Couch To 5K in 9 Weeks

So ... you know how I'm a big, fat, lazy, depressed, stay-at-home mom who pretty much just neglects her kids all day, letting them gorge their tender brains on sweet, sweet Disney channel, as I blog about every, single, ridiculous thing that pops into my head?

And you know how I like to set unreasonable goals for myself and never really get anything done at all?

Well, that's all about to change, starting today. Because I am going to go from couch to 5K in 9 weeks. Greg keeps finding all these groovy websites that help you set a specific goal then outline how to, little by little, DO it.

Does it work?

We've been doing the 100 push-ups one for a couple of weeks now. For my initial test, I did 7 consecutive push-ups, and I was really trying hard because I wanted to do at least 1 more than Greggy-poo (I failed). Saturday was the first progress test and I had to do at least 25 to move to the next level. Haha, I did 30. Thirty consecutive BOY push-ups, baby. Check my guns!

You might recall, a while back, I was singing the praises of the P90X program. But then Greg had to work so late and we started getting fat again, and didn't have an hour+ every night to "Bring it," and it's all cold and blustery here in Utah ... so, knowing that the Internet has ALL the answers to EVERYTHING, Greg discovered our current exercise routines.

So, this morning, in the 6'oclock hour, I started the couch to 5K program. We are fortunate to have a treadmill. It used to live in a nice little exercise room in the basement, but now the exercise room is my mom's dungeon ... so treadmill in bedroom.

Here's how not to use the treadmill to build up to 5K:

Get on it, walk for a minute, then jog until your legs are jelly (about 5-6 minutes, maybe .5 mile for me) walk/stumble for another minute, stop.

Here's what I accomplished today:

Get on the treadmill, walk for about 5 minutes, then spend the next 20 minutes jogging for 60 second and walking for 90. I totally completed the 25 minute session, burned 225 calories and "went" 1.586 miles. My legs were still jelly ... but they did much more work ...

Now, this is just a 9 week commitment, just over 2 months, and if you stick to it, you'll be running about 3 miles in about 30 minutes and that is freaking incredible.

So, join me. Strap on your sports bra (or not, whatever). Think of the endorphins ... mmm .... endorphins.

Cardiovascular exercise, they say, is key to burning off years of bonbons. But, we know that you have to burn more than you eat ... so, deep down, it's a matter of eating, rather not eating. I have a couple of Cold Stone cupcakes that need some attention, but after that ... it's carrot sticks and apples, all the way. Chicken and broccoli. And Lasagna once in a while.

Seriously - my dad died at 44, stroke/heart attack. My little brother died at 21 from complications after a heart surgery to correct a heart defect. My Aunt Lois died, I believe, in her late 50's, enlarged heart. My grandfather died when my dad was 17 (not sure how old) ... heart attack. If there's any one in this whole wide world who need to keep an eye in her cardio system, it is I, Mrs. B. (formerly Anderson) Roth.