Curves + Zumba

Was not what I expected.  I had expected it to be like this

but it wasn't like that.  It was more like this only in a circle

So I was a little disappointed that we didn't use the machines :(  though the cardio was great! :)  I think if I do Zumba at Curves again I'll do it for an hour instead of the half hour.  The cost is the same as the Zumba at Beach and they have more times.

Newton's First Law

For those of you that don't know, Newton's First Law of Motion is known as Inertia.  It basically states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force.  At this point some of you might be wondering what this has to do with weight lose.  The "object at rest" part, yeah, that applies to me.  Yesterday was the first day I went to Curves as a full fledged member.  Actually getting off my big ol' lazy but and going though was difficult.  My husband had cooked breakfast for us and it would have been so easy to just finish breakfast and continue to lay around until it was time to get ready for the beach (yes, I actually braved going out in a swimsuit!).  I didn't just lay around though, I MADE myself get up and get ready and drive out and do my workout.  You know what?  It made me feel SO much better after I went!  I had much more energy all day and I was in a much better mood too!  So, as the Nike saying goes " JUST DO IT!"

Working it out

Today was my first workout at Curves in about 9 years.  Can you imagine how hot I would be if I had been working out at Curves for the past 9 years?!  Gah!  Alas, life often gets in the way...  What matters is right now and right now I'm starting back up :)  So, can you imagine how hot I'll be after working out at Curves for 9 years?!
I had a lot of fun today working the circuit.  I actually remembered a great deal from when I was a member before :)  Yeah Me!!  The instructor said I had really good form and I remembered how to do the stretches as well.  That made me feel pretty good.  It was also good to find out that our scale here at the house is pretty accurate, even though I don't like the numbers I see on it >.<  I know they will get better!  And, so will my measurements which were rather pitiful as well.
(Pause for 30 min bike ride with kids)
Where was I... ah yes, my first day at Curves.  I really like the fact that the Curves workout is only 30 minutes too, or close to it.  The Curves I plan to go to is only about 15 minutes from my house so at most I'll be spending only about an hour a day working out.  I really just need to make the monetary ($88 start up fee, $39 a month, and a one time charge of $50 if I want to use the Curves Smart technology) and time (about 1 1/2 hours a week at least) commitment to make this work.
I figure today I've had about an hour's worth of workout time between Curves and the bike ride.  That is more exercise than I've gotten in the past month or two!  I have SO much more energy :)  I'm looking forward to keeping this up!

Smokin Curves

Have you ever had one of those times when you feel like even your best efforts get thwarted?  Well, I had one of those days the other day.  I'm finally on summer vacation which means (a little) more free time!  This means time to exercise!  But, just as I get some time to bike again it gets all smoky outside :-(  So this would be counterproductive, let’s go ride bikes to lose weight but it is so smoky outside you'll get asthma!  I tried one day in the afternoon to ride and I only made it about 15 min before not being able to breathe.  Because of this I had to come up with another plan.  I have an exercise ball and I have a jump rope I could use, though I can't really use the jump rope inside, the ceilings are too low.  Plus, I wanted more of a workout than just the exercise ball.  That is when a new plan was hatched.
Years ago, when I was in college and I lived out in Temple I joined a gym called Curves and I actually did pretty good there.  Over the years though with life happening I canceled my membership and I stopped going.  Now, I am in a better place all around and I think it would be a good time to start back up!  And, Curves has teemed up with Zumba to offer a Zumba circut at least once a week!  You have seen what I have to say about Zumba on my Get Moving! page and I really like it.  Though, unfortunatly, I have not been to any more Zumba classes at Beach since that one :(  Totally  my own lazyness it has nothing to do with the actual workout.  I still like Zumba.  I like Curves too, as I said before, I did well when I actually went there.
 I like Curves for several reasons:

• it is an all female environment
• the environment is very up-beat, positive, and inviting
• they take your measurements not just your weight

I have an appointment on Monday at 8:30 am to fill out my paperwork and do a refresher course on the circut.  If I can get it moved to today I will but I don't know if that will work with my work schedule.  I will keep you updated though and put more information on the Get Moving! page :)

The Calorie Cost

In my last post I talked about metabolism or the rate at which our bodies burn calories but what is a calorie?  This website has a really good discussion of metabolism and calories.  Basically a calorie is a unit of measure like a foot or a mile.  Calories use to be used to measure heat but now it is mostly used to measure food energy.  So, more calories=more energy and the more energy you consume the more energy you need to use or it gets stored...as fat.  This article I found on Yahoo, again on the front page,  talks about ways to cut calories from your diet.  If you google calorie you can find several calorie counters here, here, and here are some of them that popped up on the front page when I did.  I like the last one because it mentions the USDA 2000 calorie diet and allows you calculate the number of calories you actually need.  By the way the amount it said I actually need is over the 2000 calories and it comes in at 2260 calories a day and that is with a sedentary lifestyle.  Now, this is the amount of calories it would take to maintain my current weight, which ast last check was 250lbs.  In researching the USDA 2000 calorie diet most of what I found was talking about eating 2000 calories the right way.  There is a big difference between getting your 2000 calories from fruits and veggies than from cakes and pies.  Here you can find more informationa about the 2000 calorie diet.  So, even though my calorie counter says I burn about 2260 calories a day the simple fact is that I need to burn MORE in order to lose weight.  Well, burn more or eat less...

Why Metabolism Matters

This is an article I found recenlty on the front page of Yahoo! that I found interesting.  Basically it discusses 5 ways you can boost your metabolism.  For those who don't know metabolism is basically the sum of all the chemical reactions that occur in your body.  You can find the wikipedia definition here.  In a nutshell the higher your metabolism the faster your burn calories and the slower your metabolism the slower you burn calories.  You can find a metabolism calculator here from WebMd.  Everyone wants a higher metabolism, at least everyone I know anyway. You can read the article if you want,  here are my thoughts on this article:
1.  Build Muscle  (I want a brick body not a feather body)
            This part talks about the fact that lean muscle burns fat, even when YOU are at rest.  That is why building muscle mass is so important and weight training is so good when you are trying to lose weight.  I have some hand weights running around somewhere guess it is time to dig those back out!  Here's where we can address a misconception for some as well.  It is often said that a pound of fat weighs more than a pound of muscle.  Last time I checked a pound was a pound was a pound no matter what you were weighing.  It is kind of like the riddle which weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks?  They both weight the same!!  A pound of muscle and a pound of fat are both a pound!  Here are the key differences:  1 pound of muscle is more compact than 1 pound of fat, like it takes way more feathers to make a pound than bricks and a pound of muscle will actually burn fat where as a pound of fat IS fat. 
2.  Start Eating!  (Sounds counterintuative right?)
          Think of your body as a machine and that machine needs regular fill ups.  The autor of the book Body Confidance reccomends that you start eating an hour after you wake up and continue eating every 3-4 hours until an hour before bedtime.  So, during the summer I get up at 6am and usually am in bed by 11 pm, I should be eating on about this schedule:  7am 11am 3pm 7pm 10pm.  Now, during the summer I can probably keep at least close to this schedule.  The problem is when school starts.  Usually I don't eat in the morning anyway becaue I'm not hungry and I've always been told if you are not hungry don't eat.  This becomes a problem when I'm in school because I uaually don't end up eating anything until 3-4pm and I get up between 5-6am that is a BIG gap especially when you consider I probably have not eaten anything since about 8pm the previous night.  So, my eathing schedule while in school should be the same as when I'm out of school...  I'll have to work on this for August!  Hopefully, if I can get in the habit now I can keep it up once school has started.  Basically, your metabolism needs energy to stay working.  Your metabolism does not know that there is a grocery store down the street, or an apple in the kitchen.  It only knows what you put into it.  If you are not regularly putting fuel into your body basically your body goes into starvation mode and instead of using what you put into it it stores that.  We all know what happens when your body stores energy right.... more fat is produced!  Fat is the body's way of storing energy and your body only has two options use it or store it.  So, if you are like me:  don't eat regularly and get little to know real regulary exercise it is a recipe for disaster!  Now, just because they are saying you should eat that means 1.  eating regularly (working on that) and 2. eating right (working on that too).  I can't eat unhealthy stuff and think "oh this is gonna boost my metabolism and I'll lose weight!"  um... NO!  I have to eat healthy and I have to eat on a regular basis like it or not.
3.  Nosh on Protein at every meal and snack  (Protein is tasty noms)
          Most people hear protein and they think meat.  This is not necessarily the case.  If it were all you vegetarians out there would be SOL cause your body can't make all the amino acids it needs (it can only make 14 out of 22) it has to get some from outside sources and you find amino acids in proteins.  You can get protein from meat but you can also get it from:  Beans, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, soy, and nuts.  The article suggests this plan:  For a quick and easy snack, keep peanuts in your pocketbook, trail mix in your desk drawer and hard-boiled eggs in the fridge.  You may be asking yourself why is protein at every meal and snack so important.  The answer is that the more complex your food is the more energy it will take to break that down and thus higher metabolism.  Complex foods are things like meat and fibrous veggies (get your fiber!)
4.  Get Moving (Duh!)
          We all know that in order to lose weight you have to exercise and move around.  As much as we all hate it you can't just lay on your couch and expect to lose weight I don't care how good you eat.  What this part of the article suggests is that you change the pace of your workout and include spurts of high intensity cardio.  So, instead of just walking around the block it is better to walk, jogg, and run around the block.  Keep your body guessing on how hard it will have to work so it doesn't get use to the same old thing all the time.
5.  Drink Water (Again, Duh!)
           This is anohter no brainer if you are trying to lose weight.  What the article suggests is that you drink water before you eat breakfast.  I need to start drinking water period really.  I drink tea which is really just flavored water right?  RIGHT?!  Again, NO.  I know the tea I drink is really like flavored suggary water.  Though, I am cutting down on the amount of sugar per gallon of tea.  What I need to do is to fill atleast 1 of my water bottles with only water and drink that instead of my 2 bottles of tea a day.

Choices

There is a George Jones song called Choices that has really been resonating with me lately.  Our life is basically a series of choices and the consequences of those choices.  I'm now living through the consequences of choices that were made years ago, and some that were made yesterday :)
For example, yesterday I went to lunch from some ladies from work and I made the choice to have salad and mostly vegetables with one piece of cube stake and one helping of peach cobbler. Pretty good in my opinion!  Then last night I chose to have a piece of lemon meringue pie for dessert, not the greatest choice... though I did only have one piece of pie and not 2!  Then, today, at lunch I chose to have a panini and a cup of fruit, good choice, but before that I chose to have 2 pieces of pizza, not such a good choice.  But, both were choices I made and as embarrassing as it is that is it, no one to blame by myself!  Well, I'll make better choices starting now :)  That is a great thing it is never too late to make good choices even if it is 7:00pm at night.
Another choice I make is weather or not to be active.  Usually I choose not to be active :(  However, I'm getting better with it.  Having a 3 year old will do that for ya!

LOOOONNNGGGG time no see!

Yes, yes, I know it has been WAY to long since the last time I wrote!  The most I can say for that is that life sometimes gets in the way.  As far as my weight goes, the scale still reads around 255lbs but I feel better about myself.  I've also been taking a One A Day multivitamin that has a metabolism booster in it.  I think that is helping a great deal as well.  I'm really looking forward to writing more now that summer is here, not that I will be any less busy but hopefully writing more :)
I feel better about myself over all this year than I did this time last year.  This time last year I was jobless and pretty depressed about everything.  This year I'm gainfully employed, looking forward to spending my summer bettering myself for my career, and I feel better about the way I look regardless of what the scale says.  I've started dressing better, like I actually care what I look like, and I got contacts :)  I LOVE having contacts.  They defiantly make me feel better about myself.  Overall my self confidence is MUCH higher than it was last year!  Good times, good times. 
Promise I'll do better with writing though. :)