Week 5

Still sick. I went into the capital city to visit the doctor. Had the flu and a minor sinus infection so she gave me super strong vitamins to take for 2 weeks and some antibiotics to take for 7 days. After about 3 days of taking those I was feeling human again and very anxious to be out and about. Gonna start back to the exercising a little slow, but ready to get back to it on Monday!

Week 4

Well friends, this will be a short recap of week 4. The temperatures here have been pretty chilly and the weather has not been nice (we even got several inches of snow yesterday), but I did manage to go for a walk/jog on Tuesday. I bundled up in many, many layers and kept my hood on to keep my head warm. However, it was all to no avail...I have been in bed with the flu since late Tuesday night. So unfortunately I have nothing else to report for this week except mmmm, tea and hot showers are good.

But I plan to get back into in again once I'm feeling better. Check in with you next week!

Week 3

This was a good week. I started the Couch to 5k program and managed to get two days of it in. The other days were filled with either strengthening videos (and still lots of laughs at my inability to properly execute the moves with grace and ease-but hey I'm having fun) or with long walks around the town. I have started taking the long way when I am out and about just to get some extra steps in each day. And I volunteer more often now while at school to run from classroom to classroom or up and down the stairs when my partner or I need something not in our own classroom. The calves are starting to look very nice from all the stairs I climb! I will say that working out has been rough this past week because 1) Winter has come back and she is REALLY cold and 2) She brought her cousin with her-Incredibly Cold and Powerful Wind.

This wind made my first Couch to 5K jog very interesting. Sarah and I were originally just going to do one of our long walks. But we figured no time like the present to get started. So as I listened to the podcast, she followed my lead when it was time for the 60 second jogs and when it was time for the brisk walking. Funny note about this, apparently whenever it was time to jog, I kept saying over and over "Shit, shit, shit". So she knew it was time. As if jogging were not difficult enough when you are first starting, we were given the added difficulty of running into very strong winds (which were great when we started heading back into town with the winds at our back).

Each time we walk, we choose a new direction through town so as to see more of Floresti. This time I chose to take her out of town towards the big hospital. In order to get there, we have to walk along one of the main roads. This was great fun. We counted 6-7 horn honks from Moldovans driving by, some to let us know they were coming, some to gawk at the weird American girls running while others were simply trying to figure out if we needed a ride because we had to be in a hurry since we were jogging. We also noticed a taxi driver passing us 3 or 4 times - our theory is that he wasn't sure if we needed a ride, so he kept passing us with the possibility that we may flag him down. Now for me being incredibly inexperienced with jogging and running, I was sorely tempted especially after we reached the outer limits of town and I knew we still had to turn around and head back to my apartment. But Sarah was a great cheerleader and kept me going. The podcast itself is about 30 minutes, but we walked a little before and after the podcast so in total we were gone about 1.5 hours. I felt great afterward and thankfully because we stretched before and after plus the extra time walking, I never got so sore that I was not able to move the next day. At one point, when I knew I was not able to jog anymore, we tried skipping our way home and we even stopped on the side of the road so I could show Sarah how to hula. Although I realized right away that was not the best idea as cars were coming toward us and we looked weird enough. The best part of the whole walk/jog was that she and I laughed (as usual) most of the way to and fro.

I am sadly reporting that keeping a food journal has ended. I am just not good at paying attention. However, I am still keeping track of what activity I do each day in my planner so at least I am half keeping track. I think I gave up on the food tracking because I was basically eating the same thing the whole week (oatmeal for breakfast and 1 cup of my homemade chili for lunch and again for dinner). I have taken to cooking one big pot of something at the beginning of the week then eating that for lunch and/or dinner throughout the week. Week 3 was chili, week 4 (this week) is a bean and veggie soup. It was an experiment since I have never made a soup with beans (especially dry beans), but overall a success. Still needs a little something to add a bit more flavor, but not bad for my first attempt at playing with ingredients.

I have not done my measurements yet, mostly because I forgot about it. But I will ask Sarah to help me next time we get together to workout.

That's all for now. Happy week to everyone!

Week 2

So this will be a light one. This past week's weather was really great for outdoor activity so Sarah and I took advantage of it. We walked for an hour and half twice last week and got to see new parts of the village. It was great, the walking was easy! Not because we were meandering, but because we were just chatting the whole time and enjoying the new scenery. But we were still a little out of breath because of the pace and the small hills we encountered along the way.

The first walk took us close to a nearby village and along part of the river that runs on the outskirts of my village. It was beautiful and now I know I should bring along my camera next time we go out. Our second walk had a duel purpose-one to exercise, but also to run some errands around the village (i.e. ATM and grocery shopping for that night's dinner). We took the long way down to the valley where our ATM is located then wound our way through one of the neighborhoods that neither she nor I had been in before. It was a whole new set of Moldovan's staring at the weird Americans and their heavy backpacks/bags.

I also did some of my cheesy and wonderful strengthening videos throughout the week, but not as often as I should have. They are easy to do so I really should be doing them everyday. But laziness gets the better of me especially when the weather is gloomy.

I knew the weekend would be a little bit of a set back to losing weight because a group of volunteers were in the capital city to celebrate my friend's birthday. But I made sure to do as much walking all over the city as possible and watch the portions when I was able to. Overall it was fairly successful for me, but I'm not gonna lie-I loved,enjoyed and ate every morsel of the yummy Pad Thai I had at her birthday dinner. And of course, there was a lot of beer consumed over the weekend. But it was a celebration and not my norm.

I still haven't started on the Couch to 5K. I endeavor to begin this week (as I have said each week since downloading the podcast haha).

While talking with my site mates we decided that the best way to measure our weight loss (and yes, I said "our" because they are joining me in exercising and losing weight) is to take our measurements. So in the next post I will let you all know where I am right now and will start using that as a measure of my weight loss once a month. I'll still weigh myself, but that's a little trickier for me since I don't always have access to a scale. Plus, with exercise comes muscle building and since muscles weigh more than fat, I don't want to rely solely on pounds as my measurement of loss.

That's it for week 2.