Grateful for my body!

Another great day at the gym yesterday. I again increased the work on the stationary bike. I alternated between Level 2 and Level 3 every 5 minutes. I could barely do Level 3 for one minute the first time I rode it, now I can do 5 straight, 3 times! And my heart rate is not getting up as high. So, I did 15 min on Level 2 and 15 on Level 3. My current goal is the whole 1/2 hour on Level 3. I think I'm going to stick with this pattern until I feel I've mastered it before I up what I ask of my body too quickly. I am so impressed with it though, seems to be responding to the bike much faster than I would have thought.

On a different note, I purchased a Christmas party dress. It's different than anything I would have worn last year! It's a red halter dress and I'm going to wear it with a black gauze-type shawl. I'll post pics after the party next weekend. I bought a Spanx (I bet the ladies know what this is) to smooth out my tummy. I'm so excited!!

Speaking of pics, here's one taken as I was leaving for the gym yesterday. Can you tell I'm losing weight? Miguel LOVES the double peace sign so I did it just for him.


Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Food for Thought

Lost 2.8 at WI this evening. Feeling pretty good! I'm .4 pounds away from dropping under 200 pounds. It's been too many years since I've been under 200. I think I was in the 190's when I met my husband 6 years ago. Next week I'll be there for sure!

I will get there eventually...

So here's how I'm doing the upright stationary bike:

min 1-5: Level 2
min 5-10: alternating minute-by-minute between Level 2 & Level 3
min 10-15: Level 2
min 15-20: alternating again
min 20-25: Level 2
min 25-30: alternating again

The bike nearly kills me, sometimes my heart rate gets up to 167! This is after 30 minutes on the elliptical and my thighs buuuurrrn on the bike. On the elliptical I alternate between going forward and backward (I switch every minute) so that works the thighs too. I cool down with a 5 minute walk at the end of all this madness.

I haven't hit the weights at all. I had that initial training session and since have just been doing cardio. I guess I'm not ready? I like weights but right now the cardio is wiping me out. We'll see I guess. I think I'll meet with the trainer and have him revamp the weight training program to something quick that I can do after cardio but that won't take an hour.

Whew! I am excited to go to weigh-in tomorrow (always feel like a heifer when I write that) at weight watchers. I wonder how much I've lost this week. I'm pretty excited at the prospect of dropping below 200 pounds. When I did BFL at the end of '05 I peaked at about 203 or so. When the BFL 12 week cycle was over I dropped everything and promptly gained the weight back. As I keep saying, this time my weight loss is really about maintenance and not about loss. I don't want to do this again.

I got on my (probably grossly inaccurate but close-enough for me) Tanika body fat scale the other day. It said 43%. Hey, less than 50%.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Yep, it's my birthday. My purse was stolen in Nicaragua and for my birthday I've recouped most of my losses. Miguel bought me a new camera, mom's getting me new sunglasses and my girlfriends bought me a new wallet. Yay!

For Christmas I asked for a new bike seat, the wide cushy ones since I can no longer (at least not right now) handle the tiny one. It's not that my a$$ is too big (which it is, really) but that I'm not used to that hard, tiny seat and it hurts

I'm spending time on the upright stationary bike at the gym now to work up endurance so I can ride the real thing more. Last night I did 30 minutes! I don't think I could have done that several weeks ago. I did 5 min on level 2, then alternated minute for minute between 2 & 3 for five minutes, then back to 2 for five, then alternated again...you get the idea. I know I'm going to need to maintain level 5 for 30 minutes before I can really tackle anything beyond flat road on my bike. But yay! Part of my getting fit this time 'round is so much about wanting to do things I can't do right now, like go mountain biking.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy my birthday. Think of me often and send money

Okay, I might celebrate a little :)

Over 30 pounds gone! Running out to dinner (not to celebrate, just because my husband invited me)... grilled fish here I come!