So, I am doing a 90-day weight loss challenge at the gym. If any of you know me at all, you may know that I tend to avoid these kind of things because of the stress I put on myself. I especially hate team challenges because I hate "disappointing" others. But I decided to join this one and face it with a different attitude. I am going to do what I can to relieve the stress. The first thing I am doing is NOT looking at the scale. When I get weighed in, I simply turn around and let them record it. Now it is not 100% fail proof because I may run into the numbers if I log into my account but now that I know that I am going to avoid that as well.
Why am I doing the challenge? Well, it does give me a chance to try some different classes at the gym, which are set up for the people in the 90-day challenge. It is also giving me a chance to focus on what I need to do to get the scale moving again. I thought it was a good thing to do now that I am ending my detox.
Speaking of the detox, Friday was my first day of reintroduction. I got to have coffee. I have missed it but do not intend on going back to drinking the same amount I was drinking over the holidays. I am also going to look for a decaf roast I can tolerate. Anyway, now I start the hard work of reintroducing some foods and seeing how my body reacts. My first item was peppers. I did okay with them. Tomorrow will be beef.
I also did a health assessment at the gym last week. I am pretty healthy. I am pretty strong. Actually except for my body mass index (as they measure it), I had no dings against my health score. The guy who did the testing did tell me that I was working out too hard and too many high intensity sessions. It is sinking in. I mean how many times and from how many people do I need to hear this from before I start doing something. So my goal is to start working out smarter and not just harder. I got a new heart rate monitor and plan on using it. I will likely do some testing at the gym to find the right heart rate zones for most efficient work outs. I am going to try to do only one intense workout a day and one somewhat less intense workout if I do two. I need, as I always say, to fit in some yoga or pilates. These are hard for me but I will keep trying. As I work to figure this out, I am going to keep this in mind::
I am also going to work on picking up the weight lifting and strength workouts. I am going to come up with a program as I don't think I have enough weight lifting in my routine now that I am not doing kettlebell classes. Any suggested programs to follow?
I guess a recap of the month would be a good thing. Overall, January was a good month for the nutrition side of things. I am still progress through the cleanse I started, working through with my nutritionist and several of her clients. Because of the on-line support from those people, I haven't seen the need to blog much about it. It is going well. I am in the middle of the vegetarian portion, six days where the idea is that you really give your system a break from digesting meat. After all the antibiotics I have had in my system over the last couple of weeks, I am working hard on upping my intake of probiotic foods. Right now, I am eating sauerkraut for breakfast. It's not bad. Of course, it helps that I grew up watching my grandfather eat sauerkraut on everything!
From a movement side of things, it has been a bit strange. I have been somewhat sidelined because of cellulitis on my lower right leg. It has caused me to sit around a lot with my leg elevated. For a couple of weeks, I did what I could. I swam, I rode the recumbent bike, I pouted! Yes, I pouted. My emotions ran amuck. All I wanted to do was sweat and feel like I was working out. Well, I slowly got over that. I did some sweating on the recumbent bike. I did a whole like of stretching and relaxing in the pool. I finally accepted it.
Once my doctor gave me the okay to start adding back in some activities, I was ecstatic. I quickly found myself on the stair climber at the gym, back in front of the heavy bag and swinging kettlebells. I am still not 100% and have to watch what I do not to bang my leg into any thing. Burpees for now are out (so sad - she says sarcastically). A lot of jumping is out and I am not yet back to running. Last night, I climbed stairs around the coliseum before a minor league hockey game. It felt good to sweat and do the work. I hope that I won't have issues getting ready for the climb on the 24th of this month.
I may have to reassess my goals for the year, but that's okay. I am fine with adjustments to goals. I am not going to let this beat me and be the reason I can't have a successful year.
Leaving you with one final thought
