Weakling

Day one of my challenge has been completed. I weighed myself this morning, took my Phen, did day one of the push up program, and went to the gym for an hour. All in all, I am actually quite impressed with myself.

Now, for my thoughts on what I did today

First, the push up challenge is so much harder than I thought it would be. I did the initial test and discovered I can do a whopping *drum roll* none. Lifting your entire body weight, when you weigh as much as I do, on flabby, non muscular arms is damn hard. However, I did the challenge, where I had to complete 12 total push ups. I couldn't do the regular kind at all and can barely do the kind on my knees. My husband stood over me to make sure I kept proper form throughout the entire push up and I just want to thank goodness that there are breaks between each "rep" of push ups. After I completed all of the reps, I actually did 12 push ups. And then my arms fell off.

Second, after I did the challenge, I got dressed, put my gym shoes on and headed over to the gym. I am not sure what changed, maybe the idea of the challenge or the fact that I took my phen, or that I was still reeling from the push ups challenge, but when I walked into the gym, the sense of dread I always feel wasn't there. The notion to quit five minutes into my work out wasn't there, either. I actually completed all 30 minutes on the tread climber at level two with a resistance of four and didn't watch the clock, praying for it to speed up the whole time. It may have helped that I have the kindle app on my phone and was reading a book as I worked out, or maybe the classical music I had blaring in my headphones to drown out the irritating radio the gym blasts from its speakers helped. Whatever it was, it worked. The 30 minutes sped by and I was actually surprised when the clock flashed that I was done. According to the machine, I went 1.87 miles and burned 362 calories. I am impressed with myself.

When I finished the tread climber, I moved on to the weight machines. Now, let me tell you how intimidating the weight machines are. I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to these. There are a select few that I actually know what to do on them and those are the ones I stick to. I never, ever go on them if there are a bunch of guys there, though. You know the guys I am talking about. I call them the grunters. They know how each machine works, they spend hours at the gym using them all, watching themselves in the mirror, slapping each other on the back as they switch machines or add weights, and look at the fat girl in their midst as if she were a Bedlam escapee. They intimidate me, I won't lie. And I don't use the weight machines if they are there.

But, I know that many reps of low weight lifting is important for fat burning, especially for women (see how my research and diet knowledge comes into play?). The few machines I know how to use are one for my arms, one for my abs, and a few for my legs. I have no idea how to go about placing myself or any weights in any of the other torture devices, so I stick to those.

Since there was only one other man there this evening, an older gentleman on the bicycle, I moved into the weight machine section after I finished the tread climber. Now, the last time I was at the gym, I got myself stuck in the sit up machine that works your abs. Having had such a great work out on the tread climber, my legs were feeling a bit wobbly, so I decided I wouldn't use any of the leg machines today. And, since my arms fell off from the push up challenge before I went to the gym, there was no need to even attempt the arm machines. And, I know if you fall off a horse, you gotta get back on, so I headed over to the ab machine. I made sure to place the pins within reach and not to set the weight to heavy for me and went to work. I finished 50 sit ups pushing 90 pounds. Yeah, I am a rock star.

So, there you have it. Day one of the challenge completed. I may not be able to move out of my bed tomorrow, but damn it, I am proud of myself for getting through this first day.

I did take pictures of myself today. Ok, I actually trusted to place my baby (some people call it a camera) in my wonderful and supportive husband's hands and he actually took the pictures. There are three. One from the front, one from the side, and one from the rear. I am a glutton for punishment and, after looking at the pictures, will probably need a prescription for antidepressants to get me through looking at them again. But, look I will, especially if it serves to remind me just how awful I look and how much I DON'T want to hit a drive thru ever again. I had plans to upload them tonight to go with this post, but I need to still climb the stairs to go to bed. I am pretty sure that will end the amount of energy I have had today. So, I will upload them to tomorrow's post.