Tuesday, March 10, 2015
"This is going to be hard, maybe the hardest thing you have ever done…"
A little blurp from my text conversation with my brother last night. Weigh in didn't go so great. I keep losing and gaining the same five pounds. I'm back up to nearly my starting weight. I'm really frustrated. I'm doing everything that I've been told and quite frankly I feel like I'm working my ass off. I know I didn't gain this weight over night and I'm not going to lose it overnight, but this back and forth is very discouraging. I know in the end it is worth the struggle, however I am losing my patience.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Humans of the Gym
I'm happy to report that after a little derailment last week, I'm back on track and feeling pretty damn good about it! Allow me to introduce you to the Power Plate:
Have you ever seen or used one of these things? If not, you need to find one. They are awesome. I have noticed that the gym has a couple of these things, but stayed as far away from them as possible because they look like a very sneaky, sophisticated scale. I wanted NOTHING to do with another scale. The one in the locker room is terrifying enough. So the claim is that using vibration it helps strengthen muscles and according to one of the trainers it's supposed to help with stretching, too. Apparently, the vibration is supposed to accelerate your workout. Something to do with Newton's three laws of motion where force on an object is a function of it's mass and acceleration: F= M x A. I didn't last long in physics. Truth be told, I dropped the class and decided to take Advanced Studies with Mrs. Means instead. So that could all be totally true, but I don't know. What I do know is that if your legs are sore and you lay down on the floor with your legs on the platform and turn it on high you get a great massage. That is how I use it. I lay on the floor and let it massage my legs. Other people do squats and stuff. I'm not really interested in that. I'll just lay there. I think they are an update to those machines that had the big belt thing that went around your butt and just shook your whole body. Ya know, these things:
I met with Judy, my trainer again on Saturday. This was our second meeting. I feel a little better about her knowledge base. I do think that she needs to work on her listening skills a little more, but then again, so do most New Jersey natives. We focused on flexibility. My hip flexors have some problems in that I don't think they have any elasticity to them at all. She gave me some easy to do, but challenging exercises to try to loosen them, and the rest of my hip/butt/thigh region. It's a 20 minute routine that will be a good start to the morning. I'm pretty sore from them yesterday. It incorporates some core work as well and gets my heart rate up without being too intense. We will see how it goes to fire me up in the morning.
I went to the gym this afternoon. After I was done showering and was getting dressed, a little girl who was in there with her mom was nice enough to point out that my "boobs are bigger than her mom's and my tummy has stripes, too!" She was probably 4. Her mom was mortified, but I thought it was kind of hilarious. At least my boobs are bigger, right? Anyway, it made me think of a conversation I had with my friend Jen about stretch marks. She made a good point, that some people have kids to show for their stretch marks, for the rest of us, we just have to go through puberty. The kid was right, I do have "stripes". I have had them since middle school. Fuckin' stretch marks. I dislike my stripes. Very much.
The little girl's mom is one of the lululemon ladies. They are an interesting group of women I have come to know at the gym. The Lululemon ladies, as I like to refer to them, are very fit women who don't ever seem to be exercising while they are at the gym. They arrive at the gym in a Range Rover, walk around in large groups, and chat. Some even drink coffee while they walk around. They compliment each others outfits and can be overheard asking questions like, "did you get that at the lulu in Summitt? Really? You went to the lulu in the city? You're so lucky. I can never get to the city. I'm just so busy." They are annoying. Not because they wear lululemon apparel, but because that is all they talk about. I love lululemon clothing, too, it just doesn't come in my size or I would totally wear it. Maybe someday, if things go well, I can be a lululemon lady. Probably not.
This gym also seems to have a larger than normal group of selfie enthusiasts. Why do you need to take pictures while you're working out? I don't get it. At first, when I met selfie girl (I mention her in my Full Week One post) I thought she was probably the only one. Nope. Not even close. There even seem to be more men than women in this category. If I EVER post any workout selflies, please punch me in the face with a 10 lb dumbbell.
The Grunting Meat Heads are another group. We all know who they are. They are loud, always drinking a protein shake, and drop things. They tend to travel in groups of two or more. They scare me, not because they are scary people, but because I tend to listen to my music a little loud and every now and again I hear one of their caveman roars and I think that someone has really hurt themselves. It startles the crap out of me.
And last, but certainly not least, my favorite group: The Cardio Dancers. You might think I am referring to someone in Zumba. Well, I'm not. I'm talking about the ladies (haven't seen any men yet) that are getting down on the treadmill and ellipticals. I can't look away. They absolutely crack me up. I love their enthusiasm, not to mention their coordination. Remember the Ok Go video for "Here It Goes Again"? It's kinda like that. A little less choreography. Click here if you haven't seen the video. It's a real treat!
So that pretty much sums up my weekend. I'm on track to finish my first full month 6 pounds under my starting weigh. I little less than I had hoped to lose, but it's steady. We shall see on Tuesday! Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by. I love the comments :)
Have you ever seen or used one of these things? If not, you need to find one. They are awesome. I have noticed that the gym has a couple of these things, but stayed as far away from them as possible because they look like a very sneaky, sophisticated scale. I wanted NOTHING to do with another scale. The one in the locker room is terrifying enough. So the claim is that using vibration it helps strengthen muscles and according to one of the trainers it's supposed to help with stretching, too. Apparently, the vibration is supposed to accelerate your workout. Something to do with Newton's three laws of motion where force on an object is a function of it's mass and acceleration: F= M x A. I didn't last long in physics. Truth be told, I dropped the class and decided to take Advanced Studies with Mrs. Means instead. So that could all be totally true, but I don't know. What I do know is that if your legs are sore and you lay down on the floor with your legs on the platform and turn it on high you get a great massage. That is how I use it. I lay on the floor and let it massage my legs. Other people do squats and stuff. I'm not really interested in that. I'll just lay there. I think they are an update to those machines that had the big belt thing that went around your butt and just shook your whole body. Ya know, these things:
I met with Judy, my trainer again on Saturday. This was our second meeting. I feel a little better about her knowledge base. I do think that she needs to work on her listening skills a little more, but then again, so do most New Jersey natives. We focused on flexibility. My hip flexors have some problems in that I don't think they have any elasticity to them at all. She gave me some easy to do, but challenging exercises to try to loosen them, and the rest of my hip/butt/thigh region. It's a 20 minute routine that will be a good start to the morning. I'm pretty sore from them yesterday. It incorporates some core work as well and gets my heart rate up without being too intense. We will see how it goes to fire me up in the morning.
I went to the gym this afternoon. After I was done showering and was getting dressed, a little girl who was in there with her mom was nice enough to point out that my "boobs are bigger than her mom's and my tummy has stripes, too!" She was probably 4. Her mom was mortified, but I thought it was kind of hilarious. At least my boobs are bigger, right? Anyway, it made me think of a conversation I had with my friend Jen about stretch marks. She made a good point, that some people have kids to show for their stretch marks, for the rest of us, we just have to go through puberty. The kid was right, I do have "stripes". I have had them since middle school. Fuckin' stretch marks. I dislike my stripes. Very much.
The little girl's mom is one of the lululemon ladies. They are an interesting group of women I have come to know at the gym. The Lululemon ladies, as I like to refer to them, are very fit women who don't ever seem to be exercising while they are at the gym. They arrive at the gym in a Range Rover, walk around in large groups, and chat. Some even drink coffee while they walk around. They compliment each others outfits and can be overheard asking questions like, "did you get that at the lulu in Summitt? Really? You went to the lulu in the city? You're so lucky. I can never get to the city. I'm just so busy." They are annoying. Not because they wear lululemon apparel, but because that is all they talk about. I love lululemon clothing, too, it just doesn't come in my size or I would totally wear it. Maybe someday, if things go well, I can be a lululemon lady. Probably not.
This gym also seems to have a larger than normal group of selfie enthusiasts. Why do you need to take pictures while you're working out? I don't get it. At first, when I met selfie girl (I mention her in my Full Week One post) I thought she was probably the only one. Nope. Not even close. There even seem to be more men than women in this category. If I EVER post any workout selflies, please punch me in the face with a 10 lb dumbbell.
The Grunting Meat Heads are another group. We all know who they are. They are loud, always drinking a protein shake, and drop things. They tend to travel in groups of two or more. They scare me, not because they are scary people, but because I tend to listen to my music a little loud and every now and again I hear one of their caveman roars and I think that someone has really hurt themselves. It startles the crap out of me.
And last, but certainly not least, my favorite group: The Cardio Dancers. You might think I am referring to someone in Zumba. Well, I'm not. I'm talking about the ladies (haven't seen any men yet) that are getting down on the treadmill and ellipticals. I can't look away. They absolutely crack me up. I love their enthusiasm, not to mention their coordination. Remember the Ok Go video for "Here It Goes Again"? It's kinda like that. A little less choreography. Click here if you haven't seen the video. It's a real treat!
So that pretty much sums up my weekend. I'm on track to finish my first full month 6 pounds under my starting weigh. I little less than I had hoped to lose, but it's steady. We shall see on Tuesday! Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by. I love the comments :)
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Arms up!
The roller coaster ride continues! So today I missed my official weigh in because of work and icy weather, but according to my house scale I am back up 2 pounds. Still down overall, but up from last week. So frustrating, but absolutely my fault because I was super lazy this weekend (damn you season 3 of House of Cards) and I ate like crap from the end of last week through today. My last couple workouts were totally half ass. It was a stressful end to the week/weekend and beginning to the this week. One of my coworkers passed away very unexpectedly. Very sad. She was only in her mid-40's, two young kids, husband. Just awful. I only had the chance to work with her for the past year, but many of my coworkers had worked with her for nearly 20 years. It was sad to begin with, but then to watch all of them lose a close friend made it so much worse. It has been a tough couple days for everyone at work. I just felt kinda down in the dumps about it and had trouble getting myself moving, so I really just didn't move much.
"Emotional" eating has always been a struggle. This past weekend is just an example of that. This is probably one of the biggest challenges for me. I'm hoping that I didn't do more damage than just the two pounds. I know one day doesn't make or break things, but I'm definitely kicking myself because I had been doing really well. But then again, that's life, right? Learning to balance the good and the bad and hope for more good than bad.
The dietician has been a great move. I have put some things back into my diet that I had to kick out for the detox, like eggs and a little dairy. I'm still trying to keep the dairy to a minimum. After having cut it out, whenever I do eat it, it feels like I've eaten something very heavy. So I guess less is better with that. I've also kinda kicked the protein shakes out unless I am absolutely crunched for time. Solid food, even in a smaller portion, is just more satisfying. More mental stuff to get over, I assume. I have found that now that I'm "allowed" to have a little of the things I love, I'm not craving them much at all. Today, I had to do a training class off site that required catering. Bagels for breakfast, pasta and salads for lunch. Hello Carbs!!! I had half a bagel for breakfast and was satisfied. I had a little bit of trail mix as well. Lunch was a little tougher. I had a big portion of salad without the dressing and only about a fistful of the pasta. It was very doable. I did overindulge a little with dessert, but that monster sized rice crispy treat was AWESOME! I probably should have been a little more realistic and only had 1/3 of it, but it was so good!
So things that have helped and worked this week are:
* Ezekiel Bread. I love bread. This on makes me feel less guilty. 6 grams of protein makes it more satisfying that just plain bread.
* Lots of water.
* Plenty of sleep. I have been sleeping much better and through the night without waking up three or four times. I've been trying to "power down" everything by 9:00 and head to my room. No more falling asleep to a TV show. Now I am asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed instead of tossing and turning for two hours.
* Keeping caffeine to a minimum. This has been tough, but I feel a lot better in the morning when I first wake up. I assume because I am sleeping better. I had a cup of coffee last week for the first time and when you haven't had it for 3 weeks it REALLY works! Lol! I'm going to try to reserve it for emergencies.
Things I'm going to try this week:
* Working green tea into the plan. One of my friends swears by it and the caffeine is lower.
* Plan better. Another friend of mine gave me some advice from a book she's been reading about will power. The idea is we only have so much will power and that is why sometimes we don't follow through with things later in the day. That said, I'm going to try to do a couple morning workouts. I just hate getting up so early, but if it means that I'll get the job done, I guess I'll at least give it a try.
So, I am really hoping that this week is my last week of creeping back up with the pounds. I've been gradually adding more to the workouts, whether it be weight or duration with cardio. I'm feeling pretty good, not as good as I have in the past, but that should come with more time and effort. Thanks again for checking in on me. More soon...
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