New Exercise Routine & A Quick Update

I don't have a book on tape right now, and while that is no excuse to skip exercise, I've used it as the final reason.  The thought process goes something like this - "Maybe I shouldn't exercise because my big toe hurts and it might be a very serious injury.  And, oh, I don't have a book to listen to, anyway."  This time, I'm determined not to let that happen.  After all, I want different results this time.

So, I've been soldiering on.  It is amazing how long 20 minutes can seem.  My friend L suggested that I try something I later learned to be called interval training.  It is where a warm up is done, then the exerciser works out at absolute maximum ability for 30 seconds, recovers for 30 and the cycle is repeated for a set number of times and then a cool down. 

I was up for it, no problem.  Right!?!  I did a 2 minute warm up and then proceeded to just about catapult myself over the front of the elliptical and in to the wall.  The resistance setting was on 1.  Oops.  The machine has 6 preprogrammed workouts.  The resistance can be set anywhere from 1 to 10.  That way, the user can gradually work up.  So, I upped the resistance level to 5 and tried again.  Still too loose, but no near injuries.  Finally, I put it all the way up to 10 to keep myself grounded on the machine.  The only problem was it was too hard to recover.  Don't misunderstand here.  I'd not gone more than about 10 seconds with each trial.  At about the 10 second mark, my machine would turn itself off.  I thought I was just pushing it too hard.   I was wiped out, so I quit for the night.  Hey, I tried.

The next night I tried again.  I set the resistance level to 8, warmed up for 2 minutes and proceeded to give it everything I had.  After about 10 seconds the machine blinked off.  Now, I'm really beginning to believe that I had developed some real super abilities.  I was stronger than the machine.  I reset everything and tried again.  Same result, so I quit for the evening again.

Sometime much later, I remembered that the control panel on the machine is battery operated.  When the batteries get low, the machine blinks off at strange times.  It was probably just a coincidence that it was blinking off at the same time I was going like a mad woman.

The next night, I installed new batteries and tried yet again.  In between the time L and I had discussed this type of exercise and the night I was finally going to get it right, I had changed the 30 second interval to 1 minute in my mind.  There was no way in the world I was going to be able to make it a full minute at that kind of pace, and the blasted machine wasn't about to blink off now, when I really needed it to.  I tried three times to do a full minute, but could not.  My legs were like water and I had to stop.  I did do a slow, slow cool down for a couple of minutes.

I mentioned to L that I was going to have to work up to the one minute thing and friend that she is, she quickly set me straight.  Sadly, I'm still going to have to work up to 30 seconds!!!  After more trial & error, I've come to this:

• warm up - 2 minutes 
• full capacity 10 seconds, recovery 20 seconds (4x)
• cool down - 2 minutes

It is a 6 minute work out that kicks my behind!

I'm also lifting weights, and messing around on the Wii.  It is hard to call that exercise, but it does work a body out.

UPDATE- I lost back down to my pre-travel weight last week.  The very quick gain and loss indicates to me that it had to be fluid.  I'm back in the mindset now, so I'm hoping to keep the momentum going this week.  My goal is to get to my lowest weight this month, which means about a 2 1/2 lb loss.  I think that is reasonable.