Workout recap and some exciting news!

Today was such a whirlwind, I hardly know where to start.

I showed up at the gym this morning with my list of exercises from my workout pledge ready to go. My sister was there to join me but what I didn’t know was that Michelle, the owner of the gym, would also be there ready to help me get the most out of my workout. Right away she looked at the list I brought to figure out a plan for the day. She asked me how I normally “warm up” for a workout and I told her I normally just hop on the treadmill. Oops, wrong answer to tell a personal trainer! LOL She said “hop on the bike” so that’s what I did for 12 minutes at Level 5. That was my warm up. Then my sister and I did some stretching before getting to the meat of the workout.

I won’t bore you with every detail from the day, but basically she had me do circuits of all the different exercises. I started with the crunches, squats, and weight machines where I’d do 20 crunches, then 20 squats, and then 20 reps on the leg abduction weight machine and then I’d start back with the crunches and do it all over again.

She had me hold my fingers in a diamond like that and look at this blue piece of tape up on the wall. I guess so that my head stayed up? I’m not sure, but I think I looked funny.

After those circuits were out of the way she had me do the exercise bike and stairmaster. I’d do 3 minutes on one and then go hop on the other until I had all of them done. (Level 5 on the bike and 6 on the stairmaster)

After those circuits were done she had me get on the elliptical where I switched between the elliptical and the treadmill to finish out the workout. I’d do 2 minutes on the elliptical and then run on the treadmill.

I still can’t get over how red my face gets! And because I truly have no shame, I’ve uploaded a short video of me on the treadmill if you want a good laugh.

At one point on the treadmill I really felt like I was going to puke, so I got off, ate a protein bar, rested a few minutes, and then got back on and finished my workout.

So, I did it all – everything on the list and then some! Michelle was like my personal trainer, right there beside me for practically the whole time, making sure I had the correct form, checking my heart rate, etc. When I started running, she explained how I was making it harder on myself with my form. I told her that one of my goals is to become a better runner, so she gave me some helpful information like showing me how to increase my gait. It was so awesome to have that one on one with her today.

It got better though.

After the workout was done, we all went into her office and started talking. She asked me how much I have been losing a week. Recently I’ve only been losing less than a pound a week to a pound. I thought that was to be expected since I’ve lost a good amount already. I expected the rate to slow down. But, when I told her that, she felt differently and told me that she thinks I could/should be losing more a week still. So she started asking me about my eating habits and such to try to pinpoint what I’m doing wrong. I’ll be honest, all of this time I thought I had been doing pretty good with my food choices. She, however, was not impressed. LOL I mean, yes, what I have been eating is far and away better than I was before I began this journey, but still not completely healthy choices. For instance, Subway. I thought if I had a fresh fit sub about once a week that it was a good, healthy choice with only 280 calories. She quickly brought up the website showing there was almost 1000 mg of sodium in that thing! Then she brought up the issue of breakfast, which I’ll admit, I rarely eat. She pointed out that if I eat dinner at 7 PM and then don’t eat until 12 PM the next day, that I basically fasted for 17 hours and that I *need* breakfast to get my metabolism started for the day. These conversations continued for a while and I just sat there like a sponge trying to just soak in all the valuable help she was freely offering me. (Yes, freely!) I learned SO much today!

She suggested I start eating Weight Watchers style, keeping my intake to 25 points or less. She also said that if I wanted to start coming into the gym at 5 AM, she would meet me there and work with me for about an hour a day! Really, I’d have to be DUMB to turn down an offer like that! OF COURSE I will do that! She’s convinced that I could be producing better results on the scale and wants to show me different exercises and such to get them.

Needless to say, I’m stoked. Just when I thought I might be starting to plateau, this happens and flips everything I’ve known and been doing on its head. I’m excited to enter this new phase of my journey…and yeah, hopefully she’s right and I can start losing 2-3 lbs a week again. So that’s my exciting news for the day. I’ll now be doing Weight Watchers (unofficially) and meeting her every morning for some more personal training. Could it get any better?!

Christina, thank you for going with me and for taking the pictures for me! Michelle, thank you for all your help and advice today….YOU ROCK and I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning!!!

p.s. I did not keep track of my mileage today. Doh! And since I don’t want to guess with my yearly goals, I’m not adding them to my totals below. Today was just extra.

102.75 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
14.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)