Up, up and away!

I made it to the gym 5 times this week. Not yet on a regular routine of weight training. I prefer to do cardio and weights every time I go to the gym, switching between upper body and lower body. But the trainer gave me a full body workout and told me to do it Mon, Wed and Fri and do cardio on alternating days. I didn't protest as I should have. I like to do cardio every time I go to the gym, it's how I get "up" for weights. Anyway, I need to sit down and split the exercises up. Next time we meet I'll let him know.

Balancing Act.

So after my training session I wasn't able to work out for 2 days, I had to skip Tue and Wed due to pain in my legs They were still sore yesterday (T-day) but I was determined to go. I really wanted to balance out the Thanksgiving food. I did 45 min cardio and once my legs were warmed up they did alright. Then I did some upper body weight training. I ran out of time and had some pain walking down the stairs but all-in-all I was damn happy I went.

I don't know what to say about my eating. I think I did fair but not great. At one point I told myself I was done eating for the evening but went on to pick on honey baked ham, pumpkin pie, chips and guacamole, cake.... Obviously I didn't keep my, "I'm done eating" vow. Still, I'm trying not to think too much about it. It's the black-and-white thinking about food that I'm wanting to change. It's ok to overdo it on Thanksgiving, right?

Lots of comments about my having lost weight. Everyone wanted to know what I was doing and were just so supportive and complimentary about how I'm looking. It's hard to accept compliments like, "wow, you look great!" when I don't feel like I look great. I find myself thinking, "well, better than I looked before but not great." Damn, no worse critic than myself.

My normal WW meeting day weigh-in is on Thursday. No meeting yesterday due to the holiday. I have to wait another week to weigh in. I think that's good though, keep me from obsessing about what I ate on one day. It's amazing how I go from not giving a crap about what I eat to fixating on it. I need to find balance.

Anyway, I'm headed to the gym today to do cardio and the rest of the upper body work I couldn't finish yesterday. I don't think I'll be able to do lower body until early next week. Going to the gym today and tomorrow will put me at 5 visits this week, which is my goal.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

Who's in my Way??

I went to the gym 5 days last week and every day so far this week! I've been doing 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by 15-20 minutes on the treadmill.

I am doing some brain reprogramming about the gym. I did this years ago with Algebra and it worked. Every time I think about the gym, or working out, I consciously say positive things to myself, i.e. "I love the gym", "Working out is my favorite part of the day", "I feel so good when I go to the gym", "I love weight-training and I'm good at it." Often my mind wants to protest, but I know that eventually it won't. As I said, I did this with Algebra in under-grad (15 years ago?) and I actually went on to tutor math for a while. Anyway, I do really like going to the gym and right now I'm so motivated I don't have to push myself. But I know from experience that the motivation will wear off, so I need to get a genuine foundation of enjoying it to maintain. As I was waltzing into the gym the other day, feeling happy and confident, I realized how much easier fitness is when you aren't battling your own negative ideas about it. Sometimes I have to get out of my own way to accomplish my goals.

I rode my bike to the gym the other day! It's a tad over 2 miles and that bike hasn't seen a 2 mile ride in probably 10 years. My butt is still sore, I'm not used to that seat. I'm thinking of getting one of those cushy wide ones For all intents and purposes the road is flat between home and the gym, but on a bike I noticed these little "uphill" sections. It wasn't easy, my legs were hurting, but I made it. There's a longer "uphill" section on the way home. Miguel rode the bike home. I want to get to the point where I can ride round trip.

On that note, I met with the trainer last night. A 24 year kid who doesn't really seem to grasp how out of shape I am. While I was warming up we were chatting. I told him I'd like to try the couch-to-5k thing in the spring. Here's how it went:
Trainer: you can run a mile.
Me: no I can't
Trainer: a mile? sure you can, it's only a mile. I did a half-marathon without even training once.
Me: I can barely run for 60 seconds
Trainer: oh.

Needless to say he went on to torture me with the weights. I'm going to do everything he gave me to do but I'm worried about the squats. We were going to meet again in a week but I pushed it to two weeks while I, hopefully, adjust to some of the exercises.

Anyway, when I went to bed last night I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk today. Glad I can.

I love exercise, it feels so good. I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to get in the gym, I feel so great after a workout....