So I have been a terrible blogger, and I'm sorry. But I'm going to start this blog back up again, partly because I'm hoping it will inspire me and anyone else who reads it, and partly because I don't like it when people start something, then leave alone forever. So as a recap, I haven't been doing that great, but I haven't been doing terribly either. I've kind of been trying to get back on track with everything. My diet is starting to get back to normal, and I have been getting back into exercising daily. I did an ab workout the other night, and let me tell you my abs still hurt a little bit, but its so worth it. Doing abs is one of my favorite things to do. Today I'm going to stress the importance of choosing exercises that you enjoy. Exercise is something that some people dread, and I was totally right there with all those people about a year ago. But then I joined the track team. And I was a thrower, so I wasn't hardcore running everyday or anything, but I still had to work. This was great for me because during the season, whenever I felt like being lazy and eating junk food, I had to go to practice and work out for a few hours. I had no choice in the matter. And you know what? It worked. I started to loose weight. Another great thing that came from this was friends. Not that I didn't have friends before, but I made some new ones. The people on my track team weren't necessarily the people I saw throughout the day in school, so it was fun to go to track and talk to new people. They were also great at motivating. I sometimes felt that I couldn't do what we were told to do, but they helped me through. For example, (and this is a little embarrassing) one day we were told to run a mile for conditioning, and I was really slow, and most of my team started before me, so they were all done a lap ahead of me. When I had another lap to do and I was dying because I was kind of out of shape, part of my team ran my last lap with me even though they didn't have to and motivated me along the way. This sounds cheesy as I'm writing it, but it was touching to me and it really helped me power though that last lap. Ok, cheesy story time over. Anyway, this weight loss totally motivated me into the summer. I wanted to get outside and do some sort of exercise. One thing that I personally loved to do was take walks. I have a route picked out that is a circle that is just over a mile by my house. I walk it almost everyday. Days that I don't want to walk, I take a bike ride. I don't have a set path or anything for this, but I kind of just go around my city and neighboring cities and explore places I have never been. I make sure I'm out there for a least 25 minutes, but typically they take longer than that because I'm having fun. Swimming is great exercise if you're moving around and splashing. It's good for you and it's really fun, so its a win win if you ask me. I also love to do yoga. It's super relaxing and feels so good to stretch out your muscles. And I have never found any shame in putting on some upbeat dance music and going nuts in my room dancing and jumping. Its fun, and its great cardio as long as you keep moving for at least 10 minutes at a time. Along with these cardio activities, I don't disregard strength training. Like I said before, I love doing abs. I don't know why, but they feel good to me and they are super easy to do at home. For arms, I do push-ups (or in my case mock push-ups, because -shhh- I can't do a real push-up ha ha) and like the one where you like bend your elbows while you're supporting yourself on a chair. I don't know what they are called, but if you really want to know what they are, I'll look it up for you, just leave a comment.  When I don't want to do either of those things, I grab a 2-liter bottle of soda, or (this is another totally embarrassing thing, but I do it sometimes) a mostly full jug of laundry detergent and use it do do arm curls or behind the head lifts that work the triceps.  I don't own a set of dumbbells, and I'm too cheap to go buy one, so I make do with whatever I have to. For legs, I like to do squats and lunges. I probably do more, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head. If I'm completely out of ideas, I grab an old (or new, whatever works) Seventeen magazine and go to the exercise portion and do that exercise. These are things I like to do. Which is totally a key. If you don't like to do it, you aren't going to. It's really that simple. So experiment, find something that you love doing. Whether its taking your dog for a walk (or by yourself if you don't have a dog, and don't be ashamed or embarrassed, I don't have a dog and I walk all the time), joining a sports team, or doing something completely different, just do something that you enjoy. And you don't have to spend any money. I used a bottle of laundry detergent (ha ha, I'm a little weird) as a weight. So use your creativity and find something that you love. Good luck!

Becoming a Babe