When I was in my 20s, I got fit for the first time in my life. I’d never done any exercise as a child, owing to the unfortunate circumstances of being severely anemic (undiagnosed), not a visual learner so it didn’t come naturally, and not coming from a family where physical ability was valued or promoted in any way. Luckily, I actually became fit quite easily as I did not have stick-to-it-ive-ness and would easily have given up if results were not quick.
I am glad I had the opportunity to see and feel the process of going from sluggishness to total fitness so I could really notice the changes to my body. That is helping guide me this time around.
One thing I am still waiting for is more energy. I already have a lot more energy than I did before I started applying myself, but I still feel like I’d rather lie around and read a book instead of getting off my butt and getting important things accomplished. Once I get moving, it’s now not a big deal to keep moving, unless I’m sick. Perhaps it’s a motivation issue. Perhaps it’s a thyroid issue. I don’t know. I’ll be addressing both my motiviation and any possibility of underlying health causes.
Anyway, today, I woke up hungry! My last two workouts, I continued my new trend of pushing harder and expanding the envelope. Sunday night, I incorporated a lot of new techniques from the podcast I blogged about. I hope I can continue to find the space in the gym to work out like that. I went from one station to the next and focused on holding at the heavy point and on slow negatives. I also focused a lot on legs and butt as they are the largest muscles so will increase metabolism when stimulated. I didn’t do anything all that long as I feel pretty foolish lunging around the gym or doing a zillion step-ups. I kept my heart rate bouncing – extremely high so I was sweating and panting and then just enough rest to catch my breath and on to more of the same or the next thing.
None of the new machines do butt for me so I sought out an ancient machine I remember already being dusty and rusty when I worked out in my 20s. It has some steps and you can put a padded waist belt on and do squats (or dips or whatever, but I can’t do those with just my own weight so I certainly can’t be adding more!) I don’t recall it being so difficult to get up with the waist belt on but I managed it. Maybe I was doing it wrong? I really had to crouch to get it up over my hips. I like doing squats that way as it doesn’t compress the spine. I really do not think it’s wise to put a heavy barbell across your shoulders. That’s not a good kind of pain. After the squats, I climbed up to the top step and jumped into the top of a pull-up and held it, then lowered myself down slowly until the point of dropping. That’s a bit scary as it’s impossible to know where the step is but I did find it every time.
Last night, I did the escalator. I don’t know what it’s really called but that’s what I like to call it. I set it to intervals and managed to get through a boring 15 minutes. My test of working hard enough is that I’m not feeling faint but I couldn’t easily manage a drink of water until about 20 seconds into my recovery interval. So one minute where I’m breathing very hard by the end and then, in that case, 1 minute of recovery. I would prefer more like 30 seconds to recover but that’s not how the program worked. I am learning to drink less water – just a tiny sip here and there so it’s not sloshing in my stomach. After that, I did this new (to my gym) arm pedaling machine that my husband thinks is a joke because you only see, um, rather large people on it. Yeah, sure, it can be nothing if you make it nothing, but if you set the level and pedal quickly, it gets the heart rate right up there. I know from years of aerobics classes that incorperating arms increases heart rate but sometimes, I just like to do arms so I can really focus on them instead of flail them around randomly. And do weight bearing heart rate increasing work. I felt like I could really get my back and abs into this and I am focusing more on doing that as much as I can think of it. I have finally learned that there are no abs exercise; the core is not meant to be worked separately but rather as part of whole body movements.
And today? I’m hungry! I woke up around 6:30 am and could not sleep any more. The bad news is I was stressed. I need to get my life to where I wake up calm and peaceful. The good news is I was rested and ready to get up instead of wanting to lounge for hours. After waiting a bit to be certain, I did get up and had a light breakfast. Two hours later, I was starving again. That’s the way to eat, anyway; so much better to split one large meal into two smaller meals. I know this but I haven’t been doing it. Actually, I was out of big bowls and that’s the main reason I had a small first breakfast. Whatever it takes! Now I know to just eat in a smaller bowl or plate to have a smaller meal and be hungry again two hours later. But that’s not all of it; I feel the way I felt in my 20s when my appetite was revved and I needed to eat all the time, and I do mean all the time! I have been researching like mad and, I thought, working out hard. But perhaps it was only hard for where I was then and now I am getting to what only took 2-3 months last time. I guess, now that I think about it, if it took 2-3 months and now it took 8 months, that is not horrible. I’m still getting there! I am starting to actually believe in the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel!!!
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