Fitness: Week 5 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: 132.8lbs
  • Goal Weight: 113lbs
  • Weight Needed to Lose: 19.8lbs
  • 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 10, 2019

Today was a difficult day. It’s not that I didn’t want to continue, I just slept poorly and woke up with anxiety, so mental health was an issue. Anytime I have a mental health issue is drops my willpower and energy to near nothing, which as you can imagine makes it difficult not only to motivate one’s self, but to actually follow through on what little motivation you can scrounge up. For this very reason I was unable to get myself going until around 9pm, at which point I started looking for a YouTube video to follow. I ended up finding several, and the first one I tried was a cardio dance routine. I got maybe 7min in and ceased, because it moves very fast (which is fine) and doesn’t explain the moves well nor give you time to get used to them (which is not good), and that basically kills the vibe for me. If I’m going to do a dance follow-along, I better be able to follow along. LOL

The second video I tried hit the spot, and so I started my workout at about 9:30pm (better late than not at all). It was also a cardio workout, but the moves were well explained and easy to follow. This one wasn’t a dance routine, but you barely stop moving the whole time. It’s really intense. Low impact though, so I didn’t have to worry about injuring myself. This might be the start of my second month, but I’m trying to ramp things up at a good pace so I don’t hurt myself.

I’ll link the video below should you want to try it yourself, it’s great too because it requires nothing. You don’t need weights, there’s no need for a mat, no special equipment… nothing. Just you and water (and maybe a towel for the sweat). I’ve been doing some pretty good workouts, but this one was the first to make me sweat as intensely as I did in a long time. My fiance described me as looking “wilted” at the end, you can decide if the photo looks that way to you or not. Hahaha. It certainly didn’t help that it’s 77ºF in the apartment, at probably 100% humidity. The air itself is damp, and now so is my skin. I used a cool washcloth in lieu of a towel to help not only wipe the sweat off my brow, but help keep my temperature regulated a bit. It helped a lot.

If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t just enjoy this particular routine because it wasn’t too hard on the joints (hence low-impact). The person leading it has the kind of vocal tone that I could listen to all day. Him being British only helps that matter. It was also really nice how he encourages you as though it’s not just a video but he’s right there, and he also encourages you to work at your own pace. So long as you keep moving, you’re doing good. So it’s a video you can go back to time and time again, upping the intensity on your own within the movements provided! 🙂 He also throws some nice jokes in along the way, which is fun. Highly recommend this one.

So day one is done, now to keep it up for the rest of the week. Tendinitis is doing better, but I’m glad I picked cardio to give it another day of rest. I’ll likely do similarly tomorrow, and then start ramping it up come Wednesday before pole dancing on Thursday.

Day 2: June 11, 2019

Getting on the scale today and realizing I’d lost everything I gained last week was, in a word, heart breaking. It certainly is demotivational, and it does make me question what I’m doing all this work for. Despite that, I went for a walk tonight. I’m hoping that what I’m seeing as a gain is just my body preparing to menstruate. I’m due to next week potentially.

So tonight, with my fiance at my side, I did a 2.16mi walk. Since the area around us is not really flat, there was a bit of resistance to it which adds to the workout. I’m to a point now as well that when I’m walking I get an urge to at least jog, which is unlike me. I hate running, to the point that I found ways to get out of doing the mile in gym class for school 6 of the 8 times I was supposed to during my High School career. Regardless, I wanted to do some jogging here and there, so I did. My fiance isn’t up to that cardio point yet, so while I waited for him to catch up I would just walk back and forth across the road essentially. It was a good way to get my heart rate up, and then keep it up a bit. I worked up a decent sweat too, so I’m sure I got a bit more out of this than I otherwise would have.

It was even a perfect evening for it, too. Not super cold, but definitely on the cooler side of warm (60s, perhaps). The wind had been terrible most of the day, but by the time the sun was setting it had calmed down significantly. Thanks to the temperature and the breeze though, there were no bugs. ♥ I will never complain about a lack of bugs when I want to be outside. The humidity broke too, so it wasn’t a swim in addition to a walk. LOL

Tomorrow I check back in with the dietitian to see where I’m at as far as my food intake goes, so we’ll see if that can maybe offer some more insight on my weight loss struggle. Since I have a massage, likely I’ll be doing more walking/jogging while I’m out, and then Thursday is Pole Dance which will kick my ass.

Day 3: June 12, 2019

Today’s plan was supposed to be: See the dietitian, have lunch with Pete (my fiance), get some chores done, do a massage, get my workout in, and garden. This is not how the day went…

I did do the first two things right off, seeing the dietitian and having lunch with Pete. Verdict with the dietitian is less carbs and packaged food, more fruits and veggies. Portion control and calorie count looks good, but now it’s time to really hone in on where the calories are coming from. We’ll check back in a month, I need to try to be better about the food diary. Kind of fell off the wagon there. LOL

The massage I did was with a friend, so that’s where things were derailed because there’s always chatter time after… and it went longer than anticipated. So the walk/run I had thought I would get in around 5pm didn’t happen until closer to 7pm. Oops. The important thing is it happened.

I used the fitness trail near my massage space again, and including some walking in town and to get there it came out to be 1.5mi. Now, I know this isn’t my typical walking amount (I try to do no less than 2mi), but the distance of the walking trail plus to and from it just isn’t a lot… and it’s not exciting enough to do it twice. That’s why I figured with that, plus doing a massage, plus some gardening I’d be golden. The gardening never happened due to events outside my control (family dog likely had a stroke, had to run home 🙁 ), but no matter because instead of just walking, I did some jogging too. In fact, almost half of what I did was jogging. I’m slowly trying to up my cardio, and so the urge to go a bit faster is hitting on these walks. I cannot sustain it though without feeling like there’s no oxygen getting to my brain and my lungs will collapse, so I do it in intervals. It keeps my heart rate up and that’s all that really matters. I’ll get better at it with practice. Presently, I can manage about 0.10mi of jogging before I have to walk for at least an equal amount of time. It ended up forming itself into an interval training session today, and I’m okay with this. So yup, got that workout in and even if it wasn’t the distance I wanted, it was more intense than just walking. I’d say it balances out.

Day 4: June 13, 2019

Today was pole dancing, so basically it was a day to beat myself up with a metal bar. LOL No, but really, it’s a great workout. We didn’t do as many sits as last week, but we still really worked those forearms. Granted, I won’t know for sure just how much we did until I feel how sore I am or am not tomorrow… but my arms didn’t feel as tired in class today. So there’s that.

I can even say that at least briefly, I was able to hold myself on the pole with just my thigh muscles! Look ma, no hands! :O That was AMAZING! Even if it was only for maybe 3 seconds. LOL It’s progress, and progress is good! I’ve even noticed that the push-ups we do in class are getting easier and easier, so the strength is coming back! Dammit, I am getting stronger!

Pete said too that I look less paunchy, at least a bit, over the weekend. He was noticing it while we walked around the craft fair. It was a nice compliment but somewhat hard to belief just because I’m hypercritical of myself, but after today and really noticing my strength improvement, I’m more inclined to trust in what he said. ♥ It’s a nice little self confidence boost in light of my friggin’ weight gain again. :\

At this point though I’d say I am completely addicted to pole dance. Aside from it being a great way to exercise and challenge myself, it lets out some creativity and the chatter in class is very entertaining. It’s a great group of women with fantastic energy. I am SO hooked!

An update on the dog: Went to the vet’s after pole dance with Dad, totally expecting we’d have to put him down. Nope! The dog has what’s known as Geriatric Idiosyncratic Vestibular Disease, or Vestibular for short. Something very common in older dogs that will go away, but he has to stay at the vet’s for a bit so they can make sure he keeps getting fluids and monitor his progress. So that was very good news!

Day 5…?

So I never really ended up doing a fifth day. It’s completely unintentional, I just didn’t get to it. Should have, thought about it, didn’t. I’ve been focused on doing some maintenance with Dancer’s Dream Boutique and getting stuff up on the website, plus I had some decent bookings at Goddess Hands Massage for this coming week, all of which preoccupied me. In short, I got distracted. These things happen and I refuse to stress about it. Saturday I did tear the weed jungle out of our raised beds so we can finally plant some veggies, so that sort-of counts. There were absolutely points where it was like being a cartoon character trying to pull a carrot or something out of the ground and struggling, only to get it to release and falling ass-over-teakettle backwards because of it. I’m not even exaggerating. Some of the root systems were so massive I couldn’t fit them in my hand. So it was a little bit of work, but not like what I’ve been putting in recently. Better than nothing, and way better than just sitting in front of a computer all day.

Final Thoughts for the Week

Overall I feel pretty good? Each week I do this, or rather each day I do this, it becomes more and more of a habit. I’m even trying to slowly push myself further to do things I don’t particularly care for (like jogging/running) simply because I know it’s good for me. A friend of mine, Kelly, even said to me “First you run 100ft, then 200ft, then it’s a quarter mile, and before you know it you’re just running.” Of course, she was talking about how she manages to prep for a 5k, but the principal is the same for building and working up to the stamina. Do a little more each day, and suddenly you’ll look back and see how far you’ve come. It really stuck with me, and I think it will be a very motivating thing to return to on the days I seem to be going backwards.

I am absolutely frustrated that the weight doesn’t seem to be coming off though. Something, somewhere, is not working. I need to be far better about my food diary and watching my calories and macro-nutrients for sure, but I cannot help but wonder if I’m somehow not doing enough exercise? Hard to say. It definitely doesn’t help though that if I don’t have massages during the day, I am very sedentary aside from the time I dedicate to movement. Somehow I need to fix that, it’s just not the easiest of things. It’s not like Pete and I are super flush in money so I can just go out and do whatever for activities all the time, and my friends are typically at work when I’m having my sedentary time (I can’t wait until that’s me with massage, working more often), so… it’s a struggle.

Hopefully next week I see some improvements. I wasn’t going to measure myself until I lost some weight, but I’m debating if that’s good or not… on one hand maybe I have trimmed some fat off and it’s just muscle building… on the other hand if I am starting the pre-period bloat and it shows that’s only going to be more demotivational… Decisions, decisions…