Week Two Off To a Great Start

Here I am, having survived week one of the Gym.  I am here to report that even with missing a day at the gym, and having pizza and a DQ ice cream nutterbutter bar, and not working out this weekend, I have lost weight!  I was getting dressed for the gym this morning and I remembered that I was going to weigh myself once a week.  I was not really looking forward to this weigh in because of the cheat day and also because I ate salt last night.  Salt makes my ankles swell and I retain as much water as the Hoover Dam.  I was still a tad bloated this morning and made the Michelin Man look like a size 2.  I got my scale out, tapped it to fire it up, and then stepped on, dreading what I might find.  I did not want to be disappointed with my first weeks results, and then feel bummed all this week about it.  I stepped on, held my breath and looked down to see if this would be a good week or a beat myself up week.  It is a good week!  I lost 10.5 pounds, let me type that again.  I lost 10.5 pounds!!!  I was (and still am) very pleased with myself and the effort I put forth.  I finished getting dressed with a little pep in my step.

I drop Nathan off at the sitters and head to the gym with a very positive attitude!  I get to the gym and the parking lot is packed! I mean packed, not a parking spot to be found!  The first thought that popped into my head was that I should just go home, because if the parking lot is full, the gym will be full too.  If I was a tiny size, I would love to sashay around the very full gym, however being the full figured gal I am, I was a little intimidated  and almost talked myself into going home.  I bargained with myself to drive around the parking lot one more time for a space and if there was not one, I would go home.  I had almost completed my circle when I saw some reverse lights, stopped and put on my blinker.  I parked, gave myself a pep talk, got my stuff and headed in.  I am so glad I stayed, the gym was not packed, there were people in classes, and it was the best workout I think I have had!

I jumped on the treadmill (one opened as soon as I approached them) and got my groove on.  I walked at a 7 incline at 2.2 and 2.4 mph for 65 minutes, with my heart rate staying between 150 and 154 the entire time!  This is a HUGE improvement from just a week ago when I was walking at about flat and a 2 incline and 1 and 1.2 mph with mini hop off breaks in the 30 minute time period I walked.  I did have to stop once today,  because as I mentioned in an earlier posting, I can not walk and drink water at the same time.  I was so thirsty and so so sweaty!  I realized that even with that 10 second hop off break, it affected my treadmill mojo.  I am going to have to learn to walk and drink, I can talk and type, so how hard can this be?

Last week I added a single extra rep to each exercise, making each machine total 105 reps by the end of the week.  Well I decided that I would start this week with 110 reps on each machine and them add one each day, ending with 115 on Friday.  Come next Monday, I will stay at 115 reps and add 5 lbs more to my arm exercises and 10 more to my leg exercises.  That is the game plan, however I am going to play it by ear.  I worked my arms hard today and totally wanted to stop on this new machine I tried, and after 20 reps, I almost did.  I had another pep talk with myself and said that I was not leaving this machine until all 110 reps were done, no matter how long it took!  This machine was where you sit down and lift your arms straight in the air, one at a time with weights on a pulley type rope.  It was torture for me!  It was hard and I so wanted to not finish it!  I made a rule with myself that I must stay at the machine (any machine) until I am done and the reps have to be done in sets of 10, no if ands or butts! Yes, I can even be a bitch to myself...lol.  Well it took me about 8 minutes to do 115 reps, however I did it!  I was again proud of myself for sticking with it!  I normally would have made myself do 115 reps on each arm, however I did not use this machine at all last week, and it is by far the hardest for me for my arms.  I did another arm rep one and I must have been on a workout high as I did 120 reps on each arm....I just kept going and going and now I can so feel it  (am using my nose to type...lol)!    So I worked out for a solid 2 1/2 hours, and worked out HARD!  I went to my last arm machine before I had to go get Nathan.  My arms were like Jello, however I was going to do this!  I set my weight and did 10 reps and my arms were just physically spent!  I told myself that I was not leaving until I did 115 reps, so I removed 10 lbs and finished it, so very glad that this was it.  My arms were shaking when I was done, and again I was proud of myself for making myself suck it up and just do it!

My sitter is not going to be able to watch Nathan for a week in June and about 10 or so days in July.  He is too old for the toddler room and too young to stay by himself, so I was wondering how I was going to solve this, as I really do not want to miss 20 or so days of working out.  Then I remembered that the gym opens at 4:30 am.  Is it possible to work out while still sleeping?  I figure that I can still get in my 2 1/2 hours and be home just in time for Hubby to leave for work.  Not my favorite option, however it is very doable and that is what I am going to do!  Call me Nike, just do it!

Today was awesome!!!

I went to the gym with a new/renewed sense of what my goal is and had a GREAT workout!  I got on a treadmill first thing, no waiting!  It would not let me do the goal setting that I have been using, so I had to try something else and it was even better! The first 2 days on the treadmill, I had a few hills to go up and down and I took many 10 second breaks on the side of the treadmill while going up hill.  Today I did 65 minutes (double the first 2 days) with a bathroom break (note to self, not so much water before I hit the gym...lol) at the 30 minute mark and I set the incline to 7-8 and walked at 2.0 mph.  I did not stop for a few seconds on the side of the treadmill, I just lowered the incline a bit.  I was determined not to stop today and succeeded at my goal!  I also was next to this very nice lady on one side and we talked for about 25 minutes, I was a bit winded, but I could talk.  The woman on the other side of me told me I did a good job for sticking with it and patted me on the shoulder.  It was a good treadmill day!  I learned that I could walk and talk, I however can NOT walk and drink, not at all.  I opened my water bottle and I did manage to take the smallest sip and the rest of my water wound up all over the front of my shirt.  I am not counting it as a total loss, as it was a nice refreshing cool down for a minute.

I was sweating so much today!  I did 100 reps on all machines and have decided to add 1 extra rep each day, so it was actually 101 reps on all machines today.  I am also adding 1 new machine each day so that I try all of them and see what I really like and what I will have to come back to, when I have a tad more confidence in looking so silly by standing on one leg and swinging the other back and fourth while my backside shakes and shimmies for all to see.  It is a work in progress.  I was so tired on my last arm machine, that when I got to to 20 I so wanted to give up!  It took me 3x's as long to do my 100 reps on this machine, but at each 10 count, I rested my arms for a minute and I did 101 reps on that machine.  I finished it, even though I so wanted to give up.  I like the feeling of accomplishment and pushing through even though every muscles in my arms were screaming, screaming nasty names to me....lol

I do have to find a larger water bottle.  Between the spillage and just gulping it down, I was really thirsty today.  Yes there is a water fountain, however I have seen what people are doing at the water fountain....lol.  I saw a few guys with old gallon milk jugs and while I am not quite ready to guzzle a gallon of water in 2 hours, I definitely need a larger one than my 12 oz size.

I noticed people carrying around small towels with them, and if you don't have one, the gym will "rent" you a small one for $.25 and a large one for $.50....just ewwww.  So I see these people wiping down their machines, before and after they use them.  That would be really great, except you are just swishing the sweat around and moving sweat from one machine to the next.  I also saw these very same people throw their towels on the floor after they wiped the machine before they used it and then picking the towel off the dirty sweat soaked (among SO many other things) floor and then wipe the machine down after they use it.  In what world does this work?  I am a bit (well a HUGE) germaphobe and if I think about this, or watch this any longer, I will never set foot in there again.  I have ordered horse blinders and a plastic bubble that should hopefully be here by Monday so I can exercise germ free and not see things I wish I had never seen in the first place!  Did I mention people also blow their noses in these towels, wipe their oh so sweaty parts...the same towels they are wiping the machines down with?  I sure hope I checked expedited shipping!

Can't wait for tomorrow!  Have a good one all!

I fell off the wagon

I had such good intentions when I went to bed last night! I did not give into my potato chip cravings (and they are fierce!) I went to bed and did not sleep well at all, waking wide awake every half hour! I got up this morning with a call from my husband, who was on the couch in the den. He has had a horribly painful case of gout since Monday afternoon and has been on the couch so I do not accidentally hurt his leg while sleeping. He asked me to get him something to eat as he had just taken a pain pill and it would upset his empty stomach. For Rick to take a pain pill it is serious. He drove himself to the hospital in the middle of the night once after suffering for 3 days with a kidney stone attack, never even letting on that he was in pain. He has sliced his lip with a saw that slipped when he was working and was just going to put electrical tape on it, until a guy that works for him drove him to the ER. I was so sore that it took me a bit to get the "courage" to sit upright and get out of bed...lol. I decided to call Nathan's sitter and tell her that I would be staying home with Rick in case he decided to go to urgent care (but did jokingly offer her double if I could drop Rick off too....lol). To be honest it was a cop out. I could have gone, I went yesterday when he was on the couch. It was just that an "excuse presented itself and I leaped at it.



I was berating myself all day for not going to the gym (on only my 3rd day at this new goal) and reading emails from the Compact when another member was berating herself for what she felt she had not lived up to. I was right there along side of her, having a pity party for myself for "failing" in what I set out to do. Then came the email that changed my perspective and my attitude. I am going to copy the email and give Julia all the credit and thanks!



Julia wrote: I think we should have a Compact rule -- maybe martial law or something with mandatory jail time -- about saying "I'm a f------." Normal people make mistakes. No one's perfect. Change is hard.

Acceptable alternatives:

"I fell off the wagon. Oh, well."

"I ate cake and I don't care who knows it."

"Doh! I hadn't planned on eating out but that's what we did."

"Wow, lucky us -- we got to celebrate a family milestone in style..."

"I'm tired tonight and will order pizza.





Love from one who has finally shed the F word from her self-evaluation.





Julia put into words just the right thing at the right time (she is good that way) to let me give myself a little slack and remember that change is indeed hard and there will be days (moments) where I am more successful than others and to keep getting back up and trying to do my best.



Today turned out not so bad at all as a matter of fact. I got to spend time with my husband and son and we sat around in our pj's watching tv and having fun. We even had my husbands son and nephew stop by to bring something to Rick for his Gout. We ordered pizza and watched some movies, laughed, and I got to know my nephew a lot better. He has moved to town to go to UNM in the fall and I am really liking getting to know him. I have only met him about 3 or 4 times before this as he lives 4 hours away and I wasn't even part of the family until he was about 14 (he is now 24). Nathan thinks he is way cool and had a blast with him. So after beating myself up for failing not being "perfect", my day turned out pretty good after all. Yes, I had pizza, however I also had fruits and veggies and plenty of water, and since I am being honest, I had a DQ ice cream that was in the freezer. I did NOT however have multiple soda's, chips and junk food, so that right there is something I can be proud of.



Not a "perfect" day by any means, however I am so OK with that....better than OK actually!



So here is to a new beginning and new choices tomorrow and to me getting that treadmill first!

It hurts to blink!

I thought I would be sore this morning, I was so the opposite of sore when I got out of bed this morning.  NOW is a totally different story!

I popped right out of bed this am, almost forgetting that I worked out for 2 hours yesterday at the gym.  I could feel that I worked out dormant muscles, yet it I was not stiff or sore at all.  Does this mean that yesterdays exercises don't count?  I got dressed and got Nathan and I out the door and headed to the gym feeling limber and ready to "Sweat to the Oldies".  I get to the gym and it is packed, well really just the cardio area is packed.  There is no treadmill available, lots of bikes and ellipticals open....sorry, I am not hauling my wide load up 4' in the air to make it easier to see the junk in my trunk thank you very much!  I decide to do my machines first, as I really am not into "riding" the bike and not burning as many calories as the treadmill does.  I am sorry that I realized that yesterday, as it now seems that I am doing all the work and getting 1/2 the results by using the bike vs the treadmill.  I have decided to not focus on my stats and I will compare them once a month so see my progress.

So I head to my favorite machine in the whole gym, the super leg press.  I set it to 100 lbs and lay down and prepare to do 100 reps.  I do 1 and 2 and then on the 3rd rep, OMG the 3rd rep makes me know that I DID workout yesterday! My thigh muscles clearly were not amused to be working this hard again, and I do believe they called me a @#$%^& as they screamed out in pain!  I had 97 more to do! 97!  The pain was akin to the 85 hours of labor I had, the difference being I could not walk away from the contractions, however I could walk away from the machine.  I made myself do all 100 and felt proud of myself that I did not give up!  I need to remember that I will be sore for a little bit and it is a good thing.

I get off the machine and see that there is an empty treadmill, so I head on over.  I am almost there, and then it happens!  I am apparently in a race with another person for the only available treadmill and I saw it first.  I keep walking towards the treadmill, thinking since I started walking towards it first, it was mine, kind of like having my blinker on waiting for a parking space. I was so wrong, apparently there are no rules when a treadmill becomes available!  I was almost there, so close, it was almost mine and then this sweet old man got off a machine right in front of me and I had to stop in my tracks.  He is part of the Silver Sneaker set and it took him a bit to start walking after he got right in my way....lol  Needless to say I lost my treadmill.  I do however believe it was a conspiracy as the person who was now walking on "my" treadmill is also a member of the Silver Sneaker group.  It was a conspiracy and I am certain that there were hand signals involved!  I am on to you Silver Sneakers!

I accept my defeat and mumble over to another machine to go work my bat wings.  The machine I am on is inches away from the mirror that I am not a fan of!  Not only do I get to see myself, I get to see the ugly faces that I make as I do my reps.  I seem to be the only one that is not a fan of the mirror.  I watch people watching themselves in the mirror.  I see men staring at their butts as they squat, watching their pecs as they flex, women watching themselves bend and men watching those women...OH PLEASE!  I am done with my people watching and my arms and slyly look in the mirror to see if there is a free treadmill....There is!

I don't get my hopes up and nonchalantly grab my water and  head across the gym towards the cardio area.    There are no Silver Sneakers in my path, so I feel victory and pull my earphones out of my pocket and can almost feel the burn.....NOOOOOOO!  Out of nowhere a size triple 0 weaves  her way through the cardio area and hops on the treadmill.  Do you people not see my blinker, blinking away showing that I saw it first and it is mine?  I am not enjoying today, not at all!  I do a few more machines and finally resign myself to the bikes.

I am all situated on the bike, plugged in my earphones and getting ready to watch the ladies of the View. I am 2 minutes in and I sense movement behind me, movement that sounds like a treadmill stopping!  I turn my head as far as it will go and make eye to zipper contact with a man giving it all he has on the elliptical.  Hi, nice to meet you, come here often?  I turn my head just a bit more and see an open treadmill and as soon as I see it, a man sees me seeing it and he runs over and puts his gloves on it and then goes finish talking to his friend!  Are you kidding me!  DUDE!  If I could lift my leg, I would so kick your ass!  NO worries, as I am turning my head back, I see one open up.  I jump up out of my seat, my earphones popping out of my ears and me almost knocking over the bike (how embarrassing would that have been?).  I grab my earphones and my water and run/walk to the treadmill.  I made it, it is mine and I jump on.  I am so happy! (Really Kelly?  Happy to be on a treadmill?)  I plug in my headphones and program in my stats and as soon as I start walking the sound in my ears is deafening!  Note to self:  Make sure volume is not at Silver Sneaker volume.  After my hard won treadmill cardio workout, I step off and turn to leave and see the following sign "Treadmill time limit is 30 minutes when people are waiting"  Can we get this sign in bright neon and place it on EVERY treadmill.  I do believe I am the only one who has ever read this sign...I would laugh at this, but it hurts too much!

New Beginnings

I was so excited last night that I did not fall asleep until almost 2:30 and was up at 6:30 and hit the snooze alarm until 7ish.  That was a really bad bad decision...


I got up in what I thought was plenty of time to get all my morning things done...what was I thinking?  I was tired after not enough sleep and was functioning in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n.  I had planned on making myself a healthy smoothie and sitting down to enjoy it, then getting Nathan up and dressed to take him to the sitters.  Well you know what they say about the best laid plans.   I got dressed and headed to the kitchen to make my smoothie and apparently there was a party in the kitchen and no one cleaned up after themselves, so there went having counter space make my smoothie ( I was a little nervous about trying a fruit and veggie laden liquid breakfast before hitting the gym anyway, know what I mean), my body is used to a diet cherry pepsi and what ever bag of cracker/chip/pretzel is open.  I go to get Nathan up and moving and he is not in his bed and that means that Dad let him stay up really late watching movies and playing video games.  Rick fell asleep on the couch as well (probably right after the snack and video fest), so I knew that Nathan would be tired this am and be slow moving.  (I found out tonight that "the boys" were up until 3 am!)  Well Nathan popped right up when I reminded him that he was going to the sitters and gets to see Harley as well.  He is zipping around and very happy to be up!  


I go to grab my keys and I can not find them!  Looked for 20 minutes (I build some extra time in my schedule until I get it in gear) and they can not be found and are probably under the dishes on the counter....grrrr.  Well I grab Rick's keys, start the car and everything starts moving!  His settings are in his key and the gas pedal is moving, the mirrors are adjusting, the seat is moving back and down....I am not amused!  I reset everything to as close as I can get to what I like and we are finally off.  I drop Nathan off and he walks into the house like he does this every day and I am left standing in the front door courtyard without a hug or so much as a "see  you later Mom".  The sitter must see my need for a hug, so she hugs me and says have fun at the gym (really, fun?)  She says to call if I need anything and I tell her to do the same, thinking I will have to hold myself back from checking in every 42 seconds.  I get  back to the car and get in and hubby's #$%^&* key resets everything to his preferences again!!  It is going to be a long day.


I get to the gym and find a spot and sit there for just a minute to gather my courage to walk through those front doors and into New Beginnings.  I grab my earphones, water bottle, phone and the bleeping keys.  I sashay over to the doors and exude a confidence I really do not feel.  I go to find the scanner to scan my membership card and DOH!  I have hubby's keys and no membership card.  So me who is trying to be as inauspicious as possible, has now created a bottleneck at the check in...grrrr.  So I get checked in and put one foot in front of the other and make myself keep walking.  I find a stationary bike and settle in to cycle along with Regis and Kelly.  I program in my stats, put in my earphones and settle in for a 30 minute ride with the very perky Kelly Ripa.  Well Kelly and I did not get much time together as the man who sat next to me had a visitor that chatted and chatted and chatted, and was quite loud.  No matter how high I adjusted my volume and no matter how far I tried to push my earphones down into my ear canal, I could hear nothing but this chatty woman!  I learned she is a cat lover and has many cats and that  one of them is quite sick and the vet has told her that the cat will tell her when it is time for the "cat to go".  I kept chanting go away, please go away in my head, chanting in her direction, but she did not seem to be getting the message.  I really hope that the cat fares better than I did!  So finally my 30 minutes are up and I look at my stats expecting to see that it shows that I rode the equivalent of the state of New Mexico and burned hundreds of calories, as my shirt was damp and my legs felt like they had just auditioned for a Jello Jigglers commercial with Bill Cosby.   Well it seems that New Mexico is only 4 miles, much smaller than I anticipated!  I did manage to keep my heart rate at an optimal rate for the entire time and I burned a whopping 76 calories, so now I am going to be able to have that carrot after all! Are you kidding me?  I am sticky, damp and had to listen to the demise of a cat and I only burned 76 calories?!?!?! This is going to be a long journey people!


I decide that I will try the treadmill for another 30 minutes so I go and plug my info in and start walking and walking and walking.  Did I mention that I was walking?  I am all by myself, feeling good, walking up hills, making the incline steeper and feeling good.  Then I get a treadmill neighbor, a sweet grandfather in 1970's shorts that I really wish left more to the imagination...I think that I will bump up my incline a little more and show grandpa how hills are done.  Well that cockiness was oh so short lived as "leave nothing to the imagination grandpa" starts to run and I mean RUN!  I slowly guide my finger to the incline button and decide hills are over rated anyway.  I get a new neighbor on the other side and she is toned and sculpted and molded to within an inch of perfection (translation: she has a great doctor).  My  30 minutes are up and I look at my stats and while I am happy they are better than biking, they are still less than what I expected.  I walked 1.4 miles and burned 216 calories.  Hey it is a start, right?  I try to navigate off the treadmill between Barbie (who by the way would lose in Julia's no plastic throw down, if you know what I mean) and showing the goods grandpa, so as not to fall and to look as cool as I can.  My legs feel like they are made out of rubber bands as I walk to the water fountain to splash some water on my face.  I met up with another lady who has the same thought and we talk about how sticky we are and she says she hates it, yet she knows how good it is for the body and my response? "Yeah, my bra is all wet"  Really Kelly, my bra is wet?  OMG!  At least she laughs and says hers is too.  Thank goodness I only have to see her everyday now.


I have done an hour of cardio and decide it is time to hit the machines.  I love doing the machines and head right for my favorite leg one.  I have gone to the gym sporadically, very sporadically for a while and have learned what I like to use.  I do the super leg press and I set the weight at 90 lbs and do 100 reps, I then move to the chest incline and am feeling good.  I like the weight I can put on the machines and the amount of reps I can do.  I even had a trainer tell me that they were impressed with what I was able to do. I was feeling good, I had a bit of a pep to my step and sashayed to the next machine, set my weight and settle in to work my arms.  I happen to turn my head and catch myself in the mirror, yet I did not know it was me at first.  I really wish they would give you sunglasses at the front desk that would prohibit the mirrors from showing your reflection, as my mirror was saying "objects are larger than they appear".  It was not pretty, let me tell you!  I decide to move to another machine and am getting ready to leave when a parent from school comes by and starts chatting while waiting for the machine next to me.  Great!  Now I have to stay in front of this mirror, work out longer and chat all at once, and with a wet bra!


I have worked out now for 2 hours and decide to head for the car.  CRAP!  I really need to find my keys!  I hate hubby's settings in MY car...lol  I head for the post office (it is on my way) so that I can buy an envelope with a stamp so that I can pay for the RoadRunner MFP.  I should be in and out of there in 5 minutes.  I get inside and there are about 12 people in front of me.  The line seems to be moving, so I am not going to get annoyed.  No sooner than I say that, one of the two clerks closes his window and goes to lunch!!  Are you kidding me?  OK, so I think 10 minutes now, no biggie!  Well I will not go into details, but I was in line for 42 minutes!!!  I hate the post office.


I go get Nathan and he had a blast!  They played football, tag, played with Harley, chased the cats, watched cartoons, ate the fruit I sent over, ran around the back yard. He can't wait to go back tomorrow!  That makes me feel so good.  I can continue going to the gym and he can have fun while I am taking time for me.


We get home and all of the sudden I am so tired.  The no sleep last night, the gym today and all the energy spent changing the settings in the car (lol) have made me very tired.  I also drink about the equivalent of a ponds worth of water and know that I will pay later in my swishing down the hall to the bathroom.  My plan is to sit with Nathan for a bit while he shows me some moves on a video game and then go take a shower and see what we want to do.  Well I sit and promptly fall asleep!  Nathan was OK with that as my nap equaled more video game time...lol  Note to self, NO sitting the rest of the year!!!  We did not do anything else as when I went to get up, my body screamed in protest and it had gotten smokey outside again due to the fires in AZ.  I have yet to shower, so I am going to do that right now and take a handful of Aleve...


So there you have it, 1 day down, 364 more to go...