A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!
May 13thThere are days, especially now that I’m in the gym more days than not, that I miss the gym on my days off. It’s like my day feels incomplete. As I move around the house or go out and I feel soreness or fatigue I’m reminded that Oh yeah, I really need the rest. But it’s just one of those things where it has become so much a part of my life that when I don’t have it, I miss it.
Last week I felt proud of myself for going to the gym 6 days in a row but this week I’m taking tomorrow morning off and will only go 5 times this week. I just knew that I needed a rest when I noticed myself getting real negative in my head today. Physically I was pretty tired too. So at the end of the workout I told Ron that I was taking the day off tomorrow and he agreed that I could use the rest. I told him that I felt like a wimp about it but he reassured me that my body knows what it wants and if it’s telling me I need rest than I should listen to it. OK, so I understand and don’t feel AS bad about it but I still kind of feel like I should be in there in the morning pushing through it… you know, not be such a wimp 
. If I don’t, at some point of the day I will get that feeling of Did I forget something? and this time I’ll have to push through that and try to sit and r-e-l-a-x to gather my strength for Saturday and next week.
So, despite all of those mixed emotions I have had an excellent workout week with DB, Matt and Ron, with very impressive sessions from all. My thighs in particular are sore from the squats, the squat jumps, the burpees, biking, rowing, plate pushing, step ups and several other moves that all seemed to latch onto my thighs and take them for a wild ride. It’s funny because as I leave to workout in the mornings, I walk by our small gym in our building and I always see people sitting on a bike or walking on a treadmill while reading a magazine or watching TV. I think wow, there is no time for magazine reading or TV watching where I’m going. I also know the results I got from going to that gym 5 times a week by myself – NONE. Absolutely zero. I did get caught up on my celebrity gossip! I should go in there one morning and ask them if they want to go for a real workout. I may get a Cosmo thrown at me but it’s worth a try. I’m nice, I love my neighbors!
So lastly a quick update on weight and such. I avoided it last time because I have only lost about 3 pounds in the last 3 weeks and I know it’s because Dan and I slipped on our diet a bit. This week we are back on track though and time for some good old fashion discipline. I did have an awesome thing happen today, I put on a shirt that the last time I put on was pretty tight on me and is now loose. Not just fit but loose! So I did a little dance and the wimpy feeling went bye bye! There is a happy ending after all… until next time.
May 9thEveryone has those days when nothing seems to click and everything seems to get under your skin. Well, a day or so I can handle, but a few of those days happened to line up for me this week. That got frustrating, starting on, ahem .. day three. I’ll chalk it up to mostly work related stress but there are some other things I could throw in the pot too. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job keeping positive all while lacking patience for myself. Going to the gym in the mornings did help. I knew I could go there and focus 100% mentally on what I was doing physically rather than stressing out about something arbitrary. I don’t like having to work on staying calm and exerting energy on that task.
I could have used some of that energy this week, it was my first week going 6 mornings in a row and my body is certainly feeling it. There is not one point of pain, just an overall soreness. Saturday though, my shoulders and arms were in pain after the last workout of the week. Either my body was waiting for the last day or it was feeling the many many reps of upper body exercises I had just completed. Dan and I worked out with DB Saturday and he had a great session planned. It was a day of 50 reps of upper & lower body exercises mixed in with short runs. The reps consisted of rowing, chest presses, various sit up moves, burpees, step ups with weights, leg presses and a few others. We’d do 50 reps each of 2 of the moves and then run 4 x walls (approx 40 yards/wall). All together there were 5 rounds and I went through it twice for a total of 10 rounds. So yes, soreness set in Saturday afternoon. It was also an excellent workout. I was telling Dan how I felt it was such an even combination of weights, resistance and cardio that with small breaks I could’ve kept going for another hour. It may have been done slower but I felt that I had the energy for it.
I’m feeling better today, rested up for next week. 6 days again and I hope to push 110% starting tomorrow morning.
March 10thMy 7am workout went great! I didn’t have too much trouble getting up at 6am, walked Brady and instead of driving up to the gym as usual I ran/walked the mile up. It became the first part of my warm up. I think I’ll do that next week too.
I worked out with Ron and we did a lot of 30on 30off stuff. 30on 30off basically means you do an activity, like rowing, running, weights or anything else and you do it hard for 30 seconds and then take a 30 second rest period. Ron is so fun to workout with and really motivates me. Monday Dan and I worked out with Matt and he had us doing a combination of 1 weight activity and 1 cardio activity alternating between the 2 for 10 minutes. Then a couple minutes of rest and then another combination for 10 minutes. That was a really great workout too. Oh yeah and no stairs today! My backside thanks you TWR
I had a fun and strong workout. The morning group is a blast! Then I walked home had some fruit and a cup of tea for breakfast and now it’s off to the trenches (i.e. work).We’ll be back in the gym Thursday night for (my) round 3. Stay tuned …
