Journey to the center of a fat woman: Jun 3, 2011

Friday, June 3, 2011

Time to burn those calories!

Hey there everyone! Today I started my new exercise search. Since I am to lay off of my foot (diagnosed with Achilles tendinitis and not suppose to be on it much for 6 months!) I am looking for new ways to burn those calories without the hard pounding treadmill...and yes when you are as heavy as I am...I tend to pound the pavement so to speak. LOL. So Tuesday when I was killing time waiting for my appointment at the mechanics, I went magazine browsing. I can across this great little magazine called Women's Health. The one I picked up was You Ultimate Shape-Up Guide. Great title and the whole magazine was full of different exercises for different parts of your body. Perfect!!!

Today I tried the very first workout in the magazine Tone Up For a Two Piece. Now I know that I am so far from a two piece, but I knew it would work my abs really well. I gave it a shot and followed the directions for each set. I was a bit worried after the first set. I wasn't even breathing hard. I thought oh no...this is never going to get my heart rate up! But I still followed the directions. The second set I could feel a bit of my muscles getting warm. Good sign, means they are working. But still not so much heavy breathing or feeling my heart rate that high. Third set I started to sweat! Awwhhh finally!! I do believe the hardest part of the whole thing was getting up off my back for move #6! LOL. But after I finished, my heart was pumping my abs were feeling the work, and my back was nice and stretched. As for the other areas like my arms and legs...well they will have to get work from a different workout. The 5 pound weights that I was using are good for isometrics but I need to really work my arms and legs with heavier weights to maintain the strength I have in them now. But all in all a good workout. I have no doubt it will help but there needs to be more added to this if I am going to make my goal of 2 pounds a week. I worked harder doing 30-45 minutes on the treadmill. So I'm adding some time on the bike as well. But for an all around nice toning workout, this one was pretty good.

The Beauty Of Those Brutal Plateaus

Please click on the purple link above to get to the BLOG I am referring to.

I just read this BLOG by another SparkPeople group. I so understand it and it was a good read to remind myself that I am not the only one who struggles. Like I really thought I was right? Not even close! But it's a good read and has some very good links to other good reads. Give a look and see if it can help you work through the struggles of the plateaus.

How this whole thing got started....

I have been heavy almost all my life. My primary doctor kept telling me that I would be a great candidate for bariatric surgery. I really didn't want to do it. The thought of someone rearranging my innards was not ok to me. So I put off the idea for a good 5 years. Well it wasn't until one Halloween night and an innocent little girl changed my mind.

It was Halloween 2007. I had decorated the front porch and my mom and I were going to hand out candy to all of the trick or treaters. I had a few animatronic things going and the kids were loving the fact that they could come up and get close to everything. Towards the end of the evening a very cute little girl came up to the porch. She put her candy sack down and started staring at everything moving. She was just totally enthralled by it all. Then she looks at me and asks me, "did you get that fat by eating candy?" I smiled and told her yes I did. She went back to watching everything again. Then out of the blue she tells me that I'm going to break the chair I'm sitting in. Again smiling, I tell her it's ok, it's a good strong chair. By this time I thought the little girl was never going to leave. She finally got her candy and left with her grandpa who kept appologizing to my husband for her. It was ok, she was a kid and I don't mind that kids speak what they see. It kind of stung a little bit but it's not like I didn't know I was fat!!! But it wasn't until I put the photos my hubby took of that night on my computer. I saw what the little girl saw. OMG (Oh my gosh)!!!! No wonder she thought I was going to break my chair. I was almost in tears. It was the next business day that I called my doctor and asked for a referral for surgery.