Week 4 D3...and counting

The GYM. Ahhh!!! I use to know it well. There was a time in my life that the gym was my Cheers. Yah know, the place where everyone knows your name and they are always glad you came. Well, those days are long gone. But today, today my family joined Snap Fitness. I live in a small town and local gyms are hard to come by. But a few months ago Snap Fitness came into our town. My daughter is thirteen and is now old enough to go to a gym, my husband feels he is getting old and I want to become fit, so the gym seemed like a natural next step for my family.

Now this gym is sandwiched between a great Mexican restaurant and an even better Chinese restaurant. But it is also open 24 hours, which is great for my night owl family. As a matter of fact, it is midnight and we just got home from working out.

Oh and a great feature to this gym? I get an online place to view my workouts and see my planned workouts...in detail. The best part, I can do it from my IPhone and even see videos of the exercises to make sure that I am doing them correctly. That's right, one more use for my IPhone, one more place to track my progress and one more gadget to fall in love with. It's a sickness, I know.

Well, I haven't had my official introduction to all the equipment but I did go tonight to do D3 of W4. (Yeah, I entered the wrong week on the previous post, but I fixed it.) Now, I have one question for all those gym designers...who the heck decides to put the treadmill in front of all the other machines? Do they not realize the ramifications of this? Do they not realize that while my big behind is jiggling that the whole gym will be able to see me? Are you getting the visual here? I am and it is not pretty. But I am not there for the others, sorry folks, you are just going to have to live with it.

Now I have a treadmill at home that is pretty slick but I bought it ten years ago and there have been many improvements made to these slick machines. For example, they can read my chest band on my HRM. They can sync with my Nike+. They can even tell me my weight. Yes, today I had to face an unexpected weigh in. You see, if you read my very first post, I am not doing this running thing to lose weight. I am doing it to get fit. I am assuming that losing weight is going to be a great by product of becoming more fit. So I haven't weighed myself in about 6 months and had an "idea" of what I weighed.

Well, I get on the treadmill and set my pace and incline and hit "Quick Start", easy enough. Then numbers start to scroll past me on the screen. Ok, that one is the time as it is passing, that one seems to be my heart rate because it matches my Polar watch, that one is my current pace, that one looks like my calories only it is really really high, oh wait a minute, this number is my calories burned, so what is that other number that flashed by?.......It was my weight. It was my weight thirty pounds more than what I expected. I almost stopped the machine. That number scared me. There is no way I am able to make that amount of mass move on a treadmill.

It reminded me of my days of cancer. I had Stage III breast cancer when I was 28. I didn't know I had Stage III breast cancer. I just knew I had cancer. My doctor didn't tell me and I never asked. Later on, after the cancer was gone (Praise be to GOD). I saw my medical records and the diagnosis "Stage III" and was shocked. I called my doctor and asked her why I was never told that my cancer was that serious? (As if any cancer is not serious...what was I thinking). She said she didn't tell me because she didn't want it to affect my hope in surviving. She didn't want me to become hopeless. She said that hope is needed in healing.

That is what I felt about my weight. I didn't want to know the number because I didn't want to lose hope. You see, I will take measurements and accept those numbers but the number on the scale....I didn't know if I could handle it. So I was quite upset when I saw the number. I had to keep reminding myself that before now... I was able to do this, so just get over it. And I did and I finished. Afterwards, I went to cool down with my family and told them of my discovery. They had weighed themselves on the scale the trainers use and suggested I weigh myself on that one. I was scared but I did it. And to my amazement...it was 25 pounds less than the treadmill. Damn treadmill. Lying treadmill. Vicious treadmill. Who would ever think I would love a scale so much.

In that split moment, I realized it is just a number. Don't let it bring you down and don't put too much value in it. Treasure the other moments.

• When you realize running from the dressing room to the men's department at Target for your husband (another poor design idea from the Target folks) you don't get winded
• When you walk with your husband, his pace isn't soo fast that you have to take breaks
• When going up and down the stairs, no longer seems like a chore
• When you no longer feel exhausted by 4pm
• When your pants no longer feel tight when you sit down

I can do this. You can do this. Don't let a number make you feel like you are incapable of running, swimming, biking, belly dancing or anything else. Live life. Enjoy who you are...right now and in this moment.

Week 4 D2

Summer time. I love the sun and I love the heat. What I don't love is the scorching heat and the humidity that hangs in the air. Yes, it is Summer hear in Southeast Texas. And it is hot. I did the treadmill today, I mean tonight. I wasn't really gung ho about it. But you know that comfort zone I was talking about in my very first post? Well, it now includes running. However, I have come to realize that I prefer running to my own music.

Don't get me wrong, I love the prompts by Robert but I want my own music. I did well on my run...well I completed it. And I think I met my goal that I set for myself, 24 miles in 28 days. Ok, my goal thingamiggy may not say it, but I lost my Nike + and was not able to record one of my workouts. So I finished it but I don't get the recognition....bummer.

Here is how I did

Duration: 46 minutes
Distance: 2.17 miles
Average Pace: 21'07" minute mile
Average Heart rate: 149
Max Heart rate: 172
Calories burned: 412

I have converted to miles from km so that people can see and understand my pace. I keep hearing alot about pace on the Weight Watchers forums. How fast do you run? Do you consider me slow? How fast should I be going? Look, don't worry about others. You are unique. Remember that pep talk your parents gave you as child about being different and unique? Well it is true. I am 5'2" with short legs and I wear about a 75 pound weighted vest when I run. Okay, maybe it isn't a vest but more like a fluffy layer. These are not excuses, they are reality. My pace may not "Wow" some but they "wow" me. A few weeks ago I was stuck on Week 1 of C25K because I was scared to try to run 90 seconds. Now, I feel comfortable at 3 minutes and I am working on 5 minutes. Can I get an Amen?

All I am saying is listen to your body. If you are so winded that you can't catch your breath and feel as if you are going to pass out...slow down. This isn't a race to see who is the fastest. This is a life time journey to becoming more fit. You will brush your teeth or soak your dentures for the rest of your life. See running as part of that routine. If it isn't running, then maybe swimming, or golf, or cycling. But we just need to keep moving. You are going to quit or burn out if you don't learn to be patient with your body. You didn't get out of shape overnight, so don't expect to become fit overnight. But I promise, if you stick with it and be patient, you will begin to see changes. All of a sudden, stairs won't be so daunting, when you go get the mail, you won't become out of breath and so on. Remember those small changes and record them.