Another Weight Loss Blog

30 minutes in the morning at the gym wasn't enough so I started getting up only twenty minutes earlier to get an hour workout instead. On the Trinity Trails. It's different, harder, than running on the treadmill- I think I try to go too fast, which is a beginning runner's issue.

I set intervals on my watch and the first week I was doing 3 minutes of walking, 2 minutes of running. Next week I was doing 3 minutes of running, 2 minutes of walking. I reset my intervals to 4 minutes of running and two minutes of walking and then guess what happened?

It started raining. I haven't been to the river in over a week. And I was really beginning to feel the cardio working like it hasn't done at the gym or on the elliptical at home- serious, outdoor, hour-long exercise. It's made a difference. By the time I got back to my car, a Boot Camp is just starting in the parking lot (5:30am). I've already been working out for an hour and I just feel like thumbing my nose at them. Lala, I'm done with MY workout! You think you get up so early!

DH is going away to Las Vegas tomorrow for a conference and will be gone until next Thursday. I'm expecting to fill a lot of that time lifting weights at the gym, running on the river (not so rainy forecast) and playing with the wii fit. I'm rather looking forward to it.

Haven't lost muscles yet. Must start lifting weights again soon before I do. I do think my pushups are getting lower.

Is that right? I know I haven't been very writey lately, not on anything except the occasional shout-out on Facebook.

It seemed important to note, however, yesterday's milestone. Mr. W. finally succeeded in pushing me hard enough to puke. It was after the kettle bell swings that was my last exercise and he had me cool down on the bike. I pedaled for about a minute then started feeling real shaky and nauseous and excused myself to the toilet where my stomach purged itself. Then I just lay on the cool tile, sweating.

Uck.

When I came back, Mr. W. gave me a high five.

Heh. I'm still feeling a little wobbly in my mid-section. Besides, you know, the usual soreness from a session.

But it looks like I won't be renewing my sessions. We have to buy a car, the new AC isn't paid for yet, and we just bought two new phones. Just a few too many expenses in a short amount of time. But I put a fitness application on my new phone that will be instrumental in keeping track of weights and reps and exercises to do at the gym. Hopefully I can push myself now that I've been pushed by someone else for 4 months.

In other news, I'm wearing clothes I haven't been able to wear in four years and my legs look especially nice in a mini-skirt. But I'm still not weighing myself.

...this morning.

It's not because I got plenty of sleep. I really didn't want to get up this morning and go to the gym. I had a headache and I was very sleepy. But once I hit the alarm and lay back down, I decided, what the hell.

Yay! Our gym has more treadmills! There was no fear of not getting one. And I ran slow this morning. About 4.8 mph. But I went much longer with more energy. At 30 minutes, since there was no one waiting for a treadmill (woo-hoo) I sped up to 5.5 and then 6.1 until I hit 3 miles then quit. Cooled down with a walk around the gym, showered, dressed and went to work.

And here I am at work thinking, what the hell. I'm never going to be an Elite Runner, why NOT run slow? I get to run longer and I feel better. So there you have it.

Session #21 this afternoon. And then I don't have a session until Monday- Mr. W. is out of town Fri, Sat, Sun for a physical fitness conference. I'm actually looking forward to having a Friday off. Play a little Wii. :)

The first 15 minutes were hellacious. Usually he lets me take quite a break between exercises to get my breath back. Not so much yesterday. One of the first things we did was one of the hardest. Lying on my back on a bench, with my legs bent and feet on the bench with most of my upper body off of the bench so that I can't relax- have to use abs to hold my body up. Then he handed me a medicine ball and had me do crunches.

Mommy.

I'm getting stronger with my pullups though. I managed to do two full horizontal pull ups before Mr. W had to put a weight lifting belt around me and help. I haven't been able to do even one full pull-up without his help before.

What a horizontal pull-up might look like:



Another thing he had me do was with the sled. He piled on the weights and attached a long strap to the sled. I stood on the other side of the room holding on to the strap and from a crouching position, one hand over the other, I had to pull the sled across the room using just my arms and back.

Anyway, it was all very hard but being the masochist I am, I loved it all.


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In other news, DH and I bought a Wii. It's a bit a splurge, but I've been weighing the pros and cons for months now. When it finally arrived, I very carefully kept all the packaging. If it turns out to collect dust later, I will resell it.

Anyway, we played a bit of all the sports on the included disc and had a ball! Literally! Baseball, tennis, bowling, golf and boxing. Okay, Boxing doesn't have a ball. But it was a killer, the boxing! I was quite out of breath but managed to kick Dear Husband's butt. :)

So far, so fun.

I don't even know what number I'm on. I'll figure it out on Friday.

This past Monday I started to get withdrawal symptoms. There are four full days between my Friday session and Wednesday session and I found myself needing to work out my new and improved muscles. I did a few pushups. I thought about doing bicycles. I stared at the bench and dumbbells but didn't touch. I needed a Plan.

So Mr. W is putting together an exercise plan I can do at home.

Yesterday's session was all core work, all the time. Sometimes it used my arms and legs, but mostly it was meant to workout my back, upper and lower abs and obliques. And oh, it did. The funny exercise of the day was my first one.

I sat on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me, one ankle crossed over the other. I held a big dumbbell in my hands- I don't know the weight, I just take what he gives me, but it was heavy. Then I'd lift my legs about six inches off the floor, causing me to lean back with the dumbbell- this made my abs support me while I twisted my body with the weight from one side to another. My goodness! It was hard, but it made me laugh.

Another very hard one was lying on the floor on my front. I get up on my hands and toes as if doing a pushup then walk my hands out in front of me. When they're about as far out as I can go, I then bend my arms a bit and hold. First time, ten seconds. Then fifteen. Then twenty. And then thirty seconds. Oh my god. I was dripping bits of my DNA all over the place.

Did planks, side planks, knelt on a bench and lifted weights with my legs out behind me, held on to a bar while crossing one ankle over a knee and then did knee bends. Golly wolly!

I have a feeling I'm going to find it hard to laugh later- Starting to really feel my stomach muscles today.

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In other news, I started going to the river this week to run. Monday I went to the gym, but Tuesday, Wednesday and today it was the river. I forgot how much different it feels to run on land than a treadmill. It's harder but I was also was going too fast- found it real hard to slow down. Anyway, I was so tired this morning I just walked for twenty minutes then went home. Yesterday I saw a kitten. Today a fox and a scottish fold cat. The cat and I were mostly watching the fox. When it stole away into the woods (stole! Fox! Hahaha! Get it?) it was just me and the cat. "Hi Kitty!" I said. The cat spit and ran away from me.

One of my gym's branches closed last Friday and them gym I go to most often is getting a lot of their equipment. Treadmills, I hope. More treadmills.

Somewhere I'd heard that summer months are the best time to join a gym- they're not so crowded. The last few times I'd been there, at 5:30am, it's been quite full. I've started to leave my workout towel on a treadmill to reserve it, and although the practise makes me feel uncomfortable, I'd rather not have to get my cardio on something else when I don't want to.

Most of the treadmill users, I feel, are abusing the privilege. There's Setting The Machine At A Pace Too Fast For Her Girl. And her husband, I'll Just Walk Along On The Treadmill Next To You Because I Love Ya Honey. There's Walking Black Guy, but I like him. He's there almost every morning and for as long as I've been there. Then there's me. That's the four "good" treadmills. The really large ones that don't make much noise. Then there are two smaller ones that no one likes to use. Although if it came to it, I'd use one. Yesterday one of our usual treadmill runners ran next to me on one while a hispanic soccer player used the other one. I hate it when the gym is so full.

I hope we get a whole row of good treadmills and take out some of the ellipticals. We have about a million of those. Or recumbent bikes. There's half a million of those.

Anyway, good run yesterday. Walked 5 minutes at 4.0 then alternated every two minutes between 5.3 and 5.8. Sometimes throwing in a 6.0. I walked again for 3 minutes at 4.0 then at the end ran for 2 minutes at 6.5. That felt good. Sweat was flying off me onto the machine. I love it when that happens. 30 minutes and 2.75 miles. The next time I get that close, I'll just go to three miles, goshdarnit.

I decided not to go to the gym today since I'll be working out with mr. w. later. He said we're going back to working with weights old style. I already hurt.

I was just printing out my food log for the past seven days to give to Mr. W. today and I realised, as I was looking it over, that I completely miscalculated one item I've been eating almost every day.

Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster.

One 8oz serving is 220 calories, 18 grams of protein, 27 grams of carbs, 4 grams of fat.

I've been drinking half a bottle midmorning and another half midafternoon most days.

One 15oz bottle equals about two servings.

I've been recording each half bottle as half a serving.

That means:

220 calories, 18 grams of protein, 27 grams of carbs and 4 grams of fat has been going unrecorded 3 or 4 days out of 7 this week. Which doesn't really affect my p/c/f percentages so much- but does definitely affect the number of calories I thought I was eating and diligently keeping track of.

ARGH!!

I've had it! I'm not taking any more of those gosh-darned pills! It's true they've been much easier to take since I started bending forward rather than back, but I just had such a horrible experience. Not unless I HAVE to, I'm not taking pills!

Two, TWO, of my evening pills lodged in my throat. They wouldn't go up, they wouldn't go down. I gagged and burped and puked up mucous until I coughed them up and spat them down the garbage disposal.

I've taken them for a week. I can continue to drink craploads of water, I can keep paying attention to my c/p/f percentages. But I AM not continuing this "cleanse".

Oh yeah and plus? Plus! My weight is back up to 176. Okay. That's still better than seeing that darned 179 over and over again but why tell me I'm down to 172 and then 171 if you're just going to pop back up you stupid, godforsaken, shitty scale!? I would've been happy to be at 176 all week! Why fucking fluctuate!?

I've been cranky ever since I left Mr. W's studio. I think he didn't work me hard enough today. I shouldn't have enough energy to be so frickin' MAD.

I guess the detox thing is working. I'm drinking craploads of water- it helps that the vitamins and herbs are making me thirsty. I'm staying away from flour most of the time- had some yesterday in Protein Chips, but I wanted to try them. But it was Tiffany's birthday yesterday and I avoided booze AND the birthday cake. Go me. I asked for a club soda in a highball with lemon and lime wedges so it would look like I was drinking a vodka with soda.

I'm averaging about 45% carbs, 35% protein and 20% fat- which is what I'm aiming for and I haven't been able to achieve that before the detox diet. I'm doing this with fruits and vegetables, Ezekial 4:9 cereal, brown rice, beans, almonds, fish and chicken and... SMOOTHIE KING! I love Smoothie King now. I had my first low-carb strawberry smoothie yesterday and I loved it so much, I'm planning on having another for dinner tonight. But I'm getting just under 1200 calories a day- I'm aiming for at least 1200, but it's harder than you might think.

I also bought some Pina Colada whey protein powder so I can make some smoothies at home. So far, I haven't had time to do that in the morning. I'm still going to the gym but I'm not running. Elliptical and jumping rope- I'm a little too tired in the morning for anything more strenuous.

Anyway, at the weekend I was fluctuating between 179 and 182 and I'd been doing that for weeks.

This morning I was 172. And I've been on my little detox for 3 days. I hope that's the food thing and not the herb thing. I can maintain the food thing.

Awesome upper body workout today. My arm muscles are so exhausted, I can't flex my bicep. Truly. My arms, shoulders and back are going to be in so much PAIN tomorrow.

After doing all sorts of torturous upperbody strength exercises, we did these killer bicep curls and shoulder presses with a barbell and nearly dying- DYING! he put me on the incline board and picked up two little 5-lb dumbbells. "Ah," I sighed in relief, "look at the cute little things," and groaned and nearly dropped it when he put the first one in my left hand.

We both laughed so hard, I almost couldn't do the curls.

When I stood up I admired my triceps in the big mirror (because I haven't been able to stop doing that). "Oh!" said Mr. W., "let's do some triceps too then!"

"but haven't I already worked my triceps enough doing the other upper body exercises?" I asked hopefully.

"A little..."

So we did tricep curls. God. In the middle of this my legs and abs are still hurting. "You know," I said, "I kind of expected things would stop hurting after awhile but now I'm thinking they'll never stop hurting."

"That's the idea, keep building and building and always change it up so your muscles don't get complacent." Argh.

And then tricep dips. And that finished me off. During my last set I reached my limit, having lowered myself, the harder I tried to lift myself back up, the lower I went until I fell on my bottom.

Mr. W laughed and pointed out that my arm muscles were entirely depleted. He put me on the bike to cool down for the next ten minutes and talked. I couldn't even lean on the handlebars. I sat upright on his very uncomfortable spin bike seat and listened.

After reading my diet for the past two weeks, he wants me to do a detox.

So after I left, I headed to a natural foods place near to downtown. After staring at the TMI boxes for 3 minutes (reading the backs were very hard as I couldn't really hold anything up for very long), I asked for assistance. I was too light-headed to be embarassed.

"Okay, my PT wants me to do a detox and I know nothing about these things so naturally I'm thinking of getting the most expensive one."

The assistant laughed, "this one is really good," she said handing me a box, "don't eat any fried foods on it and drink plenty of water."

Plus I had a Sunshine Card which got me about five dollars off the cost of the box- which was already $20 cheaper than the one I started to buy originally.

I'm starting it on Sunday and will try to give an accurate report of how it goes without getting gross or anything.



(Wut's going on with that bunny's head?)