Meet Leslie

For the first time in years, I did not make a resolution this New Year's that had to do with losing weight.  I still do have some weight to lose (especially since I put about 7 pounds back on during the holidays, despite all my strategies for at least maintaining), but this year I have made exactly one resolution.  I won't share it here-- it involves my relationship with God, so it's kind of personal-- but anyway it doesn't involve changing my diet or exercise.

Still, I am plodding along on my project of slowly getting all the baby weight off.  Never mind that my baby is now over a year old.  I'll get there eventually.  It's a little slower this time around since I can't run three times a week like I used to.  My tendonosis won't let me run that often (not long runs), or soon I find I can't walk.  So twice a week I use a Leslie Sansone video to get my "run" workout in, and leave one long run for Saturdays.

Have you heard of Leslie?  My relationship with her began back in 2004.  I was trying to lose baby weight back then too but really things were going backwards in that department.  We had moved to Sanders, and despite a short term successful run with the Atkins diet, I had managed to work my way up to 180 pounds.  In Sanders some ladies from our tiny branch of the church were meeting together every morning to exercise and they invited me to join them.  They were using this Leslie Sansone 3 mile walking video:

I had used exercise videos sporadically before, but usually they frustrated me.  The leaders were irritating and I found it next to impossible to follow all the movements, and my endurance could never hold up longer than 10 or 15 minutes.  I found this video to be a breath of fresh air-- I could actually follow the movements and even when I couldn't, Leslie reminded the perfectionist in me that it was OK if I didn't do it exactly right as long as I was moving.  I also really enjoyed having a distance that I was finishing; for whatever reason, it felt like I was accomplishing more.

Over the years I have bought a lot of Leslie's videos.  (Back in the day they were VHS tapes.  Now I have DVD's.)  Fortunately, she has stuff for all kinds of fitness levels, starting at 1 mile workouts for beginners and going up to 5 miles (at least I don't think there are any longer ones yet).  Here's my current workout:

This one is definitely not for beginners (though if you're very advanced, like my sister Camie, it won't be intense enough-- but seriously, Camie can go out for a 15 mile run without thought, so she's not common).  It's pretty typical fare for Leslie, though it's unusual in that each of the miles are set up to be done independently of the others (which after a couple of weeks of trying it out, I've decided I like).  She's got her own quirks-- she talks A LOT and her laugh can grate-- but after years of working out to her stuff, that's all rather endearing, kind of like the mannerisms of a close friend can grow on you.  (Although I plead guilty to having said "Shut up, Leslie!" at the screen.  What can I say?  Sometimes when I'm exercising I'm irritable.)

Anyway, if you DO happen to have a weight loss or exercise related resolution this year, you may want to check out her stuff, especially if you are only at a beginning fitness level.  Start with one of the 1 mile videos or get a longer one and just do one mile of it.  I found these videos especially valuable with babies-- 15 minutes gets one mile in and I could usually find that small of a window of time. You just need to push the furniture aside and clear yourself some space in the living room.

Just a recommendation I thought I'd pass along.  Most of us are trying to find ways to add some exercise in and this was one of the ways that worked for me!