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And Thursday. Class and about a half. I’m one short, as there’s only one on Saturday this week. I was going to do a 5:30a class this morning. Set the alarm, got up, but decided I would be worn out by the second one in the evening, and I’ve been a little exhausted lately. Noticed a handful of people sick at the office, so I’m going to presume I’m successfully fighting something off, if I behave myself. Will seek to sweat at the gym tomorrow night.
Saturday, 915a class. The csr for Saturdays had sent me a late night Email that she couldn’t be there, so I spent the early part of class checking in the stragglers, and showing someone else how to enter new customers into the computer system. Time well spent, but not spent sweating. I did manage to drip later on in the hour, but I don’t feel like I got my fair share in today yet. My plan is to walk, probably just around here, though the beach might be somewhat quiet today as it’s intermittently overcast/sunny/overcast, and then this evening get a good solid cardio/strength session in at the gym.
Okay, to catch up. Walked for three hours Saturday, on the beach, barefoot. I had run errands and just found myself heading there on auto-pilot. There was plenty of parking as it was an overcast-to-sunny day, but it ended up being beautiful while I was there.
Skipped the gym Saturday night and got caught up on correspondence, finished a cover letter, and watched some of Pride and Prejudice on DVD.
Sunday, didn’t do any outside walking, but once again the iffy weather turned out nice and I wish I had. Instead came into the office and got some work/planning done. I did not sit in a diner or favorite eatery all weekend! Saved money and calories.
Sunday night, I finally FORCED myself to get back to the gym. Did a solid 15 minute warmup with inclines on the treadmill, then some lower back and rowing machines. My iPod power exhausted just as I was rowing, so I had to listen to the gym music (rock) for the rest of my set, not as motivating as my own tunes. I used free weights from 7-10 pounds for delt lifts, tricep kickbacks, overhead tricep dips, pec presses on the incline bench, and my chest-arm exercises on the bench. While I had a flat bench to myself (not too many people in the weight area for once) I did some abduct exercises with the two 7# weights on my mid-thigh.
I was kind of played out, so instead of doing 30 minutes on the elliptical, I vowed I’d do ten and be okay with that. Once I got going, I decided to do some flat-out intervals, and managed four 30-seconds as fast as I could go, with a few minutes of regular speed to recover. My heart rate sure shot up there. I ended up doing fifteen and was still breathing kind of heavy when I walked out.
Then I was awake without an alarm at 5:05, looked over at the clock, and thought, why the heck not, so I got dressed and went to the 5:30a Jazzercise class. I still have to go tonight at 7p. I’ll just back off the hand weights, as my muscles will be too fatigued otherwise.
I may be starting to crash. Truthfully, I think at lunchtime I may take my yoga mat outside on the grass outside the building and take a little nap. I’ll put off my supermarket run till tomorrow.
What a great use of an unexpected early morning! Since you’ve been doing Jazzercise so consistently for a while now, are you having any trouble keeping it a challenge? Or is there always a way to make yourself push more?
Since you’ve been doing Jazzercise so consistently for a while now, are you having any trouble keeping it a challenge? Or is there always a way to make yourself push more?
Good question, Bree. Occasionally I do feel like I’m in a bit of a rut, but I am enjoying it. Plus, every instructor at the center does a slightly different set of tunes/routines, and they seem to take turns being the toughest. So there’s enough variation I think and working on different muscle groups. I can switch hand weights, too. Right now the new set is still only a few weeks old, and every instructor has picked her favorite new ones to roll into her program. There’s some duplication, of course.
I find, too, that I can always push myself harder, if I don’t take any breather in between songs, grab a sip of water, or whatever, but just keep marching, jogging, skipping. Plus, it balances with the other stuff I do (when I’m more disciplined about getting to the gym than I had been lately) so that I haven’t overdone it and strained myself too much.
Food for thought, though. I could probably find other exercise that combines the semi-social with the workout.
If you’re enjoying it, I wouldn’t change at all. I was just curios. It does sound like you’re getting plenty of variation, so no worries there. I was thinking about when I did Tae Bo, after I got the routine down, there wasn’t much challenge. But that’s the same workout over and over and over, you can only make yourself go harder to a point, then you’re stuck.
And, you’re going. Consistency IS the key. Way to go!!!
Thanks, Bree. Yes, I feel it’s a minor miracle I stuck with anything this long. I’m getting my needs met, at least for now. Funny thing, tonight a newbie came in and I found out after printing her receipts for her that she’s lost 90 pounds! Didn’t get a chance to ask how she accomplished it or her thoughts on it. She’s quite a bit younger than me, and I observed to the instructor that you’d never ever know she lost that much weight, whereas I feel my body shows it.
And Joan, procrastination… where to start? (a joke in itself) I often feel that I get hung up on “Oh, I’ve got to spend at least 90 minutes at the gym, and I’m tired, or I have this or that to do.” When I tell myself, just put in 20 minutes, and get myself there, I often stay the 90 minutes anyway. I also realize that in May and June I was just pushing myself too hard with no rest days, and I do Jazzercise on four days of the week, so realistically I have trouble fitting in 2-3 gym trips and still giving my body time to rest and recover. Tonight is proof of that. By 7pm my chest and upper arms were considerably sore from last night and this morning. I popped two ibuprofen during class, which we laughed about, and skipped one of the upper body routines, quietly doing a reverse sit-up routine we had done in previous months to that music. What arm work I did, I did with three pound weights, easy. And now I feel fine. Hopefully that will be true in the morning. I don’t plan on doing a 530a class tomorrow!
I havent’ been able to get myself to do any early morning workouts.... but swim team starts soon so 7am practices start next week. That is early enough for me. !!
I havent’ been able to get myself to do any early morning workouts.... but swim team starts soon so 7am practices start next week. That is early enough for me. !!
Awesome joB!!
Thanks, Catherine!
I’ll add my two cents. Working out early in the morning is usually recognized as a great idea, it kickstarts the metabolism, etc., and you get it out of the way. HowEVER, I’ll say that for me, unless I plan on getting up at 5am every day, the interruption in my sleep cycle by getting up nearly two hours earlier one or two days a week is an adjustment to my system. I generally leave my clock/radio set to 6:50a seven days a week and it goes off to NPR so I get a leisurely hour’s news, whether I’m up and at ‘em or lounging in bed on Sunday with a later start time. (I consider this the wisdom of my middle age, instead of staying up too late on the weekends, at least when I’m not out of town.)
And Gabe, a coworker, was just telling me he jogged this morning, but the struggle for him is that even after he showers, and dresses for work, his body’s still in sweat mode. He would need to allow more cooldown time. That is a problem I don’t have as the Jazzercise class is early enough for me to go home, shower, and even lie down in my robe for 20 minutes before I have to get moving. (Nice after-exercise stretch time.)
If I weren’t committed to the 7p classes (and helping out with them) three nights a week I’d probably at least attempt to switch to the mornings, and just focus on going to bed earlier. But it’s mighty hard to find the energy for two classes 13 hours apart with a full work day in between.
True. Though, I have so little actual flooring in my apartment (kitchen and bath so tiny) that when I do them I just get down on all fours and scrub. I mopped the bathrooms at the Jazzercise center, if that wasn’t clear. I really wanted to give the main dance floor a going over, but will do that tomorrow, with plain water. I dustmopped it between classes. As I commented afterwards, “we are fuzzy women!”
Wednesday—skipped the gym in order to get errands done and lots of loads of laundry. All my exercise duds are clean and folded and ready to go. I love that feeling. All my hand-wash items are washed and dripping dry on a spring rod in the shower. I worked up a sweat getting all that done, and did some reverse situps and other ab moves while sitting outside the building today on my lunch hour—sitting facing upward on a little slope for a little extra resistance. That and some stretching made the day more pleasant and productive! I was so hungry all day though. I didn’t eat junk, but I had three substantial meals—an Egg Beaters microwave omelette, a wrap sandwich for lunch, and a big southwest salad for dinner. Plus a ham sandwich on whole grain bread which I had midafternoon just because I was truly hungry.
If I wake up early I’d like to try the 5:30am class again, but I won’t force myself. Muscles have recovered from earlier this week. I’d like to try the intervals on the elliptical again Friday night. Weight the same. I doubt I’ll drop a magic 5 pounds before I go to Boston next weekend.
Class and a half last night (Thursday). Good, worked up quite a sweat. Somehow managed to down an entire container of hummus last night with pita chips though. Maybe I was suffering from a tahini deficiency. The binge was rare and yet effortless, causing me to ponder it.
Mmm, Lebanese food, Josette. Sounds yummy. I think my problem was that I should have bought something healthy and pre-portioned if I was going to stop at the supermarket on my way home from class. I didn’t plan a real meal so I binged on my snack food. And I thought I was not that hungry!
Today, Saturday, October 18: 2 Jazzercise classes this morning. I was in the front row for the first one, worked my patooty off, then did round two in the back and felt I worked just as hard.
I had hummus as part of my lunch today. Maybe there’s an epidemic going around.
It’s good stuff. I’m a big fan of the chickpea (sorry, my friend Oscar makes me say ‘garbonzo’ and roll my r like a good Cuban) in all its forms. I think I’m making those curried chickpeas for the Halloween potluck at work, even though there will be few vegetarians and it may be ‘daring.” And I had a can at work which I was adding, by bits, into salads and wraps.
Mmm, Lebanese food, Josette. Sounds yummy. I think my problem was that I should have bought something healthy and pre-portioned if I was going to stop at the supermarket on my way home from class. I didn’t plan a real meal so I binged on my snack food. And I thought I was not that hungry!
Ahhhh.... been there, done that. Easy to get into trouble that way
