Day 34

Calories burned at the gym today: 1090

I was asked the other day how I burn so many calories. Firstly, I'm heavier so my body has to work harder at everything, thus burning more calories. However, if you're just looking for the most effective workout, I'll share my vast knowledge with you. I've done a fair amount of research on this (Fitness magazines, infomercials, pop up ads, etc...) and it's almost 100% unanimous that the best way to lose weight is a combination of weight training and cardio. It is also very important to make sure that when you are weight training, you are working out as large of a variety of muscles as you can. This can prevent injury and just keep you from looking really unbalanced and silly.

Today was a Saturday (duh) so I had more time than usual to spend at the gym. I took advantage of that and did as much as I could. I'm going to go through what I did in some detail, but please understand that I usually have to pick just a few of these to do due to time constraints.

I started out by warming up for 10 minutes on the elliptical. I then went to the weight machines and spent over  40 minutes on them. I know I've talked about the 30 minute circuit on here before, but when I can I like to do all of the weight machines in the main area. There are more of a variety them, so this lessens the chances of injury and looking funny. Then I did the ab machines. Well, most of them. There are 4 ab machines and I put in some extra reps on 3 of them, because there was a guy who I'm fairly certain was taking a nap on my favorite one. Naturally, he got up as I left. When I'm doing weights, I have to stop and evaluate how hard I'm pushing myself. After a few reps, I adjust as needed. Usually these adjustments involve me adding more weight on because I go too easy on myself. After abs I spent 30 minutes jogging on the treadmill. I like the one that is right underneath both an AC vent and a ceiling fan. I then spent 15 minutes on H***'* Gazelles.

I've found that for me, the most important part is to make sure that I don't let myself off too easy. I need to constantly make sure that I am pushing myself in all that I'm doing. Never to the point of injury or real pain, but definitely to the point of sweating profusely. Admittedly, I reach the point much sooner than many people. If I feel as though something is sore in a way that might lead to injury, I go easy on that particular area until it feels better. For instance, earlier this week I was playing dodge ball with the kids at work and went down hard on the inside of my knees. I wish I could say that I was going for an epic catch or maneuvering out of the way of a fast ball. No, no. My shoes just decided to be slippery while I was taking a few quick steps to pick a ball up off the floor. I once again have displayed my athletic prowess. Anyway, I ended up with some bruising on my knees, and some aching when I did anything resembling high impact movement. So, I made sure that I did not jog or do anything high impact for a few days. I guess what I'm getting at here is to make certain that you have balance. Don't congratulate yourself when you aren't accomplishing as much as you could be, but don't push yourself to the point where you either lose all will to continue or lose your ability to continue.

I also had the awesome pleasure of running into my co-worker and friend Amy at the gym today. She is a spectacular person that can always make me smile. She also laughs at all my jokes, no matter how painfully lame they are, so we get along great! She has a blog, too. http://amyjomama33.blogspot.com/ Check her out. No, seriously, all you males. She's available and quite the catch. Message me and we'll try to set something up, if you catch my drift. Which you should. Because this is pretty blatantly obvious. Date my hot friend. She works out.

Also, I'm fairly certain I was driving behind this lady today:

All over the dang road. So yes, I need to apologize for being so inconsiderate in my driving while you were trying to tape this video, put your lipstick on and drive at the same time. Next time I see you, I will just pull over.