What an amazing week! Spring storms, busy work schedule and lots of cardio. It just goes to show that with a little bit of planning we can make time for exercise and good nutrition.
I normally write new posts for my blog on Mondays but I wanted to wait until after I had met with my personal trainer. I was scheduled to meet with him this last Monday and it ended up being a crazy weather day for most of Tennessee, so I had to reschedule. We met today and it was great. What a difference it makes to have someone motivating you and saying to you, "Come on! You can do it. Give me 5 more! Give it everything you have! You got it"! It's awesome to have that encouragement.
I've been doing cardio 5 days a week on my elliptical trainer at home and really love it. I just plug in my ear phones and tune into Pandora. The techno channel is great for working out. So the home workouts are 30 to 45 minutes of elliptical and I am dripping with healthy sweat when I finish. But I know me, and I get bored so I found out about a new gym in my neck of the woods and decided to check it out. It's called HG Fitness center and is located in Spring Hill, TN (about 10 minutes from my house). They have cardio equipment galore, a full weight area, a boxing room, free tanning and a great selection of classes. All of this for $30 a month!
I really enjoy going to the gym to change things up a little. I usually do 20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the treadmill and then finish with 20 minutes on the bike. Awesome way to get an hour of cardio and it goes by fast. Must have my music and head phones. They make a huge difference.
Part of my membership includes 2 FREE sessions with a trainer. The day I signed up there was a trainer thee who also moved to Tennessee from California. His name is Ben and he knows his stuff! So, after chatting with Ben for a bit, I decided to sign up for a session with him. We met at the gym today and discussed my goals, nutrition and weight training. Then, he worked my butt off! I did exercises I had never done before and he didn't go easy on me. Again, having someone encourage you and be your cheerleader makes all the difference. And this trainer did just that. Today we worked on shoulders, back and abs. Ben told me I'll be sore tomorrow and as I'm writing this post, I can already feel that I will be! Afterwards I did my elliptical, treadmill and bike workout. I felt amazing when I left the gym. Gotta love those endorphins! I meet with Ben again next Monday and will continue to meet with him once a week and weight train three times a week. Weight training is important but often overlooked. We need to build a little muscle to increase our metabolism and burn that nasty fat. How I do hate that nasty fat.
Another new aerobic activity that I discovered I love is Zumba! This is one of the classes that HG Fitness offers. Wowee..what a work out that was! Word of advice to y'all though: Make sure you wear the proper shoes when taking Zumba or any other type of aerobic class. I had on my "shape ups" and it was difficult to keep my balance. I looked so funny when I saw myself in the mirror but I was having so much fun, I just kept going. Zumba is a salsa dance style class and if you haven't tried it...you should! But don't be fooled, it really kicks your butt. Probably because you actually shake your butt ALOT in Zumba class! You GOTTA try it!
The Nike store is a great place to get work out shoes. The staff is very knowledgeable and helped me pick out what I needed. Because I'm going to be a frequent Zumba attendee, I got the Reebok dynamic Step Lo (it's an Avon shoe). It doesn't have alot of tread so it makes it easier to Zumba and slide around the floor. For walking, running and elliptical I got the Reebok Premier Verona KFS II. This shoe has an abundance of technology built into it that I can't begin to explain.. All I remember the staff telling me about it, is that it allows your feet to breath and stay cool. I can tell you that it is very comfortable and made a world of difference on the treadmill and elliptical today. If you live in Nashville, head over to the Reebok store at 100 Oaks in Berry Hill. They're having a buy one get one half off or buy two get one free sale! I got a great deal on my new workout shoes :-) They also have a large selection of work out clothing.
So, nutrition. I've been sticking to my original plan which was to stay away from dairy for now and cut back on the sugar and fat. I try and eat a salad every day. So far so good. I've learned that it's very important to have a small snack between meals too. Believe it or not, when you're body becomes too hungry, your metabolism slows down. No! No! No! We DO NOT want our metabolism to slow down do we? Absolutely not! So keep some nuts and veggies handy. I get very busy at the salon so this is something I'm working on but getting better at it.
So far, my journey is going very well. I believe that it's because I've been expecting it to go well all along. But I'm only human and I have to admit that I did catch myself starting to get impatient about not seeing more results. Then I said to myself, "Heidi, you've been on this journey for 2 weeks and you're doing great. Don't beat yourself up"! And I got back on track. Sometimes our brains can be silly and we just have to straighten ourselves out. We all get a little crooked sometimes.
I couldn't have asked for a better week and look forward to the weeks ahead. Until my next post I say these words to you: Love yourself and your body and know that you are worth what ever time you need to make for you. Give yourself a big hug and tell yourself that you're worth it. You only have one life and it deserves to be the best. So, get off that tush already! YOU JUST GOTTA! Love y'all! xoxo
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