Proper Form and Technique

I want to mention today how important proper form and technique are to your workouts. I have noticed over the many years that I have been working out that sometimes you can do a move without actually engaging your muscles and working out properly. As I have lost weight and do not have as much body fat, I am more aware of my muscles and when and how to squeeze them. This is a very important part of every workout. I would suggest that if you are not sure about your form try looking in the mirror (or sliding glass door). This will help you to see what you are doing. Another good trick is to start with no weight or small weights until you are sure your form is correct. Once your body is used to doing exercises with the proper form then you can increase your weight. You can also check online to find pictures of correct form for many different exercises.

My workout for today was 20 minutes on the treadmill. I did a 1 minute warm up at 3.5 speed and 1.0 incline. After the warm up, I changed the speed to 5.5 for a nice jog. I stayed at this pace with the 1.0 incline for 19 minutes. Then I went back to 3.5 for a 1 minute cool down. For this 21 minutes I burned a total of 110 calories. I then went to a 20/20/abs class. This class consists of a 5 minute warm up and stretch followed by 20 minutes of cardio which we did on the floor. Then we did 20 minutes of weights. The weight segment was medium to light weights while we were still moving our feets and working our arms, shoulders and back. The last 20 minutes of class were devoted to abs and legs. We did the old school leg lift workout. It reminds me of Jane Fonda, but I think they really do work (or else we wouldn't still be doing them!). During class I burned 251 calories. So my total for the whole workout was 361.

I have another thing I would like to discuss today and that is the scale. If you are trying to lose weight and you still have a way to go, my suggestion is to weigh yourself once a week. I would pick one day and a specific time and I would always weigh at that day and time. This gives you a better idea of how your weight loss is progressing. If you are at your goal weight or close to it, then I would suggest weighing more frequently. This helps you monitor your food and workouts better. I still suggest weighing at the same time every day. The other thing to be aware of is that our bodies fluctuate daily with weight. So don't be discouraged to see little gains in between the loses. This could be water retention or any number of other things.

Good luck with your workouts!

Cardio/Yoga

Today I went to the cardio/yoga class. I like this class because you get a good cardio workout and then you get to relax with the yoga portion. I am a big fan of yoga, but I really feel that you should take classes from a yoga instructor that will really teach you how to do the poses correctly. I worry sometimes that when we do yoga without the proper training that we do not get the benefits and that you can get hurt. I took many classes with a yoga instructor when I lived in Portland that really taught me about breathing and how to do the poses. When you do the poses correctly you will really feel your body working hard. Yoga should not be an easy workout. It should be relaxing, but if you do it correctly you can really work your body. So that is the end of my soapbox about yoga. During the cardio portion of the class we did hi/low (on the floor). This consisted of things like hustle up and back, step touch, grapevine, etc. I was able to burn 162 calories during the cardio portion of this class. When we started the yoga portion, I made sure to take my heart rate as it went down quite a bit once I stopped jumping around. I burned an additional 88 calories. The total for the whole class was 250 calories.

On Wednesday, Morgan also gets a chance to workout as they have a kids class at the Y. Morgan loves it! She looks forward to this day every week and asks to go on other days of the week. Her class is 30 minutes so I decided to go and get a little more cardio while she was doing her class. I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes.


Start 3.5 speed and 0 incline
1 Minute 3.5 speed and 2.0 incline
2 Minutes 3.5 speed and 4.0 incline
3 Minutes 3.5 speed and 6.0 incline
4 Minutes 3.5 speed and 8.0 incline
5 Minutes 3.5 speed and 10.0 incline
6 Minutes 3.5 speed and 12.0 incline
7-14 Mintues Hold 3.5 speed and 12.0 incline
14 Minutes 3.5 speed and 10.0 incline
15 minutes 3.5 speed and 8.0 incline
16 minutes 3.5 speed and 6.0 incline
17 minutes 3.5 speed and 4.0 incline
18 minutes 3.5 speed and 2.0 incline
19 minutes 3.5 speed and 0 incline

This additional 20 minutes helped me burn an additional 115 calories. So for a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes I burned 365 calories. I consider this a very good day. I try on average to burn at least 300 calories a day to help me lose weight. I can lower this a little when I am maintaining. If I want to eat more during the day then I try to keep my number of calories burned up so that I have a little more leeway with my food choices during the day.

Just a quick note from Monday of this week to Tuesday I lost a total of 1/2 a pound so this really does work! Have a great day!

Tuesday's Blog on Wednesday

I missed updating my blog yesterday as I was having some problems with my computer. My IT department (Craig) had to work on it for several hours to get everything running again. So we are back online and I'll get you updated on what I did yesterday.

I went to a circuit aerobics class. We had a substitute teacher so the class was a little different then what I'm used to but it was still a good class. We started with a 5 minute warm up and stretch and then went into our circuits. We went back and forth between several minutes of cardio and then several minutes of weights. Some of our cardio was on the step and then we did some cardio on the floor. We kept changing back and forth between cardio and weights and then finished up the hour with 5 minutes of ab work and 5 minutes of cool down and stretching. The total amount of calories I burned for this workout was 320. You can keep your heart rate up during the weight segments as we are usually still moving our feet. I also pushed hard through the cardio segments.

First Workout in 14 Days

Well, it was back to the gym for me this morning and I was so excited. After 14 days I was ready to get in there and really have a great workout. On Mondays, I usually go to a 45 minute cardio class that is followed by a 45 minute Pilates class. The cardio portion of the class today was all on the step. I love step workouts because I am able to push myself enough to get my heart rate up and really work off some calories. According to my watch I burned 298 calories during the 45 minutes of cardio. As my heart rate comes down during Pilates I don't burn as much, but I still burned 129 calories. So total calories burned for my workout this morning was 427! Not too bad for my first day back. I think I actually burned more calories today since I had not worked out for two weeks. Class seemed much harder to me than it had in the past, so I think my idea of getting a jump start might just work out.

A couple of things I want to share with you about working out is make sure to drink lots of water and eat something! I take a 16.9 oz bottle of water with me to the gym. I drink a little before class and take many breaks during class to have more water. I finish up my bottle usually on the way home after class. I always eat something before I workout in the morning. My typical morning routine is to have a popcorn cake (caramel flavored) with peanut butter on it. This is about 125 calories and really helps me have the energy to get through class. The peanut butter is great because it has protein so I don't get hungry in the middle of my workout. Plus this is light enough that it doesn't upset my belly while I am working out. When I get home after a workout, I have my second part of breakfast. This is normally a 1/2 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with 1/2 cup Vanilla Soy Milk. This is 130 calories total. I am usually eating this portion of my breakfast after 10am. I don't worry about filling up too much because I know I am going to have lunch at noon. Sometimes I also have a banana with my cereal. Because fruits and veggies are good for you!

Well, I need to get back to my day, but I hope this information about one of my workouts helps you be motivated to do something today. Don't forget to push yourself! :)

Getting Back to My Routine

After spending 10 days in Oregon visiting with my family and friends, I am now back in South Carolina and looking forward to getting back to my normal routine. It can be very difficult to eat healthy when you are away from home. First of all, you spend some time eating out at restaurants which can derail all of us from our good intentions. Second, you may spend some time drinking your calories, which is never a good idea. The third problem that I have is that I am very busy so when there is any amount of downtime, I feel like I should be eating. These are not good things when trying to maintain my recent weight loss. These can be even worse if you are trying to lose weight. The good news is even with all of these pitfalls, I only gained about 2 lbs on vacation. Those should come off quickly once I get back to my healthy eating and working out.



On many of my vacations, I have chosen to bring my workout shoes and clothes and try to sneak in a few workouts. I took a different approach this time and did not bring any of my workout gear with me. I thought that it might be good for my body to have a little break. I have been working out 5 days a week for about a year and a half. I'm hoping that when I start back up at the gym on Monday that I am able to kick start my metabolism. Since I enjoy being at the gym and working up a sweat, I have missed being there. I actually look forward to going and am dissapointed when I have to cancel a workout. If you find some aerobic activity that you enjoy it makes a big difference in whether you continue to do it. So go out and find something you like, it may even be something you have not tried yet, and have fun working out!



Have a great rest of the weekend and I will start posting workouts on Monday. I usually take Saturday and Sunday off from the gym. That is what works for me and my family. It's always good to give your body a rest sometime during the week. I take the time on the weekends to do things like work in the garden or walk somewhere so that I'm not just sitting still.

Welcome to my new blog!

Over the past six months I have been working very hard to be a healthier person. I have been watching my diet and working out. All of this work has really paid off for me and I lost about 10 lbs. When I went on vacation to visit my friends and family in Oregon, several people asked me what I had been doing to lose weight. So I thought this would be a good time to start this blog and let you all in on my secrets. Well, they aren't really secrets, but it is what has worked for me. Keep in mind that all of our bodies are different and will respond differently to workouts and diet. This blog will also help keep me on track with staying healthy, working out and eating right.

One of the first things I want to share with you is my watch. It is the Mio Classic Select Petite. Here is the website so you can check them out.

http://www.miowatch.com/products/view/15

My husband bought me this watch for Christmas after I asked him if there was a device that could help me figure out how many calories that I was burning during an aerobics class. I figured that I knew how many calories that I burned when I used the elliptical or the treadmill since it gives you the calories burned. I quickly learned with my new watch that the numbers on the treadmill are not accurate for my body. I actually only burn about half of what the machine was saying. In other words, I thought I was working out hard and burning 400 calories, when I was really only burning 200 calories. The problem with this is when you are trying to track your calories in and out you need to have accurate data. With this watch, I was able to program in my age, weight and resting heart rate. When I work out I turn the counter on the watch on and while I am working out I take my heart rate periodically. The watch then tells me how many calories I have burned. This has been great for me. I find that I can go through the motions without putting much into it. So I thought I was working out and doing a good job, but I was not pushing myself enough. The other thing that you can do with this watch is enter your daily calorie goal and then when you eat something you just enter the calories into the watch. When you workout, the calories burned are subtracted from your daily total. As the day progresses you can keep on track by seeing how many calories you have consumed. I really believe this has been a huge help to me in my weight loss efforts. I find the watch very easy to use and you can take it everywhere with you. I've never been very good with a food diary so for me the ease of entering the calories into the watch was great.

Please feel free to comment on this blog whenever you want. I am happy to answer questions and give any feedback I can. In future posts, I will be sharing some of my daily workouts with you and my diet ideas. My goal is to eat in moderation. I try to keep this in mind and not ban foods from my diet, but we have to learn how to eat in appropriate portions. More on that later. Good luck with getting healthy (and losing weight)!