Thursday, November 19, 2015

Jumping Rope

It has been quite a while. Not only did I slack in exercise, I also slacked in eating healthy. I have pigged out on cookies, ice cream, potato chips, pie, s'mores, candy and, most recently soda. I can't say what it was exactly that triggered my emotional binge but I know it was stress-related.

Over the last two years, I've gained 10 pounds. This doesn't sound so bad, but I already weighed 185 pounds. Now, I'm literally looking at 200 saying, "Oh, no!"

After having surgery last March, I didn't fully bounce back the way I wanted and I allowed life to take hold. One stress led to another then another and then another. And the pounds slowly crept up. Sad part is, I didn't care. Everything tasted so good and I always wanted more.

I recently started a creative project in which I create one Afro for a year. I call it Afros365. I've managed to continuously create Afros for 115 days. And I've stuck with it. Something I've always had a difficult time doing. Sticking with an art project and completing it. It has been an amazing journey so far. I have about 8 months left and my motivation to complete this to the end has not fizzled.

So I started thinking maybe I can apply this to other aspects of my life. My health in particular. And I plan to start small mainly because I want to eventually stick with it for life. So for 30 days, I'm jumping rope and limiting myself to one junk/sweet/salty food OR drink per day. I have no set time limit on how long I jump rope or how often. I just jump for as long as I can stand it. And I have no limit on the amount of calories of non-essential food I eat. So far, I've seem to be keeping it around 250 calories.

Today is day 4. So in the past 3 days: The most I've jumped was about 150 jumps for about 10 minutes. I know that isn't much for that amount of time (I took several breaks to catch my breath), but I'm looking to improve. The longest I jumped non-stop was 90 jumps. I usually jump the most in the first go at it then the number decreases each jump thereafter. As for "dessert," I had a slice of coconut pie and a serving of Lindy's Strawberry flavored Italian Ice. Not bad in that department. I didn't have any junk on Tuesday. I have craved it of course, but then I eat an apple instead. Twenty-six more days to go.

Why jump rope? My son was learning how to do it to earn points for one of his Cub Scout activities. I, of course, was trying to teach him so I started jumping with him. But I hadn't jumped rope in ages. And I soon realized how physically exerting it is. I did less than 30 jumps that first time and my heart felt like bursting out of my chest. So here's the perfect exercise, that costs nothing because we already have ropes, that gets my heart rate up and I can do it whenever. And best part, it's fun!

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