Fat Tammy vs. The Elliptical

Calories are at 1560 today....second decent day in a row.  I gotta' tell ya'....once you've been eating like an idiot for a whole month, it's really hard to get back on the wagon.  But the first day is the hardest one, and that was yesterday.  Each day after that gets a little easier...so if you fell off the wagon, too, put your blinders on and get through that first day.  You'll be so glad you did.  :)

Billie wasn't able to go to the gym with me tonight so I went alone.  That's another hard thing to do once you're used to going with a partner, but I've got a goal to reach, so I went.  I hit the elliptical for the 2nd day in a row.  Let's back up to yesterday's battle with the beast so you can fully appreciate today's experience.

Yesterday, it hurt just to stand on it.  Your quads tighten up immediately.  If you've been on one, then you know what I'm talking about.  I had to stop 3 times for a few seconds within the first 10 minutes because of the burn.  I didn't stop at all the last 15 minutes, and had a total of 25 mins on it.  I was amazed I made it that far.  And my speed totally sucked.  I had it between a 2.6 and a 3.0 and that was the absolute best I could do.  And there was no fluid motion like you see the experts doing...gliding like gazelles.  I looked more like an epileptic having a seizure.

I got on it again today, as I will every day I'm at the gym, until I master it like I've done with the treadmill.  I got on it and got started and felt surprisingly good at it....almost graceful.  I glanced down at my speed and I was at a 4.4!!!  It was so weird...like I went to bed last night and woke up magically knowing how to work the elliptical.  Very cool.  I was gliding along, keeping my speed between a 4.0 and a 4.4, and didn't have to stop at all.  I got to about 15 minutes and this guy got on the one beside me.  He had at least 50 lbs more belly fat than I did and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he seemed to be going WAY faster than I was.  I peeked at his machine and his speed was 8.6!  I was like "Pffft!!  Give it 5 mins and you'll be crawling."  So 5 minutes later I glanced over and his speed was at 9.1!!

Suddenly I lost all my steam.  I was at 20 minutes and wanted to get off so bad.  I couldn't get my speed higher than a 3.2.  It was like that jerk took out a big ol' needle and popped my big balloon, lol.  I couldn't stop though....I did 25 minutes yesterday and I couldn't let myself go backwards, no matter how much I hated the guy beside me.  So I plugged along for 5 more minutes and made it 25 mins for the 2nd day in a row.  Then I went downstairs and did 3 reps on all of the weight machines.  It was a good workout...one I'm proud of. 

When I weighed in last Friday, I changed my goal weight on my little ticker thingy on my sidebar.  I originally started this blog at 272 lbs and said I wanted to get down to 180 lbs.  I changed my mind.  I'm shooting for 170 lbs now.  And there's nothing saying I won't change it again later, lol.  Who knows.  But with the goal weight change, and the 13 lbs I gained....I now have 63 lbs to lose instead of the 40 lbs I had to lose.  Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer...but nothing major.  I started with 92 lbs to lose, so I've still made some progress.  I've also been in the gym for over 2 months, so I'm a lot more fit than I was when I started and I can tell.

I mentioned in a previous post that I'm bringing back my 10 lb/mo goal.  I have every intention of keeping that goal until I hit my goal weight.  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.  When I had this goal at the beginning of my blog, I lost 39 lbs in 4 months.  Those are the kinds of results I want to see.  Not this floundering around crap and the GAINING that's been going on.  It feels good to have a goal again...something to reach for and dangle in front of myself.  It makes a big difference for me.

I've spent the last few hours putting away my Christmas decorations and I'm still only about 70% done.  Once I get everything done and my house back in order with the normal decor back in place, I'll get back to regular commenting on everyone's blogs.  Sorry that I've been out of it for so long.  I can't say that my circumstances are a whole lot better....but my attitude is improving, and that's really the key to everything in life.

It's good to be back.  Thank you to everyone who hung in there with me and didn't write me off.  A special thank you to those of you who sent me private emails and have checked on me all through this hard period.  And a VERY special thank you to my beautiful friend Andrea at Beauty and Old Things, listed on my blogroll.  She just changed her blogname to Fit To Be Seen recently.  She's into photography and she finds such beauty in the simplest of God's creations and shares it with the world.  She sent me the most gorgeous Christmas card with a hand-written message....the only Christmas card I received this year.  Big hugs to you Andrea.  'Nite friends.  :)