Learning Lots

I went to the gym this morning and walked just over 2 miles. My knee still isn't back to normal yet, but it's a lot better than it was. Billie and I went back to the gym tonight at 7pm and learned all kinds of stuff from a personal trainer named Dell. This man is 59 years old, has 27 years of experience in body building, personal training and nutrtion. He's been Mr. Universe and won numerous other competitions around the word...Italy, Germany, Spain, etc.

I hate to say this, lol, but a lot of the stuff he told us is stuff my mother has been telling me every day....oh how it pains me to say that. I know you're reading this Mom...I hope you're basking in the glow. You deserve it. I don't give you enough credit. :)

Let's see....there's a lot of stuff we already knew....stuff like:

-It takes 3500 calories burned to lose 1 lb. of fat.
-Eat 5-6x a day.
-Protein, protein, protein.
-Water, water, water....at least (3-4) 32 oz. glasses a day.
-Toning requires less weight and more reps.
-Look for a 1-2 lb. loss weekly.
-Do the weight training/toning every other day.
-Do the cardio 5-6 days a week with one rest day.

Here's what I didn't know:

-Yellow squash (my fave) is a bad carb; zucchini is a good carb
-Always do your cardio (treadmill) BEFORE you eat ANYTHING.
-Cottage cheese is the absolute best protein you can eat.
-If you eat a snack after dinner, make it cottage cheese.
-Jogging is BAD...too hard on the joints, and it wastes energy...you get more of a workout from walking. That was a hard one to swallow.
-Change your daily calorie limit EVERY 2 WEEKS to keep the body guessing.
-Change your exercise routine EVERY 2 WEEKS to keep the body from stalling.
-If you're going to count calories, keep it between 1500-1800 to lose weight.
-He listed about 6 supplements you should take, but the only 3 I remember is 5HTP, flaxseed capsules, and green tea EXTRACT in capsule form.
-Have a cheat day ONCE A WEEK. I knew cheat days were okay once in a while to change things up and jolt the body, but I did not know they were okay once a week.
-Walk backwards on the treadmill to strengthen my screwed up knee. I saw a girl doing this yesterday, but thought she was just a weirdo, lol.

Half the time I was shaking my head "yes" at stuff I'd heard before....and the other half I was picking my jaw up off the floor...especially the thing about the yellow squash, lol. I can't believe I made it this far in life not knowing it was a "bad" carb. Which doesn't mean not eat it....just don't eat it as plentifully as you would eat zucchini. I always thought the 2 main veggies that fell under the "bad" carb list were corn and potatoes.

He is in such perfect shape that I just had to ask him if he ever eats fast food. He said yes, and that he eats at Waffle House all the time...today, in fact. My eyebrows raised, my jaw dropped, and I think I blurted out something like, "Are you effing kidding me??? The Awful Waffle???". He laughed and said it's all in the ordering. Today he had steamed hashbrowns and a couple of eggs cooked in cooking spray, not the regular oil of butter. First off, I had no idea they had cooking spray. And secondly, I had no idea you could request "steamed" hashbrowns. I seriously thought they fried everything. Tonight was a total learning experience for me and it was awesome.

We worked out on the machines when we were there last night, but tonight he showed us how to do them "correctly". I feel a big difference in the soreness tonight from the soreness last night. Last night, I had to much movement in my exercises on the machines...I was wasting energy, or something like that. Tonight the movements were much more compact, efficient, intense, with higher weight than I used last night. Last night I used 10 lbs of weight for everything...tonight he put us on 30, 40 and 50 lb weight for everything. Big difference, lol. HUGE. But it feels good. I'm glad I know how to do it right now.

I'm going to weigh in tmrw morning, and then Billie will be here at 8:30. She's working from home this week, so she's able to go with me in the morning BEFORE BREAKFAST. That will be a change. I've been told for so long to eat 30 minutes after I get up to kick in the metabolism. He said that is correct, if you're not going to do any cardio that day, or if you're able to do the cardio in the morning and not after work. We all know I have no job right now, so I'm supposed to get to the gym and get the treadmill in before I eat anything. He said the purpose of this is if you eat breakfast, the body will burn that first. If you don't, it goes right into burning the stored fat. Makes perfect sense to me.

I doubt I'll have time to do a post before I go to the gym, so I'll do it when I get back in, sometime between my household chores and my errands. The goal this week was to lose 1 lb so that I could show a loss 2 weeks in a row and start gaining some consistency, so that is what I'm hoping for. :)

Quote For the Day:

"Your goals, minus your doubts, equals your reality." -Ralph Marston