Dear Kim-
So much for that whole schedule thing I came up with, right? Wow, aren’t I brilliant! With the schedule, we will be PERFECT BLOGGERS and that will help us be PERFECT PATIENTS.
Oh, I am so very funny.
I can’t seem to keep to a schedule for more than a week, ever. You know that trick they teach you to make an appointment for the gym and then you’ll go? Doesn’t work so well for me. I mean, I go to bed with the intention of going to the gym, I write it on my calendar and then reality hits. I wake up and I’m too tired or I need to go to work earlier than usual or…something. Hell, I’ve even been managing to miss my weekly fitness classes on Saturdays just because I’ve been out of town for the past few weekends. That, of course, just means that I should be making more of an effort to get that exercise in. So yeah, I’m exercising…not as much as I would feel I should be but more than I ever used to. You asked me ages and ages ago what I do for exercise so here’s what I do:
At the gym, I love the elliptical. I do 45-60 minutes on a LifeFitness machine, set at least at level 12 in the hill program. Any less than that (time or level) and I don’t have that “Wow, that was a good workout” feeling. I try and alternate that with treadmill time since I am trying to get into the whole running groove. I’ll warm up for 5 minutes with a fast walk, then jog for as long as I can, then do intervals for the rest of the time, usually for a total of 35-45 minutes. After the cardio, I do some weights…either resistance machines if I’m in a hurry or free weights if I have time. My trainer-lady from my fitness class is a big fan of combining free weights with things like squats and lunges, so I tend to do things like bicep curls with squats or tricep lifts with lunges.
And then on Saturdays I do Fitness Without Walls, with Sheila, who is the third part of my Holy Trinity of Health (the other two being my PCP and my shrink). Sheila is insanely peppy and energetic and able to do things with her body that I can only imagine being able to do. She’s also encouraging and careful and completely non-judgy. I hate, hate, HATE getting up and dragging my exhausted self out there so early on a Saturday, but I always feel so good afterwards (even if the core class is basically 45 minutes of TORTURE) that it’s worth it in the end. I started working with Sheila 3 weeks after my surgery; her program was the “prescribed” work out program for my surgeon’s office. There’s other post-ops in the class with me, and we joke all the time about loose skin bouncing around. Hee-larious. But the best thing about Sheila is that she’s watched my progression from 318 pounds to 205. She’s seen me go from lagging at the back of the class to being one of the ones she insists be in the running group. You should have seen her excitement when I told her about how good my numbers were at my last checkup, should have seen the high five she gave me when I bragged about jogging for 20 minutes without stopping. Yeah, she kicks my ass and sometimes I walk funny the next couple days, but she refreshes my self-confidence and polishes up my feelings of well-being, and that’s really what exercise should do.
So this spring I’m going to start making more of an effort to do more outside activities like FWW. more walking with friends, more hiking with Kevin, more random games of tag with my friends’ kids. And yeah, maybe a bit of running just for running’s sake.
How about it? Want to come play outside with me?
L, M.
melindarae
bigcitygirl73
