Bonnie's Journey to Fitness
It might be hard, but I'm proving it can be done at any age.
Although the Chicago weather has not been as brutal as that on the East Coast, it is surely doing a number on my knees.
I lost another 2 lbs, for a total of 14 in 7 weeks. I was hoping for a 3-4 lb loss, but it is at least a consistent loss.
My diet was right on track. And that’s including the day I had a lunch meeting with one of my vendors. I was able to keep the calories between 1200 and 1300. DB recommended I cut the carbs to 40% which meant upping slightly the fat and protein. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I just loaded up more on the vegetables (limiting the fruit to 2 servings) and was even able to increase the lean protein without adding any protein drinks.
My knees started flaring up after my Monday workout (and it was a signature Ron cardio night). By the time I got home, my knees had started to swell up and were mighty achey. Arthritis is a bitch! And as DB and Ron like to remind me - I push myself too hard. I have to get into the habit of taking a break, even if it’s just doing a 30 minute walk vs. a 4-5 mile jog/walk.
I experimented with the recommendations I received from the herbalist last week. But may be too soon to tell if any of them are working, or if just taking it easy for a couple of days did the trick. I have been taking the pine bark extract, drinking the carrot and lemon juice concoction every morning, and have been adding walnuts to my oatmeal as well as eating them as one of my snacks during the day.
My workouts on Tuesday and Thursday at TWR were basically alot of core and upper body. I’m still amazed at how many planks and crunches a person is able to do! At the end of Thursday’s workout, DB let me do a little cardio … but on the row machine. I think the row machine is overlooked as being a great cardio move. It really kicked my heart rate up, especially rowing like my life depended on it!
Today the knees felt great. I was able to workout at TWR for 2 hours. The first hour Timora had quite a bit of core and balance in the workout - which was great. Both are so important, and both are things I still need to work on. Who would think standing on one leg, squatting down to drop and pick up a weight would be so difficult. My knees even handled doing lunges! And who would have thought I could do 30 second sprints on the treadmill at a speed of 5.0 and an incline of 15?
The 2nd hour was with Matt. He paired me with my friend, Jennifer. Now here is where the cardio definitely kicked in. We worked as a team. There were 4 basic upper body moves - Shoulder Press, the Push-up Walk, Pull-ups, and sit-ups. Then we had 3 cardio moves - the stairs (TWR is on the 3rd floor - so up and down twice), 100 jump ropes and a 4 wall sprint/walk. While one person did the cardio, the other did the upper body move until cardio completed, and then we would switch. So we did Shoulder Press/Stairs, push-up walk/stairs, pull-ups/stairs, sit-ups/stairs. Then back to the beginning, only switching the cardio move. And just for fun I added an extra 4 wall sprint/walk.
By the end of my 2 hour workout, I had burned 987 calories. So close to 1,000!!!
We are now into the final week of the TWR Biggest Loser competition. So I am going to try to push it as hard as I can. All I want is to be in the top 5 (I’m currently number 6 on the leader board). Once the competition is over, Marc (another TWR gym rat) and I are going to continue with our own weight loss challenge.
So the journey continues.
