Perseverance...And a Cat Story for Sarah

I have two stories for you today. The first is a story of perseverance in the face of exhaustion. The second is a cat story, brought to you by my cat, Zelda, my fiance, Jim, and Sarah's wish for "pictures of the animal-kids." :)

First up, perseverance!

I was tired yesterday. I went to bed a bit late the night before (for me), at about 10:10. I was woken up at 5:00 by Jim tromping down the stairs, and couldn't get back to sleep. You may think that roughly 6 1/2 hours of sleep (figuring I was asleep by 10:30) would be enough - you'd be wrong. I do NOT fare well on less than seven hours of sleep, and frankly I really need a complete eight to be happy and awake all day.

Anyway, I worked all day, and just felt tired and drained the whole time. I left work at 4:00 and went to the gym, and I got on the elliptical. I programmed it for my normal 30 minutes, but then my mind started working. Some of the thoughts that went through my head during the time I spent on the elliptical:

"I should have just done 20 minutes today."

"Okay, I'm 20% done. Unless I only do 20 minutes instead of 30, and then I'm really 30% done."

"I'm 40% done. Unless I only do 20 minutes, and then I'm really 60% done!"

"Okay, I passed 20 minutes. I guess I'm doing the whole 30 minutes now. Sigh."

The updates in my head actually occurred at every 10% interval, but you get the idea. I was tired, it was hard, but I pushed through and did the whole 30 minutes, plus a five minute cool down. Woo! Then I did my resistance training, and then I limped home and barely managed to stay awake until 9:00. I think I was sleeping by 9:15. :)

*****

Okay, now here is the story for Sarah.

This is my cat, Zelda:


Well, it's her face, anyway. :)

My cats all stay inside - there are a lot of dangers in the outside world, and people go tearing down the road in front of my house at 65mph+, and since I have a very large desire to not scrape my dead cats off the side of the road, they stay inside. Well, yesterday Jim had the window open in the living room, because it was a nice day. He came into the room and noticed one of the screens had popped out and was outside - and then he noticed that the reason that screen was popped out was because Zelda must have leaned on it, and fallen outside. She was outside!

As happy as he would have been to just let her go, he loves me more than he dislikes cats, so he chased her around the house for about an hour, until he finally caught her when she ran under the front porch stairs. He grabbed her through the front of the steps and brought her inside.

Silly Zelda. I hugged Jim and thanked him for catching her, and I told Zelda to keep her chubby butt away from my window screens. Here's hoping she listens to me.

Back in the Saddle

I got back to working out on Wednesday. I didn't go full speed on that day, because I was still pretty low energy from being sick, but at least I got there and got it done! Then I went back this afternoon, even though I was wishing to just go home. I'm glad I went, though. I worked out much harder, got my heart rate up about 10-15 beats more per minute, and really felt like I was accomplishing something. I worked up a good sweat, did my resistance training, and then left with that exercise high.

And the best part - while I'm working out, I just KNOW that I'm going to be successful this time. Working out is the key. :)

357 days!

The Treadmill Makes Me Walk Drunk

I worked out after work yesterday, then went home and relaxed for the rest of the night. I was in bed with the light off by 10:15, and asleep shortly after. And yet 6:00 this morning felt SO EARLY. Seriously, this bone tiredness after working out needs to go away! :)

I did feel that good feeling when I was done again, though. It's just so satisfying! I hadn't worked out since last Wednesday for various reasons - on Friday I was at work until 5:00 putting together my new desk, which got me all hot and sweaty, and I needed to get home to take care of the dogs once I was finally done - they'd been alone since 7:10 that morning. Monday the gym was closed because the trainer was off. Tuesday I felt like crap and stayed home from work, and basically laid around the house all day (I wasn't really too sick - my period was gearing up, and I was headachy and dizzy for most of the day - the dizziness is what kept me home, really).

But I went last night. I did 27 minutes on the treadmill (a 2 minute warm-up to get used to the treadmill, a 20 minute walk at the faster speed and higher incline, and a five minute cool down), then I did the weights. I think I'm just about ready to start doing two sets of weights, instead of just one - well, for all except my triceps. My triceps are WEAK! :) And I'm going to go tonight to do the treadmill, and then again tomorrow to do both the treadmill and weights.

Oh, and anyone else who uses a treadmill - do you ever get that feeling when you get off that it's like you're still on it? You know, like when you're on a boat for a while and you get off, and your body kind of expects the rolling movement of the ship even when you're on solid ground? Well, I get that feeling BIG TIME when I get off the treadmill. It seriously takes me a few minutes to be able to walk a straight line again. What the heck is that all about? I swear my water bottle actually contains water, not vodka or something! :P

Day Two Done!

For the first two days after I worked out Monday night, my calves were ANGRY. Tight, sore, making me hobble when I first got up from bed or after sitting for a few minutes. Ouch! :) I'm also feeling very tired after my work outs (and even this morning, after working out last night, I didn't want to get up for work because it felt like I needed to sleep longer). But I know that will all go away with time, as my body adjusts.

Last night's work out when very well, though! I decided to try the treadmill, to see if I liked it any better than the one I have at home. Well, when I first got on, I didn't think I would. I didn't like the feeling of having to go so fast so that it wouldn't dump me on the floor behind it. But once I got used to it, it was okay, and I definitely worked much harder than I did Monday night on the elliptical. My heart rate went up to the maximum he said we should shoot for - going between 150 and 155.

I did my whole 20 minutes on it, plus a five minute cool down, and then the trainer took me through the weight routine again. A few more times, and I'll have that routine down, I think. Oh, and I think I'm going to ask if I can do a two minute warm-up in addition to the cool down. I think it would be nice to be able to get used to the treadmill before it starts trying to dump me off the back. :)

I asked my boss today when she got back from vacation if I could keep my summer hours of 7:30 - 4:00 going all year, so that I can start working out at 4:00 instead of 4:30 (we usually switch to 8-4:30 when students are here). As it is, I'm getting there at about 4:05 and not leaving until 5:10 - I don't want that to turn into 5:40 (or 6:00 when my cardio time goes up). Luckily, she said yes, yay! It's nice to have that half an hour extra at home in the evening. Plus when winter gets here (all too soon), maybe I'll be able to get home when I can still see through the snow.

Oh,and he showed me some stretches for my calves, so they're not hurting as much today. :)

Here's a question I thought of when I got done working out yesterday, though. I felt GREAT when I left. Why can I never remember that feeling when I think about exercising and don't want to?

Gym!

I have completed my first night of working out! Woo!

I left work at 4:00 and went over there, and then changed into my workout clothes and went into the gym. I knew some of what to expect, based on the sheet he gave me on Friday, but it was nice to go through it for the first time and really start getting the routine in my head.

First he took my blood pressure and resting heart rate. My heart rate was 88, and my blood pressure was 128 over 86, I think. Then he gave me this thing to put on that monitors heart rate, and we went over to the elliptical machine. He showed me that the monitor I was wearing syncs up with the machine, so my heart rate was displayed on it (cool). He said we wanted my heart rate to get between 132 and 153 (I think). I got into the 140s and stayed there, so I guess that was good.

I did my 20 minutes, at a fairly light resistance, but then it's my first day. I was dripping sweat when I was done, though, so it definitely was a workout.

Then I had a five minute cool down on the elliptical, which brought my heart rate down to about 120, and then we went to the weight machines. He showed me how to set the weights (I need to wear my contacts while I workout, though - I don't like wearing my glasses when I'm getting all sweaty, and things are just slightly blurry without them), and then I did a lot of arm work - my arms are sore this morning. And I did some reverse crunches, and some leg things on the floor, and then he showed me how to stretch out the muscles I had worked, he took my heart rate and blood pressure (heart rate just over 100, blood pressure the same as when I started). And I was done!

So, yay! Now I know exactly what to expect. He'll make things harder on me as my body gets more used to it, and I'll have to increase the length of time I spend on cardio work and increase the number of repetitions I do on weight work, but I can get through this, no problem.

I have just under 13 months until I get married - I'll be in such good shape by then! I'm so glad I'm doing this program. :)

My Workout Plan

I got my workout plan! There isn't anything too surprising in it, really. Here's what it says.

First there is a lot of stuff about heart rate max (HRM), resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate reserve (HRR). I'm not sure what the first and last thing mean, but they give numbers for them all. My HRM is 195 beats per minute (BPM), my RHR is 90 BPM and my HRR is 105 BPM. I don't know what all of that means, but I'm sure I'll have it explained to me on Monday.

Then there is a formula for lower level training zone, and one for upper level training zone, and formulas equal math which equals me zoning out immediately. Zzzzz. :)

But then it says that my training heart range is 132-153 BPM, which I understand. And then is our goals.

"Our goal is to have you do 30-45 minutes of cardio and eventually progressing to 60-90 minutes. I suggest you do this 5-7 times a week." He did say that I may start out only doing 20 minutes, and working my way up from there - did I mention I'm so out of shape I'm basically starting at ground zero here? They have a lot of treadmills there, but I'm hoping to be able to use the elliptical more - I've used one of those once, and I liked it much better than a treadmill.

Exercises that can be done for my cardio, according to this sheet: elliptical (yes!), treadmill (or walking or jogging outside), bicycle, aerobic stepping, dancing, swimming. Of those I like the elliptical, I don't mind walking outside, I love to ride bike (although it's very difficult here because of hills) and I love swimming. But my pool is out of commission and staying that way, so it's not an option. And because of the hills and my bad state of cardio health right now, the bike isn't an option this year, either. I'll pick that up in the spring.

And then there's resistance training (weight machines). My legs are already pretty strong (woo! at least one part of me is), so we're focusing more on my upper body than lower body. I'll be doing 8-10 repetitions for 2-3 sets in the following exercises:

Chest press: 50 pounds
Lat pull-down: 50 pounds
Tricep press: 26 pounds
Bicep curl: 26 pounds
Kick backs: 8 pound dumbbells
Reverse curls: 8 pound dumbbells
Sitting crunch: 26 pounds

I'm not sure what some of those exercises are, but he'll walk me through them all on Monday, so I'll be finding out pretty quickly.

And then there is a cool down to stretch all major muscles that were used. I'm to hold my stretches for a minimum of 15 seconds.

Chest stretch
Tricep stretch
Quad stretch
Hamstring stretch
Shoulder/back stretch

I'm only going to be working out at the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, because he does the orientations on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think if he doesn't have any of those scheduled we can work out then, but those days will be the exception, rather than the rule. So he put on the paper that he wants me doing cardio in my target heart range for 30-45 minutes at home. I can either go for walks or I can do videos (I'll do videos - I want to buy Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred, and before I get that there are videos I can do on Netflix's watch instantly part of their site - I love Netflix).

He also gave me a list of exercises I can do for resistance training at home:

Chair squats
Modified push-ups
Knee ups
Trunk lifts
Crunches

And there we are! That's my workout plan. I have to say, now that the orientation is over, and the stress test has come and gone, I'm kind of looking forward to getting started.

Oh, and he didn't give me any diet plan to follow or anything, but I'm planning on just tracking my food in Spark People, and I'm going to try to stick to around 1350 or 1400 calories. That's the mid-point of the range they give me for weight loss, and combined with the exercise I'll be doing, it should be sufficient for me to drop some weight. I hope. :)

Two more days of sloth-dom, and then the fun begins!