Gym Nat

It's been a roller-coaster summer, weight-wise for me. I was headed on a lovely downward roll a few weeks ago and was swept right back into an uphill climb by some dumb decisions (one drink rule!). This week hasn't all been brains, but I added some brawn and feel pretty good about it.

Basically, it all started two weeks ago when I saw my dog pee on the playroom carpet. I couldn't stand it anymore, my friend came over and we just ripped it all out. Bye-bye stinky carpet! I stepped on the scale right after hours spent pulling and moving furniture and stuff and saw a beautiful 145.4!!! And then, I went to a party...

So, fast forward to this week, I finally decided just what I wanted to do with the space my organization efforts created in the playroom. After two days of work: painting, scrubbing, hauling, lifting, and even some wall-art making, I'm now the proud owner of a Zen Gym!!! It's ok, I'll answer if you call me a Gym Nat.

Ta da!!!

I wanted to make a place for me to easily access all of my workout equipment. I'm looking for some workout charts and still need to hang my resistance bands and jump ropes on the wall, but otherwise, the room is all done. I've got space for yoga and stability ball work and the tv is ready in case I decide to buy another digital converter for evening watching (rarely do it, but when I do I should totally multi-task for my body, right?) or a dvd player or vcr to watch movies and workout videos. Of course, there is always my laptop for that too ...

Anyway, I've used it two days in a row now! Perhaps it's my imagination, but I'm already seeing more definition in my legs. I swear.

The motivation has followed me in other areas of my day too: I'm sticking to my healthy eating better and I went on a 5-mile walk with a friend last night! The scale was pretty friendly this morning, though it doesn't count as a weigh in, and I'm pleased.

I just need to keep up this momentum! In fact, I think I'll go lift a bit now ...

More lessons learned

In the mornings, while I eat breakfast and get mentally ready for the day, I read a lot about health, fitness and weight loss. I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means, but I have really learned a lot the past 6 months.

One thing: as you lose weight, you burn less calories naturally. The guide I've read the most says to take your weight and multiply it by ten to get the number of calories you burn in a day. For me that would be 1738. Add more calories if you are pretty active. This gives you the number of calories you should be eating to maintain your current weight. Eat less to lose.

But the most interesting fact I've learned while reading up on all of this is that cardio work isn't enough. Many people think that the only way to lose weight is to do lots of cardio, but that just isn't the case. We've got to work on muscle building as well.

Myself, I am afraid of gaining muscle because I know it weighs more than fat and I'm afraid it will make me even bigger. But that's silly talk. Every mythbuster article I've read addresses that exact myth!

The more muscle we have, the more calories we burn. So, as we lose weight, we need to be working on increasing my muscle mass through strength training. This is also important because women lose muscle mass as they get older unless they work to fight the loss.