Letters to Jackie: workout

Friday, June 4, 2010

Let's Do the Math...

Dear Jackie,

I finished out my week of swimming workouts pretty strong this morning. Happy to report that I ended up swimming before work 4 days this week, and swam at least a mile on 3 of those days. Now let’s do the math. One mile is 1760 yards. One length of the pool is 25 yards. When I swim a mile, I swim 1750 yards, or 70 lengths of the pool. Whew! Sounds like a lot huh? Now let’s run through the week:

Tues: 1800 yds
Wed: 1500 yds
Thur: 2100 yds
Fri: 1750 yds

Grand Total: 7150 yards!

Today I actually swam the mile straight through with only stopping for less than 10 seconds to adjust my MP3 player. I pushed myself a little harder and actually did the mile in 32 minutes. This is huge for me! When I got back into the pool about a month ago, it was taking me about 40 minutes to swim the same distance. I’m really excited because now I know that I can push myself just a little and get more distance into the workout. We’ll see how it goes next week!

"My name is Jenni, and I'm overweight"

When I stepped on the scale and saw that I had worked (well, eaten really) my way up to 230 pounds I wanted to cry. In fact, I did a little. I am only 5’4” short, so 230 pounds is not just a little overweight, or a couple extra pounds. It’s not even “just a couple extra pounds” for someone 6 foot tall! Even worse, I was active growing up, swimming competitively from the age of 7 or 8 and continuing all through high school. I graduated high school at 150 to 155 pounds. So how did I gain so much?! I started counting calories and got back in the pool (at 5:30 in the morning before work, mind you…) and I did manage to drop 7 pounds in 3 weeks. Not too bad! But there has to be more… I hit rock bottom when I was trying on shorts at Wal-Mart due to the recent 85 degree weather. When I couldn’t even pull up the size 18W, I sat down in the dressing room and cried. And eventually ended up at Barnes and Noble where I cruised through the exercise/nutrition sections. Even that depressed me seeing all of the very strict diet plans, eating only certain foods. I’m a picky eater! Then I found it. The perfect book. It sat on its shelf, shimmering and glowing with a halo around it, singing my name and turning the bookstore into movie world slow motion. (Ok, you’re right, it didn’t. It sat on the table of new releases and I only saw it because it was on my way to the cash register with my fantasy novels I use to escape reality.) The book? This is Why You’re Fat (And How to Get Thin Forever) by Jackie Warner. Hello major lifestyle change! I read the first 4 chapters in one sitting, and I was so excited to see how well the book read, the educational and research material presented making me really think about what I put into my body for the first time! My first day following Jackie’s plan was May 27, 2010. My goal is to be down to 170 pounds by Christmas. At that point I’ll re-evaluate and make a new goal. This is not the first time I’ve tried to “get healthy” or lose weight. The results were always that of most dieters: short-term success and gaining all the lost weight back… and then some... I figured if I blogged about my new life I would find new support, be able to support others, and be more committed to the changes I’ve started. I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself by giving you an update in 6 months and saying, “I gained 10 more pounds, but it’s going well…” Oh! And the background? Black. Because we all know black is slimming… Welcome to my journey with Jackie Warner. At times it will be exciting, painful, frustrating, rewarding, and educational. I’ll even post pictures for tracking my progress. Let’s see where it takes me…

Letters to Jackie

Friday, June 4, 2010

Let's Do the Math...

Open Water Swims 2010

"My name is Jenni, and I'm overweight"

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