Work it.

First things first: for my avid readers, I'm so sorry that it's been...what, 3 months now? I really have no excuse. I lost all motivation to blog when my computer charger burnt up. I am now on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule, and I am very hopeful for the upcoming posts.

I'm officially 4 pounds away from losing a whopping 50 pounds!!! It has been a hard 6 1/2 months, but honestly, every time I step on the scale, look in the mirror, or catch my reflection in a door, I am nothing but ecstatic for myself. It's been a lot of difficult work, especially with all the holidays that have just finished. What does 50 pounds look like?

Basically, ten of those bad boys (with my quick google search, that's the best I could come up with).

Then, lucky me, I hit a plateau. I've been stuck at four pounds away from fifty for LITERALLY a month now. A month!! I tried low-carbing (I binged after three days, then tried it again and...same thing happened). I tried no-carbing, I tried eating everything they sell in wal-mart, nothing helped. So I basically threw in the towel and quit trying so hard. After that did nothing (surprise), I decided that maybe I should start exercising. But who really wants to lace-up and go running in -30 degree weather. Not this one. So, next best thing, I bought a rebounder (that's a fancy word for a mini trampoline). That's definitely fun, but I didn't feel like the five-minute spurts here and there when I thought about it really did anything.

So, last week when we had our one whole day that wasn't freezing (it was still 25 degrees, but that feels like 80 after our little stint we had with a polar vortex), I decided I was going to go out and walk. While I was walking, I felt like I wanted to just try running. Even if I could only run 10 seconds, then so be it. Well, I made it a whole 45 seconds. It felt exhausting. But fantastic. So I let myself cool down after that, and then I did it again. I didn't time myself, but I'm thinking it was about 30 seconds. Then, after some more walking, I ran again for probably another 30 seconds.

When I got home, I felt great. Later on that night, I was SO SORE. Everything from my neck down just felt like I had been hit with a bat repeatedly. It felt FANTASTIC though, in an odd sort of way. I planned on going out the next morning after work, but I was greeted to a snow/ice fall that morning, so it put my plans for that on hold.

Monday, though, the weather warmed up a bit, and I was in the mood to break in my new workout clothes (more on that in a bit). So, I did the same thing as the week beforehand. Walk some, run a little, walk some, run a little more. I ended up doing 5 sessions of sprinting rather than 3. I didn't even think about starting to run, I just thought to myself, "Rachel, even if you just make it to the next mailbox, you're making progress. Just keep going." Later on that night, it still felt like I'd been charged by a bull being chased by a school bus, but I still craved that endorphin high that I was beginning to experience (if any of you know anything about me, it's that exercise and I are not the best of friends).

So, Tuesday, I was off and I was just going to take the day off of exercising. Then, the more I thought about it and moped about exercise, the more I wanted to go. So, without thinking again, I changed my clothes and did the same thing as I had done on Monday. I was much less sore after that one, thankfully, but I still could feel it. Which leaves me saying this: If you don't feel yourself changing, you aren't being challenged.

Now, after much research (by research I mean pinterest), I have come up with my perfect equation for what to wear running when the weather is less-than-ideal. The key for keeping warm, but not getting too hot, is thin layers. My layers look a lot like this:

Leggings (I don't wear anything fancy, just some leggings I got from Forever 21 to add warmth)
Sweat Pants (seriously, have you ever bought the Hanes Sweatpants from Walmart that are less than six bucks? They are hands-down the softest sweatpants ever)
Sports Bra (I went out on a limb once, a few years ago, and got one of those dry-tec(?) sports bras. It's nice, but I almost prefer the ones I get from KMart that are 2 for $12.99)
Tank Top made from sweat-wicking material (I got mine from Old Navy and I LOVE them...considering adding some pictures below!)
A light to medium jacket (this is where I fail...I either pick one to heavy or too thin)
Head Wrap (keeps my ears warm AND hold my headphones in place)
Dark Sunglasses (seriously, how did I ever exercise outside before without these?)

This generally keeps me warm enough, but not too warm. Picking a jacket with a zipper also really helps, because you can use the zipper as sort of a "thermostat" by zipping it up when you get too chilly, or unzipping it when you start getting too warm (thank you, SparkPeople, for that tip).

I really only run when I don't have to work the next night, or didn't have to work the night before. However, that's generally only about three days a week, and I would like to be active a bit more than that. I'm considering incorporating this routine for when I do have to work because I don't have to go outside and it seems like it shouldn't take too long: