying not to wince every time I get up from my chair. I have not been succeeding. I think the worst of it is now over, so maybe tomorrow I'll go out for my second try. On the bright side, my poor tight calves should look fabulous in the heels I'm wearing to that formal next week.

4. Eh, whatever.

5. While my number of crunches is the same as it was a year ago, my pushups have improved - again, you gotta love having less mass to actually have to push up. This and the run time are the numbers I will be watching - my situp ability has been pretty much the same ever since I started taking ballet as a kid and we had to do psychotic ab exercises.

6. Now this is the part that blows my mind - I already knew that my weight was down, and as it turns out my body fat percentage is down about 6%, which makes me really happy. And when I did my measurements, my waist and hips had each lost about an inch or so. But get this - I lost not one, but TWO inches ON EACH THIGH. How the HELL does that happen??? Seriously??? While I think my legs look better than they used to, I'm having a hard time fathoming how they could have both had two extra inches on them a year ago - what were they then, country hams??? My mom has been saying that my legs look better now than they EVER have, and in the face of this evidence, I think I have to admit that she's right.

Now, you may be asking why I've just written all of these things down. The reason is quite simple - I need you folks to keep me honest. This is only helpful if I do it regularly so I can see my progress. So these are the rules of the game (they are ridiculously simple):

1. I have to do my little run/pushups/situps routine at least 3 times a week.
2. I have to actually take the stats once a month.
3. I have to report back to you people - I don't have to provide the stats, just comment so you all know I'm doing it. If I see improvement in myself, I'll expect you all to congratulate me, if I don't, I'll expect you to call me out for clearly not following rule #1. And if you don't hear anything from me on this topic around the beginning of next month, then I expect you to call me out for clearly not following rule #2. And #3.

If I can lose 5 more lbs., that will officially put me into the "fitness" range of body fat content instead of "acceptable," and that would be really cool. I may not be training for marathons or century rides (coughcoughWILLandIANcough), but I would still appreciate your support in achieving my meager little goals.