THE ELLIPTICAL IS MY BITCH

I did it!

I still can't believe it but it was all with the help of my friends.

I signed up for this morning's mountain class* on the elliptical.  Normally, I would never do this as mountain is way too difficult and you need to stay on the same piece of equipment for an hour.  But, I was talked into it by being told, "when you can't go any longer, jump on something else.  They won't care."

All of my friends were cranking it out so I just stayed on that damn elliptical even though my calves were cramping and my toes were going numb.

I did 60 minutes, 45 seconds.

YEA!!!!!

*mountain class on Saturday is for two hours

You sign up for a machine and you stay on that machine for the first hour.

5 minutes warm up

2 minutes at base

You must increase one level every 2 minutes until you get to level 12. (speed or incline)

3 minutes at level 12

2 minutes at level 8

2 minutes at level 4

Increase one level every 90 seconds for 10 levels

Then you go up and down with some sprints on the machine

20 minutes of upper body weights with cardo in between

20 minutes of cardio running around different parts of the gym

20 minutes of cardio on a different machine than you were on

An Attitude of Gratitude

Today in class (the topic was monitoring your heart rate during workouts for those who are interested) the trainer mentioned attitude as an important part of attaining your goals.  I freely admit that I have a terrible attitude about working out.  I hate it.  It makes me sad that I have to do it.  I don't want to do it.

But... she said, "you shouldn't think 'I have to exercise.'  You should think 'I get to exercise.'"

This was totally groundbreaking for me on two fronts.

1 - I should be grateful that I am healthy enough that I can exercise.  Yes, my knee is fucked and my ankles are doomed.  But, I can still go to the gym.  I do have one healthy knee which is better than none.

2 - I don't have to come to Biggest Loser.  I GET to come to Biggest Loser.  I am really lucky and instead of being happy about each class and the opportunity, I am sour about every single one.

So, this was a big turning point for me.  I truly am grateful for this opportunity and that I get to be here.  I do GET to be in these workouts.  I am fortunate.  I will try harder and have a better attitude.

Where was Justin Timberlake?

Today's slice of humor came when I decided that I was sick of wearing my speedo to the pool.  I am in the pool 3 or 4 times a day but because it is for exercise, I never wear one of my cute swimsuits, I always wear the speedo.

Today, I had enough of that.  I am so sick of that speedo.  I took out one of my two piece bathers and went to my afternoon class.

The first problem was that the skirt floated to the top of the water and I couldn't use the water weights.
The next problem was top kept floating up so I was yanking it down all the time.
The last problem was that with all of the jumping around... I almost had a Janet Jackson malfunction.

Tomorrow it is back to the speedo.

My nemesis... the elliptical machine

I have always thought of the elliptical as the skinny girls machine.  It was always so difficult to do and I hated it.  When I went to Golden Door, I used it and I liked it and built up a bit of endurance.

When the Pookeys and I went to the St Kilda gym, I was up to 30 minutes.  I would occassionally do 35-45 minutes.

That was before the knee surgery and the fact that I have no muscle left in my legs.

I got here and jumped on the #$%^&*& elliptical machine and I swear, I could only do 20 SECONDS!  I physically could not go any further.  During class the other day, I did 2 minutes.  Today, I did over 7 minutes.

My goal is now 45 minutes and this is why I now have the elliptical count on the side bar.  I will be kicking elliptical ass!

FRUIT LOOPS RULE!

I thought I knew everything there was about reading product labels.  Sugars, fiber, etc.  But, one does get complacent in their knowledge.  In today's class we went through breakfast cereals for best choices and the worst option (of the choices we had) was Kellogs Smart Start which is one of their healthy cereals.  Also, Special K was a pretty poor choice as well.  Comparing Fruit Loops to Special K made the Fruit Loops look like a good choice!

The moral of the story is read the labels.

Banana guilt

While we are on a 1200 calorie per day diet, there are extra calories you are allowed to eat.

Banana, apples and orange are available almost all of the time.
Hard boiled egg, almonds and edamame are available twice a day.
Salad is available at lunch and dinner times.

So, you can add onto your total, but... of course, this ups your calories.  Because I am not going on the hikes, I do not take ANY extras.

Except today.
I had TWO bananas!  I ate the second one and I wasn't even hungry!
THE GUILT!!!
I am disgusted!
It is 35 minutes on the treadmill to get rid of these stupid bananas!!!!

I can't make this crap up!

Last night we had a yogurt parfait for dessert.  It had vanilla yogurt in the bottom, chocolate yogurt in the middle and some crushed fruit on top.  It was really yummy.  Everyone commented on how good it was and left their glasses on the table and went to class.

My friend MFM (Margie from Minnesota) went into the dining hall and found one of the other guests going down the table scraping up the leftover bits of yogurt and eating them.

I can't even be that grossed out by it because if I had known that was an option, I might have done it too!