well, that experiment was a dismal failure…

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

For a few years, I’ve been logging my fitness progress on the internet. In March of this year, I decided to try setting specific fitness goals at the beginning of the month and logging them on the internet, hoping to make myself even more accountable.

I’ve got a fitness log, a side bar widget for running monthly totals, and I post my daily progress on my facebook fan page and in my twitter feed.

Last month, I didn’t set any specific goals. I thought that I could just go back to logging my progress and see how I did at the end of the month.

pit. i. ful.

Not only did I not consistently log my fitness progress, I worked out less consistently than ever.

sad. and pitiful.

clearly, I cannot be trusted.

So, I’m back to stated goals for this month. After much thought, here’s what I’m going for in the month of June:

Goal – Walk 52 miles this month – an average of 2 miles per day, with one day off per week. (I’m going for air-conditioned, treadmill miles at a 6.5 incline.)

Goal – 300 Balance Ball Back Extensions – that’s 10 per day. (I’m bored with the 1 minute Supermans I’ve been doing.)

Goal – 30 two Minute Forearm Planks – average one per day. (I’ve GOT to keep these up! It took me over a YEAR to build up to two minutes, I refuse to slip backward on this.)

Goal – 300 BOSU pushups – that’s 10 push-ups per day.

Goal – 300 Dips or Kickbacks (tricep work) – average 10 per day.

These are my minimum DAILY goals and if I miss a day, my plan is to make it up as soon as possible!

Goal – 2 HOURS of Yoga per week. If I miss my favorite class with Body In Unity, I have to settle for Brighthouse Exercise on Demands (FREE) on Central Florida Channel 306.

WHY am I doing this? Because just a few short years ago, I couldn’t. I’ve been given a second chance to take care of this body God has blessed me with and I’m determined to be a good steward of it. Did I mentioned I was DETERMINED?

I’m blogging my daily fitness updates in my exercise log, and posting my daily progress on my Facebook page and my Twitter account, so follow along any way you like:
1. Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS (there are widgets in the sidebar to subscribe)
2. “Like” my Facebook page to see the updates in your news feed or
3. Follow me on Twitter!

I would LOVE it if you would join me in fitness accountability by commenting either here or on the facebook page and letting me know your progress too!

Still lurking around, thinking about the possibility of making small changes in your day to get healthier? I want to encourage you to set a reasonable, sustainable fitness goal for yourself for the month of June and (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone! If you do it, let me know how it’s going and I’ll pray for you!

If you currently have an inactive lifestyle, consider exercising 1 minute a day. ONE minute. And (here’s that key again) make yourself accountable to someone who will support and encourage you! (If you exercise for ONE minute per day for a week, tell me and then I’ll tell you why I only challenged you to work out for ONE minute)

need some “sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, spending too much time on the internet” medicine.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

PinkGirl did the writing on the sign in sheet at her school for me so I wouldn’t spread germs:
Date: 4/18
Time: 9:01 (school started at 8am)
Reason: “Mom is sick”
Disapproving look from temp worker at the front desk.
Me: “Be nice or I’ll hug you.” (to myself)

Doc: “When did this start?”
Me: Thursday night. Been living on Sudafed, Mucinex & leftover hydrocodone.”
Doc, laughing/shaking head: “You’re not supposed to tell me that.”
A few minutes later: “You need a shot. You’re wheezing.”
Today, I love that steroid shot more than coffee. not kidding.

Lord, thank you for my doctor. Thank you for that relationship. You sent me to him so long ago that I forget to appreciate that blessing. Thank you for all the free and affordable medicine – and for the steroid shot.

For the next few days, the acronym “LOL” will be replaced with “COL” because lately, the first doesn’t come without the second.

PinkGirl: Mom, what does “COL” mean?
Me: Coughing Out Loud, because when I laugh, I start coughing.
PinkGirl: “You should just say LOL.”
Me: “Yesterday you told me I was too OLD to use LOL.”
PinkGirl: “Well, old people can use it in private.”
Me: “How old does someone have to be before they should only use LOL in private?”
PinkGirl: “29.”

what the heck? I took some of the samples my doctor gave me for symptoms and within the hour I felt like a complete space cadet. The decongestant was phenylephrine. I usually take pseudoephedrine. I may be wrong & my symptoms were the cause of the lightheadedness, so I’m going to take the next dose – with supervision.

(I really, really needed a decongestant. The effects of the sauna wore off too fast and my neti pot wasn’t even working. Benadryl is an antihistamine containing diphenhydramine – which is also the main ingredient in TylenolPM, Nytol, Sominex…KNOCKS me out. TylenolPM dosage says take two, I can never handle more than half of ONE. I was taking Mucinex for the chest congestion.)

Lord, thank you for this day of rest. Please help me to get better so I can get back to “real” life.

I changed my mind. FirstHusband says I shouldn’t take any more phenylephrine. He said we had a phone conversation earlier today and I was really “out of it.” (I think I remember talking to him…)

Nobody called me today and asked me to volunteer for anything did they?

Lord, even in my tiredness and with all these nasty germs, please show me how I can serve you today.

PinkGirl: “MOM! The duck came SO close to me this time!”
Me: “Did you feed it?”
PinkGirl: “Yeh, cat food.”
Me: “wait. have you been throwing cat food in the back yard?”
PinkGirl: “yeh”
Me: “For how long?”
PinkGirl: “a week. maybe two.”
NOW I know what the raccoons are digging for and eating every night.

okay, I have a new game for the Easter Bunny Cake blog post of 2009.
Will it beat its own record?
The highest number of views it got in a single day was 3,709 on April 3, 2010, which was ONE day before Easter last year. Today it got 2,135 views.

eBay sent me a “Happy Anniversary” email today. Eleven years and they can’t spare a coupon code? At the very least they could have made it fun and included the item titles of the very first things I bought and sold.

Later…Obviously, I don’t watch TV when I’m sick. I hang out on the internet and search my email archive file for my very first eBay auction win: A Mr. Potato Head Voice Changing Recorder. eh. big whoop.

My daughter felt compelled to show me this video today:

sick pants.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

FirstHusband came home & I went to the top of the stairs to talk to him.

Me: “I’m up here.

(pause)

Doing nothing.

(pause)

Just started.”

FirstHusband: “What just started?”

Me: “Me. Doing nothing.”

FirstHusband: “Go for it.”

Me: “It’s not the same.”

FirstHusband, sympathetically: “Did you throw away your sick pants?”

Me: “no. (sigh) They’re just too giant. I have to hold them up when I walk.”

FirstHusband: “that’s a GOOD thing.”

Me: “I know. (pause) But these aren’t the same.”

FirstHusband: “I’m sorry.”

sigh.

I’m not the only one who has “sick pants” right?

(Mine are were plaid flannel. You know, that really, really soft flannel that comes from decades of use? But. They are XL. and I wear a medium now. and the elastic waistband is as old as the flannel. Warning: I’m not sure I’m done mourning them yet.)

I need to go into the sauna again and burn some germs. die germs. die.

do they make church appropriate stretchy pants?

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

One thing I do when I sense distance between me and God is to beg Him for opportunities to serve him. It never fails to draw me into a more intimate awareness of His presence in my life. The last few weeks, I’ve been begging.

Then, at Tuesday’s yoga class, I was asked to join a few ladies to do “Son” salutations to the Lord’s prayer – during the church services on Sunday.

I was not excited about this opportunity.

Seriously, doing downward facing dog in front of the entire church congregation? Not what I had in mind when I asked God for an opportunity to serve him.

But isn’t that frequently the case?

I ask God for an opportunity to serve him, He provides one and my response is, “but. but. but. I don’t want to do THAT!” I don’t always have specific ideas about how I COULD serve him but I DO have ideas about how I DON’T want to serve him and sticking my badonka donk butt up in the air for a downward facing dog in front of the entire church congregation is firmly on that list.

Was firmly on that list.

Today, I asked the yoga instructor, “After you do yoga during a church service, do you find that someone new comes to class after that? Because they were prompted by seeing it?”

“YES!”

oh.

well.

okay, then.

And I’m reminded. God can use ANYthing for his purposes and glory. Even a downward facing dog.

So, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to serve God. With a joyful attitude. I’m sure I will have a joyful attitude, I just haven’t quite gotten there completely. Yet. Right now, I have a positive attitude, which is a long way from where I was this morning.

As I drove away from yoga this morning, I realized this opportunity supports something else I’ve been doing for the last few months. I’ve been posting my fitness goals and my daily progress on my blog, facebook and twitter. I’ve received feedback (on and off the internet) that my fitness updates have been encouraging to more people than I realized. I really thought that I would post these updates for my own personal tracking, but the feedback that I’ve received has been a two-way encouragement. People see me fail and try again and they are encouraged to try again. They see me nick away at fitness goals, a little every day and they are encouraged to do the same.

I’ve made a commitment to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with and to hold myself accountable by sharing that commitment with others. To stand on the stage this Sunday morning and sing with the praise team – and then, moments later, NOT participate in yoga during the Lord’s prayer after, would NOT be in line with that commitment.

Now I just need to go shopping for church appropriate stretchy pants.

so I failed. NOW what?

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

One of my favorite movies scenes is from Elizabethtown. After Orlando Bloom’s character tells Kirsten Dunst’s character about his colossal career mistake, she replies:

“So you failed. Alright you really failed. You failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed, you failed. You failed.”

Harsh, I know. But then she says,

“You think I care about that? I do understand. You wanna be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you’re still smiling.”

My translation? “So you failed. NOW what are you going to do?”

I failed. I didn’t meet my March fitness goals:

Goal – Walk an average of 2.3 miles per day, totaling 71.3 miles.
Actual – Walked 69.2 miles, short 2.1 miles.

Goal – BOSU pushups: average 20 per day, total 620. (originally 10 per day. I doubled this goal – big mistake.
Actual – 410, which is 100 over my original goal and 210 UNDER my modified goal.

Goal – 2 Minute Plank: Average one per day, for a total of 31 times, If I missed a day, I was supposed to make it up.
Actual – 23, 8 short of goal.

Goal – 1 Minute Superman: Average 1 per day for a total of 31 for the month, miss it? Supposed to make it up.
Actual –23, again, 8 short of goal.

NOW what? I’m going to set new goals for April and strive to achieve them.

I’ve taken a look at why I failed and I’ve discovered a few things:
– The daily 1 minute superman and the 2 minute plank were reasonable goals. That’s THREE minutes a day.
– Increasing the walking distance was a waste. I need to walk smarter, not longer. And I need a day off.
– I HATED those BOSU push-ups – because I wasn’t successful. I couldn’t do 20 of them in a row. And they never got easier. I found myself skipping the floor work altogether because of those stupid push-ups. Besides, they only worked isolated muscles. I hate doing that – waste of time when I could be working multiple muscle groups.

So here are my modified fitness goals for April:
1 one minute superman per day, total of 30. (already behind)
1 two minute forearm plank per day, total of 30. (already behind)
Yoga/Strength training: 3 days per week. (this will be a challenge)
Walk an average of 2 miles per day – taking Saturday’s off – for a total of 50 miles – at 6.5 percent incline on the treadmill. (that’s the smarter, not longer part). Any walks in the flat neighborhood with FirstHusband will be bonus miles.

I’m also adding some nutrition goals:
Take my vitamins and supplements every day.
Eat at least one serving of fruit every day. (this may be the most challenging goal of all. not because I don’t like fruit, but because, in general, I often forget to eat much of anything after breakfast)

WHY am I doing this? Because just a few short years ago, I couldn’t. I’ve been given a second chance to take care of this body God has blessed me with and I’m determined to be a good steward of it. Did I mentioned I was DETERMINED?

I’m blogging my daily fitness updates in my exercise log, and posting my daily progress on my Facebook page and my Twitter account, so follow along any way you like:
1. Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS (there are widgets in the sidebar to subscribe)
2. “Like” my Facebook page to see the updates in your news feed or
3. Follow me on Twitter!

I would LOVE it if you would join me in fitness accountability by commenting either here or on the facebook page and letting me know your progress too!

Still lurking around, thinking about the possibility of making small changes in your day to get healthier? I want to encourage you to set a reasonable, sustainable fitness goal for yourself for the month of April and (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone! If you do it, let me know how it’s going and I’ll pray for you!

If you currently have an inactive lifestyle, consider exercising 1 minute a day. ONE minute. And (here’s that key again) make yourself accountable to someone who will support and encourage you! (If you exercise for ONE minute per day for a week, tell me and then I’ll tell you why I only challenged you to work out for ONE minute)

fitness accountability: Wednesday 3/9/11

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’ve made a commitment to the Lord to strive to be a good steward of this body he’s blessed me with and by the grace of God, I’m stronger today than I was yesterday!

Here’s what I did so far today:
1. An hour of strength training.
2. Walked 4.3 miles (updated)
3. 30 BOSU pushups. (trying to catch up after doubling my goal 3 days into the month)
4. 1 two minute forearm plank.
5. 1 one minute superman.

And here’s how I’m doing on my goals for March:

1. Yoga/Strength Training Days: 3
2. 22 miles walked. Should be at 18.4 by today, but I’m trying to get ahead because I can’t walk Thursday or Friday of this week. I’ll be chaperoning an out of town field trip with a bunch of 4th graders.
3. 160 BOSU pushups. Trying to average 20 per day for a total of 620.
4. 9 two minute forearm planks. Trying to average one a day for a total of 31.
5. 9 one minute supermans. Trying to average one a day for a total of 31.

I’m blogging my daily fitness updates in my exercise log, and posting my daily progress on my Facebook page and my Twitter account, so follow along any way you like:
1. Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS (there are widgets in the sidebar to subscribe)
2. “Like” my Facebook page to see the updates in your news feed or
3. Follow me on Twitter!

I would LOVE it if you would join me in fitness accountability by commenting either here or on the facebook page and letting me know your progress too!

penalties or rewards, pleasure or pain.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

“Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure…

Why don’t you do some of the things you know you should do? After all, what is procrastination? It’s when you know you should do something, but you still don’t do it. Why not? The answer is simple: at some level you believe that taking action in this moment would be more painful than just putting it off…

Why is it that people can experience pain yet fail to change? They haven’t experienced enough pain yet…hit a level of pain you weren’t willing to settle for anymore. We’ve all experienced those times in our lives when we’ve said, I’ve had it – never again – this must change now. This is the magical moment when pain becomes our friend. It drives us to take new action and produce new results.”

Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!
by Anthony Robbins

I hope that the negative consequences I just experienced will be motivating enough for me to never repeat the circumstances that led to them.

I skipped working out yesterday. According to my freakish self-commitment to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with – which I was foolish smart enough to document on the internet – I had to make up what I skipped. Thank GOD I only skipped one day. I had to do double work today. If I had missed two days…

What happened yesterday that prevented me from working out?

nothing.

I have no excuse. I just procrastinated and then I got distracted and then I rationalized that I would just make it up tomorrow.

I should not have listened to me. I really, really hope I remember how difficult it is to do TWO 2 minute forearm planks, TWO 1 minute supermans and FORTY Bosu push-ups.

I’m going out of town with PinkGirl to chaperon a field trip on Thursday and Friday. Excuse me while I have a little talk with myself:

“Julie. There is absolutely NO reason you can’t do your plank, superman and regular push-ups on Thursday and Friday. Do you feel your arms right now? Do you really want to go through this again on Saturday? Do NOT wimp out. You WILL regret it if you do. It’s LESS than FIVE minutes a day, for cryin out loud! Don’t be a whiny butt. Just suck it up and get it DONE.”

That said, here’s where I am with regard to my fitness goals for the month of March:

8 two minute forearm planks (caught up)
8 one minute supermans (caught up)
130 BOSU push-ups (doubled my daily goal after 3 days, need to catch up to 160)
17.7 miles walked. (To meet my average of 2.3 per day, I should be at 18.4. Got some catching up to do – and I should try to get a head start on making up Thursday and Friday because I can’t leave my post as chaperon to get my walking in. I’ll try to remember to wear a pedometer during the day as we do field trip stuff)

How are you doing with YOUR fitness goals? If you’re a beginner, I’m challenging you to exercise for only ONE minute per day this month. In April, I’ll tell you why I’m saying only ONE minute.

I’m blogging my daily fitness updates in my exercise log, and posting my daily progress on my Facebook page and my Twitter account, so follow along any way you like:
1. Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS (there are widgets in the sidebar to subscribe)
2. “Like” my Facebook page to see the updates in your news feed or
3. Follow me on Twitter!

I would LOVE it if you would join me in fitness accountability by commenting and letting me know your progress too!

one minute a day: join me for fitness accountability!

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

Come on, you can do it!

I’m going to post my fitness updates on my facebook PAGE. It’s a page, not a personal profile, so you don’t have to “friend” me and I won’t see your wall posts, you can just comment your progress for accountability and prayer support! If you click “Like” at the top of the page, the posts will appear in your news feed so you’ll be reminded to post your progress.

Why am I doing this? For a two-way street of accountability and encouragement. I want to be a good steward of this body God has given me. I used to be hampered by physical limitations and pain, but slowly, both are becoming less and less of an obstacle in my life.

I posted my March fitness goals yesterday and I haven’t fallen behind yet! (I know it’s only been two days, but with my propensity for distraction and procrastination, it’s very easy for me to fall behind).

After I put my goals out on the internet for maximum accountability, I realized that they might be discouraging for beginners to read about. Let me explain – I’ve been building up to this for years. I started slow!

In the beginning, I could only to a 10 second plank – and I really struggled to do it!

In the beginning, I could only do a few push ups before I lost my form – and they were “girl” push ups, on my knees. (In the long run, it’s more beneficial to do fewer push ups correctly than lots of push ups incorrectly.)

In the beginning, I couldn’t walk more than just a few minutes without getting winded.

But today, years later, I’m doing better because I slowly and consistently incorporated small changes over time and didn’t give up. YOU CAN DO IT!

If you’re lurking around, thinking about the possibility of making small changes in your day to get healthier, I want to encourage you to set a reasonable, sustainable fitness goal for yourself for the month of March and (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone!

If you currently have an inactive lifestyle, consider exercising 1 minute a day.

ONE minute. And (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone who will support and encourage you!

ONE minute. (I’ll tell you why only one minute later – probably in April)

If you do it, let me know how it’s going and I’ll pray for you!

fitness goals: March 2011

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

I’ve decided on my fitness goals for March:

1. Yoga/Strength Training: 3 hours per week.
2. Walking: 15% increase from February’s goal, average 2.3 miles per day, 71.3 miles total for the month.
3. BOSU pushups: average 10 per day, total 310.
4. 2 Minute Plank: 31 times – if I miss a day, I make it up.
5. 1 Minute Superman: 31 times – miss it, make it up.

Now that I’ve put this out here, there’s no turning back. I’ll be updating my Exercise Log and there’s a widget in the sidebar that shows my current summary.

Today, I walked 3 miles with my husband in approximately 48 minutes, did 10 BOSU PushUps in less than a minute and spent 2 minutes in a forearm plank. I’ve got to go do a 1 minute superman now.

Microactions have a cumulative effect – try some of your own and let me know how you’re doing!

57 miles in 28 days.

Posted on by Julie Stiles Mills

February 28th. Finally!

I reached my goal of walking an average of 2 miles a day for the month of February. I actually managed to walk one whole mile over my goal for a total of 57 miles!

But you know what that means.

My freakish self-competitive streak is compelling me to set a higher goal for March.

I won’t lie, getting the 57 miles in was NOT easy. I fell behind early on and spent most of the month trying to catch up. I was finally on track again by the 27th.

Better late than never.

Even so, I’m feeling kinda chicken when it comes to setting a higher daily average for March. FirstHusband and I were walking a 3.1 mile route he tracked but it sent us walking past a sewer treatment plant. yuck. Yesterday, we tracked a new 3 mile route that keeps us closer to home and away from any stinky landmarks. So when we walk together, we’ll walk 3 miles that day. But. We don’t walk together EVERY day, so setting a 3 mile per day average is too much of a jump for me. I don’t like to set myself up for failure.

So I still don’t know what my walking goal is for March. (and yes, I know tomorrow is March 1st.)

I have decided to add push-ups. I think I’m going to shoot for an average 5 a day for a total of 155 push-ups during the month of March. 5 seems so reasonable. 155? not so much.

microactions, microactions, microactions.