Today’s calorie intake: 1484
Calories burned through exercise: ?? (myfitnesspal says 397 but I don’t trust it)
Net calories: ??
Today was stressful all the way around. Work was stressful. Home was stressful. Normally a day like this – heck, even days a fraction as stressful as this – and I’d be stuffing myself with ice cream and donuts in order to cope. Today? Stress kicked in and all I wanted to do was grab my running shoes.
Before I took a hiatus from exercise I was doing the couch to 5k running plan; I was on week 3. It’s been a good five weeks since I’ve done pretty much any exercise and I know my fitness level has dropped considerably in that time (not that it was that high to start with). So I planned on starting the c25k over again with week 1; but when I got on my treadmill I realized I had forgotten to swap out the podcast on my iPod and only had week 3 loaded. So I gave it a try and I DID IT all the way through, which I am extremely pleased with – BUT it totally kicked my butt and I’m not eager to try it again. I think I’ll drop back down to week 2 and stick there for a week or so until I start to get some endurance back. I think I was pushing myself too hard. So that was 9 minutes jogging, 15 minutes walking, for a total of 24 minutes.
And I did 10 minutes on my elliptical. That’s my limit right now and it kills my legs even at my cheapie machine’s lowest resistance. I used to be able to walk into the gym and do an hour straight complete with different resistances and such; granted I was slimmer then but probably only by 30 – 40 pounds. I wonder if I’ve really gotten so far out of shape or if my machine is different than the ones at the gym. I don’t remember it making my legs burn so badly. Maybe I’ve lost a lot of muscle in my legs since then.
I want to aim to get my legs built up to where I can spend meaningful amounts of time on the elliptical. I want to use my 10 minutes as a base and try to add 5 minutes every week until I’m up to 45-60 minutes a session. The way the thing totally burns my legs, I can see it totally sculpting and toning my lower half nicely if I stick with it.
EDIT: I’m noticing a trend of being motivated to exercise at night. More exercise: I did week 1, day 1 of the 200 Sit-Ups challenge, which didn’t amount to many situps at all but the fact that I could do the ones I did rather amazed me. I haven’t tried full on sit ups in so long because I guess I assumed I couldn’t do them. I feel rather motivated to kick this challenge’s butt now!
Then I got out the Wii Fit and did 10 minutes of adv. hula hoop and the 5 minute adv. step. I feel absolutely awful now, not at all energized like I felt after the elliptical and the treadmill. I pushed too far, not that I worked out particularly hard at the end but I kept going after I should have quit. I’m exhausted and sore and I just want to crawl into bed. I think it’s going to be a challenge, to find that optimal place where I get the most out of my motivation without overextending myself. That’s rather why I want to keep the heart rate monitor I ordered, not to track my calories as I originally intended it, but rather I can make sure I stay in my target heart rate and not work out too hard, so I don’t end up hitting a wall like this for having delepted myself.
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