Week 3 - heading for week 4

Alright people, yes, I have been rather quiet of late.  I have been through a bit of a dip or a downer or whatever you'd like to call it.  I've had various stresses and strains on me and if you combine that with a complete lack of progress according to "the machine" at the gym, then you get a bit of a blue mood!  Now don't worry - nothing so depro that I rushed off and bought a dozen doughnuts, or a double-thick milkshake or a whole lot of chocolates!  No, no!  I am proud to say I've remained strong and I've exercised diligently and and I've been really disciplined on the food front.  How, I hear you ask, have I achieved this when I have zero help from that machine at the gym?  Well, people have actually started asking me how much weight I've lost and telling me I'm looking great, etc, etc.  This goes a long way in encouraging me to stay on track!  Yes, I can feel the difference in my clothes, but I suppose I'm hung up on seeing the results on the scale!  I've just decided to keep plodding on towards my goal and remembering to actually enjoy the journey and, without exactly losing focus of the destination, enjoy each step of the way.  You know the proverbial "living in the moment" type scenario.  I think it works!  I've learned that we can be so hard on ourselves and all that self-talk which absolutely drips negativity can be so damaging to our long term goals.  Let's learn to enjoy the here and now.  Let's savour our day to day experiences.  Let's take a step back and take a look at the negative experiences and instead of saying "oh why me", let's look at the hidden gem in them that is the lesson. 


I know that as I approach week number four of my mission, I'm learning to live in the moment - enjoy the warm hug of a friend, enjoy the pure endorphins as they kick in after 50 minutes of hectic cardio, the warm feeling of assisting a patient of almost 90 years with their bill and experiencing their appreciation, the joy of having a job to go to each morning, the bliss of sliding into a warm bed in a warm home with a hot water bottle, the privilege of owning your own car... oh my goodness, I digress!  I can get completely carried away when thinking of how many blessings I have!  


I've been experimenting with going to gym at different times of the day to see what works for me and for the family commitments.  I'll find my rhythm soon!  In the meantime, I'm loving the journey.  

Progress? What progress?

It's Friday afternoon - something about which I am so glad as I'm feeling rather flat today.  Almost another week has gone by but I am not as excited about getting on "the machine" tomorrow morning as I was last week.  I guess I just don't want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed again.  I've been very good except for the two birthdays we had at work this week.  I had a tiny piece of cheesecake on Monday - it was heavenly - but about half an hour after I'd eaten it, I realized that my body just doesn't want food like that any more.  I felt positively nauseous!  I went for a 45 minute power walk after work and really pushed it hard. I walked as fast as I could without actually breaking into a run.  I felt good after that.  


On Wednesday I got all dressed up to do another 45 minute power walk, but due to family and pet commitments, I never got to do it!  I crashed early that night and was up at 04h40 the next morning and got myself to the gym by 05h05!  Wow, there are SO many people in the gym at that time!  What an inspiration they all are.  The circuit was unexpectedly busy, so I opted for a hard cardio workout, choosing the elliptical trainer, the rower and the cycle as my weapons of fat destruction.  I was wearing my Polar heart rate monitor and was extremely pleasantly surprised to see that I managed to burn 718 calories during my workout!  Awesome!  


So yet another birthday at work and this time I wasn't so good!  I had marshmallow tart at teatime with my strong, bitter coffee, and then at lunchtime I had the quiche and salad.  It was all absolutely divine, but again, my body protested!  I think this may be a good thing.  


Friday morning arrives.  It's been a very stressful two weeks at work.  I have huge personal stress as well and then today we lose a beloved patient.  I went to the gym this afternoon and tried to sweat out the sadness.  I did a fantastic weight training session followed by a lovely rowing session, and it certainly helped to a point.  


Tonight I raise my glass of red wine and say "rest in peace tannie Barnard, you're sure in a far better place".  

The Second Week - the honeymoon's over!

After a marvelous second week, doing all the right things, eating the right things, and feeling fantastic, I really couldn't wait to get on that machine at the gym and actually see my progress on record.  What an awful disappointment!  Nothing!  NO weight lost, NO body fat burnt - how could this be?  I was so taken aback that I actually weighed myself again as I thought the machine was picking up my recording from last week!  No, there it was in front of me on black and white - no progress.  My heart sank.  Very fortunately I had measured myself before going off to the gym and in the past two weeks I have lost a total of 13cm.  I have to force myself to focus on that and not on the lack of progress on the weight/body fat front.  It's really hard though.  It's hard not to start beating yourself up about being a failure and all the other negative things we love to say to ourselves.  I proceeded to do a good weights workout, and enjoyed watching the characters in the gym.  

My son and I have named the one dude "The Beast".  He is probably in his late forties or early fifties, he is about 1.7m tall and is built like a brick sh*thouse!!  He looks mean too!  I stood a short distance away from him while doing  bicep curls with my 3kg dumb bells.  Please note I've progressed from 2kg!!!  So he has his music plugged into his ears, he picks up a 20kg dumb bell in each hand, and in a very rhythmic fashion, grunts his way through his bicep curls.  He's relentless and unstoppable and gives most of the machines there the hiding of their lives! 

Then there was Cardioboy - this guy - obviously a body builder - maybe preparing for a competition or something and trying to drop body fat.  He was punishing the cardio equipment - he must surely have cycled from here to George, then ran around the Peninsula and followed that up with rowing to PE!  He also looked mean though.  At one point when I was warming up on the rowing machine, he walked past me and gave me a filthy look. Maybe I just reminded him of his ex-wife or something.

Back at the weights section there is Demongirl.  She is this tiny little lady - impossible to say whether she is actually about 14 years old or whether she is just a really petite full grown woman.  Either way she has a power to weight ratio that's beyond human!  

After we'd finished up, we were walking out of the gym, an absolutely freezing wind coming off the mountains and all I wanted to do was to keep walking across the parking lot straight into the Spur and order the biggest breakfast they have on the menu!  Fortunately I did not and have maintained my discipline all weekend.  There is a birthday at work tomorrow, so I'm saving myself for a piece of cake!  

Let's see how week three goes...

Spinning? Gulp!

As I approach the end of my second week, I realize that I have discovered two really important things.  


Firstly, that you don't have to go to the gym every day, but you do have to remain active every day.  People so often say "oh where do you find the time to exercise, I certainly don't have time to exercise" and it just doesn't wash with me.  You see, if you value yourself and your health, then you prioritize exercise as extremely important and you work around that.  I mean surely one doesn't say "oh well, if I have time this morning I'll brush my teeth"!  I don't think so!! So whether you go to the gym and pump iron for an hour or whether you power walk for twenty minutes while you wait for your kid, you're being active and that's cool.  That adds up to that magic word "consistency".  Consistency can attain goals that seemed completely unobtainable. 


Secondly, I discovered something called "spinning".  I took the plunge and booked myself into a spinning class for 05h30 in the morning so that I would not be able to cancel a few hours beforehand.  I have to say I was terribly nervous.  I had visions of the whole spinning class looking on as they try to resuscitate me, but it was actually alright.  I'm here telling the tale!  The instructor was great.  After asking if there were any beginners and me putting my hand in the air, she came over and made sure I knew exactly how to set up the spinning bike, checking that I'd get a comfortable ride and telling me to pace myself and not try and keep up if I felt it was beyond me.  Rather come back again and build up slowly than be put off for life.  Ok, I like her thinking!  Those sections where you have stand up and cycle "uphill" were absolute killers.  I'm afraid I only managed a couple before my legs flatly refused to straighten and push me out of my seat, no matter how much I willed them!  Not to worry, I managed to keep up with the pace and the resistance she took the class through even though most of the time I was seated.  I can tell you that my sweat towel came in really handy, especially when mopping up the bike and floor afterwards!  I looked like I'd been dunked in the pool man!!  I felt very awake and ready to take on the day.  I'll definitely go back.  I would in fact aim to do two of those classes a week. And I have to tell you I dedicated my first spinning class to my brand new "great niece" named Scarlet who was born the night before!  


I hope I can in fact get out of bed tomorrow morning, as I need to be at the gym early and do my thing with the weighing/blood pressure/body fat machine again.  I wonder how I've done this week?  I've certainly put in the time on the exercise front and I've been fantastically good on the nutrition front, so I'll hold thumbs... 

When you have DOMS - you feel pain!

So peeps, I discovered what DOMS is!  Oh yes, you know when you've had a really good workout and you've pushed it quite hard, and you think to yourself "oooh I'm going to wake up so stiff" and then you don't!  Wow! Awesome!  You leap out of bed and feel pretty bullet-proof!  You decide to get your cardio down at the beach because the sun is shining and it's just a perfect day.  You push it some more - really getting and keeping that heart rate up and burning that fat.  You feel it in the legs, but that's good... right?  You get home, now you're basically on a high, jumping and dancing around to a Boom CD.  In fact, you go and dig out the weighted ball and start playing around with it.  Yeah, work those arms and work that core!  Ok, so you finally manage to settle down a little and relax.  Aaaah!  You have an awesome night's sleep and wake up to a pain in the shoulder you're lying on.  You attempt to move, but the other shoulder and the abs protest too.  Making little whimpering sounds and doing a sort of body shuffle, you manage to manouevre yourself around to lying flat on your back.  Ok, if you keep rather still and not breathe too deeply, then everything seems ok.  Trying to get out of bed.... that's another story.  It feels like someone has dislocated both shoulders.  Man this is insane!!  No it's not, it's Delayed Onset Muscle Stiffness or DOMS!!  Alright so after my cup of hot water and lemon juice, I do a whole lot of stretching and I feel a bit better.  I decide to stay away from the weights today and rather just stick with the cardio.  Again I opt to make the most of the beautiful weather, and head for the beach.  I do a short 30 minute power walk, but I push it as fast as I can.  And again, I feel great afterwards!  I have a protein supplement right after my exercise to try and assist those muscles with the recovery.

We have a public holiday - Women's Day - and the family leaves it to me to decide what I'd like to do.  Well, I opted for fishing with the family but that was unfortunately very short-lived as even though there was not a breath of wind in Somerset West, the wind was howling in Gordons Bay!  I opted to visit my Mom and after that decided to tackle the weights at the gym again.  I dragged my son along with me.  Off we went to the gym on the other side of the N2.  I did a 10 minute warm up, got through the circuit without throwing up or having a stroke, did a vicious rowing stint and then cooled down on a spinning bike.  Sweat damp hair sticking to my neck, beetroot red face and singing heart and I grab a skinny sugarless coffee at Kauai and head home.  Woohooo!!!  Endorphins - hullo - love you!!  I got home and mentioned that the wind had dropped down at the beach.  I asked my husband if he didn't feel like a cycle at the beach.  He said sure, so off we went.  Ok, so I've done the weights and now I'm going to tackle cardio - all on one day - well if I don't burn off some body fat this week, I'll be most disappointed!

Oh, and there is no turning back now, I've actually booked my bicycle for the spinning class on Friday!  Watch this space...

The First Week done and dusted

Well well, week one complete.  It was with a mix of apprehension and excitement that I hopped in my bakkie and made my way to the posh gym.  My eldest trains there mostly and the idea was to meet up with him.  He's good for me as he doesn't let me slack off.  The gym was fairly full when I arrived at about 08h30 - and note this is a Saturday morning!  My first stop was that big machine that takes all your vitals.  I was dressed basically the same as last Saturday except I had on long pants today.  I log in and start the process.  Oh bless this machine, it is my friend today!  In my first week, I have destroyed 1.4kg - and yes, I say destroyed and not lost.  I did not randomly lose all those grams, I destroyed them - capiche?!  And yes, my body fat is even down... ok, so 0.01% - but hey it's still progress!  Wow, now I am super-amped.  Bring on that circuit baby - let me push some iron!

I skip over to the cardio section to go do a quick 10 minute warm up on the cross trainer job.  At one point it told me my heart rate was 173, but I think it must have had a bit of a short circuit or something as clearly my heart rate was no where close to that.  My Polar heart rate monitor has gone in for a new battery, but one gets to know ones heart rate.   Having broken a bit of sweat, I head off confidently to the weights section.  The first machine on my list was occupied, so I moved onto the next one.  The first few were all "leg work" and I found that I coped quite alright.  Once I got to the last rep, it was a bit of effort, but I felt alright.  Then I went onto the upper body stuff.  Oh my.  I've always said that I have no upper body strength - I'll kick someone to death, but nothing with the arms!  Well, I wanted to burst into fits of giggles, because picture the scene.... here is me with the weight on the shoulder press set to 10kg.  Opposite me there is a guy doing tricep stuff with a dumb bell that probably weighs about 30kg!!!  He grimaces slightly, while I feel I am going to pop a vein!!  I really battle to complete all the reps, but I do.  Ah so proud.  I managed to do everything and complete two sets at that.  There was only one thing that I could not complete the second set of and that was that darn shoulder press.  My arms would not go up anymore!  I did not beat myself up about it and promised myself that next time would be better.

I went off to the cardio section again to finish off with a quick 10 minute row.  The gym was so busy by that time that I actually had to wait for a rowing machine.  I must say that today the posh gym impressed me.  Maybe my first impression of a lot of barbies and ripped steroid filled okes was not all that accurate.  Today there was a great variety of people who all looked pretty serious about getting their dose of endorphins.

I skipped out of the gym with a song in my heart, already looking forward to the next visit.

Heart Rate Found but Team Fitness MIA

I was chatting to a friend about my new venture in the gym when she said that she can't use the cross trainer as it makes her heart rate sky-rocket and then the machine cuts out!  I was most curious to know how the machine knew what her heart rate was.  Ahem! She tells me very patiently that those silver things on the handles are actually electrodes that pick up your heart rate!  Oooooh!!!  Ok, so with this new info I headed back to the other side of the N2.  Yes, I see the silver jobs.  Ok, but today I want to do weights, so I just need a quick warm up and then move onto building some muscle.  I warm up on my old favourite - the rowing machine.  I then go to the circuit.  Oops, I can't seem to find the machines I need and having been instructed at the posh gym, I was unfamiliar with the layout in this gym.  No problem - I will just find one of those Virgins with the red t-shirt that says "fitness team" on the back.  Oh, none to be found.  No worries, I am paying a small fortune to belong to this gym franchise, so there must be someone available to assist me.  Off I go down to reception where they ask me if there is no one on the floor that I can find.  Ummm, yes, sure there is, but I just felt like coming downstairs and asking if there was anyone available to screw everyone around.  No, there is no one, unless you want me to go in and ask the oke giving the spinning class or the girlie doing to the stretch and tone class.  So the receptionist pages the fitness team asking one to please report to reception.  No one arrives.  She looks at me and says there is no one available.  Oi, this is not good.  I tell her not to worry, I will do cardio AGAIN today.  I march back upstairs and hop on a cycle.  Ah yes, I find those electrode thingies, and wragtig it picks up my heart rate!  So I pedal myself to a point of profuse sweating and a wildly beating heart.  This is cool - I guess the power of endorphins is not to be underestimated!  I do another stint on the rower and then call it a day.  I feel quite cheated as I really wanted to do weights, but I figure this is a long term process, and there is not much point in overdoing it and perhaps injuring myself or something.  You know at my age, one needs to be careful!

I leave the gym unimpressed.