I Bit The Bullet

Well, my friends, I did it. Billie and I joined the gym together today. We spent about 2 hours there this morning taking the tour, getting educated, signing up, etc. We left and went and did our errands for the day and met up tonight for our first workout session. We got there at 6:45 and worked out til 8pm. They have 3 or 4 different circuits of machines to use. Naturally, we chose the newest, most state-of-the-art machines. Very easy to use, very efficient, and very painful, lol. I felt great while I was there, but it's not even an hour and a half later and I just cannot believe how sore I am already. I didn't expect the soreness until tomorrow morning. Wrong!

We spent half of our time getting familiar with all of the machines, finding out how they work, and doing 1 rep of 15 on all of them. There's about 12 machines I think. There were only 2 of them that I didn't get on....they were to work out the calves. I've already got the calf muscles of a man, so I seriously don't need anymore work in that department. I'll take a picture of them for you sometime to show you what I mean.

We spent the last half of our time on the treadmill. I burned 400 calories on that baby tonight and it felt damn good. I've had an easy week due to the knee and I've hated it. I was on it for 30 mins, part of it jogging, and park of it with a 5% incline. The trail I walk at the park is flat, so even a 5% incline on the treadmill was work for me. I walked just over 2 miles. I'll be going back in the morning by myself.

I talked to Billie about her schedule and it looks like we'll probably be able to go 4 nights a week together. That's when I plan on doing my weights. When I go by myself in the mornings, it will probably just be to do the treadmill. I worked with a personal trainer lifting free weights about 6 years ago when I lost 83 lbs., and I remember muscle fatigue all too well. So I will NOT be doing free weights or weight machines 2x a day. Ain't happenin', lol.

I ate 1400 calories today, but that was accidental. I was supposed to eat 1600 like I've done all week, but I put 200 in my calorie counter this morning to account for 1/4 c of almonds I was going to have as a snack this afternoon. When I was closing out the website a few minutes ago and looking over my calories for the day, I realized I forgot to eat them! I cannot believe I forgot to eat something, lol, that is just a trip. Too tired to eat now....sounds like too much work and my whole body hurts right now.

I'm glad I stopped waivering over this decision and just did it. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I'm not overly excited or too pumped up....I just feel a resolve deep-down telling me that this is just the next step in my travels. I'm on the right path and I'm doing what I need to be doing. I feel good. I feel like I'm progressing nicely. I no longer fear that I won't make it. I no longer feel like maybe I can't do this. I know that I can now. How long it's going to take is becoming less important. Just the knowledge that I WILL make it is comforting. I'm not doing everything perfect...but I'm letting go of the quest for perfect. I wasn't hitting that unrealistic goal anyway. What I'm looking for is nice and steady progress.

No idea how the weigh-in is going to turn out this week, but surprisingly, I don't feel too worried about it. I've been told by several people this week that raising my calories may cause a gain at first until my body adjusts to it. I went to 1600 this week, and with getting back to my normal cardio next week, I plan on raising it on up to 1700. Of course, after I have my appt with the nutritionist at the gym in a day or two, that could all change. I'm sure he knows tons more about what I should be doing than I do. We'll see. I've also been told by 3 or 4 people at the gym today that adding in the weight machines will also cause an initial gain....we've all heard it before...muscle weighs more than fat..blah, blah, lol. So I'm trying to take it all in stride. Just going to keep doing what feels right and take it as it comes. This all totally goes against my personality, but sometimes change can be a good thing. :)

Quote For the Day:

The first and the best victory is to conquer self." -Plato