Okay, I'm starting my exercise at the same time I started eating right again; yesterday....

One of the things I had to do was figure out how to do some exercises that wouldn't cause me too much pain too early and cause me to give up......That's what has always happened in the past. I tried to think everything out this time a little more carefully. First I had to admit that I had always started way too hard in the past. They first one or two days I exercised was always fine, but by the third or fourth day, I'd be so sore I couldn't hardly function, let alone exercise more. I also needed to take into consideration my health and physical shape. I used to be very active, and though overweight, I was in decent shape with a lot of stanima. I have neither right now. Plus, I already suffer from quite a bit of knee and upper back and neck pain. My objective is to lose weight and get in shape to aleviate that pain, not make my pain so much worse in the beginning that I give up. I also have to make it all interesting enough that I won't quit out of boredom. I'm bad about that. Heaven forbid I ever be bored..... So with these things in mind, this is what I'm going to do......

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I'm going to do my aerobic workout for at least a half an hour. I hate walking...... It's boring, so instead I'll do my aerobic dance video. I love to dance. For at least the first week, I'm only going to do the warm ups. That goes thru 3 songs, but I'm going to do it twice. The first song does a general warm up, the second song warms up and stretches the upper body, and the third song warms up and stretches the lower body. That's all I will do for the first week. Those three songs, done twice, takes 29 minutes to complete, and gets me lightly sweating and breathing slightly harder. If I try to go any farther, I end up getting too tired and sore and I give up. After one week of this, I'll decide if I should go on to do a half hour of the tape as it is supposed to be done, or continue as I am for one more week.

On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, I'm going to do my weight training. For now I'm working with elastic bands and two pound dumbells. My biggest weakness is my arms..... They've been weak my whole life, plus with the pacemaker in my left shoulder, my left upper side is even weaker. I do all the upper body work with the dumbells and the lower body stuff with the Tubing because they have more resistance.... I do 1 set of 15 reps. of each of the following:
1. Chess Press
2. Lunges
3. Squats
4. Chest Fly
5. Military Press
6. Leg Curls
7. Leg Extensions
8. Upright Rows
9. Inner Thigh Lift
10. Outer Thigh Lift
11. Tricep Kickback
12. Wide Rows
13. Bicep Curls

Plus:
14. Crunches
15. Bent knee leg lifts

I will do 1 set of 15 reps each until it feels easy enough to go to 2 sets of 15 reps. My goal for that is to add one more set in about a month.

Before I start the weights, I do 10 minutes of the warm-up dance video as a warm up. Between the warm up and the weight training, this takes me about 35 minutes to finish.

Besides these specific exercises, I will also be horseback riding here and there in between. Haven't been riding much lately, but hopefully now I can get more time in the saddle.....

I have followed this plan so far just fine yesterday and today. I have done the workout first thing in the morning when I wake up, before eating. Today, my back is slightly sore, but not even quite as much as normal. As I was doing the weights today, I could feel a slight burn in each of the arm exercises I did. Boy, are they weak and out of shape........

Doing quite well so far. Today I did my aerobics video. I was only gonna do 3 songs, repeating them twice, all week, but I was feeling so good that I decided to do that and add one more song. The first 3 three dances I have memorized pretty good, this is a chance to get to learn the next one. I'm trying to do it low impact. I will continue with this Friday if today causes me no adverse reactions. Then also all next week. I'll increase the movements to make it more high impact as time goes by and I can. I'll stay with this until I know the routine well and can dance it at a higher impact level with more ease. Today's dancing last 35 minutes. Plus, I did 15 crunches and 15 bent knee leg lifts again. As other people here have commented on, the crunches cause strained feelings in my neck so I may see about getting an Ab roller too.....

I've noticed that my left shoulder tends to burn during the exercising and my left knee makes a slight crunching noise. It sounds awful, but I feel no pain. I started taking a suppliment for arthritis that my Mom, Dad and brother have all said helped their knee problems. I'll take this for a while now, and hope as I lose weight and get in better shape, I won't need it later.

Other than that, I'm feeling good, both mentally and physically. Back is hurting a little less. The stretching exercises seem to help it.

Well, I've decided not to do my exercise journal here. Sadly for me, time is a factor and I need to save all of it that I can. I find myself listing all I do as far as exercise on the other journal, and I feel comfortable doing that. It's easier for me to compare what I am doing with what I am eating if it's all in the same place. Plus it saves me a little time by not having to type things out twice or to have to go back and forth between the two journals. I wanted to let people who may read this know that I haven't already given up my exercise, I'm just journaling it in a different place...... Thanks