Me & Christmas = Exercise (??)

Yep, I spent Christmas day exercising my leg muscles rather than my jaw muscles. Hubby was grand enough to buy me a heart rate monitor (yay!) and he surprised me with the Biggest Loser game for the Wii for Christmas. I hadn't played the Wii in ages! I initially purchased it to play the Wii Fit game but got bored after a few weeks and shoved it in the closet. We hadn't even unpacked it when we moved in August.

First thing, I went out to do my run with my new heart rate monitor. I ran 9 laps for just over 1 mile. Okay, that doesn't sound like much, but trust me it is! For me to be able to run an entire mile is a big, big deal. I didn't time myself but I did use my heart rate monitor to calculate the mileage and also I tracked my heart rate (obviously). When I was halfway through, I looked and saw that my heart rate was just over 100 BPM. This seemed low, so I sped up until I got a side cramp on lap 6. I slowed down a wee bit for the next two laps and then sped up again on the last lap. When I checked my heart rate, it was 189!

After that, I played the Wii BL game. It was basically a fairly intense (I chose intermediate level) workout with occasional comments from the trainer (I chose Jillian). I only did the one workout so I don't know if it is the same workout each time. They also have challenges you can do. But, no games I was sad to see.

You're supposed to be able to track your caloric intake as well, to help you stay on track to losing weight. However, they only give you options for small, medium or large meals with a set number of calories for each. That could put you off your total number by several hundred calories at the end of the day.

Since we had the Wii out, we played some Wii sports too. It was fun - it's been so long that it was almost like new again.

I made a simple dinner of roasted turkey, baked sweet potatoes and frozen veggies. Since we're so far from family now, we didn't have to go anywhere or have anyone over on Christmas day. It was a nice, relaxing, no pressure day.

In the aftermath of all the Christmas exercising, I've barely been able to walk up and down the stairs! I hobble like an old lady. So, I guess the BL workout and the run were good exercise. I'm bummed that I couldn't go for a jog today, but I was able to hobble around the track at a very slow walk just to get a LITTLE exercise and fresh air. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow!! I'm drinking tons of water, so I'd better be up to running again...