Revamp Your Physique

10 months later...

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:16:00 +0000

As you can see, I'm not the most consistent blogger. Or at anything, really. It's been pointed out to me numerous times this year that I start something and I'm 100% into it, and then I drop it just as fast as I started it. It's true. It's like a shortened all-or-nothing cycle.

I last posted with some New Year's resolutions. Let's see how I did. As of this morning I weigh exactly 170.0 lbs, and that is after climbing all the way up to 180 lbs earlier this year. That looks like I lost 3 of the 20 lbs I was going for from the start of the year, even though it was more than that if you count the lbs I lost multiple times ;) I don't go to the gym all that often, I even didn't go for months at a time this year. I cant' remember the whole year, there were times when I was very consistent in going.

So all in all, I would consider my fitness goals for this year a failure. But I did keep trying, and I am ending the year lower than I started it. I'm getting married in just over 6 months so it would be great to be even lower by then, but I'm (mostly) ok with it if I just stay where I'm at now.

This is kind of a down post. I didn't intend for that, it's just how it turned out. Really I think I'm ok. My clothes are loose on me. I know I'm stronger even if I can't see the muscle. I feel better about my fitness levels now than I have in the past. I just don't feel swimsuit-ready and I would really like to for once.

Hopefully I'll post more than 2 times in 2010!

Back in 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:55:00 +0000

So I just reread my last post to see how long ago it was and also what I had said in it. Wow - December 1st?! I had no idea it had been that long.

Anyhow, I have a few new year's resolutions, as it were. I've been trying to tell myself that these are not resolutions, just goals for the year. But then, that's what a resolution is now, isn't it? So here they are:

Lose 20 lbs
Go to the gym 150 times (about 3x per week)

Now if I can't accomplish #2, I'll have no one to blame but me. My hope is that in doing #2, #1 will just take care of itself! I have lost 20 lbs in a single summer before out of diligence (and that diligence was attained out of boredom - you know it's bad when you're so bored all the time with so few friends that your only solution is to go work out!) so I think an entire year should be possible.

I decided to make it a # of days to go in the entire year rather than stating it as 3x per week, cuz I know there will be some weeks I just can't make it - too busy, injured, too lazy, on vacation, etc. If I hold myself to 3x per week then if I screw up just 1 week, I'll be really down on myself. This way I can catch up and stuff. I figure as long as I'm averaging 3x per week, that's good!

So I weighed in on 1/2/09 and came out with 173.0 and 33% body fat, so I am calling that my starting weight for the year 2009. Well, kind of. I say kind of because my scale totally sucks. Like really, totally. Today I went to weigh in and it literally told me 6 different weights. And outrageously different body fat %s. I kid you not, it told me as high as 33% body fat, and as low as 21%. Really??? Stupid thing. Not to worry, I have ordered a replacement scale. It should be here Thursday. But I have long suspected that my current scale is too generous, and reads 5-7 lbs lighter than reality. At least that is what has happened when compared to the Wii Fit scale, my doctor's scale, and the gym's scale (which, by the way, all say the same thing). So 173.0 will probably turn out to be 178.0, but I can't confirm that because....

I have lost 2.2 lbs already! So at next Sunday's weigh in I'll take a reading from each scale and try to determine the ratio of difference. And then the old scale is going in the trash. Really. Just horrible. My summer of fitness, there was a digital medical-grade scale in the locker room of the gym, and that was the only scale I went by. My gym now only has the slide-the-bar kind of scale, and it's over by the water fountain and stuff. I don't want to be obsessively jumping on that the way I did on the old locker room one :)

So how have I been doing on my goals? Well as mentioned above, I am 11% towards the goal of losing 20 lbs, which is great. In January I went for my first workout of the year....and strained my calf. Somehow. Using the power of magic. I've never had a calf strain of any kind before, and I don't think I did anything to strain it, but all the same there it was. It was so bad that I was limping just walking around for several days. To play it safe, and because that killed my motivation, I didn't visit the gym again until almost the last week of January. I'm proud to say that I finished January with 7 gym visits, more than halfway towards the goal of 12.5 times per month (which is needed to stay on track towards the 150 visits in the year).

I also purchased a shiny new heart rate monitor (Miz? Your post on HRMs actually sealed the deal for me, after reading lots of people comment that their HRM was like a personal trainer and kept them honest!). I considered this purchase last October, but my work reimburses up to $400/yr on health and fitness purchases, and I had already used all of mine last year. I'm not entirely sure it will count, but I fit it into my monthly budget too and decided I wanted it even if I was footing the bill. I purchased the Polar FT60, which as it turns out was part of the new fall line in 2008, so I'm glad I waited!

I just completed my first week of HRM training. On this particular model, it can set up training programs for you. You can tell it you want to improve your fitness, or lose weight, or another one, and it will create a week-by-week program to help you achieve this goal. For my first week it had me complete the following goals:

Work out for 4:45 (4 hours 45 mins)
Spend 2:15 in HR zone 1, and 2:30 in zone 2, where zone 1 = 60-70% max, and zone 2 = 70-80% max
Burn 2650 calories

That is alot of hours. Almost 5 hours. In a week. A single week. I'm lucky if I can do maybe 2:15 of cardio in a week (I decided to make it all cardio since there is alot of standing around with weights, and also cuz I'm prone to injury with weights, and for what I'm about to say too). I decided upon my first trip to the gym that I would do it in 4 1:15 sessions so that I wouldn't have to get there 5+ days in the week, which is a huge stretch for Ms. AnyExcuseToSkipTheGym.

Here's the great part. The really great part. Ready for it? It is literally impossible to complete all 3 of those goals without doing additional work. After the first session I was about 100 cals behind what I needed to burn for that session to complete the week successfully. Why is that? Why, because I can only train in zones 1 and 2! No zone 3 for me (80-90% max), which apparently is what I usually do when I go to the gym. I just completed that week today, and I did 1:15 the first 2 sessions, 1:18 the 3rd, and 1:35 today, the 4th. I miscalculated the # of cals needed per session and ended up 70 cals over the target! Oops. So I completed the overall time, the time per zone, and thanks to even more time, the cals burned. I feel really proud of that.

After the first workout, I thought the HRM was crazy. As in, this workout was way WAAAAY too easy, I'm wasting my time. A whole lot of it, too. After the 2nd I thought it was just ok. After the 3rd, I was sore all over. And now, after the 4th, I think this HRM knows something that I don't know. Something to do with more time put in, and less effort. Which kind of directly conflicts with the whole HIIT theory. But I've tried HIIT. Guess what? It earned me nothing. I sweat, I felt like I did a good job, but no soreness after. And no weight lost. So maybe there's something to this slow and low thing. I figured I'd give the HRM at least a month to prove its point to me. And hey, I lost 1 lb of my 2.2 lbs of the year in this last week. So...HRM, you win! At midnight it will tell me this week's program. I only hope it doesn't increase the amount of time needed...

My legs seriously hurt. Calves are not strained feeling, but very, very stiff. Whole leg hurts. Youch. With soreness, though, not pain pain. About 15 mins into my zone 1 workout I was feeling the burn. Felt it even more after about 25 mins into zone 2. Hard stuff! Hard stuff parading around as cake.

So, I'm 4 visits for February. Total: 11/150 for 2009. And if the HRM keeps training me, I'm gonna hit that 150 goal in no time. Heck, I'll probably even hit that 20 lb goal no problem. So far that HRM was worth the $200.

Youch

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:38:00 +0000

Here I sit, injured for the 2nd time in...3 weeks I believe. The first time, I tried to lift my 235 lb boyfriend using a squat - I succeeded in lifting him. Unfortunately my form suffered and I strained my back. My back which already has a herniated disk. I was out of commission that whole week. Then yesterday, that same part of my back flared up again for no apparent reason. Only on the right side. Very odd.

So, haven't posted in awhile. Since I last posted, I have:

Gotten a Wii Fit
Thrown out the scale until the end of December
Become more diligent in the practicing of the 5x5 routine
Hurt my back twice
Performed my 5x5 workouts at home with my kettlebell when I was too lazy to go the gym (when my back wasn't in too bad of shape), rather than forego the workout altogether
Attempted some burpees - for fear of smashing my head in on the coffee table (limited workout space), I have given up on those and switched to jumping jacks to get my "indoor cardio"

Overall I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I really got into Wii Fit at first, it helped me make exercise a part of my day more often. It even encouraged me to go to the real gym. I haven't used it much lately but I plan on including it more.

It feels good to stick to my exercise schedule. And it feels even better after I do the workout. If only I could remember this, and have it be a strong enough influence, before the workout so that I would be more encouraged to do it.

I also think I'm working out my arms/upper body far too much in comparison with legs. The 5x5 workout actually makes a big deal out of including leg work, claiming that guys usually only want to do upper body workouts and they're missing out. But...all it really has is the squat for lower body. And the deadlift, which I've been too scared to try and have only done straight-legged deadlifts so far. And I'm not sure if it's lack of flexibility or injured back or what, but the lowest part of my back always pulls juuust a bit on those, in an uncomfortable way. Even though I also feel it in my legs. Also I feel like that is more of a stretch than a real...exercise, I guess. I've been adding in plié squats and lunges when I remember to up the amount of leg workouts I do.

I have to say, I really feel like I'm not working my hamstrings and glutes sufficiently. I've been reading Starting Strength the last couple days, the first chapter on squats, and it indicates to me that if I go deep enough on my squats, only then will the hamstrings and glutes engage. And I have to say, after seeing myself and having others watch me do squats, I'm going low. I literally don't think it's possible for me to go lower. So I guess maybe I should make sure my back angle is steep enough, as the book also said that the hamstrings really need that pull where they connect at your lower back. I just really want to find a free weights way of working them out. When I did leg presses and...leg curls, I want to say, they felt like they were worked more. But I really want to stay off machines.

Also, as listed in my bullet points, I threw out the scale until the end of the month. I did this about 2 weeks ago. My problem is, I may feel like I've been making a good effort at both the quality and quantity of food I eat, I may have the best workout ever, I may even feel/see my clothes fitting more loosely - but if I get on that scale and there is no decrease (or worse, an increase, as there frequently is if one is weighing themselves everytime they step foot in the bathroom, as I do), it's all over. I feel like a loser. I feel sorry for myself. I decide who cares if I skip my workout or eat 2 helpings of food, clearly my efforts are for naught. And that's not really helpful, especially when I'm lifting such heavy weights. Stronglifts even says you can expect to gain a good deal of weight your first month. Hence throwing out the scale for a month. I may leave it out for even longer if I'm not really feeling like I'll have made enough progress to see a number on the scale that I enjoy. I was hoping to really hit my workouts harder during this scale-free time, but with the 2nd back injury on the way, that hasn't been going so well. Squatting with a 20 lb kettlebell at home is not the same as squatting 80 lbs at the gym and increasing that every time, nor does it allow me to work on my barbell squat form.

As some of you may know, oh loyal 3 readers of mine, I have been doing push ups now since it has been added to the 5x5 program. Let me tell you, I was pissed when this was added. I've never been able to do a full push up. I couldn't hardly even do a girl push up. I've been working on them diligently though, girl-style, and can now do about 20 before I max out on my first set. Not bad for not being able to do any a month ago! I still can't do a single real push up, though. I hope to be doing real ones by....let's say February. That gives me some time. I've also noticed a large increase in my core strength, most attributable to starting reverse crunches and planks (also due to 5x5, *shakes fist*). I used to shake like a dying car engine on planks, but now the shaking doesn't occur for the first 10-15 secs of each 30 sec hold.

And that, dear readers, has been what my fitness has been like the last couple of weeks. Today is supposed to be a gym day for weight training. But I can hardly get out of my chair right now, so guess I'll be scrapping that one. I hope to have some good news soon!

Lie lie lie

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:54:00 +0000

Ok what song is this title referencing?

So I think the scale is lying to me. Alot. In a mean way! Actually, in a double mean way! It tells me 175.4 lbs. If you're keeping track, last week it told me 171.8 lbs and I was well on my way to the 160's during the month of October. Today it also tells me 23% body fat. Last week it tells me 28% body fat. There's no way I lost that much body fat in a week. If you calculate it out, and I have, this means that even though I put on 3.6 lbs, I took off 7.8 lbs of fat. All of this might be great if it hadn't happened over the course of only 1 week. And so, I believe my scale is lying to me. And really all I see is the part where I gained 3.6 lbs. Yeah yeah, building muscle, blah blah. But come on, there's no way I'm putting on that much muscle nor that fast.

Anyhow. Motivation is low. Haven't been to the gym this week yet (but for good reason - concert out of town, 4 yr anniversary - on separate nights). The plan is to go tonight and also Saturday. Le sigh!

...cuz now I'm strongggger! Than yesterday!

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Another 2 points-for-the-title-reference post. Nobody seems to be interested in these points. Did you know that each point is worth $1? Soon there will be a store available where you can redeem your points. How cool would that be.

So I went to the gym on Monday. And on Wednesday. I feel fabulous, I tell you, simply fabulous. Oh and I'm also getting stronger. And leaner. Really. Today I was 171.8 lbs and 28% body fat. I haven't ever seen myself under 30% body fat. Heck I haven't seen under 31%! Wow, is all I can say. My quads are rock hard. They're also really sore.

I bench pressed 5 whole pounds yesterday! Yeah, that sounds real impressive now, doesn't it. Well don't forget that bar. That nearly 40 lb bar. I've always wondered (and have wondered through IM to some of you reading this already) if when someone says "yeah I can bench 100 lbs" if that means they put 100 lbs of weight onto the bar or if the weight they put + the weight of the bar = 100 lbs. Not sure. Would like to know. I can bench 5 lbs! just sounds pathetic haha.
Anyhow, I've never been able to complete all 5 sets at 5 reps at this heavy a weight before. I'm ecstatic!!!

I did some really great squatting on Monday. Or so I thought. I must be doing it wrong somehow still, because I didn't feel any soreness in my bum or hamstrings, just in my quads. But I got low. Real low. One rep I got so low on that I was literally on the floor. Literally. My bum was on the floor. As was the rest of me. Yeah, I fell over. Got down there, couldn't get back up, lost my balance, and toppled over. Hooray for the power rack saving me from being crushed by the bar! Also the bar had no additional weight on it, so I think I would have been fine all the same. But yeah, embarassing! My quads have been sore ever since. I almost didn't try squatting yesterday because of that, but then after a good warmup I was able to, so I went for it. I forgot I was supposed to be doing 5x5! I did 3x10 before I realized! Then I did 2x5 to round it out. This time also with 5 lbs :D Go me!

Some jerk broke the assisted pull up machine on Monday cuz he didn't want to be assisted. Well there's a damn pull up bar for that, mister! He broke it before I was able to use it. And the previous time, there was a personal trainer training both herself and her client on the pull up machine while I waited....and waited....and waited... How many freakin pull ups must one do?! They looked right at me waiting, and did not get off it. Finally after about 10 mins of watching them jump back and forth a dozen times, I gave up. It was still broken yesterday. Maka me sad. I can't come close to doing one unassisted. Even assisted I struggle. Sigh.

So yeah. Feeling pretty great. 160's, you shall be reached during October. That you shall. Or else!! I've also been generally in better spirits since I started this regimen last Thursday. I say generally cuz I still get bouts of road rage and frustrations, but overall I'm not down in the dumps as much. Which has been fabulous too.

What have you done today, to make you FEEEEEEEL proud!! Love Biggest Loser. That theme song puts me in SUCH a positive mood. And when I watch it after coming home from a work out, I feel GREAT hearing it!

new workout gear

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:53:00 +0000

No, this doesn't mean I reached my goal of being and staying under 170 for an entire week. It means I was tired of walking around in highwater pants and a single workout outift :( So this weekend I went in search of new yet affordable workout attire.

I knew for sure I wanted a new pair of pants. A long enough pair of pants. And not track pants. Those I have. They feel like pyjamas. You wouldn't believe how many varieties of pants there are. And you would believe even less how very few out of those are actually worth a damn. In the end I decided I liked only 2 styles out of all that they had (they = Target, naturally :D). One of them felt more like I was wearing a shiny lycra leotard though, so I went with the other. They're tight but not too tight through the knee, and then they get a bit more flared. Or I guess not really flared, but not stuck to your leg like a legging. They're moisture-wicking material with stretch, meaning (and yes, I tested this in the dressing room!) I can do a squat without showing the weight room full of guys my undies :D. They seem long enough...though I haven't tried them with my sneakers. I tried them with my fashion sneakers though and they seemed right. The "tall" version was about 4" longer than my foot...so quite a bit too long. I shall be trying these out tonight! Oh, and they're black.

My only top right now is a black wife beater. It's ok, but not for every single time, and also if I wear only all black all the time - well that would be kinda scary. I ended up purchasing 2 tops this weekend. The first is a green top, picture a shallow v-neck and then slice off the arms. It's also moisture-wicking. And $2.50! Yessss. That's actually why I tried it on and then bought it. That's half the cost of my "basic" wife beater! Hah! The other shirt I got is actually a shallow v-neck shirt, but made of moisture-wicking material. For when you don't want to wear a damn tank top every freakin day. Not that the sleeves are very long. I think they're about as long as a cap sleeve. Oh well. This too I shall try out today.

I in fact did not meet my goal of 172 as of yesterday morning :( But this morning I was 172.6. Which isn't so bad. It's 0.4 lbs for the week. Normally I would not be impressed, but considering the last...oh 6 months or so yielded barely 5 pounds, it's rather impressive. I intend to keep it up.

The last time I went to the gym was Wednesday (I think). Shortly after I got home I felt HORRIBLE, I'm talking really awful like I'm gonna puke, for a full 2 hours. And yes, I made sure to drink plenty of water and I even had a protein shake, so it wasn't lack of nutrients or dehydration. I'm not sure what it was, but I directly attributed it to going to workout. Which, as one might guess, was highly discouraging! I forget why I didn't go on Thurs or Fri. The weekend I meant to go both days but ran into a major sleep schedule problem - namely I fell asleep for the majority of the day on Saturday for no good reason, and slept well into the afternoon on Sunday, actually oversleeping and then feeling groggy and lousy the rest of the day. So I did not go!

I'm planning on going today. Planning. I want to go. I want to be more fit. I want to build muscle and lose fat. Heck, I just want to go look cute in my new outfit! I still can't get over the whole actually getting to the gym part. I've been doing the whole keeping my gym bag in the car so that can't be an excuse for me not to go. That's been ok. But to finish work and think now its time to go get sweaty (I can't stand being sweaty or wet)? Just an unpleasant thought. I would ideally like to be able to workout before work. But I need to wake up earlier to do that. I have help shipping in later this week for that task! We shall see if that works.

I'm just full of excuses. I'm way more into this in my brain than I seem to be able to do in reality. In my head I'm thinking, "yeah, I'm gonna go tonight, I'm gonna wear my cute new outfit, I'm gonna do the weights, I'm gonna be fabulously strong, I'm gonna feel awesome!!!". But then in the other part of my head I'm thinking "ugh, now I have to go get sweaty and get home even later than I would be already and I have to drive through traffic I wouldn't normally hit if I were just going home". And that part of my head usually wins. I'm trying hard to go with the first part of my head, though.

So far so well

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:54:00 +0000

Nobody commented on my last post, therefore nobody gets the 2 points! I know, you really wanted them.

Anyhow, the day after my last post I didn't go to the gym. Or the day after that. But I went yesterday! I was burned out from work those 2 days I didn't go, and was stuck at work late one of those days. Yesterday work finally got better and I actually ended up with nothing to do, so I left early and decided I had no excuse not to go to the gym when it wasn't even 6 when I left work.

I did some weights first. Yeah, I know I said I'm just gonna focus on cardio cuz my weight lifting abilities usually make me sad and not want to go, but I wanted to do it. And you know what? I did well. So hah! To me. I didn't do squats, though. I think that's the one that makes me the saddest cuz I just can't get down. I'll be working on that one at home with the kettlebell for now. After weights I did 30 mins cardio while watching the VP debate. The way they said the same things over and over, it made my workout only feel like 5 mins!

This morning the scale said 171.8 or so - I forgot the number after the decimal, but it was a 171 in front! My goal is to be 172 come this Sunday morning. I'm sure I'm not really 171.8 since I was 173 just yesterday! But 172 could be possible for the entire week. I'll be so proud if that happens.

I'm feeling good about getting into the gym and doing the best I can! I've decided to take it easy with the weights, just do what I can even if it seems like I should be pushing myself more. It was when I started pushing myself to pile on the weight that I got disappointed in my inabilities and stopped going. I figure lifting my not-too-heavy weight is better than not lifting at all, right? And while I'm there I'm sure to get some form of cardio in. All in all, that's better than another hour or 1.5 hours sitting on the couch.

Very proud of ya

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:54:00 +0000

2 points to the person who tells me where I got my post title from.

I've been to the gym the last 3 days. In a row! I also went last Thursday I believe it was. And I actually had the intention of going last Friday, so much so that I packed a gym bag and threw it in the car before work. But then I was stuck at work late :( Like, midnight late. Today I went directly from work, which was a first. It worked out pretty well, by 6:30pm I was on the elliptical - usually I'm barely home by that time.

All of these last 4 times in the gym this week I have done cardio only, about an hour each time, and burned between 650 and 710 cals each time. Yay! And the fitness part of it is actually pretty easy. As in, I can do 7 resistance and 7 incline with not-quite-ease-but-still-doable-for-the-better-part-of-an-hour-without-getting-winded. That was too many connected words, yes. But yeah, I'm feeling "fit". But still fat. I've actually dropped below the weight I last posted on here, but I hadn't updated here for awhile. I was actually hovering around 171 or 172 before I went on vacation at the beginning of the month. When I got back, I weighed in at 177. Sadness. This morning I weighed in at 173, 31% body fat. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. Let's see if I can't get below 170 sometime in October!

I'm trying really hard to just get in the habit of going to the gym every day right now. That's why I've only been doing cardio - when I think of going to the gym just to squat, which I lack the flexibility for squatting properly all the way down, or do overhead presses that take a lot out of me, I get discouraged and I believe this is the source of many a skipped trip to the gym. With cardio I just tell myself, just hop on the machine and see how that goes for a bit. Don't like it (as I didn't on Saturday)? Try another machine (as I also did - tried the bike for the first time in awhile. Surprise - I loved it! And it has a built in fan!!!). Still hating it? Ok, go home, at least you tried! Even when I wasn't feeling it Saturday, that change of machine enabled me to knock an hour out anyway, which was extremely encouraging. I can almost look forward to going the gym for cardio only, so that's what I'll be doing for now. Once I've got the habit down, I'll try to expand back into the weights too. It's not that I don't like doing the weights, it's just a lot of work and more often than not I end up disappointed with my disappointment.

So, I really hope I'm able to keep up my good streak of going to the gym and getting a solid workout. I feel awesome afterwards (except tonight...but that was due to some rancid milk :( ), and I know I'm working hard at being healthy. Oh and then also I can eat slightly more :D I've been pretty good calorie-wise though, I think. Still working on the type of food I eat though. While I was on vacation it was nothing but junk food provided for me, so I kinda went on a junk food binge and it hasn't quite ended yet.

On another note, I got a kettlebell the other week. A 20 lb-er. Cuz I'm strong. Actually I can barely do it at that weight. I've determined I can do 4 mins straight of kettlebelling and then I'm wiped. Like, totally completely wiped. Panting for breath. Sweat coming out of every pore. So I figure that's a good workout for 4 minutes, right? I try to do that about 2 or 3 times a day. But I haven't done it since I started going to the gym again :O I mean to, though. That was my plan for getting strength training in while avoiding the weights at the gym. Takes alot out of me though. I just need to keep trying :D

Return to gym

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:14:00 +0000

I made my triumphant return to the gym last night. Well, not really triumphant. I didn't do anything amazing, really. But I went! Triumph!

So after more than a week since last time I went, I finally went back. I worked on stretching my hip flexors at home before I went, so that I could squat better than I've been able to. I did some practice squats too, and I actually got my form down pretty well. My bum got below parallel with my knees! Yes! And finally I wasn't supporting my weight on my toes, but instead on my heels.

Well, it's a whole different story when you've got a bar on your back, your working in a cage (more or less), you're surrounded with mirrors, and there's a pile of guys behind you, possibly/probably mocking you. I got in the cage and tried just squatting without the bar. I kinda sorta did it. My problem was I kept looking at the side mirror to check if my bum was going low enough, and checking the front mirror to see if I kept my knees pushed out. All of this meant I wasn't looking straight ahead, the way I had been when I practiced at home, and it threw my balance way off. I couldn't seem to ignore the mirror and just look straight ahead.

I tried it with the bar with no weights, and my balance was awful. I couldn't get my bum down far enough, I started going up on my toes, I fell forward coming up out of one. Just terrible. I did 3 sets of the bar alone and then gave up. My heart was pounding and I felt weak. And I don't think I got 1 single good squat in. I'm going to continue practicing my form at home and hope I improve with the bar at the gym. I mean last time I did it with 20 lbs on the bar! I also can't figure out where to place the bar. I know I'm supposed to not do the "high bar" position, but who knows where your scapular spine begins?! And who can see behind them to see where it's actually resting?! So yeah. Bleh.

Before the squat, cuz it was taken as was the leg press, the leg curl, the weighted ab machine, and the lower back machine (GAH there were MILLIONS of people at the gym), I did some bench presses. I tried to do 5x5 for those. I did 4 sets of 5, and for the last set of 5, I put teeny tiny baby weights on the bar - 2.5 lbs each. They were smaller than a CD. I felt lamer with those on than I did doing the bar alone! Oh well. I think I only got 4 reps on that one, but maybe I did 5. I can't remember. But I'll start with that next time.

I did 40 lbs on the overhead press!!! I could only do 3.5 reps though...But the 30 lbs I could easily do 5. Like really easily. So that's good. I did 30 lb biceps curls, which is more than I've ever done on that one. That was pretty hard. I think I only did 3 sets. I'm pretty inconsistent, huh?

The rest I did as usual, and went to the elliptical. I did my 30 mins moderate intensity + 10 mins warmup/cooldown, and that was it.

I don't like my inconsistency in number of sets or reps. I think maybe it's because I'm still new to barbells and trying to figure out what works for me. I want to try the StrongLifts 5x5 program starting next week. But I'm wary to do deadlifts in the gym, the weight room is always full of tons of guys and absolutely no girls, and if that's not bad enough, I've never seen anyone deadlift there, and I worry about hurting myself. And also about the immense amount of setup time I'll require to get the bar at the right height since I'll be using puny weights that won't stand the bar up high enough alone. I also greatly fear the barbell row. I'm pretty sure I'm not strong enough to do it at all. And the form on it? I'll have to read alot more about it / find some videos before I'm willing to try that one. So I might try 5x5 on the other exercises. Including trying to do pullups, chinups, and dips :O Yeah, that'll work...not!

The good news is, I'm not really sore today. The bad news is, I think that's because I did so horribly at the gym :( Oh well. I will try to go one of the days on....gah I was going to say weekend, when I realized that I'm gone all weekend and won't be back home before Tuesday. Well....lame. I guess I will try to go next Tuesday then!

In weight news, as of last night and this morning I am 170.8 and 31% body fat. I'm so close to my goal of being under 170 for a week so that I earn a new workout outfit! I can't wait!!

I hate titles

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Seriously, I never have anything good for a title. It's not like my posts have specific themes or any subject to focus on. Everything is just me rambling! Haha!

Ok, so, lots of stuff. First, my productivity has increased a million-fold due to 2 seemingly minor changes. The first being I got my DVR! And it's freakin' awesome! Not only does it allow me to enjoy my favorite shows while not planning my life around them, not only does it save me time when I actually do watch them by skipping through the vast hell of commercials, NOT ONLY does it find when my shows come on *for me* so that I don't even have to remember when they're on, but it also has my shows waiting for me when I get home from work or from the gym, it reminds me hey don't forget, you wanted to watch this, so I took the liberty of recording it for you. Thank you, DVR *pets*. I've actually been able to watch MORE of my favorite shows (shows I have no idea when they air, but I always watch if/when I stumble upon them) in LESS time. I feel fully in control of my television viewing. Just last night I was out with friends, and I came home to find my shows recorded for me, allowing me to enjoy the best of both worlds. Also I then watched a 1-hour drama, and 2 30-minute shows in just about 1.5 hours. How's that for productive television viewing!

The second producitivity-enhancing change I've made is that I finally moved all of the blogs I read into Google Reader. One year ago I didn't even read a single blog, and here I am now, with so many to read that I actually need help reading them, haha! But yeah now I hit one "refresh" button and find all the tantalizing new posts instead of repeatedly checking each feed several times per day. Productivity! Of course in the couple days that I've set it up, I've subscribed to another handful of blogs, mostly cuz it's so easy to read them now...oh well!

So with all this productive laziness (really, that's what TV viewing and blog reading is), I thought I'd be in the gym more. The DVR arrived Friday night (didn't set it up until Saturday morning), and I did the Google Reader thing on Friday night. I didn't go to the gym all weekend! To be fair, I wanted to go on Sunday, but by the time Josh conceded going (he insisted wanting to go, that's why I didn't go without him), the gym was going to be closed in 1 hour. So we didn't go. Stupid useless 24 hour fitness not having 24 hours on weekends. Now Saturday...I want to say that I wanted to go Saturday, in fact prior to Saturday, I proclaimed that I wanted to go on Saturday. But I think when Saturday actually rolled around, being lazy looked really good.

I did go on Monday though! And without a worry about missing any of my shows. In fact when I got home I discovered it had recorded FOUR shows for me! Now let me tell you, I didn't even think Monday was a TV night. Apparently it is! And I got a workout in and didn't miss any of my shows.

As for the workout...I felt at the time that it was bleh. It was about 9:30pm when I got there, and the place was freaking packed. There were as many people there as there are right after work, usually! I like to start with weights (and by "I like to", I mean "I did that last time and it worked out nicely so I'll do that again"), specifically with legs so that they have time to recover while I do arms before I finish up with some cardio. Even more specifically, I like to do all the leg machines before I head into the weight room to finish them off with squats before I do arms. Yeah, yeah, machines are crap, free weights for teh win. Well too bad! I like the leg machines :P Arm machines are another story. So literally, EVERY SINGLE leg machine was taken. It was ridiculous. So I'm like ok, let's see if the core machines (abs and lower back) are free. Nope! Neither one! So I had no choice but to start with squats.

So, my form on squats is awful. Not really awful in that I'm doing it "wrong" per se, but I haven't got the flexibility required to do it fully correctly. I switched from the Smith machine to the Power Rack, per StrongLifts.com advice. Wow is it hard to balance that bar. I didn't topple over or anything, but just a very different experience. I started with no weight on the bar, to work on getting down lower. I can only go lower if I go on my toes, which is wrong, so I simply don't go all the way down. I felt weird sticking my butt out into the weight room with like 4 guys literally standing behind me. Oh well. I did the 2nd and 3rd sets with 20 lbs and it was really hard. I read somewhere that for a woman in her 20s who is "fit", she should be able to squat 75 lbs. I'm like good lord! So yeah, I have a long ways to go apparently. Better get more flexible!

I felt like my squats were awful. My heart rate was up, like last time, but I wasn't feeling any sort of burn at all. Like, AT all. I was horribly disappointed. Since I was already in the weight room, I went to do arms next. Do you know what? DO YOU? EVERY single weight bench was taken up by guys who were standing around drinking their Gatorade that they weren't even working hard enough to burn off and texting. What the hell do you come to the gym for if you're just gonna stand around texting?!

So, I was planning on trying bench presses this time (with a barbell) instead of dumbbell bench presses, so that was ok...for now. I took one of the bench press seats, removed all the weights (laaame), and tried it out. It was HARD. I was lucky to get out my 10 or 12 reps (can't remember how many I did). My 2nd set I could only get about 7 out. My 3rd set I reached actual, complete, total, utter failure on the 6th rep and was trapped under the bar. Josh being the great spotter that he is, just stands there going "what should I do?" Maybe you should lift the bar off of me! Haha! So I gave up after that. You'd think that would give me a pretty good arm workout, I mean that bar was HEAVY. I read that its 20kg or about 40 lbs. The last dumbbell bench press I had done was 15 lbs each, so 30, so the empty barbell was a big step up. But it didn't feel like I was doing anything, looking at it.

Next I wanted to do seated overhead dumbbell presses...but oh no, the texting whores were still at it. Completely useless. So I decide ok, I wanted to take on the standing overhead press (using a barbell), but alas both the 20 lb and 30 lb barbells were taken. The only other arm exercise I planned on doing were barbell curls...but again, the barbells were taken. So now I had done 1 leg, 1 arms, and was extremely frustrated.

I headed back to the regular room to check on the machines. Aha, free. So I did some leg presses (the same weight as last time, 195 lbs, which was difficult but manageable), some leg curls, etc, etc. On the lower back machine, last time I had worked all the way up to 75 lbs. This time I started at 75 and found it laughable. On to 80, easy as pie. Move it to 85 lbs, still pretty easy. Up to 90, ok finally it's the right one! So wow, my back got a whole lot stronger than I thought it would! My back felt great all last week, so I know it's really helping (surprisingly, since my problem is internal and not muscle-related). I look forward to seeing what it can handle next time, making sure not to throw more at it than I can safely handle.

Finished up my machines, back to weight room, finally the texting guys had left and the benches were free. But aha! So were the barbells! So I didn't even use a bench after all. I did 20 lb curls (difficult), and then started on 20 lb overhead presses. After 1 set I thought it was too light, so I got the 30 lb barbell. After 1 set of that, which I barely made it through, I felt like I was gonna puke, which is a sign of both being dehydrated and pushing yourself too far. So I cut my losses and stopped the weights right there. I'd rather do that much and not puke than push myself to finish the sets. I got some water (ok, a lot of water), and felt much better. Hopped on the elliptical for 40 mins, and that was that!

Two days later, I'm extremely sore, and now I can't go to the gym tonight. Well I might be able to...but bleeeeh. But still, apparently I got a better workout than I thought I did at the time. Still need to work on that hip flexibility so I can do better squats, though!

So happy

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Just a quick note to mention that today I am holding steady at 174.2 lbs and 31% body fat. And it feels GREAT! The top part of my tummy is almost flat now (above my belly button), and even if I try to shove it out it doesn't go anywhere. The bottom half (under belly button) needs work, but it will come. Rahh!!

Day...who knows of 21

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:16:00 +0000

So, I give up on the 21 day challenge. I intend to still go as often as I can to the gym, but I can't do it every day. My schedule and my body won't allow it.

I didn't go to the gym on Friday nor Saturday, just as I speculated, though I did get a bit of a workout cleaning on Saturday. Sunday, now Sunday I did great.

I did some errands and then got really lazy really fast on Sunday. By 5pm I was falling asleep in front of the TV. I was watching The N's Student Body, and something in it really inspired me. The person on the show who had been named that week's MVP said he felt so great about being MVP, and so great in general, that he felt like running a mile for fun. I thought, I usually feel great when I exercise, I'd love to run a mile for fun. So then I decided I would go do it.

Well not quite. I didn't really decide to go run a mile, but I did decide to go to the gym. I even went without Josh for the first time since we've been going. That MVP really, really inspired me. He had been working out 2 and sometimes 3 times per day. And here I am, unable to get off my lazy bum for even 30 minutes.

I decided to lift heavy. I went around to all the weight machines and free weights that I use, and determine what weight level allows me to just be able to complete the number of reps I wanted (10-12), but heavy enough so that I wouldn't be able to do any more than that many reps per set. I'm really strong. This is the first time I really, truly pushed myself with the weights. I kept going up and up and up and up until I hit that point. It took me 5 sets to find that on the leg press. In the end my appropriate level was nearly 200 lbs! Damn!

I repeated this everywhere, and I felt great. I had so much confidence after having just lifted this really heavy weight I never thought I could. I even pushed myself on the lower back machine - now I have a bad lower back (herniated disc + other discs in bad shape) so usually I take it real easy on that one. This time I pushed myself on it like I had on the others, and you know what? My back actually felt better after lifting 75 lbs for a couple of sets. Who knew.

On squats I decided to actually back down and work on form. For me, backing down means no weight on the bar at all, as I usually just use a 10 lb plate on each end of the bar. It was hard doing it with proper form even with just the bar! I felt great.

I was able to do 15 lb dumbbells for chest presses (previously I could only do 12). I wanted to try 20 too but I could only find 25 and I knew that would be too much. Maybe next time there will be a 20, then I'll try it. For all of my dumbbell exercises I stayed within 10-15lbs. Usually I have to drop to 8 on a couple of them, but this time I stayed at or above 10. Yeah that's not much for alot of people, but it's great progress for me! Plus, I'm a girl. A weak little girl. Who could leg press the hell out of you. Muahahaha.

Also something that really helped and actually made me want to continue instead of stopping, was that I wore my bike gloves to lift weights. Well I only needed them for the arm weights, but had them on the whole time. No calluses! No sore palms! Brilliant, I tell you. Now I just have to remember to bring them with me every time.

Then I did some elliptical, but oops! It's a Sunday, ie the gym closes at 9pm. Damn. So I only had time to do 30 mins + 10 min warmup/cooldown. But I spent 1.5 hours lifting weights, and yes, lifting weights made me sweat and got my heart rate up (as it should, all you non-sweaters, non heart-rate-up lifters!), so I figure that's still quite good.

Today, my glutes are sore. Very sore. I'm planning to go to the gym tonight for some light-medium cardio (depending on what my legs can handle after yesterday) which has helped in the past. But man, my energy is through the roof, my confidence is up there, I feel really strong, oh and I'm down 1% body fat! I'm now at 31% body fat. I've been at 32% ever since about 2 weeks into starting to work out back in March, and it's nice to break through that barrier. We'll see if that was a fluke though or if it really stays 31%. I can't even describe how happy I'm going to be when (not if!) I reach 29% and break 30 :O That is going to be AMAZING!

I just feel so great right now. Now if only I could remember this feeling and what caused it when I'm making excuses not to go to the gym.

Day 5 of 21

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:26:00 +0000

Failure again. I'm almost at a 50% failure rate now, great. I blame work!!!

I didn't end up leaving work until stupid 7:22pm. Got home about 7:45pm, was starving so made me some dinner. Then my TV show is on at 9pm, then I thought I had plans at 10pm but then didn't, so I could have gone then, but staying late at work had put me in a mood. So I didn't go. Gahhh!

This sucks, man. Josh says going every single day is too lofty a goal. I said I already said I would on my blog so now I have to, haha! But yeah, lofty it is. I was going to get up at 7am today (HAH!) and go do it before I come to work since I can come in "late", but who was I kidding - didn't wake up til 8:30am again like usual.

So I'm faced with not wanting to work out too early or too late. Well, lateness can't really be avoided when it comes to being stuck at work late. I mean, I could have gone right after work and maybe started working out at 8pm. Then I'm there on the machine til 9:10pm (no, I don't want to cut the workout). Then I'm home around 9:30pm. But let's not forget all this time I'm starving, pissed, and my whole day has been nothing but work work work, work(out) work(out) work(out). Fun times! NOT.

So here I am, having missed 2 of 5 days. Today is day 6. It's also Friday. For an abundance of reasons, I do not want to go workout today. For part of that same abundance of reasons, I won't be able to go tomorrow. So here I am on day 6 realizing that I have completely failed my 21 day challenge.

Also does anyone read this in any sort of consistent fashion (other than me telling you hey I posted)? I've only gotten 1 "reminder" about going to the gym since posting my please-ask-me-about-going-to-the-gym post. I fear that by Sunday I'll have given up entirely and be back in my I'll-just-be-lazy-instead-kthxbye funk again. Sigh.

Oh, I guess I do have a few positives. My weight has been holding steady around 173.2 - 173.6 all week, go me. My jeans no longer force my belly to protrude in any sort of horrible muffin-top fashion. I had battled the muffin-top successfully earlier on, but it would still sort of jut out (just not hang over), making any tight-fitting tops a no-no. Well, tight fitting tops, I can wear you again. Just you know, not any smaller sizes. My tight fitting size Large tops, here I come. Medium, you're next. Small - well I can only dream of that, but honestly I think my bone structure is too large to accommodate a small. But I think I could look hot in a Medium at my goal weight (135 - keep in mind the larger frame and height!) and maybe it would even appear as though I had a Small. I also fit this clingy top I bought last year in a freaking XL (XL my butt - no, don't extra-large-ify my butt!) this morning. But I have some scabs and scars on my back that it showed (keyhole back - is that work appropriate or not? I couldn't tell today), so I didn't wear it. But hey, it fit! And it didn't look like crap! 160's, I'ma getchoo.

Day 4 of 21

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Success!

So I got my damn Dairy Queen treat. Guess what? It wasn't what I thought it would be, it turned out I didn't care for it that much, AND it was 540 calories! What a waste! If I had still gone to DQ and gotten a soft-serve cone (which I love), it would have been only 240 cals and I love it. Lame!

Luckily I got my butt up and went to the gym after. I knew I had to after eating that thing! I burned about 700 cals, so phew. Knocked that one right out. Did a full 60 mins (+ 10 mins warmup/cooldown) of cardio on the elliptical - and I actually kept my speed up pretty high! For reference, on The N's Student Body (for those unfamiliar, this is a show on the network The N where 6 students from 2 different high schools each go to "camp" for a few weeks to learn healthier eating habits, working out [each group of 6 has their own trainer], and they continue to train with their trainer when they get back to school), their trainers told them to keep their strides per minute above 105. Compare that to my warmup which is at 110-115 strides/min, my "lazy" mode when I'm in the actual workout is 135-140 strides/min, and my full speed is 145-150 strides/min. Well, I stayed around 145 strides/min the entire 60 mins yesterday! Kinda makes you wonder why the Student Body kids are only going 105 (105 is REALLY slow). I can easily keep it around 135, but I wanted to push myself more. And today, my legs hate me for it.

After that it was right around midnight, so I foregoed (or is it forewent? According to spellcheck, those both exist...hmm...) doing lower body weights. Tonight I shall...if it's not too late again and if I'm not even deader than I am right now.

Oh, and can I just mention how mad I am. So You Think You Can Dance was only 1 hour last night instead of the usual 2 hours cuz it's the 2nd to last week of the show and they haven't got many contestants left. But I didn't know that until 7:30, which is too late for me to get ready, do 1 hour 10 mins of cardio, and be back by 9 for the show. Lame. So instead I had to go afterwards. Tonight I know it's only 1 hour so I think I will attempt to go beforehand. If I can be less lazy after I get home from work, that is.

So, I'm proud of me for the workout. I'm sad of me for the DQ treat. But in the end I burned it off, so no harm done. And now I know to stick to the 240 cal cone!

Day 3 of 21

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:52:00 +0000

Total failure. I accept it and move on.

I was too burned out from work when we got home to go straight to the gym, so I set out to cook dinner, which also happened to be a big batch cooking so I could get several meals out of 1 session. Well it about tripled the cooking time. In the time waiting for it to cook, I was starving, and for some reason I turned to the few bits of chocolate I have around the house still. I had my last Rice Krispie's Treat bar (got those a long time ago), 3 mini Reese's cups, 2 single-serving (like from Halloween bags) Twix bars, a peanut sweet-and-salty bar, and later, a bowl of m&ms (though I did try to pour out what I thought was only 1 serving, instead of snacking from the bag). Then I had my dinner (chicken marsala, mm).

By now it was 10pm and I was tired from the day, from the cooking, and upset that I let myself eat so damn much chocolate (the supply left has severely dwindled though, so I won't be able to do that too many more times! This is literally stuff from Halloween still, shows you how fast I eat chocolates). I really didn't feel like going to the gym at this hour (you're not supposed to go within a few hours of bedtime, and I had gone REALLY late the night before), but....Dairy Queen has these girl scout thin mint cookie mint shake goodness things, and they only have them for the month of July. Let me tell you, I love mint. So with just 2 days left in the month, off we went to fetch the desserts.

Oh look, they're closed. Josh assured me they were open "til midnight or later" - turns out he got that confused with Wendy's. Defeated and missing my minty treat, I went back home and declared it was our punishment for not going to the gym.

Then I had a lot of wine and the aforementioned m&ms to make up for not getting my dessert, the dessert I really didn't need in the first place.

Today I feel even worse about the whole thing. Yes I failed on only day 3, but you know what, scheduling sucks. It really does. I'm not a morning person for anything, and I don't appear to be a night owl when it comes to the gym. So, I need to do better on the scheduling. For today, I will try my best to go after So You Think You Can Dance at 10pm. You know what would help with scheduling? A DVR. Then I don't have to watch my show at 8pm - I can go to the gym and then watch it when I get back instead of planning the gym around the TV (I refuse to give up TV and you can't make me!). I'll have a DVR soon enough. Until then, I'll have to try extra hard.

Free theology class with every workout

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:53:00 +0000

I did it, I went for day 2 of the 21 day challenge! I damn near didn't, though. I was busy around the house until 11pm, and then it was do or die. I decided to do, even though it was really late. I told myself I would at least venture down there and do as much as I could.

Once there, I did 5 different dumbbell exercises at 3x10 each. Finally I got to do my arm weight training! I did an interesting one this time. Even at this hour (it was about 11:30pm when I finally got there) there were a bunch of people in the weight room, so I used the little area with weights, mats, resistance bands, and those giant balls. Usually I do a dumbbell bench press on a weight bench, but those are all in the weight room. But I saw a poster on the wall depicting people doing dumbbell bench presses while on the giant balls! So I did that! I found the hardest thing to do was to keep my head up! I think my neck worked more than my arms/chest/shoulders! But it was interesting to try to not roll around while doing the press.

Then I did elliptical for what I planned to be 30 mins + another 10 for warmup/cooldown. Except that about 30 minutes in, the gym clerk came over to talk to me and Josh during our workout. When I got to 40 minutes I was done, but I didn't want to cut him off and just walk away so I waited for him to finish talking to us. It started (at the 40 min mark) with him asking us how often we come, I said it's easy to be lazy, and somehow this led right into a discussion of the Old Testament. Don't ask me how, it literally went "it's easy to be lazy" "so blah about the Old Testament". I learned some cool things about it...but then it got into stories from the bible...and if you know me you know I'm atheist...and my workout was done....so it was weird for me. By the time he left I had been on the machine 48 mins and 30 secs, so yay for additional exercises. Except now its 1am. Me sleepy.

Me go bed now. Me hopefully get to the gym earlier tomorrow!

New goal

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:38:00 +0000

So a lot of fitness and weight loss blogs out there are doing this 21 day challenge thing. Basically, 21 days is how long it takes to start a new habit or stop an old one. Legend has it that if you can do it for 21 days straight, you have built a new habit that you can always do.

I've decided to try it. It will be HARD and I mean hard to do this every single day for 21 days. I usually take off at least 1-2 days per week even when I'm serious about going to the gym (yes there was a time when I was serious about it, and no it was not anytime this year). I figure I just need to get my butt in there for 21 days and stay however long I feel like it. That way there's not this huge block of daunting pressure on me like, "oh I can't leave until I've run 16 miles", or I'll just never go.

Getting into the gym is the hardest part, I think. It is for me. Once I'm there, it's not so bad, and I almost always enjoy it.

So 21 days starting yesterday!! Since yesterday marks my first day back in a month and daaaamn I did good (1 hour 5 mins of cardio is nothing to scoff at!).

Success tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:43:00 +0000

I did it. Finally. I went to the gym! And it only took nearly a whole month since the last time I went.

I have a sprig of new motivation. I'm currently hovering around 174 (I was 173, then 172.2 the last couple days, but today I'm 175 out of nowhere), and that's almost about 5 lbs less than when I started this whole thing (way back in March - ridiculous!), so that's good but...come on, it's been 5 months and not quite even 5 lbs. I know I can do better. I *have* done better than this before.

So, my sprig of new motivation! When I get below 170 and stay below 170 for at least 1 week, I earn my first reward. I've been wanting some new workout clothes - mainly the shirts that wick away sweat - but feel I haven't earned them yet. So when I hit that below 170 goal, a new workout outfit I shall get!

So it did take me 3 hours from the time I said "let's go to the gym" to the time I arrived at the gym. Granted the last hour of that was getting ready + transportation time (no wonder I don't want to go - I spend longer getting ready and going [and let's not forget about the transportation time coming back too] than I spend there!). But still, 2 hours just to get up and start getting ready. Oh well. I guess I should try to look at it as, hey it took me 2 hours but at least I eventually did it. So I am proud of myself, in the end.

I spent the whole time on the elliptical. I did 5 mins of warm-up (actual warm-up at a nice slow to moderate pace), 55 mins of medium-high level intensity, and then 5 min cooldown. An hour and 5 mins I spent! Can you believe it?! And I didn't feel the need to stop. After that I was planning to do some weight training for arms, but oops! 24 hour fitness decided to close at 9pm for no apparent reason. Useless. I finished elliptical right at 9pm so that was the end of that one.

The machine told me I expended 662 calories. Even if it's wrong, I still did alot. Go me! I'm really hoping I can keep going every day for 21 days (this is apparently how long it takes to build a new habit or drop an old one). I'll just take it 1 day at a time and try to remember my success today.

Calling all supporters

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:47:00 +0000

Hey guys. Readers of this blog, few that you may be. I am reaching out to you to help me. It's my latest attempt at trying to get back on track with hitting the gym.

If you'd like to help me, here's what I'd like you to do. Please ask me DAILY how the previous day's workout went. Here's the trick: you have to ask it nicely. If you ask it in a "why didn't you go" or a "I bet you didn't go" or any other sort of mean way that you think might trick me into going, I'm going to be mad at YOU rather than get any benefit out of it. Ideally, I think if you ask me something like "how did yesterday's workout go?", it reminds me without nagging me, see. It's more like you're asking how it went while expecting that I've actually went, rather than saying "did you go" which is more like you're keeping tabs on me, which I don't enjoy.

And ~~if and~~ when I tell you that yesterday's workout didn't happen, please PLEASE don't try to make me feel bad for it. Guess what - by talking about it at all, I already get the self-imposed guilt of not having gone, but without any of the being-mad-at-the-asker. I need constructive criticism.

I started this blog so that I would feel some degree of responsibility for actually doing my workouts and eating properly, but guess how easy it is to ignore your blog - very. I think that by having you guys ask me about workouts, I'll definitely have that degree of responsibility. I'll want to wow you with my amazing workout, not tell you day after day that I was too lazy to get off my bum yet again.

Again, without nagging me and trying to make me feel bad. You might think you're helping, but actually I'll probably end up mad at you and if you ask me the next day, you'll probably get snapped at! I'm a snapper! Don't be surprised when I'm short with you if you nag me ;) But if you do it nicely, supportively I guess would be the word only that isn't actually a word, I really think it could go a long way towards my progress, and I thank you all for any help you can provide.

Success and failure

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:33:00 +0000

So, I have some success. Today and yesterday, I consistently weighed in at 173.6 lbs. How, though, I have no idea. I have far more in the way of failures than successes.

First, I ate too much towards the end of last week. I could literally hear my tummy growling at me all day long Thursday and Friday, and I thought this can't be a good sign, and I ate whatever I felt like. Why it was growling, I have no idea. I certainly wasn't undereating, calorie or even nutrient-wise, in fact I felt like I was overeating as it was (before going on to later eat even more of whatever I wanted). But I did feel hungry. I don't understand this crap!! I eat properly, and I eat a proper quantity, and I'm still hungry. Tummy-growl hungry, even. As I was eating, I could literally hear my stomach digesting as quickly as it could, like I had been starving myself.

Because I then ate so so much (I'm actually not sure how much was so much, but I had a good amount of Cheez-its and yogurts...and actually that's all I can remember so I guess it wasn't so bad?), it got me down and I decided it's too hard to try to do the right thing. I do the right thing, and I end up feeling starved and then bingeing on everything in sight (which apparently was just 2 things), so why not just give up entirely and eat whatever I want in whatever quantity I want. Unless somehow these tummy noises are a sign of fat molecules being used up? Maybe? Who knows. Personally I doubt it. But I am not understanding how I'm hungry so much.

And so, I was down and wanting to just completely give up. I don't feel like eating healthy is "hard" to do, I'm only picking to eat foods that I like anyway, and I enjoy them. I actually feel sick when I eat something fried or fatty now, so it's in my best interest to eat the healthy thing anyway. (But I refuse to give up Cheez-its. I won't do it!) So when I say give up, I guess I mean give up trying to control my portion size (which has been my nemesis all along). Ok so let's continue that thought finally...I was down and wanting to completely give up, so I really did not want to go to the gym. I haven't been to the gym since the beginning of the month (or actually it might have been the last day of June that I went), and my goal this weekend was to go to the gym twice, ideally once on each day of the weekend since I didn't have too much in the way of plans.

Did I mention I was down and felt like giving up? Yes I think I have about a billion times already. Clearly I'm not destined to be a writer. So yes, that again, so because of that I didn't want to go the gym, not even for 10 mins. I've been telling myself I should make the effort to go, and give it a go for 10 mins at least, and if I still hate it then I can leave - at least I got 10 mins worth. But no, I refused. I was very, very down in the dumps this weekend, just in general. I literally walked through my favorite store, Target, and didn't care about anything. I can't be sure if that was cuz I haven't been shopping in so long that I don't like it anymore (I never was a big fan) or if it was my mood in general. I looked at their fitness equipment, which I once loved, and decided I didn't have a taste for it anymore.

Fitness is hard. My spirit is weak. It's a bad combination.

Run....running all the time...

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Running to the future...with you right by my side... OK that's enough No Doubt.

So yes! I've been running. And by "been", I mean I decided randomly last Friday that I really, really wanted to try running. Well I did, that very evening. And you know what? I ran more then than I ever have run consecutively in my life. I ran for 20 minutes straight. I had gone about 1.5 miles. The goal was to go all the way to 2 miles. But right at the 20 minute part, side pain!!! It struck hard and fast, and took about 10 minutes to walk off. I finished out my workout on the elliptical, but I was so proud of myself for running at all!

Saturday, after having spent some time Friday night and Saturday morning reading about proper running form, breathing, shoes, hydration, you name it I read it, I tried it again. Only this time I tried the run/walk method, as my running experience was limited to the previous day's run. I decided to follow this 8-week run/walk program which helps build up your running capabilities. Since I had no problem with the 20 minute run the previous day, I decided to skip ahead to week 3, which is walk 3 mins / run 4 mins. Ok, it says jog, but I call everything running.

My intention was to walk/run for 40 minutes, as that's the length of time I determined I want to do for my cardio. Sadly after only about 25 minutes of this, I was exhausted and my legs were killing me, so I finished out 30 minutes by walking quickly on an incline, then finished out the last 10 of my 40 mins on the elliptical. By the way, the elliptical after having been running is a JOKE. I was shocked, as it has been my weapon of choice for a long time now.

Sunday...oh Sunday, that was fun. And by fun I mean my legs were hurting so much I could barely walk. I think I might have gone a little too hard with running just a wee bit too fast. My leg muscles hated me for it. I decided to go to the gym anyway, but I did the whole 40 minutes on elliptical. By itself (aka not after having run) it seemed to still give me a good workout. Afterwards my legs actually felt better, so that was good.

By Monday I still wasn't recovered from the 2 runs on the weekend. I could walk better, but my sitting and standing up abilities were severely hindered. I took Monday off from the gym, but I did go bowling! And hey, that's more moving around than sitting on a couch ;)

Which brings me to Tuesday, last night! My legs were now fully recovered (whoo hoo!) so I decided to run again. I was going to go the gym after work, but then I was too lazy. I was going to go at 8, but then realized a show I wanted to watch came on at that time (also I had just discovered my laptop was majorly pwned with virii and injected dlls and crap and I was cleaning it). I was going to go at 9 when the show ended, but I decided I didn't like half the songs on my iPod and wanted to take them off. By 10 I was feeling like it was now too late and I should just stay home. By 10:15 I decided that was a lame excuse and I was going to go anyway, dammit!!!

So yes, I did make it there. It just took awhile. Having done even more reading about running by then, and exercise in general, I did a full 5 minute warmup at a moderate pace. I usually just go the first few minutes at a clip almost as fast as the pace I will maintain during the entire workout. Well, I read somewhere that by walking at a moderate pace (aka faster than you would normally stroll about, but not so fast that your heart rate is way up already), your body realizes this will be a sustained activity rather than a quick jaunt, so it pulls from fat stores instead of energy stores.

Then, since I had been walking for 5 mins, I decided to go into the 4 mins of running rather than the 3 mins of walking. I had run at 4.5 mph the previous 2 times I had run, but this time that felt really, really slow. So I put it on 5.0 mph. Better, but not great. So I bumped it up to 5.2 mph. Ahh, there we go! Can you believe it? After just 2 days running, I went up 0.7 mph. And I found it much easier to complete the 4 minutes of running than I had the first time I tried the run/walk method.

This time, I totally did it. I made it the entire 40 minutes (after the warmup) with 4 minutes of running at 5.2 mph and 3 minutes of walking at 3.8 mph, repeat (ok so that only worked until minute 39 began since (4 + 3) * 5 + 4 = 39, but hey!), and I finished with a 5 (ok 6) minute cooldown at the same pace I had done the warmup. I felt great. Like physically great. I also felt extremely proud, I had done my entire workout on the treadmill! I think I'm going to keep up the 4 mins run / 3 mins walk for another week since the next week is 2 mins walk / 5 mins run and well, that's a big difference and I don't want to jump into it too quickly.

And then, there was a guy I noticed when I walked in that looked like someone I had worked with at Resnet. He was still there when I finished, so I went up to him. It was him! I was shocked to see him here (not the same city as in college), so I assumed he had moved for work - and then I remembered that he had wanted to work for my company. I assumed that must have been what happened. But as it turned out, he grew up here! He just got back from several months in Romania and is looking for a job now while staying with his parents. But it was crazy seeing him here!

So there you have it, I am enjoying my successes as a newfound runner. I think it is also aiding my appetite. I've found that I become fuller more easily these last few days, which is great! And, it's great that I'm back in the gym. I hope I keep it up better this time!

The trials and tribulations of aerobics DVDs

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:03:00 +0000

When I was a kid, maybe from the time I was about 6 until about 14, I took dance classes. I can't recall exactly how old I was when I did what style, but the last several years were tap and jazz (I know I never took ballet - but I think I started tap much earlier than jazz).

Now the tap class was fun in that you make alot of noise. I had a hard time learning to do the steps, and it never really felt like dancing so much as stomping around just to make noise.

After that came the jazz. Actually I think I remember asking my mom to let me take jazz, because it's what all the cool kids in my tap class took (they were back-to-back classes once a week). It was an hour long class, but it sure kicked my butt, even back then. This 1 day of 2 hours of dance class per week was all the real exercise I got (other than my 2 hours of PE once a week at school, which I hardly call exercise) for years, and with it (along with other factors such as still growing, being pretty young and thus most likely blessed with a high metabolism) I could eat anything I liked and never gain a pound. Of course I didn't realize this until I stopped taking dance and packed on the weight.

Anyhow, back to the jazz class. We had an annual recital, so we basically spent about 1/2 the class doing warmups (think stretching, crunches, leg lefts, etc) and general dance moves (picture a pool sectioned off for swimmers - we sectioned the room that way and trotted along from 1 side to the other doing pirouettes, leg kicks, etc. We also did non-line things like jazz squares and other things I can't recall). The other 1/2 of the class was spent working on the routine we would be performing at the recital.

Apparently I have alot of dance terms living somewhere deep, deep inside my mind that were used in those classes from way back when. Honestly I can't even remember learning them (I'm sure they were moves we did regularly during that first 1/2 hour of jazz class), and I sure can't spell them, which is ironic as most of them sport French names, and I do speak French. Let's see: pas-de-bourré sound familiar to anyone? Say it paw-duh-boo-ray. Now is it familiar? I certainly know the sound, can't picture the dance move, and don't have a clue if I'm writing it properly - but if I am, it means "no drunks". I sure hope I'm writing it correctly! What a great name for a dance move, huh? Actually I think the move is kinda going in a circle, so maybe that's suppose to be the walk of a drunk?

Oh yeah, right. This post was about aerobics DVDs. I'm getting to that. So I got a new Denise Austin (I keep wanting to say either Jane Austen or Denise Powers for some reason) aerobics DVD earlier this week - Cardio Dance and Sculpt. Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe I thought Denise would teach me how to shake it at a club. Maybe I thought I would love dancing in social settings after learning the moves in this DVD. Whatever it was that I thought I was getting, this wasn't it. What it IS though, is a trip down nostalgia lane! I get to do the grapevine, the mambo, the cha cha, pivots, chassée (that one I know I got right!), and many other moves that are ever-so-familiar to me thanks to my old dance classes. This video is honestly almost just like my dance class - only free! Only problem is, I'm not 6-14 anymore, and I have a ways to go before I will be in shape.

I did this video twice. It has a 5 minute warmup, a 19 min cardio video, a 19 min strength training video (I have not done this one at all as I don't have any dumbbells at home yet), and a 5 min cooldown. The first time I did it, I got chest pains after getting about 8 minutes into the cardio video. Not like screaming mad I-had-better-stop pains, but pain all the same. My heart raced. I was completely out of breath, and honestly the moves don't look like they require you to move that much - oh but they do. I honestly considered stopping the video halfway through. But I pushed through and I came out victorious. I even did the cooldown, even though the only cooldown I wanted to do right then was lie on the couch in front of the fan.

Tough does not begin to describe those 29 minutes of exercise. Whoever thinks aerobics DVDs are a lame alternative to the gym - I defy you to do one like this (assuming you give it all you've got) and not get a good workout. I tell you I got 10x the workout with this than I get on the elliptical at the gym. Granted, I felt just awful by the end, so have to keep that in mind.

Well, I did this video again 2 nights ago. This time, I did the stretches that I had learned in Denise Austin's walking DVD for about 15 minutes before I started. I could kick higher during the cardio video, and when it came time for the cooldown stretching, I could stretch a LOT further than usual. I didn't get any chest pain, though I was significantly out of breath as well as sweating up a storm, despite doing this at night with 2 fans pointed directly on me. But you know what? I didn't even think about stopping halfway through that time. It was just the right amount of difficult. I look forward to the third time I will do the video, most likely tomorrow, to see how I improve then vs the 2nd time. I will make sure to stretch first, I think that helped alot.

For tonight, I'm aiming to go to the gym. For some reason, I'm itching to give running another shot, on the treadmill. Perhaps it's because of all the running success I'm reading about on Get Fit Slowly. I'll try to remember to keep a slow pace, even if I think I can go faster, and see if that helps with the side pain I suffer from when running.

Denise Austin for teh win

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:21:00 +0000

So...last we saw, April was ending and I had great goals and high hopes for May. Too bad I didn't go to the gym 1 single time in May. My weight is 176.8, and I didn't check the body fat. Basically nothing's changed since the end of April. On the plus side, at least I didn't gain any weight back!

So here we are, slightly over 1 week into June. Oh boy, June. I've been at this since end of March and I've lost what, almost 5 lbs? Woooot, haha. I still have a really hard time with food. I'm mostly pretty good about picking the right kinds of things to eat (and when I do pick the bad stuff, it's rather infrequently). My nemesis is portion control. Portion control, portion control, portion control. How I loathe thee!! You see, I love food. LOVE. Which means I want to gobble it up. And since eating correctly means not really feeling full, just satisfied, I have an incredibly hard time stopping the gobbling before I reach full. Then I really feel satisfied!

I've been reading alot about fitness, and people seem to love to tell me not to eat for pleasure, to only eat out of necessity. So I can't even enjoy my smaller portions now? I don't see how this can be encouraging to anyone. How many people do you know that go "Oh god, time to eat AGAIN"? No, usually people look forward to a meal. But me wanting to lose weight and get in better shape, I can't do that? If that's not discouraging, I don't know what is.

I can't seem to avoid the starve-binge cycle. Yeah yeah, eat 6 small meals a day and bam, you're done. Too hard to do, sorry. If I were at home all day, sure. But packing 4 meals to have during work EACH DAY and remember to go eat them at the right times, and assuming I even have that time free? Too many variables. So I end up starving by the time lunch gets there, which means I eat quickly - who's gonna sit there and eat slowly when they're starving? No one, that's who. And yes, I'm completely aware that this is what causes me to reach the "binge" state, because I'm full but it hasn't registered yet because I'm eating so quickly. Well I try to avoid that by simply putting in front of me the correct amount of food, so when I tear through it, that's that. But unless I have ridiculous amounts of water, that's not enough. And it's not that easy to drink that much water. First, I'm just not that thirsty. And second, then you're in the bathroom all day long, ridiculous.

I'm really not sure how to pry my way out of the diet hole. I realize I have no one to blame but me. Too bad my appetite isn't much smaller. I get that I have to eat less so that my stomach shrinks, but that takes awhile - and in the meantime I starve (or at least it feels that way). So for now, I'll just do my best to not eat insanely huge amounts of food. I think for now, snacking is the enemy. No, I'm not snacking on chips, crackers, and cookies, but a few 100 calorie yogurts and bam, you're over your calorie limit. I'm trying my best to limit this - I guess I have to try harder.

On the exercise front, like I said, no gym since April. But I did get a workout video from my Blockbuster queue on Friday. Denise Austin's Indoor Walk. And boy, what a walk! Here I was, thinking I had picked the most losery of all videos, and it would just contain stuff that I could incorporate into my daily *outdoor* walk to make that more calorie-burny. No, no. It is a true exercise video. No strolling about for me. It has 3 15-minute segment videos, and 1 10-min video of stretching. The 15 min segments go from "easy walk" (yeah right, that's why I'm breathing heavily and sweating), to "fat blasting" (now the name is correct), to ...something else. All I know is it required dumbbells, of which I had none. I used 2 bottles of beer instead. I'm not sure that helped at all, haha. In any case, by the time I was done with the 45 minutes of "walking", I had supposedly "walked" 3 miles, and I was sweatier and more out of breath than I am after 45 minutes of elliptical at the gym. Yet I could still complete the exercise, so I wasn't pushing myself harder than I should. I had alot of fun, and Denise Austin is very positive and motivating. I vowed to do her video 3 times a week - so far I've done it 1.5 times since I got it on Friday. Some more of her videos are in my queue now, I hope they're as good as this one!

Goals for May and April wrapup

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:21:00 +0000

As of this morning my stats are:

Weight: 176.8 lbs (-2 lbs)
Body fat: 32% or 56.6 lbs (-2% or -4.2 lbs)

I started the last week of March, but let's just call it all April since I wasn't heavily tracking in March. I almost made my goal of losing 5 lbs in April, if we just look at lbs of fat. Actually my goal was to make it to 175, so I guess I failed haha. But looking at the progress, I still win.

For May my goal is to lose 5 lbs of body fat, so that I have 51.6 lbs of fat. Since there are many, many ways of accomplishing this, I set up an Excel spreadsheet which tracks weights to the 10th unit (ie xxx.x), and compares it against full percentages of body fat (since my scale doesn't give it with decimal points). I have colored in green the cells that meet or exceed my goals, so everytime I do a weigh-in I can check against the chart to see how I'm doing. I also have a less detailed chart which just tracks integer weights against body fat, so that I can see about where I can expect to fall. Based on the chart, my prediction for success at the end of May will be:

Weight: 172 lbs
Body fat: 30% or 51.6 lbs

Any higher overall weight, and I'd have to have 29% body fat or less. I can go all the way to 167 and still have 30% body fat (or less) to meet the goal, but that's a hefty difference from my current weight. I'd love to stop seeing 170+ on the scale, but however I get there is fine.

I'm excited for May, and I think I can achieve my goal!

SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker

noreply@blogger.com (Kym) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:44:00 +0000

I've been tracking exactly what I've been eating for nearly a week with SparkPeople's Nutrition Tracker (coincidence: I had named my webapp Nutrition Tracker as well). I've figured out how to link to it, so here it is in case you want to see what I've been eating.

I also modified the sidebar again, to indicate the change in weight and body fat alongside my current stats. Just because I always try to calculate that when I see it on someone else's site.