FBFF - Fitness and Fashion

Happy Friday everyone! I am ever so glad the weekend is upon us. It seems like this week dragged on forever. I attribute this to my lack of home phone or internet (which hopefully will be connected tonight) and the poopy weather. It's been wet and windy here all week. They actually closed off a large section of the road in front of my work to not only auto traffic but foot traffic too because the winds were so strong they were ripping sections of the buildings' exterior tiling off

Anyway, I'll just jump right in to this week's FBFF, which is all about physical fitness.

1. Do you keep some kind of fitness routine? Why?
I was trying to for a while, but to be honest, I don't work well scheduling in exercise. For one thing... I like sleeping, and so waking up earlier to get some exercise in just really does not appeal to me. And going out of my way to go to a gym, with the time it takes to get there, change, exercise, change, and go home... not my bag. Not to mention that my body isn't always capable of certain actions and I need to roll with that. I usually randomly throw in 50 jumping jacks or a few dozen squats or something before grabbing a shower in the evenings if I'm in the mood.

2. Has working out, maybe training for a marathon or something of that nature, helped with your own perception of body image?
Two years ago I was seeing a personal trainer at a gym. This is what it did to my body image: I felt like a giant fat cow. Maybe I just had a horrid personal trainer, but he told me I needed to lose a set amount of weight before I'd be healthy and I wound up injuring my back and getting depressed from the whole ordeal.

3. When you are hitting the gym or just going out for a long walk what do you wear? Is it about functionality or fashion? 
I am not a person who was pretty clothes in which to exercise. Back when I was going to the gym, I just wore sweatpants and an old band t-shirt. I mean, it's going to be getting all sweaty and gross anyway right? I do walk to work everyday (lucky me!) though and I like to dress in functional clothing that are at least slightly flattering. I had a bit of a hard time finding sweat pants that didn't make me feel frumpy or naked though (I have a thing about pants) and settled for a mix between sweat pants and harem pants. Then I just wear a nice tank top and off I go.

4. Do you feel there is a cultural perception of what you ‘should’ be doing for your own physical fitness?
I think people expect someone trying to get into shape to be going to the gym and doing all these crazy exercises and jogging and junk. I recently lost a lot of weight, but I didn't prescribe to any of the popular methods of such. I actually barely exercised (other than my regular walking) but instead changed my eating habits (not a diet, but a permanent change) and that was a far easier and safer (no back injuries from snacking on raspberries) way for me to lose weight. Today's culture seems obsessed with the fast and immediate way of getting into shape and that's just not one I buy into. 

5.  Dream big… what would be your ultimate fitness goal. 
I want to be stronger, more toned. I've achieved most of the weight loss I really feel I need for my body to be comfortable and healthy (I went from about 185lbs in the spring of 2008 to 135lbs now in 2011) but now I want to pay more attention to building muscle. I've always been a strong girl, doing manual labour growing up and in my teens, so my legs are very muscular as is but I want stronger arms too. I just want to reach a point where my body feels strong, healthy and capable. Luckily, I'm quite near that!

FIN.

In the word's of Porky Pig, "Th-th-that's all folks!" Cheers!