Day One

Journal Entry #1
For the Date Of: March 10/08

Food Eaten:

Started off pretty good. Had some oatmeal in the morning with bottled water and a small low fat yogurt. For lunch, had a six-inch cold cut trio sub, and some cranberry blend juice. Then I went to the gym, came back and was STARVING- so I had iced tea, baked chicken nuggets, deep-fried chicken wings (about six to eight) and some French fries. Booooo! Then followed it up with a little chocolate-- DOUBLE BOOOO!!

I’m royally ticked at myself but I’ve also noticed something between today and yesterday: If I let myself get too hungry, I am liable to cave and eat the first thing I see that smells good. I’m going to try to eat continually through the day, so I don’t get to that ‘I’m freaking starving!’ point again.

Workouts:

My first day at my new gym! I previously had a membership at Curves, but it didn’t work well for me AT ALL. For one, they closed too early- and by the time I’d gotten home and picked up my son from daycare, I had less than an hour to go there and work out. Plus, with my husband working weird hours, it was too hard to find someone to watch my kid while I went to the gym. On top of that, most of the women who went to Curves were older- and still pretty plump. Very hard for me to visualize getting results when everyone around me is on the heavier side- which may sound bad, but it’s just how I feel. I think Curves is GREAT if you’re an older woman wanting to keep your flexibility and continue exercising- but it’s really not right for someone my age.

I joined my new gym for several reasons. For one, they have really good hours- they open early and close late. Secondly, they have child minding services available which means that while I’m exercising, my son can being watching videos, playing with toys, and enjoying the company of other kids. Great! Thirdly, they have this great women-only area for me to work-out without feeling uncomfortable in front of the veteran body-building types. There are a lot of attractive young men with rippling biceps there- and I don’t want them seeing me looking all wobbly and gross. Even if I do have a man at home, I still need to feel attractive to the opposite sex! Don’t want them to see me at my worst!

One of the first things I noticed at the gym were how many hard-bodied, attractive young WOMEN were there. In some ways, it was a blow to my self esteem (Oh my GOD, look how skinny and tight they are! They’re so strong-looking! I’ll never be able to look like that!) and yet at the same time, it made me really inspired. I watched them work out and tried to learn something from that, and thought, “If they can do it, so can I!” It was nice to have someone to look at as an example. I really felt like I was on the right path. I’m also thinking I need to invest in some cute gym outfits and new iPod and one of those armbands that I can stick the iPod to so I can work out without dropping it…. Oy, will getting slim cost me an arm and a leg???

All day at work yesterday, I was so gung-ho about going to the gym and working out and looking hot that I thought I should make a plan for what I planned to accomplish and set some goals for myself. I did a little Internet reading and one of the first things I learned was that if you haven’t exercised in a while you shouldn’t over-do it when you’re just getting started. I’ve been doing a little bit of Pilates here and there, but not nearly as much as I should so I knew that this rule really applied to me. I made a mental-note not to over-do it. I would have a nice light workout- enough that I broke a sweat and got my heart-rate up, but not so much that I was aching everywhere the next day and couldn’t move. After all, if I was too tired and sore, I wouldn’t want to go BACK to the gym- which would kill my motivation.

Actually, I think that’s the biggest problem I have- I will get overly excited about the prospect of getting healthy and losing weight, so I’ll over-exert myself and spend the next day or two in serious pain. That pain is usually enough to deter me from exercising for w while, so I stop. Honestly, it happens all the time. I vowed not to let that happen again.

So I got to the gym last night and began my very first workout. After a brief warm-up (I used to take Karate back in junior high so fortunately I at least knew how to do that) I started on the exercise bike. I spent five minutes on that, getting my heart-rate up. I couldn’t believe how out of shape I was! I barely made five minutes. Had to keep lying to myself and saying ‘just thirty more seconds… then another thirty more seconds’. I debated going longer than five minutes, but decided I didn’t want to be too tired to do some strength training. So I started doing the machine circuit. I did 2 sets of 12 on every machine. Initially, I started with low weights and then kept adding weight until I got to a point where I could feel it- but I wasn’t pushing myself. My legs are already pretty strong from playing with my son (he lays on my shins and I do anywhere from 40-80 leg lifts a night), so I did 3 sets of twelve on the leg machines. After I finished lifting weights, I went back to the bike and did another 5 minutes of cardio. This was a LOT harder the second time around, but I made it! After that I did a brief cool-down and then headed home. I didn’t do any ab work, because I was feeling a little tired and I was worried that I may have over-exerted myself and that I’d be hurting the next day.

Total workout time: 45 minutes


The Day After:

Today I’m a feeling really good. Actually, I’m not sore at all. There are some places where I can definitely feel tighter (like the insides of my thighs and the muscles on the inside of my back), so I KNOW I worked them okay, but it’s a bearable sort of pain. Hardly hurts at all. Nothing else is remotely tired or sore. In fact, I feel ready to do another workout today- so my plan worked! I think I’m going to do a SLIGHTLY longer work-out tonight. Definitely want to spend some time on my abs. Now that I have an idea of what I can handle, I’m going to aim for workouts of 45-60minutes per day for the rest of this week. If I survive that, I’ll push myself a little more for next week.