Day 22: My Lady Bits Are Tingly

Don't get too excited. This isn't an x-rated blog, even if my title and your brain want it to be.

Today, hubs and I started the little "Couch Potato to 5k" challenge. It's intended to be the healthy part of this no-TV adventure we're on. Here's the basic idea - you walk/run three times a week until you're a health nut. Or until your shins break. Whichever comes first. At the moment, I feel like I've achieved the shin-breaking part. The health nut part, I'm not so sure about. Though we did see a few of those odd abberations on our run/walk and I sort of envied/hated them.

If you haven't clicked right on over to the Couch Potato to 5k website already, eager to see what this exciting idea is all about, I'll give you a little more detail. In Week One (which is where we are), you walk 5 minutes to warm up, and then you jog for 1 minute, then you walk for 1 1/2 minutes, then you jog for a minute...then walk, and so forth, until you've run/walked for 20 minutes. The goal is to do this 3 times this week. Week two, the running times will get longer. Eventually, the goal is to run the whole time, 3 times a week. They should have you ready for a 5k in 9 weeks. Sounds good on paper- to ease the lungs and the body parts into the idea of running...to prepare your joints...etc...

But speaking of body parts, mine are still tingling. And when I say my lady bits, I mean all of them. I can feel my pulse everywhere - still - and we finished our exercise about a half hour ago. Not sure if this is normal or not, though my lungs feel fine and I haven't noticed any real pain. My breasts already hurt - it's the curse of the D-cup. D boobs aren't meant for running. They aren't really meant for any kind of exercise. Perhaps this is rooted in our primitive history - men with strong legs ran and hunted; women with weak legs and big boobs were waited on hand and foot. Sounds plausible. You don't have to hit me over the head with a club to know that sounds like a sweet deal.

Anyway, boobs got a workout. Shins got a work out. My spine feels like it got crushed down a little. Other than that, I feel great! Is this what a runner's high is??

Other than giving all my bits a jiggle, and feeling a little embarrassed as they did so, the past few days have been pretty busy. On Saturday, I volunteered at a local art/music/food festival. I sold tickets for beer, and waited impatiently for my shift to end so that I could drink some of it. Hubs joined me when my shift ended and we ate the food I'd been smelling and then drank the beer I'd been drooling over.

Vegans & Vegetarians, close your eyes and put your earmuffs on. This was my view from the beer tent...I watched these guys rub down the ribs and pork with spices, spray 2 liters of Pepsi on them, and then slather them in BBQ sauce. We ate them like nobody's business!

After eating, we walked around a little and then bought the caramel roasted almonds I'd been admiring the past 2 weeks (that are normally sold at the Farmer's market by the same vendor) for additional Father's Day gifts.

For Father's Day, hubs and I went our separate ways to visit our dads. My folks had a cookout, and because it was rainy and hot, we spent time indoors playing pool and poker. The TV was on, but I didn't really feel compelled to watch it. Golf was on - and I'm not much of a golf watcher. (I like the game, but watching it is a different experience!) Aside from that, interestingly, every time I looked over, commercials were on. Talk about a turn off.

Another thing I'd like to report in my continuing TV-free challenge is that I've lost 4 pounds! Yay! That's really exciting until I admit that I'm simply re-losing weight I'd already lost last summer. I was down 40, and then gained back about 15. So, my 4 pounds isn't much of an achievement in the overall scheme of things. But I can say that I'm attributing that to mostly being more active, to not sitting on the couch, as my food habits haven't changed much since I started my downward spiral. (Or, upward spiral, if we're talking about gaining pounds, which we are.)

I'll end this post with a happy update on my garden. I've got sprouts! My cucumbers and green beans are popping up like mad, and today I noticed sprouts in my cantaloupe and watermelon, too. (The only thing that hasn't done a thing are the carrots.) My tomato plants are taller and my green pepper plant and cherry tomato plants have flowers. Somehow, I still doubted, after all my hard work, that a little seed could turn into a plant. I know this is how it happens, but I still kept expecting disappointment. So many years of killing houseplants has obviously damaged me.

Excuse the blurriness, but it was starting to get dark outside when I took my garden pics. Here are my three little rows of green beans.



And here is 1 mound (of 3) of cucumbers. The sprouts seem to have gotten a little closer together than I remember spacing the seeds. I wonder if watering did that?