Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Week in Fitness

Last week I said I wanted to try some new DVDs, and I did! I tried a few from the library and a few that I recently purchased.

M - 2 miles of the 3 Mile Walk Away the Pounds for Abs; it was so boring I couldn't get past 2 miles. I don't know why some Leslies speed by and others feel like you are walking through a dreary eternity, but this one fits into the latter category. Later in the evening I did Yoga Booty Ballet which I always said I'd never try, but which I bought and had a lot of fun doing!

T - Leslie 3 Fast Miles, and I made it through the whole 3 miles in this one! I also did 20 kettlebell swings every 5 minutes, Then I did Pure Barre later in the evening, and THEN I went for a walk with Moppet 4.

W - I was busy that day, so I just walked in the evening.

Th - I had my booty totally kicked by a new DVD called Power Body by Rob Glick. It was fun, with a lot of interesting exercises, but it wiped me out, so much that I did NOTHING on Friday, and in fact could hardly sit down until Saturday night because my muscles hurt so much.

Sat - Leslie 4 Fast Miles, alternating the rebounder and the 8 inch step to up the intensity. Plus walk outside.

It was a cardio heavy week!

I did very well adding fruits and veggies to my diet. I had a slush made with at least 2 kinds of fruit at least 5 days, and ate a good amount of vegetables every day except one. I read The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno, which I got from the library. I don't follow that completely - I don't eat lowfat dairy, for example, and will add some sugar to things like smoothies, and will eat something white or a sweet baked good a few times a week - but I saw that I do follow it to a large extent. Maybe that's why I have been losing weight steadily without being "on a diet". I eat very few processed foods, few sweets with the exception of 85% dark chocolate, not an excess of fatty foods (although I use real butter, real cream in my coffee, etc) and mostly whole grains and mostly lean proteins. For my physical makeup, this kind of eating coupled with some cardio and lots of strength training with heavier weights seems to be the key.

I have been saving my money, and on Friday I am going to order P90X used on Amazon. This is a 13 DVD intense strength training program, something that I never thought I would be able to do when I started learning about at home fitness a year ago. But now I know that I will be able to do it - maybe not at the most intense possible level with triple digit weights - but I can do it from where I am and build up from there. Working out has helped me accept that it's all right to be where I am, and to just go from there, and not compare myself to what other people can do. I have always known this mentally, but it is starting to sink in at the gut level in many areas of my life.

I know there will always be someone who is smarter, more beautiful, more talented, better organized, more patient, a better cook etc. than I am, and that's fine. I can improve on the things that are important to me, and accept that I have weaknesses and lack of talent in various areas. That's part of what it means to be a finite and fallen person in a finite and fallen world, but I have spent most of my almost 40 years trying to ignore that fact. Who would have thought that something like physical exercise would help me to finally grasp it?

No comments: