...and I'm STILL at it.

I don't even know how much I was bench pressing today, but I did it 50 times - way past failure, ha!  The intervals for that were PUSH UPS on the bar (I pointed out that the bench presses were already working my chest, to which Tom the Trainer replied, "Yes, indeed.") and step back lunges.

Then fifty lat pulldowns of 80 pounds each, and five rounds of one minute step ups on a 3" high step to allegedly keep my heart rate up in between the lat pulldowns.  And let me tell you, I get a look if I'm not stepping fast enough.

THEN 120 effing reverse crunches with 100 kicks on each leg.  After five reps, when Tom said "Five more rounds to go!" I actually swore.  And then I did it.

Add to this the hot flashes I have been experiencing for the past month and I'M ON FIRE!  I should be burning calories at an AMAZING rate!

Now, I've been working on my nutrition (remember, you can't outrun your fork) and I think I've finally got the ratios close.  I've started Nutrisystem to get the fat off faster but I still make sure to get the protein/carb/fat ratios Tom has laid down.  We talked briefly about my nutrition a few weeks ago, before I left "town" for a week.  I haven't been losing because I haven't been focused.  Tom said he wanted to see me losing at least 1.5 pounds a week.  I said I know I haven't been as diligent as I can be.  Tom said three little words that have stuck with me ever since.

"We have goals."

I think of this now every time I'm tempted to rebel against myself.  I have goals. And I'm going to achieve them.

Still at It

250 crunches
50 chest presses with 40 pounds
50 pull downs with 80 pounds
100 kicks
120 reverse crunches
A ton o' lunges
Some other stuff.  Hitting the tub now....

How I Rebel

Since I've grown up and retired, I've become quite the rebel.  Don't tell me what to do.  Don't tell me where to stand.  Don't tell me what to go along with.

I've even given over my new old-lady car to Ted and taken to driving his old Prius, because the newer Avalon has too many automatic functions.  For example, it AUTOMATICALLY SLOWS DOWN when you're in cruise control and you get too close to the car in front of you.  That's just bullish*t.  If I wanted to slow down, I'd have stepped on the brake.

I have admired this trait in myself - I'm an independent thinker, I make up my own mind.  If someone sends me a quiz with 8 questions, I only do 7.

This is not to say I don't listen to people who know more than I do about a particular subject.  For example, I listen to Tom the Trainer's instructions and follow them as best I can.  I listen to my doctors (with some skepticism, but I listen).  I listened to my EMT instructors.  I give people the benefit of the doubt, unless and until I learn that their knowledge of a particular subject is no better than my own.

Yet while this rebellion/skepticism has served me well in my life, it sometimes gets in the way of my success.

For example:  After rigidly adhering to a certain protein/carb/fat ratio for a week, I'll feel like splurging with, say, an entire bottle of wine.  I'll justify this splurge by saying I've worked hard all week and so I deserve it, when what I'm really doing is rebelling AGAINST MYSELF!  WTF!

Looking back over all the weight loss programs I've done in my life (and there are many), I see this seed of rebellion cropping up as I finished each one.  "I've been so strict for six months, enough is enough."  And you can guess where I was six months later.

I started out this morning writing about how I love Fridays because it's two days off from the gym, when I realized that while at the end of Friday's workout I do look forward to two days off, I still do my cardio every day (or make up for any day I miss before the end of the week), and I don't really mind going to the gym.    In fact, I miss it when I'm traveling.    Then I starting thinking about HAVING to do something versus WANTING to do it, and how I sometimes need to change my perspective.

The same is true with my rebellions.  Some are good.  Some, not so much.

I'm not sure my fitness regimen has become an addiction or obsession, and I'm not sure it ever will, but I know that I'm loving the results of my program.  I can remember when just biking the upper loop around my subdivision was too much for me, and I'd have to walk my bike up the steep hills - or I'd talk myself into a rebellion and walk my bike, I'm not sure now which it was.  Just the other day, Ted and I did the figure eight on our bikes, twice, for ten miles.

Is it tiring counting protein, fat and carb grams every day?  Yes.  Can it be a drag going to the gym when it's a beautiful day outside?  Sure.

Do I love being strong and fit, and becoming even more so?  Absolutely.  So there's one person who gets to tell me what to do.

And that's me.

Update

200 Floor pull ups
200 Knee push ups
200 Dead lifts

30 crunches, 30 reverse crunches, 30 bicep curls, 30 tricep kick backs.

That is all.

The Life of Mohammad

That was the topic of training today - while I could still talk, that is.  I'm watching a documentary by this name via Amazon Prime while on the treadmill/cycle for cardio and it's quite interesting.  Muslims have as many zany stories about their prophet as the old testament does about its.  I was telling Tom about one of them involving a flying horse as I lunged across two parking lots and back - kind of ironic that I'm lunging toward the McDonald's drive-thru, but there you are.

Lunging....

...toward McDonalds.  While discussing Islam.

Tom the Trainer is a devout methodist (in fact, he attends the same church our former neighbors took us to when we first moved here, for free workouts.  We called it Sweatin' with the Methodists), but doesn't try to talk theology much with me, because he knows I'm not a christian, but I'd like to think my sharing this documentary with him enabled him to learn a few things, too.

Anyway, after lunging across the parking lots (did I say there were two?) , we went back into the gym to commence the weights.  More effing bicep curls with the 45 pound bar,

then some tricep extensions with 12 pound weights,

Some chest presses with 70 pounds on,

Me:  Didn't we work the chest Monday?
Tom:  And the back.  Eight....

Alternate those with body squats

Which are a little painful after lunging,

and some more of these blasted things.

To say nothing of twenty sets of one-minute planks on Monday.  Today,

Tom:  And you're finished!
Me:  What, no planks?

HA!  I'm a riot!  And my upper arms are now too big for my medium tee shirts, that I struggled and Medifasted myself into two years ago.  Oh well - Onward!

What, me pull up?

A good week last week - not quite as good as the one before but I'm still progressing in the right direction.

I'm once again training three days in a row this week so I can leave to visit my sweet nephew this weekend.  Recently we did what I call "mock pull ups" in the gym.  So instead of looking like this

In thin air, no less.

I climbed aboard a big machine, like so:

Trainer Tom was on the opposite side, which is where there is another platform, which looked to have a lot of weights on it.  Tom stood on his end, and I stood on mine.  I initiated the pull up, and Tom helped by levering me up when I could pull no further.  I then controlled the movement downward, again with assistance.  Four sets of ten with 25 squats between sets, and I thought I was going to die, even though I wasn't even close to doing it all on my own.

We've done a lot of routines to prepare me for this, such as something like this:

which, when you get to the third or fourth set of 25 is pretty darned hard all by itself.

Tom says I'll be doing pull ups on my own before I know it.  I believe him.  Also:  BIG incentive to lose weight.

I also accomplished a two-minute plank yesterday.  I'll bet I looked just like this girl

if she was dripping with sweat, red, trembling and whimpering.

We do a ton of planks, including ball planks

but again, with more sweating, redness, trembling, whimpering, and on the ball you can add sinking-into-my-forearms.

We have started doing roll outs

I couldn't find an image of a woman doing this.  Hm.

which Ted does at home.  I truly do not care for these.

Yesterday was pretty tough, I think because I did 40 minutes on the treadmill BEFORE training.  I won't be doing that again today.  Or any day any time soon.

So I'm off to the gym, because I want to be doing this all by myself:

A Great Week

All in all, a pretty great week last week:

That's right.  I give myself stars.

I got ALL my cardio done, and my nutrition was right there five days out of seven - carbs were good on the other two but I was low on protein.  This is the first week I've focused on the nutrients and not just the calories and guess what?  The calories took care of themselves - I was at or below my target every single day.

And I lost two pounds.

Training was tough this first week back from vacation, and Tom didn't pull any punches.  There were two times I honestly believed I would have to stop whatever we were doing in the middle of my sets. I don't know how I kept going, but I know at one point on those blasted kicks, I gritted my teeth and stared hard at the middle of that bag, determined to finish strong.  Once, when I was doing cable cross overs, I honestly thought back muscles were going to quit before I could even finish the second set - Tom just said one word:  "Focus."  So I did.  Truly, I am amazed at what this 54 year old body can do.

I'm very excited to be on this "roll" of success, and want nothing more than to keep it going.

Some more random pics from vacation:

Auckland - which, incidentally, has the largest
marina in the southern hemisphere.

I love road signs in foreign countries.  "Way Out" for exit!
"Give Way" for yield!  And this for "Heads Up!"

The sheep station near Queenstown, taken from...

...this boat.

Our Queenstown hotel is in the middle of this photo.

Ted and the Giant Sequoia

A tree on the Routeburn Track

Some of the wildlife we saw along the track

Our hotel view from the Franz Josef room

Pretty Australian money - with women other than the Queen
on it

The food was great pretty much everywhere

Sunset in Queenstown