I did it!!

I went to the gym. I am now sticky and feel like I need a shower. I again did the 6 minutes to warm up and cool down on the treadmill and kept my heart rate up by doing more reps on each machine. It is amazing how the five reps after you hit 15 really are hard!! I have never done more than 15 on most of the weight machines. I have done long sessions of abs before - but 20 back presses or tricept thing-ies are REALLY hard. I did wonder on each machine if to increase this work out it would be better to increase the weight or the number of repeats. I am going for number increases at least initially. I already increased the weights when we set this routine.

The hanging abs are getting easier. They will never be my favorites (I like the backwards ones best) but I can do the sets as 10 instead of 5. I do 30 of those total - along with 30 backwards ones and 30 on each side (60 total) on my obliques. Luckily I like ab work ok. It is way better than my arms. That is the hardest for me. My legs are hard - but I have more strength there to begin with so I can do them more effectively I think.

I am with you Emily - I prefer machines where the muscles aren't so isolated that I can't use other muscles to help out. My incline presses - while still very hard for me - are easier on the free weight machine than on the other one. However, I see the advantages and disadvantages to both kinds. The really focused machines are good for working the one specific muscle group - and you are less likely to cause damage by using other muscles to help. That is why they tend to use them for women's workouts. BUT - you work MORE muscles when you are using the backup muscles - so your overall workout is better - theoretically.

I do think going in the morning is better for me than going in the afternoon - but I really don't like being sweaty all day. I also don't like the way it will make my day longer. I like going to the gym and then only having an hour or two left in my day. The trick is to actually GO to the gym!!

So - my food yesterday. I ate a candy bar. That is my big confession. I have been desperately craving sweets for the past few days and I am not sure why. I broke down around 5pm and hit the vending machine. Then again last night I was seriously scrounging around for something sweet in the late evening. I discover the last - I HOPE - box of Girl Scout cookies. I was really wanting more candy or icecream - but I ate five Cafe cookies and was done searching at that point. For dinner I had a Let's Dish serving of flank steak. I brought the rest for lunch today. I didn't heat any veggies to go with it. I did have chow mein with veggies for lunch - so I had one vegetable serving. For breakfast yesterday and today I had a slice of my organic flax and sunflower seed bread with natural applesauce as a spread. I really think I like my applesauce better on toast than butter. I need to get more because today's was the last of it I think. I have an hour before my meeting this afternoon - and I JUST ate breakfast at noon - so I hope I get hungry before the meeting because I know I will be DURING it otherwise.

I was reading Good Housekeeping yesterday and they had a 3 hour diet - which is the same as all the other diets. Small meals interspersed with snacks - every three hours. I was thinking I might try it out because it sounded pretty good. I noticed each day they have a yummy snack or dessert. One day it was 2 mini Three Muskateer bars. Another day was 4 hersey's Kisses. My question is this. WHO CAN EAT JUST TWO??? If I bought a bag of mini Three Muskateers to get my serving the whole bag would be gone in a couple of days (or hours). I am not sure that is a risk I am willing to take - even for a diet. Hummm. Maybe I will try it and give the remainders to Kristy at work.