Exercise and Food Update

I've got three 20-minute runs under my belt now. Honestly I still very much dislike running. I will never love running. You know those people who say they just don't feel right unless they're running regularly? That will never be me. A perfect day for me would never involve running.

I did set up my music for the run. It helps give me some motivation.

Warm-up / brisk walk: Steve Perry's "Foolish Heart" followed by Daughtry's "It's Not Over." I start running halfway through the second song. My first official running song is "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera*.

*In the 2000 Britney vs. Christina battle of the teen divas, I was always a Christina fan. Britney sounds completely synthesized and doesn't have talent anywhere close to Christina. Plus Christina's not a nutjob, but it would be at least 2006 before people came to that conclusion about Britney. Just my opinion.

I probably should have moved this song toward the end, about the time I feel like I'm gonna die. One of the lyrics is: "I'm a fighter. I'm not gonna stop." Perhaps if it was at the end, it might give me more motivation. Then it's LL Cool J's "Who Do You Love (Lounging)." I love me some LL. Then we go to Prince's "Raspberry Beret." Fun and whimsical. About this time I'm getting close to ready to die, and Timex Social Club's "Rumors" comes on. I love the song, but I should probably swap the positioning with Ms. I'm-More-Talented-Than-Britney-And-Haven't-Been-To-Rehab-And-Have-Tossed-Most-of-My-Bad-Girl-Image. To close the run down, Pink's "Sober" and then cooldown is Justin's "Summer Love."

Theoretically all I need to do is elongate my runs until I hit 30 minutes. I'm just ecstatic that I have come this far. Even back in junior high PE, we only HAD to run one mile at a time. I know 20 minutes of running for me is more than a mile, even at my slow as snot pace. Arguably I'm on my way to being in better physical condition than when I was 13. That's pretty cool. Now I just have to maintain and/or push it up to the next level.

However, as I stated already, I hate running. I've done an assortment of exercise programs: Shred, Tae Bo, Wii My Fitness Coach, Denise Austin aerobics, interval training, the Firm...I'll take any of those over running. Maybe I know which one is more exercise (running) and automatically dread it.

As for food, I still love it. I should make a button that says, "I love food. I hate running." That about sums it up. I think my problem is that when I exercise, I take it as a license to eat more food than I know I should eat. Yeah, I burn off calories on my run. But not 500 of them. This past weekend I made zero point soup. I was making my own soup previously, but it was much more points and very salty. This time I used very low cal veggies: broccoli, zucchini, celery, just a handful of carrots, spinach. Instead of V8 as the soup base, I used chicken bouillion this time. The cube type. It was about 50 calories of broth (in a gallon of soup) and a load of low cal veggies. It's not the tastiest thing ever, but it feels me up. We'll see if that helps (it will save 5 points every day).

I tried some Vita Tops today. They sell them at the local Safeway. Sheesh, they're expensive. The jury's still out on them.