Work Out Schmork Out

Yikes. It's been a while since I've mentioned my working out, and Colleen was so kind as to point it out to me yesterday. I am still going to the gym regularly, working out with my trainer (and friends) twice a week, and trying to get in some additional cardio at least twice a week. Sometimes that cardio comes in the form of some quality time with the elliptical machine, and sometimes it's a step class, just depends on the week and the timing.

This week, though, has been a challenge. I seem to have done something to my back - what, I don't have a clue - and it's made working out, and heck even just moving, really difficult. I seem to have strained some kind of muscle in my back, but fortunately my trainer was able to show me some stretches to help alleviate my super-fun discomfort yesterday, so hopefully that will help. She also prescribed a heating pad, which shockingly, I don't own, so I had to run out to get one.

Working out has been a really good stress reliever, and over the last month, our trainer has added some interesting new exercises to our routine. We've even being doing ab exercises, which has been interesting, since I haven't done crunches in years. We use the balance balls for most of our ab exercises, though we do some of them on the floor. We also still do those evil deadlifts, and walking lunges, and we've done squats with the balance ball at our back, which has been interesting. Admittedly, I haven't gotten on a scale in the last month, in part because I don't feel like being disappointed by it, but both our trainer and Husband think that I look skinnier than before, so hopefully all the work is doing something for me. I also haven't been really changing my diet, outside of trying not to eat excessively, which I think is a big problem for me. I'm trying to learn to listen to my body when it says that it's full. It's hard sometimes to be in tune with my body, especially when there's so much else going on, like the mess in the kitchen or Baby trying to have a conversation with me, or what-have-you, but it's a work in progress.

How about you? Are you working on losing some weight? Toning some muscle? Tell me about it! I think it's great to hear what other people are doing at the gym, sometimes it can give you inspiration to try something new.

I can barely bend at the moment

Well, Tuesday's regular workout with my trainer really broke me. We did some hardcore leg exercises, like these evil front and back lunges with weights and even some plies (which I was pleased to see I could still sort-of do). When I ran into my trainer at the Y yesterday, it turns out that I'm not sore from the evil lunges. Or the plies even. It was something she called the "dead drop." Basically, I was so sore yesterday that I skipped my usual Wednesday workout class (Fit Fusion) and just hopped on the elliptical to get in some cardio without having to do any more squats or lunges. Getting on and off the elliptical proved to be quite challenging. After much Googling, it seems they call this evil exercise "deadlifts" online, and here's a sample, since I can't explain it terribly well:



The main difference between that and what my trainer had me do is that my feet were a bit more than shoulder width apart, and I brought the ball all the way to the floor and then back up again. Forty-five times. Super fun. And all because I couldn't do squats with the medicine ball (you lift it over your head while you squat). My arms are weak. And now my legs feel wickedly weak. Bending and sitting is really, really un-fun for me. It will be interesting to see how training goes today, but I do know we're working on our arms, so hopefully I'll be able to get through it okay.

Anyway, a few of you have commented about having enjoyed reading about my plight to get in shape, and have been curious about the results thus far, so I thought I would share some vague results, given that I still don't even let my husband see me get on a scale. As of last week, two months after the beginning of my personal training, I have lost 2 inches on my waist, a half-inch on my hips, one inch on my arms, and one inch on my quads. I seem to have lost a pants size, but the scale hasn't budged much - just a few pounds.

I went to the local water park with my son on Labor Day, and found that my bathing suit no longer fits. That was a pleasant surprise, although an irritating one, as I kept adjusting my bathing suit bottom, which wanted to hang off of me. I've really enjoyed seeing little things like that here and there, so I know that my body is changing, I just don't really see it in the mirror yet. Stay tuned, though, I will certainly keep you all posted as to how my quest goes! Thanks for all the support so far, I really, really appreciate it.

My Husband Rocks Friday: He Did the Box!

Husband continued his staycation of pain yesterday - he accompanied me to my usual personal training session (where I also learned that I've lost a couple of inches over the last two months, woo hoo!), and was quite a trooper. We worked on both our upper and lower bodies, with a cameo appearance by my favorite workout/torture device, The Box.

I could tell that some of the machines (and more namely the weights that my trainer selected for him) were really challenging sometimes, but he powered through, even with walking lunges and The Box. Our trainer broke out a few new exercises, too, which were insanely tough, but Husband got to skip those. For the first one, we cradled an eight-pound weight behind our knee, and lifted our knee up high to the side over and over. Then for the second, we cradled the same weight behind the knee and lifted the knee backward repeatedly. Definitely burned the thighs and the butt a good bit.

Husband totally wishes that I would work on the strength in my hands, so I could rub his muscles and give neck rubs. In fact, he was going to ask my trainer specifically to focus on my hands, but he forgot. He was too busy having his butt kicked. He worked so hard and did such a good job.

It was a darn good workout. We were both totally drenched when we went to the nursery to pick up the munchkin. Husband's been hobbling around the house ever since, begging for mercy. I think I'll let him have today off. :) I don't think I'll be so kind to myself.

Fit Fusion: A tale of Husband exercising for the first time in a long time

There was a lot of squatting at Fit Fusion yesterday. Too much, if you ask Husband.

Husband is such a good sport. This week has been his "staycation" from work, and I've taken him to the Y with me twice so far. Once for my usual personal training session, and once yesterday for an aerobics class called Fit Fusion. It's basically a cardio and weights class, where you do a few minutes of intense cardio followed by intense weights, followed by intense cardio, and so on and so forth. It's a tough workout, it definitely kicks your butt, but it's one of the classes I really like because I feel like I get a really good workout from it.

As I was getting my gear, and his, for the class, I told the instructor that I'd brought my husband, and she seemed awfully impressed. I haven't been doing the classes at the Y for terribly long yet, but it seems that there aren't a ton of men who do them. I think I've seen 2. Maybe 3. Husband was the only dude in this class yesterday, but he didn't seem to mind, especially since we were in the back row (since I can't see without my glasses and I can't exercise with my glasses on, I purposely always go to the back row, because then I totally can't see myself in the mirror).

The instructor made a point to check in with him repeatedly, and he only really took one serious break, which I later learned was because he downed too much water at one point and started to cramp up a bit. Other than that, he was totally keeping up with the rest of us just fine. I was so proud of him!

After class, one of the other attendees came up to me and said her husband was home for the day and that she had invited him to come to class with her. He had told her that he would go run instead, which she doubted he would do. She was so impressed that Husband willingly came to class with me.

Husband tells me this morning that Fit Fusion broke him, that his legs are all frozen. I'm sure they are - we did a ton of squats and lunges yesterday! Hopefully, his legs will stretch out okay before our personal training session today!

Spinning kind of sucks...at least according to a first-timer

Today, I went to a beginning spin class. I was mildly relieved to learn that we would be spending some time to tweak the bikes appropriately, and that the entire class was only 30 minutes long. I've been on a spin bike for a few moments at a time previously, and every time, it was ridiculously uncomfortable. Today was no exception. Our instructor told us that it's perfectly normal to absolutely hate the "saddle," but that Target and Wal-Mart sell some kind of gel contraption you can put over the saddle to make it more comfortable. (I checked it out at Target, and it was $18. I'm not sure I need it that badly.) She also said that it should be something that either gets less uncomfortable with time or that our butts just get used to it. I'll believe it when I feel it.

After we all figured out how high our saddles should be and how far forward (or backward) the saddle should be, we hopped on the bikes to go through a quickie 10 or 15 minute class, learning some of the terminology of spin class and practicing some of the moves and hand holds. At first, it seemed easy. Then we did standing. And "jumping." Not so fun. At first, getting up off the saddle feels good, but then when you sit back down, it's like your body revolts against the concept of sitting back down.

I guess now I have the know-how to take an actual spin class. Here at our Y, they're done in the dark, so you can focus on just you and what you're doing, rather than trying to compete with your neighbor, which is something that's appealing to me. That and the idea that no one will see how pathetic I am at spinning. I mean, I loved bicycling when I was a kid. I enjoyed riding my bike all over the place, but I haven't owned a bike since I was about 15 or 16, so I'm more than a little rusty. That and spinning isn't a whole lot like bicycling - it's really a totally different kind of experience. I'm mildly afraid to take an actual class, because just the 10 or 15 minutes of spinning we did this morning seems to have done quite a number on me. I know it is a really good work out, though, so I'm sure I will drag my lazy butt to a spin class at some point...just not tomorrow. It's going to take some serious nerve and some coffee to get me in there.

Tell me, my faithful friends, have you ever done a spinning class? If so, was it so bad you thought you might die? Did the seat get more comfortable over time?

Cardio on Crack a.k.a. Step-n-Core

Today's session was by far the most killer so far. I'm still recovering, four hours later. I'm fighting a headache, which I suspect was brought on by all the bouncing, and I feel sore all over. I'm a little afraid to see how I'll feel tomorrow.

Today's class started innocently enough - we just were doing a basic step routine at first. Yes, it was a little fast, but it wasn't until the choreography started to get complicated that I really started to have a hard time. The music was so fast, and I would just get so behind, between how tricky the steps were and how totally exhausted I felt, even just fifteen minutes into the class. It was some seriously hardcore cardio, that's for sure. The instructor was the peppiest person I think I've ever come in contact with in reality, and yesterday's over-enthusiastic exerciser was in attendance, also, which was super fun.

We also spent a good bit of time working on our core, with various crunches, and some work on the balance ball. I have a hard time with those things. I'm always convinced that I'm going to fall off the damn thing. That even happened to someone in the class today! She just slid right off and landed on her butt. Poor thing.


We were doing these butt exercises, where we were supposed to slide off the ball and touch our butts to the ground and then push back up. It was really, seriously hard. Definitely a good butt workout.

Tomorrow, we're headed back to Salsa, which I'm looking forward to. That was the most fun workout so far, by a mile!

Yet Another New Class: Step and Sculpt

Today's form of exercise torture was supposed to be Step and Sculpt, but it turned out that the instructor is on vacation in Hawaii (must be nice!), so there was a fill-in instructor...the woman who taught the class I went to (and neglected to write about) on Friday - Circuit Training. She's a very perky lady, the typical kind of instructor you find on an exercise video, full of overly enthusiastic encouragement...like "Only four more! You can do anything four more times!" Don't get me wrong, I mostly like her as an instructor, her classes have been the most challenging and most burn-full for me so far. Today's class was no different.

There were weights. There were jumping jacks - lots of them. The pathetic thing about the jumping jacks was that I couldn't keep up. My feet just started to burn. Maybe I need different shoes for aerobic workouts, I don't know. There were crunches. There wasn't a muscle that wasn't burning by the end of the class, that's for sure.

The most obnoxious thing about class was the person exercising next to me, who was about seventy times more enthusiastic than the instructor. She kept shouting out "yeah!" and "uh" and counting down how many reps we had left of each exercise. At first, it was kind of cute, but as things continued to get harder, it just got to be really frustrating.

Then, just for fun, we stayed for the 30 minute class that followed, called Butts and Gluts. Or...for today, it was pilates.

I've never done pilates. I might never again. At least, not until I'm in seriously better shape. I'd heard from many people that it was like yoga, just more intense, and let me just say that it's way more intense. My muscles were often quaking from the length of time we would hold or pulse in certain poses, and there were lots of things I just plain couldn't do. It was almost depressing how much flexibility I've lost over the years as I've gotten older and heavier. I used to be a gymnast, a pretty darn good one, and I could, for instance, do a straddle and lay my stomach on the floor no problem. Today, I could barely even get my elbows to the floor. I'm sure it will get better with time, especially now that I'm exercising regularly. At least, I hope it will.

So, tomorrow we're trying another step class, so we'll see how that turns out. After all of our work with the box, I'm pretty sure that I can keep up in a step class. Stay tuned to hear all about it!

Another new fitness class: Muscle Up!

Today, my friends and I tried out the Muscle Up class at the Y. I got there first, and chatted with two women who were class regulars about the class, and they told me that the class was basically a muscle toning class, rather than cardio. This excited me, because the jumping jacks and rope jumping cardio from last week's circuit training class really killed me (I apparently need a more supportive sports bra).

This class was really tough. It worked my abs, for the first time in God-knows-when. My lovely little C-section tummy pouch kept getting in the way of my ab crunches, actually. Very odd sensation. There were tons of squats, not to mention squats that we would hold for obscenely long periods of time. There was some step work with weights, lots of curls and flys and other weight-lifting kinds of things.

It was a serious workout. There was a lot of sweat, but no tears - although I considered them once or twice during the evil squats. It was definitely tough, but I was able to walk out of there without falling over and I was able to pick up my munchkin afterward, so it must not have been quite as hard as I'm making it out to be. I have a feeling I'll be pretty sore tomorrow, but we'll see. Time will tell.

On the bright side (sort of), I have to buy some new capris - I have shrunk a size at this point (yay!) but my thinner clothes seem to skip a size, so I need something for the in-between time. The idea of having to buy smaller clothes is nice, but I hate having to buy something that I'm planning/hoping to not wear for long. Oh well.

And BTW, my bread smells freaking awesome!!

Salsa Class #1: Wow that was hard!

Wow. Today, I went to my very first group exercise class, a salsa class. I went with two good friends of mine, which made me chill out a little bit. So did the gaggle of older ladies who showed up just before the class started. I figured if they could keep up with the instructor, so could I.

I've tried aerobic videos, and I have a tough time following the choreography sometimes. Especially if the choreography is really challenging or fast. I was worried that today would be really hard, as a result, especially because salsa is not exactly an easy dance to do.

I can't remember that last time I laughed this hard (wait, yes, I can, when I went to see "The Hangover"). Between my friends and I cracking up at some of the silly moves we were doing or at how ridiculously lost we were in the choreography, it turned out to be a ton of fun. It was definitely a serious workout - we were all dripping by the end of the seventy-five minute long class. I definitely felt silly trying to wiggle my hips and shake it and all that jazz (or salsa, as the case may be), but it was a ton of fun. The choreography started out easy and got harder as we went along, but I was able to keep up a lot better than I thought I would. The instructor came up to us after class and said she was really impressed with how well we did for our first class. Then she invited my friends to join her bellydancing class. Oh my!

I think this class is definitely going to make it into our regular rotation of exercise classes. So...if your gym offers a salsa class, you definitely ought to give it a shot. You might just surprise yourself!

Personal Training Day Eleven: The Total Body Workout

Today was our last day of training for a few weeks - our trainer is going on vacation for a few weeks. It was exciting and scary at the same time. I really love the feeling of obligation to the get to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30. Without my trainer around, I'm not sure how good I will be about going at least twice a week. I sure hope I do well. We're going to try to go to some fitness classes to get in some good cardio while our trainer's away, so stay tuned - we start with Salsa on Thursday!

Since it was our last day, our trainer made sure to work our whole body, and I hate to admit it, but it was almost easy, in a way. I had a much easier time with everything that we did. Definitely an easier time than the first session we had! I definitely feel stronger than I did before I got started, although I haven't lost a ton of weight. Our trainer keeps saying that muscle weighs more than fat. She keeps telling me that it looks like I've lost weight, but the scale sure doesn't seem to show it.

Have I mentioned the crazy idea my dearest friend has had? This is pretty darn funny. She's one of the girls I'm training with, and she mentioned to us some kind of mud obstacle course last week not too far away. In my head, I pictured the obstacle course from Ninja Warrior...have you ever seen that show? Hilarious.



Anyway, that's what I had in mind. So then, my friend sent out an email to all of us, along with a link to the information about it. It's called the Muddy Buddy race, and not only is it an obstacle course, but it's also 6.2 miles of running and biking! Seriously???!!! I mean, I am in better shape, but I'm not in triathlon shape yet! Yikes!

Personal Training Day Ten:

Today was a good workout. And by good, I mean, that I felt the burn, but that I wasn't going to fall over from feeling said burn. We worked on the upper body, but with a combination of free weights and weight machines, so that was a nice change of pace. Not to mention that I was totally rocking out to my new workout playlist, which made the workout that much more bearable.

For me, music is integral for working out. Music, in addition in this case to my friends and the little jokes we crack in between catching our breath, makes the workouts survivable, even when they're really hard. I think an iPod or some other kind of music device is positively mandatory for working out. I've forgotten my iPod all of one time in my three or four months of working out now, and the one time I did, I plugged my headphones (because somehow, I remembered those) into the TV on the elliptical to pass the time, which didn't work out so hot.

Given how important music is to me when I work out, I thought I would share with you my Top Ten Workout Songs (which also double as my top ten for any kind of physical activity, like cleaning or vacuuming, too). And I'd love to hear about some of your favorites, too! You'll probably notice that a lot of these are older, retro songs, but that's just how I roll, I guess. Totally not on purpose.

1. Survivor "Eye of the Tiger" - Such a total classic, from the "Rocky" movies, it really gets my blood pumping, even at the end of a workout when I want to just fall over.


2. Britney Spears "Womanizer" or "Toxic" (a tie) - I'm a smidge embarrassed to say that I own some of Britney Spears's music, but she makes great music to work out to. Both of these songs make you just want to move, and that's the whole point.


3. Janet Jackson "Pleasure Principle" - This one actually is on the list because of the accompanying music video, which is for some reason burned into my brain. When I hear this, I just picture Janet running all over the place, and pounding on mirrors and such, and it just makes me energized.


4. Rob Base and DJ EZ-Rock "It Takes Two" - This might just be the best song of all time. It always puts a huge grin on my face, no matter when I hear it, and smiling and feeling happy will always make your workout go by faster!


5. Salt-n-Pepa "Push It" - I love this song. I totally rock out (in my head) to this whenever I hear it. It's totally motivational, like they know I'm working out, and they're telling me to work just a little harder. I know, it sounds stupid, but it really is an awesome workout song.


6. Jamiroquai "Canned Heat" - This one also has an image associated with it. This song was featured in the movie "Center Stage," which was kind of like a poor-man's-ballet-version of "Fame" not too many years ago. Love the movie. They used this song for the last part of the last performance, of a super-modern ballet, and I loved the dance they performed to this.


7. Say Anything "Alive with the Glory of Love" - This song just has an awesome beat, you can't help getting up to move when you hear it.


8. Michael Jackson "Beat It" - To be fair, this has been on my workout list for a long time, not just because the man passed away recently. I always loved Michael Jackson's videos, the dance breaks especially. "Beat It" was probably my favorite, with the whole gang-motif and everything.


9. The Dan Band "Milkshake" - This is a remake of Kelis's "Milkshake"...but by a guy. If you've seen "The Hangover," the Dan Band is the wedding band that cracked you up. Enough said. (And if you haven't seen "The Hangover," go see it tonight. You will thank me.)


(NOTE: This isn't "Milkshake," I couldn't find that on You Tube, but this is equally hilarious!)

10. Foo Fighters "Everlong" - This gets me pumped up for some reason. Maybe it's the guitar riffs. Maybe it's because it's just one step removed from Nirvana. I don't know, but it works!

Personal Training Day Nine: Jane Fonda Reincarnate?

Phew, training today was tough. We always do a lower body workout on Tuesdays, and it's always way more cardio-intense than our Thursday workout. Between the fact that we had the evil box and the table to step up and down on today, it was a miracle I didn't fall off anything. But, even without falling off anything, I seem to have hurt myself a little.

By the end of our hard-core workout, I had one last thing to do - my second visit with the evil box for the day. Our trainer was having us do the little 80's skip-hop up and down over the box, which we've done several times now, but the first time I tried to do it, something about my left ankle felt a little wrong, so I did it again, and it felt worse. A third time proved not to be the charm, so I pulled my trainer aside and told her that I surely wasn't wimping out, but that my ankle didn't seem to be onboard with the idea of doing the box. No problem, says my trainer. You can skip in place.

Skip in place? Oh yes. I felt oh-so-eighties, like I needed a big, thick sweat headband and striped leotard, skipping back in forth in place for thirty seconds, for three sets. In fact...speaking of which, it made me feel like I was in this iconic video, which I only vaguely remember from the 80's...



Go to about 5:25 in this video, and that's pretty similar to what I was doing instead of the evil box. It was super fun. I felt like the world's biggest dork, doing that, but oh well, because my ankle really does seem to be hurt. It's still awfully sore to walk on, and I'm just hoping it will be better in the morning, because I was hoping to go back to the Y for some basic cardio in the morning. Yikes!

Personal Training Day Eight: The Assisted Pull Up Machine?!?!?!

Yikes, I'm tired today. It was really tough dragging myself over to the Y for training today, after the wild and crazy night at Moms' Night In last night. We had an awesome time, but I stayed up way past my bedtime, so it's a good thing that I paid some money for the training...otherwise I probably would have skipped it today.

So...today we worked on the upper body, but with machines rather than evil free weights. Phew! But, of course, it wouldn't be a personal training session if Cathy didn't make us use some kind of freaky new machine. This time it was the assisted pull up machine. I'm not entirely sure that's what it was actually called, but that's what it was. I was able to even find an animated GIF to show you what this evil contraption is for...

The first time I tried it, I couldn't do it. It was like trying to do a real pull-up, pulling up all of my massive weight. Um no. That's not possible. Ultimately, my trainer was able to get the machine set up right for me, and that made things infinitely easier - though still challenging. We also used some free weights to do some arm curls on a balance ball, which I shocking didn't fall off of.

Outside of the evil pull up machine, it was mostly a familiar kind of workout, which was a relief since my brain was working so positively slowly today. Still is, actually. It's taken me over 20 minutes to manage to communicate this much. Ridiculous. Maybe it's a sign I should call it a night and go curl up with a book that a dear friend let me borrow - "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Stay tuned to hear what I think on that...

Personal Training; Day Six

For all the anxiety I built up about today, it wound up not being as big a deal as I'd built it up to be - yes, we worked out our arms, but we used machines, glorious machines for said workout! No free weights for me! It was such a huge relief. At the same time, I am already feeling a little bit sore, so I suppose I can't really gloat too much, but hopefully I'll still have the strength to lift my arms above my head tomorrow (unlike after last week's free weight workout).

We used mostly familiar machines today, although we did use a lot of weight on said machines. But that's okay with me. I think free weights freak me out a little because there's nothing between me and the weight - like if I drop the weight on a machine, yes, it will make a big noise, but there's zero chance of me dropping the weight on my foot.

In between circuits with the upper body machines, we were doing various cardio machines to keep our heart rates up. I wound up facing two big fears today: the StairMaster and running on the treadmill.

When my friend and I worked out on our own before starting our training sessions, we tried the StairMaster on a whim one day. I fell off the damn thing. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I just kind of fell off. And for some reason, I have a big mouth in the gym, because I told my trainer this, so she promptly put me on a StairMaster. I was TOTALLY doing it wrong. Rather than taking tiny steps, I was taking huge ones, and letting the steps fall all the way to the floor, when I fell off. I must have looked like a ridiculous mess then. I looked a lot better on it today, although it was definitely a harder workout than I anticipated (even if it was only for three minutes).

As for the treadmill, any of you who have read Katherine Center's "Everyone is Beautiful" will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say I'm afraid I'll fly off the treadmill. I've never run, let alone jog, on a treadmill before, in part because I'm not entirely sure how and in part because I just don't run. Short of a few moments of running after my munchkin, I've not run since the summer of 1998 when I had to take Personal Fitness in summer school, and that basically entailed running around the track in 95 degree Florida heat for six weeks. Not fun.

So, I was mildly horrified when at the end of the workout, for our last cardio bit, our trainer said we'd jog/walk on the treadmill - thirty seconds of speed walking, thirty seconds jogging. For three minutes. Seriously? I told her about my fear and she said she'd help me. She came over to my treadmill while I was speed walking (which I do well on a treadmill) and amped up my speed to 4.5. I was still speed walking, though I was having a hard time keeping up, so she told me to add some hop to it, and before I knew it, I was jogging! Once I did it, it was no longer anywhere near as scary, and I was proud that I did it.

Phew, I have officially survived three weeks of training at this point! I'm so proud of myself. In two weeks, we'll sit down and take measurements and all that to see what's changed over the first four weeks of training, so I'm very curious to see what will happen then. Stay tuned!

Personal Training: Day Five...and then some

Boy was I relieved today that my arms got a day off - we worked our legs today.

Even though this was my fifth personal training session, it still felt pretty hard. We did some work on the evil box again, and added a new evil apparatus to our repertoire: the table. Think about the box, add about a foot of height to it, and that's what the table looks like. Yikes. We've seen very fit young men use the table in their exercise routines, mainly to jump right up onto it, like it's nothing, but what we did was very different. We treated it just like the box, and did step ups onto it, though vastly slower than we do on the box. It took a lot out of me.

Rumor is, we're doing arms again on Thursday. I'm totally not looking forward to it because of how sore I was for four days thereafter. Not to mention how wimpy I felt. I'm so surprised that my arms are so pathetic, given that I lug Baby around every day, and I found out yesterday at the pediatrician that he weighs a whopping 27 pounds now. And how did I find that out?

Well, it's Baby's second ear infection in about a month. He's been completely disinterested in food, save for yogurt (occasionally) and Cheerios the last few days, and he did the same thing before the last ear infection. So, I called the pediatrician yesterday, and discovered that indeed, he has another ear infection. I'm trying hard not to freak out about the fact that he's now had two of them in quick succession of each other, but I'm not doing a very good job so far...obviously, since I'm writing about it. I truly hope it's just a fluke and not a sign of things to come. Regardless, I'm glad we caught it before it got as bad as the one did, and that he's on the road to recovery before he gets too grumpy.


In brighter news, I made my first visit to our local IKEA store this weekend with a good friend of mine, and all I can say is wow. It was kind of overwhelming, between the herd of people that you got swept into as soon as you got into the store and the ridiculous size of the place. It was, as my friend said, kind of like going to Disney World. There was just so much to take in. And lots of it was freaking gorgeous. Lots of it was a bit too modern for my taste, but I still absolutely enjoyed the trip. And one more BTW, don't order things from IKEA's website. Shipping is killer. There was a comforter I really liked that they didn't have in the size I wanted, so I attempted to order it online...until I saw that shipping would cost me $20. Seriously??? Is it coming direct from Sweden??? Needless to say, I didn't complete the order. But, at the same time, I don't think you can go to IKEA to pick up just one thing, so I also haven't headed back to IKEA yet, especially since they surely don't have it back in stock yet.

Personal Training: Day Four

I've been having bad dreams about our personal training sessions. Namely, that our trainer makes us do ridiculous crunches for an hour straight. After having Baby (and via C-section, of course), I have absolutely zero abdominal muscles. Not that I'm entirely sure I ever really had them before, but after the C-section, they're definitely history. I'm so afraid of when we work on our abs, and surely that day will come, because I'm going to crap out after like two crunches. I will probably collapse on the floor and not be able to move for the rest of the hour.

Fortunately, today's session was not abs. Phew. We worked on our arms today, and apparently my arms are also weaklings. I had a tough time keeping "good form" while we did free weights, and I was using some pretty wimpy weights, so it's not like I was lifting 50 pounds or anything. Somehow, I did survive the session, full of bicep this and tricep that and shoulder this. We only used one weight machine during the whole session, so it was a lot of free weights. No, wait, I take that back, we used two machines - one delt press do-da and one machine that seemed like a reimagined rowing machine. I think the hardest thing was holding a weight above and behind my head and then bending my elbows to stretch (I think) my triceps). That was really, really tough for me. My trainer kept saying that pretty soon that kind of stretch will be easy to me, but I find that a little hard to believe, given how out of shape I apparently am. On the bright side, the evil step box did not make an appearance today, which was a welcome change after two sessions getting up close and personal with that evil thing.

I'm a little scared as to how my arms are going to feel tomorrow... When I picked Baby up from the nursery on my way out of the gym, it wasn't like I couldn't lift him, but my arms got tired of carrying him a lot sooner than usual. I'm sure that's just a small taste of how I'll feel tomorrow. Yikes.

Personal Training: Day Three

I survived another day of personal training, woo hoo! 3 sessions down, only a million to go before I get to where I want to be.

Today was a rough personal training day - we worked on our legs and back today, and apparently neither of mine are terribly strong. The evil step/box made another appearance today, with which we had to skip and hop over repeatedly, and we also had to do more knee lifts with that evil thing.

The toughest thing, though, was something our trainer called the "Porta-Pottie." Some of you might know what I'm talking about. It's a really hard-core squat, where you basically act like you are going to sit on a Porta-Pottie, but you know that no one actually puts their butt on a Porta-Pottie, so it's a squat. We did those with weights today, but I haven't a clue how heavy the weights were. Probably like two flipping pounds or something equally wimpy. But those were truly tough for me. I'm very glad it's over.

One of the girls I'm training with suggested we take a group picture of all of us - so we can do a before and after kind of thing. I think as much as I hate pictures of myself right now, I think it's a good idea. I really hope that I will see a difference in myself. I know I've lost some weight so far, but I don't see it in myself at all. I don't see my double chin receding, I don't see my flabby arms becoming less flab-filled. Can you tell I'm impatient? Realistically, I know I shouldn't really see a change in myself yet. But boy, there's a part of me that keeps hoping to see one every time I look at my reflection. I can get my engagement and wedding rings off my ring finger now without feeling like I might die, though, so I guess that's a change. I'd just much rather lose some weight in my face rather than my hands, you know?

Personal Training: Day Two

Today was pretty brutal at the Y with our personal trainer. We were focusing on legs today, which used to be something I would say "oh goody" to, because my legs used to be quite strong. Somehow (despite the fact that my legs can carry my fat butt around all day), they're not what they used to be.

We started out with a quick warm-up on the treadmill, then proceeded to go through the motions of killing ourselves slowly with things like squats and the leg press machine and walking lunges. By the way, whoever invented lunges? I kind of hate them. Lunges kill my legs. Yes, I understand that means they're working, but darn it, they freaking burn! What else did we do...oh yes, the evil box. Remember back in the 80's when step aerobics became very trendy? Similar concept, except this looked like a shoeshine box (so taller than the 80's Reebok step you're thinking of) or high like this step system I found online, and we had two hideous exercises to do on the darn thing. One was a knee lift, where you keep one foot planted on the box, and lift the other knee to your chest 15 times (three times over). The other was the opposite, sort of. One foot on the box, bring the other foot to the box from your side, rather than from behind with the knee lift. Both were brutal.

I had to refill my one-liter sized jug of water at one point because I drank it all, from all of the exertions. It was a tough morning. I must say, though, if anything's going to kick me into shape, it's something like this. I've been working out at the Y for a little over two months now, and I definitely was not pushing myself this hard. I wonder how bad I'm going to feel in the morning...

Personal Training: Day One

Many of you know that I have been attempting to get into a regular exercise routine. Today I went a step further and started personal training sessions with three good friends of mine, in an attempt to really push myself to get into better shape (and therefore lose weight). I was totally freaked out about today's first session - I had visions of running laps or doing 100 crunches, none of which came to fruition (at least today).

It's been a long time since I've been in shape. Probably high school, really. After I stopped doing gymnastics in middle school, my shape got increasingly lost over the years. I've never really enjoyed exercise, but as I get older, I realize it's kind of necessary, unless I want to just eat salads for the rest of my life (which I don't). Exercise is just a necessary evil. I'm kind of embarrassed at how out of shape I am, and I was certain that today I would feel a whole new level of embarrassment over my lack of physical prowess, but in front of my friends. Fortunately, that was not the case.

Today's session was basically a circuit workout, consisting of 3 minutes of cardio, followed by weights, then lunges, then cardio, then weights, and so on. We did four full revolutions in our hour-long session today, and though I sweated like some kind of fraternity brother, I feel good about today's session. I really liked our trainer, she seemed to pick up on our individual strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly, though she was having a tough time with our names. I'm not feeling too terribly sore today, but admittedly our trainer was going easy on us today on purpose. She plans to really get things going on Thursday. I think I should be scared.

So I'll be officially training twice a week, and trying to do a good cardio workout at least one, if not two more days a week. If this doesn't kick my butt into shape, I don't know what will. OK, yes, I do, but a life without chocolate isn't worth living! Stay tuned to see how hard things get, and to hear how it's going!

The Gym: A Quick Update

So, it's been almost a month now since I joined the Y, and I'm pretty proud of myself. Not only have I moved up to working out on the elliptical trainers, rather than the treadmill, but I've also managed to make it up to 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by some weight training every time I go. I've gone a minimum of two times a week since I joined - yay!!! I've even done two exercise videos since my exercise kick started. And I have seen some results, which is nice. Unfortunately, I didn't start keeping track until a few weeks into my workout adventures, but I have officially lost at least 5 pounds. Woo! Only another 85 to go! Yes, my goal really is to lose 90 pounds. Given that I was overweight before I got pregnant, and am still carrying at least 20 pounds of pregnancy weight, 90 sounded like a nice round number. It would put me in the appropriate weight range for a woman of my age and height, so that's what I'm working towards, slowly but surely.
I don't love working out, I'll be honest. It's not fun. I don't like to sweat. And if you're not sweating, you're not working hard enough, I think. The TVs on the cardio machines help - especially when there's marathons of Real Housewives on or good episodes of What Not to Wear. And having a workout buddy makes a world of difference - she keeps me motivated, and makes me accountable (as far as showing up is concerned, at least) to someone other than me, which is helpful.

I like how I feel when I get on the scale and see the numbers shrinking, though. That's definitely a nice feeling. And I know I'm taking care of myself by doing this, which I'm proud of.

BTW, this is so not me in the picture!!! Fortunately, there are pictures of me while exercising. They would so not be pretty. But this is the kind of machine I use, so it gives you sort of the right idea. :)