042: My first workout with the caveman

Hey everybody out there. So yesterday, I actually did manage to clean my apartment, which was awesome since I found two belts (which, believe it or not, I desperately need.) One of them is from high school, and I haven't really used it in like 4 years (using a belt on loop one or 2 is depressing, because then it basically feels like the stupid belt doesn't even fit you). So I tried on the belt. When I was in good shape like.... 4 years ago (well, okay shape. I haven't been in good shape in such a long time) the belt was on loop 4 or 5. And today?

Loop 6. Comfortably. I could even stretch and get to loop 7, if I really wanted to.
It was one of those hell yeah moments where I danced around my freshly clean room fist pumping while my cat looked embarrassed for me.

Anyway. Today after work, I visited with my mum for a bit and then headed over to Laidback Fitness on Warwick Ave for my training session with Ryan. Ryan and his wife, Laurie read my blog. Also they are pretty cool people. :)

So I met up with them and embarked on my new training adventure. I have to say, after the training disaster from last week, I went in with my apprehensions, for sure. This apprehension didn't exactly go away when we took off our shoes to work out. Working out barefoot? Crazy.

However, Ryan was awesome, and I really felt like I got a great workout that was supportive, and worked well with where I am at right now in my fitness abilities. We did all kinds of pretty strange exercises (stirring the pot? monkey banging the drum? inchworms?) but at the end of the day I for sure feel like I got some solid resistance that could really help me even as I go about my own independent workouts, and my heart rate got up there too, which is pretty surprising. I broke a good sweat and my legs don't feel like they are going to break off, which is always a plus.

Ryan's philosophy deals a lot with "primal fitness". The idea is basically that there weren't a lot of obese cave people, and there aren't many obese people living in jungle tribes. They generally have good physique and look happy. Which makes sense, if you think about it. So that's where the barefoot working out comes from. When cavemen were, you know, hunting the tyrannosaurus or whatever, they probably didn't wear cross trainers.

(Please note that I have no idea what cavemen hunted. I have absolutely no interest in history whatsoever)

In addition to the whole barefoot thing, the laid-back fitness approach uses very little equipment (not a lot of nautilus machines or ellipticals in the jurassic age either). I was a little skeptical, you know, with my preconceived notions about cardio and keeping my heart rate up. But there was definitely plenty of that.

There's also a gigantic shopping list and nutritional program, which isn't really something I'm looking to incorporate right this moment, since right now herbalife works and if it's not broken, I'm probably not going to mess with it, you know? But it's nice to also have that to fall back on if I hit a plateau and need to up my diet stakes a little.

Bottom line: It was a night and day experience by comparison.  The whole approach is great for people who are just starting out (or for people who are fit too, I'd think) I ended up making an appointment to work out with Ryan again on Monday at 11:30.  I think that stuff like this is a lot about finding the right fit, and so far, it seems like this might (fingers crossed) actually work? Yeah for getting in shape.

(But if I ever start running around the woods barefoot or eating raw alligator, someone can probably pull me back from this regimen. )

Tonight I am going to be dancing with the kids at work too. It's going to be a good fitness day. Take that, earlier in the week when I had no motivation at all!

039: A little better all the time.

So since my last entry, I went to bed and had a nightmare that I went to my herbalife weigh in on Sunday and I had gained back 7 pounds and my coach yelled at me in front of everyone. This, of course, is completely irrational. I highly doubt that my coach would yell at me, and I highly doubt I have eaten enough to put on 7 pounds in a week. But I felt so guilty about hitting the drive through an not working out yesterday that my mind went crazy I guess.

Some of you think I'm too hard on myself. And maybe you're right. But the fact of the matter is, if I listened to my body, I would probably never go to the gym, or eat healthy. I'm still waiting for my mind and body to come around to this new way of thinking. It takes 3 months for your brain to adjust to change this big, and until then, I have to struggle and force myself to do it, or this house of cards adventure I'm on will be shot to shit. I am in this for the long haul.

Anyway. Today I woke up and my legs still hurt. Maybe not as badly as before, but still, really bad. Working out didn't seem to be an option, and with the wedding coming up and my recent slip, it HAD to be an option. I was trying to figure out what to do when I got some GREAT reader advice from Ryan at <a href="http://www.laidbackfitness.com">Laid Back Fitness</a>. I have been reading his blog and watching his videos. I really love the philosophy behind laid back fitness. Something that resonated with me was when he said that People don't go easily enough on themselves when they are having a light workout, and don't work out hard enough when they are pushing themselves.  I think that's really true. I think that if I  had been pushing myself hard enough in my self guided workouts, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. In any event, I took his advice and walked today, and tried to do maybe 60 percent of my workout. I worked out my arms and walked on the treadmill, and then took a steam bath to sweat out my toxins and some of that water weight I am sure I was holding onto from my unhealthy lunch. It felt really good. My legs seem to hurt less now and are cooperating a lot better than they were this morning, and while my heart rate was definitely not high enough, and I only burned probably 75 percent of the calories I normally do, but it was all I could do, and I accepted that. And it was better than staying home once again.

So all of this has led me to going in for a meet and greet at Laid Back Fitness, and maybe seeing about doing some personal training with them. I'm pretty excited. I hope it will be a good fit. Another reader pointed out that it's really tough to find a good trainer, in the same way that it's tough to find a good therapist. You need to find someone who understands exactly what you want to get out of it, what your limitations are, and what approach works best for you. Which is so true!

Tonight I also convinced my roommate and her boyfriend to eat a healthy dinner with me, which I considered a triumph since they are the biggest junk food junkies. Well, my roommate goes through alternating health nut and junk food phases. Her boyfriend just eats like a dude. I made a salad and some 150 calorie whole wheat pizzas, and they loved it. I was pretty psyched. It can definitely be tough coming home and having an herbalife shake while they are enjoying ice cream and pizza and mozzerella sticks on a (literally) nightly basis. But maybe they will come around and enjoy a salad with me every once ina while.

Ice cream is still more delicious.

This week, and the next three days will be a marathon of hair appointments, nail appointments, tanning, and last minute gym sessions, hoping to tone up just a smidge more before the wedding. And the wedding photos, which I will totally post with a hideous "before" photo so you guys can see if there's any difference.  Thanks again for all of your gym/nutrition advice, and encouragement. (And thanks especially to Maggie for the lovely card!)