My first day journaling my fitness journey falls on a Monday. Today was a typical day in my life. I didn't get up with my husband at the butt crack of dawn because, well I'm lazy and don't want to get up before the sun does. So, as he got up to get ready to head over to Lifetime Fitness where he is a manager for the personal trainers, I rolled over and set my alarm to wake me up again at 8. Dragging myself out of bed at 8 (or a little past that if the truth be told) I got myself ready to hit the gym for my morning cardio. I try to do at least 30 minutes on the treadmill doing interval training. I've used other machines for this but I've just found that the treadmill allows me to set my desired pace better. After doing a cardio point assessment (a type of VO2 metabolic assessment) at Lifetime and seeing at what heart rate I burn fat and what rate I just burn sugar, I now know how to set my workout to be most effective. You can get a cardio point assessment at Lifetime to see this for yourself. It's extremely handy so that you can work to burn fat without killing yourself with ridiculous cardio sessions. Most, like me, think that the best workout is when you have your heart rate way up for at least 30 minutes to an hour and you walk away with "a good sweat" going and your legs are about to give out as your walk to your car. I would have never imagined that I was simply burning sugar at that rate and the fat wasn't going anywhere. No flipping way!! I now see I can work more effectively by staying in certain heart rate zones where I can burn fat and sugar. There is a whole system with this thing that is quite interesting and if you'd like I can do another post explaining it better and how you can get yours too. I'll have Jason write it so I don't look like a tard trying to explain something that is just not my forte. So that being said, the different zones I am supposed to stay in so I burn the most fat are: a walking pace that get me to between 113-122bpm (beats per minute) and a jogging pace that gets me between 143-162bpm. To make my workout interval training, I walk 2 minutes at about 120bpm and jog 1 minute at around 160bpm and repeat that over and over again for 30 minutes. This will literally be more effective than if I were to just do a high intensity workout for an hour. What I am learning from Jason is that doing it right is more effective that doing it like everyone else. I have been doing it this way for about a month now and I feel so much better after doing it right for 30 minutes than I did pushing through a cardio class. I will admit that I argued with Jason about this. I felt like he was giving me a workout that was too easy to do and I wanted something that challenged me. He kept saying "you don't need work so hard just because you think it's how you're supposed to do it and everyone else is doing it. Try doing it right for a bit of time first, then if you aren't getting the results feel free to argue with me". Admittedly again, I cheated and upped the speed and time for running. He caught me as he walked by one day and said, "how long have you been running?" I couldn't lie, he'd been watching. As I sat there and took my lecture (which I deserved) I decided to just let him have his way and do it like he said. What could it hurt? Either I would see the difference or I wouldn't. At least be respectful of a professional and do it like he said. He always says to me, "you know people pay me a lot of money to teach them these things and here you are ignoring me because I'm your husband". He's right, it is easier to ignore his instructions because I don't like it. If I were paying him, I would not have that luxury.
So anyhow, jumpin off that little rabbit trail, I did my 30 minutes of cardio intervals (2 minutes and 1 minute). Felt great and went on with my day. Now, eating today was a bit harder than normal because I didn't work today. My work routine was off so I failed on my eating routine. My "excuse"..... is no excuse because I have created a simple way for me to keep track of my food and I let it slide. I know, this is no way to start my blogging, but I told you I'm not perfect and not every day will be. I will be honest though, lol. Tomorrow I will share with you how I make eating simple. It works for me and this is the first time in my life where I can't say, "I can't do it."
Now, I didn't add in my evening workout, so I'll cover that in my third blog.
Yep, thats right, I didn't do it today....I admit. It's always a learning process and struggle to keep the excuses at bay. We are only human and slip up. It's ok as long as we know why we do and and strive to make changes to correct that in the future.
As you go along with me, feel free to share your struggles and "excuses". Put them out there so they can be said openly and we can work to make changes together.
See you tomorrow!
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