Upping the cardio ...

For the last month I have made some big changes to my exercise work outs. Adding three cardio sessions to my regime of walking 5 days, resistance on two days and yoga 1 day.

I wear a heart rate monitor when I exercise, so I know to be working above 125 and preferably 140 to 160 to be in the fat burning zone. I'm just doing the treadmill, cross trainer and bike for my cardio workouts and making sure I have my little mini iPod for music to keep me focused.

 

Image via: here

If i forget my music it's such a deterrent to here myself heavy breathing and struggling, so gotta make sure the music is pumping.

 For this month so far I have only lost another 2kg. I hear myself say ONLY 2kg and think to myself I'm being unkind and not celebrating my achievements and it's true I'm not.
I'm still knocking myself for thinking this is still not good enough. I'm working so darn hard and I look at myself in the mirror and feel as though I'm looking fitter and thinner, but the scales are barely budging.

In honesty I have not been calorie counting or counting points or monitoring my food at all. So i sorta feel I must be failing there for all my hard work to be reaping such a small reward. So for next month my focus will shift to food, to see if I can't start making some major improvements.

At this rate my goal of getting to double digits wont happen till after July....aughhh...
I have zero patience!

Jay x

Heart pumpin' ...

So after 6 weeks of walking and resistance I'm finding I have clear skin, shiny hair and a head that is not so foggy.
But I still don't sleep well and in effect still find my energy flagging during the day.

I have lost about 3kg so far, which by biggest loser standards should be the result after one week, but knowing my body and how it works, this is average for 6 weeks effort. About .5 per week.

Sorta sucky really as I feel like I'm so restrained with my food  and so committed with my activity. Rain, hail or shine I'm out there walking and we have had some spaz weather of late too. A heat wave where it was over 30 for 10 days straight.
Lovely old Melbourne usually has heat waves in summer for sure, but we have 3 or 4 days followed by an awesome storm to wash it all away. So to have this constant heat has meant sleepless nights and me getting home from gym purely exhausted.
I'm not getting much work done in the wee hours between school drop off and pick up, but I'm hoping once I get fitter I'll have more energy during the day to help me get into the right head space for creating again.

I have started yoga in the last 2 weeks. I did a short course a decade ago and loved it, so when I saw it as a class at gym, I finally worked up the courage to go.

 Image via: here

I tell you what, I sweat more in there then I do on my walks. I know it helps clear out toxins and open up all sorts of spaces in your body to allow energy to flow etc ... But that first lesson was a killer. Who'd have thunk a bit of stretching would be so hard.

I actually came home, threw up, then slept.

Makes me think there is a whole lot of bad chemistry in my body at the moment. Heading into my second class a week later, I was so scared. So anxious that I would feel unwell again, but I didn't.
I walked away feeling so clear headed and free, so I'll be keeping it up for sure.

So at 6 weeks in I think I'm ready to up the exercise and get the heart pumpin'. See if I can't get some better results with more cardio happening. I have done gym on and off, often enough to know my way around treadmills, elliptical trainers and bikes, so I'll give them a go and push on to stage two.

Wish me luck, Jay x