Yesterday, as I confessed in yesterday morning's post, I did not exercise in the morning. We didn't get home from bowling until way too late and then I had trouble sleeping, so I opted to take Thursday as my morning off to get a couple more hours of sleep, in spite of the fact that I am just starting to get back into my routine after vacation. Although Thursday is my normal morning off from exercise (because of the late Wednesday nights), I was not very pleased about missing this particular Thursday as I feel the need to re-establish my exercise-every-day mindset. When I decided to sleep in, yesterday, I made a commitment to myself to get to the pool last night, which I kept. I swam for 33 minutes, 48 laps of a 25 meter pool. Swimming was harder than it was last time I was in the pool, which was about three weeks ago. I like being able to swim a couple of evenings a week and I can see how important it is going to be to make sure I am consistently hitting the pool to build up my distance for the triathlon next summer.
This morning was my strength training session with Jeremy. It was pretty rough. This was my set for today:
Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.7mph (This is very, very fast for me!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times
====16 Hammer pull downs: 70lbs - This exercise is on a machine, seated with chest facing the back rest. Reach up, grab the handles and pull down. 70 pounds was very heavy and exhausted my muscles by the end of each set.
====16 Bicep curls: 20lb straight bar - This was a relatively light weight meant to stretch out the biceps after the much heavier and more difficult Hammer Pull Downs
Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.8mph (Getting faster!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times (Because this was measurement day, which takes time, we only repeated this set 3 times. When on my own, I will repeat 4 times.)
====16 Cable squats: 60lbs - This exercise is on a machine, standing facing the machine, stand away from the machine a little. The arms of the cable machine are pointed towards the floor. Standing far enough away from the machine so there is tension on the cables, do a squat, sticking your butt out first, then lowering into the squat. (Hard, but not really hard)
====6 Walk backs: 60lbs - Still using the cable machine, hold one handle in both hands. Squat down, keep back straight, and walk backwards, holding squat position, to fully extend cable. Walk back holding squat position. (Seems easy-peasy at first...but by the fourth one your quads are screaming, "No More!" and Jeremy is saying, "Two more," with that cute little grin of his...)
Run on treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 6.9mph (Faster, yet!)
--Repeat the following set 4 times (Again, today was only 3 times because of measurements)
====16 Hammer Shoulder Presses: ?lbs (Jeremy, you forgot to write the weight down!) - This exercise is on a machine, seated with arms bent at elbows. Push up into a shoulder press. (I find these exercises very, very difficult. My shoulders have always been my weakest muscles, I have heard that they are also one of our smaller muscles.)
====12 Side Arm Raises: 8lb dumbbell in each hands - Start with an 8 pound dumbbell in each hand, feet should width apart, and arms at sides. Raise arms up to the side to shoulder height. Lower and repeat. (Again, this is a very difficult exercise for me. I've always had trouble with this one!)
Finish with a run on the treadmill: 2/10 of a mile at 7.0mph (Again, because of measurements, this didn't happen today. I will finish with this when I do the routine on my own.)
And here are the results of my measurements. I am adding them to my March and August stats:
WEIGHT
March 7th: 220.4 (Actual start weight on 2/27/12 was 224.0 pounds)
August 17th: 177.2
September 21st: 170.4
Pounds lost to date: 53.6
BODY FAT %
March 7th: 39.9% (Ugh!!!)
August 17th: 32.11% (Still Ugh!! but better)
September 21st: 31% (Improving...slowly)
% Body fat lost: almost 8.9%
CHEST MEASUREMENT (Directly under pits, above boobs)
March 7th: 40.5"
August 17: 36 1/8"
September 21st: 35"
Inches lost: 5 1/2"
WAIST MEASUREMENT (at Belly Button)
March 7th: 39"
August 17th: 32.5"
September 21st: 30.5"
Inches lost: 8 1/2"
HIP MEASUREMENT
March 7th: 49"
August 17th: 41.5"
September 21st: 40"
Inches lost: 9"
I asked Jeremy what a reasonable body fat % goal will be for me, once I have reached my target weight of 150lbs. He suggested that 24% body fat would be "rocking it!" I ran that number by Jack, and he thought that sounded like a great goal. I don't know much about what a good body fat % for a fit 50ish year old women should be, so I think I am going to go with the 24% goal. If anyone has any suggestions regarding reading material to help educate me about body fat, reasonable goals, etc..., I am always up for learning more about such things. My original goal was to weigh 150lbs by February 4th, 2012. I am on track to reach that goal by December 3rd, if I stay on my trend line. Even if there is a little flattening of the trend line as I get closer to goal, I should have no problem reaching 150lbs by December 31st 2012.
So I am officially revising my original goal:
**Goal Number 1: Weigh 150lbs by December 31st, 2012.
And I am adding 2 fitness goals:
**Goal Number 2: Complete an Olympic length triathlon the summer of 2013. Olympic length is defined as: a 1.5 kilometer (0.93 mi) swim, 40 kilometer (25 mi) bike ride, and a 10 kilometer (6.2 mi) run.
**Goal Number 3: Reduce body fat % to 24% by December 31st, 2013.
I will have no goals to further reduce my weight once I reach 150lbs, though I recognize that I may lose a little more weight as I work towards my 2013 fitness goals.
I guess that's it for today. I had every intention of reading a couple of chapters from "Women, Food and God" during lunch yesterday and talking about those chapters this morning, but I had early migraine symptoms (white blind spots) at lunch and needed to practice relaxation techniques instead of reading, to head off the migraine. Luckily, I have gotten good and recognizing symptoms and learning how to avoid getting a full blown headache, and I lost the blind spots, held the migraine at bay and only had a low grade headache for the rest of the day. I also started getting a headache this morning. This seems to happen whenever I switch jobs. I am not extremely stressed and I love my new job and the people I am working with, but I think I try to cram too much new information into my head all at once. I am multi-tasking on multiple levels; learning everything I can about the company and the job, trying to produce high quality work, trying to get to know the people I work with, etc... I think that all adds up to more stress than I realize. I don't feel bad, in fact I feel energized and strong. But I've had a couple of restless nights and I am having this problem with the headaches. I think I just have to keep exercising, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep. After a few months, the job will no longer be new and the headaches will go away.
Have an awesome Friday!
PS - Comments are always welcome. Anyone should be able to comment on the blog, whether you have a google account or not. Just click on the link below (if there are no comments yet, the link will say "No comments") and write away. When you are ready to post, select "Anonymous" from the drop down menu, below the comment box (it is the last option available), and you should be able to post your comment without any trouble. I just ask that if you do select Anonymous, please sign your name so I know who commented. I had one person leave a comment with a link, but I didn't know who it was so I deleted the comment. I didn't know if the link was good or not and I didn't want to risk anyone getting a virus by clicking on an unknown link on my blog. If that someone was you, I hope you understand!!
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