With the holiday weekend keeping most of us busy, I did not get around to sharing how I did this week. As the week began, I found myself overly busy with stuff – things that had to get done, problems that came up that we had to deal with (like our dryer breaking down), and so on. Life gets busy, doesn’t it? Before I knew it, Thursday was here, and I still had not done anything in terms of exercise.
Since it was approaching the end of the week, it would have been easy for me to reason that I might as well not exercise at all. After all, the week was practically gone. BUT. (And that’s a big but). The week was not over yet. There was still time for me to do something. And what I did left me so pleased that it made up for the fact that I went days without exercising.
Day 1 – Strength Training
I browsed through Netflix for some weight training videos, and found one that looked great. I waited until I had the kids down for their nap. And then I prayed. Prayed that they wouldn’t wake up for the duration of the workout. And thanks be to God that they slept for nearly three hours! The workout I did was The Trainer’s Edge: Integrated Strength Training
with Jeffrey Scott. Armed with two sets of dumbbells (one heavy, one light), Jeff walks you through a series of upper and lower body exercises. Be prepared to be drenched in sweat if you do this. At times, it was hard to get through all of the repetitions (especially with the weights), so I would either put the weights down and continue or just stop entirely and breath for two seconds before resuming.
I felt great after doing this workout. With all of the lunges and squats I did, my butt hurt for days afterward. The process of sitting and standing never hurt so good. The next day I planned on doing Pilates. But that didn’t happen. That night I started experiencing cold symptoms – first the sore throat, then the pressure in my eyes, and the congestion. I was disappointed because I knew that this cold could very well last me a week (as is often the case) and that meant that I would not be able to exercise. I do not exercise while I am sick. Period. Even if it’s just a cold, it is simply too risky for me to exercise.
Because I was sick, my diet wasn’t terrific either. I did not have much of an appetite, and I missed out on my protein smoothies because I just didn’t feel up to drinking them. Even though I was too busy to exercise as much as I wanted, and then eventually got sick, I still exercised one day, and that is better than not exercising at all! It’s about progress, not perfection. And I can tell you that just the small amount of exercise I have been doing along with increasing the amount of protein in my diet has already been reducing my size.
I was able to fit into a shirt this week that didn’t fit me one month ago. And I wore it proudly.
Don’t miss out on this series! You can read all of the posts in Losing the Baby Weight right here.
Recommended Reading:
When You Should Never Exercise – did you know that exercise weakens your immune system? It’s true. Well, if you’re sick and you exercise, you could very well be making your health worse.
My Progress Last Week – read how I did last week. From weight training that nearly killed me, to boxing on the Wii, to resting in a Child’s Pose, this week was definitely productive.
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