I just realized it’s been more than a month since I last posted!
With the exception of a week and a half that I was on vacation, I am still going to the gym three times a week. I’ve been horribly remiss in my alternating day cardio, though. Gotta get better about that. Even so, I’ve lost seven pounds, improved my BMI, and shaved 10-15 BPM off my routine, heart-rate-wise. Time to start working harder on the cardio, but I’m very happy to see the tangible results of it getting easier.
Well, mission not accomplished yesterday. My sunburn blistered, which made even simple movements agonizing. Today, I have aloe with lidocaine, and I think the blisters have formed and popped, so less pain generally. Ew, TMI, right?
Today, went to the gym and did my thang despite not really wanting to. That’s what it’s all about right? Doing what needs doing no matter what?
Gotta get the eating down to some sort of schedule. Lack of planning makes for eating things like Clif bars for breakfast which, while very good for you in many respects, still have a ton of carbs and they really don’t stick with me very long. I’m having hunger pangs now after my workout.
Despite having a pernicious sunburn, and having to take my dog to the vet, I managed to haul my butt out to the gym and do my routine. I hadn’t eaten yet, as a result of poor planning, so I had a homemade breakfast sandwich in the car at the gym, which felt rather ironic. Mondays are definitely hard. Getting better at the treadmill – swing my arms when I walk now instead of holding on to the rails, which is really quite a crutch, literally and figuratively, when you get tired. I’m just proud of myself for going. Shepard would have. >:)
Didn’t really get much done Saturday… was gone most of the day. Learned some Zumba steps.
Sunday went out on the boat and swam a multitude of laps around the boat, some using just legs, some just arms, some all, some backwards, some forwards. Feel like I got a pretty good workout, even though I didn’t really mean to.
Tomorrow back on the gym circuit, after I take the dog to the vet for suspected Ringworm infection.
Went to the gym today for about an hour and fifteen minutes… did my full routine, but skipped the back and abdominal exercises at the end. Going to have to figure out how to do those next week… may do them when I get home, because the gym doesn’t really have mats or floor space for that sort of thing.
The session was easier overall, my heart rate didn’t get up as high as last time, with the same effort, but it was still in the 130s. I discovered that my Pink playlist doesn’t work so well for workouts – I didn’t realize she did so many slow songs!
Woke up sore today, mostly the muscles that run from under your arm down your side. Also some outer thigh tightness. Was pretty draggy all morning, but a soak in a hot tub seemed to do wonders.
Today was cardio day, so I did 20 minutes of Zumba, dancing along with some YouTube videos. Will try to do more over the weekend, but 20 minutes was all I was up to today.
I was tempted to skip it, because I was sneezing my head off and feeling draggy, but I made myself go to the gym today… the first session of Project Shepard. Spent a little over an hour there, walked two miles, and spent the rest of the time in weight training.
First day observations…
1) My arm muscles got a great workout, I can tell, but my leg muscles don’t feel the same shaky/burn sensation. I think I’ll have to push those harder on Friday.
2) Cardio got easier throughout the session. The first ten minutes, I felt totally gross, but after that, while I still kept my heart rate as high as the first ten minutes, if not higher, it just wasn’t as onerous.
3) I can tell I burned some calories, because I am -starved-. My breakfast of Cheerios may have to be beefed up to include some protein of the non-dairy variety.
As it’s hotter than a lit match in hell, outside, I will probably not get in any cardio today. I know, off to a great start, right? There are going to be some bumps as I try to work out scheduling, but I definitely do think I’m a ‘workout in the morning’ kind of person.
Either way – still on track for my first trip to the gym tomorrow morning. Probably not a full intensity workout, just going through the paces and figuring how what weights to use, how to adjust the machines, etc.
Hello, world.
My name isn’t important. Neither is my demographic information. I will tell you that I’m female and in my 30s, and I’ve been struggling all my life with obesity. Blogging seems to work for some people, helping to hold them accountable for their weight loss efforts, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m approaching this journaling effort anonymously because I am embarrassed to admit that I weigh, at present, 325 pounds. That’s the most I have ever weighed in my entire life. This would be a problem at any human height, but at 5’6″, it’s untenable. I was chubby, even as a kid, though when I look back at my weight in high school, I’d give anything to weigh that again… and at the time, I thought I was so disgusting. Maybe if someone had taught me to love my body, as it was then, I wouldn’t have started on the weight loss yo-yo, where you lose 20 or 30 pounds, and then gain it all back plus some. Throughout my life, I’ve tried different diets, different exercise programs, with varying degrees of success. Atkins was by far the most successful, but wasn’t workable in the long term, and came with associated drawbacks I wasn’t willing to endure – like thinning hair, despite taking a multivitamin. I have always been intimidated by the amount of weight I have to lose… keeping up a fitness regimen is hard for most people, but especially hard for people who have so much to lose. And to make matters worse, I have a condition called PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) that ties in to insulin resistance, and makes it twice as hard to lose weight as the average person. In short, I have to work twice as hard to achieve the same results. They don’t know what causes PCOS, and there really isn’t any sort of cure, but they do know that obesity exacerbates the problem in a chicken-or-egg-came-first sort of way.
The name of this blog comes from (I admit it, huge nerd) the game Mass Effect. In the game, you have the option of playing a female main character – Jane Shepard, a totally badass woman marine. Jokingly, I had taken to asking myself ‘What would Shepard do?’ in certain situations, where I had to make a decision and didn’t have a leaning one way or the other. It’s lame, but she’s my inspiration. She does what needs to be done, no matter how much effort it takes on her part, or how much it might hurt. As someone who wants to be prepared for all eventualities, I cannot, in good conscience, continue to let myself go down this path. I’m starting to get to an age where the extra weight is noticeable, and taking a toll. I know it has, throughout my life, but I’ve been blessed with good health, good genes (for the most part), good endurance, and youth. Now one of those factors is starting to drop away, and if I’m going to live to see 50, I need to start taking better care of myself.
I have been working on a system of goals and rewards for weight loss, but it isn’t just about that. I want to increase my endurance and strength so I can get back to practicing a certain martial art that has always interested me. By my reckoning, I have 165 pounds to lose to get to a goal weight of 160. If I manage to lose 2 lbs a week, this is going to take me approximately 83 weeks. And I know that I won’t always lose 2 lbs a week, either. But I’ve always preferred to be able to lay out my goals, including my end goal. Of course, there will be milestones along the way. I will celebrate when I dip under 300 lbs, and I will celebrate when I lose 10% of my body weight and reach 292.5. The first goal could happen in about three months, the latter in four. But I will be thrilled if I can just maintain even GOING to the gym every other day for two months. I need to make this a habit.
A friend of mine has drawn up an exercise regimen for me that’s based on interval training, alternating cardio and weights, and will last about an hour each time. I’m supposed to do it on M W and F, and other cardio on T and Th. I think I might try Zumba. Right now, it’s so hot that you can barely breathe outside, so it’ll need to be something indoors. Maybe by fall I will have lost enough weight that I can try some light jogging around my neighborhood, with my dog. 🙂
Anyway – so if you’re reading this, hello, and thanks for joining me for the beginning of Project Shepard, whoever and wherever you are. I’ll post again later today when I’ve decided what cardio I’m going to tackle for my Tuesday workout.
Project Shepard's Blog 