Top 10 Goals

As you know, this I don't make my New Year's Resolutions quite the way the time management gurus tell you to because I don't care if they are achievable.

That's right.  They don't have to be achievable.

Rather, I ask, "What are my top 10 goals for the year IF I AM GUARANTEED TO SUCCEED?"  It frees me up to work on things I might not otherwise do, like finding a pair skating partner.  Then I commit to taking one step toward one of those goals each week.

Generally, I take a lot of little steps towards several of the goals, especially since several of them revolve around skating.

So, here's what I did last week . . .

• Pass my Silver moves   (yes, this means passing bronze moves first).  I skated TWICE.  Andrew was there and gave me some extra help and by golly, it really felt like I was figure skating again. 

• Take a vacation with Carl. I forgot our anniversary.  It's not 'til next Saturday, so technically, I didn't forget it, but I did forget to take time off.  To make it up to him, we have planned a getaway for Valentine's Day.  It's not a full vacation, but it is one night by ourselves. 

• Have a baby.  When you screw up as badly as I did this week, working on this goal helps a lot to smooth things over.

•  Lose 30 pounds.  I committed to doing at least 10 minutes of exercise every day.  This week I added The Gift of Yoga, a gift given to me by our roommate.   

What are you doing to reach your Top 10 Goals? 

10 Minute Solution Carb Burner

I decided to commit to doing 10 minutes of cardio exercise every day (except Friday) to help me lose weight this year.  To keep things cheap and easy, I found 10 Minute Solution Carb Burner at Netflix in the instant downloads and have been using it this week.

Here's what's great about it:

• It's only 10 minutes long 
• It doesn't cost anything extra since it's Netflix, and I can use it any time since it's an instant download
• It has 4 different workouts to keep things from getting boring
• It's easy to follow.  The host teaches you the steps and then combines them into a circuit

Each workout is a little different.  The "slow-burn" is a low impact workout that's great for your "I'm too tired to workout days".

The kickboxing segment is great figure skating training.  It develops core strength, balance, and flexibility.  Add a figure skating twist to it and change some of those kicks into spirals or spins.

A beginners plyometric session will help you increase height on your jumps.  This was the workout that convinced me to try the video.

The intervals workout will help you increase your endurance for programs.

One session includes handweights to increase intensity and calorie burn.

My only real complaint is that by limiting the workouts to 10 minutes, the warm-ups and cool-downs leave a lot to be desired.  You will probably want to add your own exercises to do this well.

Happy New Year

I decided to start the year off by stopping my pouting about not being able to skate as much as I want.  I can still go to club ice, and I can still practice off-ice.  Prospero, the greyhound/jump training aid, was not nearly as pleased about this and rolled on his side after my third waltz jump over him.

In addition to my skating goals, I want to loose another 30 pounds this year, which is about what I lost last year.I accepted that the reason the reason I don't do my favorite workout, Tony Horton's Power 90, is because it's too long.  I don't want to do a 30 minute workout after being on my feet, climbing ladders, and lifting boxes of merchandise for 7 hours.

Instead, I've decided to do a minimum of 10 minutes of cardio a day.  Money is still an issue, so it has to be cheap.  Netflix Instant Downloads is GOLD!  10 Minute Solution Carb Burner was my choice this week.  There are 4 10 minute cardio workouts.  It's just enough to get the heart rate up and burn a few calories.