May, 2009 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives May 2009

Prev Month( 4th ) Next Month( 6th )

Tuesday Step Tracking – week 1

Posted on May 5, 2009 8:24 am by TheAngelForever

I am going to introduce a new feature here at Chez Angel called "Tuesday Step Tracking." I hope that this will help me to keep on track and get others to join the pedometer club with me.

Last Tuesday my new pedometer arrived at my doorstep. I had been anxiously waiting for it. I wanted to see if it was true. Lots of items I have read stated that the average person with a pedometer walks 2,000 more steps a day. Would this be the same for me? Would this little gadget prove to be a motivator to make me power walk more and get my rear in gear? Here are my results for the first week:

Tuesday, April 28th

Wore pedometer from ~3:30 in the afternoon once it arrived. Full days from this point on.
Did 3 miles Leslie Sansone DVD (45 minutes) 4,083 steps, 39 minutes of aerobic exercise
Total steps for day 5,793

Wednesday, April 29th

Watched The Biggest Loser on DVR and power walked for 51 minutes of aerobic exercise and 6,195 steps
3 Miles of the Fat Burn Leslie Sansone DVD, 38 more minutes of Aerobic and 4,144 steps
Total steps for the day 13,394

Thursday, April 30th

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR (while hubby was sitting and watching) and power walked for 45 minutes of aerobic exercise and 5,356 steps
Total steps for the day 10,311

Friday, May 1st (started the day off not feeling so great – so not a lot of movement)

Completed the entire 5 Mile Slim Down Leslie Sansone DVD, 66 minutes of aerobic exercise and 7,539 steps
Total steps for the day 9,807

Saturday, May 2nd

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR and power walked for 44 minutes of aerobic exercise and 5,257 steps
Total steps for the day 11,060

Sunday, May 3rd

Watched Pushing Daisies on the DVR and power walked and did Leslie Sansone like moves for 38 minutes of aerobic exercise and 4,065 steps
Total steps for the day 12,154

Monday, May 4th

Completed the entire 5 Mile Fat Burn Leslie Sansone DVD, 60 minutes of aerobic exercise and 6,078 steps
Watched television while power walking, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and 3,159 steps
Total steps for the day 11,489

My goal was to try to hit 10,000 steps a day which is the magic number posted all over the place. As you can see I did this. Of course I never would have hit that goal if I did not put effort into doing the exercise DVDs and/or power walked while catching up on television programs. For me the pedometer has been an eye opener and motivator. I still need to recalibrate it since I am not sure if the mile calculator is correct. If it is, these are the totals for the week (remember Leslie Sansone calculates based on beats per minute to get her mile markers)

1.82 miles (did 3 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
4.22 miles (did 3 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
3.25 miles
3.09 miles (did 5 miles w/Leslie Sansone)
3.49 miles
3.83 miles
3.62 miles (did 5 miles w/Leslie Sansone)

My totals for the week:

Total of 23.32 miles (16 "miles" with the DVDs)
Steps for the week –> 74,008

As you can see the miles will not jive with the Leslie Sansone DVD’s, but those are amazing multiple muscle aerobic workouts, so no worries there (afterall I have lost 25.5 pounds since the year started). Typically I do 5-7 days of those videos, but this week was rough with all of the Disney World preparations.

Next week I will continue to track my steps while at Walt Disney World. I am very curious to see how many miles I will walk there since everything involves a lot of walking. Will post results when I get back. If you would like to join in please link on up in the comments below and tell all of your walking friends about this.

Happy Walking!

Categories:
exercise me moments Tuesday Step Tracking

Shoe shopping x 4

Posted on May 4, 2009 8:38 am by TheAngelForever

While in the middle of three giant loads of laundry and packing it as everything was dried, I suddenly remembered something. We never went shoe shopping this weekend. Sure we each had a pair of sneakers to take along on our Disney World trip, but that was about it for hubby and me. Nothing else really qualified as a comfortable walking shoe.

So, I left the laundry behind to be finished later and we went to the mall. Our first stop was to Pay Less Shoes to get some new sneakers for the boys. Each of them got a new pair of velcro Smart Fit shoes for quick and easy on and off. Next, we tried the LLBean store where JL and I tried on some Keens. They did not have the right size for JL in the ones he liked. When I tried mine on I seemed to be right in the middle of a size and was not spending SO much money on something that was not quite right. After that we tried another shoe store in the mall. I tried on a pair of Teva per my father’s suggestion. Both of my parents have owned them, along with countless friends over the years. I put them on and oh my were they comfortable. Of course, I did not want to rush into things. I waited for JL to try on a pair of sandals and then we went to a department store that had a big shoe sale.

For some reason said store did not have many shoes for women. Everything was dressy, but not casual and comfortable for walking. JL quickly found a bunch of shoes to try on. He even tried on Crocs that he liked a lot. In the end he picked out a pair of sandals that were closesd toed and very different than anything he has ever had.

When we were done there I went back to the shoe store and bit the bullet. I finally bought myself my own pair of Teva shoes. Here they are:

Last night I put them on for a power walk to help break them in. I walked for 38 minutes while watching Pushing Daisies on the DVR. In 38 minutes I walked 4,065 steps. Love my new pedometer and the Teva shoes were VERY comfortable! Here is a view of all of the shoes that we bought while shopping yesterday:

When all was said and done we had accomplished our mission. In fact, this weekend we managed to get a lot done. Almost all of our clothes for Disney World are washed and packed, shoes bought, haircuts for all of us (yes I had mine significantly chopped), traveler’s checks purchased, lists made and brain working at warp speed!

Categories:
decisions Disney photos shopping travel weekend

Laundry and packing galore

Posted on May 3, 2009 6:47 pm by TheAngelForever

This weekend we ran a lot of errands and managed to start packing. Not only did we make lists of items that we need to pack for each of us, but we also began a list of what we hope to see at each of the Disney World parks.

Today, I started the day off by tossing in three monster loads of laundry. It was time to get all of the t-shirts and shorts ready to go. JL helped me to open up our new luggage (early anniversary present from my parents) and I directly deposited items neatly in them. So far, I have almost all of the clothing for the boys in one, and the pile is quickly growing with JL and my items. I figure we will have one suitcase for the boys, one for us, one that will have swim gear/shoes/toiletries, and a last one with diapers/wipes/snacks.

Of course we will need a few carry-on bags. The boys will each a small backpack with their entertainment items like the Travel Aqua Doodles seen here with NHL:

Then we will need a diaper bag for JSL and one other bag with spare clothing and emergency items.

So many things to remember and one brain buzzing a mile a minute! On that note, I am off to work on more laundry and packing. We went out to get more comfy walking shoes and the laundry did not finish itself.

Categories:
Disney losing my mind nhl photos shopping travel weekend

Lovely lilies and tulip treasures

Posted on May 2, 2009 4:31 pm by TheAngelForever

On all of my visits to Walk Disney World, I have never seen the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival in person. Our upcoming trip will be the first time that I will have the opportunity to see the amazing displays that only Disney could create. I have often sat and looked at photos that others have taken and marveled at the creations. Soon, it will be our turn to take photos to share with others.

Until that time I will have to be satisfied with our new flowers. Last week during the 80-90 degree freakish heat, our tulips finally opened and we planted some new lily plants. Of course the poor daffodils did not fair so well by mid week. So for now, I invite you into our little flower garden.

In the fall we hope to plant some tulip bulbs so we can have more for next spring. lilies

If you have any tips on planting tulip bulbs, we would greatly appreciate them.

Categories:
Disney flowers and plants house photos weather

Measuring my daily steps

Posted on May 1, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It is confession time here at Chez Angel. When in elementary, middle and high school I was the student that could not stand PE class. I hated running, jumping, and climbing. The weeks that we did gymnastics I would cringe. Just the thought of getting sweaty and having to change made me physically ill.

Through the years I have always made excuses about not having time to work out. Several years ago I was lucky and lost a lot of weight with Weight Watchers and never did anything above and beyond that. This time around sticking to points did not cut it. I was older and my metabolism had changed after my second pregnancy. As I have previously mentioned on my blog, I finally found a workout that I really like. Leslie Sansone makes a Walk at Home DVD series. Sure walking sounds easy, but Sansone makes you move and use all of the muscles in your body. Over the last few weeks, I have grown to love these daily workouts and actually get upset if I skip a day.

As I was walking, kicking and sweating away, I was curious about how many steps I was doing. Everyone would always talk about the magic 10,000 daily steps that are key to your health. Was I getting these without my workout or did these 2-5 miles with Leslie Sansone push me over the edge? I started to investigate pedometers. I wanted something that was not going to break easily and that I could toss in my pocket. Below is what I finally found and decided to splurge on:

My new Omron HJ-112 pocket pedometer finally arrived on Tuesday. I quickly calibrated it and put it on. After a few hours I had 1,508 steps. Then it was time to do a 3 mile workout with Leslie Sanson. In 45 minutes I was able to do 39 minutes of Aerobic moving and 4,083 steps! So in the few hours that I wore the pedometer I had almost 6,000 steps.

Wednesday I wore the pedometer the entire day. In the morning, while I finished up my laundry and the little guy slept, I put The Biggest Loser on my DVR and watched it while power walking. I walked for 51 minutes (Aerobic according to the pedometer) and did 6,195 steps. Later in the day, the boys went outside to play. I stayed inside for part of it and did 3 of the Fat Burning Miles with Leslie Sansone. That was another 38 minutes of Aerobic exercise and 4,144 additional steps. For the day I had 13,394 steps.

I am hooked and love this handy dandy little gizmo. It motivates me to do more and lets me keep track of what I have done during the day. I can not wait to see how many steps and miles I log while at Disney World.

So my question for this week:

Have you ever had a pedometer or thought about buying one? If you have used one, do you find that you walk more when you use it?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.