So I finally am taking a few minutes to jot down a thought or two. The past few weeks have been flying bye at an unbelievable rate. I can't believe it is March 15th today. I am determined to catch up on the days I missed writing if for no other reason than to prove to myself I can finish something I start. I'm really good at that...starting something and not finishing, but this time, I am determined to complete this writing adventure right along with the Challenge. I will keep posting them, until I am caught up. I took notes, and even have kept notes in my very fancy phone. I have an iPhone 4 that is much smarter than I am, but that is another story for another day, and it has a yellow note pad that I type on...pretty cool...! The end of this HCC adventure is in two weeks already, and I don't think I'm ready. My sister told me at the beginning that she looked forward to the day when I am working out not because I have to, but because I want to...well...here it is. I absolutely enjoy working out, and look forward to doing it. Sometimes I am leery of the workout it itself, but not of working out. I like the feel of the sweat pouring off my face into my neck, running down my arms into the crease in my wrists, and cleansing me of the stuff I have filled my body with for so long. I enjoy being able to bend to shave my legs and not feel like I'm going to barf on my feet. It's the little things....
Now, moving on, before I tell you about today's workout, I want to tell you about the two weigh in days that have passed. Three Thursday's ago I came off a very small loss of .4lbs, putting me at 209.4lbs. My team was in first place in percentage of weight lost, and we had that awful boot camp workout. I felt really bad because, hooray we were in first place, but no thanks to me. I was determined to do better, so the next Thursday after working really hard, I weighed in and had lost 3lbs. putting me at 206.4lbs. I was very happy, and strangely, my team mate that had dropped nearly 10lbs the previous week, only dropped 1.4lbs. We managed to stay in first place though, but not by much, I think by less than 1/2%. Too close for my liking for sure. So skipping ahead to last Thursday, I was ready for the scale, but had felt heavy all week. I was eating better, and in addition to my workouts, I was doing extra miles on the elliptical machine every day also. In fact I logged an extra 11.5 miles in cardio work, so I was expecting at least a pound or two. Nope...not even close. I gained .4lbs. The little scale gal told me that basically I maintained my weight this week, but for the life of me I don't understand how. My team mates did very well, both of the guys lost 5lbs each and the other gal lost 2.6lbs. We really surged ahead on the board, still in first place, only a little bit more comfortably. And I helped zero...zilch...nada...zippo...not even a little bit. I was at 206.8lbs. There had to be another reason for me to be struggling.
On Saturday, Ron, talked to me about my stress level, and the hormone Cortisol. He said that he can tell when I am stressed out the moment I get to the gym because I don't shine. He said that as long as my body is stressed, and the cortisol has my metabolism at a stand still, I wont lose weight. Ron told me that as hard as I work out with him, plus the extra cardio, it is impossible for me to not lose weight, even if I was eating 2000+ calories a day. So here is my homework from him, I am to go someplace quiet, alone, and meditate on just breathing in and out slowly for 5 to 10 minutes a day, releasing the stress to release the cortisol, and allow my body to work. Every day so far he has asked me if I have relaxed and I since I haven't, I of course told him I have. I have been able to sleep a little better though so I hope that is enough.
Last night at the oh so hard workout we had, Ron told me that Tuesday's workout would bust loose that cortisol, and help get things happening for me. I thought about it all day and figured that he was going to have us do yoga again, but no sir, he had a completely different thing in mind. Welcome to Heck (I gave up cussing for Lent)...also known as H.I.T.S. "600 REP WORKOUT"
There was a new guy there that handed us a piece of paper when we walked in. We were to do the warm up, then we were to start at a station and do 50 - 25 - whatever number of reps he had beside it, as fast as we could. NOW GO!!!
RIGHT! I wanted to go home, but off we toddled to start the warm up, it went like this:
1/2 mile jog - 3 times around the habitrail track
10 HINDU Walkouts - aka...Walk outs (wheelbarrows by yourself)
20 Lying leg rotations each leg - except we stood up and did it (why?)
15 Partner resist-a-band shoulder prep - I missed this as I was still on the track
Walking lunges across the gym - Groucho like
Then came the workout that we were reminded to do as fast as possible:
50 Prison Squats - hands on head, squats to a slow 3 count down and up
50 Pushups - I was on my knees
50 Heavy rope waves - big anchor ropes tied to the wall you pick up and shake up and down
50 Pike situps - V-ups bringing your arms and legs into a V then down
50 Squat presses - Weighted bar across shoulders - mine 20 lbs
50 Inverted barbell rows - 20 lb bar - also known as upright rows
25 Lo plank to HI plank & back down - starting in plank position (on forearms and toes) you go to your hands then back down to your arms - that counts as one - 25 each side
25 Side crunches with leg lift - each side - on hip-raising torso and legs at angle (wanna bet) I did crunches
50 Barbell bicep curls - 20 lb bar - green end - this is new
50 Front kicks -each leg - by the wall swing leg back and forth - where did this come from???
50 Plyometric jumps (box) or Up & Over -I stepped up and down because I have a sore knee
from Tae Bo
25 Kettle bell or DB lateral raises - with 10 lb weight (smallest kettle bell is 20lbs)
25 Elevated feet triceps press up - Dips in a bench with your feet on the ground
50 Heavy medicine ball slams - 25 each side - slam the ball, catch it, make a circle above your head and repeat
We then had to tell him when we were done - my time 32:44 minutes - then 4 laps jogging around the habitrail track - then when we got back to the gym, we did a 2 minute plank hold, arms and toes. It was brutal. Not kidding, I had a pool of sweat under me when I got done with the plank. When the last member of my team got back to the gym, we all got back down and did an additional 2 minute plank so he wouldn't have to do it alone. I know he appreciated it. All things considered, and even though I was bone tired, it was a great workout. I didn't stay to do the extra cardio today, but I'm alright about that. I ate my atta girl apple on the way home and drank a bottle of water.
Tomorrow is a regular workout with Ron at six, but there is a spin class a little earlier...maybe that's how I'll meditate and de-stress..hummmm...
Kelly
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Day 47 - February 28, 2011
So I want to tell you about this week, but first I have to tell you about the weekend.
We had a wonderful time in North Carolina, and Winthrop University is everything we are looking for in a college and then some. Maddie was quite excited and put this as her number one school. When we first left I was concerned about the idea of eating out every meal and not exercising. It turned out to be easier than I thought, and thank goodness for that. We did go to McDonald's before going to the campus visit, but I limited myself to a cheese burger. Not too bad - but I wanted to tackle the girls and eat all their fries, and I would most likely have eaten their fingers if they didn't let go of the fry box! I'm not saying I'm desperate, but.....well.....it has been awhile. I stayed on the safe side of the road and chose to eat at the Cracker Barrel twice. You can't really get too off track with that. We did get snacks at the rest areas but made sure it was as healthy as possible. I selected a trail mix of nuts, yogurt raisins, and dried fruit. Good choice...only not so much. One serving had 17 grams of fat, and the carbs were off the charts, not to mention that they made me thirsty, and we had just stopped at the rest area and there wouldn't be another for 90 miles. I practiced my elevator exercises!
I arrived home on Sunday afternoon but not in time to attend the HCC class. I thought I would have time to go for a short walk around the neighborhood, but I didn't. Monday was a regular workout in the man gym with Ron. I never thought I would say this, but I missed my workouts with my team. We did the usual circuit stuff for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I didn't really feel good about missing the workouts during the weekend, so I went up to the main gym and got on the elliptical machine for a short run, or I thought it would be short. I brought my earphones and turned on a college basketball game. I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL!! Next thing I know I have been on the machine for 45 minutes and have walk / jogged 3 miles! Three!!! MILES!!!! I was sweating to death so it was a good thing I kept my towel, and when I went to take a drink of water, I realized that someone had drank my water. It must have been Goldilocks because I sure as heck didn't remember drinking it. Is that crazy or what? I was tired when I was done, but not as tired as I thought I would be. I am going to make it part of my workout now to go to the machines after the regular workout, that is if Ron doesn't get that evil smile and wear us out. I really celebrated because on the ride home, I ate an apple and banana, AND drank another bottle of water. I was very proud of myself, and I sort of felt better about the Marines...but only sort of.
Ron said he had something "special" in mind for Tuesday....I can't wait....
Kelly
We had a wonderful time in North Carolina, and Winthrop University is everything we are looking for in a college and then some. Maddie was quite excited and put this as her number one school. When we first left I was concerned about the idea of eating out every meal and not exercising. It turned out to be easier than I thought, and thank goodness for that. We did go to McDonald's before going to the campus visit, but I limited myself to a cheese burger. Not too bad - but I wanted to tackle the girls and eat all their fries, and I would most likely have eaten their fingers if they didn't let go of the fry box! I'm not saying I'm desperate, but.....well.....it has been awhile. I stayed on the safe side of the road and chose to eat at the Cracker Barrel twice. You can't really get too off track with that. We did get snacks at the rest areas but made sure it was as healthy as possible. I selected a trail mix of nuts, yogurt raisins, and dried fruit. Good choice...only not so much. One serving had 17 grams of fat, and the carbs were off the charts, not to mention that they made me thirsty, and we had just stopped at the rest area and there wouldn't be another for 90 miles. I practiced my elevator exercises!
I arrived home on Sunday afternoon but not in time to attend the HCC class. I thought I would have time to go for a short walk around the neighborhood, but I didn't. Monday was a regular workout in the man gym with Ron. I never thought I would say this, but I missed my workouts with my team. We did the usual circuit stuff for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I didn't really feel good about missing the workouts during the weekend, so I went up to the main gym and got on the elliptical machine for a short run, or I thought it would be short. I brought my earphones and turned on a college basketball game. I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL!! Next thing I know I have been on the machine for 45 minutes and have walk / jogged 3 miles! Three!!! MILES!!!! I was sweating to death so it was a good thing I kept my towel, and when I went to take a drink of water, I realized that someone had drank my water. It must have been Goldilocks because I sure as heck didn't remember drinking it. Is that crazy or what? I was tired when I was done, but not as tired as I thought I would be. I am going to make it part of my workout now to go to the machines after the regular workout, that is if Ron doesn't get that evil smile and wear us out. I really celebrated because on the ride home, I ate an apple and banana, AND drank another bottle of water. I was very proud of myself, and I sort of felt better about the Marines...but only sort of.
Ron said he had something "special" in mind for Tuesday....I can't wait....
Kelly
Monday, March 7, 2011
Days 43 - 46 - February 24 - 27, 2011
So I mentioned earlier that I was having a very difficult week, one of the most challenging so far, and I wasn't kidding.
I have been struggling with my eating this week. I think I am in a rut about my food choices, and I find myself slipping back into the habit of not eating at all. I went to fill out my food log, and I find that I have large gaps between meals. I am supposed to be eating three meals a day plus snacks, and I have had a couple of days that it seems like I only had snacks, for every meal. Today I had the following for lunch: 2 pre-packaged cups of Sugar Free Jello, 1 container of Greek yogurt, 5 Ritz crackers w/ 1 wedge of Laughing Cow cheese....and water. That's it. I had every intention of adding a good protein source, like a sandwich, but I just didn't see anything I wanted in the cupboards. I know I need to do better, especially since I haven't turned in my food logs like I am supposed to, and will really do better next week.
Today is weigh in day. I weighed myself on the Wii before I got dressed, and it said I was down 2.6 pounds, however, when I went to weigh in, it was quite different. I always make sure I am wearing the same clothes when I weigh in so that each week it is consistant. This week we were meeting in the main gym next to the cardio room. The idea is that instead of having a meeting after weigh in, we were going to work out, first with "Joe D Bands", my trainer Ron leading it, then with the Marines, doing a "Boot Camp". The scales were set up in the corners so I found my scale and found that aI had lost only .4 lbs. Not even quite a half pound. I was crushed because I thought I had been working out really hard, and the "reward" is the pounds lost. My heart fell into my feet. I found my team and they were all celebrating because of their weight loss, one guy lost 9.8 lbs, the other guy 6.4, The other gal lost 5, and I lost 0.4. Whoopty doo....! They all said the right things about inches, and the "well, you are still losing, so I should feel better", and the changes are on the inside, blah, blah, blah...but I don't feel better. I feel like a failure.
Our team has gone through some changes this week also. The program director has kicked the other two gals off the team because they never show up and haven't been part of the program. One of the gals was sick and ended up with Vertigo. She wrote an e-mail saying that she was going to do the program in September instead of right now...then she said she was going to fix the Vertigo by having her crystals realigned.....alright......And the other gal was just kicked off. Because of this, the numbers and percentages for our team changed dramatically and we went from 5th place to 1st place! First place should make me really happy..right? I am happy, but I just don't feel like I had a lot to do with it. I know that there is no "I" in team...but there is one in ice cream, and that is what I want right now!
All week Ron has been telling us that the workout with the Marines won't be bad, that it will most likely be the easiest workout we've had. So I go into today thinking that it is going to be easy, and I don't know, maybe...fun! Janice, the director, divided us into two groups. Our team went to the Joe "D" Bands side first. This is a snap since I've done it before. I get a fairly good workout, and am feeling tired after the first 30 minutes. TWEEEETTT! Janice blew a whistle and we switched sides, now going to the Marines, which I was still looking kinda forward to, right? Wrong, wrong, WRONG! In the first 10 seconds we were getting screamed at to "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE....GET OVER AND HANDS ON THE WALL....YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS"......that was the beginning of the longest 15 minutes of my life. I was screamed at for not responding "YES SIR", each time we were given an order, yelled at for not doing things fast enough, and for being slow. I was told that the reason we had to do 10 pushups was because one of the heavier women couldn't follow directions. I watched grown up men and women fall on their shoulders, and face trying to "Bear Walk" (this is on your hands and feet, rump in the air) crab walk, (this is on your hands and feet, tummy in the air ), and for not doing push ups fast enough. It was the most awful experience I have ever been a part of.
Remember when this challenge began, I said no excuses, that I would do what I was asked to my very best ability? I couldn't stay in the gym with the Marines. I went out to the hallway to catch my breath, and push down the aggrivation I felt, and there were two women standing out there in the hallway. One lady said to me, "Don't worry, I would "duck out" if I was in there too", and I told her that I was just catching my breath. She made me mad, because she was an outsider commenting on the situation, and because she was right! I thought to myself that I never walked out of a program yet, so I went back in the gym, ran to catch up, and listened to the men yell at another few people. I made it another few minutes, and I had to leave. Only this time I wasn't alone. One of the older gals left too, and she was crying because she had fallen and felt bad for making everyone else work harder. I dried off my face, this time it was a mix of sweat and tears, and went into the main gym. It is next to the gym where the Marines were so I could still hear what was going on. I got on the treadmill and jogged a mile in 13 minutes, long enough for the boot camp part of the workout to be over. When the yelling stopped, I went back into the gym, but I felt so heavy in my heart. Even when they announced that the Joe "D" Bands team was in first place, I didn't feel like celebrating. One of the mentors came over to talk to me, but I just wanted to leave, so I told her I wouldn't be to the workouts for the weekend since we were going to Winthrop University and North Carolina. She was very concerned about me, but I just couldn't talk, so I left. I cried most of the way home. I was sad for the weigh in, the work out, the people that fell and were made to feel stupid, and mad at myself for quitting. I take responsibility for my actions, and maybe the water aerobics and the yoga class weren't enough of a workout for me. Maybe I just wasn't as careful about what I ate, or how often, and failed on my own accord.
That was an experiance I hope never to do again. I talked to the other gal on my team on Friday, and she said she felt the same way. The only reason she didn't leave when I did, was because she was afraid that the rest of the HCC group would be punished. I didn't ask if that is what happened when I left. I don't care. Next week will be better, but I am concerned about eating out and not exercising while I am gone. I will have to just do my best.
The next work out for me will be on Monday. Wish me luck!
Kelly
I have been struggling with my eating this week. I think I am in a rut about my food choices, and I find myself slipping back into the habit of not eating at all. I went to fill out my food log, and I find that I have large gaps between meals. I am supposed to be eating three meals a day plus snacks, and I have had a couple of days that it seems like I only had snacks, for every meal. Today I had the following for lunch: 2 pre-packaged cups of Sugar Free Jello, 1 container of Greek yogurt, 5 Ritz crackers w/ 1 wedge of Laughing Cow cheese....and water. That's it. I had every intention of adding a good protein source, like a sandwich, but I just didn't see anything I wanted in the cupboards. I know I need to do better, especially since I haven't turned in my food logs like I am supposed to, and will really do better next week.
Today is weigh in day. I weighed myself on the Wii before I got dressed, and it said I was down 2.6 pounds, however, when I went to weigh in, it was quite different. I always make sure I am wearing the same clothes when I weigh in so that each week it is consistant. This week we were meeting in the main gym next to the cardio room. The idea is that instead of having a meeting after weigh in, we were going to work out, first with "Joe D Bands", my trainer Ron leading it, then with the Marines, doing a "Boot Camp". The scales were set up in the corners so I found my scale and found that aI had lost only .4 lbs. Not even quite a half pound. I was crushed because I thought I had been working out really hard, and the "reward" is the pounds lost. My heart fell into my feet. I found my team and they were all celebrating because of their weight loss, one guy lost 9.8 lbs, the other guy 6.4, The other gal lost 5, and I lost 0.4. Whoopty doo....! They all said the right things about inches, and the "well, you are still losing, so I should feel better", and the changes are on the inside, blah, blah, blah...but I don't feel better. I feel like a failure.
Our team has gone through some changes this week also. The program director has kicked the other two gals off the team because they never show up and haven't been part of the program. One of the gals was sick and ended up with Vertigo. She wrote an e-mail saying that she was going to do the program in September instead of right now...then she said she was going to fix the Vertigo by having her crystals realigned.....alright......And the other gal was just kicked off. Because of this, the numbers and percentages for our team changed dramatically and we went from 5th place to 1st place! First place should make me really happy..right? I am happy, but I just don't feel like I had a lot to do with it. I know that there is no "I" in team...but there is one in ice cream, and that is what I want right now!
All week Ron has been telling us that the workout with the Marines won't be bad, that it will most likely be the easiest workout we've had. So I go into today thinking that it is going to be easy, and I don't know, maybe...fun! Janice, the director, divided us into two groups. Our team went to the Joe "D" Bands side first. This is a snap since I've done it before. I get a fairly good workout, and am feeling tired after the first 30 minutes. TWEEEETTT! Janice blew a whistle and we switched sides, now going to the Marines, which I was still looking kinda forward to, right? Wrong, wrong, WRONG! In the first 10 seconds we were getting screamed at to "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE....GET OVER AND HANDS ON THE WALL....YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS"......that was the beginning of the longest 15 minutes of my life. I was screamed at for not responding "YES SIR", each time we were given an order, yelled at for not doing things fast enough, and for being slow. I was told that the reason we had to do 10 pushups was because one of the heavier women couldn't follow directions. I watched grown up men and women fall on their shoulders, and face trying to "Bear Walk" (this is on your hands and feet, rump in the air) crab walk, (this is on your hands and feet, tummy in the air ), and for not doing push ups fast enough. It was the most awful experience I have ever been a part of.
Remember when this challenge began, I said no excuses, that I would do what I was asked to my very best ability? I couldn't stay in the gym with the Marines. I went out to the hallway to catch my breath, and push down the aggrivation I felt, and there were two women standing out there in the hallway. One lady said to me, "Don't worry, I would "duck out" if I was in there too", and I told her that I was just catching my breath. She made me mad, because she was an outsider commenting on the situation, and because she was right! I thought to myself that I never walked out of a program yet, so I went back in the gym, ran to catch up, and listened to the men yell at another few people. I made it another few minutes, and I had to leave. Only this time I wasn't alone. One of the older gals left too, and she was crying because she had fallen and felt bad for making everyone else work harder. I dried off my face, this time it was a mix of sweat and tears, and went into the main gym. It is next to the gym where the Marines were so I could still hear what was going on. I got on the treadmill and jogged a mile in 13 minutes, long enough for the boot camp part of the workout to be over. When the yelling stopped, I went back into the gym, but I felt so heavy in my heart. Even when they announced that the Joe "D" Bands team was in first place, I didn't feel like celebrating. One of the mentors came over to talk to me, but I just wanted to leave, so I told her I wouldn't be to the workouts for the weekend since we were going to Winthrop University and North Carolina. She was very concerned about me, but I just couldn't talk, so I left. I cried most of the way home. I was sad for the weigh in, the work out, the people that fell and were made to feel stupid, and mad at myself for quitting. I take responsibility for my actions, and maybe the water aerobics and the yoga class weren't enough of a workout for me. Maybe I just wasn't as careful about what I ate, or how often, and failed on my own accord.
That was an experiance I hope never to do again. I talked to the other gal on my team on Friday, and she said she felt the same way. The only reason she didn't leave when I did, was because she was afraid that the rest of the HCC group would be punished. I didn't ask if that is what happened when I left. I don't care. Next week will be better, but I am concerned about eating out and not exercising while I am gone. I will have to just do my best.
The next work out for me will be on Monday. Wish me luck!
Kelly
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Days 39 - 42 - February 20 - 23, 2011
Well...this adventure I am on got a lot busier than I expected. I know that I have let an entire week go by without posting anything, and it is time to get that fixed.
This week has been the hardest for me so far. Not only because of the regular home life stuff, and the HCC, but also emotionally I have been taking a beating. I'm not going to talk about everything we did each day, but just hit a few of the highlights. At this stage of the game the workouts are becoming routine, and predictable, and while I still feel pushed to and past my limits at times, it would be nice to try something new. Apparently the HCC head honchos thought so also, because the workout for Sunday was Yoga & Pilate's!
I managed to leave the house late so I got to the class about 10 minutes after they started. I looked around to get a feel for what was going on, and I noticed that everyone had a mat, and their shoes off. The other three regulars from my team were there so I grabbed a mat and settled into what I understand was the child pose. Now, I have taken Yoga in the past, and that juvenile side of me usually takes over, but not this time. The instructor had a very soothing manner and voice, and no matter how awkward the pose was, she made you feel good about it. At one point we had our hands above our heads, with the fingers spread wide, and we were to feel the energy shooting out of the tips of our fingers....I know I felt something, but I don't know that I felt the energy shooting anywhere. We did a number of poses, and in all honesty, I felt quite emotional during the class. The last thing we did was the "corpse" pose. Laying flat on the ground relaxing then curling up into the infant pose, where we were to tell ourselves how very loved we were, and embrace ourselves. I did really well until one of my team guys started to giggle, and then he got a kick from his fiance', so neither one of us laughed. I didn't want to get kicked either. It was a good class, but I sure didn't feel like it was much of a workout.
Monday was regular. The workout was intense, using dumbbells and the circuit, but still I powered through and did an alright job. Because of the way I perspire - Ha...that's just too funny to me...The way I SWEAT, is usually a good indicator of the intensity of the workout, and I was pretty soggy by the time it was done. I thought about the treadmill, but decided to come home instead and I talked myself out of it pretty easy, so that should have been a clue as to what I was thinking. Ron said he wanted us to do the 5:30 water aerobics class on Tuesday to shake things up.
Tuesday - water aerobics.....It was the first time I had my swimming suit on in awhile. I noticed that it fit much better than it had in the summer, so hooray for me. I was on my way to the pool when I discovered that my cat (Stella) had chewed on the decorative strings and chewed one almost in half. I tried tying it in a bow, but it broke off. I didn't have anywhere to put it, so I stuffed it down the front of my suit, which was great until it floated away half way through the class. I tried to pretend like it wasn't the same pattern as my suit, and ignore it, but some of the others knew.....The class was great. My other girl team member and I were the only ones to show up, but we worked hard, and felt that it was a successful class. I did real good until I tried getting out of the pool. I had been bouncing on my toes in the pool and that caused a problem with my calf muscles. When I was halfway out of the water, my calves cramped up and made my toes curl around the rung of the ladder, like a birds feet. I couldn't go up or down, so I just hung on the ladder and tried to look natural, while unhooking my toes. I finally decided to just go for it, and I got off the ladder. Once My feet were flat on the concrete the calf cramps went away pretty quickly. Man, that was awful, not to mention painful!
Wednesday was confusing. Ron and the Mentor - trainer had a miscommunication as to who was training us that day, so after standing around the man gym for 20 minutes trainer-less, we ( two of my teammates and myself) decided to go to the cardio room and get on the machines. After ten minutes on the treadmill, the mentor came and got us, and took us back to the man gym. We did the usual circuit, but this time we added bar work, and I did move up to the yellow bar that is 15lbs, from the blue 10 pounder I had been using. You really wouldn't think that 5lbs would make a difference, but it did, and I felt it. At the end of the 60 minutes, we did some "dog work" as Ron calls it, which is where you get on your hands and knees, raising and lowering your leg like you are peeing. We mule kicked, and side leg lifted and did circles (both to the front and reverse), until I finally called UNCLE because my butt cheeks were on fire! Ron just smiled his evil smile....
I felt like I worked out strong this week, and I know that I was doing pretty well on my food, but I still didn't feel as fatigued as I have in the past. I appreciated the change of pace, but I was concerned about the Thursday weigh in, and It was really bothering me. I guess time will tell.
Tomorrow is the weigh in. We are not having a regular meeting as we are, as a group, doing a workout with Ron - Joe D bands, and the Marines boot camp. I have been curious about the boot camp, so I am looking forward to it, and I have done the bands class so I feel confident doing that.
Anyway, until tomorrow.
Kelly
This week has been the hardest for me so far. Not only because of the regular home life stuff, and the HCC, but also emotionally I have been taking a beating. I'm not going to talk about everything we did each day, but just hit a few of the highlights. At this stage of the game the workouts are becoming routine, and predictable, and while I still feel pushed to and past my limits at times, it would be nice to try something new. Apparently the HCC head honchos thought so also, because the workout for Sunday was Yoga & Pilate's!
I managed to leave the house late so I got to the class about 10 minutes after they started. I looked around to get a feel for what was going on, and I noticed that everyone had a mat, and their shoes off. The other three regulars from my team were there so I grabbed a mat and settled into what I understand was the child pose. Now, I have taken Yoga in the past, and that juvenile side of me usually takes over, but not this time. The instructor had a very soothing manner and voice, and no matter how awkward the pose was, she made you feel good about it. At one point we had our hands above our heads, with the fingers spread wide, and we were to feel the energy shooting out of the tips of our fingers....I know I felt something, but I don't know that I felt the energy shooting anywhere. We did a number of poses, and in all honesty, I felt quite emotional during the class. The last thing we did was the "corpse" pose. Laying flat on the ground relaxing then curling up into the infant pose, where we were to tell ourselves how very loved we were, and embrace ourselves. I did really well until one of my team guys started to giggle, and then he got a kick from his fiance', so neither one of us laughed. I didn't want to get kicked either. It was a good class, but I sure didn't feel like it was much of a workout.
Monday was regular. The workout was intense, using dumbbells and the circuit, but still I powered through and did an alright job. Because of the way I perspire - Ha...that's just too funny to me...The way I SWEAT, is usually a good indicator of the intensity of the workout, and I was pretty soggy by the time it was done. I thought about the treadmill, but decided to come home instead and I talked myself out of it pretty easy, so that should have been a clue as to what I was thinking. Ron said he wanted us to do the 5:30 water aerobics class on Tuesday to shake things up.
Tuesday - water aerobics.....It was the first time I had my swimming suit on in awhile. I noticed that it fit much better than it had in the summer, so hooray for me. I was on my way to the pool when I discovered that my cat (Stella) had chewed on the decorative strings and chewed one almost in half. I tried tying it in a bow, but it broke off. I didn't have anywhere to put it, so I stuffed it down the front of my suit, which was great until it floated away half way through the class. I tried to pretend like it wasn't the same pattern as my suit, and ignore it, but some of the others knew.....The class was great. My other girl team member and I were the only ones to show up, but we worked hard, and felt that it was a successful class. I did real good until I tried getting out of the pool. I had been bouncing on my toes in the pool and that caused a problem with my calf muscles. When I was halfway out of the water, my calves cramped up and made my toes curl around the rung of the ladder, like a birds feet. I couldn't go up or down, so I just hung on the ladder and tried to look natural, while unhooking my toes. I finally decided to just go for it, and I got off the ladder. Once My feet were flat on the concrete the calf cramps went away pretty quickly. Man, that was awful, not to mention painful!
Wednesday was confusing. Ron and the Mentor - trainer had a miscommunication as to who was training us that day, so after standing around the man gym for 20 minutes trainer-less, we ( two of my teammates and myself) decided to go to the cardio room and get on the machines. After ten minutes on the treadmill, the mentor came and got us, and took us back to the man gym. We did the usual circuit, but this time we added bar work, and I did move up to the yellow bar that is 15lbs, from the blue 10 pounder I had been using. You really wouldn't think that 5lbs would make a difference, but it did, and I felt it. At the end of the 60 minutes, we did some "dog work" as Ron calls it, which is where you get on your hands and knees, raising and lowering your leg like you are peeing. We mule kicked, and side leg lifted and did circles (both to the front and reverse), until I finally called UNCLE because my butt cheeks were on fire! Ron just smiled his evil smile....
I felt like I worked out strong this week, and I know that I was doing pretty well on my food, but I still didn't feel as fatigued as I have in the past. I appreciated the change of pace, but I was concerned about the Thursday weigh in, and It was really bothering me. I guess time will tell.
Tomorrow is the weigh in. We are not having a regular meeting as we are, as a group, doing a workout with Ron - Joe D bands, and the Marines boot camp. I have been curious about the boot camp, so I am looking forward to it, and I have done the bands class so I feel confident doing that.
Anyway, until tomorrow.
Kelly
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Day 37 & 38 - February February 18 - 19, 2011
I have to tell you, I am very happy with my weight loss this week, and pretty motivated to keep up the work. Naturally I wanted to go home and celebrate the accomplishment by eating everything in sight, but I resisted, and had a regular meal instead.
After the meeting I had the opportunity to talk to the Mentor that had spoken to us last week. She is a lovely young woman that is about half way to her ideal weight. Not to mention that she is a pastry chef, and has temptation in front of her everyday, a job I know I would seriously struggle with. I asked her if she is at the point of not wanting the food she creates, and she said "Heck no", that she loves the things she cooks, and has to make the conscience effort not to taste, smell, and sample what she bakes. During her presentation she spoke about not being able to run at all when she started, and how she now has completed a number of 5K runs. My teammate asked her how she got to the point where she like running, and could run 3 + miles without stopping. Her answer was that she doesn't enjoy running at all, but she knew that she couldn't stop pushing herself when her journey was over, so she just adopted the running / jogging / walking into her daily routine. Whatever she is doing is working because she is the # 1 woman loser on the mentor board. She was so honest and real to me. I could relate to the struggles she shared, because I remember being in my 20's and feeling pressured to be thin, even then more than now that I'm in my late 30's.....Oh, alright, I'll admit it, my late 40's...
I appreciate her courage to get up in front of us and share her story.
On Friday the work out was at 6:00 in the man gym. It is sort of fun being an observer at times, just looking around at the people in the gym, especially the man gym. There are all makes and models of people there, the majority of them males, and the occasional giant bodybuilder. There are very few people that look like me, and at first I was real intimidated being there, but not anymore. It is more comfortable and I don't feel like such an outsider. By no stretch of the imagination would I begin to think I belonged there, but I see familiar faces, and we do that head nod thing...like "hey, how's it going?"..."fine, just fine, & you?". I don't consider them my homies or anything, but it is getting more comfortable.
The work out was pretty similar to the circuits we have been doing. Ron had us doing the workout with dumbbells again, and he was doing some new core strengthening exercises. At one point he had us balancing on one foot, like a flamingo, for a slow count of 20. Then we had to swing our foot back and forth, and do circles and kick backs, all while balancing on one foot. Guess what? I really stink at that game. I have no balance at all. I was all over the place, and at one point I grabbed my team mate just to steady myself. Ron told us to find a spot on the floor and focus on it to steady ourselves, I asked if that was the place we should aim for when we fell down, because I was fairly sure it would be the domino effect. He wasn't amused, however he did let me put one finger on the wall to steady myself. I don't know how my core was, but I had a bad case of the flaming butt cheeks, and it was all I could do not to complain. The work out lasted about 45 minutes and was actually pretty good since Ron is stepping up the ab work as well. When I finally went home I was ready for a hot shower, a snack, and bed.
Saturday we went to the man gym and did some warm up exercises before really hitting it hard with a circuit focusing on our legs. We did the usual squats, lunges, burpies, jump squats, leg extensions, and leg presses, then we added some bars, and then abs. It was a good day until Ron did that evil smile and told us we were going on a field trip. Oh boy! I thought we might do the tractor tires again, but nope...we went to the parking garage across the street. All eight stories of it. We were instructed to do the stairs, up and down as fast as we could, so off we went. I don't know if I mentioned that I have been having trouble with my right knee, but it had gotten quite sore lately, especially when I do the lunges. It feels like it needs to pop, and then it would loosen up, but I'm pretty sure a pop would be a bad thing. Anyway...we started the stairs, and I tried very hard to go fast, but I just found myself hurrying...not sprinting, just going faster than usual. It was great to reach the top deck, and the going down went well too. The next instruction was for us to do squats on each landing, both going up and coming down. That was difficult. I was really fatigued by the time I got down and I found myself dragging my right foot. The next instruction was to sprint to the top and back down. Man...I wasn't real sure I could make it. I didn't sprint, but I walked fastish...kind of like I was walking into the wind, head down, mustering on. At the bottom of the stairs, Ron gave us a quick water break, then told us to lunge across the parking garage, and run back, then we would be done....alright....I knew I could lunge slowly, but the run back was going to be the tricky part. I knew that I didn't want to be last so I put on my big girl panties, and took off. I am happy to say that my knee popped about half way across the garage, and it made it possible for me to go a faster, and the jog back wasn't too bad either. We started back to the gym to get our stuff since we were done, and had to pass right by two snack machines...how mean! Not to mention that my car was about 50 feet from the parking garage...man...that figures!
I ate an apple AND banana on my way home. I know I deserved it! The Sunday HCC work out is Yoga / Pilates at 2:30....I think I better lay off the fiber for the rest of the day.....
Kelly
After the meeting I had the opportunity to talk to the Mentor that had spoken to us last week. She is a lovely young woman that is about half way to her ideal weight. Not to mention that she is a pastry chef, and has temptation in front of her everyday, a job I know I would seriously struggle with. I asked her if she is at the point of not wanting the food she creates, and she said "Heck no", that she loves the things she cooks, and has to make the conscience effort not to taste, smell, and sample what she bakes. During her presentation she spoke about not being able to run at all when she started, and how she now has completed a number of 5K runs. My teammate asked her how she got to the point where she like running, and could run 3 + miles without stopping. Her answer was that she doesn't enjoy running at all, but she knew that she couldn't stop pushing herself when her journey was over, so she just adopted the running / jogging / walking into her daily routine. Whatever she is doing is working because she is the # 1 woman loser on the mentor board. She was so honest and real to me. I could relate to the struggles she shared, because I remember being in my 20's and feeling pressured to be thin, even then more than now that I'm in my late 30's.....Oh, alright, I'll admit it, my late 40's...
I appreciate her courage to get up in front of us and share her story.
On Friday the work out was at 6:00 in the man gym. It is sort of fun being an observer at times, just looking around at the people in the gym, especially the man gym. There are all makes and models of people there, the majority of them males, and the occasional giant bodybuilder. There are very few people that look like me, and at first I was real intimidated being there, but not anymore. It is more comfortable and I don't feel like such an outsider. By no stretch of the imagination would I begin to think I belonged there, but I see familiar faces, and we do that head nod thing...like "hey, how's it going?"..."fine, just fine, & you?". I don't consider them my homies or anything, but it is getting more comfortable.
The work out was pretty similar to the circuits we have been doing. Ron had us doing the workout with dumbbells again, and he was doing some new core strengthening exercises. At one point he had us balancing on one foot, like a flamingo, for a slow count of 20. Then we had to swing our foot back and forth, and do circles and kick backs, all while balancing on one foot. Guess what? I really stink at that game. I have no balance at all. I was all over the place, and at one point I grabbed my team mate just to steady myself. Ron told us to find a spot on the floor and focus on it to steady ourselves, I asked if that was the place we should aim for when we fell down, because I was fairly sure it would be the domino effect. He wasn't amused, however he did let me put one finger on the wall to steady myself. I don't know how my core was, but I had a bad case of the flaming butt cheeks, and it was all I could do not to complain. The work out lasted about 45 minutes and was actually pretty good since Ron is stepping up the ab work as well. When I finally went home I was ready for a hot shower, a snack, and bed.
Saturday we went to the man gym and did some warm up exercises before really hitting it hard with a circuit focusing on our legs. We did the usual squats, lunges, burpies, jump squats, leg extensions, and leg presses, then we added some bars, and then abs. It was a good day until Ron did that evil smile and told us we were going on a field trip. Oh boy! I thought we might do the tractor tires again, but nope...we went to the parking garage across the street. All eight stories of it. We were instructed to do the stairs, up and down as fast as we could, so off we went. I don't know if I mentioned that I have been having trouble with my right knee, but it had gotten quite sore lately, especially when I do the lunges. It feels like it needs to pop, and then it would loosen up, but I'm pretty sure a pop would be a bad thing. Anyway...we started the stairs, and I tried very hard to go fast, but I just found myself hurrying...not sprinting, just going faster than usual. It was great to reach the top deck, and the going down went well too. The next instruction was for us to do squats on each landing, both going up and coming down. That was difficult. I was really fatigued by the time I got down and I found myself dragging my right foot. The next instruction was to sprint to the top and back down. Man...I wasn't real sure I could make it. I didn't sprint, but I walked fastish...kind of like I was walking into the wind, head down, mustering on. At the bottom of the stairs, Ron gave us a quick water break, then told us to lunge across the parking garage, and run back, then we would be done....alright....I knew I could lunge slowly, but the run back was going to be the tricky part. I knew that I didn't want to be last so I put on my big girl panties, and took off. I am happy to say that my knee popped about half way across the garage, and it made it possible for me to go a faster, and the jog back wasn't too bad either. We started back to the gym to get our stuff since we were done, and had to pass right by two snack machines...how mean! Not to mention that my car was about 50 feet from the parking garage...man...that figures!
I ate an apple AND banana on my way home. I know I deserved it! The Sunday HCC work out is Yoga / Pilates at 2:30....I think I better lay off the fiber for the rest of the day.....
Kelly
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Day 35 & 36 - February 16-17, 2011
I decided that I have fallen too far behind in my postings, so I am going to do a couple of days together.
This week I have been really careful about what I eat, and I make sure to write it down in my book, that way I can track my eating patterns. I wish sometimes that I would track my emotional eating as well. I know that I have reached for food out of boredom, sympathy, and anger, but also just because it is sunny, cloudy, Wednesday....whatever excuse I can come up with. It doesn't take much sometimes for me to pitter pat my way into the kitchen to graze through the cupboards. The good news is that we don't have a lot of food that is bad for us any longer, so a snack usually ends up being cereal of some sort, usually dry. The bad news is that I am not too ashamed to admit that I will eat brown sugar right out of the bag. If I REALLY try hard, I can find the little hard bits in the sugar, that take awhile to melt in the mouth. If I have a quarter in my pocket while at work, I have very little resistance to the "gumball" machines in the back part of the store. Naturally my machines are filled with some of my favorite things like, Hot Tamales, Runts, Sweet Tarts, and M & M Peanut candies! They are quite generous with the amount you get too, usually a nice handful. My problem with sweets in general is that I can't just eat one of anything. I really love Red Hots and will eat them until the flesh is hanging off the inside of my mouth. I also REALLY love Sour Patch Kids...yummmmm.....but there again, I have to have the entire bag of them, not just a few. This has been a very difficult thing for me to overcome, and everyday is a choice. I am hoping that at some point I can enjoy a few of my favorite things, but for now...there is no way.
Wednesday the workout was extremely challenging. Two of my teammates, and two mentors were there so we got some equipment and went to the crows nest in the Wellness Center. We each picked up a bar and I made sure to grab a blue one, since I have graduated from the pink one since it was too light, and the yellow one is still too heavy. The truth is that I should move up in weight on the bar because things are becoming easy, and I plan to do just that...next week....for sure....probably. We did the usual squats, lunges, chest press, triceps extensions, and a few others using the bar. It was a good work out, but then the Mentor-trainer said we were going to the stairs...man...not the stairs...I really don't like the stairs. Where in the world is the praying lady when you need her? We went to the habitrail track, and the instruction was to do a flight of stairs, up & down, 20 high knees in place, then go to the track and do lunges on each end, walking the straight stretches. Huh? Did we do something wrong maybe to make Ron mad? Of course not, but we had to really push ourselves, so we got started. It was brutal, and the sweat was pouring off me in no time. I had to hold on to the wall a few times just to keep from falling over. We did one lap of front lunges, then the stairs, knees, then BACKWARD lunges, then stairs, knees, and side lunges. There were a couple of times we stopped to shake out our legs and hips, because they got to burning so bad. Next we had to do stairs, then a skater move, you use an ice skating motion, kicking your heel back and swinging your arms, side to side, then jog the track one lap, then start over! GAAAA!!!!!!!! Horrible!!!! We did this three times! It took nearly an hour and half to do this work out, and when we were done, it was all I could do to walk. Driving home I was really glad that I was able to complete the work out. Yeah me!
Thursday I was home with Landree so she and I went on a walk around the 3 1/2 mile loop. It was real nice out, and about half way through the walk she fell asleep. As much as I enjoy the gym, it was so nice to be out breathing the air, and enjoying the day. Today was my weigh in, and I felt like I did alright, but still I was unsure. Well, it was a good week and I lost 3 lbs!!! That makes a total of 14 lbs, and I weighed 209.8 today. I am so glad that I did well this week since I tried so hard. My team mates did well also, the guys lost 4.4 & 4 lbs, and the other gal lost 3 lbs also. The two other ladies didn't show up, again. Our team is back in 5th place, but what is frustrating is that the guys are #'s 1 and 2 in weight loss for the men, and the gal is # 4 for the women. We should be higher in the ranks then we are, but we get marked down when the others don't come. Ron came in to see how we did and was pretty pleased. He high fived us, and said he was going to push us harder this next week. Then he did that evil smile. Scary. As a group we have lost nearly 1000 lbs! How crazy is that???
All in all I am very pleased. My clothes are loose, and I can tell that my chins are fewer. I still don't like being in pictures, but soon, maybe, sometime...now I'm stressed out...where's my brown sugar....
Workout tomorrow at 6:00...hooray!
Kelly
This week I have been really careful about what I eat, and I make sure to write it down in my book, that way I can track my eating patterns. I wish sometimes that I would track my emotional eating as well. I know that I have reached for food out of boredom, sympathy, and anger, but also just because it is sunny, cloudy, Wednesday....whatever excuse I can come up with. It doesn't take much sometimes for me to pitter pat my way into the kitchen to graze through the cupboards. The good news is that we don't have a lot of food that is bad for us any longer, so a snack usually ends up being cereal of some sort, usually dry. The bad news is that I am not too ashamed to admit that I will eat brown sugar right out of the bag. If I REALLY try hard, I can find the little hard bits in the sugar, that take awhile to melt in the mouth. If I have a quarter in my pocket while at work, I have very little resistance to the "gumball" machines in the back part of the store. Naturally my machines are filled with some of my favorite things like, Hot Tamales, Runts, Sweet Tarts, and M & M Peanut candies! They are quite generous with the amount you get too, usually a nice handful. My problem with sweets in general is that I can't just eat one of anything. I really love Red Hots and will eat them until the flesh is hanging off the inside of my mouth. I also REALLY love Sour Patch Kids...yummmmm.....but there again, I have to have the entire bag of them, not just a few. This has been a very difficult thing for me to overcome, and everyday is a choice. I am hoping that at some point I can enjoy a few of my favorite things, but for now...there is no way.
Wednesday the workout was extremely challenging. Two of my teammates, and two mentors were there so we got some equipment and went to the crows nest in the Wellness Center. We each picked up a bar and I made sure to grab a blue one, since I have graduated from the pink one since it was too light, and the yellow one is still too heavy. The truth is that I should move up in weight on the bar because things are becoming easy, and I plan to do just that...next week....for sure....probably. We did the usual squats, lunges, chest press, triceps extensions, and a few others using the bar. It was a good work out, but then the Mentor-trainer said we were going to the stairs...man...not the stairs...I really don't like the stairs. Where in the world is the praying lady when you need her? We went to the habitrail track, and the instruction was to do a flight of stairs, up & down, 20 high knees in place, then go to the track and do lunges on each end, walking the straight stretches. Huh? Did we do something wrong maybe to make Ron mad? Of course not, but we had to really push ourselves, so we got started. It was brutal, and the sweat was pouring off me in no time. I had to hold on to the wall a few times just to keep from falling over. We did one lap of front lunges, then the stairs, knees, then BACKWARD lunges, then stairs, knees, and side lunges. There were a couple of times we stopped to shake out our legs and hips, because they got to burning so bad. Next we had to do stairs, then a skater move, you use an ice skating motion, kicking your heel back and swinging your arms, side to side, then jog the track one lap, then start over! GAAAA!!!!!!!! Horrible!!!! We did this three times! It took nearly an hour and half to do this work out, and when we were done, it was all I could do to walk. Driving home I was really glad that I was able to complete the work out. Yeah me!
Thursday I was home with Landree so she and I went on a walk around the 3 1/2 mile loop. It was real nice out, and about half way through the walk she fell asleep. As much as I enjoy the gym, it was so nice to be out breathing the air, and enjoying the day. Today was my weigh in, and I felt like I did alright, but still I was unsure. Well, it was a good week and I lost 3 lbs!!! That makes a total of 14 lbs, and I weighed 209.8 today. I am so glad that I did well this week since I tried so hard. My team mates did well also, the guys lost 4.4 & 4 lbs, and the other gal lost 3 lbs also. The two other ladies didn't show up, again. Our team is back in 5th place, but what is frustrating is that the guys are #'s 1 and 2 in weight loss for the men, and the gal is # 4 for the women. We should be higher in the ranks then we are, but we get marked down when the others don't come. Ron came in to see how we did and was pretty pleased. He high fived us, and said he was going to push us harder this next week. Then he did that evil smile. Scary. As a group we have lost nearly 1000 lbs! How crazy is that???
All in all I am very pleased. My clothes are loose, and I can tell that my chins are fewer. I still don't like being in pictures, but soon, maybe, sometime...now I'm stressed out...where's my brown sugar....
Workout tomorrow at 6:00...hooray!
Kelly
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Day 34 - February 15, 2011
There are times when I love being a grown up...and again other times when the kid in me shows up and doesn't want to leave. I can be pretty immature at times, often at the wrong time, and usually when I am somewhere important. I love to laugh. I can't hardly overhear someone laughing without joining in. There is just something absolutely wonderful about a great laugh, and there is the added benefit of the ab workout that happens when you really laugh hard. Because I try to stay on the sunny side of the street, with my rose colored glasses on, I usually can find something to smile about in a situation. A few years ago I had an MRI done on my head, checking for a cause for my headaches (thankfully, nothing was found, I have Migraines), and when the report was relayed to me, the Dr. told me that I have a young brain. Now I have a reason to be the way I am. TA DAAAA! The reason I bothered you with all this information is because something happened at the gym tonight that I usually think is funny.
At the first Thursday meeting for the HCC people, the dietitian talked to us about increasing our fiber, including fruit, vegetables, and adding beans to our diet. She also informed us that the meeting we were at would most likely be the best smelling meeting of the program. That when you increase the amount of raw foods you consume, your stomach will act different, and your gut will process foods much more efficiently. That is such a polite way to say that you will most likely smell a like a farm animal! She was not kidding! And the noises that your stomach makes when food is being processed....kind of whiny, squeaky, orca sound....weird! We were sitting at a meeting last Thursday, and I could hear someones stomach munching away on whatever they had eaten, from a table away! Good Grief!!! I think the human body is extraordinary and makes some really neat sounds.
So, here we were in the man gym, and Ron has us doing the usual circuit work out. LOTS of squats, lunges, jumping jacks, bar work, and various other forms of torture. When it came time to do the ab stuff we got our mats down, and flung ourselves around the area. I usually try to position myself so that my legs aren't in danger of kicking anyone should I happen to flail around. Today I happened to have my head pointed away from the rest of the group. All of the sudden someone, I truly don't know who, farted. Now, I know that it is normal, and everyone does it, but this was....almost....musical! It sounded a little like a bugle - da doot da dooo! All of the sudden, I was thinking of some of the terms we use to describe what had just happened. Who stepped on a duck? It was a barking frog! Who cut the cheese? It was the dog! Pull my finger! It wasn't me!!!! It was while all these thoughts were zipping around in my head that I realized, no one said a thing, not a single word, and I think the music even stopped. I was at that awkward moment where the rubber was meeting the road. If someone started to laugh...at all...even a snicker....I was done for. Instead this is how things are handled in the land of grown ups.
No one did anything except for what Ron asked us to do at the time, myself included. We were doing the plank exercise, so with the exception of the person that poofed and Ron, no one else knew who it was. Like I mentioned before about not wanting to throw up at a work out, I would not want to have a gas attack either. I would be so embarrassed and if someone laughed, I would fall apart. So we did what grown ups usually do, and that was nothing. We kept working out, and sweated, and v-upped, and crunched, and push upped, until we were done. At the end of the work out, we high fived each other for a job well done, and made plans to see each other Wednesday, same time, same place.
While I like being immature and laughing, I also appreciate the idea of being accepted, no matter what you look like, sound like, or even smell like. Bring on the broccoli, celery, whole wheat bread...I'm ready for you!
Tomorrow at the man gym at 6:00...I can't wait to see what's next, and because it was great, I ate a fiber filled apple on the way home too!
Kelly
At the first Thursday meeting for the HCC people, the dietitian talked to us about increasing our fiber, including fruit, vegetables, and adding beans to our diet. She also informed us that the meeting we were at would most likely be the best smelling meeting of the program. That when you increase the amount of raw foods you consume, your stomach will act different, and your gut will process foods much more efficiently. That is such a polite way to say that you will most likely smell a like a farm animal! She was not kidding! And the noises that your stomach makes when food is being processed....kind of whiny, squeaky, orca sound....weird! We were sitting at a meeting last Thursday, and I could hear someones stomach munching away on whatever they had eaten, from a table away! Good Grief!!! I think the human body is extraordinary and makes some really neat sounds.
So, here we were in the man gym, and Ron has us doing the usual circuit work out. LOTS of squats, lunges, jumping jacks, bar work, and various other forms of torture. When it came time to do the ab stuff we got our mats down, and flung ourselves around the area. I usually try to position myself so that my legs aren't in danger of kicking anyone should I happen to flail around. Today I happened to have my head pointed away from the rest of the group. All of the sudden someone, I truly don't know who, farted. Now, I know that it is normal, and everyone does it, but this was....almost....musical! It sounded a little like a bugle - da doot da dooo! All of the sudden, I was thinking of some of the terms we use to describe what had just happened. Who stepped on a duck? It was a barking frog! Who cut the cheese? It was the dog! Pull my finger! It wasn't me!!!! It was while all these thoughts were zipping around in my head that I realized, no one said a thing, not a single word, and I think the music even stopped. I was at that awkward moment where the rubber was meeting the road. If someone started to laugh...at all...even a snicker....I was done for. Instead this is how things are handled in the land of grown ups.
No one did anything except for what Ron asked us to do at the time, myself included. We were doing the plank exercise, so with the exception of the person that poofed and Ron, no one else knew who it was. Like I mentioned before about not wanting to throw up at a work out, I would not want to have a gas attack either. I would be so embarrassed and if someone laughed, I would fall apart. So we did what grown ups usually do, and that was nothing. We kept working out, and sweated, and v-upped, and crunched, and push upped, until we were done. At the end of the work out, we high fived each other for a job well done, and made plans to see each other Wednesday, same time, same place.
While I like being immature and laughing, I also appreciate the idea of being accepted, no matter what you look like, sound like, or even smell like. Bring on the broccoli, celery, whole wheat bread...I'm ready for you!
Tomorrow at the man gym at 6:00...I can't wait to see what's next, and because it was great, I ate a fiber filled apple on the way home too!
Kelly
Friday, February 18, 2011
Day 33 - February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day! What a challenging day to the folks that love chocolate, me being one of them! I got home from my work out to find a beautiful bouquet of roses, and a bottle of my favorite raspberry Verdi wine. Of course the wine will be enjoyed 4 to 6 ounces at a time...calories and all....( yeah right, wink, wink) I wouldn't want to over do it and drink it all at one time....Nope, not me. Any hoo....it was a nice surprise, and I sincerely appreciate them.
I have been writing down my food better since the last meeting and feel like it has been going better. I have been expanding my lunch menu to include vegetables, usually frozen, that I can heat up at work. I appreciate the variety too, and I got some of those 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn to have for a snack. They can be tricky buggers to cook though, because they can burn so quickly, and isn't that a pleasant smell. I bought some sugar free Jello, and have been eating those as well. I don't care how old you are, Jello is fun to squish through your teeth, making your cheeks puff in and out. Come on...admit it...you do that too....
I had a work out at 6:00 tonight in the man gym. I got there about 15 minutes early so I climbed on the elliptical and did a quick 10 minute warm up. By the time I was done, the two guys from my team joined me, and we got started. Ron scares me when he has a list. He carries it around in his hand all folded up like an 8th graders note, all bent and crumpled, until he unfolds it to tell us what torture is next. We got started right away, and he had me sweating in about 5 minutes. We were doing sets of 20 of each starting with squats, lunges, squats, side lunges, push ups, squat hops, repeat that cycle, then we did the dreaded...WALK OUTS!!!! You remember those from the first day or so...I could do six before I started to feel faint...right before I pulled the excuse card. Here's a quick reminder, you start standing up then you lean down putting your palms down, and you walk out on your hands until you are straight, then you walk back in, and stand up! We alternated these with jumping jacks, 20 of each. Well, call the newspapers and guess what? I did three sets of 20...I did 60 walk outs without fainting! Sweat was flinging off my hair when I was walking out, but I didn't care. I can't believe the difference in a month. The next things we did were called "burpies". The way you do these awful things is from standing you put your hands on the floor, jump back with your feet, jump back in with your feet, and stand up. GAAAAAAAA!!! Absolutely cruel and exhausting. Thank goodness Ron didn't have us alternating with anything too strenuous, we had to do v-ups, then more burpies, 20 reps each. I tell you what, it was horrible, and at one point, I had to step one foot at a time backwards, but I finished. We moved over to our mats and did more ab exercises, before we were finally done. What a work out. It only took about 45 minutes so Ron told us that Tuesday was going to be tougher since we "breezed" through the work out...breezed...yeah right!!! Now I'm scared.
Tomorrow the work out is at 6:00.....I ate an apple on the way home, and sang Pink's new song "F....g Perfect" at the top of my lungs. Watch the video..it'll make you cry.
Kelly
I have been writing down my food better since the last meeting and feel like it has been going better. I have been expanding my lunch menu to include vegetables, usually frozen, that I can heat up at work. I appreciate the variety too, and I got some of those 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn to have for a snack. They can be tricky buggers to cook though, because they can burn so quickly, and isn't that a pleasant smell. I bought some sugar free Jello, and have been eating those as well. I don't care how old you are, Jello is fun to squish through your teeth, making your cheeks puff in and out. Come on...admit it...you do that too....
I had a work out at 6:00 tonight in the man gym. I got there about 15 minutes early so I climbed on the elliptical and did a quick 10 minute warm up. By the time I was done, the two guys from my team joined me, and we got started. Ron scares me when he has a list. He carries it around in his hand all folded up like an 8th graders note, all bent and crumpled, until he unfolds it to tell us what torture is next. We got started right away, and he had me sweating in about 5 minutes. We were doing sets of 20 of each starting with squats, lunges, squats, side lunges, push ups, squat hops, repeat that cycle, then we did the dreaded...WALK OUTS!!!! You remember those from the first day or so...I could do six before I started to feel faint...right before I pulled the excuse card. Here's a quick reminder, you start standing up then you lean down putting your palms down, and you walk out on your hands until you are straight, then you walk back in, and stand up! We alternated these with jumping jacks, 20 of each. Well, call the newspapers and guess what? I did three sets of 20...I did 60 walk outs without fainting! Sweat was flinging off my hair when I was walking out, but I didn't care. I can't believe the difference in a month. The next things we did were called "burpies". The way you do these awful things is from standing you put your hands on the floor, jump back with your feet, jump back in with your feet, and stand up. GAAAAAAAA!!! Absolutely cruel and exhausting. Thank goodness Ron didn't have us alternating with anything too strenuous, we had to do v-ups, then more burpies, 20 reps each. I tell you what, it was horrible, and at one point, I had to step one foot at a time backwards, but I finished. We moved over to our mats and did more ab exercises, before we were finally done. What a work out. It only took about 45 minutes so Ron told us that Tuesday was going to be tougher since we "breezed" through the work out...breezed...yeah right!!! Now I'm scared.
Tomorrow the work out is at 6:00.....I ate an apple on the way home, and sang Pink's new song "F....g Perfect" at the top of my lungs. Watch the video..it'll make you cry.
Kelly
Day 32 - February 13, 2011
I have a really hard time believing that it has been a month since the first HCC meeting. A ton of things have taken place, and changes have been made, and while I would like to think that they have all been for the better, some have not.
I went to Mass today. This isn't confession, but to tell the truth, it has been a few weeks since I went to Sunday Mass. I have been to Saturday Mass, but to actually get out of bed, and go on Sunday has been a struggle. I don't have a workout until 2:30, so I have been staying at home trying to take care of home stuff, doing meal plans, and convincing myself that I need to rest. I can be pretty convincing at times, believe you me! This last month I have been learning eat better to nourish my body, I have been exercising to strengthen my body, but somewhere along the line, I forgot to nourish and strengthen my spirit. It was so good to sing, and pray, and believe that all that I have, and can do, and can become, is a gift. I haven't taken the time to be thankful, and live in gratitude for all that I have, for a month. I went to Mass today, and am better. I had somehow forgotten what Janis said at the first meeting, "We walk by faith, and not by sight".....
I did not go to the 2:30 work out today. I went for a walk instead. Where we live there are miles, and miles of walking paths, including one that is directly out my front door. The loop that we follow is 3.5 miles, and it circles our neighborhood. Maddie, Brianna, and baby Landree went with me. It was a brisk walk , and I am pleased to admit, I wasn't out of breath the way I was the last time I did the trail. The pavement is pretty uneven so we were concerned that Lanee would suffer from shaken baby syndrome by the time we got home. I think Bria called it the Oregon trail a couple of times, and if you don't pay attention, some of the pavement reaches up and grabs your shoe, causing you to trip. It was a good work out, and it felt good to breathe.
I have a work out at 6:00 tomorrow and have a new bag of apples to celebrate with, so here we go again....
Kelly
I went to Mass today. This isn't confession, but to tell the truth, it has been a few weeks since I went to Sunday Mass. I have been to Saturday Mass, but to actually get out of bed, and go on Sunday has been a struggle. I don't have a workout until 2:30, so I have been staying at home trying to take care of home stuff, doing meal plans, and convincing myself that I need to rest. I can be pretty convincing at times, believe you me! This last month I have been learning eat better to nourish my body, I have been exercising to strengthen my body, but somewhere along the line, I forgot to nourish and strengthen my spirit. It was so good to sing, and pray, and believe that all that I have, and can do, and can become, is a gift. I haven't taken the time to be thankful, and live in gratitude for all that I have, for a month. I went to Mass today, and am better. I had somehow forgotten what Janis said at the first meeting, "We walk by faith, and not by sight".....
I did not go to the 2:30 work out today. I went for a walk instead. Where we live there are miles, and miles of walking paths, including one that is directly out my front door. The loop that we follow is 3.5 miles, and it circles our neighborhood. Maddie, Brianna, and baby Landree went with me. It was a brisk walk , and I am pleased to admit, I wasn't out of breath the way I was the last time I did the trail. The pavement is pretty uneven so we were concerned that Lanee would suffer from shaken baby syndrome by the time we got home. I think Bria called it the Oregon trail a couple of times, and if you don't pay attention, some of the pavement reaches up and grabs your shoe, causing you to trip. It was a good work out, and it felt good to breathe.
I have a work out at 6:00 tomorrow and have a new bag of apples to celebrate with, so here we go again....
Kelly
Monday, February 14, 2011
Day 31 - February 12, 2011
It seems to me that Saturday comes faster these days. I know that I said last week was really long, but here we are on Saturday again, and it is another sleep in day. Hooray! Well, even sleeping in until 8:30 is a real treat.
The bad thing about taking a day off is the guilt of not doing ANYTHING, but the good thing is the resting and not doing ANYTHING...I know it doesn't make much sense. I have done a lot of thinking lately about the other attempts I've made at getting healthy, working out, and losing weight. I think I said this before, but really the only thing that lost weight forever was my wallet, as I have never kept off what I lost. There is one area that I constantly struggle with, and that is being selfish, and taking the time away from family and friends to get healthy. It seems that I can't have it all, and I want it all, and I have a hard time being an observer. I appreciate everyone so much, and am glad that the 10 minute car conversations are enough for now.
I ate a bowl of Raisin Bran this morning about 30 minutes before I left for my 10:00 work out. I hope that it digests really fast since I sometimes feel barfy still if we are working real hard, and I don't under any circumstances want to be....that person that threw up in the gym! There, I said it!!! You see it happen on "The Biggest Loser", and I always feel bad for that person. Thank the good Lord that there aren't cameras in the man gym!
I got to the man gym and there were two of my team members, three mentors, and an extra mentor Mom, that decided to come. I understand that she was a past HCC participant on Ron's team, and is still losing weight, and had her arm twisted by her daughter. Good Girl! The Mom and daughter had body monitors on that reqistered how many calories they burned. I want one! ANYWAY.....I got to the gym and Ron had set up a circut for us. He likes to do that and it is really not so bad. We buddy-upped and got started. We did up & down box steps, lunged, leg press machine, squats with the bar, high steps, medicine ball bounces, jogged, lunged, squat hops, lunged, jump roped, and started over. We did this four times around, adding push-ups, and then stomach work. I have to tell you right now, that we were all beat. My team mate was jumping rope and all of the sudden she started singing playground jump rope songs!!!! It absolutely slayed us, and we were laughing so hard! What a crack up. Ron was laughing this big booming laugh (not the evil smile laugh thing), that again made us laugh. It was so perfect to just fall apart over something so simple. We were almost done when Ron disappeared down this hallway, saying he would be right back. We were v-upping, and scissor kicking, and leg lifting, our hearts out, when he got back and told us were were done....except for the surprise! Now what.....
While he was gone, he had set up a final exercise for us....TRACTOR TIRES! Yes, tires...the big, heavy, full of water, black rubber, bad boys! There is a large space behind the gym that is paved, and somewhere Ron had gotten four tractor tires. We broke up into teams of four at each end of the pavement, taking turns lifting and pushing those tires. We had to squat and get ahold of the tread, then once standing, we had to really push the tires hard, to make them fall down....IT....WAS....AWESOME!!!! I felt so good when we got done. Very empowered. What a perfect way to end the hour and a half workout! Ron was pretty pleased with how we did, and said we will do that again. It was only in the mid 50's outside, but I wasn't cold, and it felt really good after working out so hard. Oh, and before I forget, the Mom and daughter each burned over 600 calories in the work out. I am seriously considering getting one of those monitors.
Sunday is the group workout....Mass is in the morning, and although I don't want to miss the class, I'm losing my balance at home...we'll see what the morning brings.
Kelly
The bad thing about taking a day off is the guilt of not doing ANYTHING, but the good thing is the resting and not doing ANYTHING...I know it doesn't make much sense. I have done a lot of thinking lately about the other attempts I've made at getting healthy, working out, and losing weight. I think I said this before, but really the only thing that lost weight forever was my wallet, as I have never kept off what I lost. There is one area that I constantly struggle with, and that is being selfish, and taking the time away from family and friends to get healthy. It seems that I can't have it all, and I want it all, and I have a hard time being an observer. I appreciate everyone so much, and am glad that the 10 minute car conversations are enough for now.
I ate a bowl of Raisin Bran this morning about 30 minutes before I left for my 10:00 work out. I hope that it digests really fast since I sometimes feel barfy still if we are working real hard, and I don't under any circumstances want to be....that person that threw up in the gym! There, I said it!!! You see it happen on "The Biggest Loser", and I always feel bad for that person. Thank the good Lord that there aren't cameras in the man gym!
I got to the man gym and there were two of my team members, three mentors, and an extra mentor Mom, that decided to come. I understand that she was a past HCC participant on Ron's team, and is still losing weight, and had her arm twisted by her daughter. Good Girl! The Mom and daughter had body monitors on that reqistered how many calories they burned. I want one! ANYWAY.....I got to the gym and Ron had set up a circut for us. He likes to do that and it is really not so bad. We buddy-upped and got started. We did up & down box steps, lunged, leg press machine, squats with the bar, high steps, medicine ball bounces, jogged, lunged, squat hops, lunged, jump roped, and started over. We did this four times around, adding push-ups, and then stomach work. I have to tell you right now, that we were all beat. My team mate was jumping rope and all of the sudden she started singing playground jump rope songs!!!! It absolutely slayed us, and we were laughing so hard! What a crack up. Ron was laughing this big booming laugh (not the evil smile laugh thing), that again made us laugh. It was so perfect to just fall apart over something so simple. We were almost done when Ron disappeared down this hallway, saying he would be right back. We were v-upping, and scissor kicking, and leg lifting, our hearts out, when he got back and told us were were done....except for the surprise! Now what.....
While he was gone, he had set up a final exercise for us....TRACTOR TIRES! Yes, tires...the big, heavy, full of water, black rubber, bad boys! There is a large space behind the gym that is paved, and somewhere Ron had gotten four tractor tires. We broke up into teams of four at each end of the pavement, taking turns lifting and pushing those tires. We had to squat and get ahold of the tread, then once standing, we had to really push the tires hard, to make them fall down....IT....WAS....AWESOME!!!! I felt so good when we got done. Very empowered. What a perfect way to end the hour and a half workout! Ron was pretty pleased with how we did, and said we will do that again. It was only in the mid 50's outside, but I wasn't cold, and it felt really good after working out so hard. Oh, and before I forget, the Mom and daughter each burned over 600 calories in the work out. I am seriously considering getting one of those monitors.
Sunday is the group workout....Mass is in the morning, and although I don't want to miss the class, I'm losing my balance at home...we'll see what the morning brings.
Kelly
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Days 25 - 30 February 6 - 11, 2011
Well I'm back, finally. I have had probably the longest week in the history of the world. It is horrible to think that nearly an entire week has gone by and I didn't write a word. Not a single word. Remember my motto is "no excuses, or explanations necessary", but I still am in awe that time has passed such as it has. The good news is that God has blessed me with a brand new day and with that, the beginning of a new week.
I have had many...how can I put this....new challenges...this last week. I did not do very well with my food log..GIANT SURPRISE THERE...and the proof is in the pudding, or scale as the case may be. I weighed in on Thursday and lost another 1 lb. I know, at least I lost something, and that puts me at 212.8lbs, down 11 lbs in a month. Not too bad really, but I was hoping to get a bigger number, to see more of a "reward" for my hard work. I said earlier that I didn't keep a good food log, and believe it or not, most days I didn't eat 1200 - 1500 calories. I didn't eat junk food, I just didn't eat a whole lot of anything. It just goes to show that my metabolism is really out of whack, and I really need to work on getting it back in order.
The rest of my team did alright, one of the guys lost 6.2, another 4.8, the other dedicated gal lost 1.6, myself 1, and the two gals that rarely come work out lost 4, and .6 lbs each. I didn't want to hear the excuses and reasons from them, so I placed myself out of earshot, and concentrated on the meeting. I know that isn't right, and that we are a team and all, but too darn bad. Stop complaining and do something about it. As a team we dropped to 6th place. The dietitian talked about food choices again and about foods that get a bad rap because of the natural "sugar" content. She said no one every got fat eating carrots...and that's a fact.
I would love to go on, and on about some of the workouts we had this week, but I'm going to just give you a synopsis, of some of the highlights.
Sunday 6th- Group work out - There is an eight story parking garage across the street from the Wellness center and we had to run the stairs. The instructor said that it would be a perfect day to go outside and work out, so we grabbed some weights and off we went. Out to the grass, and then to the parking garage. We had to do all eight flights of stairs three times, up and down, then on the third trip up, we stopped and lunged the eighth floor parking ares, ran the length of it, then did up, down squat jumps, push ups, and then went down the stairs, and back up and down a fourth time. We went back to the wellness center and did weights, and more lunges and planks out on the grass which really was hard because of the uneven ground. Then back in for stomach exercises. I WAS BEAT when I finally got to go home.
Monday 7th - I left work at 4:00 today so I could go to the 4:30 Bands class taught by a guy named Todd. It turned out to be a real interesting class. I understand Ron a little better now with the circuit idea because that is what the bands are, you go to a station and do the exercise, then move on to the next, etc., doing each exercise for 30 seconds. It is a real fast class and it seemed the hour flew by. The bands are just that...big rubber bands! Big enough that you can slip them around yourself and do the exercises. At one station two bands were linked together, anchored to the wall, and we slipped the band around our waist. The ideas was you ran away from the wall, pulling with your legs, until you couldn't go anymore, then you would use resistance to keep yourself from flinging back into the wall. Seems pretty easy...it's not! Then at another station, you had to slip the rubber bands up your arms, and stand on the bottom of it, using the band in place of weights to do bicep curls. Not too hard on the girl arms, but my band was covered in pulle out arm hair from the poor guy ahead of me. It must have yanked it out by the roots. Man! All in all, it was a great work out, and I was tired.
Tuesday 8th & Wednesday 9th - These were the regular work outs in the man gym and up on the track. Nothing new there except that one of the other gals that rarely comes was there both nights. The work outs weren't new, but very tiring. On Wednesday we went up to the "crows nest" by the track. We did an exercise, then a lap on the track. I was real proud of myself because I was able to jog quite a bit on the track, when just last week I couldn't jog much at all. I knew that I needed to do more cardio on Wednesday night so I got on the treadmill after the workout and added another mile to the day.
Thursday 10th- I left work early again to take the bands class before the weigh in and meeting. Ron was teaching this class and he was brutal.....WAY harder than Todd.He was picking on the four of us from his team the worst. Both of the guys and the other regular gal were there and I think he was pretty happy. We did a variety of exercises, and he would count down the reps for us like" 10, 9, 8, 7,7,7,6, 5,5,5, 4, 3,3,3...." you get the idea,. I was sweating so bad that my hair was dripping sweat onto the floor as I did push ups. It was so bad one time that I had to go get my towel and dry off my face so my eyes would quit burning. I was using my shirt, but it was soaked and wouldn't dry anymore. At the end of the class Ron high fived me and said I did a good job! Yeah! Thank goodness I thought to bring a different shirt to change into, and I tried combing my wet hair into some sort of order before the meeting, but it didn't really help.
Friday 11th - I took this day off. I came home and after dinner went over to Brianna and Brad's house and stayed with Landree while they had an appointment. There is something special about a baby that makes even the worst week better. Plus, I feel like I'm burning out. I need to be committed to this adventure, but I can't let myself be so consumed with it that the rest of my life gets too far off balance, and that's how I feel. As I said before, I am discouraged by the number on my scale. It is just a number I know, but my head says something different all together. The difference with this burn out from the other times is that I'm not quitting, I am going to keep pushing forward, until the time comes for this adventure to end. This time will be different!
I have a 10:00 work out in the morning...and I'll be ready!
Kelly
I have had many...how can I put this....new challenges...this last week. I did not do very well with my food log..GIANT SURPRISE THERE...and the proof is in the pudding, or scale as the case may be. I weighed in on Thursday and lost another 1 lb. I know, at least I lost something, and that puts me at 212.8lbs, down 11 lbs in a month. Not too bad really, but I was hoping to get a bigger number, to see more of a "reward" for my hard work. I said earlier that I didn't keep a good food log, and believe it or not, most days I didn't eat 1200 - 1500 calories. I didn't eat junk food, I just didn't eat a whole lot of anything. It just goes to show that my metabolism is really out of whack, and I really need to work on getting it back in order.
The rest of my team did alright, one of the guys lost 6.2, another 4.8, the other dedicated gal lost 1.6, myself 1, and the two gals that rarely come work out lost 4, and .6 lbs each. I didn't want to hear the excuses and reasons from them, so I placed myself out of earshot, and concentrated on the meeting. I know that isn't right, and that we are a team and all, but too darn bad. Stop complaining and do something about it. As a team we dropped to 6th place. The dietitian talked about food choices again and about foods that get a bad rap because of the natural "sugar" content. She said no one every got fat eating carrots...and that's a fact.
I would love to go on, and on about some of the workouts we had this week, but I'm going to just give you a synopsis, of some of the highlights.
Sunday 6th- Group work out - There is an eight story parking garage across the street from the Wellness center and we had to run the stairs. The instructor said that it would be a perfect day to go outside and work out, so we grabbed some weights and off we went. Out to the grass, and then to the parking garage. We had to do all eight flights of stairs three times, up and down, then on the third trip up, we stopped and lunged the eighth floor parking ares, ran the length of it, then did up, down squat jumps, push ups, and then went down the stairs, and back up and down a fourth time. We went back to the wellness center and did weights, and more lunges and planks out on the grass which really was hard because of the uneven ground. Then back in for stomach exercises. I WAS BEAT when I finally got to go home.
Monday 7th - I left work at 4:00 today so I could go to the 4:30 Bands class taught by a guy named Todd. It turned out to be a real interesting class. I understand Ron a little better now with the circuit idea because that is what the bands are, you go to a station and do the exercise, then move on to the next, etc., doing each exercise for 30 seconds. It is a real fast class and it seemed the hour flew by. The bands are just that...big rubber bands! Big enough that you can slip them around yourself and do the exercises. At one station two bands were linked together, anchored to the wall, and we slipped the band around our waist. The ideas was you ran away from the wall, pulling with your legs, until you couldn't go anymore, then you would use resistance to keep yourself from flinging back into the wall. Seems pretty easy...it's not! Then at another station, you had to slip the rubber bands up your arms, and stand on the bottom of it, using the band in place of weights to do bicep curls. Not too hard on the girl arms, but my band was covered in pulle out arm hair from the poor guy ahead of me. It must have yanked it out by the roots. Man! All in all, it was a great work out, and I was tired.
Tuesday 8th & Wednesday 9th - These were the regular work outs in the man gym and up on the track. Nothing new there except that one of the other gals that rarely comes was there both nights. The work outs weren't new, but very tiring. On Wednesday we went up to the "crows nest" by the track. We did an exercise, then a lap on the track. I was real proud of myself because I was able to jog quite a bit on the track, when just last week I couldn't jog much at all. I knew that I needed to do more cardio on Wednesday night so I got on the treadmill after the workout and added another mile to the day.
Thursday 10th- I left work early again to take the bands class before the weigh in and meeting. Ron was teaching this class and he was brutal.....WAY harder than Todd.He was picking on the four of us from his team the worst. Both of the guys and the other regular gal were there and I think he was pretty happy. We did a variety of exercises, and he would count down the reps for us like" 10, 9, 8, 7,7,7,6, 5,5,5, 4, 3,3,3...." you get the idea,. I was sweating so bad that my hair was dripping sweat onto the floor as I did push ups. It was so bad one time that I had to go get my towel and dry off my face so my eyes would quit burning. I was using my shirt, but it was soaked and wouldn't dry anymore. At the end of the class Ron high fived me and said I did a good job! Yeah! Thank goodness I thought to bring a different shirt to change into, and I tried combing my wet hair into some sort of order before the meeting, but it didn't really help.
Friday 11th - I took this day off. I came home and after dinner went over to Brianna and Brad's house and stayed with Landree while they had an appointment. There is something special about a baby that makes even the worst week better. Plus, I feel like I'm burning out. I need to be committed to this adventure, but I can't let myself be so consumed with it that the rest of my life gets too far off balance, and that's how I feel. As I said before, I am discouraged by the number on my scale. It is just a number I know, but my head says something different all together. The difference with this burn out from the other times is that I'm not quitting, I am going to keep pushing forward, until the time comes for this adventure to end. This time will be different!
I have a 10:00 work out in the morning...and I'll be ready!
Kelly
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Day 24 - February 5, 2011
Have I ever mentioned how much I love to sleep in? You can talk to anyone in my family or my friends, and they will tell you how much I love a good snooze until 10:00 or later. It is really a bummer for the people at my house that are morning people. It is not my job to plan early things on Saturday, and if I go to church on Saturday night, then Sunday morning too. This makes it especially bad for the Saturday 10:00 am work outs.
This morning I got up at 8:30 and quickly ate a bowl of cereal. I am still finishing up the box of Special K - with Berries, and it's a good thing it's almost gone, because the dried strawberry's are getting mushy. Gaaaag! I try to eat at least an hour before my workout because my stomach doesn't always love the exercise I am doing. I changed into my workout clothes and left in plenty of time to get there.
I was glad to see that the other three amigos were there, ready to work out, when I got there. And Ron had an extra special day planned for us. He is real big on doing circut workouts. We started with squats, then lunges, then bar work, then we were off lunging across the gym, to the next station. There we did 25 quick steps up and down on a box, hanging leg raises, more box steps, chest presses, and more box work, then lunges to the next station. Does anyone remember Groucho Marx? He used to do this crouching, knees bent, wiggling his eyebrows, and waiving his cigar when he walked thing. It was as if he was doing a purma lunge, and was in a real big hurry. Well, that's what we looked like skulking across the gym in our lunge walk. The only thing missing was the waggling eyebrows and the cigars. ANYWAY....we went from the box up, down things, to bicep curl on the machine, then mountain climbers, then we had to RUN to the next station, where we would start over. Run....HA! That's good....
Two things really got to me on this circut. The first being that the hanging leg lift is hard! It isn't so bad when you step up into the machine, facing outwards, you put your elbows in the arm holders, and step off, where you dangle, then lift your legs up and down. The problem with me was that I stepped into the contraption, held myself up, and stepped off only to have my weight shift to where my shoulders were almost above the top of my head. I felt like a water balloon, and believe me, it didn't feel good. I hoisted myself up and managed to do the 20 lifts, the first go around, then on the second go around, I did individual leg lifts. Right, left, right, left, except I looked like I was running in mid-air. Not good form at all. And it hurt! The third and final time we were supposed to do that exercise, there were two people using the machine, so we got a break...but it didn't set well with me, so when we were done, I went over and did the 20 leg lifts we were supposed to do, the regular, legs together way. Call me a brown noser, but I really wanted to finish the entire cycle.
The second thing is that when we were doing the bicep curls, it was done on a machine with pullys. There is a top hook, and a bottom hook. We were using the bottom hook with the barbell on one of those carabiner (climbing hook - sp?) type connectors. The top connector had a single handle that looked like a stirrup (horse saddle type) on it. When you pull up to do the curls, the top hook jiggles just slightly. No big deal...usually. Well I got to that machine, and went to do my first curl, but realized that Popeye must have been before me with how heavy it was, so I adjusted the weight down. I was really curling away, when something fell from above me, hitting me on the forehead. It was that stirrup! The clip wasn't closed, and in all my zeal and vigor, I managed to jiggle it off! I saw stars for just a second or two, and was really hoping that I wasn't bleeding. I could have looked into one of the floor to ceiling mirrors that are all around the place, but I avoid them like the plague. I pretend to be a vampire with no reflection, because when I have sneeked a peek, I looked really bad. So, I finished my set, did my mountain climbers (appropriate right?), and ran down to start over again. No one screamed or called 911 so I knew I wasn't bleeding. I don't think anyone actually saw what happend , and for that I am glad. I don't want special treatment, or excuses, at all!
We did the circit three times, and then finished up with some killer ab moves. I am very pleased to say that I am getting better at holding my legs up and doing crunches. It is killer but I can feel the differrence. We did planks again, and this time there was no cheating. It was a great work out.
Tomorrow is the 2:30 HCC class. I hobbled my way to the car and ate an apple on the way home. Oddly enough, I didn't feel like taking a nap. I felt pretty good after all......
Kelly
This morning I got up at 8:30 and quickly ate a bowl of cereal. I am still finishing up the box of Special K - with Berries, and it's a good thing it's almost gone, because the dried strawberry's are getting mushy. Gaaaag! I try to eat at least an hour before my workout because my stomach doesn't always love the exercise I am doing. I changed into my workout clothes and left in plenty of time to get there.
I was glad to see that the other three amigos were there, ready to work out, when I got there. And Ron had an extra special day planned for us. He is real big on doing circut workouts. We started with squats, then lunges, then bar work, then we were off lunging across the gym, to the next station. There we did 25 quick steps up and down on a box, hanging leg raises, more box steps, chest presses, and more box work, then lunges to the next station. Does anyone remember Groucho Marx? He used to do this crouching, knees bent, wiggling his eyebrows, and waiving his cigar when he walked thing. It was as if he was doing a purma lunge, and was in a real big hurry. Well, that's what we looked like skulking across the gym in our lunge walk. The only thing missing was the waggling eyebrows and the cigars. ANYWAY....we went from the box up, down things, to bicep curl on the machine, then mountain climbers, then we had to RUN to the next station, where we would start over. Run....HA! That's good....
Two things really got to me on this circut. The first being that the hanging leg lift is hard! It isn't so bad when you step up into the machine, facing outwards, you put your elbows in the arm holders, and step off, where you dangle, then lift your legs up and down. The problem with me was that I stepped into the contraption, held myself up, and stepped off only to have my weight shift to where my shoulders were almost above the top of my head. I felt like a water balloon, and believe me, it didn't feel good. I hoisted myself up and managed to do the 20 lifts, the first go around, then on the second go around, I did individual leg lifts. Right, left, right, left, except I looked like I was running in mid-air. Not good form at all. And it hurt! The third and final time we were supposed to do that exercise, there were two people using the machine, so we got a break...but it didn't set well with me, so when we were done, I went over and did the 20 leg lifts we were supposed to do, the regular, legs together way. Call me a brown noser, but I really wanted to finish the entire cycle.
The second thing is that when we were doing the bicep curls, it was done on a machine with pullys. There is a top hook, and a bottom hook. We were using the bottom hook with the barbell on one of those carabiner (climbing hook - sp?) type connectors. The top connector had a single handle that looked like a stirrup (horse saddle type) on it. When you pull up to do the curls, the top hook jiggles just slightly. No big deal...usually. Well I got to that machine, and went to do my first curl, but realized that Popeye must have been before me with how heavy it was, so I adjusted the weight down. I was really curling away, when something fell from above me, hitting me on the forehead. It was that stirrup! The clip wasn't closed, and in all my zeal and vigor, I managed to jiggle it off! I saw stars for just a second or two, and was really hoping that I wasn't bleeding. I could have looked into one of the floor to ceiling mirrors that are all around the place, but I avoid them like the plague. I pretend to be a vampire with no reflection, because when I have sneeked a peek, I looked really bad. So, I finished my set, did my mountain climbers (appropriate right?), and ran down to start over again. No one screamed or called 911 so I knew I wasn't bleeding. I don't think anyone actually saw what happend , and for that I am glad. I don't want special treatment, or excuses, at all!
We did the circit three times, and then finished up with some killer ab moves. I am very pleased to say that I am getting better at holding my legs up and doing crunches. It is killer but I can feel the differrence. We did planks again, and this time there was no cheating. It was a great work out.
Tomorrow is the 2:30 HCC class. I hobbled my way to the car and ate an apple on the way home. Oddly enough, I didn't feel like taking a nap. I felt pretty good after all......
Kelly
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Day 22 & 23 - February 3 & 4, 2011
So today is weigh in day, and I'm dreading it. I think that I may have lost one pound this week, but it has been a struggle. I find that I am not writing things down like I should, and I have been struggling with my workouts. I am glad that I am taking Thursday as my rest day. I remembered to bring an apple to the meeting so that I can have it and not feel famished when I get home.
So here's the results. This week, I lost 1.6 lbs...not nearly as exciting as 6.6 from last week, but at least I lost something. I know that we are "walking by faith, and not by sight", but it still was disappointing for a minute or two. Then I began to realize that, in spite of myself, I managed to lose another 1.6 lbs, putting me at an even 10 lbs for three weeks! Not to shabby! I now weigh 213.8 lbs! Just to see what I could figure out about 1.6 lbs, that means that I had to lose or reduce my calories by well over 4800, in order to lose that weight. I believe that it could have been more, but for now, it is good enough!
My team mates did pretty well again, one guy lost 4 lbs, another 3.4 lbs, the other dedicated gal lost 3 lbs, and one of the no show gals said she didn't lose anything. She had a variety of excuses why she hasn't been there, and the other gal just never showed up at all. I find myself getting very frustrated with them, and I heard that one team has already given the boot to a slacker member. I sure don't want that to happen, but they aren't committed like the rest of us, and it hurts our team. Joe D Bands is currently in 5th place still, and both of the guys, and the other gal are in the top ten for the HCC as a whole. It makes me want to work harder.
This week the meeting was shorter and we were on our way by 7:30. I am glad that I took tonight off, but I have to admit, I thought about going to the cardio room before I left. There's always tomorrow!
And speaking of tomorrow, here is the news from Friday the 4th.
I let my team know last night that I couldn't be there on Friday because Catlyn was cheering at a basketball game. My plan was to bring my work out stuff and stop at my gym on the way home. I knew that if I didn't stop, and came home, I might not have gone. I was feeling VERY stressed out about work, so I decided to do something mindless and get on the elliptical or the treadmill for 45 minutes. I brought my iPod, and a towel, and got busy. Because I am very slow on the uptake, or whatever, I chose the ....FAT BURNING....mode on the treadmill again. This time, when it said that it would change the incline until my heart rate was at the correct level, I pushed the big red STOP button! I was not going to ride that bull again. I chose a nice cardio program and started walking. At some point I grabbed an old "People" magazine, and read up about everything that happened in July of 2010. BORING! Then I got a copy of "US" magazine, that had the Kardashians in it from September, and it too was awful. I decided that I was tired of walking, so I moved the incline to 2.5 and cranked the speed up to 3.7 and I jogged. I found a really good pace, and jogged for well over 10 minutes without stopping. This may not seem like much, but to me...it is a miracle. Just three short weeks ago there would have been no possible way I could have done that. I really began to appreciate that the 10 lbs are gone, because not only was I not winded, my knees didn't hurt! Hooray! Baby steps people....that's all!
With the cool down I did a total of 50 minutes of cardio. I felt good even if I did miss my team.
Work out at 10:00 Saturday morning. I can hardly wait...
Kelly
So here's the results. This week, I lost 1.6 lbs...not nearly as exciting as 6.6 from last week, but at least I lost something. I know that we are "walking by faith, and not by sight", but it still was disappointing for a minute or two. Then I began to realize that, in spite of myself, I managed to lose another 1.6 lbs, putting me at an even 10 lbs for three weeks! Not to shabby! I now weigh 213.8 lbs! Just to see what I could figure out about 1.6 lbs, that means that I had to lose or reduce my calories by well over 4800, in order to lose that weight. I believe that it could have been more, but for now, it is good enough!
My team mates did pretty well again, one guy lost 4 lbs, another 3.4 lbs, the other dedicated gal lost 3 lbs, and one of the no show gals said she didn't lose anything. She had a variety of excuses why she hasn't been there, and the other gal just never showed up at all. I find myself getting very frustrated with them, and I heard that one team has already given the boot to a slacker member. I sure don't want that to happen, but they aren't committed like the rest of us, and it hurts our team. Joe D Bands is currently in 5th place still, and both of the guys, and the other gal are in the top ten for the HCC as a whole. It makes me want to work harder.
This week the meeting was shorter and we were on our way by 7:30. I am glad that I took tonight off, but I have to admit, I thought about going to the cardio room before I left. There's always tomorrow!
And speaking of tomorrow, here is the news from Friday the 4th.
I let my team know last night that I couldn't be there on Friday because Catlyn was cheering at a basketball game. My plan was to bring my work out stuff and stop at my gym on the way home. I knew that if I didn't stop, and came home, I might not have gone. I was feeling VERY stressed out about work, so I decided to do something mindless and get on the elliptical or the treadmill for 45 minutes. I brought my iPod, and a towel, and got busy. Because I am very slow on the uptake, or whatever, I chose the ....FAT BURNING....mode on the treadmill again. This time, when it said that it would change the incline until my heart rate was at the correct level, I pushed the big red STOP button! I was not going to ride that bull again. I chose a nice cardio program and started walking. At some point I grabbed an old "People" magazine, and read up about everything that happened in July of 2010. BORING! Then I got a copy of "US" magazine, that had the Kardashians in it from September, and it too was awful. I decided that I was tired of walking, so I moved the incline to 2.5 and cranked the speed up to 3.7 and I jogged. I found a really good pace, and jogged for well over 10 minutes without stopping. This may not seem like much, but to me...it is a miracle. Just three short weeks ago there would have been no possible way I could have done that. I really began to appreciate that the 10 lbs are gone, because not only was I not winded, my knees didn't hurt! Hooray! Baby steps people....that's all!
With the cool down I did a total of 50 minutes of cardio. I felt good even if I did miss my team.
Work out at 10:00 Saturday morning. I can hardly wait...
Kelly
Friday, February 4, 2011
Day 21 - February 2, 2011
I am having a very difficult time with food this week. There has been quite a bit of stress with work, and stuff lately, and I have been struggling to stay on the right track. I suppose part of it is that I didn't really grocery shop. Lyndsie and I have been going on Sunday to get groceries for the week, and when we do that, we meal plan at the same time. This Sunday the morning flew by, and before I knew what happened, it was time for the 2:30 workout. I did that and when I got home it was time to go to Youth group. GAAA!! I have been looking back through my eating planner and see that at least twice now I haven't eaten 1000 calories for the entire day. I know that the nutritionist will say something to me about it at the meeting tomorrow night. My fear is that I won't have lost anything. I do feel like eating with the stress.....absolutely everything, especially sweet things. I even gave in to temptation today and had a handful of "Runt" candy from the machine for .25 cents. I hope I get the opportunity to talk to the psychologist soon.
Today the work out is in the man gym. I am happy to say that I have not had any problems with the hand scanner this week, and my bruise from the turnstile is a nice shade of green. I must be healing some, AND I have not forgotten my water once this week so far. I do make sure and get a towel everyday now, because I seem to be sweating more now than ever. It is not the "Oh my...blot, blot, I'm perspiring...dab, dab" this is a full on, farm hand, sweat dripping in my eyes, and on my shoes kind of sweat!! And I know this is odd, but I like sweating. I have written before that I picture the fat just melting away...go fat go! Today's workout buddies were one other team member and myself, the praying lady, and two mentors. I find myself thinking about the two team members that don't come at all and it is beginning to make me mad. They are either sick, busy, over committed to whatever, or who know what else, but they sure don't make an effort to be part of the team.
So Ron has something different in store for us today, He starts us out doing squats...lots of them...and he wandered off, so here we were squat, stand, squat, stand..for about 10 minutes. Then he comes over and gives each of us a dumbbell and orders us through this doorway to a set of stairs. Now, this is totally different from the other stairs because it is 12 steps up, then 12 steps down, and we are told to do this 10 times, then grab the weights. It was a nice surprise to me that I could do this without stopping, my legs burned, but I still didn't have to stop. We did cycles with the weights then up the stairs, then V-ups, then push ups, then back down the stairs, squats and start all over again. There was an aerobic class of some sort going on in the room adjacent to the hallway we were in, and it is a good thing that the music was loud, because I was groaning doing the V-up stomach exercises, and the praying lady was making noises that sounded a lot like childbirth. My guy team mate kept scooching away from her and I like one of us was going to blow! It made him go faster which was good. We were into our fourth cycle and it was time to do the v-ups again. The mentor saw that I was struggling, and she brought up my stomach surgery, thinking that I was in pain because of that. I wasn't, It was because I'm fat in the middle and my muscles are trying to come back to life, but then Ron hears her trying to help me, and he's yelling up the stairs to me to do this or that, not to strain and hurt myself. I WASN"T!!!!! I kept telling him (them, everyone) that I was fine and that I was groaning because I am out of shape!!! If I hadn't talked about it that first week, no one would have known. I appreciated them trying to help but it made me mad! The next two cycles they kept an eye on me, just to be sure I was fine, so I did a different type of stomach exercise to get done.
We finished up in the stairwell and hallway, and came back into the man gym to do some floor work. We did a "plank", and for those not familiar, you lay on your stomach and on the count of three, you raise your middle up until you are balancing on your forearms, and toes. OMG! I thought we had done some pretty hard things, but this took the cake. Then to make it worse, we did the "plank" on our sided too. At one point Rom congratulated us on the various ways we were cheating on the exercise. That made us laugh and we were a mess from then on. We got done, and cleaned off the mats, and when I looked in the mirror, I looked done, one big sweaty mess with my shirt darn near see through from being wet. I think it was probably one of the funnest times I've had with the group so far. Since we were done, I said my goodbyes to everyone, and went to the cardio room to do the treadmill again. This time, I didn't do it. I was tired, and with all the stairs I knew I had done enough. Besides, I didn't want a replay of last nights treadmill fun, so I called it a night.
I ate a banana on the way home, and was thinking about tomorrows weigh in...I don't even want to guess.
Kelly
Today the work out is in the man gym. I am happy to say that I have not had any problems with the hand scanner this week, and my bruise from the turnstile is a nice shade of green. I must be healing some, AND I have not forgotten my water once this week so far. I do make sure and get a towel everyday now, because I seem to be sweating more now than ever. It is not the "Oh my...blot, blot, I'm perspiring...dab, dab" this is a full on, farm hand, sweat dripping in my eyes, and on my shoes kind of sweat!! And I know this is odd, but I like sweating. I have written before that I picture the fat just melting away...go fat go! Today's workout buddies were one other team member and myself, the praying lady, and two mentors. I find myself thinking about the two team members that don't come at all and it is beginning to make me mad. They are either sick, busy, over committed to whatever, or who know what else, but they sure don't make an effort to be part of the team.
So Ron has something different in store for us today, He starts us out doing squats...lots of them...and he wandered off, so here we were squat, stand, squat, stand..for about 10 minutes. Then he comes over and gives each of us a dumbbell and orders us through this doorway to a set of stairs. Now, this is totally different from the other stairs because it is 12 steps up, then 12 steps down, and we are told to do this 10 times, then grab the weights. It was a nice surprise to me that I could do this without stopping, my legs burned, but I still didn't have to stop. We did cycles with the weights then up the stairs, then V-ups, then push ups, then back down the stairs, squats and start all over again. There was an aerobic class of some sort going on in the room adjacent to the hallway we were in, and it is a good thing that the music was loud, because I was groaning doing the V-up stomach exercises, and the praying lady was making noises that sounded a lot like childbirth. My guy team mate kept scooching away from her and I like one of us was going to blow! It made him go faster which was good. We were into our fourth cycle and it was time to do the v-ups again. The mentor saw that I was struggling, and she brought up my stomach surgery, thinking that I was in pain because of that. I wasn't, It was because I'm fat in the middle and my muscles are trying to come back to life, but then Ron hears her trying to help me, and he's yelling up the stairs to me to do this or that, not to strain and hurt myself. I WASN"T!!!!! I kept telling him (them, everyone) that I was fine and that I was groaning because I am out of shape!!! If I hadn't talked about it that first week, no one would have known. I appreciated them trying to help but it made me mad! The next two cycles they kept an eye on me, just to be sure I was fine, so I did a different type of stomach exercise to get done.
We finished up in the stairwell and hallway, and came back into the man gym to do some floor work. We did a "plank", and for those not familiar, you lay on your stomach and on the count of three, you raise your middle up until you are balancing on your forearms, and toes. OMG! I thought we had done some pretty hard things, but this took the cake. Then to make it worse, we did the "plank" on our sided too. At one point Rom congratulated us on the various ways we were cheating on the exercise. That made us laugh and we were a mess from then on. We got done, and cleaned off the mats, and when I looked in the mirror, I looked done, one big sweaty mess with my shirt darn near see through from being wet. I think it was probably one of the funnest times I've had with the group so far. Since we were done, I said my goodbyes to everyone, and went to the cardio room to do the treadmill again. This time, I didn't do it. I was tired, and with all the stairs I knew I had done enough. Besides, I didn't want a replay of last nights treadmill fun, so I called it a night.
I ate a banana on the way home, and was thinking about tomorrows weigh in...I don't even want to guess.
Kelly
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Day 20 - February 1, 2011
So today has been a real bad day. Work is getting to be a real drag, and it is the kind of day that I could (and have) eat everything in sight. I brought a couple of snacks, and have eaten all of them, and have a banana for after my work out that is in danger. The difference in this bad day, and a previously bad day, is that I will have an outlet so I wont get into the food mode. I left work and headed to meet up with my group because we were meeting at 6:00 or so I thought.
For whatever reason, the parking situation at MUSC was horrible. I got there in plenty of time for the workout, but after I circled the block for over 15 minutes looking for a parking spot, I was late. Again this is a change for me. In the past, I would have left and went home, but I persevered and found a spot fairly close to the entrance. I hurried to the man gym, and the team was there, working out very hard, because at some point an e-mail went out letting us know we were meeting at 5:45!!!! GAAAAAA!!!! I had missed over half of the workout. There were two other team members there, and three mentors. Ron had the group pretty worn out when I got there, so I joined in the fun, and did the usual, squats, lunges, bar work, dumbbell work, and stomach stuff. One exercise we did was to put the weighted bar behind our neck, and twist side to side, then do the twisting except bent over. It was hard, but because I wasn't worn out, I was able to handle it better than the others. Ron asked me if I wanted a broom handle rather than my blue end weight (he had given most of the group broom handles by now) but I said no. It was really an odd workout, and when we were done, I asked Ron if I could make up the exercises I missed out on. He told me that I was fine, that I had done enough. I was sweating like I had worked out a ton, but I didn't feel like I did. I said my goodbyes to the group, and went up to the main gym to do some cardio.
I went on the treadmill and set the equipment to a fat burning program. It (the readout) said that the incline on the treadmill would change until my heartbeat was at the optimum fat burning level. Goodie! So I set it at 3mph for 30 minutes, and tried to burn fat. I had put "Bones" on the TV, and about every two minutes I was instructed to "place my hands on the heart rate pads"...so I did. Well, apparently I wasn't getting my heart rate up very fast because the incline started to change..slowly at first, then more aggressively. 1% - 3% - 4.5% - 6%...until I started noticing I was getting further and further from the TV. I had to really hang on to the heart beat pads at this angle, and still I wasn't beating fast enough. It went to 7% - then 8% - then holy crap 9%...and I am not kidding, I felt like I was hanging on for absolute dear life! Not to mention that my heart rate STILL wasn't high enough! I looked around, still hanging off the treadmill by the way, to see if anyone else was in danger of their Titanic going down like I was , and of course everyone else looked normal. By this time, I am running to keep from flinging off this monster and my earphones are stretched out like a jump rope, trying to stay connected to the TV! One of my team mates came by about then and said something to me but of course I couldn't hear him. I smiled and waved, and he wandered off. I tried lip reading and to me he said "WHY ARE YOU FALLING OFF YOUR TREADMILL, ARE YOU TRYING TO DIE HARD"...What he actually said was "Way to be on the treadmill you die hard"...it was close. At least the smiling and waving was appropriate. Before I fell off completely, I made one last grab at the heart beat pads, and SHAZAM!!! I still wasn't at the correct fat burning rate. That was it...I was done! I hit the pause button, and when I caught my breath, I carefully stopped the program, and selected a regular one...3mph, 2% incline....Phew! About a minute into the new workout, I put my hands on the HB pads, and finally, I was at the optimum fat burning...wouldn't you know it. I did the remaining 20 minutes and was soaked. I added another 2 miles to my day and came home. I ate a banana in the car to celebrate.....What a bad day!
Tomorrow workout at 6:15...then weigh in on Thursday...Oh boy!
Kelly
For whatever reason, the parking situation at MUSC was horrible. I got there in plenty of time for the workout, but after I circled the block for over 15 minutes looking for a parking spot, I was late. Again this is a change for me. In the past, I would have left and went home, but I persevered and found a spot fairly close to the entrance. I hurried to the man gym, and the team was there, working out very hard, because at some point an e-mail went out letting us know we were meeting at 5:45!!!! GAAAAAA!!!! I had missed over half of the workout. There were two other team members there, and three mentors. Ron had the group pretty worn out when I got there, so I joined in the fun, and did the usual, squats, lunges, bar work, dumbbell work, and stomach stuff. One exercise we did was to put the weighted bar behind our neck, and twist side to side, then do the twisting except bent over. It was hard, but because I wasn't worn out, I was able to handle it better than the others. Ron asked me if I wanted a broom handle rather than my blue end weight (he had given most of the group broom handles by now) but I said no. It was really an odd workout, and when we were done, I asked Ron if I could make up the exercises I missed out on. He told me that I was fine, that I had done enough. I was sweating like I had worked out a ton, but I didn't feel like I did. I said my goodbyes to the group, and went up to the main gym to do some cardio.
I went on the treadmill and set the equipment to a fat burning program. It (the readout) said that the incline on the treadmill would change until my heartbeat was at the optimum fat burning level. Goodie! So I set it at 3mph for 30 minutes, and tried to burn fat. I had put "Bones" on the TV, and about every two minutes I was instructed to "place my hands on the heart rate pads"...so I did. Well, apparently I wasn't getting my heart rate up very fast because the incline started to change..slowly at first, then more aggressively. 1% - 3% - 4.5% - 6%...until I started noticing I was getting further and further from the TV. I had to really hang on to the heart beat pads at this angle, and still I wasn't beating fast enough. It went to 7% - then 8% - then holy crap 9%...and I am not kidding, I felt like I was hanging on for absolute dear life! Not to mention that my heart rate STILL wasn't high enough! I looked around, still hanging off the treadmill by the way, to see if anyone else was in danger of their Titanic going down like I was , and of course everyone else looked normal. By this time, I am running to keep from flinging off this monster and my earphones are stretched out like a jump rope, trying to stay connected to the TV! One of my team mates came by about then and said something to me but of course I couldn't hear him. I smiled and waved, and he wandered off. I tried lip reading and to me he said "WHY ARE YOU FALLING OFF YOUR TREADMILL, ARE YOU TRYING TO DIE HARD"...What he actually said was "Way to be on the treadmill you die hard"...it was close. At least the smiling and waving was appropriate. Before I fell off completely, I made one last grab at the heart beat pads, and SHAZAM!!! I still wasn't at the correct fat burning rate. That was it...I was done! I hit the pause button, and when I caught my breath, I carefully stopped the program, and selected a regular one...3mph, 2% incline....Phew! About a minute into the new workout, I put my hands on the HB pads, and finally, I was at the optimum fat burning...wouldn't you know it. I did the remaining 20 minutes and was soaked. I added another 2 miles to my day and came home. I ate a banana in the car to celebrate.....What a bad day!
Tomorrow workout at 6:15...then weigh in on Thursday...Oh boy!
Kelly
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Day 19 - January 31, 2011
May I just say that my arms are the most sore they have been so far! I am having a heck of a time! That work out on Saturday really did me in! It is the top of my forearms, and they are so tight, I am having difficulty straightening out my elbows. It is that muscle that flexes when you make a fist. I know that mine has only had to carry around my purse by its straps, and so it is not the usual sore spot, so me doing pull-ups (with help) must have really woke them up!
So much for the whine with dinner...Okay, so today we are to meet at the gym at 6:00. I know that we are for sure going to be working out in the man gym, so I made extra sure I put my stuff in the main gym locker room! I'm getting pretty clever aren't I? Because it never fails, I always put it in the gym we aren't at, and have to use the awful hand scan thing, although I have to admit it is getting easier to use. My picture still looks bad...but at least I don't hold up the line anymore. Anyway, I went to the man gym and met up with one of my team, and one mentor. Ron said that he was having a one-on-one session with someone that couldn't be rescheduled, so the other mentor was going to take us through the work out, UP IN THE OTHER GYM! See, I planned right this time! Ha! So we waited a few minutes for her to get there, and away we went.
It was so crowded in the gym that we went into the "crows nest" area and found a corner for the four of us, right next to the track (the habitrail area). We had picked up a few dumbbells and bars to help with resistance. The instruction paper had only a few exercises on it, but that isn't a good thing because at the top of the paper it said "300 REPS"...300 reps of WHAT! That's a lot of anything to do. We were doing sets of three exercises, followed by at trip around the track, then more exercises, then more trips, etc. . Okay.....we did squats, then mountain climbers, followed by shoulder work using the bar, then once around the track...then jumping jacks, squats with the bar, and push-ups, followed by twice around the track....then repeat the first cycle but add bicep curls, then three times around...you get the idea. I jog-walked my way around the track thinking that I could jog a full lap, but that didn't happen. As the reps got longer, and the trips around the track increased, I just didn't have it in me. We did our 300 reps, and about 1 3/4 miles on the track and then did a few stomach exercises. I have to say that I am looking forward to the day when my fat roll isn't in the way. I haven't used those muscles for so long that doing the isolation stomach exercises burn like crazy. I try to in vision my fat melting away with my sweat, so I can be patient. I didn't get fat overnight, and it will take more than 19 days to change.
After we were done with the team workout, I went to the cardio room, and did 30 more minutes on the elliptical. I am a huge fan of the show "Bones", and an episode I hadn't seen lately was on so before I knew it, I had done an additional 2 miles, and burned 250 more calories. I ate an apple on the way home for a reward.
Tomorrow night the team work out is at 6:00...I hope my arms loosen up before then...
Kelly
So much for the whine with dinner...Okay, so today we are to meet at the gym at 6:00. I know that we are for sure going to be working out in the man gym, so I made extra sure I put my stuff in the main gym locker room! I'm getting pretty clever aren't I? Because it never fails, I always put it in the gym we aren't at, and have to use the awful hand scan thing, although I have to admit it is getting easier to use. My picture still looks bad...but at least I don't hold up the line anymore. Anyway, I went to the man gym and met up with one of my team, and one mentor. Ron said that he was having a one-on-one session with someone that couldn't be rescheduled, so the other mentor was going to take us through the work out, UP IN THE OTHER GYM! See, I planned right this time! Ha! So we waited a few minutes for her to get there, and away we went.
It was so crowded in the gym that we went into the "crows nest" area and found a corner for the four of us, right next to the track (the habitrail area). We had picked up a few dumbbells and bars to help with resistance. The instruction paper had only a few exercises on it, but that isn't a good thing because at the top of the paper it said "300 REPS"...300 reps of WHAT! That's a lot of anything to do. We were doing sets of three exercises, followed by at trip around the track, then more exercises, then more trips, etc. . Okay.....we did squats, then mountain climbers, followed by shoulder work using the bar, then once around the track...then jumping jacks, squats with the bar, and push-ups, followed by twice around the track....then repeat the first cycle but add bicep curls, then three times around...you get the idea. I jog-walked my way around the track thinking that I could jog a full lap, but that didn't happen. As the reps got longer, and the trips around the track increased, I just didn't have it in me. We did our 300 reps, and about 1 3/4 miles on the track and then did a few stomach exercises. I have to say that I am looking forward to the day when my fat roll isn't in the way. I haven't used those muscles for so long that doing the isolation stomach exercises burn like crazy. I try to in vision my fat melting away with my sweat, so I can be patient. I didn't get fat overnight, and it will take more than 19 days to change.
After we were done with the team workout, I went to the cardio room, and did 30 more minutes on the elliptical. I am a huge fan of the show "Bones", and an episode I hadn't seen lately was on so before I knew it, I had done an additional 2 miles, and burned 250 more calories. I ate an apple on the way home for a reward.
Tomorrow night the team work out is at 6:00...I hope my arms loosen up before then...
Kelly
Monday, January 31, 2011
Day 16-17-18 - January 28-29-30, 2011
I never planned to do a three day catch up, but darned if I'm not doing one. I came home on Thursday feeling so great about my weigh in, and running a temperature right about 99.5 degrees. I guess that all my working out, and going out into the cold (yes, it did get down into the 30's last week) wet to the skin, and me not drinking enough water, caught up with me. My family was so happy for me but I couldn't muster the energy to enjoy it. I went to bed about 8:30 that night, freezing cold, and feverish, with the "shibbers" as my little Alex called them. My temp got up to almost 102 degrees before I went to sleep. Mark thinks I got dehydrated as well, so the rest and water did me a world of good. I woke up Friday morning feeling better, and planned to go to my 6:30 team work out.
It was nice to see one of my missing team mates show up at the work out. She came ready to start with the baby shoes on, and Ron took us right to the stairwell. Oh boy....This time it was four of our team, including me, the praying lady, two mentors, and Ron. He said we were going to work out hard for about 30 minutes, and be done. So we started in the basement, at the first landing we did squats, then up, then the blue end weight bar chest presses, up then push ups, up then squats then up..then come on down. We did this 10 times and I thought the missing teammate was going to leave the gym. She thought we were done after that, but we went into the basketball courts and did lunges, then LOTS of stomach exercises. True to his word, Ron had us done in 30 minutes, and I was sweating like it had been two hours. My team mate said she was for sure coming to the Saturday 10:00am work out....Nope...she didn't! I was surprised that I felt as good as I did considering the night before, but I stayed hydrated, and paced myself, so it was all good.
Saturday morning I was sore. I had breakfast, and left for the gym. ON TIME! I was able to drive a normal speed and didn't screech into the parking lot on two wheels. Hurray!
Ron was waiting in the man gym for my team. Today it consisted of two of my team mates and myself, and since the gym was fairly empty, Ron had us work out on the equipment. I have liked using the equipment ever since I was introduced to it in 1988 at O'Brien's Gym in Chewelah. I clearly remember the first time I tried to use the pec machine. I was sitting on the seat and Dick O'Brien was showing us (myself and two other gals) how to adjust the weight and to push the pads together using your inner arms, therefore working your pectoral muscles. HA! little did he know that I had absolutely no upper body strength, and I think I did one rep with 5lbs before hopping out of it for one of the other gals to try! Good times though, once I caught on, I really was hooked! Ron has complimented me many times on my posture and control when using the weights.....thanks Patty and Dick!
Ron had us working on our chest, triceps, and shoulders, and one of the machines he had me on was a tall pull up machine, that was weighted to help you pull up. I have never, I mean NEVER EVER, been able to do a pull up. Not when I was 100lbs, and not now for sure. We used to do the Presidential fitness stuff in school, and I never did one pull up, so no award from the President for me. Anyway, to use this machine, you step up two steps, then grab the pull up handles, then step onto this bar that sinks down, and the idea is that once you pull yourself up, it will lift you ever so gently to help. This did not happen for me. I was hanging there off these handles like I was on the playground. GAAA! Ron said "pull up"...so I grunted...hhuummrrrrrr...nothing. Then he said "pull up"...and when I did, I grunted again, but up I came! He had his hand on the foot bar and was pulling (lifting) me up, and TAA DAAA...I did a pull up, he said "do ten"...I said "Whaaaaattt? I did one!"...then he said "great, you have nine more"...so I pulled and tugged, and swore under my breath...and at six I said that was all I could do...not a chance. He helped me to do ten, cheering me on, and helping me! I did TEN! I was so glad to get done, but he had us do the cycle of the three machines two more times so I did a total of 30 pull-ups..with help! I was so proud of me and we finished the work out in about an hour. He had us doing the pelvic thrust exercises again, but "Billy Jean" came on the radio so it was easy to catch the beat, and get them finished. I had the most excellent work out Saturday, ate an apple on my way home, and was thinking about 1988 and O'Brien's Gym! Thanks again for the memories! Sunday 2:30 class with the HCC group.
Sunday was the group class in the main aerobics gym, and we were supposed to do a class called Body Bar, using the steps, a mat, and of course the padded bar. When I got there, one of my team mates was there and she and I compared notes as to how awfully sore we were from the previous day! I know how I felt, I could barely lift my arms to wave, and she said the same thing. Then we saw the other team mate guy and he said that he was having a hard time also. It was a great work out Saturday and all, but being sore really made me think twice about the class and using the bar. THEN, I saw that the instructor was that same little, wound up, faster than lighting, firecracker person from the first step class. I knew right then that I couldn't do the class. I just didn't have it in me to try to keep up with her. Don't get me wrong, I will take a class from her, but when you can't move your arms and shoulders very well, it would make for a really long class. So, I took a...SPINNING class! Yahoo! I was happy! My legs were great, and all I had to do was hang on to the handlebars. I could be like a T-Rex...Big strong legs...little weak arms! So I said my goodbyes to my gang and went over to the spinning class. We had a different instructor this time so it was a little different program, but I had adjusted my bike better, so my knees didn't hurt, and the seat didn't feel like I was sitting on the head of a hatchet. A big part of the experience of the class, that makes it so great, is the music! We rode on flat roads, then hills, then downhill, then coasting, then stand up, and I had to pull myself up using my arms! Boy, I sure didn't think about that! We had the fans going and the music blairing, and the instructor giving us orders, and I loved every minute.
After we got done, we did some stomach exercises that were killer. I am very sore on my love handles and lower stomach. We did this one stomach thing where you lay on your belly and lift your arms and legs up at the same time, like Superman flying. Yes, well, it is supposed to look like that, but mine didn't because that was a lot harder than it looks. My tammates had a good work out and excellent stretching after their class. I will take her class next time, I promise!
Work out Monday at 6:00! If I can move my arms that is.....
Kelly
It was nice to see one of my missing team mates show up at the work out. She came ready to start with the baby shoes on, and Ron took us right to the stairwell. Oh boy....This time it was four of our team, including me, the praying lady, two mentors, and Ron. He said we were going to work out hard for about 30 minutes, and be done. So we started in the basement, at the first landing we did squats, then up, then the blue end weight bar chest presses, up then push ups, up then squats then up..then come on down. We did this 10 times and I thought the missing teammate was going to leave the gym. She thought we were done after that, but we went into the basketball courts and did lunges, then LOTS of stomach exercises. True to his word, Ron had us done in 30 minutes, and I was sweating like it had been two hours. My team mate said she was for sure coming to the Saturday 10:00am work out....Nope...she didn't! I was surprised that I felt as good as I did considering the night before, but I stayed hydrated, and paced myself, so it was all good.
Saturday morning I was sore. I had breakfast, and left for the gym. ON TIME! I was able to drive a normal speed and didn't screech into the parking lot on two wheels. Hurray!
Ron was waiting in the man gym for my team. Today it consisted of two of my team mates and myself, and since the gym was fairly empty, Ron had us work out on the equipment. I have liked using the equipment ever since I was introduced to it in 1988 at O'Brien's Gym in Chewelah. I clearly remember the first time I tried to use the pec machine. I was sitting on the seat and Dick O'Brien was showing us (myself and two other gals) how to adjust the weight and to push the pads together using your inner arms, therefore working your pectoral muscles. HA! little did he know that I had absolutely no upper body strength, and I think I did one rep with 5lbs before hopping out of it for one of the other gals to try! Good times though, once I caught on, I really was hooked! Ron has complimented me many times on my posture and control when using the weights.....thanks Patty and Dick!
Ron had us working on our chest, triceps, and shoulders, and one of the machines he had me on was a tall pull up machine, that was weighted to help you pull up. I have never, I mean NEVER EVER, been able to do a pull up. Not when I was 100lbs, and not now for sure. We used to do the Presidential fitness stuff in school, and I never did one pull up, so no award from the President for me. Anyway, to use this machine, you step up two steps, then grab the pull up handles, then step onto this bar that sinks down, and the idea is that once you pull yourself up, it will lift you ever so gently to help. This did not happen for me. I was hanging there off these handles like I was on the playground. GAAA! Ron said "pull up"...so I grunted...hhuummrrrrrr...nothing. Then he said "pull up"...and when I did, I grunted again, but up I came! He had his hand on the foot bar and was pulling (lifting) me up, and TAA DAAA...I did a pull up, he said "do ten"...I said "Whaaaaattt? I did one!"...then he said "great, you have nine more"...so I pulled and tugged, and swore under my breath...and at six I said that was all I could do...not a chance. He helped me to do ten, cheering me on, and helping me! I did TEN! I was so glad to get done, but he had us do the cycle of the three machines two more times so I did a total of 30 pull-ups..with help! I was so proud of me and we finished the work out in about an hour. He had us doing the pelvic thrust exercises again, but "Billy Jean" came on the radio so it was easy to catch the beat, and get them finished. I had the most excellent work out Saturday, ate an apple on my way home, and was thinking about 1988 and O'Brien's Gym! Thanks again for the memories! Sunday 2:30 class with the HCC group.
Sunday was the group class in the main aerobics gym, and we were supposed to do a class called Body Bar, using the steps, a mat, and of course the padded bar. When I got there, one of my team mates was there and she and I compared notes as to how awfully sore we were from the previous day! I know how I felt, I could barely lift my arms to wave, and she said the same thing. Then we saw the other team mate guy and he said that he was having a hard time also. It was a great work out Saturday and all, but being sore really made me think twice about the class and using the bar. THEN, I saw that the instructor was that same little, wound up, faster than lighting, firecracker person from the first step class. I knew right then that I couldn't do the class. I just didn't have it in me to try to keep up with her. Don't get me wrong, I will take a class from her, but when you can't move your arms and shoulders very well, it would make for a really long class. So, I took a...SPINNING class! Yahoo! I was happy! My legs were great, and all I had to do was hang on to the handlebars. I could be like a T-Rex...Big strong legs...little weak arms! So I said my goodbyes to my gang and went over to the spinning class. We had a different instructor this time so it was a little different program, but I had adjusted my bike better, so my knees didn't hurt, and the seat didn't feel like I was sitting on the head of a hatchet. A big part of the experience of the class, that makes it so great, is the music! We rode on flat roads, then hills, then downhill, then coasting, then stand up, and I had to pull myself up using my arms! Boy, I sure didn't think about that! We had the fans going and the music blairing, and the instructor giving us orders, and I loved every minute.
After we got done, we did some stomach exercises that were killer. I am very sore on my love handles and lower stomach. We did this one stomach thing where you lay on your belly and lift your arms and legs up at the same time, like Superman flying. Yes, well, it is supposed to look like that, but mine didn't because that was a lot harder than it looks. My tammates had a good work out and excellent stretching after their class. I will take her class next time, I promise!
Work out Monday at 6:00! If I can move my arms that is.....
Kelly
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Day 15 - January 27, 2011
Today is weigh in day. I am anxious to find out how I have done. I am excited because I feel like I did well with my eating and exercise, and scared because I feel I have done well, and don't want to get my hopes up. One thing I know for certain, I can't do what I usually have done in the past on weigh in day. I would STARVE and dehydrate myself rather than take a chance of gaining weight on weigh in day.
I have a great scale in my bathroom that weighs me anywhere from 5-8lbs less than I really weigh. I think the scale came with the house, and because maybe the owner didn't want a liar for a scale they left it behind, but for whatever reason I now have it, and really didn't want to weigh on it. I waited until everyone left for work and school, and hooked up the Wii fit. I made a Wii Mii over a year ago, and I remember that at the time I set it up I was told with my BMI, I was obese. That is such a cruel word! Then my little Wii Mii made a....boooiiiinnnngggg.... sound and got a round body. I remember feeling bad then, and I felt bad today when It did it again. If I had to choose, I would take the liar pants on fire scale over the mean Wii one, in a New York minute.
So here goes nothing....I weight in and I have lost.......drum roll......6.6LBS!!!!!
I lost 6.6 lbs THIS WEEK! So officially (because of the one pound difference from last week) I started on Friday at 222lbs, and weighed 215.4lbs today. I was the "biggest loser" for my team this week. The rest of my team did good, both men lost 6lbs, the biggest loser gal from last week lost 2.6, another gal lost 5, and we had one gal out sick. Our team moved up in the standings from 6th place to 5th place, and two of our mentors made the top 10 for weight loss also. Ron came in before the meeting started to see how we did, and when I told him my loss...he smiled (not the evil one either) and told me he wasn't surprised, that I worked really hard, and that he was happy for me! Me too! All total, our HCC group has lost 643 lbs in two weeks. Wow.
Oh, and before I forget, my liar scale said 208, and my Wii scale said 213.5. I was nearly naked on the Wii scale so it would have most likely been right on. I'm going with the Wii. Sorry for the naked vision....please remember I did say almost.
Tomorrow we have a team work out at 6:30. Here we go again!
Kelly
I have a great scale in my bathroom that weighs me anywhere from 5-8lbs less than I really weigh. I think the scale came with the house, and because maybe the owner didn't want a liar for a scale they left it behind, but for whatever reason I now have it, and really didn't want to weigh on it. I waited until everyone left for work and school, and hooked up the Wii fit. I made a Wii Mii over a year ago, and I remember that at the time I set it up I was told with my BMI, I was obese. That is such a cruel word! Then my little Wii Mii made a....boooiiiinnnngggg.... sound and got a round body. I remember feeling bad then, and I felt bad today when It did it again. If I had to choose, I would take the liar pants on fire scale over the mean Wii one, in a New York minute.
So here goes nothing....I weight in and I have lost.......drum roll......6.6LBS!!!!!
I lost 6.6 lbs THIS WEEK! So officially (because of the one pound difference from last week) I started on Friday at 222lbs, and weighed 215.4lbs today. I was the "biggest loser" for my team this week. The rest of my team did good, both men lost 6lbs, the biggest loser gal from last week lost 2.6, another gal lost 5, and we had one gal out sick. Our team moved up in the standings from 6th place to 5th place, and two of our mentors made the top 10 for weight loss also. Ron came in before the meeting started to see how we did, and when I told him my loss...he smiled (not the evil one either) and told me he wasn't surprised, that I worked really hard, and that he was happy for me! Me too! All total, our HCC group has lost 643 lbs in two weeks. Wow.
Oh, and before I forget, my liar scale said 208, and my Wii scale said 213.5. I was nearly naked on the Wii scale so it would have most likely been right on. I'm going with the Wii. Sorry for the naked vision....please remember I did say almost.
Tomorrow we have a team work out at 6:30. Here we go again!
Kelly
Friday, January 28, 2011
Day 14 - January 26, 2011
I forgot to mention that Tuesday was Madisen's 18th birthday. Happy Birthday honey! Lyndise made a delicious Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for her. We sang to her and enjoyed the cake and the non-blow out able candles. I don't care how many times we have those on a cake, they are funny. Lyndsie found a great recipe for the cake, but instead of using the oil in the batter, she substituted applesauce, and increased the amount of carrots. It was really delicious. When we grocery shopped this weekend, Lyndsie and I found Laughing Cow Spreadable cheese, it has 35 calories, and when paired with whole wheat crackers (I have Ritz - 5 = 70 calories), it makes an excellent snack.
I turned in my food log today to the nutritionist. I was supposed to drop it off at the wellness center last night, but since I didn't go there, I put it into an Excel format and e-mailed it. I know that Janis is serious about turn in the logs, or you're out of the program, so I made a HUGE effort to get it in. After I sent it I realized that I forgot to put the cake on it. Yikes!
The workout for today is at 6:45. I got to the gym and had enough time to do 30 minutes on the treadmill before going to the man gym. I have forgotten to bring my water bottle in with me again. That is one thing that Ron is a stickler about. He insists we stay hydrated while we work out. It used to make me feel nauseated to drink water while I worked out, but I sweat so much that I am real thirsty all the time, in fact the goal is for us to drink a gallon of water each day. Did you know that just drinking two glasses of ice cold water will rev up your metabolism for 4 hours? I didn't either! Your body has to work to cool the water, so SHAZAM...you burn calories. Thank goodness I had five quarters and could buy a bottle from the vending machine. They have the neatest drinking fountains because you can set your bottle on this pad, and the fountain will fill it up like a kitchen faucet. No more tipping the bottle sideways, and there is a counter on the fountain that says how many bottles of water were recycled by refilling. One of the fountains has 59,000+ bottles filled.....Makes you think doesn't it.
Once again I am the only one of my team to be there. There is the praying lady, one mentor, me and Ron. I find myself wondering again about the team. I was so stressed about missing the workout last night, but yet, none of my team make it to the "TEAM" work outs. Ron said we were going to use some of the machines to do out leg workout. He set us up for a cycle, 30 second intervals, three different work outs. We did leg extensions, squats with weights, then stiff leg dumbbell lifts. Ron was helping me put the foot covers on for the leg extension machine, so I said "thank you Prince Charming for helping me with my slipper"...He stared at me like I had lost my mind. I don't know what happens to me sometimes.... This cycle was fairly easy, so we moved over to the machine where you lay on your belly, and push your leg out straight behind you, and you kick back, then in, back, in, back, in...right until your butt cheeks burst into flames. I thought it was going to happen right there. That hurt so bad. Not in the broken leg kind of hurt, just the muscle burn kind of way. While one of us was doing that, the other was over doing the leg press. You sit in it like an astronaut then push your legs up at a vertical angle. It wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for the fat roll in the way. I said that out loud to Ron, and he said not to worry, that stomach was next. He was not kidding. We did all kinds of stomach exercises, leg lifts, toe taps, v-ups, side to side things, crunches, and at one point I was begging to stop. He just chuckled and had us do just 5 more. I really like him, but geeeeze!
We had a chance to talk a little after the work out, and I found out that while I thought I had 2.8lbs weight loss last week , it was only 1.8lbs. While I was on the scale, it was waffling between the numbers. I chose the 221and they recorded 222. Bummer. I have worked very hard this week, and I hope that it shows. Tomorrow will tell.
Weigh in at 5:30 - meeting at 6:00...wish me luck!
Kelly
I turned in my food log today to the nutritionist. I was supposed to drop it off at the wellness center last night, but since I didn't go there, I put it into an Excel format and e-mailed it. I know that Janis is serious about turn in the logs, or you're out of the program, so I made a HUGE effort to get it in. After I sent it I realized that I forgot to put the cake on it. Yikes!
The workout for today is at 6:45. I got to the gym and had enough time to do 30 minutes on the treadmill before going to the man gym. I have forgotten to bring my water bottle in with me again. That is one thing that Ron is a stickler about. He insists we stay hydrated while we work out. It used to make me feel nauseated to drink water while I worked out, but I sweat so much that I am real thirsty all the time, in fact the goal is for us to drink a gallon of water each day. Did you know that just drinking two glasses of ice cold water will rev up your metabolism for 4 hours? I didn't either! Your body has to work to cool the water, so SHAZAM...you burn calories. Thank goodness I had five quarters and could buy a bottle from the vending machine. They have the neatest drinking fountains because you can set your bottle on this pad, and the fountain will fill it up like a kitchen faucet. No more tipping the bottle sideways, and there is a counter on the fountain that says how many bottles of water were recycled by refilling. One of the fountains has 59,000+ bottles filled.....Makes you think doesn't it.
Once again I am the only one of my team to be there. There is the praying lady, one mentor, me and Ron. I find myself wondering again about the team. I was so stressed about missing the workout last night, but yet, none of my team make it to the "TEAM" work outs. Ron said we were going to use some of the machines to do out leg workout. He set us up for a cycle, 30 second intervals, three different work outs. We did leg extensions, squats with weights, then stiff leg dumbbell lifts. Ron was helping me put the foot covers on for the leg extension machine, so I said "thank you Prince Charming for helping me with my slipper"...He stared at me like I had lost my mind. I don't know what happens to me sometimes.... This cycle was fairly easy, so we moved over to the machine where you lay on your belly, and push your leg out straight behind you, and you kick back, then in, back, in, back, in...right until your butt cheeks burst into flames. I thought it was going to happen right there. That hurt so bad. Not in the broken leg kind of hurt, just the muscle burn kind of way. While one of us was doing that, the other was over doing the leg press. You sit in it like an astronaut then push your legs up at a vertical angle. It wouldn't have been too bad if it wasn't for the fat roll in the way. I said that out loud to Ron, and he said not to worry, that stomach was next. He was not kidding. We did all kinds of stomach exercises, leg lifts, toe taps, v-ups, side to side things, crunches, and at one point I was begging to stop. He just chuckled and had us do just 5 more. I really like him, but geeeeze!
We had a chance to talk a little after the work out, and I found out that while I thought I had 2.8lbs weight loss last week , it was only 1.8lbs. While I was on the scale, it was waffling between the numbers. I chose the 221and they recorded 222. Bummer. I have worked very hard this week, and I hope that it shows. Tomorrow will tell.
Weigh in at 5:30 - meeting at 6:00...wish me luck!
Kelly
Day 13 - January 25, 2011
This is a real interesting day for me. Today is the first day since I started my program that I will work out away from my team. I have been asking myself why it has been such a big deal. There are going to be many times in the next few weeks that I will have to make other plans for my work outs. It's not like I don't have a membership to a local gym. I joined that gym almost a year ago and I haven't been there as much in a year as I have to the wellness center in just two weeks.
Tonight I took Caity to the basketball game where she was cheering for the girls varsity. My plan was to be at the game with her, then after bringing her home, I will go over to my gym since it is open till 10:00pm. I'm sitting there kind of watching the game, when I realize that I am worried. About what? Failure. I am worried about failing my work out somehow. I know it sounds stupid to think about failing, but that's what I was doing. It took me awhile to realize that I was equating success with my team, rather than myself, because I have failed many times in the past. But I have to remember what was said in our first meeting, forget about past failures & successes, they will just mess with your mind. I have got to remember that I am part of the team, but ultimately any success or failure is mine, and mine alone.
At the end of the game I came home, changed my clothes, and went to the gym. Lyndsie went with me so I didn't have to go alone so that was helpful. I had spoken to Ron on Monday night about what to do and so I had a plan for the treadmill. He wanted me to do 45 to 60 minutes, at a good walking speed, with the treadmill set on an incline of 3 or 6. Piece of cake. I turned on the TV and found the movie "Bad Boys", with Will Smith...Dang he is so good looking.........Ummmmm.......What? Oh, sorry just daydreaming for a sec. Oh yes, so I put on the closed captioning, put on my iPod, and away I went. I tried to keep it at a steady pace, but when a good song would come on, I would adjust the speed to match the tempo of the song. Lyndsie was on the elliptical behind me, and must have thought I was was losing my mind, or having a medical incident, because she could see I was watching the movie, but she didn't know about the music and the faster tempo. My goal was to do 60 minutes, but, I started trying to talk myself into quitting at 30 minutes. I did that whole, "I'll just do 30 minutes", then 35, 40, 45, 50, and soon enough, I was done. I was concentrating so hard that when Lyndsie walked up behind me I jumped! I finished my work out and called it good. To this very minute I still don't understand what made this such a big deal to me or why I was so fearful.
We stopped at Publix to get a couple of things since it is right next to the gym. I can only imagine how bad Lyndsie and I looked after working out, but at least I didn't feel the need to get a candy bar on my way out. Baby steps......
Tomorrow is a team workout at 6:45. I can't wait!
Kelly
Tonight I took Caity to the basketball game where she was cheering for the girls varsity. My plan was to be at the game with her, then after bringing her home, I will go over to my gym since it is open till 10:00pm. I'm sitting there kind of watching the game, when I realize that I am worried. About what? Failure. I am worried about failing my work out somehow. I know it sounds stupid to think about failing, but that's what I was doing. It took me awhile to realize that I was equating success with my team, rather than myself, because I have failed many times in the past. But I have to remember what was said in our first meeting, forget about past failures & successes, they will just mess with your mind. I have got to remember that I am part of the team, but ultimately any success or failure is mine, and mine alone.
At the end of the game I came home, changed my clothes, and went to the gym. Lyndsie went with me so I didn't have to go alone so that was helpful. I had spoken to Ron on Monday night about what to do and so I had a plan for the treadmill. He wanted me to do 45 to 60 minutes, at a good walking speed, with the treadmill set on an incline of 3 or 6. Piece of cake. I turned on the TV and found the movie "Bad Boys", with Will Smith...Dang he is so good looking.........Ummmmm.......What? Oh, sorry just daydreaming for a sec. Oh yes, so I put on the closed captioning, put on my iPod, and away I went. I tried to keep it at a steady pace, but when a good song would come on, I would adjust the speed to match the tempo of the song. Lyndsie was on the elliptical behind me, and must have thought I was was losing my mind, or having a medical incident, because she could see I was watching the movie, but she didn't know about the music and the faster tempo. My goal was to do 60 minutes, but, I started trying to talk myself into quitting at 30 minutes. I did that whole, "I'll just do 30 minutes", then 35, 40, 45, 50, and soon enough, I was done. I was concentrating so hard that when Lyndsie walked up behind me I jumped! I finished my work out and called it good. To this very minute I still don't understand what made this such a big deal to me or why I was so fearful.
We stopped at Publix to get a couple of things since it is right next to the gym. I can only imagine how bad Lyndsie and I looked after working out, but at least I didn't feel the need to get a candy bar on my way out. Baby steps......
Tomorrow is a team workout at 6:45. I can't wait!
Kelly
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