Back in Business

Now that the dam has burst, and I have posted after such a long absence, I am excited to update you all on what I have been doing since late April.

I was in Pennsylvania for two weeks dealing with my brother’s accident, passing, and final affairs. During that time, I was not working out at the gym, but I also was not eating much either. I fully expected a gain simply because I was not at the gym, but ended up with a two-pound loss. I needed this emotional boost.

Over the next few weeks, I was stuck in a cycle where I just lost and gained the same five pounds repeatedly. I had been doing the same workout for the past two months and was getting sick of it, but I still did not know how to use most of the equipment in the gym much less what exercises would be of benefit to me. For Mother’s Day, I bought myself an extravagant but practical gift (I knew hubby would not mind being relieved of duty), five personal training sessions, and nutrition counseling.

My first week, was not a good one nutritionally. I had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, fast food for lunch and pizza for dinner, admittedly not my usual, but still not a good week to have to show to your personal trainer. She gave me 1700 calories a day to eat, 2700 to burn, and a few ideas of what would be better to eat that what I had the week before. Then we moved to the gym for the workout...

My first session really was not that bad. She put together a full body workout for me, and we went through it twice to be sure I knew how to do everything. This is what she had me do:

Warm Up 10 Min.

Leg Press 75# 15 reps
Vertical Chest Press 60# 15 reps

Vert. Shoulder Press 45# 15 reps
Seated Leg Curl 120# 15 reps

Ab-X 15 reps
Russian Twist 10# 15 reps each side

Alt. Bicep Curl 12# 15 reps each side
Alt. Shoulder Press 12# 15 reps each side

These are done in power sets of three, which means do group one three times, then move to group two and do it three times, etc.

Cardio:
20 min as follows:
On treadmill—Speed 3.5 Incline 3% 2 min. 5% 2 min. 6% 1 min. Repeat 4 times.

Now, I feel the need for a small aside about the piece of equipment called the ‘Ab-X’. If the Ab-X were an algebra equation, X could have several values, for example:

X=Pain
X=Burn
X=What the hell is she trying to do to me?
X=Oh my God, I'm going to die!

Just to list a few.

So, until next time...