Day 6 - Saturday - FREE DAY

Although this was my free day, I got so use to getting up at 5:30am, that I woke up at that time. Since I had to drive to Corpus Christi today, I decided to go ahead and get up at that time. I was on the road by 7:00am. Visited my Mom at Wooldridge Nursing Home in Corpus. She was very alert today. We actually carried on somewhat of a conversation. She called me by name two or three times and even said "I love you KK". This was great because sometimes with her alzheimers, she does not even know me. I played some czech music recording for her and she even translated a few phrases. She said she wish that us kids could understand what they are saying. It was a really good visit.

Nutrition - even though it was my free day, I only ate a Whataburger BOB this morning and then ate Jamie's chicken and dressing with a salad in the afternoon with 2 cookies for dessert. (Oh, yes - I did have one margarita at the Home Interior Bingo party). I actually did not get extra hungry today or go crazy with real fattening foods.

I think it was a good FREE day.

Day 5 - Upper Body

When the alarm went off this morning at 5:30am, I really did not feel like getting up. I came very close to rolling over and going back to sleep. But then I did not want to disappoint my son. So I managed to get up and head for the rec center. I had planned my workout last night, but forgot it at home this morning. I decided to just check out what machines were at the center for upper body. I knew basically that I should do 5-6 sets of reps, decreasing the number of reps and increasing the weight each time. I found machines that had the muscle group on them that the machine worked. I was not sure what weight to start but went up in weight for each set of reps. This took more time between reps than 1 minute and even though I increased the weight, I did not feel like I got a real good workout. I will go back to the dumbbell weight lifting that I had originally set up. The machines do not seem to be as good for me to get a good workout. I think I need to go to the center sometime when I am not on my scheduled workout to determine what a workout routine would be on the machines. I am sure there is a good way to use them, I just haven't figured it out yet.

Nutrition: 7

Exercise: 6

Day 4 - Aerobic

Today was treadmill day again. I lowered my speed along the way, but I am still trying to determine what speed represents my intensity levels. I used 4.5 today as my high point and for right now I think that is right. I just got a little confused when I would drop back down and moving back up to maintain the same speed for each intensity level. I think I just about have it figured out. I know now why Kevin said - don't worry about it, you will figure it out. It is all beginning to make sense to me and I understand more about how the weights or speeds relate to the intensity level of the workout. The 20 minutes really does just seem to fly by. I keep thinking that I am not doing enough of a workout. I think that probably means that I am not pushing myself hard enough. My soreness in my arms and back are subsiding some now. For a while I thought that I would not be able to do my upper body again on the scheduled day, but now I feel like I might be able to do it tomorrow.

Nutrition Level:

Exercise Effort: 9

Day 3 - Lower Body Workout

Sure am glad today is lower body because my arms are really sore from Monday's upper body workout. Only 5 minutes late on my start time this morning. The Rec Center has most of the machines I needed for the lower body muscle group. Still a little bit delayed between exercises trying to figure out the weights to use, but overall I did OK. For my high point on hamstrings I tried to do dumbell lunges and found that my knees are weak and this exercise really hurt my knees. Had to do straight-leg deadlifts, used 10 lb. weights and that worked fairly well. I will continue to adjust my weights because overall my lower body is strong and I think I can handle more weight than I did this morning. Looking forward to Thursday - only 20 minutes - Yea!

Today's Nutrition Effort: 8
Exercise Effort: 8

Day 2 -- Still going

Managed to get up at 5:30 am again and off to the Rec Center. The treadmill was my choice to do the 20 minute aerobic workout. I had walked on the treadmill many times before always walking for 30 minutes to an hour. However, this was totally different. While following the "walking" pace that Kevin had helped me plan, the 20 minutes were a definite workout and went by very quickly.
I started my walk at 2.5 mph for two minutes, then bumped the speed up .5 mph every minute. At 4.0 mph I was at a fairly good jog, and at 4.5 mph I could not complete the minute. I quickly realized I was not quite in good enough shape to keep this pace just yet. I had to modify my speed a bit away from the original plan. I could not believe that after just 20 minutes I felt like I really had a workout. Sure beats walking around a track for an hour!
Nutrition wise I did fairly good and it would have been much better if it had not been for that slice of banana cream cake I could not resist at the office meet-and-greet party. Other than that, I did watch my portion size on the meals although not able to follow exact recipes yet. For right now I am just using food we have at the house and adding the Myoplex shakes for the smaller of the six meals.

Today's Nutrition Effort: 6
Exercise Effort: 9

Day 1 - The Beginning

I had actually planned on beginning my 12-week journey on the Body-for-Life plan earlier, but the flu set me back over a week. Now here I am actually getting started on something that I have always known is a good thing, but there is a lot of difference between knowing and actually doing. Without all the encouragement from a great son, I would probably still be procrastinating. Kevin helped me set up my exercise routine which you can view by clicking on the picture on the right. He also set up this blog for me so he and Trish (and my brothers, sisters, and friends) can check up on me and make sure I stick with the program. There is also a link to Kevin's blog on this page and I am sure that Trish will be joining in the quest very soon.

My first day actually went quite well except for the fact that I was not sure if I was doing all the free weight exercises correctly. I followed my plan the best I could and actually had a fairly tough workout. I was a little confused about the concept of working out all the different muscle groups, but I would have to give me an A for effort. I can certainly tell today that I found some muscles that haven't been used in quite a while. I felt good after I finished with my workout although getting up at 5:30 am is pretty tough. The Rec Center does not open until 6:00 am, so I have to be there right when it opens to do my 45 minute workout, then home to get ready and make it to work on time.

I did fairly well on the nutrition side of the plan as well. I did do the 6 meals during the day, but don't think I drank enough water. The Myoplex Lite shakes and nutrition bars are delicious. I will have to be careful not to eat too many bars because they taste like a candy bar which is great because I do love sweets. That will be the hardest thing for me is not eating all the candy, cakes, and other sweets I love. But, I just have to stay focused on my goal to be the most fit 50----(something) year old mom that I can be so I can enjoy going to hashes and other activities with the kids. Please check back often to see how I am doing and post a comment for me.

Today's Nutrition Effort: 7
Exercise Effort: 6

Starting Levels:
Weight: 167
Body Fat: 42.9%
Dress/Pant Size: 12 (snug)