being “good”

I did my workout on Friday with my trainer.  On Saturday, I went to the gym again!  🙂 How is this good?  I did mostly aerobic exercises on Saturday, then we took our granddaughter for a pumpkin outing.  We walked all over and got pumpkins and had fun.  I DIDN’T GET EXHAUSTED!  My back didn’t tighten up.  I didn’t get out of breath.  This IS measurable progress!  I like that kind.  I also got my hubby to sign up for training WITH me.  My trainer has graciously offered to train the 2 of us at the same time.  This is amazing because although I am terribly jealous of my hubby’s ability to lose weight at the blink of an eye, when he does, he looks amazing, and he doesn’t wheeze when he goes up the stairs, and he doesn’t snore, and he doesn’t break the furniture…oops, I said that out loud.  You can tell where he sits on the couch, you can see which side of the bed he sleeps on, you know which car he drives, which chair he uses in the kitchen.  He’s gone through 3 chairs at his computer at home.  He cannot just sit.  He throws himself into a sitting position.  365 pounds moving at 32 feet per square second.  That’s more dangerous on furniture than someone with a 20 pound sledge hammer.  I am excited that he’s going to get the training I’ve been getting.  She is so awesome.

So now I’m looking at what I’ve ruined because I’m too big.  I think it’s mostly internal damage.  I don’t like the way I look, my self esteem is low, I hurt.  It’s awkward to get in and out of the car, up and down off the sofa, in and out of benches at restaurants.  I hate buying clothes.  I don’t like passing a mirror.  My arms rest on my sides when I sit.  That really feels weird!

The self esteem issue was majorly turned around on Sunday.  I was in charge of getting food for the Stewardship Dinner.  We had chicken (some baked, some fried) and rib tips, potatoes au gratin, corn relish salad, ambrosia salad, cole slaw, rolls for 60 people, and I had a $600 budget.  I spent less than $350 and we had lots of food left over.  The president of our committee took the left over ribs and salads to the local firehouse.  The firemen really appreciated it.  Everyone was amazed at what I’d done.  What did I eat?  I had the baked chicken, the corn salad and coleslaw and a few ribs.  I will write a thank you note to the caterer for the wonderful food.  I did NOT get enough sleep yesterday since I went to the store at 7:00 am to make sure everything was ready before the event at noon.  Which means I left the house about 6:30.  I didn’t get home from church until about 2 pm.

So this weekend, I was good.  I’m going to be good this week too.

10 crunches a day

When people struggle with their weight, sometimes they get advice from the folks they’re complaining to.  “I’m sorry, no cookies today, I’m watching my weight.”  “Oh really?  Have you tried not having 12 servings and eating in between meals?”  or “Oh really?  Have you tried exercising?”  or my favorite  “Oh really?  I don’t have that problem, maybe you should do as I do.”  and then they take 3 more cookies, and a large glass of pop and plop down in front of the TV for 3-4 hours.  Ya know…  I have answers to all those.

12 servings?  snacking?  Can you live on 1200 calories a day?  I thought not.  I do.  You had more to eat at breakfast than I will have all day.  Where exactly should I cut back?

Exercising…ya, I’m doing chin ups, dips, crunches, leg extensions and curls, bicep curls, triceps extensions and then I do 30-50 min of cardio walking or on the treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike.  Should I also take up football and gymnastics?

I did what you do, that’s why I’m 65 pounds too heavy.

Just set some goals and follow your plan.  See a previous post on goal setting.

So Friday I went in for my training session.  211 pounds.  Weight is going UP.  I am not happy.  My “goal” was to lose 1 pound a week.  Failed again.  So my sweet boy says, “Mom, you’d be surprised at what 10 crunches/day will do for you.”  Then he lies down and does the 10 crunches with me.  He’s a stick.  I did that workout mentioned earlier on Friday and on Sunday, EVERY MUSCLE IN MY BODY  is uncomfortable.  Owie.  Good thing I don’t have to play in the band this weekend.  The cymbals would kill me!

I am trying an experiment however.  I lost some weight when I had my kidney stone problem.  I had no coffee and lots of cranberry juice and water.  I am going to attempt to go without coffee for the next month and see what happens.

SMART goals…

Oct 3rd, my trainer and I came up with some goals for this month.
I hate goals. I have been told in work, in music, in fitness, in school, in everything I do, I need to set and reach goals. They have to be SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable (note the title of this blog)
Achievable
Reachable
Timely

I can set Specific, Measurable, Timely goals… but I doubt the achievability and reachability of any goal I set. I’m pretty sure the specific goal…to reach a certain weight, to lift a certain weight, to play a certain song on a certain instrument, to pass a class, to finish paperwork is possible, but NOT within the time limit. I believe that showing some change that can be measured is ridiculously easy, but having the measurement be CLOSER to the goal is a crap shoot. Why bother to set goals you have no hope of achieving? Why obsess on a time schedule that is impossible to keep? Why set yourself up for failure because your goal is dependent on the actions of something or someone outside your control?

So my goals, as set and approved by my trainer
1) Specific: lose weight, increase endurance and strength
2) Measurable: increments of 1 pound on weight loss, increments of 5 min on endurance, and increments of 5 pounds or 5 repetitions for strength
3) Achievable: given the nutrition parameters and the activities prescribed this is possible
4) Reachable: These are desirable to me. I know it would make me feel and look better
5) Timely: 1 pound/week, 5 min increase/week, 5-10 pounds and 10-15 repetitions increased over the month.

Here’s the situation: as we were pounding these out, it could be compared to Labor/Management relations in the NFL. She wanted me to go to losing 2 pounds a week, eating about 1300-1500 calories per day, doing cardio 5 times a week and weight training 3 times a week. I agreed on the 1300-1500 calories, and thought I could do the workout schedule, but 2 pounds/week? Not possible! I finagled her down to 1 pound/week. I wanted 2 pounds/month.

New Starting point 209.8 pounds, 30# on arm exercises at 15 reps, 40-50# on leg exercises at 15 reps, 20 min on bike on lvl 4

Oct 9 20 reps at same weights, and added treadmill for 15 min to bike at 20 min. This is good right? If you do that (see achievable) and eat about the same as when you were 209, weight should go DOWN. I’m up to 211. If ANYONE ELSE were to do this, they’d be down 2 pounds the 1st week and 5 pounds the 2nd week. WHY DOESN’T IT WORK FOR ME?!!! *Sobs*

I hate goals. About the only way I can do these goals at all is if I stop eating and live on water, and exercise 24/7.