Hi Girls & Gent,

How was everyone's weekend?

Let's make this another successful week, of eating right and getting off our bums!!! Let's have a lot of LOSERS this week, c'mon girls only ten days left to this month, let's finish strong

I can totally relate to that!!!! I had one workout buddy and it was the same.. Excuse after excuse! Ive yet to work out with her honestly, and that was like two weeks ago.. She came over on Friday, for what? To get my exercise ball that I was going to give her.. She's got the time to get the fre ball but not to workout.. I was really disappointed.. And now my new workout buddy, well, I worked out with her one day last week but then she had hurt her back so she took a few days off and she cant exercise except for 4 days a week because she gets her son.. But anyways! Ive come to the conclusion that Im going to do this on my own.. Buddy or no buddy.. Ive got equipment at home.. A stability ball.. DVDs.. 5lb weights.. Thigh toner.. Stretch bands.. Ive also got access to a workout room where I live with a treadmill.. Bike.. Elliptical.. And weight machines.. My only thing with that is that I had going by myself.. LOL.. But Ive made it a point starting my next day off which is on Thursday that after I wake up, Im going for a walk.. I wanted to today but I woke up and it was raining.. And my work days start so early I cant get up and do it.. Ive come across the same conclusion though, I cant do it around someone else's schedule, if I do that I will never workout.. Ive got a set time to workout everyday so that helps also.. My goal by June is to see the scale start with a 1 and not a 2.. Ive only got 20 more pounds to go for that!! Ive never been this happy! I can put clothes on now that I havent worn in awhile, or that I would wear knowing they dont look right.. Like right now, Ive got on a tank top and I feel good about wearing it! LOL.. I cant wait for summer to get here!!!

AWESOME!!!! I can use a buddy!!! I take my motivation frm anywhere! LOL.. I normally workout about 5:30 - 6:30

It's finally spring! Officially, anyway. It's supposed to rain a lot over the next week though, ugh! I'm hoping it will warm up soon so that either I can jog outside, or the football team will move their practice outside and leave the indoor track open for me to jog!

I have a question for you all about jogging. When I first started working out, I could only jog two laps (2 laps = 1/4 mile) without having to walk. A couple months ago I finally jogged an entire mile without walking! This was an amazing accomplishment to me because it was the first time I had ever done it in my LIFE (I was out of shape as a kid too). But even though I can do a mile now, it takes about 12-13 minutes. Do you know any ways that I can work on doing it faster? I would be so happy if I could finally pass the fitness tests that they gave me as a kid!

Also, I know from reading the workout log that a bunch of you jog or run. If you jog for an hour, do you include walking in that, or is it non-stop jogging? I thought it was great that I could finally jog a mile, but it seems like everyone else can do way more. When I first started working out with my boyfriend, I would jog 2 laps and he would jog 22! He jogs two miles in only a little bit longer than it takes me to jog one. I guess my one mile accomplishment wasn't so great after all!

I'm going to visit a friend of mine in Philadelphia this coming weekend, so I'm a little worried about eating too much junk. My department at school hosted some prospective students this week, so I ended up eating a whole lot of bad for me food (it was free, I'm poor!), and I'm afraid that eating a lot of bad for me food this coming weekend too will totally blow my chances of losing any weight this month. Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to keep it up while I'm out of town?

To increase your speed try intervals where you sprint the long sides of the track and then recover on the corners. It may help you. Alternating with treadmill workouts allows you to control speed as well if you have access to that. A mile is a great accomplishment. Keep jogging the same amount of time you normally do and just try to increase how far you get during that time during the week. Good luck, I know you can do it!

paperyclippy- I agree with Liz and was going to suggest intervals too. And a mile is a great accomplishment you should be pround not discouraged because you can't do more. It took me MONTHS to work up to a mile and I still run at a 12-13 min/mile pace.

I often use walking to allow myself to go longer distances when I can't run the whole thing straight. Especially if you plan that way. Then walking isn't cheating when its according to a plan!

Fuller & Beautiful: To motivate myself to work out I buy a calender and for each day I work out a put on a sticker. I love filling my month with stickers! Usually I buy the kind that teachers use that say Good work! or whatever. That way when I look back I'm proud of what I've done. I find myself trying to sneak in a workout on my off days (Like walking with my husband or dog) just to get another sticker!

I totally agree with everyone else. Interval training works wonders! I also found just up'ing my speed by .1 each workout for my highest speed that it added up real fast. Now granted I'm only at 5.0 still on the treadmill. My miles are still around 12-13 minutes also, but to me that's huge because it used to take me over 20. I never thought I would be running/jogging on a regular basis.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I will definitely try intervals at the gym tomorrow (if the football team isn't practicing on the track!). I was surprised at how quickly I built up to a mile (about two months)! Sometimes I think it would be awesome to be able to run a marathon, but I think that's still years and years away for me!

Awww!! So sweet!!! Believe me, I needed some motivation yesterday, I was thinking of you! Im going to need it today too.. ITS SNOWING!!! Good grief! LOL

You Girls Rock! I love seeing all of this support!

I tried intervals today, and it was great! I don't have a stopwatch so I'm going by the clock, but it looks like I managed to speed up the mile a little bit.

What's more important though, is that after the first mile, I just kept jogging slowly . . .

and I jogged ANOTHER MILE! TWO MILES!!!

This is the biggest fitness accomplishment of my life! Thanks so much for your support you guys!