At long last the implanon is gone and I’ve gotten back into working out 4-5 times a week. I’ve also found a very effective method to work out while the little one is awake so I can maximize my study and homework time while whenever she decides to take a nap. I got the basic information from the Body For Life website.
So here’s the rundown of my new workout and general routine and what I consider necessary items.
First off this would be really hard if I didn’t have this awesome fitness journal called FitBook (this is the link to the site). Along with the book I also bought the food scale, body fat calipers, and measuring tape. The scale is incredibly handy for getting used to what a serving size looks like in certain foods, usually I just used to guesstimate but I will say that I was definitely wrong with some of them. You don’t have to take the scale to a restaurant or anything crazy like that, but when you know what a serving size of mashed potatoes looks like you can just eyeball it at the restaurant. YAY! No more calorie counting! The calipers and measuring tape are pretty self-explanatory though I will say that body fat calipers, or any other body fat measuring system aside from the water displacement thing which costs a ton.. yuck, are not super accurate. HOWEVER! The reason you will want these is just to keep track of the number moving up or down. Now the fit book, ah the wonderful little handy fit book. You track everything on here from exercises, food, and sleep. The exercises are broken down into Strength, Cardio, Flexibility, and Classes so whatever you are doing you can track it. There are ample note spaces and you can even check a box below the workout page so you know how that workout made you feel. The spaces are not super specific so your limited so you can take your notes however you want. That being said, for the person who doesn’t know what the heck they’re doing when it comes to tracking a lot (like myself) will find the front few “tutorial” pages very handy. Continue reading
Great news! I can finally do one full pushup and I’m only on week 4 of the program!! I can’t express how happy I am since never in my life have I been able to do an actual pushup. Well, maybe one time in my life when I had a personal trainer for about 6 months. However, took me a lot longer than 4 weeks of a program to do it.
My body is starting to slowly tone up. I’m noticing a little definition here and there that I didn’t have before. I’ve taken some before photos but I don’t want to post any until I’m finished with the Basic routine. So before and afters come about once every 10 weeks. 😛
Next week I’m going to see a nutritionist and figure out a way to fine tune a healthy maintainable diet. Not a loose weight diet, just a healthy one. I don’t really believe in loose weight diets in most cases (exceptions to everything). If you want to kick start something than go for it, however in the long run a healthy diet and exercise is what’s going to help you maintain.
I’m onto week 3 of the YAYOG basic 10 week routine.
I can feel my upper body strength increasing. Very amazing feeling and I’m really looking forward to being able to do a pull up at some point.
The workout timers have changed from Ladders (1 rep, rest, 2 rep, rest, 3 rep, rest, 4 rep, rest, 3 rep, rest, and so on for 7.5 minutes) to Interval with a 12 rep goal (basically you get 2-3 minutes to do 12 reps of a particular workout then you rest for 2-3 minutes. You do that 3 times per workout with 4 different workouts. So that’s 12 sets total.) While the number of reps have decreased, the challenge of the workouts have increased. Also doing 12 reps without any rest is different from resting in between every 1-2-3-4.
If you read my last post then you know my current weight. I’m not to proud.
I realize that for some 129 seems like it’s awesome. Personally it isnt for me. Everyone has different goals and for me, weight is not one of them. I could care less right now how much I weigh.
What I’m concerned with is Body Fat %.
A person can weigh 170 lbs but have incredibly low body fat. That’s because muscle weighs more.
You can measure body fat by calipers that can be purchased pretty much anywhere. GNC, Walmart, Target, your local fitness or vitamin shop. Their not too expensive depending upon the type you get. My husband and I have a scale that tells you.
Now keep in mind that these methods are not 100% accurate. None of them are unless you want to pay oodles of money to go have a team of professionals do it. The point is to pick a method and stick to it. It’s the number going up or down is what you need to concern yourself with. Continue reading
Spunky Punky 