EXERCISE ROUTINE

Hi Everyone,

I have noticed that as more weight comes off, it comes off slower. That can be very discouraging to many of us. Exercise must be incorporated into our new lives if we want to continue to succeed. Even if all you are doing is walking every day, at least you are getting out and moving your new body around.

Having served in the United States Navy, I used to run every day. That was something that I definitely missed about being able to do with my body. I had gotten so big that I could barely walk from the couch to the door...much less to the park to go for a run. But now, with my new body and attitude, I was ready to get back to running. I started off slowly at the gym on the treadmill doing the Couch25K program. Then I realized that the weather outside was so nice that I decided to take my running outside.

I go to my local park and there is a path that all the way around is approximately 1.5K. I downloaded a pedometer on my iPod, turned on my music and away I went. I find that as the days go on I am able to run a little more each time. My schedule nowadays is to run around it one time and then sit for about 2 minutes and then run around it again. I am slowly working on the stamina to not have to stop during my time around. I am slowly building myself up to run a 5K at the end of March 2013.

However, one thing I have discovered, running is not enough. Our bodies tend to get used to the same treatment that we put them through every day and that is also where the plateaus find us. I decided to go back to my gym and take advantage of the free 1 hour meeting with a personal trainer. She went over all my measurements and what my heart rate should be at as well as what kind of schedule I should put my body through.

When I completed the meeting with her I set up a meeting with another employee from the club who took me through a one-hour orientation of how to use the strength-training equipment. Some of the equipment I knew how to use, but there were quite a few machines that I did not know how to use. It was also a very enlightening meeting!

So for now, my schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I do strength training and then a run; Tuesdays and Thursdays I only do running. Turns out your body needs 48 hours in between strength training so that you have less injury and soreness. I also found out that strength training burns the same amount of calories (and sometimes more) as cardio does. The trainer said that approximately an hour of strength training burns between 800 and 1000 calories!! WOW!! One of the reasons is because your body continues to burn calories even after you leave the gym.

I can attest to one thing...when I don't work out for a few days, I do NOT lose any weight. My body has definitely decided that it wants me to be healthy and active...and really, that's A-O-K! ;)

Cheers and Much Love!
Ellen