Since the start of my new fitness regime two weeks ago, I have been back at the gym. I manage to get roughly 40 minutes in before work in the mornings. As i felt slightly unfit, due to the lack of gym activity for a few months, I started on week 1 with just 2 days and then on the second week I managed to get a 3rd day in. It’s my aim now to stay at this rate and try and get three 40 minute sessions in a week.
I do however feel that I need some advice. I would love to have a session with a trainer to see what I should be doing and trying to make the most out of my 40 minute sessions. I try and do 15 minutes of cardio and then the rest weights. I focus the weight activity on the legs one morning, arms another and then on the third morning all body. Not very accurate, but that’s what I’m hoping to sort out soon
I really enjoyed my extra long session today as I had the day off work and so spent an hour working out. I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill and also did 10 minutes on the cross trainer. I then went downstairs and did some weights, focussing on my legs and stomach and then made my way home for a nice long, warm shower.
There was this really weird and annoying guy in the gym today though, he stood at the treadmill and turned the speed right up so that it was scarily fast and then jumped on and ran for a couple of minutes at a time, with stops in between. He looked in real pain and was totally out of breath. It can’t be good, can it?
I was running at approx 8km/h and managed 2km…now I’m not sure how good that is, I suspect it isn’t very good, but it felt the right speed and I was sweating loads.
Any tips/ideas on what I should do in the gym to maximise weight loss and increase body toning, welcome!
Yes…finally, I have managed to start losing weight again. It has been a good few weeks now that my weight has stayed the same and I had been sporadically going to the gym. I had a really busy week last week and only managed to get to the gym twice. I am on track to go three times this week but we’ll see what happens I suppose.
I had a great workout at the gym today. My day started well with me getting lots of chores out of the way and event though I set off late, I decided to walk to the gym. It is a good 30 minutes walk but as the London weather is so lovely today and I wasn’t in a mad rush, I though I might as well enjoy the walk and it always doubles up as a warm up. I was like the cartoon character ‘Road Runner’ and was speeding my way towards the gym listening to some amazing music (The Cure, The Raconteurs, LCD Soundsystem and many others). I was weaving my way round slow moving people and over taking like a power walking champion! I had worked up quite a good sweat by the time I arrived at the gym.
It was quite busy today with the same guys that usually hang around there during the day. They love watching themselves in the mirror and watching all the girls. It’s quite funny when I catch them looking at me or other girls while we are on various weight machines, they can’t resist!
I did 10 mins on the bike, 5 minutes (really fast) on the rowing machine then went over to the weight machines where I did more or less 3 rounds of 20-30 reps on most machines. I then finished the session with a 15 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes of that I was running. I felt really pleased with myself and am looking forward to the rest of the week’s workouts….in my NEW gym!
Yes! I joined my new gym today as well, it is just down the road so it’s better for me to go to the gym before/after work. I went in and sorted out all the payments and had my picture taken for my card and booked in for my induction, which is on Wednesday. After that, I can then meet my personal trainer for my 6 week workout plan. It’s all very exciting, I can’t wait to have a plan to work to and hopefully see better results. I will let you all know how it goes.
I also bought my first pair of jeans in 5 years! Yes, I feel absolutely amazing these days and my confidence has increased and my body has started to change with he weight I have started to lose. As a result, I thought I’d try a pair on today and I loved them. So I am going to see what my boyfriend thinks and if he gives them the thumbs up too I’ll keep them.
I also forgot to mention, I got a new job! I underwent a whole series of interviews and tests last week and I got the call saying they want me for the job. I start in two weeks, hence why I decided to swap gyms. I am going to have to start buying some new clothes for my new job – I need to look the part I am also aiming to lose more weight before I start, just to give me that little bit more confidence for my first day, wish me luck!
I have been waiting to change my gym until I moved house so that I could see what the new local gym is like. Well the new gym is great and for just £5 more a month compared to my current one, I get a session with the personal trainer evey month. Now, all of you who have been reading my blog over the last few months will know that this is just what I need. I have been in real need of some direction and help with my gym sessions. I always have a really good workout when I’m in the gym and U have started to see results but I still think I could benefit from having some proper advice and someone helping me with more specific exercises to target different parts of my body.
Once I have my session, I’ll write it all up here to share with you all.
But before that, I actually have to try to leave my current gym, Fitness First. They are being really annoying about my 1 month notice. I have been with them for well over a year and a half now and they said that they need a month’s notice, which is fair enough. But the month has to be at the beginning of the month! So, even though I had handed in my notice on 18th April, I still have to pay for the whole of May. Therefore my gym membership won’t finish until beginning of June. I am quite annoyed but there isn’t much I can do. I just hate the way companies always make things so hard to cancel direct debits. If they say one month’s notice then it should be just that, not one month and several more weeks.
Shame as I was really looking forward to going to a gym 5 mins walk away from my house instead of 30 mins and a bus ride back. Can’t wait for June!
Well, since I blogged last week, we managed to successfully move house (not without the help of our two families consisting of two big/strong brothers, two mums and a very organised dad/driver). I didn’t manage to go the gym all last week as I had a terrible cold and had difficulty just breathing on a day to day basis let alone whilst running on the treadmill. I did however manage to make up for all that with all the packing, cleaning and lifting for the move and on the day, I really worked up a sweat running up and down 3 flights of stairs with heavy boxes and bags.
We are now very settled in the new flat and enjoying the cosiness of it. Although, I must say, when we went back to the old flat to give the keys back I realised how lucky we really were to have a flat so big! Anyways, this way we can hopefully save money on heating bills as the old flat had terrible insulation problems. There is a gym just a few minutes walk away from our new flat that I am thinking about joining. The old gym is just too far away to walk there and back and I would be spending time and money getting there and back every week. I think I’ll pop in tomorrow and see what the new gym has to offer and how much it costs. One advantage of swapping gyms is that I can hopefully get away from a few men at my current gym that seem to have taken a shine to me, P in particular, who even asked me to go Salsa dancing with him!
As you can see in my weekly stats section, I lost another kilo last week! I am over the moon! I have finally moved into the 14 Stone category now and will enjoy working off more lbs to the next stone! I was quite surprised actually because I hadn’t been to the gym at all last week and I also had a few days of bad eating surrounding the move and the few days off we had whilst unpacking. We had an indian takeaway one night and I had about 4 small bottles of larger throughout the weekend to celebrate the successful move. Oh and a glass of bubbly! I also gave into temptation twice this week as it was Iranian New Year (Aide Norouz) and I had our parents round for a meal and we had lots of cutely decorated eggs and some gorgeous Iranian sweeties and some mini easter chocolate eggs and I just couldn’t resist. We did do alot of Iranian dancing though and we worked up quite a sweat. I also had a few truffle seashells last night (mmm…yummy) as I was feeling particularly peckish and fancied something sweet with my cuppa. So I am fully focused again now…I promise!
Here is a picture of our ‘Haft Sin’ table for Iranian New Year (Aide Norouz). Haft = seven and Sin = the letter ‘S’, we always have dress the table with at least 7 ‘S’ objects for good luck in the new year. Can you guess what things on the table begin with the Iranian ‘S’?
In terms of weight loss and exercise, let’s see how this week goes!? I went to the gym this morning and did about an hours work out and then went to Sainsburys and did a bit of food shopping. Stocked up on lots of olives and lettuce for my lunchtime salads. My broadband still hasn’t been installed so I am on dial-up this week. We really missed having the internet over the weekend, it felt so strange not being able to just check things out when we needed to and I also really missed blogging and reading everyone elses blogs.
I have started to get a great response from readers on my blog and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me. I am so glad that I am motivating people to exercise and live healthily. I really appreciate all comments and encouragement. I even got my first blog review this week! http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/fit-firm-and-fly.html
Well, as you can see from my stats, I lost another kilo last week (2.2lbs). I am thrilled that I am still losing weight and not having to starve myself silly or make any drastic changes to my life. Once I have lost a substantial amount of weigh I’ll try to explain more about my philosophy to food.
I only went to the gym twice last week and the second time was useless. So this week, now that I am feeling better, I have been working out harder in the gym. Monday was great, I really went for it and spent quality time on all of the machines. I ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes and I even enjoyed it. Since my weight has been decreasing my confidence has been increasing and I think the guys in the gym are starting to notice.
I had one guy keep watching me throughout my workout, he kept looking at me and trying to get my attention. But when I am in the gym, I am very moody and try to keep quite focused, so I wasn’t paying him any attention. At the end of my workout, he came over to the water fountain where I was filling up my bottle and he started chatting me up along the lines of…”I don’t like other people’s mouths on that thing bu I’d like it if you lips were on that water fountain…kissy kissy”!?!?! I hate it. I have always had attention at that gym but I just don’t like making friends as they seem to interfere with my workout and start trying to teach me things etc. I wouldn’t mind if it was just about fitness but some guys are only talking to you to try to chat you up and that’s not what I go to the gym for.
Today’s workout was great and again I really enjoyed it. It seems the weeks where I have lost weight, I seem to be more motivated in the gym and also in deciding what to eat for lunch and dinner. I did have a piece of cake and one of my work colleagues leaving party yesterday but I was truly wanted it and it was a real treat. I have therefore worked out harder today in the gym than usual and am feeling very pleased with myself.
The real difference I see in my eating habits these days are that I just eat what I want and whenever I want but only when I am hungry and I also try to make better decisions about what to eat. Since my talk with my boyfriend, I have realised that I just don’t want sugary, fatty foods as they make me unhappy. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t get tempted as I do, last night I was desperate for something sugary/chocolatey as I was feeling a bit down (money problems) and I just wanted to sit down and mindlessly stuff my face with chocolate. But I didn’t and the feeling soon passed.
I didn’t see the same annoying guy in the gym today…luckily and I also haven’t seen my french friend P for while either. Now I’ll leave the story about P for another time but it started with him giving me un-asked-for advice on how to use one of the weight machines and ended with him sitting on my legs!!! Yes, I even had to change my gym times because of P.
This song is great to work out to…running man all the way! Technotronic – Pump up the Jam
After a brilliant start to the week, Tuesday went really well. I even went to the cinema and didn’t fancy eating anything there…I was very proud of myself after walking straight passed the popcorn and chocolate, it felt great not to be in need of something to eat whilst watching the film.
I am feeling a bit under the weather today and so I was really tired all morning, but I went to the gym today, after setting off late I had to catch the bus to the gym and once I got there I realised I really wasn’t in the mood for it at all. I tried my best and spent 10 minutes on the bike and then was on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I then just couldn’t muster up the energy to do anything else, so I made a pact with myself to walk home instead and also go to the supermarket and carry some heavy shopping home with me to make up for my dreadful attempt at working out in the gym.
I’m not sure if I’m the only one that feels like this, but when my schedule delays, I can’t seem to get motivated to carry on regardless and the gym is one of the things that always gets pushed to one side. Although, I must say, I do always have in the back of my mind, the aim of at least 2 days at the gym. So there is still hope for Friday. The walk home was great and the weather was gorgeous so I definitely made the right decision. I have just had a long soak in the bath whilst reading so it has helped me feel a bit better.
One of my work colleagues and friends is having a leaving do tomorrow and we are all going bowling and karaoke. So I am aiming to lift some heavy bowling balls and burn some calories on those bowling lanes tomorrow night. Oh and watch out, I might even let the diva out when singing karaoke!
Oh and we’re still looking for a flat. The one we saw on Monday night was perfect but the landlord just won’t budge when we tried to bargain for the monthly rent. Shame, because we would have been great tenants.
I am also aiming to lose more weight before I start, just to give me that little bit more confidence for my first day, wish me luck!
