Here’s my personal training “homework”:
1. Full body weight bearing exercises 3x a week
2. 4 Days of cardio minimum of 30 minutes sustained at or close to your target heart rate.
3. Eat 3 Healthy meals a day limit your carbs after 4pm.
4. 200 crunches every other day
5. Stretch every day all day
6. Food Journal
I wouldn’t say I’m quite there. But for someone whose normal exercise is ONLY walking (and even then, not much of that during some periods of time), I’ve been stepping it up, no pun intended. Running–not for long, only about a mile, but that mile is getting easier. Stretching, when I remember. A few push-ups, a few sit-ups, a few lunges. Healthy breakfasts and lunches (still inclined to pig out on stuff like pizza at dinner under the influence of the bf).
I was proud of the lunch I made and brought to work today though: Sandwich with whole wheat bread, pesto, eggplant tapanade, roasted red peppers, spinach, and a slice of smoked Gouda cheese. Salad comprised of spinach, carrots, tomatoes, half an avocado, no dressing. Walnuts on the side. For breakfast I had my usual barley & wheat cereal with fruit, slivered almonds, flax seeds, cinnamon, and skim milk. I did have pizza (and fries!) for dinner, but for tomorrow I’ve made basmati rice (cooked with coconut milk, a cinnamon stick, and 2 bay leaves) with sauteed sweet potato, onion, red pepper, jalapeno, tomato, garlic, and cumin seeds. Frankly it tastes a little bland, and I’m probably lacking spices and oils, but it’ll do. Maybe tomorrow night I will play around with spicing up the leftovers.
During tonight’s run I got to see a beautiful sunset. The sky was totally hot pink and I did some stretching there while watching the colors change. When I got home I grabbed my camera and headed back to the nearby park to watch the rest of the show. Hadn’t done that in a while.
My 5 personal training sessions, purchased at a huge discount on Groupon, are going to be used up by next week. I can’t imagine just stopping now, but it’s also really expensive. Maybe I’ll go with another 5 sessions and then try to transition into a cheaper group class. But frankly, I am so uncoordinated and inflexible that I’m pretty useless without the one-on-one attention from the instructor.
I think my favorite aspect of this new push to exercise more is that it gets me away from the computer. I’m on the computer most of the day at work, and I easily get sucked into reading blogs, articles, recipes, etc. when I get home. Physical activity is an extremely refreshing release.
