+1

i gained a pound. womp womp.

no worries... i'm going to keep my head up and continue the work out schedule! up to 6 days of cardio a week now.

i'm off to the pool. it's supposed to be 100 degrees all weekend.

jimbo and...

jim's in d.c. right now... working his butt off. he's taking two classes at GW and working on the hill. in his free time, he's meeting VIPs.

Remember him?


He's also met tons of Republicans, but I'm not going to support THAT endeavor by posting pics of it here.

training session #3

So last night, we did our workout with half of a deck of cards. (I think eventually we'll build up to a full deck.) For every black card flipped over, I would do an exercise on my lower body. For every red card, an exercise on my upper body. We did abs at the beginning, middle, and end. I could play either of my two jokers at any point in the 40 minutes to get a 2 minute break. As you probably guessed, the value of the card equaled the number of reps completed. But, if the trainer wasn't happy with the number she'd multiply it, or double it, etc. It was intense!

The greatest feeling came at the end, though. I had done it! I was so proud of myself for completing whatever she threw at me. I know that two weeks ago there's no way I could have done it.

This week I'm going to concentrate on cardio. Hopefully I'll begin jogging. Oooooh man.

Thanks for the support!

quote

"This isn't the elevator to the skinny floor, there are ups and downs."

Today I'm feeling a little more down than up but I'm still going to make good choices (even if those choices are made at Inoko Express.)

week 2 of training

So my second training session was last night. Let me just say, I was feeling so good going into this session because my workouts had been really great last week and I could already feel a difference in my flexibility and in my strength. That said, Rena (my trainer) took me and my confidence down a notch.

The workout started with me running up and down a flight of 40 stairs 5 times. By the end my legs were shaking and as a result the rest of the workout was kind of shaky. I think the steps combined with the fact that I hadn't eaten much that day sort of hindered the work out. That's okay, though, I still think I made progress.

I'm sore today, but I know it will be worse tomorrow. I worked out again tonight but I'll be taking tomorrow OFF so that my muscles can recover.

I just need to remember that this whole journey is a marathon... not a sprint.

weight loss

So, as most of you know I've been trying to lose weight since early December of this year (but let's be honest... the holidays are awful for life changes like this one so it really got going in the new year.)

Before I went home in May I had lost 27.5 lbs with the goal of losing 50 before Jessie's wedding on August 1. I gained a little while I was home but I've been really serious about it again since I've been back since it's crunch time.

SO! This past week has been serious. I had my first session with my trainer on Tuesday and was pretty sore Wednesday and couldn't walk on Thursday. Awesome. It hurts so good. :)

I'm supposed to be doing between 30-60 mins of cardio 5 days a week and a full body strength training routine three times a week. I'm also supposed to stretch twice a day. So far so good.

Combine this new routine with my ongoing weight watchers points, and I'm hoping to see great results really fast. I can already tell that my flexibility is much more pronounced and I feel much better since I've been back on the WW path.

The biggest change that I've noticed in myself, though, is my attitude towards the whole thing. I had really gotten to a place where my weight overwhelmed me and just the thought of beginning the process of losing it was too much. Now that I've started, I can't see myself stopping. It's addicting to feel good and see the change.

So I'll keep you all up to date on how fast (or slow) the change happens.

summer

so far this summer has been pretty amazing. i spent 3 weeks in OH and now i'm back in ATH. i started my new job last week in which i'll be creating first year connection programs for a small community college near ATH. i spent most of my first week doing research on what other schools do for first year experience (FYE) and this week i'll be putting together a more concrete schedule, etc.

the best part of the summer has got to be the time i spend at the pool. i layed out most of the friday and spent a good part of saturday out too. i was going to lay out today but i was feeling a little crispy after the first two so i sat today out.

in short, i'm working for the weekend.