Schedules and Exercise and a whole lot of me blabbing

When I woke up this morning, I might have had a few hater thoughts about my Zumba Instructors...and to give full credit, Our Fearless Leader from CardioFit on Monday may also be to blame.

Where exactly DID my muscles go for Christmas and why was I not involved if they were taking a break? 

Does rolling out of bed HAVE to be painful at 5:30 am?

Is it just my imagination or do my instructors look gleeful about inflicting pain as we sweat??

I was a little amazed to make it through the holidays without any weight gain. The year before, the cookies were my downfall I think.

Didn't necessarily eat LESS cookies this year, I don't think. But maybe my metabolism is better?

Or perhaps the muscle mass that obviously left the second half of December and first couple of weeks of January balanced out any possible weight increase?

Anyhow, I have committed myself to three classes a week for 2012. CardioFit on Mondays and Wednesdays with a little Zumba thrown in on Tuesdays. 

It's a bit hard to give up an hour each night. 

That used to be my scrappin' time. 

Thursday night IS the night I look forward to where I'm not running anywhere.

Although, I wouldn't give up an hour with the girls unless I had to. It's nice to get out and socialize. 

I think it's important to identify what types of exercise and when/where you would be most likely to do it.

A couple of years ago if you asked me to leave in the evening after I got home from being gone for say like 10 and a half hours, I'd tell you where you could stick your class. I used to try to sneak in a half hour of YMCA time on the way home, but by the time I got there and changed, it was time to grab kids from daycare. Nearly impossible. 

I do wish my classes were more spread out, but I have a firm rule about eating together that I really try not to break and I really have to stick with ones offered at 6:30 pm. There is another Zumba class offered on Sat. am but I like to make a big breakfast if I can on Sat. and so only go sporadically. 

I know, I want my cake and to eat it too, PLUS without the calories!

The one thing that DID help me around a year and a half ago was a free site called MyFitnessPal that tracks calories. I know, one more thing to do each day, seriously? Basically you tell this program how much you weigh, how much you want to weigh, how many pounds you want to lose each week and it charts it out for you. You enter in how much you eat each meal and it tells you remaining calories. It also gives you calories back for exercising. 

I lucked out because I have a pc or two or three on all day I'm working on. So, adding my meals without someone looking over my shoulder at work is easy since my coworkers are all pets.  Another choice is an application that goes on your phone. I will say that I don't use a calorie counter today. However, I now know that the oatmeal cookies I made from scratch the other day are upwards of at least 74 calories or a bit more since mine aren't tiny! 

They have common things that people eat every day right on there. You ate a Subway sub for lunch? Probably something close is on there if you start by typing in Subway. My Quaker Oatmeal cookies are right there, the kind I make by flipping the lid over. It's easy. Not eating too much is much harder.

I viewed it as a training tool to show me what various things did to my daily diet. I know apples have more calories than bananas. Apples with peanut butter, oh my. LOTS more calories. But, boy that last sentence there makes it all seem like absolutely no fun. 

I guess the other important thing is not to let NOT exercising or not tracking your calories be a tool you can use to beat yourself up with. I recall a few post baby years of being so exhausted with my life that a nice snack on the couch after the kids had gone to bed was my only treat. And I'd sit there and feel so guilty all the way through it.

Flash forward to 9 years after my last kid was born and I am just getting around to losing that 10 lbs that is making my body mass index too high. I didn't even really know I had any issues until the company I worked for brought people into the office to weigh us and check our stats. I mean, I knew I had less than no muscle, hated how my jeans were tight and my stomach looked. I had no clue it was making me unhealthy however. 

Who cares about a bathing suit body with two weeks of vacation and no free time? 

The whole thing sounds invasive right?

It wasn't mandatory, but they offered a huge incentive to participate and even more money if you achieved the goals they set for you. There was no way I was making their goals although I totally wanted the money. For one thing, I had less than no time. And the second thing? Not the right tools. Like, that calorie counter link. I had NO idea that even existed. 

So, I give them an A for offering the incentive, but a D for not offering the right tools like a calorie tracking program. 

I learned about those at my CardioFit class. And feel impelled to share the concept with everyone I know including you!   

Also, we don't really worry too much about weight at my class. We use measurements and also challenges. Also, it really is about sharing your goals and chatting with other people who are working towards the same goals. And feeling better about how you fit into your jeans. 

I also offered myself a nice reward when I reached my end goal. I think rewards also are very helpful!!

So, that is the point of this post. I'm sharing what I did with you because I wish I had been given something similar. And those sore muscles? That too will pass.