Non-scale Victories

When I started this blog, I knew I wanted to focus on fitness levels and anything else that happened aka weight loss would be icing on the cake. 

However, I did note that it is easy to track weight, but other NSVs, as the blog world has dubbed them, are a little bit harder to notice.  Also, you have to do something semi-consistently to even remember any of what you did before (such is my case).

Pilates

I've done beginner Pilates every Monday night since the beginning of June.  I really enjoy it because it is challenging and a workout, but not high intensity.  If I am overly tired or have a headache, I like the calm challenge of Pilates, as opposed to a class where the music is so very loud and the teacher has to yell over the music.  (I do intend to do one of those classes someday!).  I like the feeling of balance and strength.  I like sitting up tall and just being more aware of my body. 

The move that we do often in class is called "the hundred".

I'll be honest, I can't get my legs straight yet!  But if you look at my post about my first Pilates class, you can see that my legs were shaking terribly during this exercise.  I noticed at last Monday's class that my legs only shook a time or two.  That made me very happy! 

We also tried something new - the mini-ball of Pilates (yeah, I don't know the actual name!) We put it behind our backs, as she does in the video.  And put our feet on it and lifted our rears off the ground.  She also asked us to put them under our rears at one point.  I didn't do this because this ball was so little and I was VERY afraid I was going to pop it!  That was like putting all my weight on it, so I just did the modified version :)  Hopefully that will be another non-scale victory someday.

I've also been doing water aerobics, which has been pretty fun!  I have only gone twice, so that will be fun to see where that takes me.  I have not swam laps in 2 weeks, but after all I ate this weekend, I decided I needed to have some major swim time!  Also, I know runners do their long runs on the weekends, so I have been toying with the idea of a long swim on the weekends. 

I find my workouts on this wonderful website.  I do the "50 swim workouts" and did Number 10 today.  I usually do the workout with the lower yardage because it is an adequate workout and any times that need to be met (like 50 yards freestyle in 1 minute) are easier for me to accomplish.  I had to adjust the times to be higher on some things, like the 8 x 125s.  Butterfly was kind of painful, in a good workout way.  Early on in the workout I thought there was NO WAY I was going to get this done, too many yards, too tired, too soon.  But I did, and I loved it!  The easier workout usually takes me between 50mins and an hour to complete, so I figured this would take me 1.5 hours.  I clocked in at 1:29.03, pretty much right on the money.  All I wanted to do then was sit in the hot tub and finish my gatorade, but of course it was closed :(

I have come to LOVE the parks in my town and specifically this one nature preserve.  Overall it has 2.25 miles of trails, which go through woods/dirt trail, gravel trails, and meadow trails.  Honestly, it is nothing special, but I really have taken a liking to it.  I started running a bit of the trails a couple of "hikes" ago, when I didn't have SwimTot with me.

Before the mudhike

during...

After!  Love that girl!

 By the way, she LOVES going on hikes!  We talk about and explore nature and I have taught her that we have to run all the uphills!  haha She adores it.  The gravel loop I ran 4 minutes, then the next time I went farther and ran 5 minutes, and this last time I decided to run a dirt trail and I ran for over 6 minutes!  Previously to this month, my longest continual run was 4 minutes.  I was ecstatic to see that progress!  And to run for such a time and feel really good about it.  My goal of running a mile straight is coming into sight!

I was getting discouraged because I wasn't consistent with weights/other training, but I shrugged it off because it is summer!  Why lift weights inside when I can be outside enjoying nature??? :)

And last but not least, some more pics!

After the storm - beautiful!

What SwimTot did on the 10 min drive to the Nature Preserve

Splashin'

Loving summer!