I found this week that falling off the wagon is pretty easy. I had thought for sure that I had become so accustomed to going to the gym daily that I would really be struggling with not going all week. Not the case. With the 5 am wake-up calls (from my alarm) and the excitement around a new school year, I didn't end up being at all upset to miss the gym. In fact, it was almost the opposite: I was totally content not going to the gym. I still made it on Thursday evening and then again this morning. This morning I did not have a tonne of energy and I wasn't bouncing around nearly as much. It seems being lazy is more of the addiction than working out. I just don't want to get back to the point where I have to force myself to work out, because that will quickly lead back to the point where I come up with a thousand excuses why I shouldn't go right now, or the most dreaded of all: "I'll do it later." Do you know how many loads of laundry never get done on time because "I'll do it later?" I think that demon phrase is in the process of working its magic on my laundry as we speak...
It's Saturday morning and I had thought I would sleep in. I guess I did a little bit, but I still woke up at 6 instead of 8 or 9. I don't mind; it just makes getting up during the week that much easier.
The class I wanted wasn't until 11, which is also hard because I always seem to feel like I don't want to start anything until after I've gone to the class - which means after lunch. By then, I'd accomplished nothing for so long today that all I wanted to do was nap. I have heard of the theory that when you sleep TOO long, you actually make yourself more tired. I wonder if that applies to sitting around - if you do nothing for long enough, it makes it twice as hard to get up and do something. Playing around on the computer was the compromise of trying to get something done. I do have some lessons to plan... (which is clearly not what I'm doing right now).
I think I've realized this week that the Drumming class instructor is my idol. She's roughly my age, with a very similar body shape, and also a teacher - grade 5 or 6 instead of high school. She's clearly in better shape - more endurance, stronger muscles, but still has a similar physique. And yet I ran into her on Monday, I also passed her on Thursday about to teach yet another class, and then she taught today's class. I guess the plus is that I was also at the gym on those days - but it left me wondering how many days a week is she here? I realize some of that may be substituting for an instructor who seriously injured herself and has been out for over two weeks, but still. I barely made it through my own first week of school and here she is not just going to the gym, but running multiple classes. Plus, she has a big energetic personality, and the booming classroom-teacher voice that I haven't learned yet. She just gets right into whatever we are doing, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn she is a great teacher at school too. I need to get some pointers, and maybe a bit of motivation.
I still haven't lost any weight, and my knees are sore constantly. Instead of seeing all of these wonderful results, I am pretty much right where I started at the beginning, except that now my knees hurt. They haven't really shifted around out of place since I was physically active as a teenager and playing basketball in high school. All that time, I graduated over 15 years ago, and they haven't bothered me. Now, I start doing squats and getting active and my knee-caps are back to shifting. It almost makes me want to say "well obviously I should stop working out". Realistically, I need to fix the injury I never bothered to fully deal with. I don't know why they would start acting up when I start doing exercises, especially when I'm pretty sure doing squats was one of the things I was supposed to do to strengthen the muscles to hold them in place. Go figure. I am tempted to drag out my knee brace and wear that for a while, then sign myself up for some more Physio to get the right stretches. In theory...
And then there's focusing on the weight loss... I'm happy with my results of feeling better, more energized, and being able to make it through a class without getting seriously out of breath. That in itself is a victory of sorts, but I did sign up to lose weight. I started at 200 pounds, and I still weigh 200 pounds. I can't even pretend I lost of few pounds. I am literally the same weight. Even the body type stuff isn't really helping me out; I'm sticking with moderate to low-cardio, I'm not doing any weightlifting, but I am going repeatedly, and many of the exercises do involve repetitions. Then again, I was doing Yoga for a really long time during the month. No more Yoga for me now, the instructors I like both work during the week. I'll only see the one on Holiday Mondays, and the other I might see at Christmas Break but that's it - or some of his workshops if I feel like shelling out $35 for 2 hours. I am tempted...
I think my goal for next week if to try and go to Boot Camp in the morning tomorrow, see how I feel about it after I've gone, and then try to focus more on getting short gym visits in. 1-hour classes just aren't going to work, but going spinning with the other teachers at my school on Mondays and Fridays after school, getting to a Boot Camp in the morning on Wednesdays if I feel up to it, and doing some exercises at home every day or going to the gym to use the equipment should help keep me on track. And I need to incorporate more weights and more repetitive movements like squats and bird-dogs. At least now I know the journey is not going to be as easy as I thought it would be. In my mind, I think I felt like I could have lost 15-20 pounds by now, and it's just not the reality. I'm also back into school time, which mean lunch consists of whatever I can quickly pack in the morning; and dinner consists of whatever I can quickly throw together in a very short amount of time. Except, I'm not a good cook, so a lot of this involved take-out or pre-packaged garbage marketed as food. We must've eaten at fast-food joints or restaurants 2-3 nights a week. It adds up quickly. I'm not surprised I weigh 200 pounds, but I also know it's going to be hard to not fall back on that routine. Just this week I took a microwave dinner one lunch, we had hot dogs at a school BBQ one day, we ate pasta one night, pizza another night, and tonight is going to be hot dogs again. Not off to a good start - and our after school activities haven't even started yet. *eye roll*
We'll see how the Boot Camp going tomorrow. I'm nervous this is going to be way out of my league... but I also want a replacement for the group-training sessions I can't justifiably afford.
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