Week 4

Holly, the Demonic Trainer, Don't
let her Sweet smile fool you!

Day 22 TRAINING

Session #3 with Holly.

I think she is a dominatrix with evil intent. I think she likes to see me grimace in pain. Where did that sweet gal I met a couple weeks ago go? I am noticing a demonic gleam in her eye when she sees me!

Holly had me do squats with the big ball behind me, while lifting 8 pound weights in each hand. 3 repetitions of 20. Then I had to do squats on this space ship looking contraption. Squishy in the middle, about  12-14 inches tall. Squat, stand (one foot on this instrument of torture), while raising a 5 pound weight over head in each hand. I wonder why she let me take the 5lb weight instead of the 8 lb?

After several more implements of torture, Holly had me run up and down the stairs. Run….ha!! I walked up and down them. 19 stairs. 1^st session was 15 times up and down. Single steps. Session 2 15 times two steps at a time. Session 3 15 times up and down with single steps. This last session would have been a relief after the double stair killer, but no, we could not make it that easy. Holly threw in a bar that I had to hold over my head. It probably weighed 8 or 10 pounds. It felt like 20. All I could think of was Ozgur (my son-in-law) telling me how when he was in the military, he had to run while holding a rifle over his head.

Good thing Holly didn’t give me a rifle. I might have shot her..

Exhausted. No idea of how many calories I burned. But I felt each one.

Day 23

The scale has not moved. Weigh in is two days away. I am working hard. So I know I need to cut back on the chow. More than I have already. I have a healthy diet.  I am not a chips/fast food type of person. I know I have a slower metabolism than average.

But I love to cook. Mostly because I love the results. You just can’t get good food from a box, or from fast food. And so much of what they give you at the standard chain restaurant is 1. Too expensive, and 2. Can be made much better at home.

For those who live with a hobbyist cook, there is nothing that strikes fear and panic in their hearts more then when the “Cook” announces “I won’t cook as many fancy meals as I am putting myself on a diet. From now on…LOTS of salads……”

You should have seen the faces! I wish I had a camera. I might as well have told them that I was putting them on a desert island and they would have to survive off of grubs and snakes for a month!

Precor 11/11 45 min 650 calories

Day 24

Precor 11/11 45 min 650 calories

Day 25 Weigh In  

Gee…how can that be? I have not missed a day. I have been a good girl. I even limited myself to only 3 small cookies that Jas baked (over a 4 day period). That took a LOT of will power. You gotta have a little treat now and then right?

The scale was not my friend this week. 0 pounds lost.

Wish I could blame it on water retention, having way too good of a time with pastries and things I should not have. But that was not the case.

Sigh…. Maybe next week will be better!

Precor 45 min:  level 12 for 30min, ramp up to 20 at 2 intervals for 6 min back down to 12, then 10 for 5 min cool down. 652 calories.

Day 26

Today I feel utterly exhausted. I do not want to go to the gym. I have not missed one day since I started. What would be the harm to miss a day?

It would mean giving in. Not giving up, but giving in. I need to fight my tiredness and continue.

I am also ravenous. I feel so hungry I could the eat petrified fries I saw on the floor of my work car. They must have been there for a year. Even the package of ketchup was tempting. I don’t know why I feel so hungry. I had my usual oatmeal for breakfast. By lunch time my hunger was ready to control me. I fought back. I had a small tortilla with 2 tablespoons of black beans and a sprinkle of cheese, water with lemon.

I wanted to eat at a feed trough.

I escaped work early. I dragged my tired, still hungry but still fat body to the gym.

Precor: 45 very painful minutes  incline/resistance 11/11 for 30 min, increase both to 20 2 levels per min, then back down…cool down. 625 calories.

3 sets of 50 crunches.

Staggered out of the gym like a drunkard. But I did it!!

Day 27 ZUMBA

It’s Saturday morning. I awake at my usual time. I think about going to the gym. I rather go and get it over with so the rest of the day is clear to do whatever else needs to be done. I am at the gym at 7:55. The receptionist tells me that there is a new beginning ZUMBA class starting at 8:15. Would I be interested?

Jasmine has been wanting to go to a Zumba class with me. But there have been other obligations that kept us from the evening classes. She will be disappointed that she missed this one as she couldn’t go to the gym with me this morning. So I signed up anyways. It’s good to mix things up now and then.

Since I had 20 minutes, I hopped on the Precor to warm up (what else was there to do anyways?).

11 minutes at 11/11 156 calories

ZUMBA CLASS.

Zumba is based on Latin/Caribbean music and dance steps. I consider myself middle of the road in coordination. I don’t have two left feet nor do I have the grace of a ballerina. I managed to keep up with most of the routines.

It was the fastest 50 minutes of exercise ever!

Day 28

Last night, we all went out to dinner to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. It has been a long time since I have gone out for dinner. We went to a Greek restaurant. I had a Greek salad and Mousakka.

And of course, there was Birthday cake that we bought from the local bakery. I had a small piece (1/2 the size of when I was not so diet crazed).

So today, I had to work off some of the excess of yesterday, even though I did not have that much energy. Jasmine and I started off with the weights, squats and crunches.  Then my usual cardio.

Precor at 11/11 45 min 625 calories.

Then some house cleaning, and ½ hour of Wii Michael Jackson dance workout in the afternoon.