New Moon Rising, at last!
 

Today I started working out.

I've never had a regular excercise routine in my life, except the year I was in the color guard in high school. I've never belonged to a fitness center. I've never even dreamed of going near the contraptions and machines you would find in one. But last year a good friend offered to get me a membership as an early Christmas present (geesh, it was probably in Sept. or October) so I could go work out with him. He even put off joining himself for a few months until he decided I wasn't going to get off my butt and went ahead and joined and went without me. When I started living Atkins, I knew I had to incorporate some excercise into my rather low key lifestyle, so I agreed to start going as soon as I got settled into the food side of it and my new apartment (yeah, I may be slow to change but when I do, it is usually drastic!).

Today was the day. Not being the gym guru, I really couldn't tell you the "names" of what I did, I'm sure that will come later. But I did weights, both upper and lower body stuff. The owner of the club took me through it all and I tried really hard not to be self concious, even though my "buddy" was ribbing me on occasion. I'm pretty proud of myself and amazed at how quickly I began to feel at ease there. It is encouraging. Currently my plan is to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I think this coming Tuesday I will get in some cardio... Look out treadmill, here I come, LOL) and TRY to get in on the weekends if I can. I would definately go more often if arranging a sitter wasn't such a hard thing right now, but I am hoping that I will get something better lined out soon.

A few of my muscles sort of had that rubber band feeling afterwards. I know I will probably be sore later, but I think I can deal with that too.

Yay for me!

the day after
 

I am really surprised that I'm not sore all over. The only place I really notice any soreness is my extreme upper body, my shoulders, across the top of my chest and a little across the top of my back. Upper body is my weak spot, that is for sure! Of course my legs have had to tote around my 200 + pounds for all these years so they have to have some strength! LOL

Not happy about my weight right now, I seem to be stuck around the 219/220 mark, and while I know I have to ignore the scales for the most part, it still settles n the back of my brain. I lost that first 20 at a pretty good pace, and was looking forward to the next 20 melting away so I could be under 200 at long last. But I try not to worry about it too much, I know I will get there in time.

On the brighter side, I actually noticed that my hips have slimmed some today, I have a mirrored shower door, so I get a good, honest look at myself before getting in the shower everyday. That has been the biggest encouragement, that I can actually SEE the difference some days. Previously I've noticed my waist reemerging... LOL... of course now that the hips have slimmed some, that isn't as noticable as it was, but I am perfectly ok with that... LOL

I won't be able to go to the gym this weekend unless I just have a major stroke of luck, as this is my weekend to have my older two kids and finding any free "me" time will be difficult, not to mention a sitter... LOL.

But I plan to some yard sales, and maybe take the kids to the park and do some walking, so I guess that will have to do.

Next gym appointment with my buddy is Tuesday at 3pm

Really wish I could have gotten to the gym today.
 

I'm all pysched up from Thursday and DREAD having to wait till Tuesday to go again. I'm going to see if I can squeeze it in on Monday, even if it is just to go do a little cardio. :)

Oh, on the not being sore issue, spoke too soon, my calves have screamed at me all day today, I've tried to make a point of stoping and stretching them several times today to try and work it out. That seems to help.

All the kiddos are still up, so I better go try and get them ushered to bed, I'm pretty tired myself.

...
 

Of course I didn't get to go to the gym till today, Tuesday. I wish I had, but I guess working in the time will have to come a little bit at a time.

I did 40 minutes on the treadmill today, it wasn't bad while I was going, but someone should have warned me about "sea legs" when I got off it... LOL... that was interesting, just glad the gym was pretty empty... *blush* I am sure for a few minutes I looked like a drunken sailor.

I also did some crunches (abs) and something else for my back afterward. I probably should have thrown in some upper body stuff since I KNOW that is my weak spot, but I will be sure to hit it Thursday and then probably again over the weekend (YEAH! this is my weekend with NO kids... woo hooooo... I can just zip over to the gym whenever I feel like it.)

I'm really loving it so far, I don't feel like I am over doing it ... so that is good.

:)

No extreme ill effects from yesterday's trip to the gym... other than making me wish I could go today, I think I could become addicted to it in a hurry!

my ankles are a little sore in front and back from the treadmill, but just enough for me to know I did some walking... LOL

I am really impressed with how helpful the staff is and how unselfconcious I feel when I go.

Ahhhhh....

did 40 mins on the treadmill today, didn't want to do anything where I had to grip with my hands too much since my finger is still so sore.

I'm hoping I feel up to going again tomorrow and running through the nautailis stuff.

The gym closes in 3 hours and I have no desire to go in at all today. It is getting very close to my TOM and I just don't have the energy to do it. I know I should press on and go anyway, but I have a ton of stuff to do around the house to get it ready for my Mother coming to stay with my daughters while I am out of town next week. I guess vigerous house work will have to count as my workout today... *sigh*

UG! I've done awful at going to the gym. It has been 10 days since I went.

I rushed around trying to get things ready for my trip out of town, then it got delayed and although we did finally go on Saturday it was only overnight instead of the 4 nights we planned. :(

Now I am just exhausted. I am due to go in to the gym tomorrow though, I hope it won't kill me. LOL

I finally got to the gym today. I'm not even going to to into why I didn't get there yesterday. :nono:

So, I get there and of course there are WAY more people there than I am used to. AND, to top it off, my *male* friend's mom is there. I saw her car in the lot and actually didn't stop... how bad is that? But then I felt stupid for it and turned around and went back, hoping the whole time she wouldn't still be there. I told myself I was going in even if she was still there. And I did. She was actually just getting ready to leave (thank goodness, I am self concious enough around her as it is, last thing I am ready for is working out in front of her), so we chit chatted for a minute or two and then she was on her way. Most of the traffic at the gym seemed to be in the room where all the cardio stuff was, so the weight room was fairly quiet (another thank goodness, as that is what I desperately needed to do today). I had just enough time to run through the whole thing before I had to go pick up my daughter. And I felt GREAT :yay: afterwards. I am tentatively planning to go do cardio tomorrow, around my usual time when I know it will be quiet.

I always feel so silly about being afraid to go once I get there. I hope I can get to the point where I don't even think about it.

I went back to the gym on Saturday, did 30 minutes on the treadmill at 3.0 and then did some upper body stuff because I know that is my weak spot. My goal for this month is to not miss any Tuesdays or Thursdays and get in once on the weekend.

I've already blown THAT goal... sigh. Didn't get to go on tuesday, didn't have anyone to watch the kiddo, probably won't get to go today either (Thursday)... this sucks... I LIKE to go.

Stroke of luck today, the (soon to be)ex came by and wanted to take our daughter to the fair, he showed up 15 minutes before I was supposed to be at the gym!! Oh Yeah!

I did 25 mins on the treadmill today at 3.0 as a warm up then ran through all the nautalis stuff. Upper body still needs alot of work, so I'm going to run through some of that even on the days I just go for cardio.

Today turned out to be a good day, on this front and many others that I won't elaborate on here. *insert huge grin*

As much as I would like to get to the gym today, I don't anticipate magically finding child care, LOL... oh well. Guess I will have to clean the house and call that my excercise for the day.

Ok, forgot to post but Tuesday (the 15th) I went to they gym and did 50 minutes on the treadmill, most of it on an incline at 2.5, then as I brought the incline back down I worked up to 3.0. Felt good.

Last night I did some strenuous stuff around the house and my knees were killing me... So when I went to the gym today I was leary of jumping in, but after a 20 minute warm up on the treadmill, they felt much better and I ran through my nautilis stuff, even really pushed myself on upper body (one day I will actually post what I am doing, when I feel more confident...LOL)... tonight the knees are REALLY not happy though. They hurt every time I bend or straighten them and standing or sitting are not fun motions.

:( I'm going to pick a course on the treadmill Saturday when I go (which needs to be early-ish) and stay clear of the machines (at least leg wise) for a bit.

50 mins on the treadmill, got up to 7 on the incline and 3.3 on the speed. Then I got to move furniture... oh joy!