Fitness: Week 4 to Weight Loss

Recap

• Click Here for the original post about getting back into shape
• Click Here for last week’s workout update

Goals and Check-ins

• Current Weight: 132lbs
  • Goal Weight: 113lbs
  • Weight Needed to Lose: 19lbs
  • Amount Lost so far: 0.4lbs
• Current Chest Measurement: 40in
  • Goal Measurement: 38in
  • Amount to Lose: 2in
  • Amount Lost so far: 0in
• Current Waist Measurement: 32in
  • Goal Measurement: 29in
  • Amount to Lose: 3in
  • Amount Lost so far: 0in

Exercise Through the Week

Day 1: June 3, 2019

Though it came in the evening, I did get my exercise in for the day thank goodness. It was one of those days where time didn’t really seem to exist, and it went from 11am to 5pm seemingly in the blink of an eye. I truly dislike when time slips past in that manner. So after some grocery shopping, I got my butt in gear and went for a walk.

Like in Week 2, I needed to drop something at the post office so I walked myself on down there. Round trip is 2mi if you stay on the road, but man I was not feeling that mode of travel coming back up the hill. That long, long hill. It has to be at least a half-mile, and it’s a fairly steep grade. Rough stuff. Anyways, so I didn’t want to stick to the road on the way back and decided I was going to take a shortcut… through a graveyard.

Let me set the scene for you. It’s around 8:45pm, the sun has almost passed completely through sunset, it’s 51ºF outside, and I have decided that I’m going to take a shortcut up quite the set of stairs into a graveyard. A large graveyard, at that. I’m alone, got my headphones in, and this seems like a good plan to me. Change of scenery, and I can get off a very busy road full of traffic I don’t feel like dealing with. There’s a sidewalk, sure, but it’s kind of poorly lit and a sharp bend, and I don’t trust that a vehicle won’t jump that curb honestly.

So here I am, taking my shortcut. It’s just barely legal light, because graveyards are closed from dusk to dawn. I’m definitely pushing the edge of that, but I’ve been to a lot of graveyards at a lot of times of the day and they’re almost always empty. Completely devoid of anything on the mortal plane, save birds and small animals. I’m figuring on this being an easy shortcut.

Nope, not the case. Of course this would be the time that there’s someone in a pickup truck in the graveyard (I’m guessing the caretaker, but I cannot confirm that), and of course he would spot me. He pulls up, and I fumbled to pause my music, all the while he’s talking to me as though I can hear him (newsflash: I cannot). Get the music paused, and he asks (again) “Are you looking for something, or just passing through?”, to which I replied “Just passing through, wanted to get off the road.” I even indicated where the exit was, to let him know I wasn’t wandering lost. Now, any sane person would figure that’d basically be where it ended, maybe with a warning about what time of day it was or something. Nope, that’s not what happened. This man, who I have never met before in my life, then asks after giving me directions to get out (that I already confirmed I knew), “Would you like a ride to the exit?” I’m sure he was just trying to be kind, but that’s a no from me. I don’t take rides from strangers, and I definitely don’t take rides from strangers in graveyards. LOL

I’m sure some of you reading this are panicking at that notion, but please don’t. I find it funny at this point, and I never felt truly unsafe. I’ve taken a lot of self defense that I’m confident in applying, plus my fiance knew where I was and when I ought to be home. I was Snapchatting during my walk, so he even knew I had strayed into the graveyard.

Turns out going though the graveyard added an extra .17mi onto my journey, too. I could have added more if I wanted to walk through the sketchier part of the neighborhood… but I decided against that one. So I got a 2.17mi walk in today that included part of a hill, lots of steep stairs, and chilly air that turned comfy with how much I sweat. Not bad if I do say so myself. 🙂

Day 2: June 4, 2019

I mentioned last week that I joined a group to help keep pushing the workouts. A friend of mine is the coach of it, Kate, and it’s called the 21 Day Fix through the Team Beachbody My Challenge App (available on Android and iOS). Technically you’re supposed to buy the membership ($99 for the year) or whatever, but I do not have that kind of money, nor do I know if this will be a good fit for me. Still, it’s a group to check in with and continue to help keep me motivated.

Kate did send me a sample video, which is a quick 30min workout to give you an idea of what they offer. I did that today. It was nice to have something to follow along to, not gonna lie. Since I don’t plan on getting the membership (which would offer more videos), I’ll just look some stuff up on YouTube. In addition this program happens seven days a week, but the video did say that there are two active down-days where you do yoga. My fiance happens to be a certified yoga instructor (200 hour I believe), so I can absolutely manage that without videos. ♥

Anyways, for today the video featured the following:

• Warm-Up and Cool Down
• Squatting Side-Steps
• Squatting Side-Tap-Steps with a Hop
• Bicep Curl and Shoulder Press with hand weights
  • I used 5lb weights and it was PLENTY lol
• Twists while Squatting and Holding a hand weight
  • I tried this, but it was too much for me. I felt like I was going to injure something in my tibialis anterior, bilaterally. In laymans terms, the muscle in my leg between leg and knee, front side, both legs.
  • Since it was too much, I held a plank during this instead.
• Sumo Squat with Hand Weights, bringing arms up as you squat. Then raising up on your toes when you stand.
• Scissor Kicks with Leg Pull
  • I need to consider if this one is healthy for me. Something in my hip was clicking, both sides, when doing this exercise as I brought my leg down.
• Squats with Half-Circle
  • Okay, so this is a bit more complicated to explain. You squat on one leg, holding a weight in the hand on the side of the leg you’re squatting on. Then sweep the opposite leg in a half circle, standing back up when you reach your starting point. Squat and repeat.

I think that’s everything. It was a 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off method and you repeated each exercise twice. It definitely got my heart rate up, and I’m sure I’m going to feel it tomorrow. Which is good, I need that.

Had to go up to the attic to find my hand weights though, and I’m certain I heard something living up there… but couldn’t find it. The fear factor heart-rate increase counts for some cardio, right? Hahaha.

Day 3: June 5, 2019

Man oh man could I feel yesterday! Not as bad as I might have three weeks prior, but it is noticeable. Between that and knowing that tomorrow is pole dancing, and I have a Shiatsu massage to give, meant that today needed to be low impact. Thanks to the power of YouTube, I found a low impact cardio workout to follow. It was only 20min, but that was more than enough. I did it in the evening, in a 76ºF apartment with what is at or close to 100% humidity… I was sweating! Then, since I am feeling yesterday, mainly in my legs, I did some nice yoga to cool down for a little over 10min. Definitely needed to stretch my legs, too, because coming down the stairs from my acupuncture appointment today something tweaked in the right hip and I almost went down. Yikes!

The video contained:

• Marching in place with levels change
• Side-Step Windmills
• Side-Step with Butt Kicks
• Half-Circle Toe Taps
• Pseudo Jumping-Jacks
• Marching with High Kicks
• Straddle-Squats
• Side Steps with Arms
• Reverse Lunge with High Knee
• Squats with Side-Leg Raises

For yoga/stretching I did (and forgive me, I don’t know most of the technical names):

• Cat-Cows
• Child’s Pose
• Down-Dog with Peddled Feet (for my calves)
• Seated with legs straight in front of me
• Seated to one leg at a time, with other leg bent
• Butterfly
• Child’s pose while twisting to side, lacing one arm under and the other behind my back to opposite hip
• Psoas stretch via a lunge
• Laughing Baby/Wind Relieving Pose while rocking side to side
• Oblique stretch with arm over head, seated
• Slow neck rotations in both directions

Overall I think I did well. This is kind of starting to ramp up my game, which I do need to do now that I’m on week 4. So the length of the workout isn’t really increasing, but the intensity is here and there.

Here’s the video I followed:

Day 4: June 6, 2019

Today was the beginning of my next four-part pole dance series. Still an intro/beginners series but HOLY MOLY. I feel like today really ramped up the difficulty! That, or I really am just that out of shape. I’m going with the former. LOL

Why was it so much more difficult you ask? Today we learned how to sit on the pole. That is, you’re going to suspend your whole body on the pole via your arms. Your legs do assist some, and eventually the goal is to be able to not need your arms… but I’m no where near that yet. Hahaha So my poor biceps and triceps were just abused today. On top of that my inner thighs (the adductors) feel chaffed and burned from trying to grip the pole as well… oi. I fully expect that tomorrow I will feel everything. If the bruises on my knees, and that are slowly appearing on my thighs, are any indication of how hard I pushed my body today… LOL

It was good though. I had a lot of fun, and I’m super excited for this next part of the pole journey. I think this particular item has shifted from just being challenging and a good workout, to a budding passion. I am really, really enjoying pole dancing. Once I get into better shape, if I keep at this it will also be a way to stay in shape. Win-win!

Now excuse me while I go nurse these sore muscles, and think about what kind of low-key exercise I can do tomorrow. I’m going to need a lot of yoga this weekend too, to stretch myself out. Badly.

Day 5: June 7, 2019

Wow do my arms HURT from yesterday! My legs are surprisingly okay (so I must be doing something right!), but my arms man… ouch. Triceps and biceps (mostly biceps) are not happy with me. So doing some self-massage and pin-and-stretch to them to help out, but that meant no arms today. I wanted to just focus on legs, and I thought that’s what this video would do but… turns out it was legs and abs. LOL No matter, the important thing is that it WASN’T arms!

I found a YouTube video (see below) that does what’s called Tabata-Style low-impact stuff. So 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, two reps of each exercise. Works for me. It includes a warm up and a cool down, and the cool down stretches were lovely. I needed those. I do them myself anyways, but it was nice to have them included.

The video included:

• Various Squats
  • Side Steps
  • Sumo
  • Side Squats
• High Knee March
• Various Crunches
  • Pike
  • Russian Twist
  • Alternating Knee Touch
• Hip Raises
• Hip Circles

Plus so much more. Honestly, there was a lot in here, and I cannot remember all of what it was (and I don’t feel like going back through the video to find it). Regardless, all you really need for this is an exercise mat which is awesome.

There were some side plank things in here that I could not do. Not because my abs suck, but because after the floor work yesterday my hips are still too bruised and pressure on them even on a mat was too much. So I just did regular planks for that stuff.

Now I need to do a lot of stairs to pack a bus to go sell all the things as Dancer’s Dream Boutique at a craft fair downstate this weekend! Yay! >_>;

Final Thoughts for the Week

I’m really surprised, because this concludes a month! ONE MONTH! It doesn’t feel like a month of progress, and yet here we are. That’s amazing! As much as I don’t want to do a workout some days, I will say it is starting to become a habit! That is not a bad thing what-so-ever.

Since I started the fitness app with my friend Kate, I also noticed this week I really ramped things up. So the first three weeks, although I started kind of intense, were really kind of more mellow as far as activity was concerned (aside from the pole dancing). Likely I needed that though because I was so sore after just those activities. Now my body seems to be adjusting and handling the exercise better, so it is time to push myself again. The YouTube videos and latest pole dance series have helped immensely with that.

This weekend is my break, but it’s going to be an active break. I need to stretch–badly. So I’m going to pressure my lovely fiance into doing yoga with me, or at least guiding me through some, since he is a certified instructor. I may also try to take a small walk at some point, but we’ll see.

Hopefully I continue to see weight loss come my next weigh-in too. After this week I certainly feel like there should be some!

If you want to join in, please feel free to do so. My Snap-Squad can always grow. ♥