My Journey With Weight Loss – How I Stay Strong

Ok, I am a little late writing this today but for good reason. Christmas is only a few days away and so it was time to get some baking done. We will only be having a few guests on the 24th this year but then there are the treats I give out to the kids in the neighbourhood. So today I got down to it and baked an obscene amount of cookies. Seriously, I think my stand mixer was starting to rebel by time I was done. However, the Christmas baking is now complete which allows me time to get everything else completed before the big guy in the red suit arrives.

I write a lot about my running and walking but I realized I don’t talk much about what else I do. It is important if you are on this journey to put some effort into making sure you whole body is strong. Running/walking is great but to do so effectively you need to make sure your core is also where it needs to be. Hence, several times a week I do what I refer to as my strengthening exercises.

I like to kind of separate my body into thirds. First is upper body then core then legs. I run through a gamut of exercises that target all of these areas. I admit that for the first time in my life I have buff arms, can feel ab muscles, and have legs that feel like tree trunks.

I start with my upper body doing a series of weight exercises. As I am not trying to bulk up I just use 5 pounders. They have worked awesome at giving me defined, toned arm muscles. I then work on my core which starts with modified crunches, modified because both my chiropractor and physio told me that crunches are really hard on your spine so they came up with an exercise that will work the abs but not put pressure on my back. Finally I head into my legs where I do squats and bridges and trust me, this has made me develop significant quad muscles. I also have some hip exercises I do to strengthen my right hip which I learned seriously lagged in strength compared to my left hip. Bottom line, I work my entire body pretty much every day.

On a fun note, I have learned that doing these exercises, especially when I get down on the yoga mat, means my corgi needs to be locked in another room. The problem is when I am on the floor she thinks it must mean I need a lot of kissies. She also believes that when I do my squats that we are playing a fun game so every time I bend down she has to jump up on me. I look at this as extra encouragement to keep going.