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As you may recall, six weeks ago I mentioned that I had gotten a gym membership in an effort to lose some of the weight that I've put on since law school. Lest you think that the reason I haven't written about my trips to the gym in the past five weeks is that I gave up (which, honestly, wouldn't be all that surprising), I am here to tell you that I, in fact, am still making it to the gym several times a week. I'd say that I go an average of four times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. (You know, the definition of "average.") I just started to add cardio in a couple weeks ago and I'm still not doing that regularly yet, but I have been lifting weights and, oh man... I had no idea that my arms could actually have such muscles. It's pretty awesome. My strength has greatly... like vastly... improved over a relatively short time and my arms are already looking much more toned than they have ever been before. My legs are looking better, too.
I definitely have lost some inches here or there as a result, but the fact that I have added so much muscle has left my net weight loss at only about 1 pound. It is kind of frustrating, because I am definitely a numbers person, but I am trying to focus on the fact that I can fit into some of my pants better (although not all of them yet) and that seeing higher numbers when it comes to the amount I can lift when weight training can be pretty exciting too. I definitely still have some flabbiness to lose, but I also know that at this stage in my life, weight training is very important too.
This week, however, we're taking off from weight training altogether and focusing on cardio sessions all week. I've always been a pretty crappy "runner" -- the best I've ever been at running was being able to run three 9:30-miles straight, and that was after several months of training. For some reason, it's always been pretty difficult to me. But I think building up muscle first has actually made running easier for me this time around. I'm one of those people who actually enjoys the treadmill -- like I said, I'm a numbers person and watching the calories burned go up, or the miles and minutes go by is a good motivator for me. I'm hoping that the extra cardio will be just the jump start I need to see the numbers on the scale going down, but I'm trying to be happy with fitting into a little bit more of my wardrobe this week than I did six weeks ago.
But I hear you on the calorie counter watcher and machines. I'm more of an elliptical person-am a very crappy runner and I usually end up with my legs killing me very very quickly. But I am digging the walking outside thing. There's no calorie counter but it's easier than running and quite effective.
Posted by: monkey | October 23, 2007 7:10 PM
To tell you the truth, I am NOT a numbers person. Because weight can fluctuate depending on so many factors. It's helpful, but I find scale watching demoralising so I don't do it anymore.
Right now I'm using the standard of "are there clothes I want to fit into" and that goes into the "losing inches" thing. If I'm losing inches, I'm trying not to care what the numbers on the scale say. When I can finally stuff myself into this beautiful Bebe shirt without straining the zipper-well, I'll check my weight then and try all I can to maintain it at that point.
But while I'm losing I find that I get demoralised if I don't hit numbers by projected dates and then I don't keep up with it and it's just a failed attempt.
Posted by: monkey | October 23, 2007 7:08 PM