Done - and ready for the day!

I especially like getting my exercise 'out of the way' in the morning and having the rest of the day to do stuff... there's a good chance that after 4pm, I won't head to the gym and won't get my daily activity done...

I woke up without an alarm at 8:20 and decided to try the 9am spinning with Amy Finch this morning - I didn't have time to eat something - I have a window of opportunity for that and if I miss it, I'll feel ill while exercising... so I geared up and headed in!

The class with Amy is much different than Catherine's in that there is no stopping in between songs to recover - you get water when you can/want and keep pedaling in hand position 3 (if that's where you already are), where as with Catherine, you go back to a flat road and recover before the next 'exercise.' I like Catherine's style a little better... plus Amy is a little crazy - in an overly peppy kind of way - but she's really nice and if I couldn't go to Catherine's class, I'd go to Amy's (which is huge) and I may continue to go to Amy's classes in the future. She does have us 'hovering' and sending our butt's back while in hand position 3 which hurts my back and is not something you're 'supposed' to do - but in any of these classes where an instructor tells me to do this, I just don't :)

One HUGE mistake I made yesterday which affected my riding this morning - after the 1.5 hours of riding yesterday, I didn't stretch - WHAT WAS I THINKING??? So my hamstrings were sore and my knees ached a little - yuck! And SO avoidable!!

Right now I am enjoying my favorite post-exercise breakfast = steel cut oat-oatmeal with strawberries (or blueberries), agave syrup, cinnamon and walnuts = a GREAT power breakfast with complex carbs and protein to last me for the next 3 hours! YAY!

I hope everyone has a great memorial day weekend!!

Work Out Crisis: Averted!

Opportunity literally knocked on my front door - well, maybe not literally - but close enough. The plan for the afternoon = strawberry picking with Galvan Gals (which was successful, fun, and active because I included squats :) ), a possible window of time - depending on when we got back from picking, and then moving the new piece of furniture into my house before going to hang out with friends from Bible Study...

During that possible window of time, the friend who was helping me move furniture in his truck called to see if I wanted to go on a ride before moving furniture - so we went on a 1.5 hour ride and I had to push myself harder than I would have if I was solo, I got a great workout!

Work out crisis averted!

Barb's suggestion for jump rope is a good one - I don't have a jumping rope per se - but I'm sure I could find rope/line in the garage that would do for the future - and jumping rope is more fun that jumping jacks - because j.rope = fun kid activity where as j.jacks = hard HCC activity associated with a lot of yelling... so the suggestion is great for future moments with no inclination for a gym trip :)

what to do, what to do...

I am about to go strawberry picking with my friend Shannon and her two little girls - Lula (3.5) and Penny (2) - which should be tons of fun!! And then I'm moving a couch and going to a get-together... so I need to find an activity amongst all that... I babysat this morning for a 1-month old... my day is PACKED today - maybe I'll be able to squeeze in a bike ride! What do you do on days like this when there is no time to go the gym??

Friday a.m. I'll be up early doing the spin class at 6am - unless I can't get up early (always a possibility) and do the spin class at 9am...

what to do today??

Tiny Bumps :)

I weighed in tonight and gained 1.6 lbs since I last weighed in on 4/1/10. Not too shabby - sure a tiny bump in the road - but no biggie. If I had gained 3+ lbs, I may have cried a little - but I can lose 1.6 lbs in a week! Which is my next goal - to lose 1.6 lbs by next Wednesday.

Barb came with me to the meeting which was great! During the meeting, Jimmy Williams from "Healthy Home Foods" came and talked to us about the importance of eating grass-fed beef and not supporting larger companies like ConAgra and Smithfield or Tyson based on how they treat the animals and the diseases that have sprouted from these company's processing 'techniques' - which is talked about in more detail in the documentary Food Inc - which the HCC team played after Judith's discussion. I have seen and would definitely recommend "Food Inc." If you have Netflix, you can watch it for free online... so no reason not to see it (if you have Netflix). I think that Jimmy brought up some good points, however his company sets you up with 6 months of food both vegetables and beef, pork, and poultry - and this isn't a service that will really help me. Plus everything that is delivered is frozen - I don't have the space for this service.

I also would rather - and so far it has worked for me - invest in a CSA, get my veggies - those I can't eat, I freeze myself in smaller quantities. And I have decided (since the last time I posted) to go back to my diet of mostly-vegetarian; eating vegetarian unless it is grass-fed local beef or poultry and I will eat seafood. The nutritionist believed that as long as I'm aggressive about getting enough complete protein - and as long as I take a pre-natal vitamin (they contain more iron than a multi-vitamin.... don't worry, I'm not trying to send the message that I need pre-natal anything), that I should be fine.

Judith then gave her mini-talk about how to maintain weight loss and how to cope with post HCC times... some notes of hers that I've highlighted are below:

- Set smaller attainable goals and reward yourself

- Don't burden yourself with unrealistic expectations

- Talk with HCP about a healthy goal weight

- To maintain weight, you must balance your intake of calories with the energy you burn

- Try something new (a new class)

- Strap on a pedometer and find out how many steps you take per day

- gradually add another 250 steps/day

- have a goal (eventually) of 10,000 or more steps each day ( ~ 5 miles)

- Shop on a full stomach & stick to your list

- Take notes (in food journal) of my strategies and how they held up

- Keep measurement charts along with weight charts

- Plan meals ahead of time and plan for ups and downs

Spinning :)

Spinning this morning was GREAT - I really pushed myself and it paid off - if nothing else, I haven't been that sweaty after a work out in quite a long time :) For those who don't spin, it's actually harder to stay in the seat after you add resistance - you want to do standing runs instead of seated runs - at every opportunity, I added resistance and stayed in the seat to do a little extra - and I can FEEL it!

So as of now, I've worked out Friday, Saturday, (break on Sunday), Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - which is pretty sweet! I'm not sure what I'm going to do for exercise tomorrow - but I'll figure it out before I go to bed tonight - that way I'll be prepared to do it!

Then this evening, I'm going to an HCC meeting - and Barb is accompanying me (Thanks, Barb!!) where I'll weigh in and we'll hear a talk on organic food, etc. and then they're going to show the movie "Food, Inc." which I have seen, so I probably won't stay for the movie - but great idea on their part!! I'll blog again this evening with an update about my weigh-in. I'm fearful that I have gained, but you never know... I may be the same, which I would count just as much as an accomplishment as losing weight because I've been eating some foods I should stay away from... and as you all know, up until recently, I haven't been at the gym as much!

So stay tuned - and thanks for being there for me :)

Yesterday was a weird day - I thought I was going to go on a bike ride - then got a call to babysit - which I feel like I must take these days with no substantial income.... then en route it was canceled (sick child) - but I had on exercise clothes - so I went to the gym.... glad I was prepared again :)

I saw Willis - he was actually 2 elliptical machines down from me :) I 'ran' 2.16 miles and 'burned' 315 calories and averaged 175 for heart rate... I only did 30 minutes - but I was sweaty and gross afterwards... I could have pushed myself a little harder but I have come to the conclusion that to push myself the most, I should either switch up elliptical machines or not do the same machine 2 days in a row.

This morning I am off to do spinning with or without Catherine - but I hope it is with :)

Oh, and my back hurts in the morning - but I'm trying to just ice it after exercise and ignore it otherwise -because I'm tired of not exercising!

:)

Lovin' it!

I just got back from the gym where I had a GREAT 50 minute workout. The elliptical machine says that I 'ran' 3.12 miles, that I burned 430 calories and my average heart rate was 174...

What I've found out about these machines is that the only thing I can trust out of those 3 numbers is the distance - apparently the calorie burnage and the heart rate won't be acurate - but I can tell you that I pushed myself very hard for 45 minutes and cooled down for 5 minutes and that I sweat a TON and I smell yucky - or at least I smell like someone who just worked out... I'm about to take a shower and then work on job stuff - but I feel wonderful and like I can take on the world!! I'm Lovin' it!!

:)