Exercise Diary #8 – Overdue Fitness Update February 2, 2008

I can’t believe my last exercise diary entry was on November 20, 2007. Overall I’d say that despite a couple of temporary setbacks, I’ve made quite a lot of progress since then.
 
There was a brief period in early January, right after the holiday season was over, when I sort of let myself go by eating too much and exercising only two to three times a week. But, after gaining a couple pounds soon thereafter, I realized that I couldn’t afford to get off track. It seems that if I go more than two days without exercising, I gain weight and become really really lazy. So lazy that I don’t feel like going back to the gym and then gain even more weight!
 
To prevent myself from going down that dangerous slope, I’ve made it a point to exercise 5 to 6 times a week. It’s really the only way to keep my weight and energy level stable. It seems hard, but once you’re on a roll, it’s not that difficult.
 
I’ve found it extremely helpful to create my own fitness schedule because it was getting too hard to keep track of the weight training for the different body groups. It’s helped me stay organized, but also more focused and motivated. Having a weight training schedule has prevented me from neglecting, or on the flip side of the coin, overworking, a particular body part. And when the entire body is worked on such a systematic basis, the results become apparent quicker.
 
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My current fitness schedule: 
 
Tuesday – 30-minute cardio: treadmill or elliptical 
Strength training: back, chest
 
Wednesday – 30-minute cardio: high-intensity dancing (at home)
Strength training: arms, shoulders, and abs
 
Thursday – Strength training: legs, buttocks
Total body deep stretch
 
Friday – 30-minute cardio: treadmill
Strength training: arms, shoulders, and abs
 
Saturday – 1-hour yoga class
Strength training: back, chest
 
Sunday – 30-minute cardio: jump rope and misc. exercises (outdoors, weather permitting)
Strength training: legs, buttocks, and abs
 
Monday – Rest / makeup day
 
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Along the way I’ve discovered that doing a variety of things helps keep my exercise regimen more fun and interesting. For weight training, I’ve not just been using free weights and weight machines, but also doing traditional exercises like pushups, squats, and elbow planks, which are more often than not, more effective than weight machines. I’m looking into adding more props like the exercise ball, medicine ball, and resistance bands to spice up my routines.
 
For both strength and flexibility, I’ve been taking a weekly yoga class at my local gym. It’s been quite a welcome addition. For cardio, I’ve recently introduced rope jumping as well as high-intensity dancing into my fitness plan, and plan to do more outdoor cardio activities once the weather warms up. My hope is to finally get myself that bicycle I’ve wanted for so long and bike outside when spring comes! 
 
Finally, I’m very keen on trying out different types of dance classes like hip-hop and jazz once my first paycheck kicks in. (Tonight I’m going out salsa dancing, so that’ll count as cardio, too, woot!)
 
One of the Christmas presents I got was a 2-year subcription to Oxygen, THE best fitness magazine for women that is currently sold on the US market. This is a high-quality magazine for women who are serious about getting in shape and don’t want any of that useless crap usually found in other fitness magazines such as relationship advice, fashion tips, and other irrelevant fluffy stuff. I’ve found the detailed workout sections very helpful.
 
But I’ve also been using the internet for workout ideas, particularly for strength training. I like some of the articles in the workout section of the Women’s Health website (the website practically has all the articles the magazine contains, so it’s kind of a waste to susbcribe to the magazine). They’ve got an online newletter you can subscribe to for free, which contains links to some great articles on nutrition, health, and fitness. It’s rare that I’d want to open links in the online newletters I receive, but with the Woman’s Health newletters, I often do because they relate to interesting content.
 
I’ve come a long way since the days when I loathed exercise with a passion, couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without feeling like I was going to pass out, and had fat jiggling all over my body. Now I feel great. My body feels great. When you’re fit, you feel like you can do more – get up earlier, walk farther, carry heavier things, clean the house faster – because you’ve now got more energy, strength, and stamina than ever before.
 
They used to tell me exercise was one of the best treatments for depression and at the time I staunchly refused to believe them, thinking that nothing would EVER make me feel better, but now I am fully converted to the belief that exercise is THE most effective weapon, along with a healthy diet (and a good dose of zzzz), in the battle against depression.

Exercise Diary #6 – I Must Exercise As Often and As Hard I Can November 12, 2007

I’ve been exercising practically every day in a very intense fashion. I have become so obsessed with exercise that it has become the center of my existence.
 
Is exercise replacing the void once filled by my ex, I wonder?
 
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I feel the need to exercise as often and as hard I can because …
 
A healthy diet is worthless without exercise
 
I’m terribly bored and don’t know what else to do
 
Exercise distracts me from my negative thoughts
 
Exercise makes me forget how lonely I am (while I’m doing it)
 
Exercise helps me think more clearly
 
Exercise gives me a much needed boost of energy
 
Exercise gives me the control and power to change the way I look
 
Exercise gives me a sense of purpose in life
 
I need a strong point of focus in my life to keep myself together
 
I need to feel PASSION about something
 
I need to give my entire body, heart, mind and soul to something in order to feel alive
 
I’m hurting inside and exercise makes me feel better afterwards 
 
Pushing my body as far it will go makes me feel high
 
Riding on the high that comes with intense exercise makes me feel powerful
 
The soreness that comes the day after I exercise feels good
 
I (still) don’t like the way I look
 
I want faster, more immediate results 
 
I am ready to sacrifice everything to achieve the dream body I desperately want
 
I want to show others that I can accomplish this
 
I can’t wait to impress people with my new super fit, super toned figure
 
I want to show to this girl I am jealous of (who hasn’t seen me for years) that I (still) look twice as good as she does (she used to be fat, but now she looks thin and fit)
 
If I don’t exercise I feel terribly guilty
 
If I don’t exercise I feel like a failure
 
If I don’t exercise I feel worthless and empty
 
If I don’t exercise all my efforts will have been in vain
 
If I don’t exercise those who know I’ve embarked on this mission will laugh at me for not following through with my plans and goals
 
And if I can’t succeed in accomplishing my goals, I’ll never be able to show my face again to people who knew me back when I was still thin and beautiful

Exercise Diary #5 – Never Overestimate What You Think You Can Lift When Others Are Around November 10, 2007

When it comes to gyms, I have 2 options: the small gym on the ground floor of my apartment building, which is mostly empty and has me singing from the top of my lungs and waving my arms as if I were in a Broadway musical production whenever I’m in there by myself doing my cardio workouts, or the big fancy gym 15 minutes walking distance away, which has three gazillion types of every machine you can think of plus a pool where I occasionally go swimming in the middle of a weekday when I know no one save for retired folks and SAHM moms/wives will catch a glimpse of me in a bathing suit.
 
Most of the time I go to the small gym because given the choice between walking 3/4 of a mile (in the elements) and taking the elevator down four flights, I’d naturally much rather take the elevator. Only on the weekends or on a day off, when I often hang out in that area anyway, do I make it a point to put in my exercise time at the big gym and make the 35 bucks they take from me every month, even when I don’t set foot in it once, worth something.
 
I’m intimidated by the big gym, though. That’s where the tough macho men gather to bulk up.  As a female weakling who can could barely lift one gallon of milk with one arm [three weeks ago], I am [still] no match for these testosterone-charged gym veterans. My biggest fear whenever I dabble with the weight machines at the big gym is that I’ll be caught in the act unable to make the weight in my machine budge.
 
Although it’s probably worse that I have no clue what I’m doing and couldn’t make that fact any more obvious to the world when I spend twice as much time deciphering the instructions on the weight machines and cluelessly fiddling with the adjustments as I do actually lifting the weights, the humiliation that ensues from not being able to lift what you think you can lift bothers me more. At least when I don’t know in which direction I’m supposed to position myself on the machines, I can always watch other people or look at the pictures on the front of the machines. (Oh, what would I do without those pictures? They must have thought of idiots like me when they decided to put them up.)
 
So, to avoid the embarrassment of appearing too cocky for my own good, I always choose the lowest possible weight available on the machines, no matter how ridiculously light it may be, and then add on weights as needed. Not only does it makes me feel like I’m stronger than I think I am, but it gives the impression that I’m underestimating myself, which is a lot better than overestimating yourself and getting caught doing it.

Exercise Diary #4 – Why I Shouldn’t Miss A Single Day of Exercise October 26, 2007

I didn’t exercise yesterday because I was so out of it. As a result of skipping the gym yesterday, it was really hard to motivate myself to go today. It seems that once you stop exercising, even if it is only for a day, it’s harder to get back at it. Fortunately I forced myself to get into my gym clothes and once I was ready to go, I was a little more energetic about going.
 
I got on the treadmill and did 30 minutes of interval training. I noticed that I had to work a lot harder at it today than I did two days ago. Again this is what happens when I miss a day of training! My body doesn’t respond as quickly and sort of has to relearn everything – at the beginning of the workout at least (after a while it became easier). Can you imagine if I didn’t exercise for a week? I’d be back at square one, ugh.
 
After the treadmill, I got onto the weight machines and this time I focused on my back, shoulders, and chest. Then I did some free weights for my arms and of course, some abs as well. As usual I ended my workout with a good stretch. The total length of today’s workout was 1 hour 10 minutes.
 
So far I can feel that my arms are getting tauter, my upper abs tighter, my love handles smaller, my butt firmer, and my legs stronger. I still have my lower belly pouch, though, which I hate the most. While it’s definitely not as big as it used to be, the sucker’s still there looking at me defiantly. But one day, one very fine day, it will be gone, and on that day I will be the proudest I will ever have been.

Exercise Diary #3 – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness October 24, 2007

Forget yesterday’s exercise diary entry. My arms are so FUCKING sore today. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), they call it. No kidding; this one came 48 hours later. If I flex my arm in, it hurts like mothereffing hell. If I flex my arm out, it hurts like mothereffing hell. Well, I guess it means I really worked those arms on Monday.
 
Today I didn’t do any strength training other than my compulsory 10 minutes of abs. My abs aren’t as sore as they used to be when I first started working them. I guess it means my ab muscles aren’t shocked anymore at what I’ve been putting them through. I wish it felt that way while I was doing the ab exercises, though. I have to SCREAM each number out in pain as I count my crunches because my abs are killing me. It’s a war zone in my apartment between 6:45 and 6:55 pm everyday.
 
At the gym I only did 35 minutes of cardio; however, this time I did some interval training to spice things up. I alternated between walking (1-2 minutes), jogging (5-8 minutes), and running (1 to 1:30 minutes). It was very challenging, but exciting at the same time. Definitely makes for a more interesting time on that dull treadmill.

Come On Body, Lose Weight! October 24, 2007

I wonder if I might be going overboard with this diet/exercise thing. That’s all I think about these days. I’m obsessed with the idea of losing weight. The thing is I want it now and I want it fast because I can’t stand to look at my fat ass in the mirror anymore.
 
It’s 3:30 pm and I can’t wait to get out of work so I can exercise. It’s weird because I truly dislike exercising. Sometimes I can barely finish my workouts because I hate it so much. But I feel like as I’m sitting inactively for so long at work, eating my multiple meals, I’m slowly packing on the pounds.  I can feel the excess fat oozing out of every crevice of my body. Really gross.
 
To make up for that sedentary lifestyle I have to exercise every single day. If I am serious about losing weight, I am going to have to burn more calories than I consume. Five years ago when I was a competitive ballroom dancer, practicing intensively several times a week for 2 hours at a time, I had a very fast metabolism. I could eat whatever I wanted without getting fat because I was so physically active. The only way I could get back into shape like that now would be to exercise with the same intensity and watch my diet like a hawk.
 
Today I’m going to do interval training to push my body farther and increase my metabolism faster.