Gym Update- Wednesday Edition

This morning I was given the challenge of doing a rowing machine time trial. I needed to do 100 meters in 5 minutes. The last time I did this I did it in 8 minutes. So off I went pretending I was Marnie McBean or something silly like that. I was trying to focus on the distance that was ticking away. Anyway I nearly keeled over but I did it in under 5 mins. When I was done, my trainer was super excited and said I was actually faster than some of the 20 yr old guys that he trains! Woot, that made me feel grand.

lots of leg work today, and some extra cardio. Tomorrow morning I am going to attempt running for 4 minutes straight for the first time. Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it- lol

Gym post

A sleepy Monday. I was out late last night (with Sean!) and it was really hard to wake up this morning. Anyway, got to the gym and did a 20 minute run walk cycle, run 1 min, walk 1 min, run 2 min walk 2, run 3, walk three, then did the 2 and 1 cycle again. It was so much easier this morning. I think my legs are getting stronger. I also did a bunch of arm and shoulder exercises and lots of stretching to balance it all out.

Not much else is going on, so far the cake adventure is tanking - BIG TIME....Arrrrrrrgh.

Friday workout and weigh in

This morning I had my 3rd weigh in....... I lost 1 lb BUT, since I am on my period I am happy because I normally gain 3 to 5 pounds during this time. The big news is that I lost 5lbs of FAT since Monday. Yeah I am stoked.

Today we did some more martial arts, I guess it is part of Thai Boxing, but today was all about kicking. I kicked my trainers pads so much, my legs from the knee to foot was beet red and I'm sure will be black and blue tomorrow.... I love this workout. Apparently I burned in excess of 1000 calories today.

I plan to kick up the cardio this weekend and do an hour on the treadmill both Saturday and Sunday.

Also, my younger sis is getting married next weekend, a small family do at a nice restaurant, but I am bringing the cake, so I am doing a trial run this weekend and will immediately take it in to work to be eaten.

Wednesday workout

I'm a bit behind here, but I do want to post about wednesdays workout, I think I have found my calling, as far as fitness goes...... it is BOXING! I actually got to put on the big red boxing gloves and learn several punching and kicking combinations. It felt so awesome and it made me feel strong, and fit and fricken cool..... I had at least 3 people come up to me and make a cool comment about my boxing my trainer- lol. They were all guys and it was clear that they were liking the fact that I was sparring with my trainer. I felt great and since my trainer does MMA (mixed martial arts) and loves teaching boxing, I think this will be incorporated more into my workouts. He is even getting me some wraps for my wrists and hands for tomorrow. My wrists were bending because of the force of my punches which really hurt and my knuckles are skinned because of the friction inside the gloves.

Now this morning I could not go to workout though..... I woke up and could not move my arms. My legs are still sore from my workout on Monday. My hands and wrists are all cramped up from the boxing gloves and one knuckle is all cut from chafing. Add to that menstral cramps, and a low pressure headache and that pretty much sums up how I was feeling this morning- lol

Anyway, tomorrow is another weigh in and I am very worried. I am all bloaty and I am afraid I will be facing another outburst from my trainer like last week!.

I will finish with an NSV. I just came back from Shoppers Drug Mart, where I went to pick up a few things. In the drive over, I started to think about chips (my absolute downfall). I walked around the store and found myself in the chip isle thinking I would pick up a bad and have one or two (yeah right) So I found a can of low fat pringles, then saw a smaller can of pringles and looked at the calories. hmmmmm 150 calories for 28 g, which is roughly 1/10 of the big can or something ridiculous like that. Then I calculated when I go to the gym and nearly kill myself trying to run on the treadmill, I burn about 250 cal in 40 mins..... it made me realize that first off, I would probably be up on the scale tomorrow because of water weight, and second, i would need to run on the tread mill for like 3 days straight to burn off those chips... I decided it was not worth it and put them down and happily walked away. I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!!!!! They will definitely look better on someone else's ass than mine :)

Monday Weigh in

So I had a weigh in this morning and since Friday I lost 2.6lbs..... I am still 1 lb over the target that I should be at but I plan on making that up this week. Today's PT session was rather brutal. 5 min warm up on the bike, followed by a running cycle (not on the treadmill, through the gym) where I was doing 400 m sprint/walk cycles.... and I did it 5 times. Then it was on to some weigh lifting, targeting my hamstrings and some squats with a 25lb barbell over my shoulder, and then we finished up the day with 100 sit ups. It wasn't too bad, and my trainer was in a good mood today-no yelling, no tears, it was a good day

Sunday, July 19

Met up with a friend of mine this morning and we hit a local high school to get in some exercise. They had a great track so we did run/walk intervals for 1 mile. Then we did some stretching and some lines across the football field, crossovers, lunges, squats, high knees. Not bad and it was cool out today, so no sweating :) My friend Nareefa and I were laughing because we used to meet up weekly and go out to a restaurant and eat, and now we meet up weekly and exercise.....my oh my how things have changed, but we both feel better for it!

My plans to meet up with my cousin later have fallen through, so I may attempt another visit to the gym today and do some running on the treadmill.

Gym Update

Went to the gym this morning and did 45 minutes of cardio (2 miles in 40 mins)then did 15 mins on the machines. I'm sure I sweat out about 3lbs- lol.... When I came home my weight was back down to where I was last Friday, and before this weeks gain. So now I only need to lose another 2 lbs before Monday's weigh in ***sigh****

Hard Day at the Gym

Today, I went to the gym pumped at the running cycle I was supposed to be doing. I had my weekly weigh in first and was up 1.6lbs. Not quite sure how this happened as I was pretty good this week for the most part, but I was up. My trainer was really mad! I went to the treadmill to start my warm up and he came up behind me and just went on and on and on about how I am soooooo far behind where I should be and I'm not giving enough of an effort and if I keep gaining weight at this rate, I will be 100 lbs heavier in two years and that I am simply wasting my money if I keep going at this pace. I was walking on the treadmill looking straight ahead with my eyes totally filled with tears. I was about 1 second away from jumping off the treadmill and running into the change room to bawl my eyes out :(

The thing is, I am not a very confident person, and my confidence has been soaring based simply on what I have been able to accomplish since joining the gym. I think all of the ground that I gained in the last 6 mos was wiped out by his tirade.....

Anyway he told me the cycle I had to do was run for 1 min, walk for 1 min, run for 2 minutes, walk for 2 minutes, run for 3 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, and then repeat the 2 minute cycle and the 1 minute cycle. Up until now, I have barely been able to run for 2 minutes, so the thought of running for 3 minutes absolutely freaked me out BUT, I was so upset, and knew that my trainer was upset that I didn't dare stop running, and I absolutely killed all of the cycles..... I RAN FOR 3 MINUTES STRAIGHT!

I really didn't get the total satisfaction of this accomplishment though because I left feeling so upset about the whole morning. After thinking about it, I hope (or maybe I just want to believe) that he was just trying to get me going, to make me push harder than I ever have. I am going back tomorrow morning to run again on my own, and I will try to duplicate the cycle I did today. I am going to push through the discomfort and kick some ass. Maybe I'll even try for a 4 minute cycle just to prove that I CAN do this and I CAN push myself harder.

To end on a good note, after the gym I was upset and on my drive into work (on the highway) i was thinking about everything that happened, and again the tears started welling up in my eyes (I am the biggest WIMP ever, I know this and admit it to you). Anyway there was a guy in the car next to me and his doggie had his head out of the back window, and well you can imagine how windy it was and this doggies lips (do dogs have lips) were just flapping around in the wind..... I burst out laughing and the "Trainer Bob" episode at the gym was forgotten.

Gym Update

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



So today was an "extra" day, meaning I did not work with my trainer, but went in to do some cardio. I did a 20 minute interval on the treadmill- 1:1 run/walk interval which I am happy with. It is always so much harder to push myself when I don't have BJ standing beside me telling me I can do it.

My counter tells me that it is under 100 days until I do my first 5k race. This is keeping me motivated, and is also making me nervous.....

Off to work I go.......

MIA

I have not felt like writing anything for the last while, but thought it's time to get back to it. I always seem do stay more focused when I write stuff down.

So today at the gym I did a 5 min warm up on the treadmill, and then BJ told me my goal for today is to do 1 mile in under 20 mins. So I did intervals 1 min run at 4 mph, 1 min walk at 2mph, for the entire time and I clocked in at about 18 mins, so not bad. The good thing is that my recover (walk time) was 1 minute when it is normally 2 minutes, so this is progress. I talked to BJ about perhaps doing some shorter sprints, as perhaps if I can push through some harder speeds, moving back down to a lower speed will allow me to run for a longer period. He thought that was a good idea and said we will try it next week. The second half of the class was all about the legs. Doing lines (high knees, lunges, frankensteins-lol I love the names) and then the last 15 minutes was on the bonsu ball. It was a rough workout but I made it through pretty decently. I need to make my goal of 2lb loss this week to stay on target with my 20 lb goal I have set, so I am trying to work out at a higher intensity than normal.

Not much else going on in my life at the moment, gearing up to take a couple of weeks holiday at the beginning of August which I am soooooo looking forward to.

250....... this is the number

of fricken crunches my trainer made me do today, and that is after doing a 45 minute cycle on the treadmill, which included 1 minute running intervals 10 times.

I was told last Friday that I am not progressing as quickly as I should and that I need to up my level of commitment, that means doing a workout every day, as well as working harder during my training sessions. This was hard to hear but it is the truth. For anyone who watched the biggest loser, I find that I am a lot like Joelle who is always trying to talk her way out of doing something..... I have Bob's tirade bookmarked on utube and have been watching it( it's the "shut the *F* up and do it" episode).

So I have been given a challenge. Lose 20lbs in the next two months or ...... shave my head bald! The key here was for me to pick a consequence that I just would NOT let happen, and well I am pretty fanatical about my hair, so this is what I chose. On a good note, I am feeling stronger when I am running, my legs are looking stronger, I am still shrinking, and at 251 lbs, I am fitting into size 18 clothes (even some of my old size 16 stuff nearly fits)

Once again things are tough, but I am trying to rise to the occasion and prove to myself that I can do this.......