I haven't been blogging on here as frequently as I thought that I would and fortunately, the reason being is not because I haven't been exercising, the opposite is true in fact, I'm back to exercising like a maniac - so much so that when I was talking to a friend earlier she asked me how many times I worked out today and when I said just once, she referred to me as a slacker. A bit of an exaggeration because it's not like I'm doubling up on my work outs ALL the time, but lately, on Tuesdays, I go to Body Pump in the morning and for a run on my lunch hour and there's been a couple of Thursdays where I went to Body Pump on my lunch and for a run after work. It's a big, big relief to be in my obsessive mode again because after my surgery I was worried that I'd gotten myself into a rut that I wouldn't be able to get myself out of.
But the opposite is true and I'm back to running 3-4 times a week and I've increased my speed on the treadmill to where I can run for 20 minutes at 6.3m/hr where before my surgery I was only running at about 5.6m/hr. Granted I could run much longer at that pace but I've been trying to shave some time off my 5km and tonight I managed to trim 90 seconds which isn't a lot but it's still progress and I've convinced myself to be happy with that. I'm going for a run tomorrow (outdoors if the weather is good, indoors if its not) and I'm going for length this time rather than speed and hope to get in at least 45 minutes of non stop running if not longer.
I was more frustrated returning to Body Pump then to the running though because I had to drop my weights considerably and build myself back up. I upped my weights the other week and then again earlier this week I upped them again, and at first I had worried that I had overdone it because after Tuesday's class I was SO sore but Thursday the instructor told me to stick to it - he said he'd keep an eye on me especially during the chest track and the clean and press which were the two areas that I was really struggling and at the end of class he congratulated me for not giving up despite the extra weight. I insisted that I almost didn't make it but he said that my form was great which is further proof that I can handle the weight so I felt great walking out of the class. It didn't hurt either that other than the instructor, I was lifting the most weight in a room full of about 12 women. I need to figure out what weights I was at before my surgery and compare to where I am now - I think in some areas of my upperbody I'm lifting more but not in lower body mostly because I'm doing so much running that I don't want to overwork my lowerbody too much and risk hurting myself.
I also took note of my fitness goals that I had set for myself on the sidebar last year and realized that I had made substantial progress on them, even surpassing one of my goals, which was a weight goal of 150 (I'm now 148). I hesitated when I changed my weight goal because I don't want to get too obsessive with the scale, but I work best when I have a target in mind so I set it at 140lbs. It's only 8lbs, and like last year, I don't care how long it takes me so if takes a year so be it. I have lost almost 3% of my body fat in the past 3-4 months which is exciting (27% down to 24.3%) and my BMI has lowered too. All very exciting stuff, and very rewarding especially when I'm really starting to notice the difference in my shape and when people tell me I've lost weight/look great now, I actually believe them :P.
My main goal is to be a consistent size 8 I've decided and that's still something that needs work cause I am still wearing some size 10 jeans but they're getting loose too, so soon enough I should hopefully be able to walk into a store and grab a size 8 and have it fit. I did buy a couple of tops this week which were a size medium and that's becoming a lot more common for me which is absolutely exciting.
Maybe (just maybe) I'll get to a point where a size 6 will fit. Now who would have ever thunk that?? :)
