7 Days

Today marks one week of counting calories and starting to be more regular in my workouts.  I have to come clean and say that today's blog post title was brought to you by this video:

I don't know if I've seen any difference on the scale yet.  I'm waiting until tomorrow to weigh myself.  I'm feeling more in the groove, so even if there isn't any loss, I'm just going to keep going with everything as I have been. 

Yesterday after work I headed to the gym to do some more cardio.  My left calf was still a little iffy from last weekend (I think that today it finally feels back to 100%), so I decided to skip running again and just go for the "other" types of cardio.  I ended up doing a half an hour on the stair mill and a half an hour on the elliptical.  I definitely burn more calories on the stair mill, but I'm not sure I could stand doing that for more than 30 minutes. 

I ended up going to the gym on the ground floor of the building that I work in.  The gym I belong to has branches all over the city and with the membership that I have, I can go to all of them.  I'm pretty sure my membership is up in March and I've really been toying with the idea of switching gyms.  And then something like yesterday happens and I remember how nice it is to be able to go to the gym anywhere I want.  It's really something to consider.  It's just so gosh-darn expensive!  Being healthy should be cheaper! 

This morning I had pilates with Nicole. Pilates is not a huge calorie burner (not shocking), but I really like it.  A lot.  It is sort-of fun because I never really know what Nicole will throw at me on any given day.  This morning we sort-of had to shuffle around the studio because there was a very full house, but it worked out just fine. 

We started out on the reformer using a foam roller, but not in the typical way. I was laying on top of the foam roller and then had to balance on that while doing some other exercises.  There was a moment where I was sure I was going to roll off the reformer, but I guess my ab muscles caught me, because I was fine! 

We ended up working on the tower and I realized today that Nicole has a thing for my hamstrings.  As in, she likes to torture them.  Or maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that I tortured them myself while marathon training.  Either way, they definitely get a lot more (and better) stretching on these pilates days than they do on a regular day.  It's both good and ouchy at the same time. 

I've got one more day of waking up early before work and then three days in a row when I can get up as I please!  Hooray for long weekends!  I'm just a little too excited about this one coming up.  I'm planning on trying out running again tomorrow and also doing some more weight lifting.  Last Saturday when I did some weight lifting, I had to use the plate-loaded machines instead of free weights and I was doing the chest press at 80 or 90 pounds.  I really don't think I could do that on the bench press, but I might want to test it out just to see if I could do it once (or maybe even twice!).

Stair Mill & Elliptical
Time: 1:00:42
SM Distance: 2.80 miles
Elliptical Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 500
Max HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)

Pilates
Time: 54:00
Calories: 115
Max HR: 118 (56%)
Average HR: 90 (42%)