Tuesday, February 19, 2013

2/19/2013: Feeling Strong

Halfway through Week 6 I am feeling strong, if a little sore.  Both my lower body and upper body workouts are tough this week.  My legs and butt are still sore from Sunday's workout and my arms feel buff and pumped from yesterday's workout.  I guess that means it is all working.

I made it to the gym yesterday afternoon for my bike ride and this morning I swam 1500 meters.  I am right on track.

This morning's weight:  153.2.

I do want to lose that extra three pounds and I am starting to think about losing another five pounds and getting to 145.0.  But, while maintaining my weight between 152 and 154 is not a problem at all, I can't seem to bring myself to restrict my calories enough to lose weight.  My body seems to know exactly how many calories to consume to support my current weight with the amount of exercise I am doing.  Every time I start thinking about losing a few more pounds, the desire to not be hungry wins out.  Humph!

At this point, losing a few pounds would be for purely cosmetic reasons.  I feel great and I don't necessarily think being 145 pounds would be any healthier than 150 or 153, but I do think losing just a few more pounds would make a difference in how clothes fit.  I don't like the bulge of fat above my bra strap and under my arm pit, for example.  I am hoping that by the end of this year my solid weight lifting routine will have increased muscle and decreased fat, but I also think losing a few more pounds wouldn't hurt.  It would take a little more discipline than I have been exhibiting, on the food side, to make it happen.  I obviously haven't committed to that, just yet.

I am committed to the exercise and I am committed to maintaining my weight.  Both of those things are going well.  Week 6 is going remarkably well after a light Week 5.  Perhaps it is because I had a chance to rest.  I know it helps me a lot to have my workout schedule back up on my chart.  It makes a huge difference if I can just look at my chart before I go to bed and register in my brain that tomorrow is a swimming day.  That helps me just get up and do it.  I also clearly marked the days that I would work out at lunch, and that helps, too.  I am much happier getting my second workout of the day in at lunch rather than after work.  In fact, it is a huge relief to me not to think about having to do any exercise in the evening.  It's not as if I needed proof that I am not an evening person, but if I was wondering about that at all I guess I have all the confirmation I need.  After a day at work I am done and I just want to come home and do nothing.  Part of that is because I go to bed pretty early.  If I workout in the evenings, I find it much hard to fall asleep.  So far, my new schedule seems to be working pretty well.  For now, I think decreasing the swimming to 1500 meters a week was the right move.  The only thing I changed about my schedule from the first 4 weeks is I am swimming 1000 meters less and running 1 mile less per week.  For some reason, that small change makes the schedule much more manageable.  As I get closer to my tri, I may need to strength train a little less and swim and run a little more, but for now I think this schedule will work well for me. 

Off to work!!  Have a great day!!

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