I was watching a show on tv that was talking about how many calories Thanksgiving dinner was if you ate all the trimmings and drank wine. 3400! 3500 calories is a pound. I started thinking to myself about how glutinous Thanksgiving is. American’s gorge themselves on 3400 calories and it spirals them out of control until January 1. I promise to NOT let this happen to me. I have been working hard for 3 months now, I am stronger, leaner, and well on my way to my goals. When I first started I could only do 5 pushups, yes 5. Yesterday, my last workout with Charlie I did 30 pushups twice! I know 30 doesn’t sound like a lot, but when I can do 6 times the amount of when I started…I urge all of you to pick yourself up and do some exercise before enduldging in 3400 calories on Thursday. Stay strong!
First Weigh In
Normally when I go on a new diet/training routine I weigh myself at least once a week.
This is a whole new ballgame waiting an entire month to weigh in. It was hard managing my expectations. I knew I hadn’t lost a lot of weight, but I was pretty sure I had lost inches.
The workouts have been so intense and frequent with Kate I felt somewhat confident that the true measurement would be in inches lost. Boy I was nervous as I got on the scale.
At first I was a little disappointed. I had lost 3 pounds. Mind you my goal is to lose 10 total so I am one third the way there. But 3 pounds didn’t seem like much. HOWEVER – I was delighted to see the inches just fall off. I took 2 inches off of my waist. I knew my clothes were fitting so much better. And I just felt leaner all the way around. In body fat I’ve lost 5% overall. I was extremely pleased with that result. And it’s given me incentive to work that much harder this month. Kate has been fabulous. She manages my expectations really well. And is extremely encouraging. Our workouts changed this week. We aren’t doing reps that much. It more of a timed deal with weights. I’ll work one minute on squats or biceps or whatever. I was a little apprehensive at first. But I like it. Makes the time just fly by.
Spent a lot of time with Kate this week. In addition to our workouts I did an XBike and a Bootcamp with her too. Lots of quality (and sweaty) time with her this week. Plan on hitting an XBike class tomorrow with Charity. Nothing like starting a Saturday with major cardio.
All in all this past month has been great. My eating habits are better. I’m drinking lots more water. I’ve changed up my workout routines tremendously. I’m actually enjoying working out after work. That is a total revamp from my old ways. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Now my only fear is getting through Thanksgiving unscathed.
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Coach Charlie
Working out with Charlie is a blast. You never know what he is going to do, I will admit my workout on Monday was the hardest one I have done since starting to workout almost 3 months ago. I had to do do everything to fight back the tears at one point and tell myself NOT to get sick. I think it was the box jumps, then the sprints, to the stair climber in-between pushups??? It made me a little afraid of the next workout. Today was fun, challenging, and inspiring. If you like a workout where you never know what you will do next and be pushed to work hard, then Charlie is the trainer for you. One minute you are jumping until you cannot even think you can jump anymore, to spinning, to killer abs.
One additional thing about Matrix that I have not talked about the last three months is how nice the locker rooms are. I have been working out more at times where I am showering after. Honestly, the locker rooms are so comfortable and stocked with everything you could possibly need. I think sometimes this is taken for granted so I thought I would mention. I am having a good week and in good spirits about my health can you tell??
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I’m Back in The Game
I’m sorry I’ve been M.I.A…the last week and a half have been very stressful with work and a little disorganized. Both of these situations are familiar to me, they usually become my downfall. When work gets stressful and demanding I tend to make that my main focus, and it takes over…I let everything else take a back seat. I also had my weigh in and I lost only 3 lbs. and hardly moved the body fat % needle. I was so discouraged. I put in all that work and effort into doing those double day sessions. These feelings & work/life stress caused me to skip workouts, work late, not grocery shop, eat what was near me, or not eat at all…all around a recipe for disaster. I realized everything I’ve been working toward was slipping away because I was losing focus on taking care of me first, and everything else second. This lead me to feel disappointed in myself and a little disconnected. I snapped out of it yesterday, technically my new trainer Charlie snapped it right out of me.
Charlie is great! He is always happy to see you and that smile gets you out of any grumpy mood, and gets you ready to start working. Don’t get me wrong that happy face still puts you through some heavy duty workouts that make you want to cry and the soreness days later reminds you of the smile Charlie greeted you with when he said …”hey there, ready to get started!” Yesterday he had me doing these intervals on the treadmill at speeds I’ve never reached before. He also had me doing this series of push ups with a 10lb weight in each hand, and after each push up I would have to do a “one armed row” while in the push up position. I thought he was nuts, but I did it…and after I’m done working out with him, I’m amazed I survived, and proud not to have given up (because the thought does cross your mind every minute during the hour training session). Thank you Charlie, for keeping me motivated, encouraged and for bringing me back to center.
I’ve learned a lesson this past week…as mentally committed as you are to changing your lifestyle and getting fit and healthy, life will put hurdles in front of you. The life style change does not only apply to the food you put in your body, or the excersise you physically do, it also applies to that mental moment when the “life hurdle” is put in front of you…do you let it stop you from moving forward, or do you use the strength you’ve gained the last few months to jump over it? I chose to jump over it, and keep moving toward my “finish line”.
Tomorrow an X-Bike Class, Friday a beat down by Charlie…I can’t wait!
Skinny pants here I come!
For the heck of it this weekend I decided to just see where I was in relation to my skinny pants. These are some summer pants I have not worn in 3 summers. I could hardly believe it, I could get into them! Maybe not wear them in public, but it won’t be much longer! It really made me think about the last few months. Yes, if you read through my blogs there have been some struggles, and at times I wanted to throw in the towel, but for the most part it has been pretty managable. In about 2 and 1/2 months I am back in clothes I could not wear for 3 YEARS…I am not even 1/2 way to my goal weight. The skinny pants has motivated me to keep on working harder. I have been working out with Charlie the last few weeks. If you don’t know Charlie, (hard to believe, it seems like he knows everyone!) he has magnetic energy. The workouts are fun, challenging. Charlie pushes you like your favorite coach from high school. You want to do a good job becuase you know he is such a good athlete. The trainers at Matrix are great, you put in the work results will appear. I am going to set goals even past the skinny pants!
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A Quarter of the way
This week was weigh in and retest week, about a quarter into the life journey. I was very thrilled that I lost another 4% body fat, but only 3 pounds. After being 2 and 1/2 months into this I have lost weight slower that the last few crash diets. The difference is I feel in much better shape than I have in several years. My goals for the month are to kick up cardio and kick down the calories even more. I want to be down 8-10 pounds by next weigh in for December!
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Week Four – What a Difference
I don’t want to say this new intense training has become 2nd nature just yet. But I will say it’s certainly a more natural part of my daily routine now.
Met with Kate Monday night – still can’t believe I’m working out after work. That is progress for me. She had a different plan for me. Instead of working with reps, everything was timed out…
spent a minute on abs, a minute on shoulders, etc. The thing that struck me about it was how much faster the session went doing it this way.
I was amazed how quickly the hour passed. It was still brutal, but I believe more efficient. And I’m loving how much more weight I can handle. That really keeps me motivated to see that type of progress. I’m certainly seeing results in endurance, weight loss, strength and toning.
This morning I went to another Xbike class. I think that’s the hardest class by far. It is so intense. I know I’m one of the slowest in the class, but I’m confident I’m still getting in a really strong workout. You just can’t cheat in that class. I’ve never taken a spin class and everyone says the Xbike is much much tougher.
Well..I’m certainly going to take their word for that.
I’ve got my week planned out pretty well. Now that it’s getting light at a decent hour I can run outside in the mornings. That’s a nice change of pace. I used to do the same thing everyday when I worked out on my own. Changing it up every day keeps it much more interesting, let along effective. Thursday probably another Xbike class.
My next training session with Kate is on Friday. Getting my body measurements again – really psyched about that…keeps me honest this week food wise.
Did I mention that I’m pretty fanatic about water intake now. I have a bottle with me constantly. And yes…I really do thing it keeps my energy up and curbs my appetite. Now if I could just train myself to sleep through the entire night without having to get up!
Stay tuned for Friday’s results………………
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What makes a difference
A friend of mine who also works out at Matrix made an observation the other day. It seems that everyone who works and works out at Matrix is super fit. Not in a way that is all “beautiful people” but in an a way that it feels like you are surrounded by “healthy people.” The journey I am taking trying to drop this 35 pounds is difficult. I really struggle with how long it seems to be taking to drop the weight. Granted I am not doing a starvation crash diet, I am implementing a healthy lifestyle change. Nonetheless, I still struggle. I will say going to Matrix does help the cause, I want to become one of the “healthy people,” and hopefully help someone else reach their health and fitness potential! Here is to a healthy weekend.
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XBike – Really?
After 3 hard days of training I kinda thought I might take Thursday off. My body was pretty tired. So I get up Thursday…thinking this is my rest day…but the funniest thing happened. I showed up at Matrix for the XBike class at 6am. I figured what the heck. I hadn’t done that class and I was curious. Whoa – that was probably the toughest class I’ve done so far. I’ve never even done a spinning class. And from what everyone told me – the Xbike is much tougher. You know what — I’ll take their word for that. It was so hard. Mid way through I almost left. But I decided to just stop for a minute, catch my breath and keep going. Talk about survival mode. Of course once the class was over I felt such a sense of accomplishment. So much so I’m pretty sure I’m going to go to the Xbike class on Saturday morning.
I’guess I’m really into challenging myself right now. I don’t think I’m completely obsessive compulsive. I just think I’m at that age where I want to prove to myself I can still do this stuff.
And you know what – it’s a pretty good feeling.
I’m feeling so comfortable at Matrix. I’m liking my routine there. There’s no question I’ve developed some great new habits.
Next week I get my weigh in…can’t wait for that. I know all this hard work has really paid off. And I’m starting to feel that I will keep it up once my training routine is finished. I need to be able to do this on my own.
3 weeks down – it’s just flown by.
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Training Outside
I trained with Charlie last Friday and he totally surprised me, he said…”grab your water and a towel, we are going outside!” I have to admit I was a little hesitant, I have never worked with a trainer outside before. I was pleasantly surprise. The workout was hard… he found one of the few hills that are around the gym and we started doing sprints, and side steps, and running backwards. We did lunges up the hill, followed by push ups and ran back down the hill, and lunged back up the hill. Charlie brought a few trinkets with him like a kettle bell, and some bands to work on core and upper body strengthening. I was amazed that I got a superb workout and I never left the street block…goes to show you with minimal space, and minimal equipment, you can still get a great workout in.
Charlie is a great trainer, he puts challenging exercises in front of you and gives you the encouragment that makes you believe you can do it. He coaches you through the process, not that it make the work any easier, but it helps knowing that he’s right next to you telling you…”you got this, you can do it…”!
Thank you Charlie… for a great outdoor , “outside the box” workout!