Gosh, haven't checked in at all in a long time.
I've been doing pretty well. I have a dual-goal:
Lose a few pounds that found me in Feb/March
Get stronger
With that in mind, I made up a schedule for my workouts. Now, generally I swim 2x a week at 5:30 am, and work in other stuff around that. But it's SUPER hard for me to get up that early (4:40 am) every day. And I rarely feel like working out.
However - I've been doing pretty good. Schedule is this:
Sunday - walk with friend
Monday, Weds, Friday, Saturday - PiYo (it's a workout program that I first did in 2014, and my coworker told me how great my butt looked, so I figured - why not? It's all body-weight exercises. It's kicking my butt.)
Tues/Thurs: swim 30 laps at the pool (~42 min)
So I'm attaching my March and April so far. Not bad.
My challenge is just keeping going without getting discouraged. I have *goals* but they are hard. So how much do I want to work for my goals? At the basic level, I want to be healthy and fit. I've got that one down. Further past that, I'd like to *look* good too. The challenge here is that I'm almost 46, and short and stocky. I *cannot* compare myself to my friends. Most of my friends are short and thin or tall and thin, and I just don't have those genetics. I have loose belly skin from giving birth at 42, loose skin on my thighs, and cellulite (which I've had forever). I have a little extra fat at my belly that I didn't have before the second kid. I put a LOT of effort into exercise and diet and the fact of the matter is, it will take EVEN MORE to get rid of that stubborn few pounds. And HOW MUCH do I want that?
(It's also hard living in CA where health, fitness, and looks are so emphasized. I have a friend who LOOKS GREAT. She's a few years younger than me, and has a small build. She told me recently "I work very hard to look like this", and listed her workouts, which were literally half of my workouts. It's depressing to think that my effort doesn't really show. She admittedly has a body that responds quickly to exercise.)
My niece found fitness a couple of years ago and it's her new religion (she lost 90 pounds at first). I remember being that way the first time I lost a bunch of weight. And she's always posting things about #goals, etc. Trying to be encouraging, but sometimes it comes off as hard-ass (it's our family personality). I try to gently suggest that it's good to be encouraging but not everyone has the same goals. (She recently broke her state's record for squat and dead lift, after only starting to lift heavy a year ago).
Anyway, those are my struggles. On the flip side, in week 3 of PiYo and I can do a lot more regular pushups than when I started. Week 1, started doing on my knees about half way through. Week 2, only did the last set on my knees. We'll see what I do on Saturday! (It's a particular 37 minute workout that I'm talking about.)