YMCA!

So, I joined the gym last Tuesday!  It has been a great week of working out.  I got up (really) early Tuesday morning so I could join and workout before I had to go to work.  I got there at about 6:15am and was all signed up in about 15 minutes.  He was pretty shocked when I walked in that early and wanted to join... he said it was the earliest he has ever started someone!  I jumped right in and started on the elliptical.  It took me a few minutes to figure out the TV thing but I think I about have it mastered now.  After I did about 25 minutes or so on the elliptical, I went on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes... I had to start getting ready to go to work.  I felt pretty good the rest of the day, but I was tired.  I'm not used to getting up at 4:45am!  The next day I went after work and started a new thing, the Expresso Bike!  I really like this thing!  It's a stationary bike that is very similar to a real bike.  The handlebars move and it's hooked up to a system that you can go through and ride paths.  As you go up hills the resistance gets harder and you have to turn around corners, just like you would a real bike.  The first day I signed in as a guest but the next day I decided to make an account.  I have done it three times now and it is so fun!  It keeps track of your times and the next time you do that trail you can race against your best time.  It really helps to make me go fast and work hard!  I am usually sweating about 2 minutes in... the first day I forgot a towel and the sweat ran down my face and over my nose, as I breathed out the sweat would go flying... lol!  Saturday, I took the kids.  Since Brayden is in Kindergarten he actually has to have a membership to go into the youth center (where the older kids go to hang out.)  I did the math and it's cheaper to just get him a day pass when he goes instead of getting a family membership.  The girls went to the child watch room.  I actually expected a little bit of whining when they realized I was leaving but I think as soon as they saw the other kids and all the toys, they completely forgot I existed! haha!  They were off and having fun, so, I took Brayden over to the youth center, which is just next door.  That room has tons of fun things for kids his age to do and he went right to the Foosball table to play.  I went off and started with the bike for 30 min, then the elliptical for 30 min, then went to the pool!  I was pretty excited to do the lap swimming.  I think I only swam 1 time this summer that I can remember and it was a couple weeks ago in a friends pool.  I love swimming!  I remember one summer when I was a kid I went to the pool every single day.  I have never really lap swam before but it was pretty nice.  There were a few others swimming, too.  I had to stop after each lap, but I was OK with that.  I tried to make my breaks only a few seconds or so.  The weirdest part was that I think I was sweating.  I'm not sure if I've ever really sweat in a pool before.  Maybe it was just leftover from before, I don't know.  I did learn a very important lesson though.  I did not have goggles and I opened my eyes a lot under water so I could make sure I was going straight.  When I left my vision was so blurry.  We went in the morning and the rest of the day my vision was blurry and I felt very strange, almost sick.  We went to Wal-mart right after the Y to get a few things and I bought some goggles.

During the week, I was pretty upset about what was going on with my body.  I knew how much I was working out and I was doing a decent job at tracking my foods, but I went and did a quick scale check in MRI and I had actually GAINED a couple pounds!  I could not figure it out!  I spent the next couple days with that on my mind thinking that it was crazy and impossible.  Finally, it occurred to me that I had forgotten a few things that I had not been tracking.  I hadn't been tracking my fluids!  I usually don't have to worry about tracking my fluids because I usually only drink water or diet pop.  The beginning of the week I bought some TruMoo, the chocolate milk that is supposed to be a lot better and less sugar than the regular chocolate milk.  I wanted to try it and I occasionally buy chocolate milk as a treat for the kids.  We always half it with regular milk, so it's not as thick and it also makes it last longer.  I also had read that chocolate milk is a good thing to drink after a workout.  In 2-3 days I had been drinking milk and not tracking it at all.  I also had had some ice cream one night and failed to track it and one day I had a handful of M&M's.  I thought I had been doing so well and had blanked out all the foods that were holding me back.  I had used up all of my "free" points for the week in a matter of 2-3 days!  I made sure to pay extra close attention to tracking everything the rest of the week.  I also decided to track my activity and earned 58 points in the gym!  That doesn't include my work yesterday of throwing hay bales yesterday while we baled hay.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to see, today, what my weeks work has done!
*Update*  I'm down 4.4 lbs.  I'm pretty happy considering last week I was sitting at a gain!... and I weighed in jeans.  4.4 lbs in two weeks is pretty awesome. :)  Although, I hope I can lose about that this week.