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

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